The chief issue with this kind of format of video is that here at least, when you get to the point where PD8 plays from one clip to the next (with or without a transition) the audio carries on but the video freezes. Press stop or pause, there's some seconds of vigorous CPU usage, then one can attempt to replay again. It doesn't always happen and a better test might be putting the sample clip ten or even twenty times onto the timeline and see if it plays end to end with no video freezes.

Meanwhile I have done a complete uninstall, and deleted from the registry everything that appears to be related to PD, and uninstalled all versions of VB runtime (and ffdshow) - and the problem is still there. So that's not a solution.

Gentlemen -

Firstly - here are the spec's of my poor little PC... anyone sniggering, watch out!

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
Processor Pentium 4 CPU 3.2GHz
1.5GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6200SE

Secondly -

I ran the test again, with a combination of Cranston's ideas and Peter's...

1. Inserted test clip 20 times
2. Fades (2.5secs) inserted between all
3. Ran smoothly - no audio drop - no pause at transitions
4. Produced to mpeg2 - no issues.
5. Inserted 5 bmp images randomly - applied fades
6. Ran smoothly - no issues - audio faded out at each image file - then back in smoothly
7. Produced to mpeg2 - no issues.
8. Trashed the lot, disgusted that I couldn't make it, at least, stutter a bit.

So - where does that leave us? Still with no definitive answer.

Using different clips (straight off Canon HF S100), I am able to produce inconsistent pausing at transitions - but there is no rhyme or reason to that either.

Cheers - Tony

Now stop it. I can hear you from here!
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Not so gentlemen,
Look at Roberts setup. He is using CUDA while most of us do not.
Now we dont know what Cyberlink does when CUDA is detected, though its not a gaming environment so we are not building walls and passageways like Doom but we could well be using it to handle part of whatever microsoft does these days to show video graphics - anyone?

I have been suspicious that high-end graphics cards like Nvidia might just be responsible, while us poor lowly guys with video on the motherboard are trudging along with one cpu doing all the gatekeeping and housekeeping chores like garbage collection.

Remember we are talking about cutting edge visual codecs and megabytes of data rates. It may be connected. Add to that the error occurs when shadow files are turned off.

So, we know that 2 or more PCs with add-on video cards (however well known models) high-speed CPU and I guess top of the line motherboards can fail. Race condition ? We just dont know.

Thats why I suggested as many people as possible copy Roberts preferences setup and hopefully have a supa-dupa video engine in their PC
Failing that we ask him point blank if he shot an albatross recently or found animal entrails nailed to his front door. Its all voodoo software to most of us anyway.

I hope Cyberlink back home have been reading and testing this too
If you can't solve the problem - Change the problem

Define what a transition is :

A fade is a progressive dimming of the image towards black over a fixed number of frames followed by a fade to full intensity of the second clip.

Other transitions are e.g. rotation of the image overlaying a second clip or a page wipe or rollover.

Is it possible that vector graphics in a smart videocard can do this by itself. Anyone?

Since the timeline in the editor contains our "program of steps" and we dont enable shadow files then all the video graphics are being created in real time.

Since a fade is to my opinion the simplest transition you could wish for, what the heck is wrong - Smart graphics like SVRT or an Nvidia card should be able to do that easily. Or is it too easy? Could the Nvidia card have done the frame conversion and the interrupt or whatever DLL command for the next frame to process be missed cuz Cyberlink was expecting it to take fractionally longer?

Can Robert and others test again with CUDA turned off in their preferences please ? If you can't solve the problem - Change the problem

Just to make it clear on my system....

1. Shadow files on....no problem movie runs smoothly between fades in preview mode.

2. Shadow files off....stalls at first fade while sound continues on in preview mode.

3. Render the video with shadow files on or off renders fine and plays all the way through.

CUDA on or off made no difference to the move stalling on the first fade. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Dang - Whats left ? If you can't solve the problem - Change the problem

Preview quality and/or cuda makes no difference here. Nor does the presence or absence of a transition. I've tried it on my laptop but that's so slow that it's really not playing the files properly at all so no conclusion can be drawn from that. (Heh, it used to be considered fast...!)

In it's raw form I got the stall at the transition point (no shadow files).

