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Morris F asked: "At what point will Cyberlink review and publish user requests for PD 15?" My answer is that it's more than likely they won't publish any of them! As for the suggestions we have made thus far, I'd be very surprised if even one suggestion made it into the final version of PD15.
Let's not kid ourselves. We've been making suggestions for PD15 through this thread for, what? 6 months or more? The "boffins" at Cyberlink are not going to take the slightest bit of heed to our suggestions, they'll cram PD15 full of what THEY think we want or need.
I think this thread will turn out to be a futile execise. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm 99.98% sure I'm right.
Cheers!
Neil
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Hi, again!
Something I should've mentioned but almost forgot, a side-benefit of capturing in DVD-LP capture profile is the smaller file sizes that won't take up as much space on your hard-drive. Yep, that's just about it!
Cheers!
Neil.
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Hi!
Just in the past day I had occasion to transfer some material from VHS into an MPEG2 file so as to "burn" a short DVD for a friend. After a couple of attempts with the capture profile in both PD14(first attempt) and PD8(second attempt), I noticed a strange and unwelcome pattern of horizontal lines appearing in the resultant "grab"(capture). I resolved to reset my PD8 capture profile back to DVD-LP, problem solved! Therein lies the tip, and it is mainly for those who, like me, have both PD14 and an earlier version of Power Director living "side-by-side" on their computer. I have just now altered the capture profile in PD14 also to DVD-LP(though initially I thought that option was unavailable, I just proved myself wrong).
The tip, of course, is, whenever you're capturing such content as from a VHS or Beta VCR, or from any analogue camera tape, like Video-8 or Hi-8, capture the content using the DVD-LP profile at all times. This will ensure you don't get those "horizontal line" effects(they look, for all the world, like analogue TV scan-lines), but instead a "clean"(as clean as raw analogue can be) image, which you can touch up later, in the editing process. The touching up can be, for instance, conversion(via CLPV) of the aspect ratio, adjust colour, contrast and brightness, plus utilising Video Denoise, which, when used, can really do a fantastic job of "polishing up and smoothing out" that old analogue stock you've got stashed away in that old cupboard, you'd almost forgotten about.
Cheers!
Neil.
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Hi Carl!
Guess that shows ya just can't take a trick with that YouTube lot! But then again I did mention "mechanical copyright" which is different to, and separate from sheet music copyright. Mechanical copyright covers the actual physical recording of a performance, be it on vinyl LP, vinyl 45rpm single, cassette or digitally recorded onto compact disc. I'm not actually sure how long the copyright perod is supposed to be(perhaps it's, the lifetime of the performer[s] then 50 years past their deaths). Sheet Music Copyright applies to the printed version of the music, which any competant musician can perform at home, when the copyright lapses there, it becomes public domain, but if a recorded version is made, then the mechanical copyright provisions apply. case in point, Roy Orbison's 1963 recording of Steven Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer". The song itself had long been public domain but Orbison's recording in 1963 has a mechanical copyright that still applies. Anyone at all can sing the song without incurring a royalty claim from ASCAP, BMI, SESAC or any other copyright protection agency, but Sony Music still holds the mechanical copyright on the recording when it bought up the backlists of Fred Foster's ailing, failing Monument Record company.
Cheers!
Neil.
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From Ynotfish: ".....it's a SmartSound track (called Off The Wall) & I fully expect to get a copyright notification within minutes."
Oh, dear, Tony! They're really chasing you, aren't they? Still, the clip was impressive! There's actually a "video wall effect in the FX room in PD that I sometimes use as a transition effect(though, of itself it's not designed as such). Instead of using a transition, or, with, say, a simple "fade" transition(say 5 seconds duration) apply the Video Wall from FX room at 7 seconds duration(1 second prior, to 1 second after fade) and set the wall eefect to whichever density you want(number of images), the image goes from screen width(previous scene) out to whatever number(of images) you've set, then back to the original screen width(new scene). It's quite a stunning effect.
Cheers!
Neil.
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Silly thing this is, really!
I get notified by email of a reply to my post, click on it, only to find it WAS my post! As someone famous once said.... Nyaaaahhhh, what's up, Doc(s)? What's a-goin' on here?
Cheers!
Neil.
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Quote:
As a great philosopher once said, "Good grief!"
How did we get from SmartSound licensing & YouTube to comparing tutorial makers' methods? Neil - I'd respond to your suggestion if it were in any way loosely related to the topic.
I don't know about Maliek or anyone else, but the PDtoots team has jointly invested $2000+ in SmartSound music. Yes - we use it as it's intended & we do it often.
