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Hi,
I have done a lot with 8mm material as well and agree that PD is a good tool to get fair results. The fact that you have your films scanned in HD, also means that all flaws and dirt and scratches and lack of sharpness will be very visible too.
My experience is that there is no really good pre-setting to get the perfect result. It strongly depends on the shape of the source material, the scanning and the desired result. I usually cut the material into smaller clips that look similar and may require the same improvement settings and adjust the scenes as desired. Then apply the settings to other scenes (copy and paste the video (keyframe) attributes) and see what the result is. Either use it or do some further fine-tuning.
Sometimes using LUTs will help. But again, depending on the variables mentioned.
For some 8 mm film which was in the 4:3 format, I cropped the scenes to get the 16:9 format, which shows nice on nowadays screens. Of course, it depends on what the clips display whether such a cropping is not too crude.
And ... in some cases I have done not too much to the material as not to lose the charms of the old material.
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Playing with the blur effect a bit for a question in this forum, I bumped into an effect of using the blur effect that puzzled me:
- load a video clip;
- assign the blur effect to that clip; the clip will be blurred;
- then open the mask designer and apply the (new) custom selection mask;
- after OK the mask does not show in the preview screen;
- if you switch off the blur; the mask will be revealed;
- if you have the blur mask in combination with another effect, depending on the order of the effects, the mask will be visible or not
When I use one of the predefined masks in step 3 above, this mask will show as expected.
I expect that this behavior has to do with the fact that the blur effect also uses masking and that the custom made masker does not completely behave like the predefined masks (yet?).
Maybe it is meant to be, maybe not. I wonder whether you have the same observations.
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It depends a bit on what you mean with background and what you show in the foreground, but is the effects room there is the Blur option that blurs the WHOLE picture.
If there is something in the foreground too, then maybe using the same clip in a second layer with a mask?
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I just signed up to PowerDirector 365 suite 2 days ago and can not see where to download the PD 19? (I thought I had the most recent version with the plan I had?)
Use the Application manager. (See the announcement by the moderator) Can be downloaded from here:
https://www.cyberlink.com/downloads/application-manager/download_en_US.htm
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I think that you are right: UHD is available is 18 too.
Suggest that you have a look at the timeline updates at (18 is September 2019):
https://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector-video-editing-software/whats-new_en_US.html
and for Ultra and ulitmate (19 only) here:
https://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector-video-editing-software/comparison_en_US.html
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Thanks Maliek for this great overview. And so quick. My new version is still downloading over the past 6 hours
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Thanks!
Indeed I have an 365 version. I would expect that the changes applied during the release of the 18 version, might be in the soon to be expected 19 release?
And indeed, the my projects menu option in your version leads to less accidental clicking.
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This topic caught my interest.
But poking around in the UI for PD18 Ultimate, meaning: move the mouse to hover over every icon there is when a UI opens, read the label. And there isn't one for the function in the topic title: so, what button for "retrieve my projects" are you talking about??
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In the latest version of PD (mine is 18.6.3120.0) in the list of socalled "rooms" on the top hand left, the secord button is the projects button, with the My projects first. As soon as you press that (room-) button, PD starts looking for and loading projects. If you have many it will take some time, and there is no option to stop that.
The work around, as I stated might be to move projects to subfolders, so that PD ignores them. A better solution is to have that button somewhere stored away so that it can only be pressed when you want to. Also, see my remarks, it would be good to finetune the functionality of this option....
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I have done some experimentations and I wonder whether you also see the same “unexpected” behavior with this “My Projects” tab:
Within the projects folder I have the habit of using sub folders in which I story (and retrieve) the current projects. I mostly use the open project and save project menu options, and PD always has remembered the latest project folder I used so I was always directed to the latest unless I changed to a new folder.
The My projects tab however points to the projects directory and I see the following unexpected things:
- The projects are loaded when opening the my projects tab. Only those projects that are in the folder and have been saved in that folder are displayed;
If I reopen the tab there is no obvious rescanning of the projects folder.
- If I add projects (from my sub-folders) into the main directory, these projects are not displayed when opening the “my projects” tab, even not after closing and reopening PD.
- Moreover, some projects added to that main folder, are removed by PD for a reason I have not found out yet. (It is a good thing that I copied the project files .pds in their and did not move them).
- If I move the displayed projects out of the main folder, they will not be displayed when opening the My projects tab These removed projects do not re-appear when I move them back into the main folder.
- When I change the project folder into one of my sub folders, The opening of the project tab still only displays the project in the main folder. PD seems to ignore the project folder from the preferences in tab case.
- Even when I save a new project into any folder, that project is not always displayed in My projects.
- Also if I move the new project to the main project folder, this new project is not displayed.
- Projects that are opened get a place in the my projects tab display and are remembers the next time PD starts, irrespective where they sit. And even when the project or folder name are changed.