When I opted to change the aspect ratio
Right click on first video file
select "Neither 4:3 nor 16:9"
Select from drop down " stretch clip to 16:9 apect ratio"
Checked "Apply to all clips"

The 4 clips and transitions played without a problem.

Dafydd
[Moderator]

I have referred Ron's post to R&D

It is a bit random on this workaround working perhaps, please try out.

Thanks

Dafydd

System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: EP43-DS3L
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9400 @ 2.66GHz (4 CPUs)
Memory: 3326MB RAM

OS = XP sp2

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTS 250
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Display Memory: 1024.0 MB

Doesn't help here.

More tomorrow...

Goodnight!

OKay then...

I can see from the last ten posts that this is a quagmire. but straining the contents of the swamp reveals the following in as far as freezing

Dafydd - No errors - Note: his Quad PC sounds like a racehorse
Ron - No errors
Tony - No errors

Fred - Using a quad core with nvidia CUDA and turning off shadow files causes the video to freeze during preview. His PC is a quad like Dafydd.

Peter - Plays from one clip to the next (with or without a transition) the audio carries on but the video freezes.

Robert - With low resolution shadow proxy files ON the clip played through fine. - With Shadow files OFF stalls at first fade while sound continues on in preview mode. - CUDA on or off made no difference to the move stalling on the first fade.

Totally confusing. One quad PC fails & one does not. The slower PCs seem not to fail, completely opposite to what logic would predict. You buy a fast PC to avoid stutter or freezing.

Lets be specific, by freezing we mean a temporary suspend in video playback while the PC somehow thrashes internally and meanwhile the audio plays. I remember initially someone saying the audio did not play at the beginning of a clip, but the post has been deleted. I too thought I saw that but it was not reproducible.

I think the concensus has to be that its a quirk of PDR and you need to ignore it. When the movie is produced the quirk goes away., but I am confounded by the seeming reality that slower PCs dont fail.



If you can't solve the problem - Change the problem

Well Good morning;
I am dealing with 2 disadvantages here:
1. timezone shift (What the heck are the US folks doing up at 4AM!!!)
2. Lots of PM communications in the background unseen by all.

My racehorse is indeed large enough that it shouldn't have trouble. Yes I have a quad core with CUDA enabled (disabling CUDA made no difference...it runs/produces fine). The only time I had any problem with the video was when I turned shadow files OFF.

Shadow files OFF, it failed to run the video/audio correctly EVERY TIME! Sometimes video stopped on the first clip and sometimes on the third, but always failed.

Didn't matter if I added effects or transitions or music or stretched 4:3 or turned CUDA on or off. Turning shadow files back ON and REBOOTING then PD runs/produces everything fine.

I always get some funky "hangs and freezes" in the program when I move around or select things too quickly, but pausing my clicking and dragging for 20 seconds or so, and PD always catches up and "runs on". Therefore I don't call these CRASHES/FREEZES, just HANGS.

Peter- Are your shadow files OFF?
Tony...don't be afraid..add 1.5GIG more memory and SEE the difference!! Is your video card AGP or PCI Express?

I suggest that a standard question to ask EVERYONE for ALL problems is "Do you have shadow files on?". I am betting that 80% of reported issues are that. I, for one, won't be turning shadow files OFF anytime soon. Even if that means I am looking at a lower resolution preview. Nothing in PD8 seems to work right without them.

NOTE: I had lots more trouble on this same machine starting with PD7 when I had 2GIG of RAM and tried to handle AVC files. Adding memory to make 3GIG made it all better.

OK, I've retested and produced a file. I did not need the aspect ratio changes. I had no problems this time EXCEPT the following:
1. played and the audio does not play in the first clip - continues on second clip
2. played, audio ok - plays and test plays all the way through.

This is a bit "flakey". What produced the video clip Ron (sorry if I've skipped that bit of info)?

R&D at CyberLink are testing and cant reproduce the issue.

Is this the only clip everyone is testing?

Please can we have more AVCHD 1280x720 50fps to run tests on?

I'd like to have you all to test as well.

Dafydd
[Moderator]

Quote: I suggest that a standard question to ask EVERYONE for ALL problems is "Do you have shadow files on?". I am betting that 80% of reported issues are that. I, for one, won't be turning shadow files OFF anytime soon. Even if that means I am looking at a lower resolution preview. Nothing in PD8 seems to work right without them.

