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Slow text in Titles and Subtitles have been mentioned for some time, it appears to not affect everyone. You might post your srt files and see if others have issue with it.
To disable Subtitles in a MP4 produce, just disable the track in the timeline. PD only supports mkv with Subtitles.
To shift Subtitles fwd or backward, one can:
Make sure your Subtitle track is active
In your Subtitle room right click > Select All Subtitles
On the Subtitle track, all the Subtitles should be selected and grouped, drag Subtitles to the correct time point
Jeff
<Face palm> I can't believe I didn't think of that (for moving them forward or backward). I guess I didn't think of them as being a track on their own. I wonder if this process would also take 3 to 5 minutes though...
Weird that they only support MKV files for embedded (but not burned) subtitles. Anyway, it's not a huge deal since there are external programs that can do things with subtitles.
Thanks for the info, JL_JL!
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I don't generally create subtitles from scratch but rather imprt them into PD20 as an "srt" file. This entire process is beyond slow. Like, every step along the way is 3 to 5 minutes. Loading, saving, etc. Even just selecting lines of subtitles (maybe to be deleted with the 'delete' key) takes forever. It's highlighting 2 or 3 lines per second instead of all of them in the blink of an eye as one would expect. It can certainly be done because I've done it in other video editors and it takes a few seconds to load the entire file.
So that's issue number one, but issue number 2 is bad as well: If you select the option to create a DVD/blu-ray compatible subtitle setup (in other words, NOT the "burn-in" option) it will still burn the subtitles onto the screen if your output is an MP4 file rather than a DVD or bluray. MP4 files can have embedded subtitle (and other) streams that can be accessed by most MP4 players, allowing the user to turn them on or off if they want.
Luckily, there are free options outside of PD that allow you to create, add, remove or modify subtitle files from an MP4 file, but it would be nice not to have an additional step.
If Cyberlink ever gets back to the Subtitle Room to fix it,^ I'd like to also add that the ability to adjust subtitles forwards or backwards (move them earlier or later in comparison to the audio) would be greatly appreciated. This would be not so much for subtitles created within PD, but more for ones loaded from an SRT file.
Thank you in advance for a great program otherwise!
^ If they only fix one thing, PLEASE fix the excruciatingly slow speed. Five minutes to load and format a text file is very frustrating.
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I'm having touble understanding the utility of this. Do you have a sample clip to give me a better idea of what you're looking to do?
You can easily do an off-axis rotation in two steps now.
In the Pip Designer, use keyframes to rotate the clip and then drag the desired location to the center (or the center to the desired location). which would give the effect of rotating the video around any off-center point in your finished vid. If you have an example, I might be able to come up with a different approach.
This is how I do it currently, as the workaround you suggest, but it is more involved than you make it sound except for simple movements (due to the "shortest distance" logic that keyframing often uses, giving some very odd and unnatural 'tweening'). It seems like such a simple thing that should have been added ages ago (like audio scrubbing and the ability to choose top-down or bottom-up track priority, which are just now making their way into the program).
PowerDirector 365 is improved throughout the year, so if they add the arbitrary rotation feature at some point in the near future I will probably get it. In the meantime I'm fine with version 15.
Russell1967
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One feature I was hoping for, that I don't see mentioned in the features list, is the ability to rotate a video by a point OTHER than the center, like the corner or even a point outside the bounds of the video. (If there's a way to do this that I'm not aware of, please let me know!)
I like the that audio scrubbing is finally here. Yay! Hmm... not sure if there are enough features added - that I personally would make use of - for me to upgrade. If they add the rotate thing (which I would think would be SUPER simple to add) I might go for it.
I'll keep my eyes peeled for new features added to the 365 option and might do that.
Russell1967
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Well that's good to know. Thanks! (Otherwise I was going to be very disappointed...)
Russell1967
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I'm not seeing any references to PowerDirector in the products page that are not "365". Is this the only option now? I hope not because the reason I haven't gone for the 365 option is because it forces me to stay current, effectively "upgrading" to versions that I may not like. For example, I'm still on version 15 because 16 and 17 didn't have any major things I needed, BUT I'm still able to use 15, which would not be the case going forward with the "365" option (I assume it stops working if you stop the monthly payments!)
