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Hi Robert and Cranston,
The post you read is actually a compilation of all the problems I encountered with PD7 regarding the burning of DVDs with the associated menus. Others on here, have also experienced this problem with general burning routines.
As to PD7 not being a stable burning program, I have no idea if this is true or not as I was able to burn DVDs successfully with the trial version, but not with the full retail version. When I was experiencing crashes with PD7, I uninstalled Nero, and installed Cyberlink's DVD burning program with the same results...PD7 wouldn't burn.
Yes, there are loads of DVD burners out there, but this isn't really a hard task to gather data from users on here; there are really only five or six major DVD manufacturers out there.
I know QA can only test so many configurations, this much is true. But testing on a selected series of DVD burners that go back a few years will usually show the problems of incompatibility right away. It is very rare, as I have stated before, for a DVD player to be the culprit in a software program. I cannot imagine that this bug was not evident during the QA process of PD7 with incompatibility issues.
At the least, Cyberlink can put a notification on their PD7 products that states that not all DVD burners will work with the product. From my experience with all the answers from customer support, the advice has nothing to do with the problems people are having with burning DVDs...the source of the problem is from code within PD7 that is not compatible with certain DVD burners.
The crash bugs aren't because of user error. People wait patiently for the program to burn and then PD7 crashes. This has been documented many, many times on here. I guess the point is that these bugs are not imagined or an illusion. No matter how many reasons are given as to the software not being the problem, empirically, through the reports of people here and on the Internet who are very accomplished PC people, people who are regular users like you, or beginners, the smoking gun points to the PD7 program. I really don't know what is so hard in excepting this obvious documented fact. I guess I really feel sorry for all the people who have been trying to get this issue resolved since the beginning of the year and haven't seen any progress on these problems.
It has nothing to do with "blaming" the program for these crashes. It is a fact, pure and simple. I think PD7 is the best video editing program out there. But this doesn't mean I have to turn the other way and pretend that the program isn't flawed, and for many users on here, flawed seriously. I want to see PD7 reach the levels that it is capable of. But to do this, you have to address the problems it has. Telling people out there that it's user error, when they know it obviously isn't, is not helping the problem. I can understand your loyalty to PD7. I am becoming a solid fan of the program as well. But we need to separate our enthusiasm of the program in order to see what the issues and problems with it is.
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http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/0/4941.page#19018
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One thing that has stuck me about those who have real problems with Power Director 7, is how they've been answered by users on here that don't have these problems with comments such as, "Hey, I NEVER had any problems. It's not the program's fault," or words to this effect. The posts usually then go on to blame the user for having junk on their computers, not having good hardware, etc.
The reality of the situation is that people ARE having problems, and it isn't reassuring, let alone helpful, to new users with these types of remarks. Saying that you don't have problems with the program doesn't mean that there isn't a problem with the program. Capisce?
First off, contrary to all those who say that it isn't the software, this is wrong. While PD7 is a remarkable program, and is truly head and shoulders above anything that I have used so far, it does have issues, bugs, and incompatibility problems. Be honest here, a program which has so many reported issues with it logically has to do with the code.
Alright, now to the "solution." There's some good news and some bad news.
On a previous post, Dreven offered up the solution that my DVD burners were "cheap." Although this wasn't true, and my DVD burners were of high grade and popular during the time of purchase two years ago, he had me thinking. "What would happen if I swapped out one of the drives with one of my newer ones?"
I have been experiencing DVD burn problems after I upgraded from the trial version of PD7 to the full retail version of PD7. That's when all the problems started with being able to burn DVD menus to my DVD projects. During the trial version, no burning problems were present at all. Which leads me to confirm that it is a problem with the PD7 full retail version of the software.
THE GOOD:
I decided to swap out one of my Samsung DVD burners to a late model HP DVD SATA burner on my computer. I loaded up the test project that would never burn with DVD menus and always seemed to crash at the 92% level, in addition to screening up an error message and shutting PD7 down. I put a blank disc into the HP burner, saw the progress bar inch towards the 92% mark...and proceeded to finish the burn successfully!
It burned quickly and flawlessly in much less time than it took to go through the process of trying to burn a project with a DVD menu through another burning program.
THE BAD:
What this means is that the code for PD7 is incompatible with some of the DVD burners out there. A fact, I believe, that has never been mentioned to users or purchasers of the full retail edition by Cyberlink customer service, and rightly so. The reaction to this news wouldn't go over well for sales or users thinking about purchasing Power Director 7. However, the trial version shows no such behavior in exhibiting error messages when you burn DVDs. And this is why I purchased the full retail version, thinking it would work also.
