Messages posted by Zach

You're very welcome! I'm glad that it worked for you, because that gives me A LOT of hope that if I get PD6, that it will work just as well like yours does! (Problem free, that is!)

In the future, if you run into issues like that with other software or programs, you can use the Compatibility Wizard just as you did with going to PD6 properties, compatibility, etc. Another way to access the Compatibility Wizard (at least within Vista), is to open up the help menu and type "Compatibility Wizard". Essentially, it is the same thing as what you did, but I believe it has the ability to set up multiple programs at the same time without right-clicking on each individual program icon.

Best of luck, and I'm again, elated that this worked for you! I can't wait to try out PD6 for myself!

-Zach

Hi All,

I've asked this question before, and have done some searching in these forums, but I'm trying to find out the detailed capabilities of menu creation in Power Director 6. I saw some others were asking too, and have just decided to start a topic on the subject of Menus.

For example: I would like to be able to have a "multi-tiered" menu; AKA: "multi-layered" menu. What that means (because many people ask) is that just like on a commercial DVD, you pop it in, and you have a "MAIN" menu... which may have options listed like "BONUS FEATURES" or "SCENE SELECTION", etc. Lets say you select "BONUS FEATURES" and it takes you to another menu where you can select the bonus feature to watch.

I don't have much experience with PD but I have tried the trial version of Version 5, and it does NOT seem to have this capability. It lets you have like, 3 menus and even then, they all seem to be linear, without linking capabilities... unless I'm missing something or unless the trial version is THAT limited in its features.

(Another question on the subject)
Is there a way to get rid of the annoying "chapter #" next to the menu scenes? What stinks, is that on a 3 page menu, if you have four chapters per menu, each chapter is numbered 1-4, along with whatever name you've created for each, but then on page two of the menu, again, they are labeled 1-4...shouldn't they be numbered 5-8??? Or better yet, gone altogether would be the preference. But I can't select those numbers or delete them from the menu screen.

Thanks for insight, much appreciated!
-Zach

Hi Buttermaker,

I have been following your progress as you've "jumped" into PD6 land! I am also using a Hauppage... but mine is an HVR-1600. I am extremely leery about buying the PD6 after the awful time I had with trying to get v5 trial version to work with Vista.

Unfortunately, EVERY program installed on my machine is running on an XP Compatibility. Even the ones that came pre-installed on the computer with Vista. I hate Vista, honestly. I just don't think Vista's worth it's weight in pebbles.

I do have a question for you though outside of my own ramblings: You mentioned that you opened PD6 with XP and it has worked fine... do you mean you started/opened PD6 with the compatibilty wizard or do you have XP installed on a separate partition on your machine?

Thanks... and good luck!
-Zach

Are you two using Windows VISTA by any chance? Thanks in advance for your answer

Hi Buttermaker,

Although I do ont have an answer for you on this one, I would like to say that I have a Hauppage capture card as well for my machine, but even with the host of issues I've had with my computer as a whole (I think Vista stinks, compatibility-wise with EVERYTHING) I have NOT had any issues with wait times for loading or capturing on PD. Hopefully it is simply a setting somewhere for you to change. Granted, I am only using the Trial Version 5 right now, but I am interested to learn if this is going to be a problem if I decide to purchase the full version of PD6. Thanks for asking that question-- I'm curious as to the result.

Do not accept the free Power2Go software. Power2Go was offered to me "free" because I purchased and installed PowerDVD. After installing Power2Go, I discovered that it's not very useful at all, since you have to immediately upgrade it spending even more money for any worthwhile feature.

Since I have enough of these CD/DVD burning programs already, I attempted to UNinstall Power2Go. Upon the start of the removal process, a box comes on that says "Terminating. This software designed for use only with Windows XP."

You're probably asking yourself, 'so how did he INSTALL it?' That is a great question. I had no problems installing it, but now I can't FORCE it out of my system and to make this even more interesting, even Hewlett Packard has no idea how to get irid of it! After screwing around in system registries, program files, etc, it is here to stay. I even tried a system restore at no avail.

If anyone has any idea how to uninstall this program I would be all ears... and VERY appreciative.

Thanks, Daveed! I will try this out to see if it works.

For clarification sake: When you say "you can do as you please", I am assuming that you mean with the effects and transitions? I am confused how exporting the PPT to JPG files would retain the PowerPoint animations... or doesn't it?

Sidebar: I even took it so far as to play the Powerpoint on a separate machine, outputing from the S-Video line into my capture card to capture the displayed image... except I never saw an image !! I'm not very well versed in capturing yet AT ALL, so I don't know if that would have worked or not, even if if I knew what I was doing! Any other tips as far as that method goes? I can't imagine the quality would be of any value though.

If I may interject with an inquiry--- I am attempting something similar-- basically, I'm trying to figure out a workaround for getting a PowerPoint presentation imported into PD. I read the other posts, and they are helping me establish a game plan, but I fear I may end up spinning my wheels. Does anyone know off-hand a decent workaround to make this happen?

I did figure out how to fix this issue-- at least for now... see forum subject: "Honest opinion of software"

-Zach

Hi Matt,

I may be able to help you with your Vista issue and I can offer you some insight to PD6--

First of all, I too, was having a problem with getting PD to run on Vista. To fix the problem, what I did was run the 'compatibility wizard' on vista for PowerDirector. To do this, just go to your windows 'help' menu and type in 'compatibility wizard' in the search bar. This will bring up instructions and prompts for you to run PowerDirector. I chose to run it with Windows XP settings... do not adjust the display settings though-- when it asks you to check a display setting box, leave blank and click 'next'. It should then ask you which Operating System last worked with the program. Choose XP, since it seems to not like Vista yet. That's all, the program launched wonderfully without further ado.

Secondly, I spent about 3 months researching and researching editor software. Not wanting to spend thousands of dollars (...yet!) I went with the best simple software for the money. I found a cool website that offers reviews and it rated Power Director #1. After you copy and paste this link into your browser address bar scroll halfway down the page to see the reviews: http://video-editing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/?ttreng=1&ttrkey=powerdirector

It IS very easy to use, it's very intuitive and has a plethora of features that are useful, creative and practical. So far, the only limitations I have found are within my imagination. As a creative editor, I can honestly say that I do enjoy using PowerDirector. I'm still learning each feature that it has, but when I run into a snag or can't figure something out, the help menu within the program is EXTREMELY useful and easy to navigate.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you are able to get it to work with Vista. I can't garantee you anything, but running the compatibilty wizard was all it took for me.

Thanks-- what I mean by "multi-layer" is more or less a "submenu" feature; where you can create a main menu (root menu) then have the option of adding more layers or 'sub-menus' within the main menu and so on... similar to a commercial DVD: the title menu with 3 options for "bonus features"; "scene selection" and "play movie". hope this clarifoes what I mean, I am impressed that there have been so many more improvments in this version. Definitely why I'd like to try it out-- if I can get the CD-Key for the trial version figured out. (See another post for that one) Thanks again!

This was my very next question as well-- same problem here. It wants a CD key for the trial version. There sure seem to be a lot of hoops to jump though to try out this program.

Hi, I'm new here! After a brief search in these forums and online, I couldn't find an answer anywhere (unless I'm blind) but I'm trying to find out if PowerDirector 6 offers "multi-layer" menus in the DVD authoring/creation section. I know that PD5 did not, but has this changed with PD6? Also, since I am highly considering purchasing PD6, is there anything that it does NOT have that PD5 has? Thanks for any input!