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Yes, thanks to David (CLD) for providing the update timeline.
I was originally responding to Neil.
I look forward to the release.
Alex
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I already have 2220c, Im talking about updates to that.
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Anyone know when the next update for PD8 will come?
(for those who are eagerly waiting upgrades to 2220c)?
thanks
Alex
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I would take a look at how the media box prefers its HD content.
If you give it 720p content, it will likely upscale to 1080i or 1080p. In any case, It will do a simple linear interpolation (not the best solution) or perhaps a transcode.
Transcoding done in a program such as PD8 via the rendering process will look much better when viewed directly with the HD box in its native resolution (I am assuming 1080i) rather than giving the HD box a 720p (for example) stream and letting it upscale.
Try this: take the raw image file from a short clip, import to PD8, re render at 1080i and 24 mbps. Put that on the same drive/file folder as the original clip. View each back to back, I will bet the re-rendered clip will look better when played with your HD box.
I hop
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I have the same camera (DMC-ZS3).
In any case, PD thinks it is taking video at 50 frames (pal) or 60 frames (NTSC) when it reads an .mts file from the Zs3. the reality is the frame is shot progressively (ie, all at once) and then copied to the 2nd field, so it is really 25 or 30 frames per second.
Also, the 720 p records at around 15 Mbps in SH mode on the ZS3.
I have found that increasing the bit rate and rendering at 1080i produces better results (but when you increase the bit rate, you cant fit as much video on the DVD (stored as AVCHD format).
I only recently switched to PD8, but had used PD7 that I "tricked" into rendering at 17 Mbps average bit rate.
First produce the m2ts file, then open PD again (blank project), import the .m2ts file and burn disk from there. SVRT should not make it render again.
hope that helps.
Alex
hope that helps.
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So I took the plunge and updated to PD8 to take advantage of the discount.
To recap, Im an i7 920, 12 GB DDR3 RAM, ATI 4870 with a 2nd 4870 in crossfire running Vista 64 bit ultimate.
I was able to load all my PD7 pds files.
The good:
1) PD8 loads projects much faster
2) PD8 was able to render (produce only) a 10 minute clip with heavy slideshow/magic motion onto AVCHD that PD7 could not (ie, PD7 would always crash no matter what I did). PD7 would only render this clip at SD/480i while PD was able to render at 1080i.
3) So I tried rendering my 38 minute AVCHD video made of several SD and HD clips and photos made into slideshows with several effects. The first time, it crashed at 29 min. I tried it again and it rendered it successfully!( Note I run 8 cores, but turbo mode off (I do use OC at 3.6 GHz))
The not so good:
1) The program crashed several times with the media source error
2) A hang just doing a multi trim
3) Rendering seems to take longer in PD8 than pd7.
4) definitely turn off preview (the program crashes more when producing).
5) cant totally eliminate not having a DVD menu
6) The produced AVCHD file was 4.18 GB, but PD could not fit it onto one AVCHD DVD because of overhead (it said the project needed 5.2 GB, and a single DVD can only hold 4.7 (I ended up rendering it in Nero 9 without the menu)
Bottom line,
I am glad I spent the $44 to upgrade, since PD7 updates will no longer come, as PD8 is more stable and performs better
But there is clearly more room for improvement.
I wish oh wish they would make a native 64 bit application to take advantage of the larger system memory...
by the way I was also using catalyst 9.12 hotfix drivers/avivo for GPU acceleration.
One other note is when the 38 minute movie was rendering with GPU acceleration, my i7 was running about 20% on all cores, occasionally a single core here and there would blip up to 50 or 60%.
Also, BTW, CL is delivering build 2220c as the standard download when you buy it.
Alex
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Thanks for the responses so far...
I would love to hear more from folks who use multi core pcs and do AVCHD rendering...
One other question:
Can I take a .pds file that was generated with PD7 and open it/edit it/produce it with PD8??
Thanks to all....
Alex
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I have had PD7 now since March, and have gone through the growing pains of the patches, fixes, etc.
I still get PD7 to crash often (guaranteed to crash during a produce of HD content where I have used slideshow effects/transitions at 1080i, sometimes I can mitigate by going 720p, or ultimately ugh 480i), and I take the individual files it makes during produce, and hobble together a movie that I then render in Nero 9 to get my final AVCHD.
Anyway, Since PD8 upgrade is on sale 25% off, I have been waiting to see if it is worth doing. I am very disappointed in Cyberlink, instead of fixing usability, they add features.
I like the features of PD, but it is too unstable. In fact if you google PD 8, and look at reviews and comments (even in the PC Magazine review that CL advertises on their splash page), you see the comments of how unstable it is.
Given the current state of build 2220c, can any owners comment on the program's stability and quality compared to or is any better than PD7.
My system is an i7 920, 12 GB ram, running vista 64 Ultimate.
I have ffdshow, do a regular defragment, reinstall, registry clean blah blah blah all the crud that they say you should do (which you shouldnt need to do with a commercially available program), but still have these crashing issues.
When will it ever stop.
The other good? news is that other programs such as Sony Vegas, or Pinnacle studio have some similar issues with crashes.
I also have Nero 9, which is super stable (never had it crash on me), but is slow as molasses (no GPU acceleration), and its editing tools suck (but it has a superb AVCHD renderer).
It sure would be nice to even know when a new release of PD would come out.
