What have you either removed or updated on your PC.... Windows media Player for example? I need to check this isn't a PD issue by getting you to carry out a simple install -reinstall. you also need to check you have the latest build of PD6.

Read and carry out:
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/2405.page
Subject: PowerDirector - information we request and tasks to carry out.
PART A, PART C, PART G

the latest build is 2319 for PD6

Dafydd

Dafydd,

Good thoughts. Thanks very much for your timely response.

I am running build 2319. I should have mentioned I did already try and re-install, but it did not fix the issue. The only changes made to my computer in between the time PD was working and now were nine automatic Windows Vista updates. Nothing scary looking although I suppose it is possible that MS broke something. If that's the case I would have expected others to report the problem as well.

Hrm. Sorta stuck. Maybe I'll try re-installing again for the hell of it. Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Shem

Went through the uninstall/reinstall according to the directions layed out in the post you specified - still no go. So, PART A, C, and G all done.

Here is another possible hint - before the uninstall, I had PD Express installed on the machine and it exhibited the exact same behaviour. Video preview broken when trying to preview the movie from the "video track", but still able to preview from the media library pane.

Weird. I wonder what the difference is between preview in the library and the video track.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm banging my head against the wall, and the grandparents are looking forward to seeing video of their grandson!

This may sound silly, I have run into various little idiosyncracies with videos over time (some don't make any sense) If you drag your video to the time line and process it in PD, without editing (basically duplicate the clip), can you see the processed video? Give that a try and see if it will process it with audio and video and whether thats useable?

It might not work at all, however, I have had issues where different things happen, won't play in library but will in time line won't play in trim but will in timeline and in library (just silly things).

Hopefully this will help.

I can't be certain but at least twice I have experienced something similar with PD6. In my case .mov files (native to my camera) would not play (but other formats mpg,avi etc seemed OK) I have to admit I didn't do a full set of tests/methodical diagnostics but went for the reinstall (as per Cyberlink support advice). This seemed to 'cure' the issue but I am pretty certain the difficulty arose after I moved/copied/reorganised video clips and media to other drives including USB external drives. Some clips would have been used in projects but not all.
Now I am much more careful how I treat files/clips used in projects and try to use the same drive setup all the time and use the PD6 interface to remove/delete clips from the library and the disc.
My experience may, of course, be totally unconnected but....

Cheers Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

vn800rider I noticed someone else saying something about moving clips etc and having issues. I, so far, have found that PD allow me to search for them. So I haven't run into that issue.

If you had .mov files that weren't working then perhaps Quicktime didn't install properly when PD installed (that would create an issue, I would think.)

With everything in the computerworld, one little thing can be the issue. Sometimes you find it, sometimes you work around it.

Hopefully this will work outfor Shem.

Thanks again to you guys for the input/suggestions.

I'll keep trying different things and post back if I can figure out what is going on. Unfortunently, producing the clip "as-is" is not really useful, since I have all sorts of un-related clips one after the other on the DV, and generally I use PD6 to edit them and create clips for youtube for sharing with the grandparents.

The one thing that really puzzles me, and probably the most important hint I think, is that the clip previes fine from the library pane, but not from the video track. If I understood the difference between the two actions, that might point me in the right direction.

Thanks again and I will post again if I figure it out.

-Shem

Shem,

Running into the same problem. I've left the PD6 default images in my library. When the screen stays "black", I just click on an image from the library, which then opens. Then I go back and click on the clip in the timeline. It seems to resolve the "glitch" by choosing another image from the library. Why? I don't know. Wonder if I should upgrade to 7.

Also have two other problems: jitters on produced movie tracks, and audio out of sync - as much as a 1min to 1.5 mins. Have spent hours producing movies and trying to figure this one out. Is it a RAM problem? I've turned off non-essential programs, etc. Do I need to upgrade my Gateway? Any suggestions appreciated.

Sara Jane
mrsgoodcash@gmail.com

Shem

I understand what you are saying about accomplishing anything BUT it would be interesting to see if just reprocessing the clip fixes your problem (then you just reprocess everything, load the clips and then do your editing)

Just a thought (if this works, it might be quicker than trying to figure this out right this second) it gets your project finished at any rate. I have realized too, that sometimes there is no explanation (it is just one of those things).

However, good luck with whatevery ou choose to do.

Its an interesting thread this one.

What I clearly see here and in other threads is on one side a pragmatic approach, possibly even an investigative approach by some users.

When something seems to be broken in PD7 the next step by "The Prags" is to ask - "Well what does work or how can I get around it?"

When video projects using gigabyte size files are being processed in so many computers by users with such different pc configurations and operating systems, you have to ask, is it me or the pc or what?

Dragging timelines, adding subtitles and so on make PD7 build ever larger PDS project files and then we get black screens as reported here as a symptom. As a symptom - not a bug or a design error. That can easily be proven by testing with smaller files. If it is a recurring testable symptom with small files, then it might be a bug.

When I see these same symptoms on my own pc, and I do, as well as freezes and crashes ("Program not responding, kiss your unsaved work goodbye...") I instinctively know I pushed the envelope of my pc configuration too far.

Either the video subsystem or memory allocation or just plain Bill Gates may be responsible. Maybe it is the architecture of PD7 and/or memory leakage or too many pending subroutine clicks or whatever in the C++ -program module (it is written in C++ ??) which was responsible.

