Having huge issues with Power Director 7

Ken

Newbie Joined: May 25, 2008 23:29 Messages: 3 Offline

Solved by

May 25, 2008 23:56

I purchased this software last night to edit some VOB files I transferred to my HDD from my Sony DVD Camcorder. I have to say that I am super frustrated.

There are several issues that I am encountering that are keeping me from being able to use this software. The biggest is it seems as though the chapters go corrupt at any time when playing them back. Sometimes the audio continues but the picture freezes. Sometimes the picture and audio freeze.

Secondly, whenever I try to detect scenes the software fails to do so properly no matter what the sensitivity slider is set to. Movie Edit Pro worked fine for this on the same VOB files. No problems what so ever. What gives?

Thirdly, The application locks hard whenever I try to detect scenes and forces me to lose all of my work. That's not cool. My time is precious and I prefer not to waste it on buggy software that I paid $70.00 for. It's becoming all too common for software companies to release unfinished, buggy software. There is no excuse for this.

Here are my PC specs. I built it myself and have been a professional in the IT industry for 18+ years. I know it's not my hardware/drivers. I keep all my firmware and software up to date.

Windows Vista Ultimate x64
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz
nVidia GeForece 8800GTX 756MB RAM
2.6TB storage across three Maxtor HDDs
4GB PC 2700 RAM
Creative XFi Extreme Gamer Audio
46" Samsung LCD @ 1920x1080 60Hz.

Just to mention. I do not have these issues with Movie Edit Pro 12 Demo when manipulating files. Being that it is a demo I cannot burn my work. I purchased PowerDirector 7 after reading reviews on the product and determining that PowerDirector 7 was more feature rich. I guess I made a mistake. There is no reason it shouldn't be working on my PC if Movie Edit Pro 12 does.

I would appreciate some help here. If I cannot get resolution within the next five business days I will request a refund. I cannot use this software on my system as it is.

Dafydd B

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline

May 26, 2008 04:51

Hi Ken,

I've passed on your comments and sent you a PM requesting your email address.

Dafydd
[Moderator]

David

Newbie Location: England Joined: Dec 09, 2007 19:18 Messages: 45 Offline

May 26, 2008 14:57

I've had so many problems with 64bit Vista and Xfi drivers, that I've upgraded that machine back to XP. I wouldn't rule out a conflict with PD7+Vista64+Xfi.

Ken

Newbie Joined: May 25, 2008 23:29 Messages: 3 Offline

May 26, 2008 23:45

I would love to say that is the issue but it's not. I run a dual boot system and installed PD7 into XP SP3 today. Same issues persist. I went and checked for updated drivers for my hardware and BIOS. There were updates for both so I installed the XFi drivers and flashed my BIOS. No go. I still have issues with the software. Mostly when I try to detect scenes or do anything related to editing a clip. PD7 stalls and I have to kill it in task manager.

Very perplexing. My system destroys anything I throw at it. There is something in my hardware configuration that PD7 doesn't like. It is not possible to have the same exact problem in XP and Vista otherwise. It's either that or it doesn't like my VOB files for some reason.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at May 26. 2008 23:47

David

Newbie Location: England Joined: Dec 09, 2007 19:18 Messages: 45 Offline

May 27, 2008 12:09

It would seem that PD7 is indeed in conflict with your hardware or related driver.

Personaly I would try different drivers for both my video card and sound card. Creative are well known to have very poor driver support, and we both know Nvidia drivers are released to improve a 3dmark score or frame rate, rather than to improve compatibility.

But, having said that there is a good chance PD7 won't work with any driver combination, and a refund might be your best bet.

I've just noticed that the ram you have is only rated at 166mhz (333ddr), while a core2duo at 2.66 runs on an FSB of either 266 or 333mhz. While this shouldn't be any problem, some chipsets (nforce 630) really don't like running the ram and FSB at anything other than a 1:1 ratio

Ken

Newbie Joined: May 25, 2008 23:29 Messages: 3 Offline

May 28, 2008 18:17

My RAM is 800Mhz. Corsiar. I have 4GB of it. When loading VOB files in PD7 I'm only using about 43% of my RAM. My CPU cycles never top out either.