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The problem lies in not being able to preview the track prior to use, to see if it "fits" the mood of your video. I rarely use SmartSound, but I don't completely rule it out, I just look for other sources. I recently dug into the folders for that earlier PD version(relax, I didn't mention that version) and found the music backgrounds for its menu pages and have taken to using them at the start and end of my videos(when I do use music). Not being able to sample the track leaves you stumbling around blindly in the SmartSound library. For the purpose of being able to use that preview function, I've opted to keep QuickTime on my computer. Those rascally hackers ain't a-gonna get at me while I'm off-line!
It seems you may be attempting to edit 16:9 content but the aspect ratio is set to 4:3. At the top of your screen, near the cogwheel you'll see the aspect ratio option, if it's set to 4:3, change that setting to 16:9 and you'll have eliminated the black(schwartze) bands at top and bottom of your video, the effct you're getting rid of is generally called "Letterbox".
Quote:Barry, the show is on public access, they are behind the times....thanks.
Angela, Hi!
Your comment gets in ahead of mine, obviously this public assess(community) station is still transmitting an analogue signal, and that most certainly is behind the times! The best option is clearly, as Jirka, explained, Option 2(the effect created is generally referred to as "Letterbox" but it will render your content compliant with the needs of this station you're submitting to). Don't forget to keep a copy of the work in its original form.
Quote:Mine failed to on this thread and I had to paste a copy (thought it might fail asit was so slow) to recover the situation Dafydd
I get this situation too on occasion and have to copy and paste what I've typed in case my first attempt to post goes awry. In the case of MP4 video, I found recently I could not render to H.265, but could successfully render to H.264. I just wanted to verify which of these was not going to be affected adversely ly the QuickTime fiasco.
Quote:Neil.F.1955,
I have had a Kworld USB interface device for years and yes it did come with a cut down version of PowerDirector, if I recall correctly, PDR5. I had no need to use the cut down packed PDR version. USB interface devices are widely available - look on ebay etc. The Kworld device worked fine for me and I still use it when I have need.
Dafydd
Dafydd,
When I bought mine, KWorld had moved on from PD5, to that other version you don't like me mentioning, but when I visited that Jaycar stockist a couple of days back, I swa that KWorld were including PD10 as part of their package, albeit a(probable) OEM version. If I remember, that first-ever device I bought, the Avermedia capture(crappy audio quality through it) had the full version of PD5, complete with CDKey as part of an editing suite disc that also included Power Producer 4 in it. I installed PP but hardly ever used it.
I just wanted to point out which version of PD KWorld were packing in their VHS-to-DVD kits these days. Nothing more than that.
Quote:I re-made all my titles, and (so far) they're working properly, but I'll remember that. I have PhotoShop, so I could make title text easily with that. Thanx for the tip.
Hi, Eric,
I've been doing this for quite a while. What I can create in WordArt through Microsoft Publisher(WordArt is also available in Microsoft Word, if you don't have Publisher) is quite interesting, and in a lot of cases, better-looking than what can be created in the "My Title" templates.
Quote:Member ynotfish discovered that only the library audio preview fails.
Hello, Barry,
Even though you could stil access(in one way or another) the SmartSound music, without that preview function, your taking stabs in the dark as to what the tracks are, or sound like, so QT has stuffed things up for SmartSound users, well-and-truly. As for me, I either source my background music from elsewhere, or not use any music at all.
Cheers!
Neil.
(P.S. there you go, I stayed on-topic and was brief. Happy?)
Actually, no. I saved and left. When I came back and opened the project, nothing was there. I just assumed that anything captured would still be in the window.
Evidently it's session based?
Hello, Jeffrey22!
Indeed it is session-based! It's always been thus. In one session, when you capture your content, as soon as your capture is completed(stopped recording), a little window will appear, asking you to give your capture a title, this could be a tentative title that you'll use for editing purposes, perhaps. When you've typed in that (tentative) title, then your capture will appear in the captured content area to the right of the monitor screen in the capture mode. Then, switch to Edit and your capture will automatically import, ready for you to pull down to a timeline and begin editing. It's all quite straight-forward.
You could try creating your own title graphics outside Power Director(in Microsoft Paint, with assistance from Microsoft Publisher, perhaps), then import the graphic and lay it on a spare PiP track. I often create titles for videos this way. I open Publisher(blank page), click on WordArt, choose a design template, type in my text, fiddle about with size until I get what I want, then copy and paste to Paint, tidy it up a little there and save it as a bitmap(with white background). I then import that graphic to PD14, using Modify to make the white background transparent with Chroma-Key. It may be a fiddly excercise but it has worked well for me in the past. How you animate it is up to you but there are two methods to bring your graphic in and out of your clip. You could use the motion effects in modify or, using a colour board ahead of, and after your graphic(made transparent through Chroma-Key), you could make the title appear and disappear using the transitions. Some work better than others here, it's a matter of experimentation. This method could suffice until you get your erratic size problem sorted with the inbuilt title templates.