- Although in that case the renames project or project in a renames folder will not be displayed after the restart of PD.
My conclusion is that the ”my projects“ tab is unreliable and in this implementation not practical.
PD seems to only remember the projects that are saved into the projects folder. Likely it keeps a “my project list” somewhere in which projects are listed/maintained that some way or the other comply to unknown conditions, like saved in the main folder?….
And that PD does not use the project folder setting for displaying the projects in the my projects tab? And once removed from the folder, always removed, unless re-oped.
Next to the “many projects” problem indicated this unexpected behavior of the display when hitting the my projects tab, encourages me to keep using the open project and save project.[/list]
Maliek’s problem of the many projects and the endless time it takes to display them can somewhat be resolved by moving the project folder in subfolders as I did (in some logic way so that they ca be found back, no need to tell an expert like Maliek that) these projects will not display unless and until they are reopened …
I am wondering whether you see the same, and may have found clever ways to bypass this issue, like I have. I had a (quick) look at the manual, but could not find any hints there.
I am tempted to make some effort in writing a suggestion to Cyberlink with the “expected” behavior for this my project thing, including a way to stop the loading of course.
Looking forward to seeing your experiences, before I do so.
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Sorry Brian,
You will notice that Cyberlink tells us that developers do not read this Forum (it would be a good idea that they did, because it reflects a bit of what it is it keeps the community busy :-), so the suggestion is that you use the "rate us and provide suggestions" option in the File menu, to bring this suggestion to the developers.
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If you have work depending on working software it is always good to preserve a working version. In your case you have version 17 next to 18. I think that most of use have older versions at hand. My reference to the application manager was that newer versions of the 365 software are overwritten. I presume that keeping the older 17 next to the newer 18 is not possible in a 365 situation. Not being able to go back to a previous (sub-) version in case the latest release will not work or has bugs, withholds some to install the newer software despite eagerness to try the new.
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Did you try using keyframes.
In modify: depending on the type or nature of the Effect you may set the effect intensity, the strength, etc to zero. The may not work with all, but I guess with many.
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ProDAD and Andorage are “plugins” to PD. They give you a bunch of additional effects and transitions. After installation, you will find both in the effects room AND the transitions room. If you think you don’t need them, you can ignore installing them.
Maybe it is a good idea to just go and install them, if only to check whether you would need them. Note: you need to drag the icon from the effects or transition room into your time line, either over a clip (to make them applicable to the clip), or to the effects (fx) track. Once they are there you can click on them to see the modify option right above the timeline. Clicking on modify and you will see the stand-alone button. Clicking on that will open the (stand-alone) plugin, within which you can select the effects desired.
If you don’t need them you can simply uninstall them. I would never delete the installation files. I would store them with the rest in case you would need to reinstall PD on a new PC, or after the crash etc.
That also applies for the “manage activation” files. Although I have no idea what these activation files are for. I did not see them in my installation package… (I would be very cautious running files like that unless I was absolutely sure that they came with the package. I would look at instructions to see whether reference is made to them….)
Indeed, Screen Recorder 2 comes with the installation. Nothing new here in principle. Maybe there are patches and bugfixes with the new installation, or even the connection with the new PD version. Always good to have a fresh installation.
If you don’t need the wedding pack, you simply uninstall it. Again, I would recommend keeping the installation file(s); just in case.
In general, it is good to have the installation files and for that matter even the installations of older versions at hand. Suggest that you keep the installation files somewhere safe on a separate drive… But indeed, that leaves you with the manual housekeeping after installation. I think that many of use prefer it that way.
We have requested Cyberlink repeatedly to give us the option of maintaining the previous version(s) and allow to go back to these, in case the newer version has bugs or features that were dropped. The current Application Manager does not work like that, it overwrites previous versions and leaves us with no other option then to not upgrade or to backup and restore the whole systems drive (worse case).
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The PD 18.3 manual stipulates that the TV safe zone is only available in clip mode. That it is hidden in movie mode. Cyberlink must have done this for a reason. I can’t think of any reason. Suggestions anyone? If not, I suggest to ask Cyberlink to change this (In the File menu, Rate us & Povide suggestion) so that in movie mode the TV safe zone is visible too. After all, switching it off is easy.
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It is probably easier to use the Magnifier from the Effect room (FX) and use keyframes to keep up with the target. It advantage is that you have full control over size, rate, etc. The disadvatage is that you have to "track" the target yourselve.
Have a look at an example that might give you an idea on how to handle this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aDm--aPcjg
Have fun!
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I would strongly advise you to only use an alternative disk that is always online. Unpluggable disks tend to have lower transfer speeds, and if your disk management is not carefully managed and other disks may also be seen as e:disk, you likely will get problems, also you never know if and when the link to e: has to be, will be used!!
