Hi trampintransit -

There is a plethora of versions & variants of PDR & it can be a bit confusing.

All versions of PDR come with WaveEditor Express (as it's now known) - http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector-ultimate/compare_en_AU.html

AudioDirector is a separate piece of software that's bundled with DirectorSuite & PDR Ultimate Suite. It has more advanced features than WE.

All versions of PDR. ADR & WaveEditor all read & display timecode. PDR uses hh:mm:ss:ff ADR and WE use hh:mm:ss:mss (thousanths of a second)



Neither ADR nor WaveEditor can automatically sync audio clips, except by aligning waveform visually. PDR syncs audio via MultiCam.

Hope that helps a little.

Cheers - Tony
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Excellent reply...thank you.

ynotfish ...since you seem to be the person in the know, perhaps you can help me again. I was about to buy PD13 ultimate but read that it doesn't support Intel HD graphics cartd??? My ASUS has intel HD but I don't know specifically which? How do I find out ( windows 8.1 ) and what are the consequences of it not being supported?

I only know what I know. I also know that I don't know a laod of stuff others know. In fact, others are far more "in the know" about matters technical, so I'll leave your question up to them.

You may have read that here - http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector-ultimate/spec_en_AU.html - which refers ONLY to the NewBlue Titler Pro plug-in.

Cheers - Tony
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Hi trampintransit

Tony is right about the New Blue Titler Pro not supporting systems that only have Intel HD or Iris graphics. Everything else in PD13 will work.

Maybe I can help explain what "Intel graphics" actually is. Inside each i7 CPU chip, Intel has added a dedicated graphics processor. It's not actually a card, or something you can go to the store and buy. Some systems use that as the only graphics processor (GPU), while many (even most) others use an actual add-in card or additional built-in GPUs from nVidia or AMD. The additional GPUs are very powerful and will make editing and producing with PD13 go much faster if you have a powerful enough system.

There are a couple of ways to tell if your system has any built-in graphics beside the one inside your CPU. If it's a newer laptop or brand-name desktop, let us know the model number and we can look it up. You can also open up Device Manager and expand the dialog box labeled Display Adapters. That will tell you exactly what's on your system. Here's what mine looks like:



You also can get your GPU info by running "dxdiag" from a command prompt. See this post for more info.

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

optodata -- thanks for your help.

Not sure what Blue Titler Pro is at the moment!, and how it'll be relavant.

I think my laptop is a bit underpowered for the task, but I've downloaded the trial of )D13 Ultimate and had a play last night. It glitched a little but I think is cooping well enough just now for me to learn the software whilst I look into a more powerful laptop.

It's a ASUS X401a , Win 8.1. Intel (R) Pentium (R) CPU 2020M @ 2.40GHz , 4.0gb ram. / 64bit. The drop down in device manage just says INTEL (R) HD graphics.

I assume it's non expandable in terms of graphics cards.

Still, I've been mucking around with trying to use various free editors for a while and it's been utterly dispiriting. An hour last night with PD13 and already I'm thinking.
." Ah...this is more like what I expected!"

Quote: optodata -- thanks for your help.

Not sure what Blue Titler Pro is at the moment!, and how it'll be relavant.

I think my laptop is a bit underpowered for the task, but I've downloaded the trial of )D13 Ultimate and had a play last night. It glitched a little but I think is cooping well enough just now for me to learn the software whilst I look into a more powerful laptop.

It's a ASUS X401a , Win 8.1. Intel (R) Pentium (R) CPU 2020M @ 2.40GHz , 4.0gb ram. / 64bit. The drop down in device manage just says INTEL (R) HD graphics.

I assume it's non expandable in terms of graphics cards.

Still, I've been mucking around with trying to use various free editors for a while and it's been utterly dispiriting. An hour last night with PD13 and already I'm thinking.
." Ah...this is more like what I expected!"

You will certainly need a more powerful computer to do any HD video editing. I'm not a big fan of laptops at all. Even the most powerful ones don't hold a candle to a good desktop.

Your first problem is you don't have enough system memory. (DRAM) You only have 4GB and will need at least 8GB.

Your CPU is a 2.4GB which is really too slow. I'd recommend an Intel CPU with 4 cores.

