Messages posted by CabinLife

I recorded a short video in 16:9 aspect ratio on my phone, It displays on my PC windows media player as 16:9 but when put into Power Director the video clip displays as 9:16. Is there any way to flip the display of the video clip in Power Director?

Power Director is giving me an aspect ratio error message recommending changing the aspect ratio of the project, which I don't want to do.
I added a screen print of the 2 displays (PD and Windows Media Player

Thanks for your help
Maureen

Quote The clip titles/aliases are always fixed a specific number of pixels from the left edge of the clip or the screen, whichever is left-most, which means that a combination of zoom, increasing the height of the specific track and horizontal scrolling will allow you to see virtually all of the waveform without any blockage.

You can also right-click on the clip and choose Change Alias... then clear the existing name and hit Enter so the name will be blank. You may want to use Reset Alias after you're finished aligning the clip so you can identify the clip by name later on.

Thanks so much .... yes, we've been using the zoom idea, but were hoping for a solution that would speed up the process.

We didn't think about changing the alias - great idea. You rock! Thanks for your quick response.

Maureen

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Jeeze - such a simple solution. thanks for your time. You rock!

Quote You can right mouse click on the file in the media library and change the alias to a single character like a, b,1,or 2 or just rename the whole file to a single digit character like 1. That can help.

Jeeze - such a simple solution. thanks for your time. You rock!

The file title is blocking the audio wav display in the editting window. this is really annoying when we're trying to do fine edits using the audio display as a guide. I looked through the tabs, and can't find an option that will allow us to turn off or move the file title.

I hope there's a solution to this. A screen print is attached to show what I'm referring to.

Thanks in advance for your help
Maureen

Quote I'm trying to create a 'text only' video with text scrolling vertically on a coloured background. I have the text in, but can't adjust the speed of the scroll. I tried [control] and slide the text bar left, and it works, but it shorten the text too.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for your help.

I've read a few posts in old forum topics, and if nothing has changed up to PD18, it appears that PD is not a good choice for creating text to be used to read scripts live. If this is not the case, please let me know.
Thanks

I'm trying to create a 'text only' video with text scrolling vertically on a coloured background. I have the text in, but can't adjust the speed of the scroll. I tried [control] and slide the text bar left, and it works, but it shorten the text too.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for your help.

Quote optodata: It has come to our attention that we have a Windows problem that needs to be solved - and with any good luck, solving Windows will solve our issue with PowerDirector.
....

I'll be in touch when I reinstall PowerDirector.

Maureen

We found the problem!! Our pc is at the end of it's life. (sigh) We're setting up a new pc with the other programs that we need, then we'll install PowerDirector365, and I'm sure it'll work fine. (Our son has it on his phone, and really likes the results he's getting.)

Thanks to everyone for your great help and support.

Best wishes for a great and prosperous new year.

Maureen

optodata: It has come to our attention that we have a Windows problem that needs to be solved - and with any good luck, solving Windows will solve our issue with PowerDirector.

I read all the information links you sent. Now that we're aware of a windows issue, I won't send the file package, as there's no point wasting people's time if the issue isn't PowerDirector related.

Thank you for your time.

CyberLink techie opened a ticket and replied to my enquiry with a few recommendations, which led us to the Windows problem.

I'll be in touch when I reinstall PowerDirector.

Maureen

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Unlike with other programs, it seems like it's generally better to completely uninstall the free/trial version of PD before installing the full version. You may even want to uninstall both versions (using the standard Windows uninstaller) and then use the App Manager to reinstall PD365. I think you can choose to keep your personal settings if you're prompted to do so during the uninstall process.

OK, I will uninstall the free/trial version and uninstall and reinstall PD365. Thanks for the heads up on the personal settings.

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I'm not sure how long you're waiting after closing PD before tyrying to launch it again, but you may need to wait 5-10 seconds for the background processes to shut down after closing PD before you'll be able to launch it again. If you're using shadow files and PD is still creating them when it's closed, it may take significantly longer for a new session to become available.

The situation can also occur if PD crashes, rather than being closed normally. You can also try the steps listed here (up to and including the EDIT line) to clear the running processes and be able to run PD again.

The shadow files were finished before the program was closed. The clips were put into the library, then I left the computer for a couple of hours while tending other things. Whenever PD was closed, there weren't any shadow files in creation, or other processes running that I was aware of. The program crashed a few times, and it's possible I didn't wait long enough for it to complete it's processes before attempting to restart it.

For the most part, while working on the project, I was moving fairly slowly. When editting, I put one clip at a time into the timeline, and played with it, trying out the features. There was lots of time left for processing between steps. A tutorial was viewed, the step completed in PD, then another tutorial viewing, and more work in PD. Slow, but easier way for learning (for me anyway).

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Thanks for the detailed notes on what you've tried. The note about waiting for waveforms to appear was meant to convey that it takes time for PD to generate them, especially in large projects with lots of timeline clips. If you literally have 2 short clips on the timeline, the waveforms should appear within 5-10 seconds.

That's what I thought - that 5-10 seconds should be plenty, and I was waiting minutes. You're welcome for the detailed notes. They're the best memory I have. LOL

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In previous versions of PD, those steps were found to be reliable ways of clearing the issue, so what you're experiencing now may look identical but have a completely different underlying cause. While you're waiting to hear back from tech support (which make take several days), it would be very helpful if you could follow the steps I just wrote up for a different thread (although you don't need to attach a screenshot if the audio level is a straight line).