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Hi Mike,
Have a look at what has been written about installation of PD in this topic here:
https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/78985.page#325213
In brief:
You install following the order in which the files were give by Cyberlink. You start with the .exe files. There is no reason to install the 32bit versions on a 64bit operating system, unless you have other applications that potentially would make use of the 32bit programs because they are 32bit themselves.
There are members who like to keep their Windows drive as empty as possible and setup another online drive to hold supporting files, like for titles and sounds etc. Have a look at:
https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/81553.page#335572
and
https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/81752.page#336502
(You see that searching this forum is really very helpful.)
I would strongly recommend to keep the installation files somewhere safe. You don’t need them when using the application. You would only need them in case you have to re-install the application e.g. after change of PC, or reinstallation of Windows and the like.
If you are using the Application Manager, it will detect whether an application has been installed and if not allows you to download and install it from within the Manager.
In all cases I would also recommend to sign in as a member, so that you have access to a list of the products you have obtained, together with your license keys and option to download (older) versions.
Have fun
Warry
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My two cents:
PD stores the audio clip files in c:\Users\Public\Cyberlink\Downloaded Audio\
In that directory you will find a number of folders. It looks like a folder is created as soon as you play a sample and/or downloaded the clip. In each of the folders there is a .m4a file (with the tag preview in the file name), and an .mp3 file (after you have downloaded the clip).
So, PD will obviously download the files in order to play them, but thereafter apparently stores them for later. You will need an internet connection, (and the Cyberlink server will have to respond), and you need to have access to the folders in User\public…. As in the above. My assumption is that when there is no connection and/or no download because of any other type of error occurs including not being able to access or create a folder, the “Not connected to internet” message is displayed.
I would also assume that at PD installation time AND at installation of any of the audio (video etc) Packs via the Application Manager the above-mentioned folders will be accessed too. So, there were either error messages or something with the folders and/or folder access may have happened after the installation and the moment of the editing of your other video.
Maybe this helps finding any differences between your 2 systems (you say you are running PD on 2 different but identical systems?) that may cause the No Internet connection message.
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Maybe this will help you some day:
Today, when I tried to listen to some samples of background music in the Media Content tab. It did not play and it did not download and the error message I got was: you have no internet connection.
Well, I was sure that in connection was indeed working. I could even reach the Cyberlink pages and everything worked fine there.
I did some tests and some browsing, also on this forum. There were some hints in the direction of a Cyberlink server that would not work; but would that make sense since everything else worked fine. Still…
I also tried PhotoDirector and found that saving images did not work either. It even took forever to import images into the library. No error messages here; the application continued to work, but the background process remained at 5% progress.
And I discovered that in preferences, changing folders was also allowed. Apparently, the application was not allowed access to the folders I wanted to use.
The solution to the problem was close by. I recently switched on Windows 10 Ransomware protection via the Virus & Threat protection tab. Controlled folder access can be switched on and specific folders can be set to "protected". What I did not do was to allow some applications to have access to these folders.
As soon as I switched the controlled folder access OFF, everything in Power- and Photo Directors worked fine again. Leaving the protection on, via the allow an app through Controlled folder access link one can add apps (and applications) these was even the option to look at the “recently Blocked apps”, where the Cyberlink applications were listed.
I ended up having a still impressive list of “allowed” applications, but with still some protection (I should hope) from the outside world.
So, should you also get the “no internet connection" message, please also have a look at the folder protection as mentioned.
I have suggested Cyberlink, (using rate us & provide suggestions in the file menu) to change the error message so that it properly mentions the proper reason why music samples do not play and cannot be downloaded (either no internet or folder permissions, or ...) so the remedy is a bit more obvious in future.
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Best is to submit the video to Youtube WITHOUT the subtitles. And to separatly upload the .SRT file (which can be exported from PD). You can have multiple subtitles files per video. It is also possible to write subtitles using YouTube Studio.
Suggest that you look around a bit in what is possible in Youtube (and be amazed : )
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I do not seem able to reproduce what you see happening.
I can however accomplish what it you want (as far as I understand), by doing what I described in option 2:
Move the image to track 1
Move the yellow board to track 2
Change the board such that it leaves the required space or frame for the image in track 1
Move the title in the title track such that it sits needly in the yellow part
Open the PIP designer for the image
Move the time pointer (by lack of a better word), to the end of the image display
Now change the position of the image such that the desired centre of the image that should display zoomed in the final result in the centre of the frame as left by the yellow board.
Close the PIP disgner
Open the P&Z designer and also move the time pointer of the image to the end of the image display and set a keyframe, and the position the image such that it displays zoomed as required.
(You may have to repeat the PIP en P&Z steps until you are happy with the result)
The trick is, since you want to maintain the frame for the image as set by the yellow board to have the image in track 1 and the board in track 2
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