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Why PD Crashes
Pete the wood [Avatar]
Newbie Location: S.W. France Joined: Mar 01, 2015 12:07 Messages: 40 Offline
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I’m sorry if my little car joke ‘backfired’ (if you’ll pardon the pun) I was merely trying to take the load off of what was becoming a very heavy topic. This my considered reply and I make no apologies for it’s length. Although I am no Techy I have owned and used a computer since 79 or 80 starting with a Commodore Pet.As far as I can I will try to explain in simple terms why computers crash. More analogies I’m afraid. They are basically a collection of circuits and switches, and in the sense I intend here no more complex than your house circuits. Each time you press a key or click the mouse you switch something and usually something else off.If this, then that. Is how it was once explained to me.But you have to understand one fundamental thing “computers are incredibly stupid” If you were to write a series of blissfully simple instructions but, forgot a comma or maybe a full stop and gave them to an idiot, he would almost certainly understand and follow them. However try that with even the most sophisticated Mainframe and it’ll stop dead. Now when you tell a program (PD 13 for example) to do a certain thing ‘turn a light on, let’s say. It has not the least idea why you want to turn the light on, it just does it. Unless you accidentally tell it to do something else, that is. So stop expecting the program to know what you want it to do if you don’t give it the correct instructions! Now for an analogy: We all know that video editing is very computer challenging as is 3D CAD rendering (something I know from my business) If anything is going to crash a system they will.So, imagine your simple electrical circuit at home. I have my dimension saw running at 15KW 415V my thicknesser at 12KW 425V my radial arm saw running at 5KW 415V my vacuum press running at 3KW 240V. I go over to my bench and turn on my Glue pot (a tiny 120W 240V) and bang I trip the disjoncteur. A workshop crash.The disjoncteur is my safety device. I have no wish to set fire to my workshop by overloading the circuits.A computer crashes for exactly the same reason. You do something that could cause it to damage its bits. Burn out the Motherboard for example, and that’s it, no computer. So the nice people at Microsoft build in disjoncteurs to prevent this. A pain in the arse maybe, but a hell of a lot less hassle and money destroying your computer.So next time it crashes stop and thank them for their consideration, and look long and hard at what you did to cause it. It’ll be either you telling it to do something it is not designed to do or you told it in the wrong way.Happy computing.Pete the Wood
Carl312
Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline
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Pete the wood,

A nice simple explanation of how electric circuts works and some on how a computer works.

A Computer is mostly a very large collection of electronic on/off switches that work very fast. 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.

Pete the wood [Avatar]
Newbie Location: S.W. France Joined: Mar 01, 2015 12:07 Messages: 40 Offline
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Thanks Carl.
A great example of how not to do it. I wrote this in word with nice indents and paragraphs etc. Spaces and everything. But try a copy and paste and just look what happens. Hope you were able to read it.
Thanks again
Pete
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I'm a developer myself, and it is up to the developers to write into the software something that is called "error handling". PD's crashing issues are not the user's fault "telling PD to do the wrong thing", which is not possible in properly written software. PD is abysmal at error handling because the developers are not writing proper error handling code, resulting in the software itself doing the wrong thing. That's why bug fixes get released (if the developers can focus on stability instead of new features). What's most frustrating is how this lazy style of programming results in software instability that is continually blamed on the end user's "drivers", which, I'm sorry to say, would get any development team fired by any company that takes its public image and constomer relations seriously. CyberLink is well-known to not really care about this issue.


Challenge: Have CyberLink explain why PD crashes so much while every other video editing software product out there, like Corel's VideoStudio Pro, Adobe's products, etc, doesn't.

This message was edited 6 times. Last update was at Apr 01. 2015 14:00

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Hi Pete

First I would like to add 2 links to FAQ on the subject:
What is the difference between crashes, hangs and freezes?
http://www.cyberlink.com/support/faq-content.do?id=14592

What can I do if CyberLink PowerDirector freezes, crashes, hangs, or closes unexpectedly?
http://www.cyberlink.com/support/product-faq-content.do?id=14947&prodId=4

I have been work in IT for a long time also, but PD, for me (tried it on different Windows systems) would occasions freeze or crash “seemingly” randomly.

We all know this could be caused by a long list of things (driver issues, hardware, the software and many more).

These issues are often not reproducible, do the same thing again after restarting PD, and it works fine.

