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Thanks Tony. Yes that would be much quicker!
There is quite a difference in the transitions when they are moving which is what I am doing. It just doesn't look good when the 1st pic is moving then it fades to the other pic which starts off still then starts moving - kinda looks jerky if you know what I mean especially if the 2nd pic is moving faster (the 2nd pic in the sample you sent is only moving very slowly. Try it with more movement & you'll see what I mean). If the images are still it is ok. But also I like to use the overlap fade as it has a more pleasing blending effect from 1 to the other.
Anyway, I'll certainly try what you suggested next time. I just think there should be a choice of which type you want to use rather than forcing 1 on you.
Thanks again.
Peter
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I just installed PD12 Ultimate & expected to see all my previous PIP objects, particles & titles etc from the previous versions & was quite surprised to see none of them. In PD11 they were listed separately right back to verson 8 in some cases. I am also surprised that this has not been mentioned as an issue on here. I have many of these objects & titles that I use frequently & it was very annoying to find none of them there. Why does this version not show them all? I did have around 200 PIP objects & about 150 titles.
Luckily my PD 11 was still there so I could access them if I needed to. I have also managed to bring all the missing items into PD12 easily. Since this doesn't seem to be a problem for anyone I won't bother going to the trouble of listing how to do it.
On another point.. although you can add magic motion to all the images at once there still doesn't seem to be a way to choose or change the transition from the default fading one (crossfade). I have to manually select each transition & change it to the other one (overlap) which is very time consuming when there are a lot of photos. Would it be so hard to let the user choose which type of fade to use before it applies the effect? Little things like that make it annoying where it should not be.
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Hi Jim,
You obviously haven't read all the complaints that have been flying around the last couple of months. I think a lot of people have just given up on PD9 & gone back to version 8 like I have, so therefore not as many complaints about the large amount of problems any more.
Have a read here of the frustrating time I had with it.
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/15607.page#75990
I think PD9 is the version that shouldn't have been released... much like Vista. I'm still hoping they will get it right soon.
Good luck!
Peter
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I wouldn't advise you to try PD 9 yet until they have fixed a lot of the bugs. I wish I'd read the forum 1st before I upgraded to the new version.
Yeah make sure you can still re-install PD8 if you do decide to try it out. I will be uninstalling PD9 & reverting back to 8 before I do my next project.
Anyway, good luck whatever you decide to do.
Regards,
Peter
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I have been a fan of Powerdirector for many years. I use it to make wedding DVDs. I recently 'upgraded' (& I use the term loosely) to PD9 from PD8. I did this just after videoing a wedding & thought I may as well use the latest & greatest version. What a mistake.
I won't go into all the issues with the transitions, the freezing, the crashing. Most people are aware of those problems. Some of the more interesting ones were clips that simply disappeared when putting them in a space in the timeline, a fading transiton actually working backwards. i.e. it started off at 100% then faded to 0 (black) instead of the other way around when placed at the start of a clip. A period of silence where there should have been sound. To get around this I had to edit the sound, then bring it back in as a wave file & put it in a sound track below. Simply unlinking it from the video & moving it down didn't make any difference. Fun fun fun!
Previously in PD8, I could go straight to burning the DVD from the editing stage. It just worked (though the menu section was always crap). My 1st DVD in this exercise was a write off as I mistakingly used the magic fix stabilizer for a small section which looks great in the preview but the end result is a wiggling mess. I thought this may have been fixed in this version but sadly it hasn't. It might work on low res video but certainly not on HD.
But this wasn't the only problem. In the process it had trimmed off the top & bottom of the video for me. How nice. The text & other effects still appeared below the video where they should be.
Ok, I'd better produce a Mpeg video next time & see how that is. Almost perfect, except that all the places where I had muted the track had been turned back on. Great! This seems to happen every time your project is opened.
Back to the editing... Taking no chances now. I unlink the video & delete the sound tracks.
