Messages posted by Richb33025

Thank you! I really appreciate the response.

It would certainly be easiest if I could change the .m2ts file to .MP4. It would mean my current PowerDirector could handle it properly.

Unfortunately, though, when I change it to .MP4, the Quicktime player doesn't recognize the file. Is there something else I should know?

Thanks!

--- Rich

(Apologies if this post appears twice... I tried to submit it and it got hung on "Saving.")

Hello, and thank you in advance for taking the time to answer.

FYI: I'm currently running PowerDirector Deluxe 7.00.2206 on Windows XP Pro 2002 with Service Pack 3, 2.66 GHz with 2.98 MB RAM.

Now, to the point: I haven't upgraded PowerDirector because it's always done what I needed it to do. Until now.

I'm trying to post a video to a website that will only accept .MOV and .MP4 files. My current version of PowerDirector will create both of those, but only at really low resolution. I create the .MOV file by going to "Create Streaming File," then "QuickTime Movie," then selecting "QuickTime High Quality," which creates a 640x360 .MOV file. I create an .MP4 file by going to "Create File," then "Portable .MPEG4," then selecting "Best Quality PSP video (H.264), which creates a 320x240 .MP4 file.

So here are my questions:

1) Is there another, better way to create either on my current PowerDirector? A way I'm not seeing?

2) Will a more-recent version of PowerDirector create better-resolution .MOV and .MP4 files? (I'm thinking the answer is yes, but need to make sure).

3) Dumb question, maybe, but if I want the current version of PowerDirector, do I have to pay full price? Or is there a discount for someone who has an older version?

4) Will any of the latest PowerDirector options run well on my somewhat older XP Pro system, based on the specs I gave you above?

Thank you, and I really appreciate your time.

--- Rich

I'm creating a surprise "this-is-your-life" type video for my in-laws' 50th anniversary, complete with head-shot interviews of everyone in the family, pans of old family photos and a great soundtrack. It has really turned out well.

It's also two hours and seventeen minutes long.

Two months ago, when I started production, I posted a question to the members of this forum, who helped me figure out a few other issues. As two members named Cranston and Tony suggested, I built this documentary in small pieces -- each section anywhere from three to ten minutes long. Each section came out great.

But here's the problem: when I try to create the disc, in some of the tracks (not all), the sound is a second or two off. Really annoying when you're watching a head-shot interview, right?

I've gone back and checked the original mpeg2 files, and they're fine. It's somewhere in the encoding process of "Create Disc" that the problem arises.

FYI, so that I could fit the entire film onto one DVD, I selected "DVD SP" in the preferences box, instead of "DVD HQ." (When we surprise them with this, we're going to be watching on a 64" plasma TV. I'm really impressed with the quality of the DVD SP setting... for a secondary setting, it's much crisper than I thought it would be.)

By the way, PowerDirector, while it has its quirks, is a GREAT program. As you experts know, this can be a love-hate relationship.

I have more than 500 hours into this project. (My in-laws are two of the most amazing people I've ever met... totally worth it.) I've REALLY enjoyed doing it.

But now I'm at the final step of this long journey, and I can't get the audio to come out right. And my deadline is approaching. Any suggestions, O Great PowerDirector Wizards?

Thanks in advance.

-- Rich

Wow. You guys have been great. Again.

I'm confident one of those two things will work.

I really appreciate the help!

-- Rich

(P.S. Cranston, you described it perfectly when you said they were stacked like a brick wall. That's exactly the point I was trying to get across.)

FYI, I just tried creating it to disc, and the photos on the produced DVD DO come up at the right time. Still, though, I'd like it to work in the edit view, so I can properly nudge the timing of the photos a millisecond here or there for the timing of the music.

Thanks again!

-- Rich

Okay. Next issue.

I'm building an opening photo montage for this documentary. I have a black colorboard in the Master Video track, for a duration of two minutes and 44 seconds. There is a song in the music track for a duration of 2:38 (leaving three seconds of silence at the beginning and end).

I'm using two PiP tracks. One is for the left half of the screen, the other is for the right. Photo 1 will fade up on the left side of the screen four seconds into the song, and remain there for eight seconds, fading out at the end. Photo 2 will fade up on the right side of the screen halfway through Photo 1's tenure, meaning they're together on the screen for four seconds. After Photo 1 fades out, Photo 3 immediately fades up on the left side of the screen, and it last eight seconds -- the first four seconds of which are the LAST four seconds of Photo 2's tenure? This continues for the duration of the song -- about 80 photos.

(Am I making this any clearer than winter fog on the nearby Oregon Coast?)

So here's the problem: I want these photos to be timed to the music... and after about six of them, they suddenly stop fading up when they're supposed to. The pictures begin falling behind -- they don't appear on the screen as the timeline indicates they should. They're late.

I'm heeding Cranston and Tony's advice to build this two-hour documentary in chunks -- but I shouldn't have to do that with a simple two-and-a-half-minute music video, should I? I thought of organizing the photos into groups of six or seven, producing them and then dropping them all in group after group, but that would make it much more challenging to time them to the music.

FYI, I'm using 7.00.2206. Also FYI, there are no pans or zooms in any of the photos -- just fade-ins and fade-outs.

Any thoughts on why my misbehaving photos won't fade up when they're told?

Thanks!

-- Rich

Tony --

Egads! What a cute kid!

You did that just for me? May you be blessed many times over.

Since my last post, I played around with panning photos (per the youtube video Cranston suggested), and it works, but I'm not sure it's any easier than the way I had been doing it. And the "fade in" and "fade out" check boxes don't give you any flexibility (that I can find, anyway) as to how quickly things fade in and out. A great learning tutorial, however.