You have intergraded graphics. This is built into the CPU which will slow down the processing power of the CPU even more. Get a dedicated graphic card to take the load off of the CPU.

With my system (see my signature) I can edit and process 4K videos without even a slight stutter and there are more powerful systems out there. Asus X79-Deluxe, Intel i7-4930K, EVGA GTX 980ti, G.Skill memory 16GB, Corsair HX1000 PSU, OCZ Vertex4 SSD, OCZ Vector180 480GB, (2)Western Digital Black 1TB(RAID0), Western Digital 2TB, LG Blue Ray Burner, Lite-on DVD Burner, Logitech G19 keyboard, Window

Quote: optodata -- thanks for your help.

Not sure what Blue Titler Pro is at the moment!, and how it'll be relavant.

I think my laptop is a bit underpowered for the task, but I've downloaded the trial of PD13 Ultimate and had a play last night. It glitched a little but I think is coping well enough just now for me to learn the software whilst I look into a more powerful laptop.

NewBlue Titler Pro is an add-on component of PD13 Ultimate (and above) that allows you to create professional-level titles with all kinds of motion and effects. PD13 has lots of titling capabilites already and Titler Pro isn't necessary, but if you don't have graphics hardware from AMD or nVidia you'll be paying from something that you can't use. You can watch the teaser video for a newer version here, and you can see why you'd need a very powerful graphics card to create some of those examples

Skibum is right about your current laptop being underpowered for any serious video editing, and I'm glad you're looking into getting a new sytem. He's also correct that the fastest desktop sytems are more powerful than the fastest laptops, but I know many people who use PD13 on their laptops and work with HD and even 4k and are happy with their setup.

You'll need to figure out which type of system works best for your situation and budget, but either way you'll want to invest in a top end model with a fast i7 processor with an integrated AMD or nVidia GPU (for a laptop) or with a high-end video card if you get a desktop.

If you have any questions about what to buy, you can search the forum for recommendations of post a question with a model number and you'll get plenty of opinions

This website will give you a good overview of what you need for a good video editing experience. They have a section on laptops, but the article is 4 years old so there will be more powerful models now than the ones they recommend. The things to look for are still relevent, however.

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

Thank you very much.

I'm aware that my laptop is underpowered. But, at the moment I'm not trying to produce anything, merely trying to learn. So, I'm not concerned about titles and effects, merely learning the art of assembling a narrative. Judging from the hour I spent last night, with all settings at 'low quality' my laptop sort of seems to be able to keep pace. I bet I'll regret that satement in a week! I just don't think I can afford a desktop, I'll look to selling this lappy and upgrading I think.
Meanwhile, I'm stumped as to why the preview display seems very hot.
files that are reasonably well exposed in camera and play ok in VLC look overexposed by about 5 stops in the preview window. I've reduced the preview quality to 'normal' to no avail?

Anyway, now I've got to start browsing ebay for 2nd hand laptops with loads of ram and a decent graphics card without the missus noticing!!!

Does that look like it might be up to the task?

Processor

AMD A8-5550M Quad Core
2.1GHz, 4MB L2 Cache
AMD Turbo Core Up To 3.1GHz

Memory

8GB DDR3
1600Mhz

Hard Drive

500GB

Optical Drive

Super Multi Dual Layer DVD-ReWriter

Software

Windows 7 Professional Edition 64-bit (With integrated One Key Recovery)
Supplied With Windows 8 Professional 64-bit License & Restore discs

Display

15.6" HD LED Display
Resolution: 1366 x 768
Matte Effect - Anti Glare

Graphics

AMD Radeon HD 8550G
256 Core Graphics Processor
DirectX 11


?????

While it looks to be newer and more powerful, it's actually not much different from you current system. The forum generally uses Passmark.com to rate various components, and here's a comparison of the CPU in your current laptop, this propsed laptop and the one in my desktop system. You can clearly see that you're only getting a small increase in power and you're not even close to where you'd want to be.

The same goes for your GPU, and those two AMDs are way out of their league

Use the CPU and GPU numbers in my system as a guide, and try to find a system with CPU and GPU scores that are at least half of the ones in my system. Higher is better but the cost goes up too, so kind of like when buying a house, choose a system with the best features you can afford.

