"PowerDirector has stopped working" ...

Sohail

Newbie Joined: Mar 23, 2009 00:07 Messages: 8 Offline

Solved by

Mar 23, 2009 13:01

I purchased a copy of Powerdirector-7 couple of days back after first trying the trial version for a day or two. Most of my content is coming from Sanyo Xacti HD1000 movie camera that is capturing at 720p or 1080i recording it in AVC MP4.

I was please with the ease of use of the software especially on simple operations and decided to go with this package.

Yesterday, I spent several hours combining small video clips into a 30 min movie with few cleanups.

As I attempted to Produce an AVI file --- I would get "PowerDirector has stopped working" and the software would exit.

As I removed all of the Magic-Clean from all clips and reduced the Movie to 15 minutes, the creation of AVI file finally completed!

Is this NORMAL/Typical ??? If this tool is only reliable for connecting clips and most other stuff is buggy than it is a waste of time.

I am running this on a laptop - Lenovo-T400 with dual-core and ATI chipset

I am using PDR-7.0.2519.

Should I be trying another patch ? Is there one ? Should be using certain settings ? Are there features I should stay away from ?

Another question/concern --- I was hoping to save my file in AVC-MP4 format and not AVI or MPEG-2 only formats --- Should I have purchased the Ultra version of this ?

James W

Senior Contributor Location: Lakeland, FL USA Joined: Aug 18, 2008 10:36 Messages: 911 Offline

Mar 23, 2009 13:12

When using PD make sure your hard drive is defragmented regularly and I would make sure you exit any antivirus software you are using. I've never had any trouble crashing when using the magic clean tools. The biggest known bug is when making slideshows that pictures will skip when magic motion is applied. This bug only appeared with the latest patch.

As for MP4 format I'm pretty sure that feature is available only for the Ultra version. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

Sohail

Newbie Joined: Mar 23, 2009 00:07 Messages: 8 Offline

Mar 23, 2009 13:21

I could see the benefit of defrag but why would it cause PowerDirector to crash and/or how would antivirus off helps ?

My laptop only received Vista-32 a week or so back so I should be reasonably defrag'd.

Only purchased my PDR-7 two days back --- Is there a way to go to PDR-7-Ultra cheaply.

Dafydd B

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline

Mar 23, 2009 14:19

Hi,
Adrian and Robert both use the Sanyo Xacti HD 1010 I'll get them to look at your post. I'd suggest you capture your footage as 720p, your laptop will struggle with the higher resolution and you may have issues with the 1080i.

Adrian has written an interesting article(s) you may like to read.
vn800rider. HD Editing - AVCHD, AVC, HDV and 720p, 1080p, 1080i
Article 1: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/5924.page
Article 2: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/5925.page
Article 3: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/0/5926.page

*.mp4 output to 720p or 1080p/i is not available in PD7 (deluxe or ultra).
I tend to output to 1280x720 either as an mpeg or to the HD wmv format. But I do tend to create for streaming later on. I would not opt for avi... but divx avi would be ok.

Take a look at this post by Bruce:
Bif (Bruce). Inexpensive Hardware HD Media Player
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/4718.page

Adrian and i have been looking to try and export back to our cameras a finished *.mp4 but this has proved fruitless as the proprietary codec used by the onboard cameras encoder prevents the reading of an edited *.mp4.

the crashing experienced - make sure you defrag and then come back to the post and let us know what's happened.

Dafydd

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Mar 23. 2009 14:22

Sohail

Newbie Joined: Mar 23, 2009 00:07 Messages: 8 Offline

Mar 23, 2009 19:50

Thanks I read the articles by Adrian. Indeed informative and I will use 720p henceforth.

Once I record from my Sanyo HD1000, I never go back to it and use a HTPC or AppleTV to play all my media.

I will run the defrag tonight and then rerun the test again.

I would like to get to a *.mp4 file with 720p content however --- I don't understand why PD7 does not support it.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Mar 24. 2009 04:36

vn800rider

Senior Contributor Location: Darwen, UK Joined: May 15, 2008 04:32 Messages: 1949 Online

Mar 24, 2009 07:35

Hi Sohail,

I don't have an apple TV so I cannot say how good this is, but maybe trying handbrake

http://handbrake.fr/

might give you some more options ??