If the issue is reproducible, then super, you can send a ticket to support so they can look at it to see if it is a software issue, If not, well the only option is to save your work often (good practice to do this in any case) laughing

Software is not like a car.
Slamming the car into reverse while driving down the road at 70mph is not the same as clicking the “wrong” button in an applicaton.
Software needs to be a bit more resilient and intuitive (since you don't need a “drivers” license to use the software) – more car jokes Win8.1 Pro x64 / Dual x5670 / 24GB / GTX960 4GB / 240GB SSD + 640GB HDD / PD13 Ultimate
Carl312
Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline
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Quote: Thanks Carl.
A great example of how not to do it. I wrote this in word with nice indents and paragraphs etc. Spaces and everything. But try a copy and paste and just look what happens. Hope you were able to read it.
Thanks again
Pete
The fault is with the new Cyberlink forum editor. It does very strange things. There are many things it does that I have not gotten a handle on. 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.

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Quote: I'm a developer myself, and it is up to the developers to write into the software something that is called "error handling". PD's crashing issues are not the user's fault "telling PD to do the wrong thing", which is not possible in properly written software. PD is abysmal at error handling because the developers are not writing proper error handling code, resulting in the software itself doing the wrong thing. That's why bug fixes get released (if the developers can focus on stability instead of new features). What's most frustrating is how this lazy style of programming results in software instability that is continually blamed on the end user's "drivers", which, I'm sorry to say, would get any development team fired by any company that takes its public image and constomer relations seriously. CyberLink is well-known to not really care about this issue.

Challenge: Have CyberLink explain why PD crashes so much while every other video editing software product out there, like Corel's VideoStudio Pro, Adobe's products, etc, doesn't.




Thank you Highwinder, if there was a 'like' button I would press it. Spoke my mind.

Cheers

smile Asus P8Z68 Deluxe/Gen3 Mainboard : Intel i7 2700k @ 3.6ghz: 12 gb DDR3 Kingston ram:
2TB WD Black HD's: Asus GTX970 4gb ram: Windows 10 Pro 64bit:

Dafydd B [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline
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Thank you for the post. Pete, I saw your previous post in a different thread as a light hearted joke too.

The comments/feedback on PDR crashing/code etc has been passed back to CyberLink for them to read.

The forum editor issue, yep a pain and when I see feedback I present it to CyberLink but I don't want to replicate already mentioned issues. I have passed on Carl's point because Pete's content looked like a continuous rant after the forum editor mangled it together. A "real" post rather than a mock example.

Dafydd
Longedge [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Joined: Apr 28, 2011 15:38 Messages: 1504 Offline
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Quote: {snip}Have CyberLink explain why PD crashes so much while every other video editing software product out there, like Corel's VideoStudio Pro, Adobe's products, etc, doesn't.


I currently mostly use PD having abandoned three other video editors including the latter above because of crashes. If only I could afford a custom built and dedicated video editing computer with a pro level package... but then again perhaps not, it would be out of date next year.

I'm not some sort of 'fanboi' but I do think that some people will experience genuine problems, i.e. not of their own making or because of 'pilot error', with any package.
Pete the wood [Avatar]
Newbie Location: S.W. France Joined: Mar 01, 2015 12:07 Messages: 40 Offline
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If you want crashes try the 'Holy Grail' Final Cut Pro ten.
Anyone out there who says Macs never crash has never pushed them hard enough. Before trying PD13 I tried both iMovie and Final Cut Pro iMovie crashed a few times but could not do half the things I need and Final Cut Pro took days to even get it to launch. I used OX 10 Yosemite. Apples forum is filled with similar woes. So don't be too hard on PD13. Actually I love it even though I've only had it a few months.
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I use PD12, PD13, and Corel Video Studio versions up to and including Vstudio PRO X8. It crashes too.

I think all of the video editing programs we're discussing here are so feature-rich that there's no way they can be properly vetted prior to commercial release.

In other words, they're all a work in progress.

We should be thankful that Cyberlink releases frequent patches at least pays attention to this forum.

Look at all the resource Microsoft and Apple have. Their software crashes too.

Not makin excuses...just sayin. smile
Pete the wood [Avatar]
Newbie Location: S.W. France Joined: Mar 01, 2015 12:07 Messages: 40 Offline
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Couldn't agree more!!
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