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Thank-you!
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Thank-you optodata for your reply.
So it sounds like, to speed up a clip, PD removes frames and plays that smaller collection of frames at the original frame rate (therefore speeding up the clip) as opposed to playing all of the frames for a shorter period of time. Do I have this understood correctly?
Matt
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I make YouTube videos using PD17. Often times, I need to speed up the video to make it less boring but also still include all of the steps to do something (whatever I am demonstrating). I have often used Video Speed found in Power Tools but I'd like to know more about how it works.
Playing back clips after the speed has been increased (typically by a factor of 4 or 5), sometimes makes the clip very jerky or jumpy during playback. I guessed that the video speed was increased by simply removing frames from the clip. Since I'm shooting at 30fps, to increase the video speed by 4x means I'd need to reduce the 30 frames down to 7.5 frames (30/4) and play those 7.5 frames back at 30fps. I this this would give me a speed up of 4x. Do I have this right?
Reducing the 30 frames down to only 7 (or eight) frames I think is what is making the clip jerky.
The reason I ask is because I seem to get VERY different results when I use the video speed to increase the clip at playback versus scrubbing the same video clip in the timeline. The timeline scrub seems MUCH smoother to the point where I'm tempted to try using the screen recorder to capture the clip as I'm scrubbing.
Is there a way for PD to simply play the same number of frames only faster? (Which is what I thought the speed control did.) For example, if I take a clip recorded at 30fps and play each frame for .033 seconds, (1 second/30 frames). then the clip plays back at the regular (as recorded) speed. If I play each frame for .008 seconds (.033/4) then I think the clip should playback at 4x speed. Again, I'm not really sure what the software is doing (what math is it doing?) so I don't know how to best use the tool.
Maybe I'm asking for something unreasonable, but after making videos for a few years now, I have run into this problem where I need to speed up video clip playback without making it jerky or jumpy.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
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Here's an update hoping it helps someone else out there with the same problem.
I started a new project a few days ago and when I imported the video files, I noticed that once again, the audio waveforms were not being displayed. But I started editing anyway (because I needed to get the project done).
What I discovered is that when I made a small trim on an audio waveform that was not being displayed, after I finished the trim, the trimmed waveform displayed!
I used this process on ALL of the waveforms that were not initially displayed. For ALL of the waveform, once I completed a small trim, ALL of the waveforms instantly displayed.
Hope this helps.
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As an update:
I have heard back from CL support. They say they have been unable to reproduce the issue on thier test systems. They suggested setting the "auto-cache-clean" setting to the lowest value possible (1 day). Find the setting at PD Preferences > General settings page > Auto delete temporary files every ....
I have changed this setting to 1 day. I also manually deleted the temp files using the "Manually Delete" button found on the same tab.
I then started a brand new project, and so far, the audio waveforms are being displayed in the timeline.
If this info has helped anyone else with the same issue, please post here and share your experience.
Thanks and good luck...........BluesMatt
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For what it is worth.....I am going through the same issue using PD17; most times, the audio wavforms (the audio part of my mp4 files shot using my smartphone) do not display on the timeline. Interestingly, mp3 audio files always seem to display.
To date, I have gone back and forth with CL tech support a few times. After explaining the issue (even though it seems to be very well identified in this forum), they asked me for some screeshots and a Dxdiag file which I provided. Their next reply suggested to me that they did not look at the screenshots I sent because they asked a question, which, if they had looked at the screenshot, they would have answered. I replied with a little more "enthusiam" and suggested that they stop giving me "homework" assignments and fix their code. We'll see what they come back with.
In one of their previous replies, CL did suggest deleting all of the files in c:\user_name\AppData\Roaming\CyberLink\PowerDirector\17.0\Cache\WaveForms folder. ("user_name" is the log in name on your computer.) I have tried this a few times and it did work.......for the current project. As soon as I started a new project, I needed to delete the files again. No user, including me, should have to do this.
For those that decide to try this, this is the order in which I did things.
1) Save my PD project.
2) Close PD.
3) Navigate to the WaveForms folder and delete all of the files in that folder. (It is a hidden folder in Windows so you will need to change the folder properties so you can see the folder.)
4) Restart my PC (this takes a few minutes; I'm running Windows 10.)
