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I often read that slow shutter speeds are necessary when shooting video - something like 1/50 second if rendering at 30 fps, or 1/100 to 1/150 if rendering at 60 fps. I've shot a few video clips at 1/320 to 1/500 and I don't think I see any ill effects. What am I missing? What should I be seeing if I've shot at too high a shutter speed?
Thanks - Bill Hansen
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Thanks. How did I miss that? I really like CDR2's results. The ability to make my own presets is worth the price, all by itself.
Bill
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OS is Win 7 SP1, all updatesI
n PD 12 we can choose where to save Produced videos. I don't see that option in the Settings of CDR2. In my case, a 3 clip 3 minutes video Produced in CDR wound up in the same folder I've elected to save videos I produce in PD12. That's okay - does CDR2 always save Produced videos in the folder which was chosen for vids from PD12? Can we chose a different folder if we want to do that?
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Thanks. Yes, that's the video I saw. Your note implies that there is a CDR3. Is that correct, or is it in beta form now? If it's in distribution, can you point me toward the differences between CDR2 and 3?
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I was on the threshold of purchasing ColorDirector2 this morning, when I saw a YouTube video on Cyberlink ColorDirector 4 - no, not AudioDirector 4 or PhotoDirector4 - ColorDirector4. The video was put up in November 2012. I can send the link if anyone wants it. Is verion 4 "vaporware", or is it actually available? I don't see it on the Cyberlink products page.
Bill Hansen
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Carl thanks for bending the forum rules a little and allowing this non-PowerDirector question (though I didn't know it was non-PD when I asked it). I don't think I would have "found" the P option myself, since I never use P for stills. But for videos, it's a tremendous help! I shot about 5 short clips in the last light of the afternoon as dogs wandered in and out of shadow, backlit, then front lit and so forth. I needed only a couple of brightness adjustments in the middle of clips. Bill
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PD 12 Ultra
The subject line is probably misleading. I know how to adjust Brightness when editing. But I'm having a lot of trouble maintaining constant brightness while I shoot a video with my Canon 70D camera. Whenever the subject moves, whenever somebody moves in front of the subject I'm video'ing, whenever the light changes, whenever I zoom in or out even slightly, the brightness of the video changes. I know that's to be expected, but it leads to near-constant splitting of video clips, dozens of "keyframes" and lots of time lost.
There has to be a better way than the one I'm using, which is to use either Manual exposure or Aperture priority, and then try to maintain constant brightness as I shoot. It's not working well enough. Is there a tutorial, or a place in the user's manual, which I need to review?
Second question, somewhat related to the above - am I correct that when editing in PD12 Ultra adjusting Exposure moves the lower value tones more, and adjusting Brightness moves the higher value tones more? There's quite an overlap, and I'm not always sure which to adjust.
Thanks - Bill Hansen
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Hi Pix - I think I discovered what I've been doing wrong. See my post dated May23 to the thread http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/38808.page#200429
I know my "explanation" doesn't make perfect sense, but the results are reproduceable, over about a dozen clips in two different videos. If I export to CDR2 after making some edit changes in PD12, I get the color/brightness change. If I export to CDR2 with all sliders set to zero in PD12, color and brightness are pretty darn good.
Could it be that others who have reported color/brightness issues have made the same mistake I've been making (rhetorical question only - no need to reply unless you just want to)?
Bill
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Pix -
I stumbled upon what I've been doing wrong!! I'll bet a few others have made the same mistake.
I was adjusting a few things in PD12, then editing in CDR2 without removing the adjustments I'd made in PD12. I know it's not supposed to make any difference - CDR2 supposedly removes any adjustments made in PD12 - but tonight, when I took care to remove any adjustment I'd made in PD12 (set all values back to zero) before editing in CDR2, the results in CDR2 are quite good even after I hit the Back button and send the clip back into PD12. The colors and dynamic range are better than I can do in PD12.
If I export to CDR2 before I've done anything to the clip in PD12, I get the same good results when the clip is exported from CDR2 back into PD12.
My guess is that CDR2 does actually remove the adjustments made in PD12, but then when the clip is exported from CDR2 back to PD12, one gets a sort of "double profiling" - some of the adjustments which were made in PD12 mess up the exported version from CDR2. It doesn't look quite like a double-profiled still image, but I think something like that must be happening.
