Well after hours of messing around with it, PowerDirector doesn't start up any faster and it still takes over 10, sometimes 20 minutes for it to find my capture card, which doesn't work with the program.

I did install it under XP, using the same computer and the program works like a charm. It starts up fast and it finds my Hauppauge PVR 150 capture card, which is fully compatible.

So it looks like PowerDirector 6 is not 100% compatible with Windows Vista. I should get my money back since I spent $110 CDN on a program that says is 100% compatible with Vista when it is not.

Hi Buttermaker,

I have been following your progress as you've "jumped" into PD6 land! I am also using a Hauppage... but mine is an HVR-1600. I am extremely leery about buying the PD6 after the awful time I had with trying to get v5 trial version to work with Vista.

Unfortunately, EVERY program installed on my machine is running on an XP Compatibility. Even the ones that came pre-installed on the computer with Vista. I hate Vista, honestly. I just don't think Vista's worth it's weight in pebbles.

I do have a question for you though outside of my own ramblings: You mentioned that you opened PD6 with XP and it has worked fine... do you mean you started/opened PD6 with the compatibilty wizard or do you have XP installed on a separate partition on your machine?

Thanks... and good luck!
-Zach

Hey Zack,

Sorry it took me so long to reply to your question. I have 2 separate hard drives on my computer. One is Windows XP and the other Vista. I choose either or when my computer is booting up. I have been sticking with Vista since I installed it. I never had a problem with it until just recently.

I wrote an email to the tech guys to see if they could give me a hand and tell me why I have had a problem starting PD6. They quickly got back to me, but were of no help.

But just now, I tried something different to get it to start up under Vista. You mentioned about the "compatibility wizard". I wasn't sure what you were talking about at first, but I think I figured it out. On my desktop, I right clicked the Cyberlink PowerDirector icon and then clicked on 'properties'. I then clicked on the tab "compatibility" and was able to run the program using the XP compatibility. I didn't even realize there was such a thing till now. So I gave it a shot (had nothing to lose since I tried everything else) and it worked like a charm! I jumped out of my seat when the program started right away, I was so happy. Then when I clicked on "Capture", it found my Hauppauge device right away and was able to use it without a problem!

So right now the program runs great under Vista. I haven't had a problem with any other program I am running under Vista, so I never knew about the XP compatibility setting. I kind of feel like a fool now, but happy that it's working. If you didn't mention that compatibility wizard in your last post, I would probably have uninstalled the program and not have used it. I would have wasted over $100 for nothing.

Thanks a million!!

You're very welcome! I'm glad that it worked for you, because that gives me A LOT of hope that if I get PD6, that it will work just as well like yours does! (Problem free, that is!)

In the future, if you run into issues like that with other software or programs, you can use the Compatibility Wizard just as you did with going to PD6 properties, compatibility, etc. Another way to access the Compatibility Wizard (at least within Vista), is to open up the help menu and type "Compatibility Wizard". Essentially, it is the same thing as what you did, but I believe it has the ability to set up multiple programs at the same time without right-clicking on each individual program icon.

Best of luck, and I'm again, elated that this worked for you! I can't wait to try out PD6 for myself!

-Zach