I guess great realtime playback from the time line and precise editing of clips will never meet in a $100.00 editing software
The other
very important variable is what you are using for your source video files. Depending on what you are using for a video camera, you might not be able to attain smooth playback during editing no matter what you have for hardware. It is a well reported question in the forums....New cameras are released all the time with their own unique way of producing video output. They are not all the same unfortunately. And it is probably not realistic to have Power Director react by producing a patch every time a camera manufacturer decides to implement a new way to create a video file. I don't think that the camera manufacturers send video sample files to all the video editing software producers so that they can develop a patch for the new video.
They may produce a familiar video file container for the video...avi, mpg, mts, m2ts, etc. etc., but that doesn't mean that Power Director is going to be able to decode it fast enough to play smoothly in the preview window. Some cameras produce video files that just don't play back smoothly. The other Video editing packages all have the same problem, just read the forums. You might find another to use your footage better but, but it all depends on the day of the week for the next person.
It's a vicious cycle that takes time to catch up with each other. There just seems to be too many variables right now.
For me...Power Director works very smoothly with my Sony raw footage when playing back on the timeline. And for under $100, it is a superb value.
Regards,
Kevin
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