If others choose to do things differently, that's cool... but it really has nothing to do with this issue.
Cheers - Tony
Hi, Tony!
That philosopher you quoted wouldn't be Charlie Brown* by any chance, would he? ha-ha. (*character in Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" comics). I got there by responding to CS2014's post. I was comparing the tutorials you produce, using SmartSound background music, against those of Maliek Whitaker(is that with one or two t's?)in his PD University tutorial videos, which I'm fairly sure you must've seen as they pop up through these forum pages. You'd have had plenty of chances to see how he presents his tutorials, as contrasted to your method. I wondered if you may have been "slugged" with claims by AdRev on the music you used in making your tutorials, even while you are using the music as it's intended to be used. Clearly you have been, otherwise you'd not have started this thread. A thought had occurred just now as I type this.... Classical music(Bach, Chopin, Beethoven, and suchlike) is deemed as in the "PUBLIC DOMAIN", you could use some of that, perhaps, but then again, mechanical copyright(copyright applying to the physical recording, on CD, cassette or vinyl) might be the bugbear. Still, you might want to look into it.
Cheers!
Neil
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Hi, again(in my last post I had an attack of Keyboard Gremlins, what was supposed to be "Hi" ended as "Ph")
Just staying on the main subject of burning a file in excess of 2 hours 21 minutes, I've not noted any perceivable loss in image quality by burning at DVD-SP grade, if anything, at DVD-SP the resultant discs are more stable and not subject to stuttering and freezing on a domestic player. I have burned one or two in HQ and noted stutter and freeze, and I've burned one or two in DVD-LP and noted severe pixelation, so DVD-SP is the "happy medium" in this case, 'Tis a pity PD14 does not accomodate this facility, that is why I retain PD8.
Just noting also the question(nicely snuck in under the radar, there, ha-ha) about smoothing and noise removal, I agree with Jeff(JL_JL). The facility is really only of a benefit to you if your capturing old analogue VHS(and VHS-C), Beta, Video-8 and Hi-8 camera tapes. And then should only be applied to the final captured file. I have seen for myself that the process can work wonders with this old analogue stuff. Add CLPV to that mix and you could just-about "con" anyone into believing you shot that material digitally! The only thing that might give the game away is the mono audio(but then there are/were some "el-cheapo" digital cameras marketed by a well-known department store that only had a mono microphone...they were absolute "crap" and not even worth the small price paid for them). There were some excellent VHS-based hi-fi cameras about that gave great stereo audio. Processing their content, you really could fool your friends into thinking the stuff was digitally-shot. Transferring it all to DVD, we come back to the original theme of this thread, cramming it all onto a 4.7GB single-layer(DVD-5) disc, and that's where older versions of Power Director truly come into their own as they provide the facility for DVD-SP authoring.
Cheers!
Neil
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Quote:
Just be glad your not making tutorials that you want to post for everyone to see Neil  !
CS
Yeah, CS, I've saved myself a heck of a lot of grief there! I've watched some of Ynotfish's PDToots segments, and they, each one that I've seen, have used SmartSound in their audio. I've also seen a few of Maliek Whitaker's PD University tutorials, he fronts the segments himself and uses no music, just a voice-over to explain what he's doing. I wonder of Tony and Maliek have ever "compared notes", as they are both doing the same thing but using different methods.
Cheers!
Neil.
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Methinks that old culprit GeForce may well be the villain of the piece here again. Seems to be popping up a lot of late, Hmmm....!
Cheers!
Neil.
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Hi, Gary!
Sounds like some unforseen trouble with your programme. Somewhat curious too! Surely Power Director should not behave in this manner. There may be, just may be, a fix in "Preferences" that you might want to look for in trying to solve this issue. I might be clutching at straws on this next guess but I wonder if perhaps you may have mixed file types(MPEG2, MP4, AVI, WMV....) on your timeline? This one might need a bit of a group-think from Carl312, Ynotfish, Dafydd B and anyone else who as any ideas and might offer a solution. This one's a real doosey!
Cheers!
Neil.
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Hi,
This reminds me of why I always use a dedicated device for capturing video, a video-camera! I recently bought one of these types of phone of my neighbour(private sale). It had a camera in-built and a slot for micro-SD card to store any video or stills, but I made up my mind that it would ONLY be used for its primary function - as a phone! I have video cameras, three(one has gone a "funny" with its monitor screen just showing white - no image) so I bought a replacement. I have an earlier-model camera which still works okay but I haven't used for a while, I'm contemplating a special use for it to shoot video through the windscreen of my car as I'm driving.