Cheers
Adrian

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

Sohail

Newbie Joined: Mar 23, 2009 00:07 Messages: 8 Offline

Mar 24, 2009 15:12

So I did defrag the drive last night. Additionally, it also has 40+ GB free. With that, I tried to Produce an output file and it died again with "PowerDirector has stopped working" message. I believe this software is buggy!

I am thinking of moving (remove & re-install) the PD7 software to my HTPC where I have Core-2-Duo-3Ghz plus ATI 4670 and a very fast disk. This should all help speed things up.

Ultimately --- I would like to have my edited content not loose any definition (i.e. stay at Sanyo HD1000 720p, 14 - 16 Mbps), use AVC/H.264 encoding and MP4 file format (i.e. *.mp4).

So what settings do I use in PD7 to produce something that is AVC/H.264 and not overly compressed and what would be the file format ?

Since PD7 cannot produce *.mp4, What external tool do I use to get to get this file converted to *.mp4 ? Whould this external tool transcode the data again or simply convert the file format (e.g. from *.m2ts to *.mp4). I would hate going though another transcoding (data loss plus processing time).

I am not concerned about AppleTV as it cannot deal with data rate over 5 Mbps anyway but I still wish to stay with *.mp4.

Thanks again,

Sohail

Sohail

Newbie Joined: Mar 23, 2009 00:07 Messages: 8 Offline

Mar 25, 2009 14:59

So I did re-installed the software on my HTPC. It does go a bit faster. But I did experience multiple stalls/hangs during the Produce phase.

I couldn't get Encode-GPU option to work.

Any further guidance on:

Ultimately --- I would like to have my edited content not loose any definition (i.e. stay at Sanyo HD1000 720p, 14 - 16 Mbps), use AVC/H.264 encoding and MP4 file format (i.e. *.mp4).

Thanks,

Sohail

Linda B

Newbie Joined: Jan 02, 2009 13:42 Messages: 29 Offline

Mar 25, 2009 19:52

Could you please clarify what version you bought? I ask because PD7 Deluxe has 2 MP4 output formats standard?

Sohail

Newbie Joined: Mar 23, 2009 00:07 Messages: 8 Offline

Mar 25, 2009 20:11

I am using PD7 Deluxe ...

Linda B

Newbie Joined: Jan 02, 2009 13:42 Messages: 29 Offline

Mar 25, 2009 20:44

Perhaps I don' t understand your question....But in my program PD7 Deluxe, when you hit the "produce" tab and then select "create a file", and hit next, the next screen gives you the options to create several formats including "AVC. MP4 (select it and it will give you a description). There is also a Portable MP4 format. The prior screen doesn't mention MP4, but when you say produce a file, all these formats come up. Please let me know if this isn't what you need. Take care.

Sohail

Newbie Joined: Mar 23, 2009 00:07 Messages: 8 Offline

Mar 25, 2009 21:14

Yes you are correct.

However if you select Portable.MPEG4 --- You get very low resolution stuff.

If you select AVC.MPEG4 ---- the file produced is has a *.m2ts extension and not *.MP4 extension.

Reading many threads on the forum, I have come to the conclusion that the PD7 does NOT produce HQ/HD MP4 file and that I will have to use an external tool to do that. I don't like this but I can live with it.

Now my question is that if I produce a 720p content AND use PD7 to create AVC/H.264 *.m2ts file. Which external tool do I use if I wish to generate an *.mp4 file with the same AVC/H.264 720p content.

My goal is (and if I am thinking it correctly), I don't want this tool to muck with the data as I not changing 720p/AVC/H.264 and just change the stream format.

vn800rider

Senior Contributor Location: Darwen, UK Joined: May 15, 2008 04:32 Messages: 1949 Online

Mar 26, 2009 03:07

Hi Sohail,

I tend to use super© as my first port of call for conversion/transcoding.
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

It seems to do a good job and has a high degree of control on many parameters. I think, in general, most 3rd party convertors tend to use similar 'engines' so to speak but differ in their UI.

Following my somewhat pragmatic approach I tend to experiment until I'm satisfied, usually becoming fairly grumpy along the way but learning a lot in the meantime.

Cheers
Adrian Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.