Hi CS -

Quote: My transitions are set to "cross," not "overlap," although I don't think that should matter.

In fact, that's exactly what's causing the interference with motion. Overlap transitions behave much more smoothly & won't interrupt movement.



It's not a bug. It's how the transitions behave.

Another thing to note is that switchng to overlap-type transitions will decrease the overall duration of your slideshow by the sum total of the duration of the combined transitions. e.g. a slideshow with 11 images x 10 secs duration with 10 transitions of 2 secs...



Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Quote In fact, that's exactly what's causing the interference with motion. Overlap transitions behave much more smoothly & won't interrupt movement.
...
It's not a bug. It's how the transitions behave.

Another thing to note is that switchng to overlap-type transitions will decrease the overall duration of your slideshow by the sum total of the duration of the combined transitions. e.g. a slideshow with 11 images x 10 secs duration with 10 transitions of 2 secs...

I appreciate how thorough and friendly your reply was. I do understand everything you explained, and watched the YouTube video. I did already know everything you wrote to me and knew what the video demonstrated, so I guess I must have miscommunicated. It's like writing to a senator asking them to change or update a really terrible law, and instead of getting a response such as "Thank you for pointing this out - I will change it," or, "Actually this law makes sense and here is why...", I just get a circular "The law is the law" response back. This response isn't helpful.

I don't want to sound rude, or arrogant... but I just can't agree that this behavior should be normal. I am certainly open to listening to why (from a programmer's point of view):

1) the user can't be prompted with a choice to shift only the current track, or all tracks, when a "cross" transition is added. It seems to me that such an option could easily be added to the software, considering the user is already given this option with just about any other edit that results in timing changes (i.e. lengthening or shortening a track asset, moving it to another track, etc.). I'd be perfectly happy to finally zip my mouth about this issue if someone could just explain to me why this behavior is actually desired by your users, necessary from a programming point of view, or both. But so far, all I'm getting is, "It's not a bug because we know about it and our opinion is that it isn't a bug. It's not a bug because that's the way we designed it to work." This is completely circular logic. I'm explaining to CyberLink why it would be best a different way, and I never get any kind of response other than "this is how it works," which of course I already know. The whole point is that the way it works really stinks and should be changed. Analogy: if turning off the car results in the car horn going off every time for 2 seconds, and I tell the manufacturer about this problem, how do you think it will make me feel (and how do you think it makes the manufacturer look) if they just write back, "No, that's not a defect. That's how we designed it." Maybe there is a really good reason for that car horn to go off, but it certainly doesn't help anything when the manufacturer refuses to share that reason with customers who are concerned about it.

2) an "overlap" transition cannot be achieved without the jerky stop-motion at the beginning/end of the clip. I'm skeptical about any such argument though, since other software that does crossfades (whether audio editing software or visual editing software) does them perfectly smoothly.

In other software, users are not faced with the impossible choice of doing jerky overlap transitions or cross transitions that destroy the synchronization of all the tracks. Neither choice is appealing. Until someone offers me compelling reasons for why cross transitions need to affect other tracks erratically, and why overlap transitions need to be so jerky, telling me "no, it's not a bug" without offering necessary rationale for its behavior will not advance the discussion at all. I hope that my text above clarifies and advances the discussion.

Side point: the terminology itself is baffling. In audio engineering (which I have considerable formal training in), "cross-fading" refers to when audio clips overlap each other and fade into each other (and in that process, the clips are shortened). But in PowerDirector, this term "cross" is being used as the alternative to this overlapping behavior, with "overlap" being the substitute for "cross" or "cross-fading." To fade two clips into each other simultaneously (fade one out while the other fades in), by definition, is referred to as cross-fading. This is true in other video editing software too, such as Adobe Premiere. I would suggest renaming "cross" to just about anything else such as "join," "touch," "neighbor," "adjoin," etc. The "cross" term is extremely misleading, not only to the trained user but also to the layman who understands the practical meaning of the word "cross." IN FACT, I think I may have actually gotten some of my terminology in this post confused - maybe I use "overlap" when I should instead use "cross," and vice-versa.

Hi again CS -

First, on your "writing to a senator"/"telling a manufacturer" analogies: When you post a question or issue in this forum, you're not (in any way) "writing to a senator" or "telling a manufacturer". The people who respond here, including me, are just users of PowerDirector. Full stop. Not senators or manufacturers. I, nor other forum members, did not write the software or choose what words to use. At best, some may have some influence by being involved in beta testing.

Members will make their responses as helpful as they're able. I was not offering any justification for software design or transition behaviour. I didn't design it. I just use it.

Since you like analogies... I rock up to your place in my shiny new car, fresh out of the showroom. When I turn off the engine the horn beeps. You say: "What's that all about?" I say: "Who knows? Let's go and ask the manufacturer." Had your post been directed to the people who wrote the software, it would have been perfectly reasonable.

I agree that terminology is confusing because there's no standard use across different platforms/software. I also agree that transition behaviour could be refined in PowerDirector... but I'm no programmer & I wouldbn't have a clue how to do that.

Perhaps you should copy & paste your posts (above) and direct it to Tech Support.

Enjoyed the read, anyway.

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Hi Tony,

Sorry, my mistake. I've participated in a few other forums where the developers are pretty active, and I guess I just assumed... Also, I did write to CyberLink tech support, and they are very clearly avoiding admitting it's a bug. Their response to me was very similar to yours... and now that I stand corrected I fully acknowledge that it's totally different coming from a fellow user than it is coming from a developer.

They even told me that the "solution" to the erratic time shifting problem of the "overlap" transition would be to first arrange my entire track 1 (all the way through my entire slideshow) and get all the transitions perfect, then add other stuff. I guess they don't realize that sometimes the "other stuff" (music, video, other objects...) determines the timing of the slideshow.

I do like analogies... and their response to me didn't feel much different than if I were told by the makers of Finale or Sibelius that I needed to write the flute part of an entire symphony first, then go back and "fill everything else in." This seems no less insane of a response to me than the one I actually got from CyberLink. It seems to me that CyberLink's slogan ought to be, "If at first you don't succeed, redefine success." Some software behaviors are so atrocious that, intentional or not, they really ought to be classified as bugs.

Just curious, are there any other <cough> "behaviors" (i.e. bugs) that you've discovered in PowerDirector in your experience? Have you used other video editing software available for PC, and if so, are any others any better?

Thanks,
CS