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

Hi trampintransit -

I don't wish to be complicit in any covert operations between you and your "missus", but that is not a PC I'd choose for editing video. Even though I'd probably be one of the least technically astute members here, my assessment of those specs/that PC would be that it would probably choke!

CPU - http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+A8-5550M+APU&id=1976

GPU - http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+8550G&id=2583

Unless you're doing a lot of external storage, 500GB probably won't go far.

"Does that look like it might be up to the task?" I'd vote for a No, but I'm happy to be shown to be wrong.


Cheers - Tony
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This is all quite interesting, I started down this route because I didn't want to go Mac. I'm surrounded by editors / editor-shooters / editor-producers who pretty much all use Mac & Final Cut Pro. I though that the expenditure on a macbook and FCP would be prohibitive. What's happening here though is that I'm coming close to the cost of a 2nd hand mac book with FCP already installed. Folk who are already happily editing 2k but are moving onto 4k ( which I have no interest in just now ) are offering me 3year old macbooks with FCP installed for 700quid.... blimey.. my head hurts!

What about...


AMD A8 6600K Quad Core Processor / CPU running at 3.9GHz (With 4.2GHz Turbo Mode!)
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM
LATEST AMD RADEON HD8570D Graphics!
1TB Hard Drive
SAMSUNG 24X DVD / CD - RW Dual Layer Optical Disc Drive
MSI A78M-E35 uATX Motherboard (Full specifications of this board can be found here)
500W Quiet Power Supply Featuring Large 120mm Cooling Fan
High Quality Vantage RED Desktop PC Gaming Case with 3 x 120mm RED LED Cooling Fans.
SD Memory Card Reader Built Into Top of Case
Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN
2 X ULTRA High Speed USB 3.0 Ports
4 X High Speed USB 2.0 Ports on Back Plus Further 2 On Top
8 Channel HD Audio
6 X SATA III 6GB/s Ports
1 X PCI Express X16 Slot
1 X PCI Express X1 Slot
1 X PCI Slot
2 X PS/2 Port (For Keyboard / Mouse)
1 X VGA Port
1 X DVI Port
1 X HDMI Port (With Audio)
TRIPLE Monitor Support

????

Just use Passmark. What do you think we'd say about the GPU? (Hint: not even close). The CPU is much better, but the system won't cut it without a significantly better GPU.

EDIT: Since you're looking now at a desktop, you could buy this and then buy a better GPU. The rest of the system looks to be decent, although you might also need to put in a bigger power supply depending on what video card you choose.

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

Ok..had a look at passmark, not even sure I understand what that is right now. Feel like I'm having to learn stuff in order to learn stuff.
I looked at that desktop 'cos it was being billed as a gaming 'puter with hot graphics!!! But...it clearly isn't?

I'm now thinking I'm moving out of my budget and maybe abandon the whole idea! shame. Problem is I find the idea of editing interesting enough...but I'm just not really that interested in hardware...

That desktop above is only £250 without an OS, I guess even with buying 8.1 or even 10 it's still seems a pretty cost effective starting point. No idea how much a suitable GPU is.....more reading...ho hum...

Thanks for all the pointers though... :

For Passmark.com, the only thing you need to know is the benchmark and where that stands in relation to the numbers that the more powerful hardware scores.

To add Windows and a good graphics card to that rig would probably add another £200. I'm afraid that's a reasonable cost for video editing.

You could also start with a system with a great CPU and GPU but less RAM and a smaller hard drive, and then add more RAM and a bigger drive when you have more money. 4GB RAM is minimum as is 250GB on the HDD side.

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

Trampintransit.
That system isn't much different from my own. Just throw a GFX960 GPU in it and you should be good to go.



EDIT: Disable the on-board graphics in BIOS. .
.
Never, under any circumstances, combine a laxative and sleeping pill on the same night.

PowerSpec G310
ASRock Extreme 6 A85X
AMD A10 6800K Quad Core Processor 4.1GHz
16GB DDR3-1600 RAM
EVGA GTX960 Super OC GPU
Windows 7 Pro