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A faulty s-video connection somewhere in your work-flow seems a likely culprit to lose your color.
You are robbing yourself of a better signal.
Thanks Barry, I will try a different lead and converter. Do you think the HDMI wiring keeps the chrominace and lumiance separate to maintain the advantage of S-Video?
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Like most users I capture in PowerDirector using the S-Video connection. Maybe that hometech converter which is no longer made is defective or made for an earlier version of Windows. You can try different S-video cables to see if one may be better.
Thanks I will try that tomasc. Do you think that HDMI keeps the luninace and chrominance separate to keep the quality of S-VHS?
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Cheap Chinese junk will give you garbage.
For new manufacturers try Hauppage, Diamond VC500, and IO-DATA GV-USB2.
Absolutely avoid HD cards.
If you have Windows 7 available I have a legacy USB dongle, rock solid capture. PM me for price.
Let me ask...
What are you capturing?
Hardware, connections, software, settings, VCR? Camera? Everything.
Do you have any Time Base Correction?
S-video is preferred for all work flows.
Hi, Barry, thanks for your reply. My S-VHS-C tapes were recorded on a Mitsubishi C50 S-VHS-C camcorder. Although it was S-VHS, the image sensor was not up to the standard of advances made at that time. Bought in 1990 it lasted 2 years when the capacitors leaked.
I have using a JVC HR-S8600 deck for transfering to digital, it has a Time Base Corrector button which I leave on, I'm using the compact cassettes in an adaptor.
I've been using an Aplic VHS to video convertor an under £20 device for a few years which uses Honestec software. Although there is an S-VHS socket on the scart, and the software is set up for S-Video I have found that unlike televisions, PCs do not support a Y/C signal and the result is a monochrome picture, so unfortunately I've used a composite signal on my videos.
The issue with my current Aplic/Honestech convertor is reliabilty. I have found myself having to uninstall/reinstall the drivers to get it working. At the moment I can't monitor the footage although it is actually recording. It would be great to have a system that was reliable. My YouTube videos are on BarryD Rock n Rail. All edited with Powerdirector, older ones using the convertor. I am using Windows 10.
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Video grabbers for digitising VHS tapes etc seem to be temperamental things, working well one minute, then not the next. Most of them seem cheap and cheerful devices and probably very similar. Can anyone recommend (perhaps a more expensive one) is which is more reliable? Thanks.
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If you dig deep, watch a few tutorials, you can create very nice titles in PD18.
Do you have the New Blue Titler in your PD? It's a limited version but still very powerful.
You might have to create your own graphics in another illustration program but editing is
full of sidesteps in a workflow.
Hi Barry, Thanks for your response. Sorry for my late reply. I have learnt how to customise the on board motion graphics, but there are only 14 of them. I will check whether or not I have the New Blue tiltleron my Powerdirector 18.
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Hi, I think Powerdirector (I have PD 18 Ultimate) is a brilliant editing programme, but the title creation section seems rather basic. I see other people's videos with amazing text displays, (perhaps they are using Premier Pro or similar), but is there a way to get proffessional looking title graphics via a paid for plug in, or some other way?
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Go to the Particle Room and click on Downloaded. If you don’t see it in the Media library then change the Aspect Ratio of your project settings to match that of the Particle that you downloaded and installed.
Many Thanks Tomasc. It was in the Particle Room. As I started my search in PIP I was looking for it there.
Thanks again, Barry.
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Hi, I have downloaded a particle effect from Directorzone and saved it to Firefoxe's Effects extractor. When trying to access it from Powerdirector however, I just get a message that it has been "successfully installed and is now ready to use. The download is available for Cyberlink Powerdirector." How do I actually upload it to use on the timeline? I am using Powerdirector 18.
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Many thanks, I will try this.
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Hi, I find that when adding a sound clip such as a sound effect onto the Powerdirector timeline, the clip can only be moved in increments of about 2 millimetres/one tenth of an inch. Sound effects need to be very accurately placed, so is there a method to position them exactly?
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Hi,
After selecting "File" to upload an existing project, a box comes up asking if I would like to merge my project's library files with the current media files in the library. (I can't think why anyone would want to do this), but if I select "Don't show again", would the sample library files never reappear, or would I be stuck with them? Powerdirector 18.
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If the audio and video have become unlinked and you select both, the enhance tools won't be active. If this is the case, the video on the timeline will have a slight horizontal demarcation between the video and the audio.
If that's not the case, post a pic of your timeline zoomed in on a problem clip for other clues.
