Messages posted by Alexpho

Reminds me of the time I've pulled my hair out with PD8 by one of the few beginners to use BR disc and editing hours of HD Disney videos. Anyway, using a BR burner, I have tried burning an AVCHD HD project on a regular DVD disc and also a 25 Gig BR Disc. I then played it on my PS3 along with a 1080I TV. They both look awesome !!!!

I think both discs are the same but BR holds more data. It comes down to all the factors of capturing, editing, and the bit rate of the burn. You can get the same results with a BR disc versus an AVCHD DVD disc.

The problem that HDEDIT has is that his BR player may not be able to read AVCHD format. As for a BR burner, the prices has dropped to a more reasonable investment. You can also use it as a regular DVD burner too.

As for the TV, 1080P is the way for viewing BR. However, if your disc is not a true 1080p and everything prior to that, it will look the same. Another big factor is the new " refresh " rate on some of these new sets. They need to be high to keep up with the signals.

I am not sure if this issue was covered or not. For me, I have discovered that effects and transitions ( possibly more ) are not showing in " Progressive " mode after producing the project, rather in interlace format, where you will slightly notice the " flicker " lines. It is very annoying and noticeable when viewing. The video itself is fine.

Because I have AVCHD 1920x1080 MTS files in native progressive format, all my projects are in HD and my output in Produce is Blu Ray, either AVC 264 or MPEG 2 ( BD 1920x1080 ). Yes, these are PRESETS in which editing the format is not allowed such as custom menu.

So my workaround is to Produce in the custom format, go into the video box, and click the drop down option for progressive setting. This appears to fix the problem.

I hope I did not lose anyone in trying to explain this. Bottom line, if you have the same format like I do on your project, choosing the given preset may render an undesirable result. You may want to custom your output settings. Cyberlink sure default the setting for Blu Ray to Progressive video. I am not sure if this a bug or by design.

Sorry dude, you lost me there. These are options in the preference menu that you control and click away to what you want.

Yes, both Shadow files were originally turned off and hardware acelarators ON. Now the fix is the opposite ( in my particular case ).

Hello folks ! Its been awhile. As many of you may recall, I am a big wining critic of CL PD8 and had my share of trials and heartache experiences with PD8. Anyway, like some form of battered syndrome, I went ahead and upgraded to PD9. Perhaps it was the lure of it now being a native 64 bit system, I don't know. I have spent the last few months filming videos in China and SE Asia again and had over 200 gigs of HD videos.

After the 1st try....BOOM BAM !!!! Again, the same issues as PD8 with the crashes, slow previews, and hanging. In addition, it is slower to render ( especially when changing the speed ). Have they not learn from this forum and the known issues??I then came back to this forum to find the answer. I followed all the suggested fixes, including updating the latest build and drivers. Still, the same issues.

After more trials, I decided to shut off the two " hardware " accelerator options and TURN ON shadow files. Bam ! It never crashed again and my render speed came back up. The results were excellent HD videos. Yes, its too funny. I suspect that if you " juiced up " your video card like I did, you need to turn them off in PD9, and you will still get the same accelerated results. Who knows. Its screwy. But my problems are gone. The shadow files being on indeed help my previews to be quicker and did not hinder anything else.

My files are - AVCHD MTS files, 1920x1080, 24 MBS
My Camera is - Canon HFS-100
My CPU is - AMD 965 Black Edition 3.9 GHZ
My Video Card is - ATI 5750 - 1 gig of RAM ( 12.2 driver update )
My RAM is - DDR3, 4 sticks totaling 8 Gigs @ 1600 MHZ each
My OS- Windows 7, 64 Bit

Good Luck !

Hi there. I am trying to make a panning map effect in PD8. For example, a map of the East Coast of the United States . The city of New York will be highlighted ( or ballooned or animated ) and it will pan down to Florida, displaying the cities that I've visited along the way. The map will be a JPEG photo. My biggest challenge is making the titles of the cities " Flow " with the panning downward.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Please don't take this the wrong way... , but if anyone in this forum believes that I was not aware of " create a disc " for Blue Ray after spending 2k US Dollars up grade my system and have " the best " must be crazy. Of course create a disc is there if you want to burn your project into Blu Ray.

The moral of the story is that PD8 CRASHES. Put in a $18 per blank Blu Ray Disc several times , failure after failure , and then check your wallet. I've been there. The menu template alone eats up almost 5 gigs of space on the disc. So in theory, you can't even come close to a 2 hour movie or project when picking certain types of MPEG 2. That is why I've learned the hard way and not burn with PD8. The burn process in PD8, regardless of what you pick is not up to par. At least that was happening to me, and I was forced to use another program to burn. The heck with a " work around ", we must get what we paid for. That's like buying a Corvette and you can only drive it on your driveway.

