power director 7 and MPEG 4

matt

Newbie Joined: May 24, 2009 17:34 Messages: 12 Offline

Solved by

May 24, 2009 17:38

I downloaded the trial version to make sure this is what I want and to make sure its going to work. But, I am running into some problems. My video camera saves movies to a SD card, and saves them into MPEG-4 format, which by default is quicktime. After downloading the Power Director 7 trial software, I couldn't get it to play the file after import. I then downloaded the DIVx codec. Now I can play the file with after importing it but then ran into another problem. When I try to edit the file, for example, using the trim feature, I get an immediate "Power Director has stopped responding and will close, windows will notify you with a solution" So, is there a fix for this? Is it a problem with the trial software? I really like the layout and features, but don't want to spend any money on it if its not going to work. Any help appreciated.

Bif

Member Location: San Angelo TX Joined: Aug 14, 2008 01:48 Messages: 147 Offline

May 24, 2009 18:09

Matt,

Which video camcorder do you have? Is it HD?

If you can provide a short file (30 seconds or so to keep transfer times down) on some site where I can download the original, I'll see if I can import it, play it, put it on the timeline and trim it, and generally see if PD7 on my system will handle it.

Also it will help if you list your editing computer specs such as processor and clock speed, amount of RAM, and graphics card.

Each one of these can have some bearing on problems such as you describe. It is extremely unlikely the trial version has any issues that bear on your problem.

I just imported a 1 min 20 sec sample MP4 QT file shot with a Panasonic Lumix GH1, dropped it on the timeline, split it and removed a segment and it plays just fine. I'm using a new Core i7 processor based computer with an ATI 4670 512MB graphics card

matt

Newbie Joined: May 24, 2009 17:34 Messages: 12 Offline

May 24, 2009 18:31

bif,

thanks for the reply. My system is a amdx2 64 2.0ghz, 3gb of ram and 500gb hard drive.

The camera I am using is a Sanyo Xacti, non-HD. It records to a SD memory card. A 1gb card is about 40 minutes of video.

The particular file I am trying to work with is around 500mb in size. It seems that PD7 has a hard time with this format, especially when trying to "move around" with in the video clip.

On a side note - if I can't get it to work right with MPEG4, what is the best no loss conversion I could convert the video to, and then edit with PD7? I have SUPER on my PC as well for video converting.

Bif

Member Location: San Angelo TX Joined: Aug 14, 2008 01:48 Messages: 147 Offline

May 25, 2009 01:02

I don't know anything about SUPER but if it will convert your MP4 file try converting to AVI. Also can you shoot a short sample file, something less than 50MB and put it somewhere where I can download it.

I want to see if the format will work on PD7 on my system.

Dafydd B

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

May 25, 2009 03:19

Hi Bif, good to see you're better.

Matt, The mp4's you're using, should have no problem working in PD7. You may need to add some codec to your system (which you did partly with DivX).

Add the FFdshow codecs and this may improve the situation. Obtain it from
http://seemyworldonvideo.com/pages/extras-news-items.html This an other free software located there are used by PD editors.

I've been using HD mp4-AVC's in PD7 without issue. I also have an Xacti HD2000 which creates HD mp4-AVC files.

Look up MediaInfo at: http://seemyworldonvideo.com/pages/extras-news-items.html as it is a super little tool to analyse a video file and to share the information with others in the form of a text file.

I'm fully aware of what Super can be used for.

I hope the information is a help to you.

Dafydd
[Moderator]

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at May 25. 2009 03:21

matt

Newbie Joined: May 24, 2009 17:34 Messages: 12 Offline

May 25, 2009 08:30

Converting to an AVI file made a difference. Im going to mess around with it some more. When converting to an AVI, is it better to make its output container as DIVx or as an MPEG? Just looking for that no loss conversion.