PowerDirector-PhotoDirector interface

Watercolorwilly

Senior Member Location: Phoenix Joined: Mar 13, 2011 11:35 Messages: 211 Offline

Solved by

Sep 22, 2015 16:42

I have started using PD14 Live and just the other day commented to Cyberlink how delighted I am with the significantly increased speed in posting the edited PHD7 photo imported back to PowerDirector. Hours later I discovered something unusual. When I go back to edit the photo some more, PHD7 couldn't find that photo! I could import another copy from the folder where it should be, and it is OK. But if I return to edit it again, again PhotoDirector says it can't find it.

I have checked the preferences and played with them. Nothing helps. I uninstalled both PD and PHD and reinstalled. No change.

What I did do, to test out PD14, was to copy an unfinished PD13 .psd file from my PD13 folder and pasted it into my new PD14 folder. I thought perhaps the links to photos for that project got screwed up. But why on earth would it find my photo the first time, and not the second time or thereafter.

I just tried using a fresh copy of the PD13 file in my PD13 folder. I can open photos from PD14 using PH7, but when I go to others, and then return to the first photo, PHD7 suddenly says "this photo is missing, Click on the locate or remove icon to handle this photo." Nothing seems to happen when I do either. I then X-out to return to PD14.

I use this feature on most of each of like 300 photos in a project and the increased speed of return is wonderful! But sometimes I need to return to the photos to make this editing feature useful!

Thanks, in advance, for any ideas.

Bill Bill Seifert
HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-2022
8 core
AMD Radeon
Windows 11, 16 GB RAM

PIX

Senior Contributor Joined: Sep 21, 2011 00:02 Messages: 2910 Offline

Sep 22, 2015 17:47

Hello Bill,

There are some essential differences with PhD when you access it through PDR. PhD runs in "light mode". You may have noticed that a number of options are missing, even though the regular enhancement options are available.

When you access PhD via Fix/Enhance > PhD, then edit your photo and return to PDR, the edited photo is save in PDR's output folder - C:\Users\User Name\Documents\CyberLink\PowerDirector\14.0 (default).

When I, just now, replicated your steps then went back into PhD via Fix/Enhance > PhD, that "missing" alert appeared for about a second then the photo was displayed.

Are you saying that, with your PhD, the "missing" alert stays on the screen & the photo doesn't open?

Personally, I rarely go about it like that. Before opening a PDR project I do all necessary photo edits in PhD as a standalone. That's not better or worse, just a preference.

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Watercolorwilly

Senior Member Location: Phoenix Joined: Mar 13, 2011 11:35 Messages: 211 Offline

Sep 22, 2015 17:59

The alert stays on the screen and I have to x-out from it to return to PD to bail out. I understand your work flow, but as I view the edited photos as they appear in sequence, the color, contrast, etc. vary so much that I have to go back to edit some more. This is especially true for the 3000 35mm photos that I scanned in from my living in Europe for two years starting in 1967 - so last century, right? Anyway, each slide had faded in one way or another. And when I transition from one to the other, I see the differences, and the dust particles that I missed the first time - Smart Patch is so fast and easy to get rid of dust and little hairs. PHD does a wonderful job in adjusting the color casts to normal with several presets I created for these slides. Today, with the FAST return to PD14, PHD7 is such a pleasure to use now. Before it would take a minute - let's see, 300 photos = 5 hours of just waiting for return to PD14! Now it's just seconds! Love it! Bill Seifert
HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-2022
8 core
AMD Radeon
Windows 11, 16 GB RAM

PIX

Senior Contributor Joined: Sep 21, 2011 00:02 Messages: 2910 Offline

Sep 22, 2015 18:35

Quote: The alert stays on the screen and I have to x-out from it to return to PD to bail out.

Bill,

Would it be possible to do a screen capture of what's happening there? and post it as an attachment?

I'm not even sure why (here) the alert appears briefly then goes away. It's less clear why (in your PhD) it seems unable to recover the lost photo.

I agree with you about the ease of smart patch for repairing old photos!

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Watercolorwilly

Senior Member Location: Phoenix Joined: Mar 13, 2011 11:35 Messages: 211 Offline

Sep 22, 2015 19:32

Attached is a screen capture - I hope a png will be viewable.

What are the default folders, etc. that have to be in place for PHD7 to function and find the photos? I can check if they are there, or the equivalent and whether the permissions, etc. are OK. Coincidentally, as I searched for answers on this issue, I found many folders denied access, such as my standard Documents and Settings were locked! I Googled and found steps to correct this, but I still wonder how that happened and if more is lurking.

What is crazy is that I can add a photo to PD project, edit it with PHD7, and later find that PHD7 can't find it. I think a locked folder would prevent the first action. Geez. It's always something.

Bill


Filename	Photo missing PHD7.png	Download
Description
Filesize	76 Kbytes
Downloaded:	186 time(s)

Bill Seifert
HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-2022
8 core
AMD Radeon
Windows 11, 16 GB RAM

PIX

Senior Contributor Joined: Sep 21, 2011 00:02 Messages: 2910 Offline

Sep 23, 2015 23:06

Hello again Bill,

When I tested your round-trip editing scenario here, the edited photos were exported to C:\Users\UserName\Documents\CyberLink\PowerDirector\14.0

Are you logged in as "Administrator"? None of my PCs would dare tell me my access was denied!!!

I'm no expert on these things, but it does sound like that may possibly be related to the "Missing Photo" alert.

Have you been able to test the process since you've corrected the denied access problem?

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Watercolorwilly

Senior Member Location: Phoenix Joined: Mar 13, 2011 11:35 Messages: 211 Offline

Sep 24, 2015 01:43

No luck so far. I may have someone help me in figuring out the no-access problem for I'm not sure what parameters or steps to take to make sure all of the OS is clear of this problem. Meanwhile, I'll continue my work without that feature that creates the problem - I'll use your method of editing until I clear up this mess.

I'll follow through on your export link that you mentioned, but it does look familiar. I did go to it directly the other day and there is no access problem. Yet when I invoke PH7 through PD, it can't find the photos. This is crazy! But it is what it is. Meanwhile, I installed the whole system on my laptop and it has no problems. Go figure. But it makes me conclude that it is some setting change on my PC. It does seem like the problem started with installing PD14 live. Perhaps I should uninstall PD14 and see if it clears the problem. I've already done that for PHD7. Maybe it's PD14 handoff to PHD7 that is in error. But I can remove the offending photo, import a copy, and edit it. But if I do another and return to the first photo, the access problem returns as with any of the others. Sigh.

Thanks. Bill Seifert
HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-2022
8 core
AMD Radeon
Windows 11, 16 GB RAM

Watercolorwilly

Senior Member Location: Phoenix Joined: Mar 13, 2011 11:35 Messages: 211 Offline

Dec 12, 2015 18:42

It looks like the latest update to PD14 LIVE has fixed it. It seems to go through a couple of steps, flashing some windows to respond to, and eventually it finds the photo it lost track of.

In the meantime, my work-around was to drag down the latest version of the photo from the library to the timeline. At that point PHD7 could find the photo and allow me to edit it. Then I deleted it, found the new version of the photo in the library, dragged it down to "replace" the former photo, and all was well. But I had to do this same sequence if I found I had to edit that same photo some more.

After this last forum response, I contacted tech support. I went though a number of their requests for more samples, etc. I wish they would pay me for all the time I spent for them and all the users who encountered the same problem. But thanks to all of the Forum responses to point me in the right direction. Bill Seifert
HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-2022
8 core
AMD Radeon
Windows 11, 16 GB RAM