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Seems like I got Photo Now bundled with something a few years ago. Had to classify it as one of those "not for me" photo editing programs.
I had an old version of Photoshop 3 I got cheap and when the air force photo lab I worked in converted to digital we had version 5. I got Photoshop Elements 2.0 bundled with a Canon 300D, and purchased Elements 5 when it came out. Version 6 came pre-installed on both a Dell desktop and a Dell laptop so I'm spoiled.
Look on ebay and see if version Photoshop 5 Elements is available at dropping prices now that 7 is being released.
In any Photoshop Elements version you can get right down to the pixel level if you have to, you can work with layers and all sorts of easy goodies that none of the others can touch.
Just my thoughts.
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OK. No tutorial addressing your problem so I worked on it with a few clips I had and here's what I came up with.
An image that was already on clean white, I used the magic wand on white to select all contiguous white pixels. Selected Inverse selection which reversed the selection and left the selection marquee only around the image.
Copied that to a new document with transparent background and saved it as a PNG file. Brought that in PD7 media and put it on the PIP track over a clip that had predominately black background (actually any color would have worked, any background).
And then discovered that the selection trace around my image on white had included some white pixels. And that is probably where your problem is because simple chroma key kind of works almost the same as Photoshop's selection trace process.
So I went back to my photoshop file and this time used the selection tool with the brush set to one pixel width and alternately use the add and subtract brush versions to edit around the image at the pixel level. Then moved the selected image over to a new file with BLACK background so I could see in the PIP editor over in PD7 what was happening around the image.
I used PhotoShop Elements 6 for all this and one of the selection tools subset is a "refine edge" dialog box with some sliders one of which is a "contract/expand" control. I used this to contract the selection trace to one or two pixels into the image and this way eliminated the white. On older versions or in some other image editors you may have to do this one pixel at a time but the trick to doing what you want is to wind up with a file where the image has no background color around it when you move it over to a black background PNG file.
Then when you bring it into PD7, put it on the PIP track and click MODIFY you can use PD7's chroma key to key out the black.
I tried to attach an image showing the final result but no luck there. Anyway the above is a painstaking process but it did result in a PIP image overlaying part of the main video track image and with no visible trace.
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Dafydd,
Robert pointed that out to me, so I went there and took a good look.
A veritable gold mine of resources! I'll be visiting there regularly, can't afford not to.
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Raphael,
Of course your purchase decision is yours.
Just the same you need to realise that every editing program out there has it's "quirks" as well as features that some will find suits them very well.
And for customer support, no company has real "experts" on the product to help us, best support comes from forums like this and a very few dedicated folks that moderate them.
As commented above, yes, the menu editing is ... Odd.
But...Some of the templates have a look I haven't found in other editing programs and I like some of them very well. So what's the answer? Put up with a bit of "odd" and learn how to work around that to get the editing I need done.
But that's my decision. May be different from yours and a bunch of other folks but I do what works for me. I have my own issues with some things about PD7 but will either work them out for me...Or maybe I won't be able to, who knows?
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Go back to the topic list under "Power Director 6 And Above", the third topic from the top is "PD7 - VIDEO guide resource for video editors".
Look for "Create A PNG" and that has what you're looking for.
Basically, you create your logo (or lower thirds element like you see done on TV news) on white (or any other solid color) in Photoshop. Use the Magic Lasso (or any other tool that will let you make the selection) and copy and paste to a transparent new file which you can import into Power Director.
A precise selection and pasting to a totally transparent file will solve the "bleed" problem you are seeing when trying to "key out" white background.
The video demo referred to above is a very good one.
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Steve,
If your ISP connection/service can tend to be a problem with long downloads (or the problem could be on the other end, too) one possible solution might be to contact customer support, advise them you are unable to download the product, and ask them to change your order to the "box" version.
You might have to wait a few more days but will end up with the product in physical form (with printed manual) and the price is the same.
Just an idea.
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It doesn't look like pixelization to me but rather quite low resolution video. He says had had a tape from his camcorder captured in a store and it turned out OK.