And I would hate to buy PD8 and things get worse than they are now with PD7. Can anyone comment?
with Windows 7 and multicore processors becoming very mainstream, the winner will be the first to have superior quality on a multicore machine running a 64 bit application with decent features.
Sorry for the long winded post, its too bad no one has ever heard of regression testing in this consumer application space.
Alex
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Will there ever be a PD7 update from the June 2009 one build 3017?
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Actually, ATI (AMD) does a good job of publishing bugs in their catalyst graphics drivers. They publish:
Issues for all operating systems,
Issues for specific operating systems (win 7 vs, vista, vs Xp, 32/64 bit variants too)
Issues fixed in this release,
Known bugs.
Here is the latest release notes for Catalyst 9.10, their latest driver pack... http://www2.ati.com/relnotes/Catalyst_910_release_notes.pdf
BTW, I know for a fact, the information popup on CL's site does not show ALL of the resolved issues (because there are too many small bugs to list).
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So, this is on the CL PD7 page
"Updates for the Fujitsu DE version of PowerDirector 7: This update is for the Fujitsu DE version of PowerDirector 7 with the SR number of VDE090306-02."
Anyone got any idea what the Fujitsu DE version is?
Anyone know if there will ever be an update to include a revamped AVCHD renderer like was promised?
Alex
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It was promised 4 months ago that there would be a revised AVCHD renderer for PD7...Can anyone from CL update this....
Thanks.
Alex
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Its all about the renderer. Apparently there is a rework of the renderer for PD7 and PD8 (do a search on AVCHD and you will find the threads).
Here is what I do: produce a 1920 x 1080 AVCHD file, then import it to Nero 9 and have it re-render it and burn the AVCHD....I find that Nero has an excellent renderer (but the rest of the authoring tools are crap).
Only decent solution I have right now till CL stops releasing new software and fixes its current software issues.
Alex
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Maybe see if you can convert to m2ts file (mpeg 2 transport stream H.264) using mediashow espresso first, then do the import?
(I don't know if espresso can handle, but if it can, then do it that way, and it wont have to re render later because SVRT will recognize it in the right format?
just a thought...
Alex
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According to the text you got from cyberlink, you have version 2726, which is old.
Once you install, upgrade to the latest version 3017.
http://www.cyberlink.com/downloads/support/powerdirector/patches_en_US.html
is the link...
Alex
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I know there has been some powerdirector 8 beta testing going on since feb-march....
does anyone know when pd8 will be released?
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So to play in a regular DVD player, you have to use DVD format. The highest quality is 8 Megabits per second and it is standard definition.
IF you have a Blu ray player, you can burn your project to an AVCHD DVD (ie, a DVD that has AVCHD files on it). here you can select higher quality such as 1920 x 1080 (I would use the max bitrate pd7 allows which is 14800 kbps), these will be HD files. Now most bluray players can play an AVCHD DVD, but not all. Sony and panasonic blu rays can play AVCHD for sure.
Finally, the renderer in PD7 is not great. What I do is make my movies in PD7, then produce a high quality AVCHD file, then import to Nero 9 and burn the DVD from there. The renderer/transcoder in Nero 9 is excellent (although a bit slower).
hope that helps....
Alex
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If you recently upgraded graphics cards or upgraded your system, check to see what your computer's power suppy rating is.
If you are running a 4800 ATI card or NVidia GTX 2XX card, and a quad core processor, for example, you likely need a good 600 watt power suppy.
There is no reason the program should reset your system, unless some catastrophic event like not enough juice to power your system.
Alex
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make sure your project is in 16:9 format
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try installing ffdshow codecs, it adds a bunch of stability I have found
http://www.free-codecs.com/FFDshow_download.htm
they are free.
Alex
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Having used the new build for a few hours to make a new movie of mixed content (pictures, AVCHD video, Standard Def Video), here are my observations:
The good:
1) Magic Motion is fixed
2) I did not experience any fatal program crashes on windows Vista 64
3) multi trim and trim worked much better. Before, the program would get hung and you would experience long delays. It is 80% better now (still a little bizarre behavior)
4) Moving content around the timeline is much faster
5) It seems like SVRT is done more to make sure that only content that needs to be re-rendered is re-rendered, but see below on the renderer.
The not so good:
1) AVCHD is still limited to 14800 kbps
2) The renderer is still the same as before. When I render AVCHD I still get some interlacing artifacts (even though my video is progressive!)
3) My workaround is this: I find that if I import my produced video into the latest version of Nero9 and re-render, a lot of artifacts are gone. Nero sucks for video editing for the most part, but I find its HD renderer excellent (although it has no GPU acceleration).
4) GPU acceleration runs (ie. it doesn't crash), but it creates a ton of artifacts (either its PD7 or ATI's fault, I have two ATI Radeon 4870 cards in crossfire on an i7 920 system with 12GB). If only I could get GPU acceleration to produce decent video, since with GPU acceleration is a 2x speedup for me over my quad core system alone).
5) The system does not take advantage of 64 bit operating systems, as I have 12GB of RAM, and when full rendering, PD7 takes up a max of only about 2.5-3.0GB. Also, it is supposed to be i7 core optimized, but I usually see only about 50-60% cpu utilization across the cores
So, in summary, the program is a ton more stable now, but still suffers some of the video quality issues from before.
I wonder when PD8 will be released?
Alex
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