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Just curious. I have been using PD6 for a few months, and personally like several things about the program. However, PD has lately been acting more like a lazy employee being paid by the hour rather than a motivated consultant being paid by the project. For instance, I just finished a simple video project where the editing literally involved snipping a few seconds off the beginning and the end and the putting in 12 chapters at 12 minute intervals for the body of the film. I had to wrestle a bit with the disc menu, but I managed to get it to cooperate. PD6 then took a little over 3 ½ hours to produce titles. That seems a bit excessive. The physical burn process only took three minutes. I checked the memory usage during the processing phase and it was off the charts at 328,000 K. When the burn was completed, PD continued to hog resources to the tune of 319,000K. Wow. Yesterday, it took 2 hours just to process an hour clip with four chapters and no thumbnail links, only text buttons. I have also had some other weird quirks evolve over time.
1. If I capture material from a dvd disc then transfer it to a workplace via EDIT, PD will crash the first time I try to advance the video using the frame advance arrows under the viewing screen. However, if I open a project first from my HD, and advance a few frames with the arrows, I can then capture any clip I want from any source and use the arrows until my fingers are numb. Go figure.
2. I still cannot get the chapters to retain the images I set for them. PD consistently dumps the chapters images whenever I go to another effects mode. I have to put the chapters in last if I want them to stay for the disc creation.
3. The disc menu is a nightmare. Whenever I save a template, the alignment for text links consistently bumps and jumps. I have yet to have any two templates stay the same for the same project.
4. Once a disc menu template is made, I cannot images out of it to modify it for another project. When I try to delete a background image or some other image that I do not want, the image stays on the screen, but I cannot access it again. Further, if I try to do anything else to the “deleted” image, PD crashes and everything is lost.
5. Lately, I have had problems with PD crashing when I try to access the Help index with a project open. Needless to say, that is really frustrating. I have to save the project, close the project, open Help, then reopen the project for to apply what I needed to know.
There are other problems, but I cannot remember them at the moment. Suffice to say, PD crashed more these days than a clown in a bumper car. If it were not for the fact I like the way PD is easy to edit and make videos, I would have given up long ago.
The last time you helped me, Dafydd, I ended up uninstalling and reinstalling PD just to get it to work right. I would do this again, but the last time I did this, PD would not recognize my projects that I had saved prior to the reinstall. I had to reload and re-edit all the clips and builds. I have over 50 projects in my computer this time, so I am not keen on trying another reinstall. Is there something I am missing that may be the problem? Does the size of the working folder have anything to do with these problems? Why is the the memory usage off the charts for simple projects?
Any help would be appreciated. Again.
Jim
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Thanks, Dafydd, for the follow-up. I think the problem may have been I was not clear with what I meant. I am recording tv shows onto a DVD+RW disc. I then capture the shows from the disc to my computer using PD 6. Most of the time, the capture goes without incident and the video is transferred as it was recorded as one unit (whether it be 30 minutes or two hours). Here of late, however, PD 6 has been crashing quite a bit (about one in four times on the opening of an old project or one in two if I am editing a new clip that I just captured). The tell-tale signs of the crash are the computer goes into a ponderous thinking mode where nothing happens but a lot of "data crunching" within the CPU. What most easily triggers this crunching mode is when the clip first pops onto the edit screen and automatically loads into the timeline. The audio is not there yet, but the video is. If I use the arrow keys under the on-screen program monitor to fine tune a starting point before the program has a chance to do whatever it thinks it needs to do, PD crashes. I have been deliberately trying to give the program and machine a chance to catch up to itself before I try any editing operations, but the crash happens anyway. No idea why. I lose whatever was on screen, and I have to start over. When I load the clip from the file without having to transfer from the capture screen, I usually have much better success with all operations. So, I am thinking there is something in the process between the capture and edit screens that is eating up a lot a memory or something that causes the crash when I try to perform initial duration editing. I do have crashes similar to this during the editing process (almost always when I deal with trimming), usually when I use the arrow keys too quickly, but they are not as frequent.