I would maybe suspect that while his cam records fine it may not playback that well.
Jay: When you view your captured file with something like Windows Media Player how does it look?
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One of the first things I would try on the next project is to shield your mic grill on the camera from the wind. Just about the best thing for killing wind noise is animal fur and some fabric shops have some artificial fur trim with self adhesive backing. A small piece of that might work.
I use an external mic with a Deadcat (No, they don't kill cats for that) windmuff (Deadcat is a brand name). I bought the Rode StereoVideoMic and the price of $249 includes the Deadcat.
There is a limit to how much wind noise that will handle but it works far better than a foam windscreen.
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Go to http://seemyworldonvideo.com and "join", it's a place for Cyberlink users to upload and share video. Since you can also delete yours it would be a good place to put a sample of what you are asking for help on up where we can see it.
Keep it small and when you get the comments you need on it you can delete it.
But as you finish projects, you can put those up for folks to see.
Also check out "Extras For Editors" at the bottom of the SMWOV home page. A lot of free programs and resources there.
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A player called "VLC" is available as a free download and is free for non commercial use. It is a "cross platform" player that I have found very useful and the latest version is supposed to play AVCHD files as well.
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Quote:
Hi,
Since installing the update (PowerDirector 7 build 2105), I cannot add music to the music layer or text to the text layer to existing projects. (I can add them to new projects). I also can no longer preview video clips and photo's from the timeline (I can from the library).
Video editing software is so complicated and there are so many unexpected issues that need to be dealt with, that there is almost always a seemingly constant flow of "update patches".
What you have run into is not uncommon. In other support forums I've seen advice to the effect that if possible one should always complete the current project before running an update patch (or installing a new version).
I'm running build 1915 and have the 2105 patch "sitting" in my download folder "waiting" until I finish my current project on an old Texas fort. Once I've burned a DVD for my files (to copy as needed) and an HD Windows Media Player file, I'll use the "Pack for export" option (to see if I can re-import the project in a patched PD7) and run the patch.
Quote:
Is it possible to uninstall the upgrade as I need to work with my existing projects? Or better yet, is this a known issue with a fix?
Regards,
Anthony.
The only way you're going to be sure of your project is to begin the edit anew. Bit of a PITA, but you may be surprised how quickly that can go. I've had to do it a couple of times and although I dreaded it, once underway I seemed to remember enough of what I'd done to where it progressed pretty quickly.
Good luck
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I personally would not use an image stretch mode but would crop as best I could in Photoshop to a 16:9 image with the best compostion possible. My TV does the stretch on the side edges described above on 4:3 programming and I can still see distortion.
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Quote:
Thank you Bif!
You were right on!
One minor question remains: the file generated with the HDV capture selection ends up 1440x1080i and not 1920x1080i. I could not find any setting in the program to change this. I wonder if my camera actually recorded in this resolution - I may need to look into this a little further -.
The HV20 sensor is 1920x1080 but what actually winds up on the tape is 1440x1080. There is nothing you can do to change that, it is sometimes discussed on the HV20.com forum.
Nonetheless the HV20 footage looks just great when rendered to 1280x720p WMV and when rendered to Blu-ray compliant file on regular DVD media and played back on a Blu-ray player hooked up to a 42" LCD TV.
This 3 minute short was done with my HV20 before I sold it.
http://seemyworldonvideo.com/view/308/vision-quest/
And as a side note: Send your findings on the HV20 settings to Cyberlink so they can give the correct info to folks in the future.
Have fun!!!!!
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Is that a single core or dual core processor?
And are you editing standard definition or high definition video?
The symptoms you describe are typical of trying to edit HDV or AVCHD video with a processor that is not fast enough.
I also encountered this when Pinnacle rewrote Studio 10 around the Liquid Edition "engine". My single core hyperthreaded processor which could handle Studio 9 just fine began doing what you described with Studio 10 and in addition to slow and out of synch editing window, also took forever to do simple background rendering.
I encountered what you describe again 2 days ago trying a test edit on 1920x1080 17Mbps AVCHD files on a laptop with Intel T7250 dual core 2.0GHz processor. 1440x1080 at 12Mbps can be edited on that computer OK but I shot the project at the camera's highest resolution.
