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I sure hope Cyberlink reads these forums for suggestions/bugs/complaints (of program functionality)
Russell1967
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I have a project that has 4 DVD-extracted videos (a 1:1 extraction, no re-rendering done - using VOB2MPG Pro. This retains all of the audio, subtitle and closed captioning tracks intact) with chapters and subtitles. When I test preview the project within PD12, everything works as expected, but the final render created no sound in 3 of the 4 videos - even though sound channels are present in the .m2ts files, they have no actual sound in them! On the 'Video and Audio Settings' section of the '2D Disc' tab on the 'Create Disc' tab I had selected 'Dolby Digital' and '5.1'. Don't see how/why this would be a problem, but I'm currently re-rendering the project with the default 'LPCM' and '2 Channels' options to see if that is the problem.
Anyone else have projects render without sound? I have plenty of HD space, power (i5 3.8Ghz) and memory (32GB) so I don't think it ran out of resources. But even if it did, the program should have informed me "Hey, I don't have what I need to do the sound!", etc.
Russell1967
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The subtitle room has a lot of room for improvement. For one thing, it doesn't seem to fully support the .srt format: formatting tags like "<i>" and "</i>" (for start/end italics) get printed on the screen verbatim, etc.
For another thing, it seems to be EXTREMELY slow to process. Loading into your project and even just selecting lots of lines of subtitles takes FOREVER (I selected "select all" from the right-click menu in the subtitles room and it took over 15 *MINUTES* to select the lines. REALLY?)
If you select a range of lines and then Ctrl-click one line (to un-select it), the window resets to line number one so that you have to scroll back down to where you were.
There's no search and replace for the subtitle room (to remove those pesky "<i>" occurrances) and no ability to shift the subtitles forward and backward by a certain amount of time.
Some video files, such as .mpg files de-muxed directly from a DVD, have subtitle and closed caption information embedded in the file, but PD12 can not see them. If I play these files with a media player such as VLC I can select subtitle and/or closed captions tracks and they appear on the screen when played, so they are there in the video file.
Anyway, these are additions to just the subtitle room I would like to see. I wonder what new and improved features we will actually see in PD13?
Russell1967
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The power button does no good because the signal is still transmitted even if it's off. I went in to the "Catalyst Control" program (it's an ATI graphics card) and disabled the monitor. The nice part about this approach is that if I need it again I can reactivate it without having to shut down first (It's a big no-no to plug in a monitor while your system is on).
In the near future I'm going to upgrade my gfx card to one with at least 2 GB of video memory so I can just leave the second monitor on all the time (It is actually very useful, even when just using the Windows desktop).
Russell1967
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It would certainly be nice to have even more flexibility in creating DVD/Bluray menus. I think it's adequate for the average person, though. There are other programs available both commercial and free that can do more if needed. It just depends on the needs of the user and how much they're willing to pay.
With that said, I do find it slightly odd that Cyberlink makes one of the most popular DVD/Bluray *players* for PCs (PowerDVD - So they obviously know their way around the structure of a DVD or Bluray), but doesn't make a high level DVD/Bluray authoring program (as far as I know).
Russell1967
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Well, I put in about 6 suggestions, so we'll see what happens!
What menu changes do you mean?
Russell1967
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Nice. Thanks! Have you found them to be receptive to suggestions, or do they tend to "do their own thing" when it comes to adding features?
Russell1967
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Just wondering if Cyberlink reads these forums for program bugs, and/or feature requests. For those of us who use it a lot I'm sure we have tons of suggestions for better workflow, more flexibility, etc. Is there a proper place to put these comments?
Russell1967
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Hello all.
I recently posted a message about my final DVD rendering not having any sound (and sometimes - I didn't mention this - the video is just a green background WITH sound), even though the 'preview' of the DVD works perfectly. I think I've found the cause:
My system has two monitors, which is very handy for video editing because you can use one of the monitors for full screen preview while using the other one for the timeline, etc. But, I got to thinking that perhaps that other screen is using up too much video memory. If I'm not mistaken, the GPU accelerator to help speed up rendering and some effects, etc, needs to run in the video card's own memory. With 'only' 1GB of video memory to start with and two screens to take care of, there just wasn't enough available video memory to hold all of the data needed for the GPU to do its thing. I disconnected my second monitor and the problem went away.
