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Thanks for the replies. Hmm, shame I can't cut the black bars off in PD17, but I've had a look at the third party tools and the seem to do the job.
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I've recently captured some VHS tapes in the Lagarith format. The specs are as follows:
ID : 0
Format : Lagarith
Codec ID : LAGS
Duration : 7 min 50 s
Bit rate : 65.5 Mb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 5:4
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:2
Bit depth : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 6.319
Stream size : 3.59 GiB (98%)
When I insert into PD17 as a 4:3 project, the video appears in the correct aspect ratio in the Media Room (Picture 1)
However, when I drop into the time line, the frame in the preview mode is wider because there are 2 black horizonal bars on either side of the video (Picture 2). Similarly, the exported video also has these 2 horizontal bars.
Is there anyway to insert the video into the timeline with the correct ratio (ie. no black horizontal bars or stretched video)?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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Dear all,
I'm currently editing a huge home video project using hundred of clips.
My first edit was done on my work computer. All the videos are saved in specific folders on a USB HDD. The project .PDS is saved to my USB drive.
However, when I plug my USB into my home laptop and try to open the .PDS I get the following message:
"Cyberlink PowerDirector cannot open this media file because it was moved or is missing. Check that it's available and then try again".
Same thing happens if I copy all the videos and project files over to my laptop.
If I browse for the videos it's painful task because they're in multiple different folders, specificed by dates, cities, countries. It takes ages just to locate them all.
Is there a quicker way of locating the videos rather than manually browsing for each one?
I realise the problem is because my work computer sets the USB HDD as D: drive but my laptop sets it to G: - but is there a quicker way to locate the files rather than manually browsing for each one?
On Reaper DAW, for exmaple, you just point the browers to a folder (e.g. C: Music) and it'll search all the folders until it find all the missing music files.
I'm aware that in the past, people would use "Pack Project Materials" as a workaround, but I'm curious if there's a more effeciant way in PD17?
Additionally, if I click "ignore" the missing video files they appear as black bars on the time line. Is it possible to "re locate" those missing files at a later date or does PD just ignore them forever and ever.
Many thanks!
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Anyone else able to help?
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1. Your bitrate is set too high. The correct default sd 640 x 480 (4:3 AR) pal mp4 bitrate is 6000 kb/s. 10 sec. of the original PAL DV produced to a 1920 x 1080/50i custom created profile = 1828/6000 = .30 of setting. 2.17MB. 6x10x2.17MB=130.2MB for 10 minute video.
2. PD17 did not suggest it. It is from the dropdown arrow selection. Nonsquare pixels were then used to create it so it displays as 4:3 AR in all the video players I used.
You do realize that the vob file you created may be 720 x 576 resolution. 720/576 = 1.25 and not the 4:3 AR =1.33 so nonsquare pixels were again used earlier when you converted PAL DV to A DVD .vob file.
Hi, thanks for your reply.
The intention of this project is to convert the DVDs to MP4 without losing any quality whatsoever. I figured if I chose 1280x720 it would "upscale" the footage and since the max bitrate is higher for 1280x720 that would help (please see point 3!)
- Sorry you've totally lost me here! Can you please help me understand how the bitrate can be too high in layman's terms? PD gives you the option of setting it up to 40,000 for 1280x720 which is what I chose. If it's not advisable to go above 6,000 then why does PD give you the option?
When the bitrate is at the 6,000 default there's some quailtiy loss. Do you mean that even when set to 40,000 PD defaults to 6,000 which is why there was little difference between the file size when I set it to 14,000 vs 13,000? I realise I probably sound like an idiot but I want to learn more about this!
"10 sec. of the original PAL DV produced to a 1920 x 1080/50i custom created profile = 1828/6000 = .30 of setting. 2.17MB. 6x10x2.17MB=130.2MB for 10 minute video"
I didn't produce a 1920x1080 video, though. It was set to 1280x720.
2. Ok, sorry, it didn't suggest it but it's one of the possible options. I assumed that PD would know the original video is 720x576 and therefor it limited the options in the drop down box to ones that would maintain the AR and "upscale" the video. Actually, when I imported the PD produced 1280x720 video into Avidemux, it displayed at 16:9...does that mean PD is exporting at 1920x1080 with a flag to tell the player to display at 4:3? Can you please help me to understand this?
3. Yes I am aware the DVD .vob is 720x576 resolution, I didn't export at 720x576 because when I have done in the past, the quality has been lower than the original vob. I figured if I upscaled the video to 1280x720 there would be less loss of quality because 1280x720 allows for a higher bitrate (40,000 vs 14,000 for 720x576) - am I wrong in thinking that?
