Hi,
Under the 'Produce' tab..it lets you select the formats you want ..the save or save as..just saves the project information..
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I thought that was true too, when I used PD10 a couple of years ago. But although PD 12 "says" you can save in MEPG4, MEPG 2, H.264, WMV - the only choice I'm getting is the PDS file. There's a drop-down box under File/Save or File/Save As, but the only choice is the PDS file.

I have to be missing something obvious, which isn't explained in your response or in the several results of my Google search. There has to be another way - a way to get an actual MPEG4 file saved, without burning to a DVD. It could be done with PD 10, so there has to be a way to do it in PD 12.

Bill Bill Hansen

Quote: I thought that was true too, when I used PD10 a couple of years ago. But although PD 12 "says" you can save in MEPG4, MEPG 2, H.264, WMV - the only choice I'm getting is the PDS file. There's a drop-down box under File/Save or File/Save As, but the only choice is the PDS file.

I have to be missing something obvious, which isn't explained in your response or in the several results of my Google search. There has to be another way - a way to get an actual MPEG4 file saved, without burning to a DVD. It could be done with PD 10, so there has to be a way to do it in PD 12.

Bill

You must have something on the Timeline for the Produce button to be active. It can be an Image or a Video.
You should have the edited video you want to output to MPEG4, MPEG2, or any other format on the Timeline.
It has been so long since the editors in this forum were novices, we forgot the basic things. The first basic is the video you are editing is on the timeline. After all Powerdirector is a video editor.



You can produce to any file format in the Produce Module.



Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Carl - Thanks for trying to help. I guess I wasn't able to express myself clearly. I know how to Produce (render) the video. After producing, I can return to the Edit menu and view the "produce" version of the video in PD 12's viewer. But - If I pack the project (or even if I don' pack the project) and Save, only the PDS file gets saved. **That's** the problem! The MP4 (or whatever) video is not saved - at least it's not saved in any place I can readily see it later on.

Of course I can view the MP4 (or whatever) file in PD 12 itself using the PD12 viewer - but that viewer isn't really very HD at all. I want to be able to save the MP4 file itself to the "My Videos" part of Win 7 - or anywhere else where I can find it easily at a later time.

The one way I can occasionally do that "Save" to "My Videos" is to R click on the post-production MP4 thumbnail in PD 12, find the location of that file on the computer outside of PD 12 (sometimes it's in Windows/C\,Users/Bill/Documents/Cyberlink/Power Director/PD12 - but sometimes it isn't), navigate to that location, open a second copy of Windows Explorer, and manually drag the MP4 file to the appropriate place in "My Videos" . This sometimes works, but more than half the time, the location of the post-production MP4 file is not really available. And anyway - I can't believe there isn't a more straightforward way of putting useable video files in a place where they can be viewed later on. Isn't there some easier, less cumbersome way?

Sorry to be so long-winded. I'm trying to be precise enough so my problem is understandable.

Can you offer any suggestions?

Thanks - Bill Bill Hansen

Quote:
Of course I can view the MP4 (or whatever) file in PD 12 itself using the PD12 viewer - but that viewer isn't really very HD at all. I want to be able to save the MP4 file itself to the "My Videos" part of Win 7 - or anywhere else where I can find it easily at a later time.
Can you offer any suggestions?
Thanks - Bill

Hi Bill

A couple of ideas.

1. In the Preferences you can select the Export and Import folders:


2. When your Produced file is in the Library you can view it in FHD by undocking the Preview window, changing the quality and selecting Full Screen:





CORRECTION: you must Select the Preview Quality FIRST before you undock the Preview Window

Happy editing Happing editing

Best Regards

Neil
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Bill Hansen,
I think I understand your dilemma.

Powerdirector's Pack Project Materials has a known fault, It only puts into the packed folder the PDS file and the Image and Videos on the Timeline.

If you want assets that are not on the timeline, you should copy them to a folder created in the Packed Materials folder

Stuff that in in the library and not on the timeline does not automatically get copied.

That is explained in this Tutorial:

Project Management part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2CYLYIynB0

The list of PDtoots tutorials is here:
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/30026.page

A bit of watching the basics will bring you up to speed with the improvements in PD12 over PD 10.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Thanks CubbyHouse and Carl - It was the Preferences/File export choice I had forgotten. Things should work smoothly now.

The tip on packing projects is worthwhile too. I've been saving the MVIs in folders, and manually moving the post production PDS files in with them. That should work, shouldn't it? (I'm not doing separate audio tracks, or additional video/audio tracks yet this year - so I know I'll need to ramp up my project packing skills before I move back into those things.) Bill Hansen

Quote: Thanks CubbyHouse and Carl - It was the Preferences/File export choice I had forgotten. Things should work smoothly now.

The tip on packing projects is worthwhile too. I've been saving the MVIs in folders, and manually moving the post production PDS files in with them. That should work, shouldn't it? (I'm not doing separate audio tracks, or additional video/audio tracks yet this year - so I know I'll need to ramp up my project packing skills before I move back into those things.)

One of the things pack project materials does is make all of the media references Relative. Meaning that the PDS file will load the assets in the same folder the pds file is located. It also copies everything referenced on the Timeline.

A regular PDS file has hard coded locations for its assets. Meaning that if a file is not where the pds says it is, you get black place holders.

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.