I am so unhappy with this program. please tell me its just the learning curve. /

dhassay

Newbie Joined: Jan 23, 2012 11:21 Messages: 6 Offline

Solved by

Jan 23, 2012 11:55

I have given this app a few weeks and I still find it very un-intuitive. I use a professional DAW and I am very familiar with non linear editing. Sorry to start this off negatively but I am not happy at all. The user guides/manuals are horrible. they give top level info but do not dive into it.
I have a very simple project that i just cant seem to finish. Please help.
the original video files look decent. they came from a digital camcorder from the past 10 years or so. total length is apprx 1 1/2 hours. after "producing" it, I have a 6.3 gig file which of coarse cant be burned on a dvd. How do you burn 2 dvds with a part 1 and part 2? I believe this is the only way for it to look ok without compressing too much. so far, i just put 1/2 of the clips on one track and the other 1/2 on track 2. disable one track and produce and then reverse that.
Next part -- I simply want to put the dvd into a dvd player and have a jpg show up. I believe this is called the menu. I dont care if it has a "play" button. I just want the jpg to show up and then by whatever means have the video start playing. no chapters, no monopoly, no video menu etc. the menu creation is driving me insane. it always has "my chapters" and part 1,2,3 etc. how do you get rid of all of that and just have the picture?
I have been reading about people using nero or imgburn to actually burn the dvd's after producing them. really? what is the problem with this app? does it not burn dvd's very well causing people to use a third party app to burn?

CubbyHouseFilms

Senior Contributor Location: Melbourne, Australia Joined: Jul 14, 2009 04:23 Messages: 2208 Offline

Jan 23, 2012 16:01

Hi

Welcome to the forum

Here's two PD instruction videos from PDToots from Youtube. They are using PD8 in this tutorial but the basics are the same for PD10.

Happy editing

Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/user/PDtoots#p/u/9/jXG2jDTHyKw

Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/user/PDtoots#p/u/8/ccSNU_Z7BRc Happing editing

Best Regards

Neil
CubbyHouseFilms
My Youtube Channel
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dhassay

Newbie Joined: Jan 23, 2012 11:21 Messages: 6 Offline

Jan 23, 2012 18:29

is there any chance of getting a refund?

I have tried again and again today. I simply am trying to "produce" a 45 minute video. I have started it 4 times and it crashes my system each time. this machine is very stable. it runs a professional DAW all day. I never have this problem.
I cant believe people are suggesting that we burn our produced videos with another app like imgburn. does this program suck that bad? I work in IT so having some "tech" tell me to update my video and sound drivers is not the answer.
Is anyone else having these issues?

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Jan 23, 2012 19:21

dhassay,
too bad you are having issues, try to be patient.
This is a great program.
Aside from editing questions, you are crashing on produce.
If you please provide us with A & B from the link, I'm almost sure the crashing can be stopped. As for DAW, that is not HD video-crunching. HD video will take a normal computer and make it cry.
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/7958.page
Please attach your information. A & B.

HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

dhassay

Newbie Joined: Jan 23, 2012 11:21 Messages: 6 Offline

Jan 23, 2012 19:55

I will do that.

I am happy to say that i have finally been able to produce the first video without crashing. It is attempting the second one now.
in case it helps I am using a server with dual zeon cpus, 4 cores each with 36 gigs on ram. I hope there is not an issue producing to a raid arrray. the reason i say this is because i changed the produce path from the raid array to the c: drive and it didnt crash. sorry for not having patience right now. i was hoping for a good out of the box experience.

I am still having a hard time believing that i should burn the dvds using a third party app. i will use both PD and another app and will see if there is a difference. that would just be unacceptable if a free app does a better job at burning the final product.

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Jan 23, 2012 20:44

I never have an issue with burning or quality. Some folks prefer another app, that's OK, too.
Some folks capture with another app, edit video in PD, edit the sound in another app, and burn in a 3rd app. I only go off the reservation if I need tape capture. The pros NEVER use a single app for anything. For me, a semi-pro or advanced amateur, PD does almost everything.
HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

dhassay

Newbie Joined: Jan 23, 2012 11:21 Messages: 6 Offline

Jan 24, 2012 22:07

after successfully producing the two videos I was able to burn them to dvd using imgburn. i will test out PD burning next.

Does anyone know why my system was crashing when producing to a raid array? as soon as i attempted to produce to the c: drive there was no problem.

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Jan 24, 2012 22:24

Quote: Does anyone know why my system was crashing when producing to a raid array? as soon as i attempted to produce to the c: drive there was no problem.

What type of Raid array do you have, (0), (1), (5)? Depending on your answer, how many drives are in the array? I produce everything to my Raid(0) array and have no issues at all, I never use the primary drive. I could potentially see at least a Raid(1) causing some issues. The potential issue varies greatly with the Raid controller. Some Raid(1) controllers will slow down a hard drive I/O substantially, I've got test data that makes them look worse than an external USB drive and PD does not perform well when "Producing" there either.