Wait! I've got an idea. I'll check if there's any patches (even though I have the program set to notify me about updates).
Yes, there is an update available. Great. Surely it would have fixed some of these problems. It would have to be better right?
I applied the patch & produced the movie. Now wherever I have a fading transition between 2 clips it produces a flashing effect & has thin lines running across it. This has happened directly after applying the patch & nothing else was changed.
I tried removing the transitions & putting them back in again. No difference. Even updating the video card drivers to the latest version didn't help. What a disaster!!
My only way around this mess was to use the beginning & end of a produced movie before the patch, remove the sound where necessary & put it back into the timeline replacing the parts where it was most noticeabley bad. There are still a couple of spots in the middle that has the lines & flashing for a bit but there's nothing I can do about that unless I uninstall it & re-install without the patches. I would probably have done that normally but I am so frustrated with this program that when I do uninstall it I will be putting PD8 back on. At least it didn't have all these problems.
My question is, how can a product be set loose when there are so many issues? My feeling is that it was rushed out too quickly with not enough testing.
I will certainly not be using PD9 again in its present form. I will use PD8 next time until things have been vastly improved. I have spent an extra 2 nights trying to finish off this project.
Does anyone know where there is a common list of bugs that can be added to for the developers? If not perhaps a thread should be stickied & people can add any bugs they come across without them being repeated in various threads spread across the forum.
Note: a short sample of the videos (before & after the patch showing the transiton issue) can be supplied if anyone is interested.
Regards,
Peter
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Hi,
Just thought I'd mention that you can drop the fade transition onto the start or end of a clip & it will fade in or out respectively. Brady, I'm not sure how you did a fade out before in the previous versions without using a black colour board as you mentioned. That's how I have always had to do it until now.
I would also like to see the return of the duration button.
Regards,
Peter
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Hi David,
I agree. The DVD authoring is hopeless. I was hoping it would have improved in the latest version but sadly it hasn't. Not much good adding more features in if they don't work properly. See this post a bit further down with the problems I have experienced & suggestions.
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/4256.page
Cyberlink, are you listening?
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Hi David,
The advantage in placing the effect directly on the video is that you can place multiple effects there (up to 7 inPD7) & you can still adjust them each separately by clicking on the Effect button which appears when you do it this way. You can also deselect the effects you don't want.
The only disadvantage might be that dropping the effect straight on the video forces the effect to affect the whole of the clip, whereas putting the effect on the effect track you can drag how long you want the effect to be & it could cover several clips.
Hope that answers your questions.
Regards,
Peter B.
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Hi,
These are several problems I have found when using the Create disk section.
Trimming audio you want to hear for the menu just doesn't work. I wanted the music to start playing at around 20 seconds into the song but after setting it to exactly the right positon it ignores the setting & plays the song from the start on the finished DVD.
If you click on the preview tab the music doesn't play at all! So you have no idea that it isn't right until you've burnt the disk.
If you alter any of the menu wording or remove audio etc & then go into modify to change something else, when you return all the changes you've made have reverted back to default. i.e. text has all changed back to "my videos", all the music has been added back in. Very annoying after you've just finished changing all the text on all the screens & then have to go & do it all over again.
Even though I made sure the music didn't appear on the chapter pages, when the disc was burnt it still played the God awful music that I didn't want. The only music that it played that I wanted was on the main screen - except that it played from the start of the song instead of where I had told it. (see above problem)
Highlighting doesn't work. This has been noted before though.
As far as I am concerned, the editing part of PD7 is great. I love it, but the DVD menu creation section has always been bad. If Cyberlink can't integrate a good DVD authoring section into PD then they should take it out altogether or just keep it very simple & make sure it works properly. If people want to create a better DVD menu I would advise to use a different program. At the moment it is very clunky & is full of bugs.