Looks like Adobe has influenced Cyberlink. 
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I agree that "Smart fit" could be a bit smarter... It is definitely possible to fit an AVCHD movie onto a DVD-5 (single layer DVD) because I have other stand alone programs that can do it, and it looks perfectly fine...yet Smart Fit will not do it, saying that there isn't enough room, etc (there will be if the bitrate is reduced!).
Anyway, it's just a small complaint. Overall I find PD satisfactory for my needs 95% of the time. But there's always room for improvement.
Russell1967
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There are some nice things... 
But I daubt, if someone from cyberlink will read it now.
Right after releasing PD17, there will be a thread with "wishes/suggestions for PD18".
So compare your wishlist with the feature list of PD17 and post the difference in that thread. 
Hatti
Yeah, I wasn't sure when they post that suggestion list. I think the new version will probably be announced around September if it follows past history.
Russell1967
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Have you tried NewBlue Titler? If you turn Keyframing on, I think its more user friendly
One downside to NewBlue Titler is that, unbelievably, you don't actually see what is behind your text in the time line. You only see the text you're creating. I found this really odd. It's not as integreated into the UI as well as it could have been. It is, however, quite powerful in what can be accomplished.
Russell1967
(Screen shot attachment doesn't seem to work...)
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I know it is too late to add anything to PD 17, but here is a list of things that I feel would greatly add to PowerDirector 18 and beyond. Some may in fact be in PD17 when it is released (later this year?). I am currently using PD15.
In no particular order:
- Save a default workspace! The default workspace only has 2 video tracks... My typical project uses at least 10 in some places.
- The ability to move the rotation point for PiP objects (videos and images). Only being able to rotate from the center is sometimes limiting.
- Hold a key to temporarily turn off snapping (if you have it set in preferences), either within the main timeline editor or within the PiP Designer. Sometimes this is bothersome.
- Keyframing is great fun to play with, so why not make EVERYTHING in the various designers keyframeable? (color board color (ALL colors in fact!), shadow direction for text/objects, etc. If it has a value that can be modified, why not make that value changeable over time?
- Some simple drawing tools would be REALLY useful. Nothing fancy. Even having just square, circle and line would be useful. And if the variables that define those shapes could be keyframeable, this would massively expand what you could do with the program!
- More than one PiP object in the Designer, just like the Title Designer. This would make coordinating multiple objects MUCH easier!
- Audio Scrubbing. Would make it much easier to sync motion of objects to parts of the audio.
- Specify the number of times a video repeats on the the timeline. What I mean is, let's say I have a short video of a rocket ship spewing rocket exhaust and I want this to follow a "Motion Path" in the PiP room. It would be great if I could link the video to a motion path and then specify how many times to repeat the video as it "flies" around the screen following the path. Currently it's not possible to do this: The rocket video would play one time starting at the beginning of the motion path until the end has been reached.
- Speaking of motion paths, why not make them reversible? Or, maybe even make them "ping pong". That is, play to the end of the path, then move the object (image/video) backwards along the path to the beginning (perhaps a set number of times. [I know that you don't want to get too far beyond the scope of what this program is intended for, so maybe just the reversibility for now?]
- Can we set an option for the PiP object to rotate WITH the path as it follows it? (Think of a fish "swimming")
- The ability to make paths from scratch? This would be great!
- Ease in/Ease Out for some other variables, such as opacity?
- Something I've never understood about the PiP Designer: Why do I have to click "stop" before I can move or modify anything, even if the video is paused? This is really annoying sometimes. When I am modifying keyframe elements from the main timeline (select object and click "keyframe"), I do not have to do that, so why is this required in the PiP Designer?
- It would be helpful if it were possible to see the audio waveform for an element in the PiP Designer (to line up events with sections of the audio, for example)
- One click to collapse all tracks in the PiP Designer. If you have a lot of elements and you add a new one, ALL of the tracks and their sub-elements (position, scale, etc) expand, meaning your newly added element might be way down the list.
- The masking capability has improved over the years, but it still is not that easy to create a mask from scratch from within the program. One or both of the following options would be super helpful: Paint the mask directly from within the program (similar to the Paint Designer in the PiP Room) and/or use simple drawing tools to define an area for the mask from within the program. If it is a bezier type curve, making the points keyframeable over time would make almost any masking job possible!
