|
|
Thanks Bubba. That's good advice, of course. [Oops - didn't realize that you were replying to the OP, not to me.]
Bill
|
|
|
|
Thanks Robert - I've sent them an email. Their automated message indicates that it may be a few days before they reply. I sure wish there were a way to contact a human being without paying an additional $30 for the phone call.
|
|
|
I'm a newcomer here, but that means that I've been spending a lot of time with the tutorials. There's a decent tutorial on how to make a menu, if you Search the PDToots list of tutorials
http://www.youtube.com/user/PDtoots#p/search/6/ccSNU_Z7BRc
Look for "Power Director 8 First Project - Part 2" You're right that tutorials zip by very fast. What I've done, and it works for me, is to bring up the tutorial, play a very short segment with my finger on the Pause button, then go to my copy of PD 10 and repeat what the tutorial says. It's cumbersome but it works.
There are also tutorials for how to create Chapters on discs and in menus, but I'm not advanced enough to have gone through them.
|
|
|
|
There is content listed when I click on the drive, but none of the content does anything. The computer just hangs for endless amounts of time, until I stop it with Task Manager (CTRL_Alt-Delete)
|
|
|
I'm not sure what you mean by that. My problem is that I can't install from the disc I purchased from Cyberlink.
Are you saying there is some patch I can download, so that my purchased disc will work?
In order to activate the trial version. I'd have to pay for the program a second time. Then, if the program were lost for any reason, I'd have no way to recover it (from the disc).
|
|
|
Has anyone else found it impossible to install PD 10 from a disc they purchased from Cyberlink? My paid "box" version of PD 10 arrived today, so of course I uninstalled the trial version of the program and tried to install the paid version from disc. The disc never displayed an install shield or anything else. Waited 20 minutes - still no action from the disc. Removed disc, inspected it again, replaced it, tried again - no luck after~ 20 min. Restarted computer, treid again - still no luck.
Apparently there's no way to reach a human at Cyberlink by phone, other than paying $29.95 USD for the "premium phone help". I've sent Cyberlink an email but their reply indicates it "may be several days" before I get a response.
Anyone else have this situation with a PD 10 disc they purchased from Cyberlink?
(while waiting, I reinstalled my trial version of PD10, so I can still continue learning the program.)
|
|
|
Hal -
By now you may have read the step by step workflow I wrote out. It appears a few posts above this one, in the same thread. Answering your later question about where the OS is, it's in the C: drive, the one with 391 GB of free space.
However - the work flow was not the problem. Since that last note of yours, I've manually uninstalled PD 8 and installed the trial version of PD 10. It works just as it should. My practice video, 3 minutes, plays all the way through. I think the suspicion we both had, that my copy of PD 8 had become corrupted, is correct.
I'm all set with PD now. I wish I had thought about moving up to v 10 earlier. I thought it must be my ignorance - and it part it was, you helped me with that - but the big problem with production/burning was a corrupt copy of the v 8 program.
Bill Hansen
Ithaca NY USA
|
|
|
Carl -
You asked "When you try to import the project file, are you using the 'import media files or media folders' icon? "
That's correct, and the appropriate file(s) are imported into the PD "library". From there I drag them down into the timeline, make my edit(s), and then play the whole thing through either in the small viewer on the PD8 screen or in the PD 8 full-screen Preview viewer.
Then, making sure all clips are selected (for this particular practice video I used only one clip, as you know), I click on Produce, then Start, wait for it to render, etc.
By now you may have read my long description of my workflow and my comment at the end of it. Originally I thought maybe the project was rendering, but not burning correctly. Thinking again about the file size of the rendered video on my HD (only 125kb) I now wonder if it isn't rendering completely, despite the 7-8 minute rendering time for a 3 min video clip. I thought the rendering time might be in the correct ball park, but the file size seems way too small.
Maybe when you go over my workflow in my earlier long note, you'll see something I've omitted in the Produce/rendering part of it.