Thru all my problems and questions that I've explained earlier and from last year, not one person from Cyberlink contacted me nor offer any solution to my crashing problems. Heck, this forum is even under their site.

Call it first love or a victim of abuse, I came back to PD8 and could have easily went somewhere else with another program, but I did not.

Regards

Excellent question Martin. Though what you are saying might be true and applies to other editing software or valid in purpose, my experience " PD8 " for our setup are these-

1- For some strange reason MTS files renders slower when choosing MT2S versus MPEG 2-. I suspect that since our native clips are 24 MBS MTS Files, PD8 compresses at a lower bitrate, taking more time. Note that 264 AVC in the Produce section has a max ( if using custom ) of 20k bitrate, standard is only 15k, because this format is being sold as a space saver.

2- I've also noticed a slight difference in quality. MPEG 2 1920x1080 has bolder colors and no minor artifacts of pix-elation. I have compared the same rendered file in AVC .264, though very subtle, had some artifacts.

3. Please also note that you must lower the bitrate when rendering in MPEG 2 1920x1080 to a max of 24 MBS, what our native videos are anyway. Otherwise, the process will eat up your memory.

4- So now you are probably wondering how I format into Blue Ray when M2TS is the file for it? I have to admit, I don't burn using PD8. It has crashed on me so many times and I've gone thru $100 in blank BR discs already. I use a 2nd software to render to M2TS, and a 3rd to burn.

But you are correct. AVC should be the same quality as MPEG 2. Its my own personal work around.

Thanks guys. The trip to Laos was indeed very full of emotion and turn out to be the best time of my life. My camera is the Canon HFS 100. I would have love a Canon 5D Mark ii, but it would have been too expensive. I wish I could have done a better job with the filming. After reviewing all the footage's, I need to improve my filming techniques. I did bring a tri pod, but it was just hard being a tourist and photographer at the same time. The entire process from filming to editing were at the maximum settings. I don't think Youtube is truly displaying 1080P. I see some artifacts that were not in my original file.

I am happy to inform everyone that the price of blank Blu Ray Discs have drop tremendously too.

Regards.

Hi guys. Its been awhile since I posted on this forum. As some of you may recall from my post last year, I was one of the " guinea pig " user of PD8 in the field of Blu Ray, putting all my kid's HD Disney vacation videos onto Blue Ray. My goal was to preserve the memories in the best quality, Blu Ray !

I'd spend months utilizing PD8, learning, editing, researching, trials, etc. Needless to say, it took a lot of time and patience because the system kept crashing. I had also developed an awkward understanding of the program, from its crash habits to the editing steps. I'd also went out and bought a new quad 4 computer, Blu Ray burner and 28" HD monitor. I'd finally accomplished the project last fall and was very pleased with the outcome.

This past spring, I went to Asia on a two month backpacking tour and came back with over 100 gigs of video and 5000 pics. There was no way I could use the same set up. So I went out and decided to upgrade my computer some more. New motherboard, new Phenon II 965 Quad, ATI 5770 graphics card, 8 gigs of DDR3 Memory, 2 TB hard drive, and most importantly... 64 bit Windows 7 OS. This setup should be enough to handle anything !!! It is overclocked at 3.8 ghz stable.

Overall, I am very happy with the setup. I'd spent two weeks editing with PD8 with ease. Most importantly, it now renders my MTS file projects into MPEG 2 1920x 1080 at a mind blowing speed ( Hardware accelerator is automatically enabled because of my new graphics card ). You can hear and feel the system taking off like a jet. I love it !!

And you know this is coming... BUT it still crashes from time to time !!

Again, if Cyberlink can fix this problem for their next rollout, it would be the best editing program. That's why I came back to it.

I've also noticed that it can also " freeze up " too . In addition, several frames will jerk after coming out of the
" powertools " effect.

You can check out the two finished videos on Youtube. The links are.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNjy1G8TauY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOzm6AZQyK4

Regards,

Alex

Hi Guys,

First off, I am not at all bashing the program. I do like PD8. I just want them to improve on the functionality and effectiveness of the intended process. I am not a wealthy person. However, I am willing to spend over $4,000 to capture and have in memory my kid's once in a lifetime experience at Disney! And I did.

I am sure that many of us on this forum are here for various reasons. The foremost reason would be to solve your problems and to maximized your answers on the things you buy. It is an expectation. If there is a problem, it should be reasonably fixed. We like to edit videos and we want the best!

