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TimeStamp
MattC [Avatar]
Member Joined: Jun 03, 2016 12:12 Messages: 102 Offline
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Hi,

Is there the ability to put a timestamp on the produced movie? What I mean is that sometimes when proofs are produced, they include a running timestamp (HH:MM:SS:FF) in, say, the bottom right corner for reviewing purposes. Is there some way to add this? I've serched in the help, menus and even DirectorZone, but I can't find anything suitable.

Matt .
PDR14; Win10-x64; i7-6700; 3.4GHz; 16GB RAM; plenty of HDD space; AMD Radeon R5 330.
MattC [Avatar]
Member Joined: Jun 03, 2016 12:12 Messages: 102 Offline
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Hi,

As I didn't get a responce, I thought I'd produce my own.

The image shows the format of a short 10 minute 25 FPS clip. It has a green board background that can be chroma keyed out, and the image can be scaled and placed wherever. I'm happy to share this, but I'm not sure how to - and the WMV file is low quality and 21MB (though, quite good enough for a small size overlay). I can probably produce a 30 FPS version if anyone's interested. I also have a 3hr version, but that's 380MB.

Matt

PS if this is completely worthless to everyone, can you let me know as well - just out of interest.
[Thumb - Large TimeCode 25 FPS 10 Mins.jpg]
 Filename
Large TimeCode 25 FPS 10 Mins.jpg
[Disk]
 Description
TimeStamp Video Image
 Filesize
101 Kbytes
 Downloaded:
122 time(s)
.
PDR14; Win10-x64; i7-6700; 3.4GHz; 16GB RAM; plenty of HDD space; AMD Radeon R5 330.
ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline
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Hi Matt -

Yes - a disappointing not to get a response, but you ploughed ahead and got what you wanted anyway.

PDR actually has a built-in way to add a timestamp & its easily configurable. Have a look in the FX library for one called "Time Stamp"

Here's what the various options look like.

Cheers - Tony
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MattC [Avatar]
Member Joined: Jun 03, 2016 12:12 Messages: 102 Offline
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Hi Tony,

Thanks for your reply.

How could I have missed that?! I searched high and low on PDR and DZ for one - and there it is, and it's even called 'Time Stamp'. Obviously unable to see what's right in front of my eyes. Not the best qualifications for a camera man and editor.

However, it was actually interesting to work out how to do the multiple overlays needed to accomplish the result I had.

Thanks again for your responce.

Matt .
PDR14; Win10-x64; i7-6700; 3.4GHz; 16GB RAM; plenty of HDD space; AMD Radeon R5 330.
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Hi Matt:

Just want to thank you for posting your question and discovery/suggestion. I found them helpful. If a similar situation arises, please post it?

I am one of those 'types', who appreciate the follow up you provided on this forum.

I learned something new from both you and ynotfish ...

So, thank you to ynotfish, for his/her contribution as well!!

All the best to you!
MattC [Avatar]
Member Joined: Jun 03, 2016 12:12 Messages: 102 Offline
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Thanks GrandmaOkanagan1, it's nice to hear from you. Looks like you're relatively new, so welcome to the forums. I'm relatively new myself.

Matt .
PDR14; Win10-x64; i7-6700; 3.4GHz; 16GB RAM; plenty of HDD space; AMD Radeon R5 330.
travel malta culture [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Dec 27, 2018 05:36 Messages: 3 Offline
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It seems this Time Stamp has been removed from Powerdirector 365. Or is it to be found elsewhere?
thanks
optodata
Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline
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Unfortunately it seems to have disappeared on my system, too. For some reason Cyberlink has decided to remove at least 2 long-time FX in PD365's latest update which now leaves users scrambling to replace them. See this discussion for another example.

There is an option from NewBlueFX that actually has more flexibility. It's in their Video Essentials 4 effects pack. Here's a link to their product download page.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at May 08. 2023 16:19

Warry [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Location: The Netherlands Joined: Oct 13, 2014 11:42 Messages: 853 Offline
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There was another user, who was looking for the time stamp effect, which appears to be removed from the software. For what it is worth, I have submitted a complaint to Cyberlink saying:

We have seen that a number of (style) Effects have been removed by Cyberlink from the latest version(s) of PD. Somewhere in your licence agreements there will no doubt be something about CL having the right to add and remove parts of their software without any warning, but I think it would behove Cyberlink to improve on your customers support and relation management by improving your communications in general and about changes to (part of) your software in particular.
Even if there is a good reason for removing features of effects etc. then it would be good to warn your users in advance so that they can take action, including saving, not upgrading and looking for alternatives. I bet that a large number of users have wasted their time looking for stuff that was there somewhere last week and not anymore today. That is not how one should behave towards ones customer.
Aresby [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Feb 25, 2018 12:51 Messages: 4 Offline
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Quote There was another user, who was looking for the time stamp effect, which appears to be removed from the software. For what it is worth, I have submitted a complaint to Cyberlink saying:

We have seen that a number of (style) Effects have been removed by Cyberlink from the latest version(s) of PD. Somewhere in your licence agreements there will no doubt be something about CL having the right to add and remove parts of their software without any warning, but I think it would behove Cyberlink to improve on your customers support and relation management by improving your communications in general and about changes to (part of) your software in particular.
Even if there is a good reason for removing features of effects etc. then it would be good to warn your users in advance so that they can take action, including saving, not upgrading and looking for alternatives. I bet that a large number of users have wasted their time looking for stuff that was there somewhere last week and not anymore today. That is not how one should behave towards ones customer.


I agree.