Jeff

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jan 24. 2012 22:29

Robert2 S

Senior Contributor Location: Australia Joined: Apr 22, 2009 05:57 Messages: 1461 Offline

Jan 24, 2012 22:27

Parts A & B needed, not your description of your system. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

garioch7

Senior Contributor Location: Port Hood, Nova Scotia, Canada Joined: Feb 07, 2011 06:45 Messages: 852 Offline

Jan 25, 2012 15:20

Hi. I have two 600 GB Velociraptor drives in RAID0 array. They constitute my Drive C:\. I haven't experienced any problems in producing and creating disks. The rendering just flies along, even with heavy video enhancement applied.

Have a great day.

Regards,
-Phil Windows 10 Pro x64
Dell XPS 8930
Intel CoreT i7 (4.6 GHz)
32 GB DDR4-2666 RAM
1 TB PCIe -x4 SSD
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
PD14 Ultimate x64, 4207
CD4 Ultra and AD6 Ultra
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dhassay

Newbie Joined: Jan 23, 2012 11:21 Messages: 6 Offline

Jan 25, 2012 15:23

interesting. my c: drive is also raid but it is simply for mirroring. its my d: drive that is raid 5 with 6 drives. do we have to produce to a c: drive and not a d: drive? that would be odd. I didnt do anything else but change the path to the c: and it worked without crashing. I will still post the answers to parts A and B asap. strange huh?

garioch7

Senior Contributor Location: Port Hood, Nova Scotia, Canada Joined: Feb 07, 2011 06:45 Messages: 852 Offline

Jan 25, 2012 15:31

Hi again. I am no techno geek, but I did find this article in Wikipedia which states that RAID5 has performance issues. PD10 consumes a lot of resources and does a lot of writing of enormous temporary files to Drive C: and produces wherever it is told to produce. I am suspicious, based on that article, that PD10 does not "like" RAID5 arrays because it is doing some very heavy-duty writing when producing the file. That your Produce worked well when sent to your RAID0 Drive C:\ would seem to indicate that PD10 is not all that happy when producing to a RAID5 drive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_5

Just my unexpert thoughts. Perhaps someone who is versed in the RAID world can be more helpful.

Have a great day.

Regards,
-Phil Windows 10 Pro x64
Dell XPS 8930
Intel CoreT i7 (4.6 GHz)
32 GB DDR4-2666 RAM
1 TB PCIe -x4 SSD
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
PD14 Ultimate x64, 4207
CD4 Ultra and AD6 Ultra
Bleeping Computer Malware Response Instructor

Bastian74

Senior Member Joined: Dec 06, 2010 12:12 Messages: 204 Offline

Jan 25, 2012 20:49

As for fitting the file on a dvd, buy a dual layer dvd for $1 or less and get 9 gigs.
Produce to a usb drive to test your drive letter theory.
I don't produce to C myself though.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jan 25. 2012 20:53

dhassay

Newbie Joined: Jan 23, 2012 11:21 Messages: 6 Offline

Jan 26, 2012 08:33

guess i will be producing to the c: thanks for the input and everyones help.

are the dual layer dvd's compatible with everyday, cheap dvd players?

Bastian74

Senior Member Joined: Dec 06, 2010 12:12 Messages: 204 Offline

Jan 26, 2012 09:33

Dual layer playback has been there since the beginning, it's just the burners / disks that have become more common lately.

Librarian

Newbie Joined: Sep 18, 2010 22:18 Messages: 14 Offline

Jan 26, 2012 22:02

As for producing to raid 0, I use 2 Hitachi Deskstar 1tb drives in Raid0 with excellent results. As for burning to a dvd, be aware that some dvd drives need a firmware update to work correctly. I found this out the hard way. If you do a google search for the firmware update for samsung dvd drives (and others too), you should be able to find a web site that will let you download software to test your dvd drive and tell you if you need an upgrade. There is also a small background application that will check for further fimware updates for your dvd drive as well.

Don Williams a.k.a Librarian

Schbang

Newbie Joined: Apr 27, 2011 15:55 Messages: 8 Offline

Jan 30, 2012 10:25

I agree - a total disappointment. Try to get your money back!

As a leader in HD footage editing, I've been regularly frustrated by Power Director.
Two days ago PD merged two projects - overlayed the audio from another completely different project into an actors showreel I was working on. What the? - Took hours to correct.

Now adding titles shifts the audio/video sync completely out. What the? -

Resolution? I'm converting my life to Mac - that's right converting my life to Mac, and buying/using FCP which is everything PD is not. Enough of this silly PC NLE software after 8 years, it's nonsense. SO FRUSTRATING - the Pinnacle sagas, the Adobe sagas.

This is one pissed-off PC user. After scripting and shooting broadcast programs and editing on unreliable PC NLE's, I've had ENOUGH!
Now that feels better.

Good bye PC. It's been a turbulent romance, but ultimately we divorce.
Welcome the Mac affair......I will so enjoy you.

Bubba in TX

Senior Contributor Location: Central Texas Joined: Dec 12, 2009 21:32 Messages: 1332 Offline

Jan 30, 2012 13:53

I have been using D/L DVD's for years... (when needed) They have been around since 1995. They play fine in anyone's player. (that's what those movies are on that you bring home from Wal Mart) 8.5 gig. Only slightly more expensive than a standard DVD. (I buy in bulk on Ebay) You can get D/L burners real cheap now days....

Schbang ..... OK.. nice knowing ya. I have been using Power Director since version 3 and I still like it very much. Only time I had any problems was Version 7......

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jan 30. 2012 13:56

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