What steps would you recommend to continue? I'm coming into this from music preservation experience - even if the original source is low quality (tape etc) you encode it at the highest possible quality (wav, flac or losst mp3 320kbs) to try to maintain the original as best as possible ![]()
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I've been converting a client's PAL 4:3 Mini DV tapes to MP4. I started by copying them to DVD, then I imported the .vob into PD17 and export using a custom profile set to 1280x720.
The first video I exported using this profile, I set the bitrate to 40,000 kps. The 10 minute test clocked in at 1.69 GB (1,821,850,243 bytes) which was a little too big.
So the second test I did, I lowered the bitrate to 30,000 kps. The same 10 minute test footage ended up clocking in at 1.70 GB (1,836,023,362 bytes)!!
- Can anyone please explain how it's possible for this to happen?!
- The project is set to 4:3 PAL and PD17 suggests the following resolutions - 720x576 (PAL DVD) which is the correct ratio for 4:3 but it also suggests 1280x720, 1920x1080 etc which I am led to believe are 16:9 resolutions. Yet, when I view the 1280x720 encoded footage it indeed appears to be 4:3. Can anyone please explain why a 16:9 resolution is able to display perfect 4:3?
Many thanks as always!
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Sorry for the necrobump, but it seems this problem still exists in PD 17 - how ridiculous!
Anyway, does anyone know if the method by tomasc quoted below re-encodes the video? I assumed not, but when I used his method, the file size of the resulting MPEG was about 20mb smaller than the .VOB and the bit rate was ever so slightly smaller; the PD imported file is 8734kps but the original VOB was 8886kps (both according to mediainfo).
So it appears to be reencoded, but perhaps someone can shed light on this?
Thanks!
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Sure. PD allows you to rip a dvd. Put a dvd in your pc dvd drive. Open PD. Go to File/Capture. It should say Loading Disc. You should see a set of vcr control buttons on the left. Just below that is the Capture Preferences. Check those square checkboxes. Click on the vcr play button on the left and you see the menu or whatever. Click the stop button. Click the far left red button to create single contigeous mpeg-2 file. This should just take a few minutes.
Let us know if this helps.
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Some AVI do not show as interlaced in Mediainfo, but if you captured as you say, trust me, it's interlaced and top field first.
For Hybrid I bob deinterlace to 60P. Export as progressive 60P AVI lossless, so when PD renders to blueray specs it will be the first lossy compression, so it should be no problem.
Ahh I see, yes, so render it as lossless and let PD compress it. That makes sesne.
edit: My original AVI is 25fps, would encoding at 60P cause any issues?
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You say your dongle has TBC? Can you expand on that? My JVC has a line TBC, and I have a TBC-1000 for frame sync, and my backup is a Panasonic DMR-ES15 for psuedo TBC if needed.
The USB dongle thing I use is one made by a British company. They advertise that it has TBC (whether or not that's true I don't know). I've not had any issues with sync or dropped frames but I've had a lot of inserted frames when using the settings they suggest on VirtualDub. I also use a Panasonic DVD recorder as a psuedo TBC. Here's their website with specs https://www.video-2-pc.co.uk/
Many thanks for your help. I've read a lot of your posts in the past and you seem to really know a lot about video editing ![]()
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The FAQ is correct, it can be installed on more than one computer, but can only be used by one of those computers at a time. The "ex." means "example".
Please share your customer support ticket number and we will pass it on to the CS team to look into it.
Cheers
PowerDirector Moderator
What about the physical (DVD) release of PD 17? Can it also be installed and used on 2 computers (using only 1 at a time)?
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Intel’s marketing in 2018 has changed with their processors. I can’t locate all the articles that I have read in the past but basically i3 can have 4 cores with no hyperthreading, i5 can have 4 cores with hyperthreading, i7 can have 8 cores with no hyperthreading, i9 can have 8 cores with hyperthreading.
The i5-8300H has 4 cores with hyperthreading for laptops and is the best of those you listed. See this passmark: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-8300H+%40+2.30GHz .
None of the AMD and Nividia gpu that you listed are better than the integrated UHD 630 on the i5-8300h. The Intel and AMD one you listed has h.265 decoding while the Nvidia one does not. See this passmark: https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Intel+UHD+630 . It is probably better to get the best cpu that you can afford in whatever pc or laptop you want.