Hi Fred,

I have Shadow edit files OFF.
I do not need them. I will NOT be using them.

I'd like you Fred to replicate with Shadow edit File OFF. Close PD down, make the changes in preferences and reopen before starting the test project again, please.

How many of you are looking at a SAVED project?

Ron, put Vista into the equation and if anyone has i7's.

Dafydd

The video clip is one which Robert (I think) created and after the original topic was deleted I put it back up on my own site for users to download, though I renamed it TEST.MTS It has never been edited/saved so its the original.

Later I will re-read the posts and update wthe O.S.

I am not surprised Cyberlink labs cant reproduce the error, as most of us cant either. Its localised to just a few PCs but our sample is so small, if we had a hundred users it might be much larger


Dafydd, your error report of failure to play audio at first pass then OK on the next pass IS EXACTLY what I got once and assumed that some cache somewhere changed the nature of the problem.

If you can't solve the problem - Change the problem

dafydd;

WHAT changes in preferences??

1. turn shadow files off
2. reboot
3. create new project and add test.mts and transitions per instructions
4. run project...video hangs, audio continues
5. turn shadow files on (NO reboot)
6. run timeline and video hangs
7. wait for shadow files to complete
8. play timeline...no errors or hangs
9. REPLAY timeline...video hangs!!
10. REPLAY timeline...no hangs.

NOW IT GETS INTERESTING:
11. Turn Shadow files OFF
12. play timeline and video hangs
13.PAUSE playback for 10 seconds
14. click "forward" and video plays (like something CAUGHT-UP)
15. Play timeline 5 times...hangs 2 times, plays completely 3 times
16. turn shadow files back on
17. wait for shadow generation
18. play timeline...no hang

I have Windows Vista (serv. pack 2)

HI Fred and Ron,

How many of you are looking at a SAVED project? Please.

Fred, Ok, you made the changes. Interesting extra info.

Ron, I think more sample files are required.

Dafydd

I have tried this with SAVED projects and NEW.
Only difference seems to occur when waiting for the shadow file to generate or NOT waiting!

Won't adding a new file complicate the test parameters??

Hi Everyone,

Even though I don't have an HD camera yet, and don't usually work with AVCHD files (so I’m trying to not chime in on this thread here too much), I have over time, in addition to participating in this test, participated in 2 other separate tests (by testing uploaded clips from members who had similar issues to these). And each time, I could not replicate their issue/problem. The clips all played fine.
But as I do plan on purchasing an HD camera, and am considering what type of output files each brand offers, I really do want to know what is causing these issues. Though so far, I do not have the same problem with previewing these type of AVCHD clips tests, as those who have offered up the clips for testing are having. However, when I do get that HD camera, I might run into the same issues. So I'd really like a "heads up" on this stuff going in.

Dafydd wrote:

R&D at CyberLink are testing and can’t reproduce the issue.

So I have 3 questions.

- What are the specs of the system that Cyberlink is using for their testing?

- Is it a fully loaded quad core with a billion gigs, and the latest and greatest graphics card? Or a rig that is closer to the System Requirements that Cyberlink suggests here…
http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector/requirements_en_US.html

- Can one go too high above those suggested specs? (a dumb question I know, but it seems the higher spec’ed systems are generally the ones having the most issues)

Ron (Videocentricty), Peter, Robert, and others have given their analysis of what may be causing this inconsistency between the results of the small sampling of member here.
Is there any chance that Cyberlink would be willing to share their analysis so far? (through Dafydd if necessary), of what they think about the arguments made here, as to what “might” be going on?

Many members here go to a lot of effort to participate in this forum, by helping others, running tests, etc. And I believe all this active participation greatly benefits Cyberlink, as this vibrant forum enhances PowerDirector’s profile as an attractive alternative with potential buyers. So it would be great if Cyberlink, as a way of acknowledging that, would share their specs and thoughts on this particular matter.

Not gonna happen is it? Hahaha.

Well, not being computer astute enough to really add anything more to this conversation, I will lay low. But I will be watching this thread with great interest. Thanks everyone!

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I dont have an HD camera.

PM me for submissions please for raw HD of about 30secs

1080i format MT4

A clock ticking with visible seconds would be good

PM me and I will give you an FTP site and password if needed

If you can't solve the problem - Change the problem