Jim, yes.... as you can see, we have already had extensive discussion on this topic. We'll add you to our list of unhappy customers. I won't be online again until Tuesday, by which time maybe there might be other comments. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us, and I await the next posting. I still haven't heard from Cyberlink, by the way, and I sent off the info they asked a few days ago. LadyA

Hi, everyone, I'm back. It took a bit longer to get to my friend's house than I had expected - we've both been rather busy over the last week or so. However, today I got there and did the experiments that I said I would. Firstly, using PD8, we made a short DVD using just 4 photos, fading transitions and a short track of music. (No colour boards or titles at this stage, we kept it simple.) It plays for around 40 seconds, which is quite long enough to see what's going on. Then I uninstalled PD8 from her machine and loaded my copy of PD7 onto it. We then made the same video again, using the same 4 photos, transitions and music and burned that. We took both DVDs to the player and the results were quite decisive and there's absolutely NO DOUBT WHATSOEVER that the PD7 picture quality is streets ahead of the PD8 one.

I sent off the DxDiag file to Powerdirector a week ago, and there's been a thunderous silence from them ever since. I will send them another message to verify that they received the file I sent... if anyone will deign to answer. Maybe they're so flat out behind the scenes trying to design a patch that they haven't time to reply!

As far as I'm concerned I've done all I can about this and can't take it any further without input from Cyberlink. I'm absolutely NOT interested in trying other tricks to get around the problem. I have left my copy of PD7 on my friend's machine and she is going to go ahead and make her holiday DVD with that. This way she'll at least be able to get her project done and familiarise herself with using the program. IF they ever fix PD8 I can always re-install her copy and download any patches, but in the meantime she can at least get her project going. It will be interesting to see what happens next. LadyA

I'm back, everyone. Just to give you an update on what's happening:
I have enlisted the aid of someone much more technical than me, and he's helped me to send some files to Cyberlink, who are becoming actively engaged in some trouble shooting. They are requesting lots of information and I am trying to supply the files etc. that they want, so there's hope that they will be able to see what is happening and eventually they might be able to fix it.
In the meantime my friend is happily learning to use PD7 and is well on the way to producing a good DVD slide show.
When there's further news I'll do another post here.
LadyA

I just found this same issue. I am really annoyed by this. Anyone have a solution yet?

here is what I did and it looks pretty good.

I resized the images to 1920x1080 and then I produced as and mpeg-2 using the HD profile which produces at 1080 pixels wide. It looks pretty good, maybe you can try that.

This thread should be stickied to the top.

I'm in day 5 of the 30 day trial, I'm fairly tech savvy, and I have this very same problem with PD8 (among many problems). I want to like this software, I really do, but dang if Cyberlink isn't making this difficult. I guess I'll try other software and see what they have to offer...

P.S. Yes, I can downsize to 1920x1080, but I would not expect to have to do so. I would also not expect to read a forum, 9 pages deep mind you, to know to do so. In other words, this thread should be stickied!!!!

Hi, guys,
I'm the one who started this thread and who first raised the question. It immediately became apparent that others had indeed had problems with this, so we had to ask the question about whether PD8 was a fully functioning program or not. Clearly it isn't. As you can see from the posts, many other much more technical people than I have had a shot at getting around the problem in all sorts of ways, but from the outset I didn't see why you should HAVE to go to these lengths in the first place. When you buy a program that makes DVDs you naturally expect it to do what it is supposed to!

I first contacted the Cyberlink help desk probably several months ago now, and raised the issue with them. (I'm not 100% certain of the timing, but it's been ages.) Initially I was very encouraged because they seemed to be concerned and seemed to want to have a look at what was happening when I burned DVDs. I went to all the trouble to send them files they asked me to, using PD7 and PD8 with identical material in each DVD. I sent off all the information that they asked for, and was assured that the supervisor had taken personal interest and would follow it up.

Since I sent them the requested files a few weeks ago I've heard nothing. The supervisor had said that it might take a couple of weeks to respond, but I should contact them again if I hadn't heard after that. Last Friday I sent another message to them, asking for a progress report, but still have heard nothing back from them at all.