THE UGLY:
It would seem that PD7's code routine causes some DVD burners to crash. Even if you have a DVD burner that isn't that old, if your burner isn't one that can operate successfully with Power Director 7, you will need to upgrade your computer to a newer DVD burner or a different model that will work.
Which DVD burners work? That is a question that will be needed to be answered by all those PD7 users who can burn their DVDs with menus successfully and a list of DVD burners from all of you who cannot burn or encounter errors when you try to burn your DVDs with Power Director 7.
I propose that a database be set up for this very purpose so that users will be able to see at a glance, which DVD burners will work with Power Director 7 (full retail version), and those burners that do not.
CONCLUSION:
I have spent the past week and a half throwing out DVD disc after DVD disc in a search to figure out why PD7 would not burn my DVDs. I have been given quick support from customer service, but the advice has always been to check my drivers, clear out temp files, reinstall, update to the latest version. All these I have done and more...even in installing service pack 3 to XP, which I was trying to avoid, and even afterward, with the same results...Power Director 7 refused to burn...until I swapped out my DVD burner for another brand.
This DVD incompatibility problem is at the center of why people have been having so many problems with burning DVDs, I believe. Somehow, the trial version of PD7, which works well and burns DVDS, does not work when you go to the retail version of PS7. Something, some code, has caused this malfunction in some of the DVD burners you are using out there.
In the meanwhile, a news release from Cyberlink on this incompatibility issue with some DVD burners is highly advised as this will save untold hours of frustration for buyers, bad reviews, and complaints of this product.
Until a fix is offered for these DVD problems from Cyberlink, it seems that your only recourse is to buy a new DVD burner that is compatible with the program...something that Cyberlink has not alerted its PD7 users to do.
Thanks to Dreven for getting me on this track of thinking. I also affirm my belief that having to upgrade your DVD burner to make PD7 operate successfully is an unacceptable solution as your everyday dedicated PC user doesn't know how to to this.
The solution? The Cyberlink programmers have to figure out where, in their code, why PD7 crashes some DVD burners and not others.
PowerDirector is a fantastic video editing program now that it is fully functional for me. I can only hope that this issue of DVD incompatibility will be made public and be addressed.
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Quote:
You referred to "crash problems that everyone is experiencing" I am one user of PD7 that does not having any problems with PD 7. I find it very stable and it has never crashed. I have some issue with the design of the menu system and that is all. I think there are a lot of users in the same boat as me.
I would be very interested in finding out what sort of computer setup you have, if you wouldn't mind telling everyone here.
What model CPU are you using? (ex: Core 2 Duo E6600)
What brand of DVD burners are you using?
What Operating System are you using? (XP,Vista, etc)
Thanks in advance.
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Quote:
Frank,
I tried your suggestions, ( the hard way to a folder) but, unfortunately it still crashes when I hit burn!!..Have you successfully done it this way? Thanks again for the reply...
Yes, the "hard way," is the only way which I can get a burn with the DVD menu in place. The idea of the "hard way" system is to burn your DVD outside of the PowerDirector 7 program. The files that you saved in PD7 when you unchecked the burn to DVD should have been saved to the directory location of your choice when you started the burn function.
Then, the idea is to use DVD Shrink, or a Nero burn program to access this raw data in order to burn to your DVD. Maybe you could list the steps you did to show me what you did so I can debug your steps? This is the only method that I know of at the present that will burn menu DVD info to a DVD.
I was combing the forums and saw some posts way back around June 2008! from users who said that the problem of burning showed up around that time when an update to PD7 was made. Since then, sounds like the bug has never been fixed. The thread just ended abruptly with no more support from Cyberlink.
They suggested that a user switch DVD burners to see if that would work but that was met with a resounding "no."
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Hi Marek,
Taking out any corrupted files/transitions, unfortunately, is only one of the problems with PD7 crashing. I have produced a short demo video using the clips that *came* from the PowerDirector 7 software, and the crashing problem associated with burning menus still pops up.
It's cool that users can help each other on here with PD7 problems, but Cyberlink really needs to fix these bugs...we users aren't on their payroll to do this. 
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Hi Scott,
The typical answers that I have received from customer support is to uninstall and reinstall the product. There have been other suggestions as well, but the bug related to burning a DVD with menus doesn't seem to have a fix.
Many users have reported this same problem, but the issue remains.
I have sent my concerns to Cyberlink Headquarters in Taiwan to inform them of all the problems users are having with this bug.
There is a work around...an easy way and a "hard" way.
The Easy way:
You can still burn your DVD project by selecting not to burn menus with it. If your DVD is separated into chapters, you won't be able to use this feature in the DVD menus since they are broken. What you can do, however, and this isn't a perfect solution, is to just add a freeze frame at the beginning of each chapter segment in your time line to "announce" each new chapter.