Again, PD8 is so close in being the best bang for the buck editing program!!

Here are what they should work on for the next release...

1. To have an option to pick bit rate prior to burning. For example, if I have 20 gigs of combined video to burn onto Blu Ray, and then I was unable to burn because of the overflow caused by the DEFAULT bit rate, I should have an option to reduce or improvised the bit rate prior to burning. As of now, it is only offered during the Producing stage, prelude to the burning stage.

2. Cyberlink needs to look into why the program is crashing. After experiencing so many crashes, I still can't figure out the pattern of it all. But usually, it starts at the ending of a clip/transition. My theory is that the program can not handle lengthy timelines nor mulitple actions that commences at once. For example, start a cue with a trimmed video along with audio, effects, title, and transition. Most likely, that is where the point of the crash would be.

3. Another suggestion would be to have the ability to " join " files when at the menu and editing stage. For example, if I join files, I would like to have the option of treating as one whole file/movie, playing continuously. As of now when I join multiple files and burn, the receiver ( a grandmom in Kansas or California ), must recognize that multiple files exist on the DVD, and the " next " chapter button will not take them there, but it is there. It is known as a " scene " and chapters exist within them.

4. Apparently SVRT is a very good technology to have in expediting the rendering process. However, if you have two hours of compliant video that happend to falls under the rules of starting SVRT, it should smart render. However, throw in just one transition in those videos, the system will re-encode the entire timeline. This must be fixed !! The system should look at the entire " compliant " bulk timeline.

5. The ability to drop a video clip into any audio or voice timeline, and the system should understand to understandably keep only the audio portion. As of now, we need to extract the audio first and repost the audio.

6. The ability to fully utilize the " copy " feature of our clips. It would be beneficial to " copy " a clip and then paste back onto the libray. For example, I split a clip from the timeline but have intentions of saving the clipped video later, I should have the ability to copy the item and paste it within the library for later use. If you think about it, it is actually sourced from just one clip from the original clip within the same library.

7- And foremost, the " video errors " while producing. If it is true that the video was " in computer terms ", " non compliant or would not stretched or edit " messages in the producing stage of PD8, the system should had stopped me EARLIER when I put the item onto the timeline. Otherwise, time will be wasted when you are at 85% complete of the producing and then the video error message appears, or experience a burning error message on your $12 per disc BD-R blank disc.

Regards,

Alex

Hey Folks,

For the past few months, I have been experimenting with PowerDirector 8. Needless to say, it has been a long journey. Overall, it is a very good editing program for the amount ( less than $100 ) that is invested.

Have you guys ever seen Vegas Vacation?? Its the part where Chevy Chase was gambling and can never seem to beat the dealer. That is how I feel after my ordeal.

I would like to share with you my experience and hope some of you can learn from it.

Ok. I went to Disney with my brand new Canon HF S100. I filmed the vacation in 1920 X 1080 Full HD, 24 MBS, and 30 FPS. I'd ended up with over 4 hrs of HD footages stored in its native MTS files. These raw videos were awesome and stunning to watch in its native form.

My goal is to have the best quality video and sound and have it fully edited and onto Blu Ray.

That vacation was back in August and I am almost done here in December, I don't work. LOL

It was obvious that my laptop could not handle the editing of these heavy data files. I've also experimented with various other editing programs with no such luck. So I went out and invested in a brand new Quad Core Phenon desktop, running 32 bit Vista, 2.6 hz, LG Blu Ray burner, 1 T of harddrive, 4 gig of mem, and a 28" 1080 p monitor. I then purchase PD 8 after abandoning Corel VS.

Here are some of the key points when working on a Blu Ray project-

1- The very first step is to take your time. Be very conscience of the size of the files that you are editing, plan the length and your project very carefully.

2- If you are using Blu Ray, it is around 25 gig for the standard disc and 50 gigs for the dual layer. I would sugguest buying the " BD-RE " version so when you make a mistake, it does not hurt your wallet.

3- My goal was to put my project on two separate Blu Ray Discs @ 25 gigs each.

4- My first 2 hrs of editing consisted of various trimming, adding audio, adding PIP, adding transitions, titles, etc. Unfortunately, I would then run into VARIOUS errors when PRODUCING. It would crash and stop rendering, giving some sort of Video error message. I've looked for solutions but with no such luck. The points in where it crashes have no pattern at all. I would then go back into the timeline to where it stopped pick up the rendering. Now I am forced to make the 2 hrs in various " sessions ". It would prove later to be bad in the burning disc part.

5- You must also first create a Blu Ray folder by following the steps posted in this forum ( I don't know why Cyberlink just didn't flagged it active ).

