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Just got a new computer . . . do I install the original version of PD7 first, then download only the latest patch? I think I read in an earlier post that is what I'm supposed to do. Everything is real clean right now and I don't want to mess anything up!
Thanks,
Cindy
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Thanks James,
I don't have a HD camera yet. Right now I'm just importing old analog film and regular digital tape. I just wasn't sure whether I should save them to .avi or .mpeg2 because there was a big difference in file size. I'm starting to get a little low on hard drive space, but I will be getting a new computer with a 1T hard drive soon!
I'm still a little confused about bit rate and how that affects the quality of the finished product . . . can you explain?
Thanks for the info!
Cindy
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Thanks for the youtube link! That looks more up my alley! Unfortunately, I got this project thrown in my lap and I'm under the gun to finish it today so I just put the pics in reverse order and increased the speed of the music. Slideshows in reverse don't look as good as video, but I think they will get the effect.
I do have another question for someone . . . In a previous post on both this thread and a thread I had on transitions, it was mentioned several times to "produce (or save to a file)" the project in parts and bring it into a master project. My question is . . . . which is the best type of file to produce? Could someone give me a little "primer" and an example of when its best to save files to an .avi, .mpeg1, .mpeg2, divx, etc? Advantages? Disadvantages?
Thanks,
Cindy
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I was afraid of that - thanks for the information!
Cindy
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James and Adrian -
Thank you for your suggestions. Good ideas and I plan on trying them today.
Adrian . . . I watched your traffic video in reverse on dafydd's web site. It was pretty cool! You mentioned in your post some 3rd party software. Is it available to download for free? I also read your post on how you reversed the video - sounds a little over my "pay level" - is it really difficult?
Thanks,
Cindy
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I'm having a little problem with transitions in my slideshow. Say I have 100 pictures in the slide show. The first 25 I select (using the click/shift/click) I use a fade transition. The next 25 I select (using the click/shift/click) I assign a random transition. What ends up happening is the entire slideshow turns into random transitions (even though the first 25 weren't selected). Then I have to individually go back and re-assign fades to the 1st 25.
Why does this happen and is there a way to assign random transitions only to selected pictures without the whole slideshow turning into random transitions? Or am I doing something wrong?
Thanks,
Cindy
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I remember seeing a post a while back asking this question but I was not able to find that post.
Is it possible to create a short slideshow in the slideshow creator (say 30-45 seconds), then take that same slideshow and run it in reverse (quickly)?
I'm trying to create something of a "here's the end, but how did we get there effect?" for the beginning of my production.
I don't think PD can do this, but is there any work-around to create this effect?
Thanks,
Cindy
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Thanks for the information. I thought it was kind of strange. I'm working with the 2429a build right now and everything's working fine, so I think I'll just leave it for now. Cindy
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Thanks for the information . . . Since I didn't get as far as yall of uninstalling PD7 I didn't get the error messages. I'm still trying to decide if I even need the patch as I haven't had any trouble and have some important upcoming projects to complete.
I'm going to have to get my glass of wine before I get brave enough to dig through the uninstalling and reinstalling of PD7.
I do have a question . . . since you were successful with the 2519 patch, did you have to re-download any templates that you may have gotten from Director Zone? I have a pretty nice collection and don't want to start over. AND, did you have any additional music that you may have purchased from Smartsound company (they provide the music in the magic music section). Don't want to have to reinstall thoses cds again either!
Thanks,
Cindy
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I downloaded PD build 2519 onto 2 of my computers with PD 7 running windows XP. On one of the computers, it installed fine with no messages. On the other computer, the patch installation told me that it would have to uninstall PD before proceeding. I remember uninstalling PD for a previous patch and it was a huge mess - I had reinstall the whole program and music files, etc. and it took me hours. Needless to say, I didn't uninstall the progam and therefore the patch did not install.
Is there any way around installing the patch without uninstalling the whole progam? It doesn't make sense to me as the main program is well over 100 MB and this patch is only 50 MB. It seems like the patch would just overwrite the old files like it did on my other computer.
Any ideas?
Cindy
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Is PD able to import and play animated .gif images? I can import them, but the animation doesn't work.
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I was finding that I couldn't get rid of some of those windows either and just re-sized them and put them outside the video safe zone. Works well.
On another topic with the menus . . . I have downloaded several menus from Director Zone. In particular, I downloaded the one named "TV Wall" although this happens with all of the menus I have tested.
I have a video I want to burn. I don't want the 1st video to show up on the main page. Instead, I want a photo which I put at the beginning of the timeline. I thought the menu designer would just pick up that first photo since it's at the beginning. Instead, it picks up the first video. I tried to go into Menu Designer, but it won't let me change it. It will only let me change the background picture which I don't want to do. Is there any way to customize the first view (photo or video) on the main page of the menus?
Also, can I customize how many buttons I want on a page? It seems like when I pull up different menus, the buttons per page are pre-set and you can't change them.
Althought I have been using PD for a couple of years, I have not had a need to use the menus until now - Dafydd, are there any of your great tutorial videos I can watch?
Thanks,
Cindy
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I have been viewing some of the tutorials and videos posted on the Cyberlink channel on YouTube and they are quite good. Much more informative than trying to read the Help manual!
There are several posts labeled as "templates" by several contributors. My question is, are they available for us to download and are they safe to download? If they are, how do we go about it?
