I did a quick check- working for me.
I would like a dedicated "Album" Category added to PD's SmartSound Quicktracks integration instead of just song tracks.

Have you tried Rebuilding the Smartsound database in the Smartsound prefs as well as clearing your the preview cache in the net tab?
Did you also try reinstalling your songs / albums?

I find it much faster to use SonicFire PRO to quickly find what I want. I then either save and export it to PD in .wav format or else take a note of the song name and find it in the PD Smartsound Quicktracks interface. (The PD quicktracks interface is pretty much useless for me since Album category narrows things down much faster. I have a lot of Albums and Quicktracks just does not cut it for sorting, finding the correct song track for the scene I am working on.)



Rob
PD 14 Ultimate Suite / Win10 Pro x64
1. Gigabyte Brix PRO / i7-4770R Intel Iris Pro 5200 / 16 GB / 1 TB SSD
2. Lenovo X230T / 8GB / Intel HD4000 + ViDock 4 Plus & ASUS Nvidia 660 Ti / Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIZw3GPwKMo&feature=youtu.be

Hi ,

Sorry, SmartSound works well in menus PD12.


Hi All

Win10 64bits PRO OEM - i7 3820 3.6Ghz - 18Go de Ram-GTX960 (375.95)

Did you try EVERY category? Some of mine work fine, others do not. I also own SonicFirePro, it's a great program. 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

Quote: Can anyone else reproduce this "error"?

Hi Barry -

Same issue here, on both PCs.

In the Edit module, installed tracks are displayed bold & blue whether All Styles or a category is selected.

In the Menu module, installed tracks are blue & bold under All Styles - but not consistently when a category is selected. Without quantifying, I'd say that most of the installed tracks don't display correctly under categories in the menu module.

I have no idea why or how it could be corrected.

I also have no idea why people quote whole posts in replying, when exactly the same text is written just above. Superfluous, redundant & unnecessary... & a waste of real estate.

Back on topic - Rob - ABSOLUTELY! Sorting by album is a much more natural way to sort a large collection of music. That would be a good option.

Cheers - Tony
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If Tony sez it's busted then I'll change my verdict- it's busted !

I have a lot of tracks and didn't check all categories (a pain to do an in depth comparison.)
Well this sucks for people for bought tracks / albums and only use PD's quicktracks categories.

Honestly- I am automatically finding fixes and workarounds with any issues that I come across- I really should take my own advice and start filing tech problem reports with Cyberlink instead of forgetting about them. I get so caught up with editing that I tune out distractions / glitches and move on.

Rob
PD 14 Ultimate Suite / Win10 Pro x64
1. Gigabyte Brix PRO / i7-4770R Intel Iris Pro 5200 / 16 GB / 1 TB SSD
2. Lenovo X230T / 8GB / Intel HD4000 + ViDock 4 Plus & ASUS Nvidia 660 Ti / Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIZw3GPwKMo&feature=youtu.be

Editing, with the right project, is TOTALLY addicting!
That said, this error is a long-standing issue, not a deal-breaker by any means, but an issue that has been utterly ignored for years and years. Maybe it will prod me to start using SonicFirePro again. It's fool-proof. 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

Just in case anyone cares - or is confused about what the issue is - here's an example.

In the Edit module, purchased SmartSound music displays correctly (bold blue) in the appropriate category & under All

In the Create Disc module, purchased SmartSound music displays correctly (bold blue) under All, but not always in the appropriate category.

Screenshot below shows purchased tracks in the two modules:



Perhaps other SmartSound users could investigate by comparing how categories display in each module. I can find no rhyme or reason for it.

Cheers - Tony
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Tony,
a perfect illustration of the problem. It's just another "glitch" in the less-than-perfect menu module.
Honestly, I don't think it would be more than just a few coding tweaks to make the menu module a more user-friendly component.
I know whatever is done needs to be backward-compatible to PD 8 or 9, but it's high time this (and other menu issues) was finally addressed, I don't want to wait for PD13. 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

Quote:
Perhaps other SmartSound users could investigate by comparing how categories display in each module. I can find no rhyme or reason for it.