Your customer will be able to fast forward to each new segment that way and see where each chapter begins. Not a great solution, but at the moment, its better than nothing.
The "Hard Way"
This will take a little PC expertise. When you go to burn page after hitting the "burn" icon, do not check the burn CD box. Instead, check the "save to folder" or what ever that option says. Then, note where the save will be located in the box right of the checkbox. Or if you wish, you can select a location for the save where you want.
Next, go ahead and burn your project. Your entire project will be saved as a video and audio file at the location you or the program selected.
Next, you've got to burn the video file you just made to a DVD. At this point, everything you did for the chapters and dvd menus will be in this video file. (You'll have to make sure that your DVD menus are just the way you want them by doing a preview before you burn it.)
The next step is to get a burning program called DVD Shrink. It is free and can be located on the Internet. Download this program. Run the program and select "Open Files" at the top of the menu. From here, navigate to the saved folder where your video and audio folders were made previously.
Select the whole disc in the menu of DVD Shrink, put a blank disk in your burner, and hit "backup" at the top of the menu screen. This will bring you to another menu where you select the proper options as which DVD drive you want to burn, and a location to store the temporary files. You may have to make a new location for this. You *don't* want to save these temporary files in the same VS (video folder) that has your saved PowerDirector burn folders.
Make a copy and you should have all of your menus and DVD in tact. I know this is a crazy way to do things, but since there is no admittance that there is a bug with PD7 by Cyberlink, this is the only solution/ workaround. And yes, it's ridiculous.
Sorry to hear you're having the same problems as others on here. Hope these "solutions" help.
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Oh, and this is a P.S...when I tried the trial version of PowerDirector 7, the menu DVD burn worked perfectly...it was only after I purchased the full version of PD7 that the menu burning problems started.
So in other words...the DVDs were NOT the problem.
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Hey, thanks for responding. much appreciated. And to all your questions...the answers are all YES. Surprised, eh? But I used Performance Test for my memory and whole rig, and not memtest. And as to my "cheap" dvd players, these were bought brand new when I built my computer two years ago.
I just built another new computer and just pulled out the old DVD burners to my new setup..which has brand new memory that was tested 100% running an Core 2 Duo E8400 at 3.0GHz, one 250WD and one 250 Seagate cavier hard drive, 9800GT video card, 4 gigs of Corsair Ballistix Ram, 650 Watt Corsair power supply.
Do you guys really expect non-PC savvy people to jump through all these hoops to make a software product run? I doubt if a small percentage would even understand all this jargon, which btw, I do--I used to work in QA for a software publisher.  But for your common everyday citizen who just wants to burn the menu with their DVDs, the list sounds like Greek. This isn't fair to the general consumer and basically tries to bury the person on computerese to avoid the issue of the software not being compatible. Not everybody builds computers...they just buy them off the shevles.
So bombarding a noobie with such a list of "todos" is not only unreasonable, it tries to shift the responsibility on the buyer, rather than taking this situation to the core reason why the software doesn't work...compatibility issues with the software/code.
Why did I pull the old DVD burners out? Because they worked perfectly...and I also updated the firmware when I brought them over to the new rig I was building. During the time, more people were buying this DVD burner because it was rated higher in performance then even your Lite-Ons or Sonys. I know, I did the research.
So I guess what I'm saying is that I know about computers, and a problem with DVD burners is awfully rare. If anything, this means that Cyberlink didn't QA effectively in trying out PD7 with more setups. If you guys only did it on current hardware and not legacy stuff a paultry 2 years ago, the fault doens't rest with the consumer. You guys needed to make the public aware of the limitations of this prorgram being compatible, or lack thereof, with hardware.
And this is the point...PD7 is the ONLY program that I have had any problems with as far as burning anything. When software publishers put together programs, they have to take this into consideration...that not all DVDs, disk drives, what have you, are equal. DVD players have been around for quite sometime now, and if software can't be used on two-year old DVD drives, that isn't the fault of the consumer...that's why software is tested, or should be tested by software publishers. You just can't go, "Well, if you guys don't have such and such, too bad."
This is what is so crazy about all of this. When you buy a software product off the shelf, wouldn't you say it is nuts to have to go all through the steps you gave because the software doesn't work? What if you bought a new audio program and there were bugs and incompatibility problems with the software, and the vendor tells you, "Oh, you've got a two year old disk drive...and oh, you need to check your memory, and oh, you need to check all your drivers, and oh, you need to do this and that," infinitum?
I would come to only two conclusions...that the software isn't compatible with a lot of computers out there, or two, the software is really still in the development process and has lots of bugs to hammer out.
I really don't mind if a software company just comes out and admits that they're still working out the bugs. But I get frustrated, as others on here, and others out there who haven't even taken time to post their concerns in this forum, when the onus is put on the consumer by saying he's "cheap," lol.