That's as much as I can tell you at this stage, I'm afraid. I am firmly sticking to my perfectly functioning PD7 and have no intention of upgrading to PD8 as the pop-ups keep inviting me to do. Why are they still SELLING this program??? It doesn't work properly and they apparently know it doesn't.

In the event that the help desk finally gets back to me with some answers, I'll post the information on this forum just as soon as I have it... if that ever happens. Don't hold your breath. LadyA

For those of you who may still be waiting for answers with this problem, (as I am), I have been reliably informed that the Cyberlink Help people are still working on it; it has not disappeared from their work list as I had feared!
It might be a while yet before we have an answer, but I'm hoping that one will be forthcoming soon. LadyA

I've also been working with cyberlink on this same issue.. and it seems like this is the first that they've heard of this.

same as with others they are asking me to send files back and forth.. then try uninstalling and re-installing, etc.. then try the PD9 trial copy, etc...

they must be aware of the issue and just have decided they are not going to resolve or something. It just does not make sense that they will not at least recognize that they are aware of the issue.

does anyone out there have any idea on this yet? is it an issue with the graphics card? I can't imagine this being an issue for everyone.. so I just don'd know what to think.

should we start posting what graphic cards we have to see if we all have something in common?

I have found that by using the Fix/Enhance tab, and applying the re-focus, I get a somewhat better picture; not perfect, but an improvement.

Hi,

I have exactly the same problem with PD 9. With PD 7 it works well, but PD 9 doesn't work. Same with Cyberlink Support, they ask you to send a lot of stuff (which I did), almost ask you to re-install your PC... They probably try to bother you until you give up.

I tried on two different PCs with the same result.

On both machines PD 7 produces good results.

I watch my HDV tapes using my Canon VIXIA HV40 HDV camcorder attached to my Samsung 55" LED TV and the pictures are crystal clear. I then try to capture them to PowerDirector 9 and it degrades the video so bad it is worthless. Since there are no settings for controlling quality on capture, I assume I bought the wrong product. Does anyone out there know of a better product for capturing HDV to the computer for editing????

Can't offer any comments, AlwaysADawg, don't know much that might help. But your query reminded me that this thread still seems to be going, so I'll add an update.

Re my last post way back in September 2010: I have totally given up trying to resolve the image quality problem of burned PD8 video projects. I have never had a satisfactory reply or even a hint of a solution from the Help people in spite of sending all info they requested. Originally I was hopeful, but after so much time has passed with no solutions offered, I doubt that there's any intention to fix it.

My assumption is that they consider PD8 is an "old" edition and not worth bothering about, which is not unreasonable from the company's point of view... pity about those who bought it.

I am sticking to PD7 and will never upgrade since even though this edition also has lots of other problems, video quality isn't one of them. I just completed a project after a huge number of crash events and am really losing patience with it, it took ages longer than it should have to get it done. I am in dialogue with the Help Desk about some of the problems, but am not confident they will offer solutions for such an old program. But I'm trying.

At the moment I am evaluating other DVD/slide show programs on the market and wondering whether I should stick to PowerDirector at all. It's a real pity, because it does a lot of things I really like and which a lot of the competitors' products don't seem to - but it doesn't work very well and I'm not sure it's worth the hassle of persevering with. Sigh... LadyA

Thanks, LadyA, you have at least confirmed my worst fears. I tried to get technical support for this issue and CyberLink makes it difficult. They wanted a copy of my purchase receipt, a copy of the CD/DVD with the key on it, and something else I cannot remember. I registered the product as soon as I purchased it about a year ago and no longer have the receipt. I played with the software a bit last summer but not seriously enough to note the poor image quality of my HDV capture. I am very disappointed. I used to work with Adobe Premier LE 6.0. It would capture an 8mm tape as an AVI with virtually no loss in quality. My experience has been that if you avoid MPEG-2 you rarely lose quality. I was hoping CyberLink had mastered the codecs making their MPEG-2 formats better for HD video.

Thanks again for the reply. I have squandered the purchase of the PD 9 Ultra and will now research going back to Adobe.