What appears odd to me is Rob's post lists "New Age" for selected style and Tony's is "New Age/Easy", looks like a totally different style category. I don't have a "New Age/Easy" in my PD12. The 8Fold song that is highlighted in Tony's post is cataloged in the style "Ballad", "Drama" and "Indie". I wonder if that's maybe part of the issue. I also wonder why different default style categories, can one create them or is it influenced by SonicFire Pro users.

As near as I can tell, mine highlight okay, however, I'm not a SS purchaser and only have the stock files.

Jeff

Hi Jeff -

I like the way you think through things.

I can add a few facts to the mix:
1. I've never used SonicFire Pro - in fact I only purchased/installed it this morning.
2. I've never created my own category in SmartSound & wouldn't know how. I don't think you can.
3. It's normal for tracks to appear in one or more categories (in both Edit & Create Disc)
4. Today, I dragged out the old laptop which has PD8 & NO purchased SS music - everything displays correctly. I installed a couple of albums (from disc) & everything still displayed correctly. **Haven't tested installing from an ssdl file yet - that may be a factor.** Forget that idea - incompatible with QuickTracks version 3, which is what PD8 uses.

My PC (PD11 & 12) has New Age & New Age/Easy categories. In the PD8 laptop, there's only New Age/Easy.

Thank you for adding your voice. It confirms what I found this morning - no purchase = correct display. I'm hoping other SS music purchasers will chime in too.

Cheers - Tony
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Quote: 3. It's normal for tracks to appear in one or more categories (in both Edit & Create Disc)

Totally agree, I was simply stating what categories the 8Fold tune was found in as I don't have the "New Age/Easy" category and 8Fold does not appear in my "New Age" category.

My PD11 (pc 1) and PD12 (pc 2) installations do not have a "New Age/Easy" category, just "New Age". Both installation are utilizing SS QT SDK Version 5.1.8.0 which I believe is most current from SS.

I wonder if some installed Album changed the default categories which PD has and created the "New Age/Easy" category and this might be the source of the issue. It would appear CL should have plenty of info from this thread and others to dig into the API allowing the SS interface and resolve highlighting issue if desired.

Jeff

Barry, Jeff & all -

I've sent a note to SS Tech Support. They're usually pretty good at responding in a timely & useful way.

Cheers - Tony
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I did find a PM here that reminded me this was happening since V5 (my 1st PowerDirector).
This is more of a nuisance than a full-blown pull-out-your-hair issue, and from the response here, I suspect very limited.
Years ago I tried Factory Restore several times and started from scratch, yet the issue persisted.
I suspect old downloads (both singles and albums) may have set this off, and we may be chasing a red-herring of sorts. 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

Hi Barry, Jeff, Rob, Papido & all -

In response to a private "Help" message, a small number of members have responded confirming the display issue. It apparently doesn't affect users who've never purchased extra music (singles or albums).

Phil (garioch7) sent some screenshots (assembled below) that show the same symptoms Barry posted originally... others confirmed the issue without the shots. Note in Phil's screenshot that the display issue also affects tracks provided with PD (e.g. "Pavane" from Core Foundations)



Here's the response from Frank at SS Support about this question:

Basically, the developers at Cyberlink are responsible for the integrated interface inside PowerDirector, as we just provide them with the Quicktracks SDK. Note that the free selection of tracks that comes with PowerDirector does not include songs from every category. If no additional music was purchased that falls into the selected Style, then only purchasable tracks would show.
- he went on to explain some other things, but hasn't yet given any clues about Jeff's question relating to categories not being consistent.

Are there other members out there who've purchased and installed "extra" SS music that could chime in here? As Barry says, it's more of a nuisance issue, but (I think) still worth pursuing.