I visited a local reseller/agent for Jaycar Electronics in the industrial area of Salamander Bay(not too far from my home) On a shelf near the back of the store were two remaining packages for K-World VHS-to-DVD conversion kits, including their capture device, plus, I suspect, an OEM version of Power Director 10(probably Delux). Just mentioning an observation, nothing more.
Quote:Well, this topic went down the swirly-pot, didn't it?!
I thought it might be an interesting idea to see what really made users happy about the last few versions of PD, you know, 12-13 and 14. I was curious to see if BIG changes, or little changes were most popular. Perhaps CL might even have gotten a bit of insight to their clients. As for Neil, don't sweat it, dude, not every post I have ever made is perfect, but if you could just TRY to focus, keep it condensed, and then once in a while a good joke or STEAM TRAIN tie in would be fine, or else someone is gonna have to bust your bunker door and tie your hands behind your back. I can see it now, you, at the keyboard with a pencil or something clenched in your teeth, pecking away at the computer, one letter at a time, "I'll show them"!, S-T-E-A-M T-R-A-I-N-S, P-D-8, D-V-D, "I'll get my revenge", peck peck peck....OK, maybe time to lock down this mess.
As I said, the method you've demonstrated could be used to cover up annoying watermarked station idents in content recorded off-air via PVR devices. I do a lot of this lately, mainly from ABC-TV(national broadcaster here in Australia, non-commercial... no stupid ads!) but their station logo appears in the bottom-right corner of the image. Your method is a way to cover that ugly watermark and make it less obvious.(Do you get watermarking on American TV broadcasts?)
Quote:There is another way other than what Tony showed.
You can blur the address on the video. Here is how.
Thanks, Carl. That's one for me to use later on. This could also be used on TS files pulled from PVRs where a watermarked station ID is present in one corner of the image.
Quote:I beleive that PD14 capture in the sp mode is 352x576 resolution interlaced 25 fps for 4x3 pal and that is really all you need. Produce and creating a dvd in the 4x3 sp mode as Neil suggest again is all you need. SmartFit is good too for such a dvd.
The HQ capture mode and HQ mpeg-2 dvd formats are necessary for say s-vhs and hi-8 tapes to get the full resolution. Again this is for pal. Don't know anything about secam.
I have been follow your instructions. Unfortunately quality is not here. The mpeg2 compression makes to much artefacts compare to the avi file. I will try to increase the bitrate but currently quality is not enough for archives.
Hello, Theolilou!
From what little, and brief encounter I've had with AVI, I offer this warning: AVI files are huge in comparison to others(MPEG2, MP4 etc) unless you have some means to reduce the file size(compress it). A while back, a friend gave me a disc containing five full-length feature movies in a compressed AVI file type. I was astounded to see that each of them averaged little more than 650 megabytes per file, therabouts. I investigated the AVI feature in Power Director and, in either DV-AVI, or Windows AVI, there was absolutely no way I could get such a low file size as this. I toyed with the idea for a moment, I set a movie I had on my timeline to produce in AVI, then looked at that "pie chart" display would be used(and I think a figure of gigabytes was also displayed). What I saw well-and-truly dissuaded me from clicking "produce" I immediately chose MPEG2 and produced to that file type instead. Suffice to say, I won't go anywhere near AVI again.
Quote:10.. . in this last one Barry... shessssh....... sighs.. I don't know if I'll see Barry for a few days after that 'PD8' usage........sighs.. Neil... can you STOP saying PD8 please...... you're going to kill Barry with alcohol poisoning...
CS
Hi, CS!
In the immortal words of Maxwell Smart: "Sorry 'bout that, Chief!"But seriously, PD8 and PD14 are the only two versions I have, between which to make comparisons. I went from PD5 to PD7, then to PD8, then the "quantum jump" to PD14, totally bypassing PD9, 10, 11, 12 & 13. Though, I'd imagine those intervening versions would be, in essence, similar to PD14, but I'm not likely to find out.
Gotta say, this stuff is a bit scary! A recent post by Ynotfish, has convinced me that it may be safer to leave QuickTime "in situ" on my computer as it's required in order to handle some types of video file and make them compatible to PD users. As I see it, I have QuickTime Player on my desktop, but its behaviour(when used) is no different than using Windows Media Player or VLC, it just plays the video, nothing more than that. But nonetheless I'm watching this with some interest, and I can see, sometime in the future, Cyberlink, Corel, Pinnacle and others, might need to take a class action lawsuit against Apple if Apple's behaviour put these other comanies' software at risk of failure due to reliance on a component of Apple's creation being qequired in the other companies' product.
Quote:Ya know, Neil, you seem like a nice guy, and you have joined here in the hopes of learning and teaching. That's cool.
But what in bloody hell does your post have to do with the topic? PD 8 is not recent and you don't mention any NEW FEATURES from a recent version (i.e. since, hmm, maybe PD 11 at the very earliest).
The good news is, according to my new drinking game, which rules state any time you (Neil) veer off-topic or post irrelevant information, I get to do a shot. More good news is every time you post your undying love for PD8, I get to chug a beer. Looks like today I am gettin' WASTED!
Hey, Barry(hic)!