Bill
|
|
|
Carl -
Here is my step by step description of the way I've tried to create practice videos, produce them, and burn them to disc. I'll leave out the import steps. After your good direction, import/captuer hasn't been a problem. I apologize for the length of this description. I want to be as complete and precise as I can.
(1) imported file(s) moved to time line
(2) edits applied - and in some cases, no edits were done
(3) click on Produce
(4) choose either AVI, MPEG-2, or WMV formats, since I know those will play with my setup (Windows Media Player won't play MPEG-4 or AVCHD until I upgrade to version 12 and add the necessary codecs to it). For this morning's attempt, I chose AVI - but it makes no difference which of the three formats I choose, the results are the same.
(5) Click "Start" at the bottom of the PD 8 Produce screen. The video renders. The 3 minute practice clip takes about 7-8 minutes to render - about the right amount of time, I think.
(6) When the message "rendering complete" (those may not be the exact words) appears, click the "Creat Disc" button at top of PD 8 screen.
(7) In PD 8, click on Director's chair, then File/Save As/ navigate to the folder where I want to store my rendered video. Name the rendered video - in this case name is "long video rendered" so I don't confuse it with previous unrendered versions of this clip.
(7) On the computer, Insert blank DVD dsic into drive bay
( When the disc icon appears in Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) check to be sure it's really an empty disc, and be certain of the drive letter (either D: or E: in my case)
(9) Back in PD8, when "checking menu settings" has finished, click Preview in PD8. Play the clip through the PD8 preview player (the full screen one, not the small one in the PD 8 screen). The clip plays all the way through - all 3 minutes.
(10) Back to Windows Explorer, click on the drive containing the disc I just burned. Choose to Play DVD.
(11) watch as video plays in Windows Media Viewer (software program, displays on computer's monitor). It plays only 1 minutes 7 seconds of the clip, in this case, even though it played all the way through in the PD 8 Preview player. No matter how long I wait, it won't play further.
(12) Back to Windows Explorer, navigate to the place I saved my video. Check file size of the rendered video. In this case, the 3 minute rendered video has file size 124 kb - not 124 MB. Way too small.
(13) Check the "completed" disc which I thought I had just burned. Properties of that disc shows it has "NO" space used!
Conclusion - the disc appears to burn, but it doe not burn to disc.
I'll hold off uninstalling PD 8 until I hear more from you. If I've missed some vital step in producing or burning, I'll be quite happy about that. I'd rather not uninstall PD 8, but I'm beginning to wonder if the program has gotten corrupted, and if that's the case, I can't trust the .exe file I downloaded when I bought the program. I will install trial version of PD 10 and see if that will work. But first I'm hoping you'll tell me I've left out some step, or have done something incorrectly.
Bill Hansen
Ithaca NY USA
|
|
|
Carl -
Thanks again for your reply. I'm glad that you posted the file size of your video. It's much more in line with that I'd expect from a video file (granted, yours was a longer vid, but the file size per minute of play seems more appropriate.)
As I re-read it, I see that this present reply to you has already gotten pretty long.You asked for a step-by-step description of how I've tried to produce and burn videos. I'll send that in a separate reply to you. I don't have time this morning to make screen shots this morning, but if after reading that step-by-step, you feel screen shots would be helpful, let me know and I'll get them done within the next couple of days.
The page you referenced in your note, http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/7958.page is locked at present. Although I am signed in to the forums, I am not able to post to that page (at the moment). I'll include my replies in this present note.
The following are my answers to your questions:
"Are you making a Video to play on the computer or in a media player or you making a DVD to play in a standard DVD player. " I've been able to burn a minute's worth of video to disc and get the short video clips to play on the computer, using Windows Media Player ("WMP" - a software program, not a stand-alone video playing machine). The video discs I made will also play normally on the flat screen TV. At present I don't have another effective media playing software package, aside from WMP. But Windows Media Player works just fine, for my present purposes. I'll probably download and install WMP v 12 and add the codecs so it can play MPEG-4 and AVCHD, but I'll wait until I resolve my present problems.