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
I checked the clip after your reply and it looked as if audio & video were unlinked. I right clicked on it and had the option to unlink audio and video, which I selected, and this brought back the option to enhance and use power tools etc.
I don't know what caused the original problem, but it's now solved!
Many Thanks,
Barry
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Hi,
I have a two clips (the first and the last) on a project that when highlighted the Enhance/Tools selections do not now appear, (they did originally).
I have had this happen once before, and had to re upload the section of video to be able to enhance it.
I am wondering what can happen to a video clip to make it unenhanceable?
When burnt to a DVD this video comes up as "incompatible" on my DVD player as well, but that may be a different issue.
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So when you move the panning control in AD you don't see the left and right level meters change at all? Any chance you can share the audio clip?
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for the illustrations, it now seems that my sound effect is mono on the left channel, but it comes out of both speakers so I thought it was stereo.
This being the case, I don't think I can do much with it. There is a Powerdirector University video about copy and pasting one channel onto the empty stereo track, but I have just the single track showing, even if I click on "Edit multiple tracks".
An update, I found a workaround by recording the sound clip from the computer's hi fi speakers onto my mobile phone (video mode), then uploaded it to the computer, then on to my Powerdirector project. This sound clip showed up as two channels on Audiodirector and the panning control then worked well.
Many thanks for your illustrations which showed that my cinematic sound effect was mono. Strange that it came out of both speakers from one channel though.
Thanks Again,
Barry
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Is that sound effect a mono channel perhaps?
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
No it's a downloaded stereo sound effect. Both Channels are equal volume.
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Assuming you invoked AD from PowerDirector's timeline, once you resolve the panning issue, you simply close AD and you'll be prompted to keep or discard the changes. If you keep them, the new audio clip will replace the source clip on the timeline. If you discard them, PD's timeline will remain unchanged.
If you opened AD on its own and imported the clip, you'll need to Produce it to save the changes.
Hi Optodata,
I did open Audiodirector from Powerdirector's timeline, and I did get prompted to keep the changes (which I hadn't been able to make). The problem I have is that moving the panning line up and down didn't change the audio balance at all. It just didn't function.
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There's no "proper" or "improper" way to launch PD, and double-clicking on a PDS project is a perfectly fine way to start PD with that project loaded.
Again we're back to the issue of your original projects having blank/black clips and you having to click Ignore All. The only reason that will happen is if the original clips are no longer where they were when you created that project. If you knew for certain that the clips were on your phone or on your camcorder's SD card, it should simply be a matter of reconnecting the card or device and then opening the PD project.
It's also possible for the original drive letter of the camera/SD card to be changed by Windows, especially if another USB drive is plugged in, and you'd then just need to choose Browse from the PD menu and locate where the clip(s) is(are) currently located.
You could also search for them on your computer (I use a free utility called Everything from VoidTools to do that very quickly) and move them all to a more permanent location one one of your internal drives. That way, when you Browse for the clips and PD is able to find them, saving the project will lock in their new locations and you won't ever have to search for them again.
Hi Optodata,
I don't know how to upload a photo to this forum, but I have one showing the timeline with blank clips in situ. I think a glitch affecting all the PDS files filmed on my Huawei phone must have somehow occured. The files are still there but have no imformation in them.
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Hi, I have a sound effect in my video project that I would like to pan to the right. In Audiodirector there is a line you can move up and down to pan left and right, but it doesn't change audio when listened to. I can't see an "Apply" button on the screen.
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I'm trying to figure out what's happening but I can't quite understand what you're doing.
You shouldn't ever get any media missing messages, yet you say you're always clicking "Ignore All" If you wanted to make a screen recording showing that it would really help us see the situation, and we could possibly offer some suggestions to help make your editing more reliable.
Hi Optodata, I have now upgraded to Powerdirector 18 as it is more 4K friendly, and have had no further problems with new projects. The original PDS files are still blank on the timeline though if I retreive them (with just the titles playing), but I've started my project again from scratch.
Before watching a Powerdirector University Video I didn't know that the proper way to retreive projects was via the "File"icon.
I used to launch Powerdirector from my Powerdirector Projects in documents. I have made many videos using this method with no problems though, but i did have to click on "ignore all" when the box came up.
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One should always copy the files from the phone to the hard drive first. Here is one tutorial that may help with the black thumbnails: https://youtu.be/yhQ_1Q4H6EY .
Hi, I do copy the videos from my phone to the computer first, and they are still there. It's just the PDS files that have gone blank.
I have upgraded to powerdirector 18 now though as it is more 4K friendly, and have had no further problems with this. The original PDS files are still blank though, with just titles playing properly.
That is a very good video though.
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