Cheers - Tony



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Tony,
Per your request... I have purchased and used additional SS music. I get different results depending on the category.
In my Classic Rock category the purchased files did not Bold in Blue.
In My New Age category the files display correctly.
Screen Shots attached. Best Regards,
Steve

PD12 Ultimate v2706. Computer: MSI X58M, Intel i7-980 6-core @ 3.33 Ghz, 24 GB RAM, 2X ATI Radeon HD 6870 2GB in Crossfire, Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit on Samsung 1TB SSD 840 EVO + 600GB VelociRaptor + 5TB of WD Storage.
Director Suite 2

The other attachment. Best Regards,
Steve

PD12 Ultimate v2706. Computer: MSI X58M, Intel i7-980 6-core @ 3.33 Ghz, 24 GB RAM, 2X ATI Radeon HD 6870 2GB in Crossfire, Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit on Samsung 1TB SSD 840 EVO + 600GB VelociRaptor + 5TB of WD Storage.
Director Suite 2

Quote: but (I think) still worth pursuing.

Probably not, not much the user community can do. As the quote from Frank indicated, CL is responsible for the integrated interface, pretty much what I said, have CL to dig into the API allowing the SS interface and resolve highlighting issue if desired.

The "New Age/Easy" was the category used in PD8 and most likely other PD versions of that vintage too. If you have a clean install on a clean system with current PD11 and/or PD12 you get the "New Age" category. An older box of mine with PD8 uses "New Age/Easy".

Therefore, my guess is those that have the "New Age/Easy" category probably carried some hidden baggage from previous PD versions and this could also be affected by rebuilding the SS database depending on what PD versions were installed at the time. It appears a common SS ProgramData location is used for all PD versions. It also appears the master library database changed from a sxl file (PD8) to a ssdb (PD11/12) as well. Not sure of exact version change took place. Again, somewhat trivial stuff when you have the source code, debugger, and a software configuration management tool, pretty much hopeless to resolve from a end user perspective.

Jeff

Jeff -

That's a fair assessment, I think. It makes sense because, for some time, I've been installing "old" libraries on new installations by copying/pasting my backed up C:\ProgramData\SmartSound Software Inc folder. New purchases are installed over that. So - it does follow that a category from PD8 would find its way into the PD11/12 interface.

The two issues may be related in some way, but that's hard to determine from the information at hand.

Cheers - Tony
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Hi SmartSound users and others who are interested -

Thanks Steve, and others, for the screenshots. Every bit of information helps.

After seeing others' screenshots and the discussion that followed, I conducted a little test. The details (including progressive screenshots) are in the attached PDF file.

Conclusion - the display issue (purchased tracks not highlighted under categories in Create Disc) evidences itself once an album/track has been installed via downloading an SSDL file from SmartSound. If albums/tracks were only ever installed via physical disc, the issue would not be present.

It was initially thought that the display issue may have been caused when SS files were installed by copying & pasting backed up folders from C:\ProgramData\SmartSound Software Inc. This is the cause of differently named categories in the SS interface.

What I found, basically, is that on a clean install of PD/SmartSound, where albums/tracks are only installed by physical disc, the issue isn't present. SS tracks display correctly in categories under Edit & Create Disc.

Once a track or album is installed via downloaded SSDL file, the display in Create Disc is thrown out. The display in Edit continues to accurately show purchased tracks in bold blue under categories.

Albums/tracks subsequently installed, even by physical disc, are also affected. i.e. their contents/tracks display correctly under categories in Edit, but not consistently in Create Disc.

Still - it shouldn't be the case. The UI should be correct whatever installation method is used.

----------

On the issue Jeff raised, about categories being inconsistent, his assertion is completely correct. There are other inconsistencies beyond the NewAge/Easy one. The extra/missed categories are a relic from previous versions of PD.

Changes in categories will be caused by:
(a) installing SS music by copying & pasting a backup folder - C:\ProgramData\SmartSound Software Inc
(b) separately installing "Full Spectrum", the free music supplied with earlier versions of PD.

Cheers - Tony



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