"From your statement above, you seem to be creating a DVD to play in a stand alone player." That's true for playback through the TV, which is connected to a media playback machine. For playback on the computer's calibrated LCD mintor, I've only used the WMP (see above) software player. Both computer and TV player will play video DVD discs of much greater length which were commercially made.
" how much free space do you have on C drive? " The D: drive has 931 GB (not MB) of free space. I have a couple of 1 TB drives connected to it, making daily backups of image files, so I have plenty of free space on the primary drive now, and the potential of very ample storage space for future use.
If you would like any further info on the setup of this computer, I'll be glad to supply it.
Meanwhile - a thought came to me during the night, that perhaps my copy of PD 8 has been corrupted. Unfortunately I bought it in late 2010 via download (if it's desireable, I can supply the key code to prove it's legitimate and is registered to me) and I don't trust the .exe file I have. I'm going to download and install the trial version of PD 10 and see if that helps.
I'll get my step-by-step description to you ASAP. Thanks for staying with me on this.
Bill
|
|
|
I must have annoyed you with my second question. There's no need to be condescending. *Of course* I can see the buttons at the top of the PD 8 screen, and of course I am intelligent enough to know what they mean. Yes, of course it is those buttons I used when I attempted to produce and burn my practice videos.
I Know you're busy, so you haven't had time to recall that in my earlier notes to the group, I wrote that I have been through the tutorials you mentioned, as well as the PD8 FAQs. They are all very helpful - really they are - but they don't address the problems I've been having now.
My most recent try at burning a practice video clip was a three minute video, all one clip, no transitions or editing. It played perfectly in the PD preview player (the one which scales up to full screen size, not the smaller preview panel). It appeared to burn normally, but final file size was 125 kb and only the first minute would play in Windows Media Viewer, which plays much longer videos without trouble. I cut the burn speed from 18X to 8X, thinking that there could be a buffer under run problem, but a repeat burn at 8X was no better.
I know you and others in the group must get questions from people who will not expend any effort to solve their own problems, or who are hopelessly new to the whole idea of imaging. I don't think I'm in either of those groups. I've been an advanced still photographer for well over 50 years and I have over 10 years' experience with digital photography and editing, restoring, and printing digital images. I am capable of learning video too. If I have problems, I do try to find answers before I ask my online groups. I'm new to video editing, so some of my questions will seem silly to some PD forum members - but that doesn't mean I can't learn the program.
Bill Hansen
|
|
|
Thanks very much for this reply. It's extremely helpful, and I appreciate the inclusion of screen shots.
I've been able to save and recall projects now. Apparently I can't save videos to disc once they've been produced. They save all right, but they always save as .psd files, not WMV or whatever format I rendered them in.
Until this afternoon I was only trying to burn very short video clips, and that worked, up to a point. I can play myDVDs if they're produced in AVI, MPEG-2, or WMV. No surprise there. But video stops playing after the first minute of play. I don't think it's a buffer underrun problem; the computer should be plenty powerful enough to play simple 2 minutes videos ( 6 GB RAM, 1 GB V-RAM, Intel i& processor, 2.33 mHz). Shutting down the computer and restarting doesn't help. Any suggestions on this problem?
Thanks again for your reply to my earlier question.
Bill
|
|
|
I'm quite new to PD 8, have mastered the basics of editing, but saving projects has not been possible. I can burn to disc if I produce the project inAVI or MEPG-2 format, but I can't save uncompleted projects for further work later on - and projects I produce in MPEG-4 or AVCHD can't be retrieved by PD 8.
I can save unedited clips, but once I do even a single edit (combine two clips, etc) the project can't be saved - at least not in a form from which I can retrieve it. The project usually (not always) appears to save, and in Windows Explorer I can navigate to the location to which I saved it. I can "see" the director's chair icon there, with a filename. But when I try to import the folder or file back into PD 8, I get the error message "no items match your search". I hope there's a setting in PD 8 which I'm not aware of - because as it is, PD 8 is a wonderful program, but its use is compromised if I can't save projects as I work.