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Hi,
Just thought I'd throw my 2c in. I also am using PD7 for editing HD video. I have experienced a a large number of freezes for up to 15 secs & I initially thought it had crashed & did Ctrl, alt, delete to kill it off. But once I just waited & it eventually came good which is what I do now when it happens. It seems to happen after I've been working on a big project for a while. Anything can set it off - sometimes just clicking on a clip in the timeline or one of the buttons somewhere. Once it happens usually it will happen again after a short time & it's then best to save, exit the program & start again.
Anyway that's my experience so maybe it isn't actually crashing for those other people either? Maybe they just have to wait. Hopefully Cyberlink will fix whatever is causing this soon.
Spec info:
I am using the latest build PD7, Vista Ultimate SP1, E8500 (Core 2 Duo 3.16 GHz), 4GB Ram, GF 8800GT Video so it's definately not a hardware issue. I also make sure I don't have anything running in the background which might cause a resource drain.
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Hi Trent,
There's just a couple of things you need to know about the different formats. Firstly there are 2 formats + & -. Then you have W on the end which just means it is re-writeable. With the RW disks (+ or  it means you can re-write them over & over again, whereas the R disks are write once.
It depends on which player the finished DVD will be played on as to which format (+ or you use. Some players will only play the - format, some only + & some will play both, so you need to know in advance.
The reason RW disks are good for editing is that you can experiment with them & use them over & over so you're not wasting disks. (Which is why they are more expensive) When you get it right you would normally burn to a R disk (+ or . As you get more familiar with the way the process works you will probably end up skipping the RW disks & going straight to the R disks.
The end result will be the same whichever disk you use. i.e one format won't necessarily give a better result as the same files will be burned onto them in each case. In my experience the minus format seems to be the more common format.
Regards,
Peter B.
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Hi Chris,
I think you are looking too hard for the answer. Once you have inserted all the videos into the timeline below, they will be merged into 1 video file when you create the output file. (Produce) That is the purpose of PD.
I would suggest you go though the help topics to learn more about creating a movie. (editing & adding effects etc) as it will take you through all the steps.
Regards,
Peter B.
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Good to hear you got it. Yeah some tweaking might be needed.
At least you can save the motion once you've got it right in case you want to use it again.
Peter B.
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Hi,
I don't quite know what you mean by "i can't get the movement to go away". If you could please be specific with your questions it would make it easier to solve your problem.
I'm assuming you want to start with a small picture in a corner then have it grow to full screen but this will involve movement.
First click on the motion tab (in modifying PIP) then choose a movement such as the one where it starts from the bottom right & curves up to the left. Move the picture (the red dot) until it is where you want to start from & resize if necessary. Straighten out the curve (just move it so it's straight). Then move the end point to the centre of the screen.
Now this next step is important. Under the play/slider control you should see a number 1 with an arrow each side. Click on the right arrow to choose the 2nd keyframe. Then just resize the picture until it fills the screen. Done.
If you want to make it fill the screen then stay there for a while, just select the 1st keyframe again (or move the slider back a bit out of the way) then move the thin green line at the far right way back to the left.
Hope that helps. Let me know if it works for you.
Regards,
Peter B.
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Your're welcome Nora.
I just realised that I gave out some information that may have had you scratching your head. When I mentioned about clicking on the motion to the right of the cross, you won't have the motion I described because it was one that I had made & saved myself! lol. Sorry about that. I had forgotten I made that one.
But if you use the motion that starts in the bottom right & arcs up to the top left, you will be able to easily modify the right end point. This is where the playback pointer travels across the screen when you press play. You just have to drag the rightmost thin green line to the left & job is done. No splitting necessary. Simple.
This brings me to another point Dafydd.
Perhaps your method is not complicated to you or I, but to a new user I'm not so sure. It is the new user we are trying to help here after all.
I believe in the KISS principle. This doesn't mean that it is the right way & "must be done this way" just that it is a much easier alternative solution. If I had the means to record the process I would but I don't so I won't. Keep up the good work anyway.