If this IS the problem, I'd like to make a suggestion to Cyberlink. If the GPU accelerator program reports that there is not enough video memory to do its thing, please notify the user so that they can take steps to fix the situation such as disconnecting the secondary monitor like I did, or upgrading their video card to one with more memory and/or more powerful chipset, etc.
Russell1967
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Part of the reason is that Cyberlink uses their own proprietary user interface (not using Microsoft Windows' own buttons, panels, drop-down boxes, etc.), which doesn't seem to have the screen refresh issues worked out completely. It gives their program a distinctive look, but comes at a price (screen & window elements are sometimes not updated on-time or at all).
Russell1967
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True! I once had a Lexmark printer driver that would continuously eject blank sheets from the printer, one after the other until it was empty, as soon as the desktop came up. Un-installed, re-installed several times. Never did find the problem. Bought another Lexmark (different model) and had more weird problems with it. To this day I refuse to buy another Lexmark, no matter what the reviews or price.
Anyway, take care!
Russell1967
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Yeah, that was my first thought, but when I reloaded the project it was not muted. Two thoughts come to my mind on this note:
One, if a sound track is muted (especially if it is the only audio track), it would be a good idea for PD to give a warning before rendering, a la "Warning: This video production has no active audio track! Render anyways?". And two, if the audio track(s) is/are muted, they should also be muted in the preview so that it would tip off the user.
I never was able to pin down the culprit, but what made it a little unusual was that it actually rendered an audio track - it was just totally silent (VLC media player showed that that there actually was an audio stream - Tools/Media Information menu).
Anyway, it's only happened this one time. Maybe it was just a fluke. Of course I'll report back if it happens again.
Russell1967
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This has only happened once, so maybe it was something I did, but on one of my recent projects, the preview disk option (from the 'Create Disk' tab) works perfectly, but the final DVD has no sound. Actually, the menu intro and main menu have sound, but not the actual videos. And the strange thing is, there *is* a sound track, but it is totally silent.
The project was just two SD television shows with a subtitle track. Nothing special, really.
Anyone else have this happen before?
Russell1967
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I haven't checked this, but, does anyone know if PD is built to take advantage of multiple threads/cores? I'll check Task Manager when I get home.
As for video card speedup assistance, my GPU is pretty old (ATI HD4850) and the hardware encoding of PD doesn't seem to work with certain operations on my system (I have the latest drivers). I've thought of upgrading my vid-card to take better advantage of the GPU accelerator features of PD, but I can't find a cheap (~$150) one that is also better than the one I already have. Any suggestions?
Russell1967
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That's true, Jeff. That's why I set mine as my OS drive instead of as a source video/audio drive. This way, your entire system benefits from the increase in speed. The biggest help for me was lots of system memory, though. Having both has made a very noticeable difference in the workability of Windows 7 as a whole and PD specifically. My mom's Windows Vista system is maxed out at 2GB RAM and it is torture (for me) to use. Luckily, she uses it mainly for email, web browsing and hidden object games - Nothing too strenuous.
Russell1967
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If I'm reading it right, the shortcut key for adding a chapter marker at the current slider location is shift-m, but this doesn't seem to do anything even when the timeline has the focus. Strangely, there is no context menu option (right-click on the timeline) for adding a chapter, no convenient button above the timeline and not even a top menu item for it, like in the 'Edit' menu!
So, I have to be 'in' the chapter room and click the 'C+' button. No problem, except when you switch from the subtitle room to the chapter room your timeline slider is reset to zero! Very annoying. Going the other way, from the chapter room to the subtitle room, keeps the slider where it is: As it should.
Am I missing something?
And speaking of the subtitle room, I have to say Cyberlink has done a pretty good job with it. I only wish I could go to the next subtitle in the list without having to click that down arrow or clicking my mouse, etc. Why can't I 'tab' to the next line or some other keyboard shortcut? I use keyboard shortcuts a lot.
Anyway, I've tons of ideas for improving PD. Just give me a call, Cyberlink! 
Russell1967
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If you have a lot of system RAM, say 16GB or more*, then using some of that RAM as a virtual disk drive can DRASTICALLY speed up rendering as RAM speed has at least 10 times faster access times even compared to really fast SSD drives.
