Hi there -

Bonus question first: Some months back, during beta testing, there was a resounding call from many fellow testers to include the options in PiP Designer (Snap to, Grids & TV Safe Zone) in Preferences. i.e. able to be switched on/off for all projects. Sadly - that call went unheard so now we're all left with a pile of extra, unnecessary & superfluous clicking & cussing to do. But don't get me started on that, because then I'd have to mention the way tracks disable themselves & you have to go click, click, click all the way down the column... & then there's the lock/unlock thing...

On your other question - when PD burns a disc it has to render (produce) the video first. In the case of a DVD, it would render to MPEG-2. PD did that successfully, it seems. What format were you trying to produce to before?

You're right. It's not necessary to produce the video first. Produce is for creating a video file to watch on your PC, TV, upload, stream, email or other purposes.

Cheers - Tony
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Thank you for your reply and advice. The video was being rendered in AVC H.264 format with the smart turned off. I had found that when I left that ticked I had more problems. This was the same format that I used for the 3 videos that were ok. The video has come off a Panasonic HD camera but the output will only be viewed on a PC or a standard tv. Should I really be using M-peg 2 ?
Whilst I'm happy with PD having tried one of two other before I purchased the "hand book" (and help file), especially in the title and produce areas is not exactly helpdful. Has anyone one produced a "users" guide for any version of PD ?
david David

Hi friend, 1st of no need to purchase a handbook for any PD. If you go to the store & hit the tab downloads you will find manuals in PDF format...these are a great assist to the director itself. As to the program (PD9) stopping in the middle of rendering, I too was having that problem when I got the PD9. I had used PD7 for a couple of years with no hangups so this was driving me nuts. I finally un-installed the program & reinstalled. I am now having no problems with that issue....Hope this is a help to you...God Bless, Karen karen
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
Memory: 6144MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 6144MB
RAM Page File: 2082MB used, 10202MB available

Thanks for the repy Karen. I will certainly have a look at the PDF help file. I understand your comment regarding uninstalling and re-insatlling but I dont think I have/had a an overall problem. I just had one out of 4 productions I was working on ( a 4 week trip to NZ which at 2 hrs plus I felt would be better handled in 4 parts than one long whole ) 3 of which rendered ok but the 4th kept stopping often, but not always, at the same point. This is what got me bugged, throwing papers up in the air and saying why render when I had turned straight into a product direct on disc with no problems. Is this just obne of those mysteries of computing ?

David David

you are quite welcome. I'm glad you've worked things out to your liking. As I said I have used Cyberlink products for over 2 yrs now & though they do have their gliches at times having used other video editing programs, I swear by Cyberlink. And if you do have problems this forum is the best around. People are not only on the ball as far as answering questions but are very kind when doing so....So enjoy your video making..God Bless, Karen karen
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
Memory: 6144MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 6144MB
RAM Page File: 2082MB used, 10202MB available