It'shhh a won(hic)der yer sober enough to(hic, hic) write this! LOL.(just my bit of fun). Okay, now I've sobered up, I'll explain. I did not take the usual progressive route through the various versions of Power Director. I started out with PD5, a very basic programme which had only the one PiP track that did not allow video content, only stills, which I found a bit restrictive. Then I saw PD7 on a friend's computer and sought it out for myself because of its PiP feature, 6 PiP tracks allowing full video, not just stills. Then came PD8, acquired after another participant on this forum from Melbourne, Australia sent me his now-surplus-to-requirements copy. I used that for quite a while, first on Windows XP, then on Windows 7(my current computer). PD8 featured 9 video PiP tracks. Then I made the quantum jump, bypassing PD9 through 13, and landing at PD14(I have the "Ultra" version, PD8 is also "Ultra). I found that, in spite of its features(99 PiP tracks, which no-one would ever use that many in one project), PD14 had several shortcomings, not least of which was the inability to author discs in DVD-SP.
The other shortcoming in PD14 concerns the transitions. Yes, it's great that "cross" transitions will retain the overall length of a video but the sticking point is that some of the transitions, when used in "cross" setting will cause a momentary freeze on entering, and again on exiting the transition. That issue should've been sorted before PD14 was realeased to the public. Another issue concerning the transitions is that if you set the "behaviour" of transitions to "cross" as your default in preferences, then the audio component is not inserted along with the video component. This is time-wasting as you then have to go back and manually insert the audio components of all the transitions used in the clip. So they're the shortcomings. The "plusses" I've already mentioned(the ability to use transitions on the PiP tracks, the ability to use a PiP track as an extra title track, being two of them) Another "plus" is in editing. Of late I've adopted the practice of hovering the cursor over a clip in the media library before pulling it into the timeline. This is to check the length of the clip and how many extra frames beyond a full minute-seconds count, When I pull the clip onto the timeline, I split off and delete those "spare" frames. If I have a clip that is 2 minutes, 10 seconds and 1 frame, I can excise that one frame with ease, where in PD8 I could only get within 3 frames. If the legth was 2 minutes, 10 seconds and 2 frames, I'd have to count back to 2 minutes, 9 seconds and split there, losing a full second in the process. So that's PD8's shortcoming.
The fact that I can have both PD8 and PD14 together on one computer has proven very useful to me. When I acquired PD8, I would've liked to retain PD7, but in the installation, PD8 wanted to overwrite PD7(likewise PD7 would overwrite PD5, meaning one would uninstall, or require uninstallation of the earlier version), but PD1 loaded onto my computer without disturbing PD8.
One other thing PD8(ans subsequent versions) offered was video in reverse with all its comic potential, which I'll leave to your imagination how it could be used. I first had this in Corel Video Studio but that programme failed to open a while back and has since been uninstalled. I've found though, that in PD, if a reversing effect is to be used in a video, the sequence featuring the reversing effect needs to be produced separately, then dropped into the overall video where required. If the effect is applied in the normal run of editing a clip, Corel would simply take it in its stride as it renders the video, and two, or even three such instances could be added but PD would maybe get through the first, but "hang" on any subsequent uses of video in reverse. I found that in PD14.
Quote:Did you review the burned disc/s Neil - I'm not saying just a quick look at them - did you watch them for their entire production time? Are they identical to what you had edited and expected? Did all the menus show up in the burned disc too?
I'm just curious and wonder if PD8 took some edits out of the production or just what might be happening there.
CS
Hello, CS!
I do check out a disc that I've burned in PD8, either on the computer(Windows Media Centre opens up) or on a standard domestic player, and yes, the menus show up okay. PD8 does not extract anything from the content when burning a disc. The only time PD8 would "extract" anything is by editing in PD8, as you know, PD8 does not feature "cross" transitions, the transition effect is overlap only and the effect there is that the overall length of a video is shortened by the length of the transition, multiplied by the number of transitions applied(10 transitions @ 5 secs = 50 secs lost in length). As it is, I'm editing in PD14 and using a mix of "cross" and "overlap" transitions, using a "suck it and see" method to check which transitions cause the momentary freeze in cross, then setting them back to overlap. I mention that as a side issue. But I've had no problems in burning discs using PD8. How long is it since you last used PD8, CS? Is PD8 still installed on your computer? If so, it still has its uses. There are features in PD8 that should've been retained in PD14 or should be brought back for PD15.
When you are in webcam capture tab you can select your audio source.
I get a feeling this is getting a double post, but what I suggested, Theolilou, is to bypass your capture device's audio input and feed the audio direct to your computer's line-in connection. That might also help with your audio/video sync problem.
Cheers!
Neil
Yep!
Sure enough, this got double-posted, no matter, I got my point across.
When you are in webcam capture tab you can select your audio source.
Hello, Theolilou!, In respect of that last sentence in your reply to Carl312, I'd suggest that you bypass the audio on the capture device and feed the audio via your computer's stereo line-in connection and allow the inbuilt audio processor to handle the audio, until such time as you acquire a capture device that will do the job properly for you.
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