There are many options for RAM disks, but I just found one that is free and does not have any size limits, unlike the 'free-for-personal-use' RAMDisk from DataRAM (Excellent program, but the free version is limited to 4GB drive sizes). ImDisk is easy to use, either from the command line or using its GUI applet from Control Panel. Here's a rundown on how to use it from the command line and also how to get it to create the RAM drive on startup if you want: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=356046 (Further down the page are more advanced uses, such as copying Windows' PAGE file to it, etc.)
Tutorials can be found on Youtube for setting up a RAM Disk using the ImDisk GUI. Here's one: http://youtu.be/yOWCo55KtXY
The main part starts at 20 seconds. It is sped up (Why? I don't know), but it's pretty simple to follow.
Russell1967
* = Remember, Windows 7 Starter and Home Premium (even 64 bit) are capped by Microsoft to support only a certain amount. Home Premium supports up to 16GB, no matter how much you actually have in your system. Home Basic supports 8GB and Starter only supports 2GB! You'll need Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate to access more (up to 192GB). All versions in their 32 bit varieties are limited to 4GB. This is a hardware limitation, not an artificial cap.
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If you are the owner (duh!) of the system then you are most likely the system administrator as well. Try this:
In the start menu search box, type cmd and hit Control-Shift-Enter (It will ask you if you want such and such to make changes to your computer. Click Yes). This will open a command console with elevated privileges. Now you can do what you want with CHKDSK - add those parameters, etc.
If not, then for some reason you don't have enough 'permission'. (This should work, though).
Let us know what happens, and if it finds anything.
Russell1967
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"Great chatting with yhou."
Same here
I think Paragon is the one I use for shrinking/expanding partitions and creating new ones, etc. Never ran into those kinds of errors. They have a commercial version of that program that may be able to tell you exactly what the problem is.
As far as cross-link errors, try running Windows' own scandisk on the C: drive/partition to see if it sees the same errors. Usually it can fix them automatically, too. Then you should be able to do the normal partition shrink with Paragon. Let me know how it goes. (I used to have a program years ago called "Partition Commander" that I really liked, but I can't use it anymore because although it boots, the graphics are completely garbled. I think VTech, the maker, is no longer in business. Oh well, I have a free alternative that works great!
Too bad our hobbies can't always fund themselves!
Russell1967
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I don't do video editing professionally, but can't stand having lags and slow response times when I am editing some video or whatever, so I looked around and, over a period of several years, kept upgrading various things in my system to make it a pleasure to use. PD helps in this capacity because it has been 99% rock solid for me. Another video editor I had years ago (It rhymes with "Spinnacle Fludio") use to crash ALL. THE. TIME. It was maddening. I thought it might be my system, but after checking various user reviews (something I should have done before I bought it...), crashing is a very common occurrence with that program.
Anyway, for my own personal needs, my setup is great! I have two monitors (My mom gave me her old one when she bought a bigger one so her and my dad can play games on it together - My parents are really cool), and that's nice to have so that I can have the preview full screen while using the main monitor for the timeline, etc. At the time, I couldn't quite afford an i7 so I bought a fast unlocked i5. I can upgrade to an i7 later, but not the newest Haswell i7 because it's a different socket type (1150 instead of 1155). It really irks me sometimes. DDR3 and DDR2 are pin incompatible, so you can't transfer your old memory. Newer CPUs have their own socket configurations, so you can't bring your old processor (usually). It's a conspiracy!
Anyway, my advice is: get the fastest components you can comfortably afford and that make sense for what you are going to use your system for. Lean towards fast storage and lots of memory!
Russell1967
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RAID is soooo much easier to do these days as compared to when it first debuted. In fact, many middle-of-the-road motherboards support RAID right out of the box: Just plug in 2 or more drives and set a few things in the BIOS, etc and you're ready to go. The new "lightning" interface drives make it even easier, although not that many motherboards support it out of the box yet.
But yeah, if you're doing this professionally or semi-professionally it's best to keep it as simple as possible and not clog up your system with unnecessary programs that can waste space and even interfere/conflict with your main software, whatever that might be. Basically, we're talking about a dedicated workstation for editing.
Russell1967
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