As a knee-jerk reaction I can scream at Cyberlink and go out and buy an $800 editing suite from one of the big guys and fume over the new learning curve or as a "Prag" I can learn to handle smaller files or at least save my work after any new file or title or transition was added to the project. [I bet Final Cut Pro would also crash my pc configuration]

If this was Microsoft product we would be a few million users and Gates/Balmers Boys would spring into action sometime soon to fix the bug or architecture or maybe not.

I'm not an employee or reseller for Cyberlink, just a user who saw PD6 as a well-featured easy to use platform. I tested as many free download competitor products in the $60 - $200 range before I bought it and now have PD7. With the added PIP tracks and a few other new features in PD7 I still think it was the best buy and yes it still crashes on me when I get over enthusiastic in editing. I have Vista Home Edition with 1.5 Gigabytes ram and a 2Ghz AMD processor

My Hints
Save your work often
Do fancy multi-PIP and motion tricks in small clips, then import that AVI into the big project
Save your work often
Don't click-n-drag too rapidly
Save your work often.

/RANT OFF If you can't solve the problem - Change the problem

McLean - Interesting idea and I gave it a try. I picked out the first minute of the imported video and produced it, editing into a windows AVI file. The file previewed fine with MS Media Player, but exhibited the exact same behaviour when I imported it into PD - video preview broken when viewed from the video track.

Sarah - Thanks for the suggestion - unfortunetly I had already deleted the stock images, but I tried your fix with some others I had lying around. That didnt work - but who knows - maybe I should try re-install PD just to get the stock images back . Interesting to know that somebody else had a similar issue.

Ron - Thanks for your response. I actually like PD 6 - it's worked well for me up till now, but the truth is that this sounds like it should be considered an application bug. The behaviour is occurring for ALL video files I can throw at it, even ones that were produced using PD. This is not a matter of trying to push the software to it's limits. It's core functionality of the application that is broken and renders the software pretty much unusable as is.

I'm sure there are workarounds, for instance I can use the media pane to preview the file, write down all the time transitions where I want to split scenes or do anything else, switch back to video track mode and work blind, but that is not really practical.

Here's another thought - do you guys think this could be a codec issue? I could try installing a codec pack, but I am a little hesitant to pollute a currently clean system.

I suppose it could be a codec but even though those updates didn't look scary one of them might have affected it.

Do you remember how long it has been since it worked for you and would it be worth it to go back and do a restore - or - maybe I've missed something because you mention a clean system.

McLean,

Thanks, I could probably give that a try, at least to see if the patches were responsible in some way. By "clean", I just meant I have not installed alot of unnescessary junk on the machine.

Thanks again for the input.

Ah ok. I just wanted to make sure that you hadn't just wiped your system clean.

I would say if you can pinpoint when you started having problems and can restore back to that date (I would also, once you do that, uninstall and reinstall PD too) just to make sure it is a fresh install.

Hopefully that will help.

Shem,

You've had some good suggestions - I'm reading the postings and agreeing with what's been written - no need for me to add any more at this point.

Dafydd

Hi guys,
Just some more thoughts. I agree with the advice to Save, Save Save. I use PD6 in 2 modes- when 'I'm playing' with things and then when I want a finished output. When I work on a 'finished' project I save almost after every change especially now I've started to work in HD, which seems to require much more hardware and software time/processing. At a guess, but I can't be certain, since starting to work like thisI have far fewer problems, the system seems to be more stable as a whole. If I rush about doing many things quickly it seems to 'get lost' and I can't then tell what's just caused a problem. I use XP SP3 MCE Athlone 64 X2 dual care 4600+ Gb RAM 300Gb SATA and sundry external USB drives for storage. Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

Hi Guys,

Having read through articles, and threads on other forums, it seems I'm asking my little ol' Gateway to do too much at one time. I've taken your advice to heart, and producing my videos in "small bites" rather than
one big AVI file. Seems to be working. All the A/V junkies say you
need a minimum of 2 GB ram to do movies.

I still turn off all non-essentials, my wireless, and anti-virus.

Will keep you up-to-date.

Sara Jane
mrsgoodcash@gmail.com

Folks,

Unfortunetly, I'm still stuck. I tried the system restore to a point where I know everything was working, but that still did not fix the problem.

Saving often is great advice in general, but not applicable to the problem here. It doesn't matter how many times I save the project, how small the video file I import, how slowly I do the steps, ect - still no preview from the video pane.

I've tried updating video drivers, changing desktop resolutions, color depths, refresh rates, ect. Nada. I sent an email to Cyberlink support, and got a stock response, with some obvious (reasonable) suggestions that I had already told them I tried in the email . I sent another email explaining again, but don't really have my hopes up.

I gotta say, all you guys have have been very helpful with your suggestions, but I'm close to packing it in with PD, which is a shame, because I really liked the product.

I'm wondering if upgrading would fix the issue, but there is no way I will pay for an upgrade just on the chance it fixes the issue. Maybe I can get Cyberlink to spring for the upgrade- we'll see. That would actually be fair if they can't help resolve the issue.

Thanks,
Shem

Shem after you did the system restore did you uninstall and reinstall PD?

I am sorry you are still have issues.

Personally I would not upgrade at this point. I love PD don't get me wrong, but it might not solve your problem and so far PD7 has its own issues that are being worked out. It is an exciting product and will be stupendous when everything gets worked through BUT I would hate for you to upgrade and suffer more problems.

Can you confirm about that reinstall? Thanks.