But now I see the light, through your suggestion: you're saying to produce my photos as a separate project, then drop this finished project (with pans, etc.) into the PIP track of my final project. Do I understand this correctly?

Spins and rotations aren't important to me... what's important is having the pan and zoom be the proper time-length, and being able to adjust the time it takes to fade in and fade out. Can I adjust the time it takes to fade-in and fade-out doing it this way?

I'll play around with it some more.

Thanks again!

-- Rich

Thanks! I'll give that a try when I get a chance in a couple of hours.

One question beforehand, though... it's important that I'm able to apply user-defined magic motion effects so that I can pan photos in the way popularized by Ken Burns.

I know I can do this using the Master Video Track. Can I do this using a PiP track?

Thank you again.

-- Rich

Hmmm... I tried posting this one time, and it was on the forum, then disappeared. So I'm trying again.

I'm using PowerDirector v. 7.00.2206

I'm trying to create a documentary, where I show someone talking on screen, show a photo pertaining to something they're talking about (while their voice remains talking in the background), then cut back to them on screen as they finish their sentence.

I'll explain the way I've done it... then I'm hoping some of you experts can tell me if there is an easier way.

Let's say I have 15 seconds of video of someone talking, with accompanying audio (their voice). I want five seconds of their face and voice, five seconds of a photo while their voice continues, and then back to the final five seconds of their face and voice. Make sense?

1) I dragged video the clip into the Master Video Track
2) I split the audio out of the clip
3) I trimmed the video portion down to just the first five seconds (the audio remains whole)
4) I dragged the photo into the Master Video Track and set the duration for five seconds
5) I dragged same video clip as in step one into the Master Video Track a second time
6) I split the audio out of this second clip. This audio was placed in the music track. I then deleted this audio.
7) I trimmed the video portion of the second clip to just the LAST five seconds

So now, I have 5 seconds of video/5 seconds of photo/5 seconds of video in the Master Video Track, and the straight 15 seconds of audio (voice) in the voice track.

What I've done works. But it takes a long time. It seems like I should simply be able to place a photo ON TOP of the video, and have it show instead of the video for whatever duration I set, rather than having to A) split the audio from the video and then B) split the video into two separate segments.

Can you help me? Is there an easier way to do this?

Thanks in advance... I've seen your answers to others' questions, and I'm continually impressed with your knowledge and willingness to help.

-- Rich

First, Robert, thanks for the link to your well-written write-up.

However, I seem to be the only one still having problems. Unlike Cynthia, and unlike a user in a different thread, just reading the write-up didn't help me. Yes, now I understand the difference between the Modify and the Author tabs. But there are other issues.

Before I continue, let me say that I LOVE every other aspect of PowerDirector. What a great program! But their menu creation has to be the most difficult, least user-friendly interface since the days of DOS. I'm pretty good with these things, and I can't figure it out.

Okay, here are my questions...

1) First, do I HAVE to have two separate menu pages -- a Main Page and a Chapter Page (I'm not using Subtitles)? I'd much rather have just one page that says "Play All Chapters," and then lists the chapters individually.

2) I kind of gather the answer to my first question is yes, I DO have to have separate menu pages, a Main and a Chapter. If so, fine. It seems like I have to create each one of them separately. But how do I know which will be attached to which?

3) I input changes in my Main menu page under "Author," and it didn't save them. I read JL's nice reply to Cynthia, but really... am I required to open up Windows Explorer and navigate through the trees to modify an XML file so that PowerDirector will save my menu? I'm not really sure what JL meant by all that (it might be me... Cynthia seemed to understand), but even if I understood it perfectly, why should we have to do that?

All I want is a simple menu, with no buttons, just type. A headline, a Play All and a list of three chapters. It shouldn't be this difficult. Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance for your reply. And if the Cyberlink people are reading these forums, please bring the Menu Creation function up to the standards of the rest of the program!

I posted the question below last night, and suddenly it was gone from the forum (unless I used the "search" function)... so I thought I'd reply to it to get it to show up again.

Can anyone help? Thanks!

A year or so ago, someone in the video business built some QuickTime files for me. I've recently begun using PowerDirector 7.0 because I want to be able to do it myself.

The problem is, the files I'm getting out of PowerDirector are huge compared to the ones he provided for me... and yet, the ones he provided look at least as good, if not slightly better. Here are the specifics of two files of similar length:

QUICKTIME FILE BUILT BY SOMEONE ELSE:
Length: 2 minutes 53 seconds
File size: 10,051 KB

QUICKTIME FILE I BUILT ON POWERDIRECTOR:
Length: 2 minutes 48 seconds
File size: 98,550 KB

A few other specifics...

-- Both files were created from video extracted from a standard DVD.

-- To create the file I created, I went to the "Produce" wizard, clicked on "Create a Streaming File," then clicked on "QuickTime Movie." I first tried it with the default settings, but the file was even bigger (138,953 KB), so I custom-set it to a width of 320 and height of 240; the compressor to "Best Fidelity Codec"; the Keyframe Rate (whatever that is) to "10," the video type to "Video Codec Type" and the Video Quality to "Normal Quality." (I tried it at "Low Quality, but it looked terrible and the file was still huge. And I also tried it with "Any Codec," but that didn't change the file size.)

Can anyone help?

My bottom-line question is, how can I create a QuickTime file (as my friend in the video business did) with as small a file size as he did, which still looks just as good?

Thanks in advance.