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Their email response hasn't reached me yet but it's a long way from there to Australia!
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Just a comment about SVRT, it seems a bit of a waste to me.
I think it's too big a can of worms to be worth worrying about. I used to consider that some form of 'smart rendering' was essential in a video editing app, but as you say, as soon as you use effects, titles, transitions, or any other feature, smart rendering won't work. It also won't work if you have a mixture of resolutions in the timeline (eg from the Panasonic GH1 which offers different flavours of AVCHD to meet the needs of different shots). As PC hardware has caught up with the demands of AVCHD processing, and the software likewise (eg PD8!) then smart rendering becomes less of a real-world issue.
And of course there's the small matter of "AVCHD" being a catch-all description of widely differing video files. There's a tendency for people to use the initials as if they always described exactly the same thing, but the reason why contributors here have very differing experiences with PD and AVCHD is because they're using a variety of different camcorders producing a variety of different specs of AVCHD - hence the need for a list of supported cameras, to get back to the topic.
There should be a rule here that the word "AVCHD" in respect of source footage should never be used without prefixing it with the source camera model (and where the camera produces different AVCHD types, specify that as well) - then we'd be better able to see the AVCHD wood for the AVCHD trees.
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at the same time the AVCHD render quality of any of them is far superior to PowerDirector.
In what respect? Colour, artifacts, movement, definition? What should I be looking for? I see nothing amiss.
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HOWEVER, please don't waste your time with this program if you are working with AVCHD. This is probably the worst software to work with this kind of media.
I'd rate it as much better than Premiere Elements, Studio 12.1, Nero 9, and Magix for AVCHD work. Timeline performance is so good that there's no prerender or conversion issues and render quality is absolutely fine (I use the same files for testing all products so I'm very familiar with looking for any degradation).
My PC and AVCHD files loves it, yours doesn't - funny things, computers.
However, the odd way that topics are not listed in date-of-last-post order here is a bit irritating indeed.
And the upgrade of the Cyberlink order system to co-incide with the launch of the new version of PowerDirector seems very badly timed - I hope one day to be able to download the ordered software...
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The ordering system seems to have broken down - apparently they are in the process of upgrading it, but like others here, the download system won't download the program, and although I have been sent an order confirmation email, the Cyberlink site says I've not placed an order.
Not a good moment for them to have launched a new program!
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I agree with pjc - don't try (or buy) PD8 if you've got AVCHD content.
Oh come on - you're saying "it doesn't work for me, therefore it won't work for anyone" - which is obviously nonsense.
Here it converts a timeline mix of 1080 and 720 AVCHD footage to Blu Ray MPEG2 in real time (much faster than other apps) and with first class quality - in my view it's a breakthrough in AVCHD editing and converting technology and any AVCHD user should try it to see whether it works as well for them as it does for me. If so, I'd expect them to be extremely pleased.
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It's been a couple of years since I posted here!
Just poking my head round the door to say that having not been hugely impressed with PowerDirector last time I tried it, this time I'm reaching for my wallet.
Chief thing is the way it handles AVCHD material as effortlessly as can be (on a Quad Core PC a couple of years old). Significantly lower CPU usage than any of the other NLE's on the PC (PE7, Studio 12.1, Nero 9, etc) and it handles 1080 and 720 footage from my recently purchased Panasonic GH1 DSLR hybrid, and my Panasonic SD5. Even picture in picture plays smoothly.
Smart rendering doesn't seem to work with stuff from the GH1 but I'm not that fussed - that used to be my No.1 requirement but in the last year I've "got real" and I'm not sure that once-holy-grail is really worth pursuing. I can't see anything amiss in PD8's AVCHD DVD renders, and they happen pretty quickly.
A couple of black marks for a couple of non-repeatable crashes (one when the system was idle and I was out of the room!) but sometimes my PC seems to need to get used to running a program before it stabilises. Or maybe I'm optimistic. But I've been trying in the last hour or so to "break it" and can't.
Nice one!
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SVRT for AVCHD is the feature I'm basing my buying decision on, but it doesn't seem to work in the trial version. Is that a limitation of the trial? According to the SVRT display, it should work, and I've got "Use SVRT" ticked when using the production wizard. But it's still grinding through at about 8 frames per second. Likewise when burning to AVCHD DVD, clearly it's not smart rendering.
I'm using the AVCHD 1920x1080 profile with Panasonic SD5 footage (that frame size).
I get smart rendering in Nero Vision but it has a rather limited feature sets and some deal-breaker bugs. In Studio 12 I get the feature set but not smart rendering. I was rather hoping PowerDirector would be the holy grail of smart rendering with good features!
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