As to the merging of clips, it is related to this transfer between capture and edit. On the capture screen, the video clip shows as one solid piece of video without any drops or errors. But when it transfers and crashes, the video splits into two pieces. I do not know if this is what caused the crash where the program cannot read something or if the crash causes the split, but the second clip is usually a splinter of the original averaging around 470 mb. Further, when the crash occurs immediately after transferring the video from capture to edit, 9 out of 10 times I will have this splinter clip. I do not think the problem is my recorder as I have recorded many programs without error and the feature that divides the clip into segments is disabled. The problem is also not related to the brand or individual disc as I only use quality disc names and I have been marking discs where video is dropped or this error occurs. The pattern is not consistent. The splinter clip lines up with the main clip, but when they play thru, there is an obvious momentary burp in the video and audio where the clips join. I did not think of it until now, but I will try to recapture from the next disc where this occurs to see if the data is corrupted from the disc prior to the capture. At any rate, I now have several videos that have splinter clips. I cannot extend the clip with the feature you describe as the program does not "see" one clip segmented into two where both are complete with parts hidden, but rather two separate complete clips adjacent to each other that are represented in their entirety. I was hoping there was a merge command that could fuse the clips together where the burp would not be seen or heard.
Hope I have not fatigued you into tears yet. Does my explanation make sense?
Jim
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Thanks, Dafydd. I backed up the files just in case. I uninstalled and reinstalled without issues. Regretfully, I seem to still have the problem with PD crashing periodically. It usually happens when I first place a clip on the timeline and start to edit it. It is as if it is too much at once. I can tell instantly if PD is going to crash as it takes a very long time to do anything, sort of a "mini-freeze." The computer crunches a bit, then the "must close now" window pops up and whatever I was doing is lost. This has been happening more and more lately. I do not know if I am trying to push the program too fast or if my computer hardware is not capable of working fast. I have 2 GB of memory, but it does get loaded up when PD is rendering or producing. Any hints or suggestions?
Also, is there a merge command to seamlessly join two clips that were part of the same sequence? I had an uncommon event happen earlier today where PD divided a clip into two pieces. When I placed them adjacent and played them, I had momentary skips where the clips joined. There is not easy way to edit the skips out, so I was wondering if a merge command existed where two or more clips from the same sequence without any breaks can be joined together to remove the clip gaps.
Jim
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Thanks, Dafydd. Two quick questions regarding a reinstall. I am sure I will lose all of my custom files on the uninstall or they will be overwritten with the reinstall. I was simply going to copy the appropriate files to another location, then put them back once the reinstall is finished. First, do you know where all of these files are located (I am using XP)? Second, can I simply "plug" them back into the appropriate folders without causing path problems? Is it better to overwrite the installed folders with the custom files or delete the installed folders then paste in the custom files?
I just want to make sure I do not lose my custom files a second time. Thanks.
Jim
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Yeah, I am finding that out the hard way. Since I disabled it this afternoon, PD has crashed at least ten times. The problem is I now cannot figure out how to enable it. It does not appear in the Services menu I previously disabled it under. Further, Rich Video does still manage to automatically activate, but I am not able to determine what it is doing differently than it was doing before I disabled it. This is a real mess now. I may have to simply uninstall and reinstall to get it to work again. I keep losing my projects at crucial times. Too bad Cyberlink does not tell you what these features do, especially when they look just like add-on software. I guess Cyberlink is taking a few lessons from Microsoft when it comes to integrating the features and programs they want you to have whether you want them or not or know what they do or not.
Jim
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I checked that menu, Robert. The first box was checked and the second box was unchecked. They both are not unchecked. But in reading the actual descriptions of these boxes, it appears these do not effect the actual startup loading of Rich Video, only what Rich Video does after it is running. I keep going through the task manager and stopping this program, but it self-initiates whenever I perform some operation, probably a capture, in PD6. I have noticed whenever the save menu pops up, Rich Video is appended to the bottom by way of the extended window screen. This occurs after I stop the process in the task manager. I am thinking this is how it re-initiates. At any rate, I keep getting crashes. Is there any way to stop this process from loading altogether without effecting PD6? I guess the better question is whether or not Rich Video is a stand alone or integrated into PD6?
Thanks again.
Jim
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Does anyone know if disabling the Rich Video feature will interfere with the functionality of PD 6? I have had a number of instances lately where this feature appears to conflict with something else on my machine and it is causing freezes and crashes within the PD architecture. I cannot pinpoint this for sure, but all signs point to this software. If it is possible to disable/uninstall it, what is the best way? It does not show in the Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel of XP.
Thanks all.
Jim
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I have asked this before, but it still puzzles me. I tape a lot of cable programs for personal archive. I use DVD+RW to capture the shows and transfer them to my HD for editing. In my first attempts, I added the chapters before I produced, only to discover I lost all the chapters afterwards. I then went to editing out all the commericals and producing an edited mpeg. As several of these programs are less than 30 minutes, I would like to put up to four on a disc. To complicate matters, I wish to put chapters in several of these programs for reference points, which means each program needs its own menu. I already know I need dvd authoring software for this step, but the question is how to best produce each program.