Editing in CDR2 is a much slower process than editing in PD12 because of the delay in transferring a clip from PD12 to CDR2 - and of course because only the more difficult clips go to CDR2. I assume much of the delay in moving the clip into CDR2 and back to PD12 would be gone when using the paid version of CDR2.
I'll play around with CDR2 for another week or so - but as of tonight, I'm very happy with it, and I'm pretty sure I'll buy it.
Bill
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Thanks for your reply. I will send screen shots of a frame in PD 12, the same frame edited in CDR2, and then that same frame imported back into PD12.
I reviewed the video you linked. It's very interesting. If the color values aren't exactly the same after editing in the three different applications, the resulting colors are close enough so I couldn't tell them apart, even when looking at them sliding over the top of one another in your video.
You've used an exporting method which is much more complex than what I've done. All I've done so far is choose to edit a clip (I've done this on several clips, from different original videos) in CDR2, edit it in CDR2 until I'm happy with the colors, and then hit the Back button in CDR2 to send the clip back to PD12. This results in the brighter, greener clip (in PD12) than I saw after editing in CDR2. I have not done a final Produce of the complete video when it contains the clip edited in CDR2.
Separately, taken some clips from PD12 to CDR2, edited **and Produced** and CDR2, hit the Back button to send back to PD12. That results in color in the "new" PD12 clip which is close to what I saw after editing in CD2, but which plays slowly and stutters.
Sorry for the very awkward syntax here. I hope the meaning comes across. I'll try to post the PD12 and CDR2 clips later today, but it's a busy day so it could be May24 or 25 before I get to it.
Bill Hansen
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I've noticed that if I edit a clip in CD2 and then export it back to an un-Produced (un-rendered) video in PD 12 without first Producing (rendering) that clip in CD2, the colors and brightness are all wrong - way too bright and skewed toward the green end of the spectrum. The appearance when the clip is back in PD12 is nothing like its appearance before exporting it from CD2. I can't use CD2 with that color/brightness mismatch.
But if I first Produce the clip in CD2 and then hit the Back button, exporting it back into my (unproduced) PD12 video, the colors in PD12 are okay - probably indentical to what they were in CD2. However, the clip I've just exported from CD2 plays as if it were in slow motion, and it stops/stutters intermittently, as if there were a buffer over-run problem. I'm not surprised at that, since in effect I'm Producing that clip twice - once in CD2 and then again in PD12, when I Produce the rest of the video. But again, I can't use CD2 with that problem.
So - is anyone else having one or both of the two problems I've described here - color/brightness mismatch between CD2 and PD12, and slow, stuttering playback of Produced CD2 clips after they're exported back into PD12?
And - if so - what workarounds have you found?
Thanks - Bill Hansen
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Thanks for your reply. This is interesting information, helpful to have.
All I can tell you is that the monitor, an HP LP2065, is calibrated monthly with ColorVision Spyder 3. I don't know how to check for color bits or dynamic range of the monitor. Tried a brief Google search for these but didn't find answers.
Playback of MPEG4 and MPEG2 files using Windows Media Player (that is, outside of PD 12) show colors consistent with what I'm seeing in PD 12.
I'll keep working with both PD 12 and the trial version of CD2. I'd still like to be able to use CD2, but if I find that the resulting colors are inconsistent, I'll have to stay with PD12 and accept somewhat less accurate color management and dynamic range. However - The new highlight and shadows adjustments in PD 12 are very helpful in limiting the jarring effects of limited dynamic range. I'm also experimenting with multiple keyframes when lighting is constantly changing (as it often is when the dogs run around), and I think that, by using keyframes in PD 12, I can get less inconsistent final results in a shorter time. It's very early days, of course, but it's fun to play around with keyframes.
Thanks again - Bill Hansen
I don't think keyframes are available in CD2 .
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Thanks CubbyHouse and Carl - It was the Preferences/File export choice I had forgotten. Things should work smoothly now.
The tip on packing projects is worthwhile too. I've been saving the MVIs in folders, and manually moving the post production PDS files in with them. That should work, shouldn't it? (I'm not doing separate audio tracks, or additional video/audio tracks yet this year - so I know I'll need to ramp up my project packing skills before I move back into those things.)
