Messages posted by ToddFerrante

I didn't see this thread until just now. On the weekend I tested using the MC plugin to sync tracks on the main editor timeline. Here is what I did:
- In MC, import soundtrack and two video clips.
- Use auto sync to audio.
- Make two cuts using the record button, one from each video track.
- Send the resulting clip back to the main editor. It goes to track one.
- Move the clip away from time zero.
- Copy video clip 1 from track 1 to track 2.
- Copy video clip 2 from track 1 to track 3.
- Copy audio track from track 1 to audio sound track.
- Drag the marks on the ends of these tracks so they are restored to their full length.
- (Optional) Delete output from MC from track 1.

You now have synced audio and video tracks in the main editor timeline. These can be edited conventionally. The big drawback is that the video clips have lost their original audio tracks, so there is no way to tell if they are truly synced with each other.

Todd F.

From another thread: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/29814.page

Quote:
you can use hot key(1~4) to do switch while recording

Quote:
Where individual tracks have A/V synch issues, I think that they would need to be synched prior to importing into the MC module.
...

There are circumstances, such as A/V synch as you have outlined, where some form of pre-processing may be required to get the best from the module ...

Is there a way to sync or pre-process the tracks before importing into the MC module? When I enter the MC module, all the tracks start out lined up with the start of track at time zero. This negates attempts to pre- sync the tracks in the normal editor. It might be possible to pre-sync them on the timeline, and trim the lead-in so they have a common start point, then import to to MC. But, MC only imports from the library or a disk directory, not from the timeline.

I worked on another song last night where the auto sync would sync two of the video tracks to the audio track, but not the other two. Syncing them all to the audio track was an exercise in frustration. I tried using markers to sync the tracks. I could mark the frames on the video tracks which I wanted to sync up, but you can't place a mark on the audio track! You have to drag the audio track back and forth trying to line up the wave form with the video marks. Because the waveform on the audio track is so tiny, and it can't be resized, getting the audio synched was impossible. I finally gave up and settled for 'close enough' in the MC module. Once I was back in the regular editor, I could resize the audio track waveform large enough to be able to sync it to the video track. Then, since the audio had shifted, I had to time shift all the camera switch edits.

My conclusion is that the MC module comes up just short of being fantastic. It is a huge leap over nothing, but with only a few minor tweaks to the user interface, it would be ever so much better. Here are some suggestions for how the interface could be improved:
- Allow display of the audio tracks of all channels, and allow resizing of the tracks, so tracks can be manually aligned based on the waveforms.
- Allow markers to be placed on audio tracks as well as video tracks, so the 'align to markers' function works on all types of tracks.
- Allow the user to select which tracks will be aligned when an alignment is performed. Now, all the tracks are realigned (or misaligned) when performing an alignment operation. Sometimes it's useful to align video tracks A and B to the audio track using 'auto align', then to align video tracks B and C to video track A using markers. This would result in five aligned tracks.
- Add a checkbox to allow the user to choose whether the four camera video track preview window is updated when playing in the main preview window. Disabling playback in the four camera window would allow for more smooth playback of the main preview window when reviewing edits. Now, I can't tell if my edits are really right until I return to the normal editing window.
- *edit* Please, to spare my poor ears, add a volume control to this screen.

Last night's result:

I spent some time last night and answered my question #1. The camera transition points can be dragged in both the MultiCam tool and also in the normal editor. The behavior of the dragging handles are different in the two user interfaces, but you can accomplish the same thing in both places.

One thing to note: After you take an edited clip from the multicam tool to the normal editor, if you find you don't like the edits, you can either modify the transition points in the normal editor or take the track back to multicam to make modifications. You want to do any mods in multicam NOT in the normal editor. If you make a bunch of transition tweaks in the normal editor, then decide to go back to multicam to add a different camera shot, all the work done in the normal editor is lost. When taking the track back into multicam, it reverts to the state it was in when it came out of multicam.

Quote: In your setup preference do you have it set to show sound waveform in timeline.

The waveform shows in the normal editor. Is there a separate setting for the multicam tool?

Quote: Plus you need to take the s out of the http on you link to work right.

Done.

Todd F.

I'm a completely new user to PowerDirector. I downloaded the trial version just after it was released, specifically because of the new MultiCam feature. I've now made two videos using this feature:

I have some questions for anyone else who may be using this feature:

1) Is there any way to very precisely position the transition point from sources? Right at the end, the video tutorial implies that there is some way to do this, but doesn't explain how. The only way I've found is to record past the point, pause, go back and reposition the frame marker to the point where you want the transition, and restart recording. It seems like you should be able to just drag the transition point back and forth to get the edit on the frame you want it, but I haven't found a way to do that yet.

2) Is there a way to display the audio tracks on the four cameras? The tool allows manual sync of the cameras to the audio tracks, but without being able to see the audio tracks, it's practically impossible to get the tracks synched. This limits the usefulness of the tool to situations where the auto sync works perfectly on all tracks, which isn't always the case. In my particular case, the first video I posted above was composed of recordings of four different shows, shot from different seats in the theater. Because the sound track is mostly prerecorded music tracks, with performers singing, the audio cues are repeatable from show to show, and the autosync does a great job of aligning the four video sources with a master audio track. But, the second video has performers singing and playing. There can be variations in timing from performance to performance. Tracks that may be in sync at the beginning of a song may be off at the end, and require tweaking.

3) Is there a way to split the four camera preview window off onto another monitor? One of the factors that determines when camera cuts need to be made is that sometimes the autofocus on a particular camera gets confused and the picture goes out of focus. Subtle details like this are completely lost on the tiny preview screens incorporated into the stock window layout. Currently, I open each of the four camera shots in separate quicktime players on my second monitor and switch between them, choosing where cuts need to be made. Then I have to come back over to the MultiCam window and hit the "record" and then "pause" buttons to bound the desired camera shot.

4) Can the auto-sync tool in multicam be used in the regular editor? It would be great to be able to select a video track and an audio track, apply auto-sync, and have the video align itself to the audio track. That way, the regular video editing tools could be used to do camera switches, and transition effects could be applied which require overlapping video.

This tool seems to be optimized for video where the editor has the luxury of long stretches between camera swaps, and the exact edit points aren't that critical. For the performance videos I'm working on, edits need to be very quick, and the exact transition points need to be adjusted to fit the music or performance action. I'm hoping this is possible, and I'm just too inexperienced to know what tricks to use.

Anyone know the answers to these questions, or have tricks and tips to share?

Todd F.