I tried that already, thanks.

I finally found a way consistently to fix the problem of 720p clips freezing on the timeline - right click on each and set the TV format to interlaced (upper field first). Then even a timeline with about 90 clips on plays through with no problem.

Why it should be necessary to tell PD8 that the clips are interlaced when in fact they are progressive I have no idea, but it certainly works.

The trouble is that if you highlight all the clips on the timeline in one go, the right click menu option to change their format globally is greyed out. So it's not a trivial task to set the individually, and because the information is stored in the registry it's not readily possible to do some kind of back door global operation either. The best I've been able to do is to write a little utility which automates the process on the timeline, though it's still necessary to click each clip which is to be changed.

Given that if you want to change the interlace spec of one clip, there's a good chance that you'd want to change the spec for a lot, then it would be handy if PD8 could provide the means to do so readily.

Further to my post about the 2 cores etc, well it did appear to solve my rendering problem of crashing at the transitions. It has not solved my freezing or staggering at the transitions when previewing though and this is with my 30fps video not the 50fps video. I have decided to leave out the transitions until after I finish my project, although that presents a problem as I mention below.

I tried your workaround of changing my videos to interlaced and appeared to work until I closed down PD and restarted it. Some of my transitions work and some don't.

One thing though that I have found when I use the "Apply fading transition to all" using the 4 little squares at the top of the transitions page it applies the transitions to the main video track but it leaves all of the work in the PIP, text, music tracks at the same place in the timeline which makes them out of alignment with the video track.

If I apply the transitions manually one at a time though it updates the other tracks as it is supposed to do. Even on my system though it takes a couple of seconds to update the tracks after applying each transition.

I think there is a major problem with the transitions section of the program. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Hi Robert,

First, you know I'm a fan of and subber to your hanggliding vids on Youtube, so I'm in no way trying to be antagonistic here. And if you recall, I was one of the members who originally tested the clip you made available. And the footage worked fine for me, as well a other members who tested it.
Then there was a lot of trial and error and many follow-up posts to sort out the problem you where having with your footage in PD.
Then the end result (solution), so it appears, and as Dafydd passed on from Cyberlink, was to step your quad core down to two. And that seemed to have worked for you, if the number of smiley faces on your "Eureka" post is any indication.
You changed your "computer", and now PD works.

Now, after using a one button option to apply transitions (where PIPs didn't shift properly, though when transitions were applied manually, the PIP shifted fine), you now say...

I think there is a major problem with the transitions section of the program.

Really? A major problem with the transitions in PD8?

That's the first time I've heard that Robert. And I think you meant to say... "on your system". And that you weren't implying that this is the rule for everyone.

PD "should" indeed work on anyone's computer. I agree!
Whether it's (as my friend Tony would say), a 72 core i7000 with one hundred million gigs of Ram and storage, and 12 Nvidia graphics cards linked in a parallel series, and with 204 fans with enough cooling power and thrust to knock over any small child who happens to pass by the tower. Or a pedestrian production model, dual core, off the shelf, Dell.

Even though I don't work with HD footage that much, though I did experiment with yours without the problems you were having, I have to say, for other looking in, who may be contemplating a PD8 purchase, that I can't jump on board with the... There is a "major" problem with the transitions section.

Fair enough?

Click here PDtoots for a collection of PowerDirector Tutorials and Tips

Hi Cranston, no offence taken, maybe major problem was a bit harsh, but there is a problem with the transitions.

When I render my videos as I posted in another post I tested 2, 3, 4, & 5 cores and the video crashed at exactly the same spot......the 5th transition. So it is not my computer that is the problem it is the program and transitions. Divide a single video up into 5 transitions though and it does not crash, hence my stress levels trying to get the program to work.

Just a couple of points.

1. My i7 has 8 cores not 4 and the 2 core work around only works for rendering not previewing my videos. Now I am very glad that I can at least render my videos but obviously throttling my system down from 8 cores to 2 cores is not a real solution.

2. I apologise if I pushed a button that upset you but you have to realise that I am at the end of my tether also. I would just like a program to do what I paid for without pulling my hair out for the last 4 months trying to find a solution to simply rendering my videos at full HD.

3. And now that I am starting to push the program more with multiple pip tracks and audio I am finding other problems. Luckily I noticed the misalignment of the pip, music and text tracks and was able to undo the multiple fades before I saved the project. I have just about used up all of my spare hours finding workarounds in the program.

Look I know it is a problem with modern software but I though PD8 being a small upgrade from PD7 would have had most of the bugs worked out.



Bottom line is I have tried two different editing programs in the lower price range plus upgrading PD7 to PD8 and by the time I count up the money I am spending on editing programs and more importantly the hair I am loosing with the stress, I wonder if I would be better off just biting the bullet and ordering the Adobe video editing program and be done with it. I have photoshop and have had absolutely no problems with it and expect an Adobe program to be top notch.

The only thing keeping me here so far is the excellent community and the link back to Cyberlink so at least I have a sense my problems are being looked into. Anyway I am off to do some more editing, take care.

Robert S My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Robert,

Fully understood! And I wasn't upset, nor do I ever get so over a video editing program, or the varying perspectives of members here. I was just attempting to narrow the broad brush a bit.