Thank you for the clear explantion. I'll keep that in mind when I go shopping tonight after work - thanks again!
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I agree. Put your money into a good processor first. Think of the GPU as a supplement to it.
I've found these PassMark benchmark charts invaluable.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
Getting processor that rates 10,000 or better will give you a good head start.
If you select the Video Cards tab at the top of the list, you can set it to display benchmark ratings for graphics cards also.
I'm not sure what a good rule of thumb would be for selecting a graphics card because I don't know how intense your graphic needs are. But at least with these charts you can compare apples to apples rather than deciding on hardware based on brand name or impossible-to-decipher specs.
Thanks for the advice! My projects will be generally around 10mins long and for the most part won't feature any intense 3D animations or fancy stuff. Relatively straight forward transitions and the like. Mostly compilations of different clips and the odd music video here and there. Not multi-angle editing or feature length stuff.
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Thanks for your reply!
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Sorry that nobody has responded, but this is a topic that comes up endlessly and you'll find answers for just about everything you're looking for by searching the forum. Also we're end users here and most people don't have time for comparing every possible hardware combination and likely can't answer your specific questions.
No problem, I totally understand!
I've searched high and low (the forum, Google and YouTube comments) trying to get answers re: the issue with Nvidia compatibility and I'm completely dizzy. I'm still unsure whether the 920mx, MX150 or MX110 will be compatible with PD17 :/
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The only exception to that statement is that I ALWAYS tell people to get an i7 (or now, i9) over any i5. If money is tight, get an i7 with at least 8GB RAM and a 500GB SSD and skip on the discrete GPU.
You can certainly save money and get an i5, but its editing and producing performance will be 1/2 that of the same version i7 because it doesn't support hyperthreading. Maybe an i5 and dGPU will perform better than an i7 without a dGPU with the kinds of projects you'll be working on, but I don't have enough info to go against recommended an i7.
I was originally overjoyed when you said i7 as that narrows it down a lot for me....until I did benchmarking and found that the Core i7-8550U in most of the system I've looked at isn't as good as the i5-8300H I've found in some laptops! (?!) I'm worried that if I splash out on the i7-8550U and the performance isn't good AND the GPU is incompatible then I'll be up the creek...
I guess my questions now are -
1) Will the Nvidia 920mx, MX150 or MX110 (all 2gb) be compatible with PD17? From what I've read it seems to be that PD16 had issues using the dedicated GPU on laptops with Nvidia chips.
2) Would AMD (also 2GB) GPU be a better choice for rendering? I've read posts on this forum saying both that AMD is preferred by CYberlink AND that PD is designed for Nvidia (!)
3) Will the i7-8550U be a good choice of processor for PD17 or would the i5-8300H be better? The i5 scores slightly higher on benchmarking, but I'm really not sure how that translates to performance with PD...
Many thanks again, I really appreciate the help.
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Hi all,
I'm about to buy a new laptop but I have a few questions. I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to CPUs and GPUs so I'm not exactly sure which laptop to buy.
I'm currently torn between 3 laptops, all roughly similar prices.
- Lenovo i7-8850u with 8gb ram and Nvidia Geforce 920mx-2GB
- Lenovo i7-8550u with 8gb ram and AMD Radeon T530 2GB
- Same as #2 but with an i5-8250u (slightly cheaper)
Questions:
- Would there be any performance issues with the i5? The i7s are a bit more expensive so I don't want to buy one if an i5 will suffice!
- Would the Nvidia Geforce 920mx be compatible with PD17 or would it have problems?
- Are all Nvidia GPUs having problems with PD17 or only certain models?
- What performs better with PD17, Nvidia or Radeon?
Thanks for your help!
Anyone?
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Hi all,
I'm about to buy a new laptop but I have a few questions. I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to CPUs and GPUs so I'm not exactly sure which laptop to buy.
I'm currently torn between 3 laptops, all roughly similar prices.
- Lenovo i7-8850u with 8gb ram and Nvidia Geforce 920mx-2GB
- Lenovo i7-8550u with 8gb ram and AMD Radeon T530 2GB
- Same as #2 but with an i5-8250u (slightly cheaper)
Questions:
- Would there be any performance issues with the i5? The i7s are a bit more expensive so I don't want to buy one if an i5 will suffice!
- Would the Nvidia Geforce 920mx be compatible with PD17 or would it have problems?
- Are all Nvidia GPUs having problems with PD17 or only certain models?
- What performs better with PD17, Nvidia or Radeon?
Thanks for your help!
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