- Gradient fills on Color Boards.
- Change the color of a color board after it has been created. This seems like an easy fix. And of course make the color board colors keyframeable! This is related to point number 2.
- Once you have a motion path set up, why not allow the substitution of another graphic or video? I've had complicated motion set up only to realize that the graphic was unsuitable, requiring me to re-do all of the motion set up again with the new graphic. This would also be useful if you want two or more objects to follow the same path: You could create the first motion path with the first element, then copy that PiP object and modify it with a new graphic, one behiond the other!
- I don't know if this is a bug or not, but if you import a project into your current project, and the imported project has a Power Tools option set on it (like video speed-up), that option is lost when you import it. You have to re-apply it to that clip.
- Marquee-select more than one keyframe in the PiP Designer so that you can move more than one at a time across the timeline. Maybe even "resize" the distance between the keyframes?
- I've noticed that the PiP interface is considerably slower than the main interface. If you hit the "." key multiple times in a row to move forward several frames, for example, it can take a second or more for each new frame to appear, whereas on the main timeline the change is almost instantaneous, even with considerably more complex elements.
- If you move an object with the arrow keys within the PiP Designer, the values in the object properties to the left do not update properly. They only update if you move the object with the mouse.
- "Render Preview" sometimes gets stuck at the end and just sits there forever. Clicking "Cancel" closes that small window and everythng seems to be okay, but I thought you might want to know about this.
- It would be helpful if in the Particle Room, the variables of the particles (like under "Modify Parameters") had some description of what those values mean. For example, the "Life" is, what? The number of millisecs it stays on the screen? The default is 3750 and I have no idea what that number means.
- For Start/End effects for titles (such as "fade"), etc, could we right click on that start or end section and manually set the duration?
- Resize timeline tracks vertically in a similar way to how it is done horizontally?
- Easy way to raise/lower entire clip volume. (If you click on the volume "line" on the clip, it thinks you want to create a new keyframe for the volume.) This would be useful for background music.
Well, this is all I can think of for now. Hopefully some of these are already being added to PD17.
Thanks for listening!
Russell1967
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I seem to remember trying something like that and it didn't work. The effects were not noticed by the program. It's been a while, so I may be wrong about this.
Anyone?
Russell1967
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There are two kinds of aspect ratios when it comes to graphics: The Pixel aspect ratio and the display aspect ratio. Sometimes that 1:1 ratio may simply mean that the graphic is using "square" pixels instead of elongated ones. For example, if the pixel resolution is 1920 x 1080 (16:9 pixel ratio) and the actual output device is 16 x 9, then the pixels are considered to be square. On the other hand, if the resolution is, say, 1280 x 1024 (5:4) but is being output to a 4:3 monitor (like most old school monitors), then the piixels will not be square but stretched vertically. [note: This does not mean that the images will all be stretched necessarily, because the display program can compensate as long as it knows this ratio and the actual size of the display, etc.
In this case, it is definately the 1:1 Pixel aspect ratio that they are expecting for the video ads. It is in their documentation - especially for Instagram.
Yeah, otherwise the videos themselves would be square, and that would just be weird. 
Russell1967
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A way to output 1:1 aspect ratio videos please. Popular social media videos are optimized for this size. Or a way to allow users to customize the output aspect ratio. New phones are 18:9.
There are two kinds of aspect ratios when it comes to graphics: The Pixel aspect ratio and the display aspect ratio. Sometimes that 1:1 ratio may simply mean that the graphic is using "square" pixels instead of elongated ones. For example, if the pixel resolution is 1920 x 1080 (16:9 pixel ratio) and the actual output device is 16 x 9, then the pixels are considered to be square. On the other hand, if the resolution is, say, 1280 x 1024 (5:4) but is being output to a 4:3 monitor (like most old school monitors), then the piixels will not be square but stretched vertically. [note: This does not mean that the images will all be stretched necessarily, because the display program can compensate as long as it knows this ratio and the actual size of the display, etc.]
But that aside, I do agree that it would be nice to have more control or output resolutions, bitrates and so on. For most cases this level of control is not needed, but it would be nice if it was hidden in some "advanced" menu.