I see quite a bit of video content shot by these so-called "I-Phones" at different times, and all-too-often the users are holding them up in "portrait" aspect instead of "landscape" aspect. That's the reason why the image above looks as it does(even removing the "blur" filler, either side of the image). You you gotta use these things, turn them on their side! Then there won't be any need to "correct" the image when it comes to editing.
Cheers!
Neil.
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Hi, all!
For a start, you shouldn't need to "unlink" the video and audio tracks. Now I've said that, I'll get to the crux of this matter.
The problem for 989Tim989 is that the following tools, split, modify, trim, fix/enhance, power tools and keyframe, disappear from their space, just above the timeline as he is working. Well, 989Tim989, the first thing I might gather is that you're working with(probably) several clips strung together on the timeline(Track 1), yes? Okay, You want to adjust each "clip" individually and want to apply a little of what Fix/enhance and Power Tools can do to each clip? Simple enough, as you go along your timeline, click on each clip in turn to highlight it, the tools will appear to allow you to perform whichever task you want on each clip.
Cheers!
Neil.
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Ph, Peter, Jeff and Tom.
This is the very reason why I chose to keep PD8 on my computer alongside PD14, because PD8 CAN burn two hours and 21 minutes successfully to a standard 4.7GB single-layer(DVD-5) disc. I've often said this in previous posts but I'm one who wants to get the most out of a disc. As well as editing my own stuff, I'm often editing content for a friend of mine, and often we might combine our material for a potentially interesting video. Each year, the two of us will travel up to Maitland in NSW for the annual Steamfest, This event, centred on Maitland's historic railway station, brings together steam locomotives and vintage passenger carriages, all lovingly restored and maintained by the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. As well as these(but not exactly steam-powered) are vintage diesel-powered rail motors like the 620/720-class 1961/2-vintage cars that used to run between Newcastle and Maitland from 1962 to the late 1980s, and the even-older CPH "Tin Hare" motors of 1923 vintage. My friend and I will spend nearly all day shooting video of these vintage locos and rail motors, then I'll grab his content(on a flash-drive) and combine it with what I've shot and the resultant video may well run to over two hours, depending on how much we shoot(and how long our camera batteries last, ha-ha). So to accommodate all this, I want to be alble to burn to a disc in a way that will hold it all without "hiccups"! That's where PD14 comes in for editing it all, then PD8 for the final disc authoring stage. PD8 allows me to set the authoring at DVD-SP and the process of "burning" takes about 18 to 25 minutes to complete.
Cheers!
Neil.
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Quote:
Quote:
IHello Douglas,
You could copy the finished project(produced) to a flash drive, or as you call them in the USA, "thumb-drives", then plug that into the computer at the funeral parlour where your memorial service is taking place. It's likely many(if not all) funeral parlours have such facilities these days. Your presentation would run on either VLC or Windows Media Player.(you'll save a DVD for other uses, or for the memorial if you wish to burn it at a later date.)
Cheers!
Neil.
Thanks tomasc and Neil. Great suggestion about using a thumb-drive. I guess I can plug the thumb-drive into a laptop and the laptop into a large TV which would display the show.
When I produce the slideshow for a thumb-drive what "file format" do I select?
What "profile type"?
What Profile name/Quality?
So my understanding is if I produce the slideshow for a thumb-drive the shimmering will go away without the need to remove the pan and scan on the photos?
Thanks guys. I appreciate your knowledge and input. Doug
Hi, Douglas,
In relation to your questions about what file format to put on your flash/thumb drive, really doesn't matter, if it's to be played via a laptop computer, but possibly MPEG2 HQ, or MP4 will do the trick. Profile name/quality? That's already been answered, HQ! MP4 is already a HQ file type, but the two I've mentioned are good in that they can be rendered(produced) quickly and not take up too great an amount of space on your flash drive(Our term)/thumb drive(Your term).
Cheers!
Neil.
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Carl312: "Youtube is all about ad revenue"
Hi, Tony, Carl & CS!
That remark of yours, Carl, pretty-much sums it all up! YouTube are just chasing Big Bucks! So much for "social media"! If YouTube are even going to "have a go" at you, even for music you've created yourself, it just seems to me they're trying to make life difficult for their end-users. YouTube may well cop it in the neck at the end, when everyone gets sick and tired of having to justify their use of Smartsound Music, or even their own musical creations and starts dropping off, leaving YouTube without any content, they'll realise too late the folly of their behaviour. As for me, I'm just steering clear of the whole damned mess. And Tony, that's what I've been on about in my previous posts in this thread. Why should I bang my head against a brick wall, trying to negotiate the legal "niceties(?)" of music that's supposed to be "cleared" for such use but still gets challenged? It's just not worth all the grief!