I spent a long time searching for the timestamp effect for my latest video. It had even been removed from my "favourites" folder.frown

Previous videos that used this effect still work with it fine, although the actual effect is totally missing; the only evidence I have is that on the timeline.

I submitted a fault, only to be told to check for sufficient disk space and the usual generic platitudes like that. Yup, how to insult your paying customers.

Now trying to source an alternative, as suggested by other posters here.
Warry [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Location: The Netherlands Joined: Oct 13, 2014 11:42 Messages: 853 Offline
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Quote

Previous videos that used this effect still work with it fine, although the actual effect is totally missing; the only evidence I have is that on the timeline.


Now trying to source an alternative, as suggested by other posters here.


If the effect still works on your timeline, would it be possible to transfer it to another project, or even.... to other systems, so that it can be shared with other users?
Aresby [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Feb 25, 2018 12:51 Messages: 4 Offline
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Quote


If the effect still works on your timeline, would it be possible to transfer it to another project, or even.... to other systems, so that it can be shared with other users?


I tried this.

I deleted everything in an existing project except the TimeStamp fx. I had to add at least one video clip for the time stamp to show up, which it then did, and could be edited too.

You can download my test project and try it on your system from here
optodata
Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline
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Fascinating. Somehow the time stamp FX works even though it's not listed in PD365.



I wonder if the missing FX aren't actually gone, but CL has simply stopped them from being accessible in new projects.

The other possibility is that the project is accessing the Time Stamp FX that is still present in PD17, and therefor on my computer.

Aresby, do you have any older versions of PD installed on your system?
JL_JL [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline
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Just a wild guess and giving CL the benefit of the doubt, but I'm guessing no feature was really removed. Often when CL developers move things in the menu and modify the GUI, several items never get hooked up correctly. Shouldn't happen, but about every recent GUI "improvement" has had issues, the last 365 update had several GUI changes. Since at least 5 or 6 Fx's have been quickly identified by users as no longer in the menu any more, I'm guessing there's more, they have some Fx index or html table that's got an issue. Opposite of a previous issue where many users had double entries.

Would be nice if PDM could validate CL intent with things missing, but I suspect that won't happen.

Jeff
Warry [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Location: The Netherlands Joined: Oct 13, 2014 11:42 Messages: 853 Offline
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Thanks for sharing the project with the TS. If have tried it and it works for me. I don't have older PD versions running at the moment.
It is a bit tricky though, it does not work ALL the time.
I have loaded the project, and stripped it from everything besindes the TS and saved a new project. PD sometimes stops/hangs when I try to load the newly saved project. PD keeps hanging at opening this project until I have opened PD with any other recent project. Somehow there is a reset and then the loading the TS project works again.
What I see is that ALL the parameters for the timestamp are included in the project file. Which may lead to the conclusion that the TS works because it operates from all the data in the project file. Likely the same way other effects and their changes (which can be extreme) keep working in the same fashion when the project is reloaded.

It is thus for now (until CL changes something) a workable solution. I have tried to include the TS project in a work in progress project and then copy the TS from the project into an other place in the timeline, which also seems to work.

I'd rather have the original effect back, please Cyberlink.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at May 23. 2023 14:37

Aresby [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Feb 25, 2018 12:51 Messages: 4 Offline
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Thanks for alerting me that there was some private data included in that project, I've removed the zip file for now and will look at it later to see exactly what CyberLink are adding.

If I can clean it up, I'll repost.
Aresby [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Feb 25, 2018 12:51 Messages: 4 Offline
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Quote Thanks for alerting me that there was some private data included in that project, I've removed the zip file for now and will look at it later to see exactly what CyberLink are adding.

If I can clean it up, I'll repost.


New version uploaded, same location.
optodata
Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline
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I just went through the FX that are available in PD17 and are not visible in PD365/21. By my count, there are 25 items across the 4 PD17 categories (Style, Visual, Particle and Special) that have disappeared. There is no apparent logic to which ones have gone away.

I've categorized them in 4 screenshots and have created a PD17 project that contains all of the missing effects. I have placed a single FX on each copy of the sample Skateboard.mp4 clip and have changed the alias of each one to show the name of the associated FX. All files are available in the attached ZIP file.

On my system, all the FX seem to work when the project is opened in PD365 so this may be a decent workaround until CL restores their functionaility.

If I missed any, please let me know and I will update the Missing FX Collection project.

I should clarify that the way to use these restored FX would be to open this project in PD365/21, then locate and copy the FX you'd like to use in another project.

Next, simply open the desired project and paste the copied clip on the timeline. Right-click on it and choose Edit Clip Keyframe > Copy Keyframe Attributes, and then apply the attribute to the desired clip with another right-click sequence.
 Filename
Mfx.zip
[Disk]
 Description
PD17 PDS file + screenshots
 Filesize
10687 Kbytes
 Downloaded:
130 time(s)

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at May 24. 2023 16:34

Warry [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Location: The Netherlands Joined: Oct 13, 2014 11:42 Messages: 853 Offline
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Thanks very much Optodata, this is really fabulous!
If have tried the project and it seems to work OK. However, on my system (no other versions of PD installed at this moment), it does not work (PD stalls after 20%) when opened from Windows by clicking on the project. It does work when the project is opened with PD already running.
Thanks again.
But, let's hope and trust that Cyberlink, somehow encouraged by this conversation, reinstates the missing effects that still seems to work (for now) and in some cases are so dearly missed.
optodata
Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline
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A couple thoughts: it sounds like you can access everything as long as you open the project from inside PD, so that should at least let you use the desired FX.

My understanding is that CL typically doesn't monitor the forum so it's much better if all of us reached out to them directly to share how this situation has really caused problems.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at May 25. 2023 13:44

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