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The Canon HV20 has some menu configurations that if not set correctly will cause capture options in software to not recognize the camera. I sold my HV20 to finance the HF100 and I don't remember EXACTLY what the settings are, but here what I can "dig up":
In the record setup you want HDV.
In the playback setup there may be two items and here you may have to refer to the manual and do some search on the HV20.com forums but one choice may be "auto" where the cam outputs whatever format is on the tape, and the other must NOT be "DV LOCKED" or something like that.
I had a heckuva time getting it right with mine but once I did it worked with Pinnacle Studio, HDVsplit, and whatever else I tried. If the 3 items are not set correctly HDV output is NOT recognized by anything and it's critical enough that I can see Cyberlink not getting that right therefore declaring the HV20 not on their compatible list.
Here is one more thing that makes configuring the HV20/HV30 a big "pain". Your menu choices on the camera, if not correct while connected by firewire (IEEE1394), are "greyed out". DO NOT DISCONNECT OR CONNECT THE HV20/HV30 WITH EITHER THE CAMERA OR COMPUTER POWERED UP!
These models are somewhat more sensitive to static and sudden current changes in the firewire circuits and there are many complaints of "fried" ports on the cameras. So power down both computer and camera before disconnecting or connecting the cable. Then power up the camera and make the menu changes you need to try, power down the camera and connect back to the cable (which is still hooked up to the computer). Power on both and see if the change works. Once you get settings that work, write them down where you can refer to them.
Hope this works. If I run across wherever I wrote the settings down I'll post them here.
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If the music is on a music track and you have the "clip" button selected in the edit window you will not hear the music track, the clip will play and the scrubber will return to the beginning of the clip.
Select the "movie" button and you will be able to hear the music track.
Also is the music "live" as in recorded with the video, or is it music added from another source? Music added from another source in WAV format actually shows the waveform on the music track. I notice that last night when I processed a SmartSound (Magic Music) track in SonicFire Pro and exported it as a WAV file, then imported it into the media section of PD and dropped it on the music track.
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Post a short sample of that "pixelated" video somewhere so we can see what you're getting.
Also it would help if you would list your computer specs and describe how you're capturing.
You'll find folks eager to help but more details are needed.
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John,
New versions, new builds cause that kind of problem in other software packages also, not just PD.
The worst case I ever had to go back and re edit on was my kid brother's memorial service. I had spent close to a week adding still photos of him with pan and zoom effects during the two musical pieces that were played. And then suddenly project crashed and would not open no matter what I tried.
Turned out the original HDV capture had become corrupted and when I did a fresh capture none of the "control" file or aux file links worked.
Total "from scratch" re-edit took a day and a half to get to the same point and the rest was mostly finish up and fine tuning.
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Seems like I remember reading somewhere that folks had problems with being unable to play miniDVD disks on standard DVD players unless the disk was "finalized". I don't know if this would apply to the RW media but with standard DVD RW the - needs to be finalized before it can be viewed on a system other than the one that recorded it.
If this is not your issue, and there is any way you could copy the video file to your hard drive using USB hookup between the cam and computer, you should then be able to import it into PD as you would any compatible file already residing on your hard drive.
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My read would be PowerDirector. By highlighting him I assume you mean a short intro video.
If you rendered to a file format PD7 will import you would do that and or capture your video of him (intro or whatever) and put that on the timeline first followed by a few seconds of black and then his highlight reel.
Render (Produce) the whole thing to file or disk and you have it.
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That backup CD should work, your key they gave you should activate it. They give you a limited window of time to get your download and when folks encounter failed downloads and cannot get the complete file by the end of that window (I forget if it's 2 days, 3 days or what) you are blocked.
Cyberlink does not handle this, they have a contract with Digital River to manage the download delivery and unfortunately it can be complicated.
My advice for folks purchasing would be to order the "box" version and wait for that to arrive. Or pay the extra $10.95 for the backup CD and don't get too frustrated if the download method goes south.
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