Cheers!
Neil.
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Quote:
Thanks for the response.
So are you saying that if I want to burn to a DVD I need to eliminate any movement of the photos. For me that's one of the important aspects of a good slideshow. Without photo movement slideshows are boring.
I'm going to be showing this memorial slideshow in a funeral home. Is there another way to produce the slideshow other than burning a DVD? Would saving it to a tablet or phone and then somehow outputting the show to a large smart TV display work?
Thanks for your time.
Hello Douglas,
You could copy the finished project(produced) to a flash drive, or as you call them in the USA, "thumb-drives", then plug that into the computer at the funeral parlour where your memorial service is taking place. It's likely many(if not all) funeral parlours have such facilities these days. Your presentation would run on either VLC or Windows Media Player.(you'll save a DVD for other uses, or for the memorial if you wish to burn it at a later date.)
Cheers!
Neil.
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99 Chapters? Ouch! That's one heck of a lot of chapters to be putting onto a video! I usually limit myself to about 15 or 20 chapters, depending on the length of the video, if it's going to run for at least an hour, that is. If it's a 30-minute job, probably 5 chapters will do, but if it's really short, like 5 minutes, then it becomes the chapter itself, in among other clips of roughly the same length.
Cheers!
Neil.
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Quote:
Neil -
That's very interesting... and if all I wanted to do was make DVDs for family and friends that'd be fine.
BUT - most of my family and friends have no interest in viewing video tutorials, so I'd rather post them where people who might can see them.
I shared this little incident for members who might experience a similar thing.
Cheers - Tony
Hi, Tony!
"That's very interesting!" Were you behind a tree wearing a German army helmet when you typed that?(ha-ha). You have a reason to be on YouTube with your "PDToots!" tutorial segments, I don't have such a reason. But do you do home movies at all, other than your tutorials? Like, for instance, I'm waiting for April this year when Maitland holds its annual "Steamfest", where steam locomotives are shown off in all their splendour. Before that, though, is Easter(late March) when I'm off on my (almost) annual Easter camping trip to Nundle.... Nundle? It's a small town in the New England region of New South Wales. It was a one-horse town but the horse got bored and ran away. When I shoot videos on these, will I use music? Maybe, then again, maybe not, depends on my mood when I edit the material I've shot.
Cheers!
Neil.
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Hello Mark!
I'm in agreement with Carl312 in this issue. You've brought a clip into Power Director 14(Ultimate, Ultra...? Which version?, out of interest), before you've done anything with it in PD, you've taken it across to Colour Director, and "tinkered" with it, then brought that version back to PD14 and it runs at 1-5th speed! Okay. Use that 1-5th speed for the moment only to verify that the image is as you've made it in Colour Director, when you're satisfied in that respect, produce(render) the video in PD14 to whichever file type you want. MPEG2, MP4 are fairly quick to produce but AVCHD can take up to an hour on a short 5-minute clip, longer still if the clip runs any longer. It's for that reason alone that I avoid AVCHD. Tried it once... no, thanks!
Once your clip has been "produced" it will then run at normal speed, and if you hadn't already done so, you can now use that produced clip for editing purposes.
Cheers!
Neil.
By the way, where in Australia are you? Just the region will suffice as your answer, as you can see, I'm in Port Stephens, not too far north of Newcastle.
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Quote:
I am new to Power Director and created my first video on blu ray. When I preview the disc before burning everything works great but after the disc is burned the navigation buttons on the scene menu disappear. They are there but invisable. I have tried reloading the program, recreating new menus, using different nav. buttons etc. but nothing has worked. Does anyone know how to fix this problem? Is there a bug in the power director program regarding menus? Thank you!
Hello, Stacey!
Chapters in a video need to be set whilst the video is on the timeline. This can be done in three ways, 1) Set chapters evenly by number of chapters[you determine how many chapters you want in the video]. 2) Set chapters evenly by time[this depends on the length of your video, if, say 25 minutes, and you select 5 minute spacing, then four chapter markers will appear, at 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes respectively, if the video is slightly longer than the 25 minutes, a fifth marker will appear at 25 minutes]. 3) Set the chapters randomly at your own discretion[you watch your video and set chapter markers by clicking the C+ icon at your chosen points]. There is a fourth option which, if you've used several different videos and strung them together on the timeline, will insert a chapter marker at the beginning of each video. When you've set your chapters, then you switch to "create Disc" and you'll see your naviigation buttons on the screen in your menu. Hope this is of help.
Cheers!
Neil.
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