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Carl - Thanks for trying to help. I guess I wasn't able to express myself clearly. I know how to Produce (render) the video. After producing, I can return to the Edit menu and view the "produce" version of the video in PD 12's viewer. But - If I pack the project (or even if I don' pack the project) and Save, only the PDS file gets saved. **That's** the problem! The MP4 (or whatever) video is not saved - at least it's not saved in any place I can readily see it later on.
Of course I can view the MP4 (or whatever) file in PD 12 itself using the PD12 viewer - but that viewer isn't really very HD at all. I want to be able to save the MP4 file itself to the "My Videos" part of Win 7 - or anywhere else where I can find it easily at a later time.
The one way I can occasionally do that "Save" to "My Videos" is to R click on the post-production MP4 thumbnail in PD 12, find the location of that file on the computer outside of PD 12 (sometimes it's in Windows/C\,Users/Bill/Documents/Cyberlink/Power Director/PD12 - but sometimes it isn't), navigate to that location, open a second copy of Windows Explorer, and manually drag the MP4 file to the appropriate place in "My Videos" . This sometimes works, but more than half the time, the location of the post-production MP4 file is not really available. And anyway - I can't believe there isn't a more straightforward way of putting useable video files in a place where they can be viewed later on. Isn't there some easier, less cumbersome way?
Sorry to be so long-winded. I'm trying to be precise enough so my problem is understandable.
Can you offer any suggestions?
Thanks - Bill
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I thought that was true too, when I used PD10 a couple of years ago. But although PD 12 "says" you can save in MEPG4, MEPG 2, H.264, WMV - the only choice I'm getting is the PDS file. There's a drop-down box under File/Save or File/Save As, but the only choice is the PDS file.
I have to be missing something obvious, which isn't explained in your response or in the several results of my Google search. There has to be another way - a way to get an actual MPEG4 file saved, without burning to a DVD. It could be done with PD 10, so there has to be a way to do it in PD 12.
Bill
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Well, I warned people that I would have forgotten key things when I returned to PD. Here's the dumbest one I can think of - I can get my videos (really just 2-4 minute collections of clips so far) produced to MPEG2, MPEG4, AVCHD, and saved as PDS files - but I can't remember how to save them as MPEGs etc, and I'm not finding the answer in the User Guide or after a Google search. All the replies indicate that you just produce into MEPG (or whatever) after choosing to produce to a standard 2D video - fine. But where is the option to save as something other than PDS?
(If you think it's annoying to have to read and answer this, just think how embarrassing it is to have to ask the question!)
Thanks - Bill Hansen
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Color Director is an excellent product - just what PD has needed, in terms of accurate color management. However, I'm missing something when I take a clip from PD 12, edit it in CD, and then hit the "Back" button to export it back to PD 12. I can get colors, brightness, vibrance, etc just the way I want them (or really - close to the way I want them) in CD, play the clip from CD and it looks quite good - but when the edited (in CD) clip appears in PD, it's lighter and less saturated, also with a little more "green". It plays that way in PD too - significantly lighter, less saturated, a bit skewed toward the green side.
I know there has to be an easy fix for this - what is it?
Thanks - Bill Hansen
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Pix - Many thanks for this. Knowing how to get a clip back to PD makes the whole thing much easier. I tried it, and of course it works. I still have a bit of a learning curve of course, but I'm well started.
Bill
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Hi - still in the early stages of trying CD 2. I'm delighted with it! It does exactly what I need - far better color management than PD, and at least some ability to recover dynamic range. I love the integration with PD 12.
So far, I haven't seen how to integrate back to PD 12, after editing in CD 2. Can someone point me toward that? (Just to be precise - after editing a clip on CD 2, what do I need to do, to get the edited version of that clip back into PD 12?
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My apologies for the whiny, complaining tone of my last post. I was way over-tired when I wrote that. I did have to do an uninstall/reinstall of PD 12, but things are working - at east the basics are working - now. I'll have a little learning curve for PD 12, but so far, so good. I love the ability to integrate with Color Director 2.
Bill
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Trying color director now - delighted with it. It's expensive, when I consider that I'll need to upgrade from PD 10 to PD 12, but CD will do exactly what I need. I'll purchase it.
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