Is it better to edit out the commercials, add transitions if necessary, produce a "general" mpeg, then add chapters and title pages to the produced mpeg; or is it better to edit out the commercials; add transitions, chapters and titles; export the project as packed materials, then use a dvd authoring program to stack PDS files, and bypass the produce stage altogether? I ask as I read it is not a good idea to edit/work on mpegs due to their structure. The one real issue I have with this packing everything as a project is the saved file is just as large as the captured data. While the PDS file is edited, the captured data is not. Consequently, when I have multiple shows recorded on one disc without a break, when I save them individually, I get the full raw clip saved every time. Editing and producing them as individual clips it much smaller and easier to store.
Thanks.
Jim
Daveed, how is your HD recovery going? I just finished mine after four days of joyous fun and laughter. Yeah, I know, I think the copious volume of vodka helped a lot too.
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Hello, All,
Does anyone know how to recover the custom images used in self-made Title Page templates? I had to completely recover my primary hard drive (which has taken me the last three days as I have had to reconfigure two hard drives). I took a picture of my HD using Acronis and I made a second manual backup to a different HD other than the snapshot. When I migrated the cyberlink file that contains my custom title templates back to its original position, only the text carried over. Is the image not saved as a part of the title template at the same time with the text and other effects? It appears the image is not attached to this template. How do I get it back? I have all the original images I built the templates images from, but they lack the special effects, cropping, etc that was used for the title pages.
Thanks much.
Jim
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Thank you, Dafydd, for the direction. I downloaded the patch as instructed and successfully installed it. Regretfully, though, I now have a new problem that prevents me from finding out if the old dilemma is fixed. I am not able to produce anything. I have tried using several different files but the end is the same. When I press the final button to start rendering, the computer goes super sluggish and the produce movie indicator stays at 0%. I have made several attempts, but I have had to stop PD6 after 10 minutes of 0% movement. While all of this is going on, the computer is very sluggish and slow to respond to anything. The only thing that has changed in the last few days is the PD patch and some Windows XP updates. I will uninstall the updates to see if they are the problem. The only way I can abort the produce process is to go into the Task Manager and terminate PD6 manually. It just seems to be eating up everything by way of resources so nothing gets done and no other processes can run concurrently. Any ideas?
Also, I now have a quirky problem with accessing projects. Several of my projects now say they have problems reading the video clips that were used to make the projects, so when the projects load into the video track, they appear totally black with no video or audio. The base clips are still there and I can load them manually, but the PDS files are junk. This has happened several times to the same files that were on the same DVD disc. Each time I manually reload the mpegs to edit again, the PDS file works fine. When I come back to them after closing them, the PDS files often are black again. Any ideas there? Do I have a corrupted program now?
Jim
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First, thank you all for the forum. I have some problems that the Cyberlink help line seems little interested in helping me with. First, is it possible to delete Title Effect templates that I generated? The tech line told me to right click, but this operation is not possible for some reason. Does anyone know how to perform this operation?
Second, I have been having some goofy problems with chapters. I consistently get the error code that some chapters were removed as they were less than 2 seconds. PD then deletes one or more (quite often all) of my chapters. To make matters worse, when some chapters are left behind, they are all messed up and out of order. I had to retype seventeen chapters six times tonight before I could get them to stay. Further, once the chapters were in place, if I edited anything on the video track line, such as content of a particular clip or removing a clip or title, the 2 second chapter error would pop up and the chapters would go bonkers all over again. Am I doing something wrong?
Third, from reading the forum, I am thinking the Produce command is not necessary to create a disc. I found this to be true by making some movies both with and without the produce. My problem is I am recording TV programs where I am editing out the commercials for my movie clips. In some cases, my capture is several programs at a time, so I do not want to keep the captured raw video once I have cleaned and separated each episode. My problem is with chapters and such. If I put the chapters in before I produce, the chapters disappear with the final production. Would I be better off putting the chapters in after I make a production, then creating a disc off the edited production mpeg?
Last, I have been having a regular problem with PD 6 crashing and deleting my projects. There is no rhyme or reason to this so I have not seen a pattern. It just happens, and I lose whatever project I had open at the time. This complete wash happens even when the project was opened from a previously saved file. The whole project just dumps and I end up having to completely start over. This has happened several times now. Does PD have a know conflict with other software and is there a list somewhere so I can either turn off the offending software? I am not a video editing whiz or a computer genius, but I do know how to follow directions and ask for help when I am lost. I have PD6. I am not sure what build. How do I determine this? I am running Windows XP for OS.
Thank you for the help. I know I have asked a lot of questions, but the help in the software is light on answers and the tech line has proved near useless.
GB
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