Do you swap out your hard disk drives, memory or LCD monitor every two years? Of course not. Why? Because for the most part, although there may be a minsicule percentage of software that isn't compatible with your hardware, you keep it because 99.9% of the software does work with it. It may not be a big deal to get a couple of new DVD buners for you or me, but not everyone knows how to do this. You've got you regular users out there that use their computers for everyday things, and yes, that means they buy name brand rigs. But why should I have to get new hardware to make the software work? If I'm experiencing this, there's probably a truckload of people who have this problem as well.
Bombarding me with a gigantic list didn't phase me a bit. But if this is the sort of advice that is given to your everyday average user of Cyberlinks product, this is really the wrong way to go.
So where do I stand? I think PD7 is a great software package! The DVD menu burn is faluty. I asked for help. I received a ton of things to do that a non-PC person would not attempt to try. But I did it because I know a bit about PCs. I have a two-year old burner that is perfectly usable on everything that I have done in the past two years...except PD7. Telling customers to buy new hardware to make the software work is not going to boast a lot of confidence or sales. Fixing and addressing the bugs will.
PD7 is still hands down, the best video editor out there as far as features, ease of use, and overall fun. I also did video editing professioanally, so seeing a program like this is pretty amazing. What I don't want, is excuses about why a computer setup is the problem...it's butt backwards...the incompatibility is at the source...the code...the software.
But anyway, thanks for the help. I appreciate your time in trying to solve the problem.
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Quote:
Dont count on it this company is poo. The mod is great but the company is poo
We shall see. The mod hasn't answered this question or acknowledged it at all. I did, however, receive a pretty quick response from tech support on this. I'll be trying their ideas to see if this fixes the problem. I'll update everyone on what happens here since the topic on this bug seems to be a hot button to be avoided for some reason.
That's what is great about the Internet, experiences, both bad and good, spread like wildfire and this viral communication can make or break companies, and no amount of advertising can hide the facts about a firm's dedication or lack thereof, in customer service and quality of their products.
It's too early to make a call yet on PD7. Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter of "Why won't Power Director 7 burn a DVD that has menus on it?" 
But in saying all of this, although the DVD burn menu fuction is broken, I haven't seen a video editing program that is so full featured and fun to use as PowerDirector 7. I was a professional video editor a few years back and PD7 is quite an astounding program compared to the $20K editing suite I used to work on.
The only thing that prevents me from totally backing this program as the best on the market is this bug and the frustration that I've seen on here by some users in what they have seen as unresponsiveness in dealing with reported issues with this software.
In the meanwhile, thanks in advance to any assistance in this matter.
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It sure would be nice to see somebody answer this question...thanks again.
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Guys, after putting together a project, no matter what I do, when I add a dvd menu to the burn routine, the program always crashes.
However when I burn a dvd without menus, it works fine. Sure, I can save the project to a folder and burn it that way, but I don't want to do that. When PD7 did work, it burned much faster than using another program, (yours, btw) to do it. This module is broken, plain and simple.
I saw a question posted about this way back in January 2008 on this question and it remained unanswered. Now before I get the standard answers about checking conflicts, reinstalling, etc. I have done all this and more.
The trial version of PD7 worked flawlessly so I purchased the full version, and now, the DVD menu burning feature doesn't work. Before you say it, I did a clean install, removed the reg info with regedit, etc.
It appears to be a problem with the PD software. Can you guys give any specific solutions to a fix instead of all the canned answers? I'm not trying to be mean here, I just want to know if you guys are trying to fix the problem or not and if so, when can we expect the patch. And yes, I downloaded the most recent patch too.
This is what happens:
1. Project is finished
2. Go to create disk
3. Select menu
4. Select proper parameters. (Yes I selected a slower speed to burn)
5. Start burn process
6. PD starts to assemble and render menus
7. At 92%, PD announces that the burn was successful.
8. An error message immediately screens up saying that a signature problem occurred.
9. Upon ejecting the DVD, a burn track can be seen. PD tried to burn it but evidently failed to complete the burn.
10. Here is the screenshot : http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/4814/powerdirectorerrorsigmt9.jpg
Thanks guys and please, I've read the posts connected with this problem and I can assure you, all unnecessary programs have been turned off, I've taken out other codecs, emptied my temp folder, and a host of other "fixes."
I can take it guys...just tell me PD7 is broken and that you're working on a solution. I don't want to leave a cynic by hearing all the canned answers again on this problem just to temporarily get me off your backs. lol. I used to work in the software industry, so I am well aware of all the CS tricks to try to stall for time.
I really think you guys have the best video editing software out there...now if this bug could be addressed, it will be great.
Thanks in advance...don't let me down guys.
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