Russell1967
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It seems to me that the simple solution would (for CL) to just install the NB effects (and content packs, etc) as a totally separate item so that they can be uninstalled INDEPENDENTLY from the version of PD, and when we upgrade to the next version, those fx/packs will stay and be usable by the newer version (as long as they are compatible, of course).
The only thing I can think of for why CL would do it the way they do is that perhaps it's part of the agreement they have with the fx makers (NewBlueFX or whoever) that the effects can ONLY be used with version x or y. Can't imagine why they would do this, though.
In order to get all of the effects, I've found the "best" way is to just not uninstall the previous versions. It's wasteful (of diskspace, etc), but at least it (sort of) works...
Russell1967
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While I agree that morphing would be excellent, I think it is a bit outside the intended use of PD. Plus, there are low cost (and even free) alternatives that are made for that very purpose. Just my thoughts.
Russell1967
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- The ability to create separate folders to put and organize our assets (video, audio, photo, graphics, etc.). The very consumer-oriented "dump everything into one bin/folder is a royal pain.
TeeMan1
I agree that the ability to create folders in the Media Bin would be nice, but the three filter buttons at the top for Video, Images and Audio seem to do the separation pretty well. It's always worked well enough for my purposes.
Russell1967
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My requests are mainly for simple UI improvements:
- Allow me to change the rotation point of PiP objects (center rotation is only so useful).
- The ability to draw simple shapes like lines, ellipses and squares in the Paint Designer or elsewhere. Basically, very simple paint tools (in addition to the brush tools in the Paint Designer).
- The ability to draw our own paths in the 'motion' section of the PiP Designer and more flexibility in editing the paths that already included (e.g. Turn rounded points into sharp points and vice versa, add/delete points).
- The ability to create arbitrarily-shaped masks within the Mask Designer, with feathering options. This could be done by "painting" on the screen or by creating a spline shape. Or both!
- Easily add a new track with the click of a button. The built-in method is a little cumbersome for simply adding one track.
- Adjust ALL track heights at the same time (Maybe by making one track the height you want and then selecting an option to mirror this height on all other tracks).
- Audio scrubbing.
The above would be very useful for me and others. Also,
- The subtitle editor also does not seem to fully support the "srt" format. In that format, any text enclosed in <i> and </i> should be in italics, but PD renders them on the screen verbatum: Instead of Hello, Steve PD renders it as <i>Hello, Steve</i>.
- Another nice feature for the subtitle editor would be the ability to read the subtitle (and chapter!) information already present in certain video formats like .mp4 and .mkv so that if you load one into your project, PD could incorporate that info automatically.
That's all I can think of right now!
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Hi Russell 1967
i create a video file with h264 and export it as a file for my usb-3 and it plays fine i tried the h265 but it would not play on my T.V. would this not work with blu-ray i dont bother with blu-ray i dont no much abot the blu-ray so i stand to be corrected
with someone whom does have knowledge of this
Tom G Scotland
Well, h.265 is not that old of a standard, so it's possible that your blu-ray player just didn't have that capability. But, I agree: I've also used the USB port on my blu-ray to play movies and it does a very nice job. Plus, you can re-use the heck out of it!
We have gone WAY off topic, so we should probably end it. Sorry, moderator.
Anyway, let's hope that PD 17 has all of the things we REALLY want!
Russell1967
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Well, okay, maybe "stopped" was too strong a word. (Am not a Netflix subscriber.) But I thought that they moved the majority of their business to digital delivery years ago.
It would be interesting to know the sales stats for Blu-ray players. Especially in this age of Smart TV's, Roku, etc.
Well, for sure, the majority of their sales are through the streaming service. But - until they can really perfect the streaming protocol - it's still hard to match the quality of an actual blu-ray. The standard h.265 comes even closer, but side-by-side it's not quite there...at least on a big monitor or TV. On a mobile device it's not nearly as noticeable, and that's where most people are streaming from. So, you're probably right that eventually it will almost all be streaming (I imagine that some people, like myself, still will be willing to pay extra for the best possible quality).
Russell1967
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Even Netflix stopped sending out discs.
They did? I just got one in the mail yesterday! Maybe this is outside the US? (I'm in the US).
Russell1967
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