6- So now I have various file segments in MPEG-2 BD 1920x1080 ( because I was unable to render my timeline for the entire 2 hrs without crashing ). The total of the files was 20 gigs ( 1 hr and 52 min ). I am ready to burn. I then added the files in the burning the module. I added the menu, chapters, etc. But for some reason, the menu process added an additional 4 plus gigs. So now the program won't let me burn to a disc. That is why step 5 is very important prior to starting your project. You can save it in a BDMV folder and use it later or on a third party program to burn.

7- Going back on step 6, the program will not allow me to make these files play and burn " continously ". Each segment is treated as a separate file. I hope PD will have an option for this. A workaround would be to put the produced files back ont he timeline and join them. However, from my test results, MULTIPLE RENDERING DEGRADES THE PICTURE QUALITY.

8- Why is there an option to have MPEG-2 1920X1080 BD? I believe that is misleading when your project is in Blu Ray. I then realize the standard file utilized by BR is M2TS. If you plan on burning in BR, you should pick M2TS in Producing and not MPEG-2. Otherwise, the MPEG-2 files will have to be rendered again to M2TS. Unless you truly need to keep the file created by Producing, the best method is to jump from the timline straight to create a disc.

9- When I actually started burning, I then encounter various burning errors. LOL

10- Going back on step 6, choosing MPEG-2 1920X1080 BD option will have a preset whopping 25 MBS bit rate. So by design, you will never fit two hours and menus onto a BR 25 g disc if you pick this option. You may consider a custom bit rate. If my native recording was in 24 MBS ( 18 MBS or lower in other cameras ), you should custom the bit rate to match your native bit rate.

11- SVRT- Smart Rendering.. , sure this could of help but I was rarely given the option. After reading the STRICT criteria on when this feature actually kicks in, it is impossible not to fall into the category when you are editing. I hope PD could change this.

The bottomline is that I do like PD8. I just hope they could fix some of these problems. So where I am at now ? I am almost done my second disc and ready to burn!

Good Luck !

Thanks for the reply Barry. I hope Cyberlink can change this in the future and put some sort of on or off for the TV safe area. Yes, I tried the disc on another TV and set the screen format to PAN and Scan. The full original width and height appears, as intended during editing and viewing on the display above the timeline. However, not all TV's, including modern HD displays have Pan and Scan. In essence, we can't put titles in the corner of the screen because of this. It will either be cut off ( non pan and scan ) or alignment too far off to the edge for sets with pan and scan. I plan to send these vacation BR videos to friends and family.

If we spent so much time and effort to get the best in HD and BR, we should prefer everything. If you shot your clips in wide angle, the finished product will not be as intended, though the viewer might have a 16 x 9 set.

Displaying the full native size of the picture should be the default in the burning process.

Hi guys. I am a newbie and in the middle of editing my vacation HD videos to blu ray. Slowly but surely, I am getting there.

One of my issues is this " TV SAFE " area. My original clips are in MTS files 16x9 aspect ratio. I have also clicked on 16x9 on the preference menu. After burning the disk I popped the disc in the BR player.

I was to surprised to see that the other edges were clipped off. For example, getting like 85 percent of the video on the TV screen. When I was editing, I was putting titles on the corner of the video. Half of the words are now cut of.

Is there a way to fix this or turn something off?? Who the heck would not want a full original 16x9 video of there HD work??

Jason,

That is what I do for PIP editing. I would put a blank color board on the main video track and then add video to the PIP track. You will then treat this PIP video as the main video ( adjust the image size by making it a full size clip ) . You have plenty of PIP tracks to utilize. Please note that these tracks must be " unlock " ( lock logo ) on the far left of the bar.

I am new too and in the middle of editing my videos. I have learned that it is best to start with sequences of video, transitions, PIP, tittles, and then audio.

Brilliant!! Thank you so much.

By the way, it is just under the" Cyberlink " folder after you get into Regedit if you have Windows Vista. The process did work well for me.

Hi There. Newbie here. I have been trying and crying for the past few weeks to burn some MTS files into Blu Ray using Cyberlink 8. I will soon write a full review of my experience.

I just have a couple of quick questions. When I try to burn Blu Ray, after editing and producing, and after I hit BURN, a window pops up that gives options to burn to disc and another to file. However, I can't click on the file option. It is only available under standard DVD. How can I get this option? I don't want to burn because it has given me a unsuccessful burn prompt on the last 4 tries. And a blank Blu Ray disc ain't cheap. LOL.

Thanks

Hi There. Any luck with a solution to this? I am having the exact error when Producing my edited clips. Thanks