Messages posted by DrEcosse

Quote No reason to worry about old drives.

All you need to do is log in to your CL account and verify that at least one older PD version is registered to you. You can then ask customer service to send you an installer link which is all you need to load QuickTracks and all the previously provided music tracks will be copied onto your new system.

Perfect! I'll give that a go but I'm still a bit apprehensive about the impact on my PDS365 sub files.

UPDATE

I've managed to find my copy of the QX518_CF.zip file to reistall QuickTracks from scratch and restore the Core Foundations files. I just get errors trying to update it now.

Any advice on how I can get these would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Quote If you never purchased any tracks, then all you need to do is install the older version of PD and the SmartSound QuickTracks plug-in and all CL provided tracks will be restored. It may be better to temporarily uninstall PD365 before doing that, and when you reinstall it PD365 will find the plugin and database and you should have full functionality again.

FYI my sign-in to SmartSound is also with a business email I no longer use but the credentials are still valid. I just don't get any marketing email from them

I no longer have these old versions on my PC. I had a major problem with my main hard drive and got a new 1Tb SSD with a fresh Win10Pro and MSOPro2019 installed. A lot of data was lost, including these legacy PD programs. I then subscribed to PDS365 (not just PD365) and have EVERY update installed since, apart from some Japanese/Chinese stuff.

My original Cyberlink subscription came with the HP Pavilion Elite I still use but that software was corrupted by the hardrive hardware failure. I don't think I've ever signed onto SmartSound directly, as it was working perfectly until recently. It looks like I'll just have to do without it now. I'll check if I've got any of the older versions on external drives but I seriously have my doubts.

Quote You should be OK. All my existing tracks are intact after updated to the new PD365, and you should be able to reinstall all your purchased tracks from the SmartSound Music Purchase Orders page.

All my orders from 2013 are still there 👍

My problem is that I never purchased any separate tracks, to my knowledge, as SmartSound came built-in with one of the CL-PD packages I mentioned. I also had my own website and may have subscribed with my business email, which is no longer valid. Cyberlink can see all my purchases but I'm not sure whether SmartSound are able to verify any at their end. I'm currently going through my PDS files to find the last successful usage. That's no small feat, given that I create about half a dozen videos every week.

Quote Did you try Rebuilding the database?
Did you look into the Common Data installer?
Back up your current SmartSound folders before you attempt anything.
SmartSound-PowerDirector

I wish I had seen your post - significantly the sentence marked in red - before I ran the two executables.

I've replied to another post below!

Quote

I think it's better to push ahead and see what happens rather than restrict your options based on assumptions.

I contacted SmartSound and received a detailed and helpful reply regarding these two issues. I've attached a PDF for anyone interested.

Hi

I had SmartSound included in one of the versions of PD that I had previously, probably PD13-Ult, MediaSuite13-Ult, or DirectorSuite2. Everything was still working with PDS365 until the previous update to this month's. For some reason, when I run the plug-in, I now get 'Purchase' for every QuickTracks I select, so all my Core Foundation files have gone AWOL. I've tried all the suggestions in the PDF but without success. I know I ran the two executables (Quicktracks5.1.8.exe & SmartSoundCommonData.exe) but I didn't back up anything, because I didn't know I needed to. Until now, I wouldn't have been able to ascertain where to find them. Now I know, but is it too late I wonder?

Any ideas on how I can retrieve/replace my CF files?

TIA, DrEcosse

Great reply Warry!

TBH: I've only ever modified Cyberlink's in-built and DZ's stuff. However, because of Covid-19, I've been creating a lot of stuff for our church services since lockdown began. I had invested personally in PDS365 in December 2019 to get the whole shebang. That's when I started to quickly build up my knowledge base, despite having been a Cyberlink user for many years.

I'm not artistic but I do know what looks good and I observe things now that previously I wouldn't think about, e.g. creative, eye-catching lower thirds, or graphics in ads, transitions, particles, etc. So I then use some of these ideas in Cyberlink if they are recreatable.

It would be great to create effects but are there any workarounds?

Thanks for your input and I'll check out those links!

Cheers!

Quote
But maybe we can help you being creative: what are you looking for precisely?

Hi Warry

Thanks for your response.

I want to create lower thirds that have video embedded in them. I know I can create this within PDS but once achieved, I wanted to make it available for others to use and make it editable, e.g. change video and other elements, etc. BUT as a text overlay.

Why can't artistic creators have some freedom to make their own effects from scratch? Some features can't be edited, which is frustrating a lot of the time, mainly because the structure may not be exactly what you want, e.g. shapes, paths, colours, particles, etc.

How do people create the stuff that's downloadable on DZ?
Can YouCam effects be used directly in PD?

Cheers!

I've been a Cyberlink user, especially PowerDirector for several years but have never found out how to create/design my own effects, especially lower thirds but with embedded video within the lower third elements.

I've downloaded several dz* files over the years and always wondered how they were created. I'm surprised it's not mentioned in tutorials, unless I've missed that! I also wanted to find out about creating/using YouCam files in PDS365.

Any help with these would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance!