Andy,
I'm interested.
1. I use HD mp4's like a good number of the guys and gals on here.
2. I'd like a sample and a report.

I'll send you FTP location of where to place the data. It's raw footage about 10 seconds should be enough. I'll ask you to fill out a report - please state the camera and the capture selections you made (off the camera).

I'm not familiar with your camera etc.

OK, the data will go straight to CyberLink R&D for them to look at.

My guess is Samsung have created a variant .mp4.

Have you installed FFDShow on your PC - might work.
Join - loads of tools for PD editors to have:
http://seemyworldonvideo.com/pages/extras-news-items.html

OK, I have to write you a PM now.

Dafydd
[Moderator]

PowerDirector creates a hidden folder called, "shadoweditfiles", in my case its in my videos folder. You have to change your system settings to display hidden folders, first.

Try cleaning this folder out and restarting Powerdirector.

Also use the 'Disk cleanup wizard' in your Programs, Accessories, System Tools area to clean up temp files.
Win8 64-bit Pro Retail
Intel i7-4770
16GB DDR3 1600 8-8-8-24
MSI Z87-G45 Motherboard
ASUS GTX 660 Direct CU II OC 2GB GPU
1 TB RAID 1 (mirrored) Drive Array
Several scratch drives for video, TMP, pagefile.

Quote: PowerDirector creates a hidden folder called, "shadoweditfiles", in my case its in my videos folder. You have to change your system settings to display hidden folders, first.

Try cleaning this folder out and restarting Powerdirector.

Also use the 'Disk cleanup wizard' in your Programs, Accessories, System Tools area to clean up temp files.

Thanks for the replies. Can not find this folder shadoweditfiles and have allowed all hidden folders to be view. Cleaned up temp files, still no joy. Dafydd: PM sent to you

Andy,
Thanks for the PM, I'll deal with it tomorrow (9.30pm here for me).

The ShadowEdit files in PD7 are found in the "Export" location you have assigned in (Go to Director's icon, top left) Edit > Preferences.
OR:
Open PD
Alt+C
and Preferences will open.

It is unlikely to be caused or as the result of not having Shadowedit files in this instance.

Dafydd
[Moderator]

I do feel that it is important to at least know how to find the shadow files. I work with a lot of 24 Mb/s AVCHD files from my Canon HG20. If I don't pay close attention after a lot of editing I end up with 10-20 GB or wasted HD space. It's worthwhile when you complete a project to find that folder and clean it up and put that space to better use. As long as you are working on a particular project it is safe to keep the files there since it will be recreated anyways. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

Thanks guys, found the file. It only had 24MB in it. BTW Dafydd I am in Nottingham, so the same time zone as you. Will await your reply. this has really got me stumped. I have even tried converting the file using Super © and get a failed error. The only program I have that will convert it without trouble is Magic video converter. It does a pretty good job but there is still some quality loss converting to .mov from .mp4 and in the end thats what I bought an HD camcorder for. I could just as well take it back and go back to using my Mini DV tapes. I must say you are a lot more help than the official support. 5 emails without even understanding what the problem was then offer me a refund. You couldn't make it up.

I have gone through this with my flip ultra hd camera which creates clips in .mp4 and it religiously crashed pd7 every time, therefore I convert them with format factory 2.0 and no more crashes, so try this trick to see if it helps.

.mp4 format is notorious in crashing video editing softwares as .mp4 format allows developers to freely change base coding, therefore vendors create their own versions frequently and I don't think any video editing software vendor can keep up with new cameras mushrooming into the wild everyday.

Regarding *.mp4's

I have not had the problems mentioned by Videoman73. I'm currently dealing with pre-release versions of PD8. I have asked CyberLink to test Andy's sample file in PD7. I am using mp4's from 2 sources and I have tested Andy's - no problems.

Time-zone - OK Andy's sample shot at 7.15pm GMT

********************
General
Complete name : HDV_0005.MP4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : JVT
Codec ID : avc1
File size : 7.16 MiB
Duration : 12s 660ms
Overall bit rate : 4 744 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2009-07-27 19:14:40
Tagged date : UTC 2009-07-27 19:14:40
AMBA :
 d

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 12s 660ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 50.000 fps
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.000
Stream size : 6.92 MiB (97%)
Title : Samsung AVC
Encoded date : UTC 2009-07-27 19:14:40
Tagged date : UTC 2009-07-27 19:14:40

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version : Version 4
Format profile : LC
Format settings, SBR : No
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 12s 608ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 197 KiB (3%)
Title : Samsung AAC
Encoded date : UTC 2009-07-27 19:14:40
Tagged date : UTC 2009-07-27 19:14:40
********************

The software to obtain the above information is available from:
http://seemyworldonvideo.com/pages/extras-news-items.html
Along with many other extras an editor should have - FREE stuff.

Andy, what happens when you shoot in 30fps 720p?

Dafydd
[Moderator]

Just tried it in standard definition and it crashes as well.

Hi Andy,
At the moment the crash issue cant be replicated. I wonder if you can make the video available to members to test. To try to localise the cause and see if another system falls over with your mp4 file.

Please post the url here.

Dafydd
[Moderator]

I am now wondering if my PC can not cope with the large file size. I also have watermark master and it crashes each time I add a .mp4 file to that.
Here is what I have
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_ldr.090302-1506)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Inspiron 546
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5400+ (2 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory: 1790MB RAM
Page File: 1080MB used, 2752MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
Maybe more Ram would help?

Andy
IMO your specs are adequate. Have you tried to convert your clips to mpeg2 and than use them in pd7?