Yes, I have poked around in the PD FAQs and tuts, quite a bit, and have done Google searches - but if there's an obvious answer, I have missed it.
Computer is Win 7, 6 GB RAM, 1 GB video RAM with Nvidia graphics card, Intel i7 processor at 2.33 mHz
Thanks for any help or advice you can give.
Bill Hansen
Ithaca NY USA
|
|
|
Thanks again Tony - I did know the difference between hardware media players and software which allows the computer or the TV to playmedia files. I had that in the original version of my note, but took it out for the sake of brevity. (I'm not good at brevity, as you can see from *this* note!)
I'll definitely look into Mirillis later today.
I'll post the question about saving projects in another thread.
Bill
|
|
|
Tony -
Thanks for your reply. You asked: "Are you streaming the produced files to your TV? playing them through a media player? burning to disc?"
I've been trying to burn videos to disc. I can play single unedited video clips on the computer monitor. I can burn an MEPG-2 movie and play that on the TV or on the computer monitor but that's all I can do so far.
Below here, I've discussed the many things I can't do, even after going over the PD8 tutorials and FAQs. If it would be better for me to ask these as separate questions to the forum, just let me know.
I've discovered that AVCHD and MPEG-4 won't work for me. Windows Media Player won't play them and I don't have another media player. If you or someone else can suggest a player which will play MEPG-4 or AVCHD (short of a BD player, which I will buy, but not right now) I'll look into it. Ideally I'd like a software player like Windows Media Player, rather than buy a whole new box of hardware/software.
Saving projects, once I've done even a single editing maneuver, has not been possible. The project looks like it's been saved, I can see it in Windows Explorer, but it doesn't show up in PD8. In fact, when I try to "import media files" or "import media folders", even when the file or folder shows up in PD8, I get the error message "no items match your search" - and I can't bring the video file or folder into PD8 for further work.
That;s where I am right now. Any further suggestions are welcome, including the suggestion that I post each of the above problems to the forum. I guess these could be due to something unique about my computer system, but I'll bet they're due to something I haven't yet learned.
Bill
Bill
|
|
|
Looks like the message I sent yesterday didn't make it to the forum, so here comes a second try:
New user to PD8, very happy with it and with the results. Home user, with pretty powerful computer, 8 GB RAM, 1 GB dedicated v-RAM, Intel i7 at 2.33 mHz (or so). So - fairly powerful computer. Storage space not a problem
I want to render ("produce") into the highest quality that I can, for home use - and my most important question is which of the production choices in PD 8 will give me the highest quality video. I've been using MEPG-2, and it looks pretty good on the 24 inch monitor and the 40 inch flat screen. On the monitor, I can't tell the difference between renderings into MEPG-2 and MEPG-4, but maybe that's just my inexperience.
With my objectives in mind, should I be using MEPG-4?
An extension of that question - is there any point of editing a video (often including tweaks of Lighting Effect, Color/sharpness/etc), then rendering it to AVCHD and playing it from the computer's HD?
I'm sure there are more questions I should be asking, but those will get me started.
Thanks,
Bill Hansen
Ithaca NY, USE
|
|
|
I have purchased PD10 Deluxe, and I have the unopened box. But now that I've been using PD 8 for a couple of weeks, I wonder if there's any reason for me to upgrade to version 10. I won't be doing anything with 3D video, which apparently is the big addition to versions 9 and 10. At least for a while, I won't be burning any BD discs, which I think is another difference between V. 8 adn v. 10.
So - should a home user like me, relatively new to video editing (by the way, I love PD!) move from version 8 to version 10 - and if so, why?
I could return the unopened box, pay shipping and accept the restocking fee, and continue with v 8.
Thanks,
Bill Hansen
Ithaca, NY, USA
|
|
|