Cheers,
Peter B.
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Hi there Nora,
Nice work on the video Dafydd, but there is an easier less complicated way to do this.
Edit the PIP, then after clicking the motion tab if you choose the motion right from the cross (the one that's going from center to upper left, you will find that it has been set with a short keyframe where it moves to the end point then will stay in that position for the remainder of the duration of the PIP. You can easily reposition the start or end points (orange dots) as well as draging the green keyframe across to the right which will in effect make the picture move slower.
Another way is to choose another movement & drag the rightmost green keyframe to the left which will bring the end position back & the picture will then stay in that position until the duration of the PIP.
Remember you can also chenge the size of the starting & ending frames & it will do all the hard work in between for you.
I used this process recently to produce the effect of a full screen picture that reduced in size as it moved to the upper left corner, when I then enabled titling to appear next to it.
I hope you will find one of these methods useful.
Regards,
Peter B.
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I know this is a Cyberlink forum but you might also want to look at DVD Workshop from another LEADing Multimedia company. It will do everything you want. I use it for all my DVD authoring & haven't found any limitations. You can have text or video (still or moving) links to any number of other videos or other menus plus set up play lists that tell it which video to play after one is finished. Very easy & all drag and drop.
Power Director is great for video editing but the DVD authoring is pretty basic. Enough to do simple stuff but too limited for me. It's probably a bit much to ask to have 2 great programs in 1.
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The short answer is that if you want to fit 2 hrs on a DVD (being SP) then it will reduce the width in half so it can fit it on - thereby making the file size half as big. When the DVD is authored it will expand the size to 720x576 so it will look normal on your TV. The quality won't be quite as good as the HQ option but you can't have everything. The only way you can have 720x576 is to choose the HQ but then you will only get 1hr.
Another way is to choose HQ then make the DVD files & use Shrink to fit it to a standard DVD size. That way if your project comes to 1.5 hrs it will still look pretty good when it is shrunk to fit to 1 hr.
Hope that helps.
Regards,
Peter B.
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Ah! At last! I was beginning to think I was the only one who had that problem.
While making a large slideshow (about 250 photos), I found that when I put a short ending video at the end, the sound of the video appeared about 5 secs before the actual clip. Up til then I hadn't noticed anything was wrong. I tried going back through the slides to see where the problem was in case there was a dodgy transition or something. No matter where I inserted the small video the sound was still out of sync. I also noticed that some transitions didn't start & finish when they were supposed to. Odd...
Then I looked at the duration of the slides. I had selected magic motion on them all & PD had altered the length of the duration I initially had. That was ok bit I also noticed it had set a weird time of something like 7:13 secs. Just for the heck of it I retyped the time in again (at 7:13) & when I ok'd it, I thought I noticed the length of the slide change ever so slightly. I then zoomed in on another slide to fit the whole length of the timeline so I could get a better look. I retyped the same duration & when I ok'd it this time I could definitely see a change in the length of the slide. Over the course of 20 mins this made the sound get so far out.
I then went through the whole slideshow & changed them all to 7 secs. At this point I wished there was a way to change the duration of all selected... Are you listening Cyberlink?
Low & behold when I inserted the small video at the end, the sound matched perfectly! Perhaps this was why PD also decided to crash at times. Maybe it was trying to sync things that were out of whack, because I also noticed it didn't crash after this fix.
So that was what I found. If you use magic motion & you find the sound gets out of sync, have a look at re-doing the durations. It worked for me.
Let me know if you have a similar problem & if this works for you.
Regards,
Peter B.
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Hi,
How long are the pictures each side of the transition? & how long are you trying to set the transition? If you try to make the transition too long for the pictures it won't do it. PD will normally do no more than half the length of a picture either side. eg. if you have set the length of the picture to 4 secs. then the longest transition time will be 2 secs.
Hope that helps.
Peter B.
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