5) Restart PD.
6) Reopen my project.
The few times I have done this, it has worked. My PD17 project opens and all audio waveforms are displayed.
Again, I'll repeat, no user should have to go through this. I hope CL does the right thing and fixes their code.
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optodata:
I did hear back from CL support and they suggested deleting all of the files in the ...\cache\waveforms folder.
When I did this and restarted my PC, when I re-opened my project, the audio waveforms were displayed. I finished the project and then moved onto the next project.
In the next project, once again, after importing the media files, the audio waveforms did not display. So I created the screenshots that support requested plus a Dxdiag file and sent it to them.
I'm waiting to hear back.
This is becomming quite the saga.
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OK, yes, I have totally misunderstood 365.
Do you know what happens if you don't connect every 30 days? Sometimes, I will go a month or 2 without doing any editing.
thanks
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Thanks for your reply.
Yes, I figured that PD17 projects cannot be edited in PD15. What I meant was starting brand new projects in PD15 (to avoid the waveform problem).
It is HIGHLY unlikely that I will be spending any more money to upgrade to PD18/365 simply to resolve a bug in CL's code that should have been addressed for ALL of their customers. Taking care of the customers, I think, makes good business sense (even if it means they need to agree to upgrade people for free to eliminate the problem).
I totally understand that older versions will not get any additional updates/patches. And by "updates/patches" I mean updates that ADD new features or ENHANCE all ready working features. In this case, this is a bug, plain and simple. It needs to be fixed for the customer because the customer's expectations is that the application will function correctly. In this case, the application does not function correctly, therefore CL needs to make it right for the customer in whatever manner they deem the most efficient (new patch or free upgrade).
I truely hope that CL does the right thing here. Up until this point, I have enjoyed using PD to edit the videos I post to my YouTube channel. I started with the trial version (that I found out about from an ad in the box for the external USB DVD drive I bought for my laptop). Within 1 hour of using the trial version, I bought PD15 online and starting learning/editing/posting. I upgraded to PD17 as a result of special pricing.
I prefer having the appication local on my hard drive rather than in the cloud. I don't like the idea of being totally dependent on my cable company's internet connection in order to work on my projects. Maybe I don't know enough about 365, but I'm assumming to use it you have to be online.
Here's hoping CL does the right thing.
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Thanks for your reply once again.
Yes, I did fill out the tech support form on their website. Any idea how long it might be before they respond?
What's really strange to me is that I NEVER saw this problem in PD15, NEVER. Only after upgrading to PD17 did I see it and then subsequently discovered others have had the same issue.
I really don't want to but I'm considering moving back to PD15 for my future projects. I hate to do that since I spent the money on the upgrade (video creation is a hobby for me, not an occupation).
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Thanks for your reply optodata.
I am running PD 17.0.3005.0
Ultimate
SR# VDE19053-02
I upgraded from PD15. I never had this issue with PD15 so this is a new program bug as a result of PD17.
So it seems my installation of 17.0.3005.0 still has the bug. I do not see any other patch to try.
I feel (and I think others agree) that the workaround described should not be necessary. This is a software bug that needs to be properly fixed either by patch or upgrade.
It looks like the PD17 patch is quite old (July 8, 2019). Does anyone know if CyberLink intends to release another patch to fix this problem? And if so, when?
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Within the last few months, I finally got around to installing PD17 which I purchased as an upgrade to PD15. Now, I am editing a PD17 project and the audio waveforms are not being displayed in the timeline mode. This is very annoying because I have always used the audio waveform when deciding where to trim the video.
I can see there is a checkbox in Preferences / General which is checked and should display the audio waveforms in the timeline. The audio is part of my mp4 files captured by my smartphone.
What's interesting is that mp3 waveforms seem to display with no issue.
With PD15, I have never had this issue.
I checked for a software update and there are no patches listed.
In a very quick search on this forum, I read a lengthy post where another user had a similiar issue. In his case, it seemed the only fix was to upgrade to PD18. Is that still true or is there a patch I can download?
Please help. Thanks
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I'd also like to be able to select the start time for recording. So this makes my computer running the screen recording application basically a DVR.
There are several webinars that I would have loved to record for later viewing but couldn't because I don't have control over when recording starts and stops.
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