Thanks,
Cindy
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Hi Walker -
Again, thank you for all that good information! I've even passed your thoughts onto a friend that is also interested in a new camcorder . . .
Can I borrow your OCD brain again for a few more questions?
1. OK, say I buy this HD camcorder with the flash memory. I'm a little concerned that this HD video is just going to gobble up all my free hard drive space. Do you have any idea how many MB of say, 1 hour of HD video takes, as compared to standard definition?
2. Next question . . . I pull everything into PD7, edit, add music, etc. When I get ready to burn it, do I have to have have a special DVD burner or special DVDs to produce the final video?
3. Finally, you mentioned a fast CPU . . . I have a Pentium D 2.8 GHz with 1.5 GB of RAM running XP. It's a couple of years old, but I have resisted getting a new one because I'm still not completely sold on VISTA yet. I have VISTA on my laptop and it just doesn't seem to be as stable as XP at this point even with all the service packs.
I think that's all for now!
Thanks,
Cindy
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Hi Walker,
Thanks for the great information and the links to the videos. I currently have a Canon still camera and have always liked it for quality and reliability. This camcorder sounds like something I would use and I especially like the flash memory to transfer to my computer.
I have a couple more questions if you (or someone) could answer for me:
1. The camera looked just a bit small . . . did you find that a problem as far as the stability? Ya know, sometimes you can just get TOO small!
2. When using a high definition camcorder, can you ever switch to standard definition? I can see having the same concerns that you have about sharing your video projects with people who don't have blu-ray players (like me), but I assume your HD project would play in standard definition on a regular DVD player - right? Or can PD7 convert HD to standard definition?
3. Finally, is MPEG4 going to be the new standard video format? Although I've been home video-editing for quite a while, most of my stuff has been importing from my digital tape, old analog tapes and vhs players. I do have a small Sanyo camera/camcorder that writes to a memory card, but it's just OK quality. Does MPEG4 have any drawbacks?
Thanks,
Cindy
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IF one was going to ask Santa for a new camcorder for Christmas, which camcorder would that person ask for?
I am looking for a camcorder that would be the most compatible with PD7. Right now I'm using a Sony Handycam with a DV tape. I connect it with a firewire and it transfers to PD perfectly. However, this camcorder is rather old and there are some really nice new ones out there that I'm considering. I don't need the very expensive professional cameras (maybe less than $700-$800), but I want something that is reliable and transferrable.
Can anyone help me with features such as:
1. Brand (Sony has worked well so far, but I've seen on this site references to Canon, too)?
2. Hard drive . . . digital tape . . . mini-dvd? (I've about ruled out the mini-dvd since it only holds 30 minutes of video).
3. Regular digital or high-definition? (I've been told high-def just eats up space on your hard drive and takes a long time to transfer).
4. And very important, compatibility with PD7?
Anything else?
Thanks,
Cindy
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Can Power Director open a MV4 Podcast File? I thought this was the same as a mpeg file . . . I downloaded a podcast of a high school soccer game that was on our school board's web site. It downloaded into itunes and played fine (I downloaded into itunes because that is how I was told to do it). I'd like to open it up in Power Director, maybe edit it a little or take some clips from it and burn it onto a DVD. Is that possible and if it is, how do I do this? I tried to import it into PD and it didn't even recognize the file.
Thanks,
Cindy
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Thanks for the info . . . . I was thinking the exact same thing, but I just needed someone else to tell me in case I was missing something!
I've looked at some of those content packs and they look pretty cool, but are kinda expensive. Have you ever seen Cyberlink run a "special" like buy one get one free? If you buy them all, it's more than PD itself!
Some of the free content from Director Zone is pretty good. I've downloaded quite a few pieces from the site. There are some very creative people out there - and I appreciate it!
Thanks,
Cindy
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Can someone compare Power Director to Power Producer? I've been a PD user for a couple of years now and have been very pleased with it. However, Cyberlink keeps sending the "discount specials" on some of their other products from time to time and it keeps tempting me to try some of their other products. It just seems as though PD does the same thing as Power Producer and more. Is there any reason I would need Power Producer? And for that matter Power DVD? (I don't watch movies on my PC.)
I've looked at their comparisons charts, but I need some practical advice.
Thanks,
Cindy
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I think I must be having a "senior moment". Can someone guide me through the "green screen" effect? I need to take out the background of an short video and I can't seem to find in the help section of PD 7 of how to do it.
Thanks,
Cindy
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Thanks to both of you for the information. I was able to access the downloaded files in the directory that dafydd recommended. Actually, each extracted file had in its directory at least a .png or .jpeg file that I was easily able to to copy & paste into the dvd printing software.
It looks like most of the files the creators use are just standard stock photos and/or clip art & fonts that they have manipulated to make the project. Hope there isn't a problem using them as long as we don't sell them . . .
I do have another couple of questions about the director zone templates:
1. After I download and extract them, can I delete the the .dzt files or do they have to stay on my hard drive for me to use the templates?
2. If I "accidently" download the same template twice, it looks like it shows up twice in my workspace (unless one is a regular size and one is widescreen size). Can I delete one and the other one will still be there?
3. Finally, is there a way to rename the templates in my workspace to a name that is something more meaningful to me? I have tried to rename the file when I download it, but it still seems to still extract out to the original name. Although the German and French languages are beautiful, this English-only speaking American can't decipher them - sorry!
Thanks,
Cindy
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