Sure, I'll go through those steps when I'm finished this post, before the program uninstall and reinstall.

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That reminds me of one other thing that's come up recently - by any chance is the audio volume of these clips very low, meaning they're fairly quiet recordings? OP in this thread was frustrated that the waveforms were too small, even with the audio track at max height, and I'd like to determine if the clips audio levels are part of the issue or not.

The recordings were all dynamic. The waveforms that displayed showed some areas soft, needing a boost, the majority were good volumes, and some were showing the yellow clipping, and needed to be lowered. The volumes of the clips not showing waveforms were similar to the clips where the waveforms displayed, so there should have been something to see. (I'm familiar with the challenge of quiet speakers and seeing waveform displays which are almost flat.)

Well, this should keep me busy for this evening. I'll be in touch when I finish working through this stuff.

Thanks so much for your time and help, optodata. It's much appreciated.
Maureen

Quote Have you tried deleting the temp files?

C: \ Users \[user_name] \ AppData \ Roaming \ CyberLink \ PowerDirector \ 18.0 \Cache \ WaveForms folder and then delete all the temporary files.

TDK1044, yes I did, and it made the situation worse - The timeline clips that did show the waveforms now are blank as well. But, all the audio works, and we can adjust the volumes on all the clips.

Thanks for the suggestion.
Maureen

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optodata - Thank you for your reply. Yes, I have "Show sound wafeform in timeline" checked.
I have no idea of possibly what I did to cause the problem. I'll check out the post you linked in your reply, and use a duplicate copy of the project to attempt the 3 steps to remedy the issue. I'll let you know how I make out with it.
It's nice to know that Cyberlink did address the problem in PD17. Hopefully this is just a glitch.
Just before checking back in the forum, I sent a message to Cyberlink asking for help as well.
Maureen

optodata - I went through the steps, and didn't have much luck. All the steps I took are noted below. But, first, here are a few side notes after doing some thinking .... I started the project in the free version, and had no problems. Then we decided to take advantage of the sale, and purchased the one year subscription, and went through the download and install process with the Cyberlink Application Manager. (I didn't uninstall the free version, assuming the application manager would prompt me to do so, if need be.)

The waveform problem didn't start until after I purchased the subscription. ( a bit frustrating)
Another glitch that has appeared after the purchase is after closing the Power Director program, I have to reboot the computer in order to reopen the Power Direct program from either the desktop shortcut or the start up menu.

Here's the notes from the steps I went through, following the post you referred me to ....

Step #1
- Exported the library
- "removed all unused content from library",
- saved and closed the program
- rebooted the computer
- opened Power Director, the library opened showing thumbnails for the clips which are in the timeline. The waveforms still are not displayed in the timeline for the last 2 clips.

Step #2
- Emptied the Library
- saved and closed the program
- rebooted the computer
- opened Power Director, the library opened showing thumbnails for the clips which are in the timeline. The waveforms still are not displayed in the timeline for the last 2 clips.

Step #3 - "watch and wait while the waveforms are generated" How long did you have to wait? I waited about 5 minutes, and the 2 missing waveforms didn't appear.

Next -

-In the PowerDirector Cache/Waveforms folder, I removed the last 2 waveform files, no difference.
-removed all the files in the Waveforms folder, All of the waveform displays are blank.
- dragged one of the clips from the library into the timeline to see if the waveform would appear, but it didn't.
- Opened a new project, dragged two clips into the library, and put them into the timeline. The waveforms didn't appear. (I used two clips from the same project file that I was working with in the previous steps)

Next .... I look forward to your reply and suggestions for the next steps to take. I'm at a stall until this gets fixed.

Thank you for your time and assistance.
Maureen

Quote There isn't anything in the tutorials because other than this enabling this single setting, there isn't anything else you should need to do to get PD to display audio waveforms:

With that said, however, many previous versions of PD did have problems displaying audio waveforms but the specific conditions had been very difficult to reliably recreate, until last year when some forum members finally found a reliable way to both cause the problem and clear it, and that led Cyberlink to finally resolve the issue in PD17.

Here's the post with the 3 steps to solve the original issue, and there's a chance that it will work for your PD18 project.

I'd actually like to have you save a copy of the existing project before you try the above steps, because it would be very valuable to send that project to Cyberlink if PD isn't displaying waveforms.

Please let us know what happens, and I can help with packing and sending your copied project to tech support if needed.

optodata - Thank you for your reply. Yes, I have "Show sound wafeform in timeline" checked.
I have no idea of possibly what I did to cause the problem. I'll check out the post you linked in your reply, and use a duplicate copy of the project to attempt the 3 steps to remedy the issue. I'll let you know how I make out with it.

It's nice to know that Cyberlink did address the problem in PD17. Hopefully this is just a glitch.

Just before checking back in the forum, I sent a message to Cyberlink asking for help as well.

Maureen

How can I get the waveforms to display? They were showing for the first few clips of the project. After that, the clip waveform displays are blank. The audio plays fine, but doesn't show in the timeline.

This is my first editting project using PowerDirector 18, I've looked through the commands, and watched several audio editting tutorials, but no one mentions how to solve this problem.

Thanks for your help
Maureen