The more powerful computers like you have, should absolutely run PD8 without problems. Those with the high end cutting edge HD gear should have a minimal amount of hair loss when just trying to edit and create a little DVD of their footage, or post to it to a site.
But the same failure of the program that you experience, may not be same experience for someone else with a similar, or less sophisticated set up.

That's all my misguided reply was trying to impart.



Click here PDtoots for a collection of PowerDirector Tutorials and Tips

Robert,

remind me again - was your PC purchased as is from a builder who sells direct to the public.

Did you add-in any new video cards etc?

I cant get past how the little guys with their lowly cpu and on-board video are scraping along just fine and the big-turbo chromium plated 400HP machines are conking out at simple (relatively) fade transitions.

Just my two pennyworth

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

No problem Cranston.

Videocentricity, my system is built by a local computer shop I have been using for over 10 years and what I do is every 2-3 years I go into him and get my system upgraded with CPU, Motherboard or power supply. Every now and then I upgrade my video card myself, or add extra ram. Also I format and re-install Vista every 18 months-2 years or so just to clear out the junk.

At the time I bought PD7 I had an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ cpu system and had the same problem of rendering full HD edited video I have now with an Intel i7 cpu system. The only thing the same in my system is PD, my graphics card and my TV card, I even left out my sound card and am now using the 7 channel on board sound.


I have had the same video card a Nvidia 9800GT for about 18 months -2 years. I also make sure I have the latest drivers and Microsoft updates. So I too do not understand why I am having so many problems.

One thing though that makes me think it is more the program than my system is that even from the start I could render a Full HD if all I did was just drop it on the time line by itself.

As soon as I started using the stabilisation effect or pushing the program with extra effects it would crash and would crash at the same time every time and that time was when the effect was due to be done to the video.

Now the fact that disabling 6 of my 8 cores allows the program to render the video tells me it is something in the software that can't handle the power of the i7 chip.......but then it was the same with the older amd cpu.....I don't know mate all I want to do is render my hang gliding videos. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Hi Robert,

What power unit does your PC have please?

Dafydd

Hy Dafydd,

It is a Solytech 500W max model SL-B500E

Cheers

Robert My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

I will just add something that may help with the transition problem. I will mention here I am editing full HD 1920X1080 videos anything from 1gig to 4 gig in size.

Now I had just typed about 5 paragraphs talking about how it appeared that turning on shadow files for COMPLICATED videos appeared to solve my freezing between clips in preview mode. This is with clips just butted up to each other there are no fades etc just playing from one clip to the next.

Well scrap that, further testing with a particular clip I had freezing every time I tried to run the preview from the previous clip to this one has revealed this.

1. If I open PD, go to the clip just before the problem clip and play the movie it freezes the PROBLEM clip at the transition but continues to play the audio. This particular problem clip had an X-RAY effect added to it but I have had similar freezing at the transition point on other clips. I just used this one as it froze every time I tried to play it.

2. If I go to the problem clip first and play it in clip mode even for just 5 seconds, stop, then go to the previous clip and play in movie mode the transition goes smoothly ALL of the way through the problem clip not just the 5 seconds I played in clip mode.

Now I am no expert but it appears to me that PD has problems with transitions.

Something that may help is I do not use the trim method with my videos I split my videos and delete the parts I don't want. Whether or not this alters the way PD sees the clips I don't know I am just throwing out as much information as I can to help.

If I get time I will see if I can replicate the problem with small videos. I would like to be able to send the packed files for Cyberlink to test but I just copied the two small clips that are causing a problem out of the timeline and put them into a new project but because they are part of two larger videos the packed project even for this 1 minute project was over 5 gig in size.
My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Dafydd,

Well further it may also have something to do with the cores because I just re-set my computer back to 2 cores, rebooted and the transitions play. There is a slight pause of maybe 1/2 second but it continued smoothly without having to run through playing the PROBLEM clip first.

So I am still chipping away at this problem and I just hope Cyberlink comes up with a solution before I have to go out and buy myself a wig to cover my bald head.

Look I like PowerDirector it is the best of the cheaper editors I have tried so far and really do not want to go and learn another program. It does everything I need and I do like the interface. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Robert,

I applaud your tenacity. And I especially applaud you for your willingness to go to all the effort of taking the time to document and share your experiments and data with this forum and with Cyberlink.

It will surely only serve to benefit those with similar high end computer setups, who are attempting to work out their similar full HD issues. As well as benefiting folks like me who still plan to someday make that leap to a higher end computer and HD camera.

So Robert… Thanks!

I suppose a request could go out for you to once again make one of your 1920x1820 clips available for other forum member to test. But if even they performed satisfactorily for someone else, that wouldn’t do you a bit of good at this point. You need those clips to work on “your” rig.

I can only hope that Cyberlink is as willing to work with you, as you are willing to work with them.


Click here PDtoots for a collection of PowerDirector Tutorials and Tips

again, may I proffer my two bits.
While I dont see the reported problem, and I dont use the Trim, I simply delete unused parts.

But, in my opinion, when using Vista for long periods, there is a build-up of crap memory or memory fragmentation which leads to big applications suffering - only I cant prove this at all except by experience and observation.

Just yesterday, late in the day when I had been using Vista all day for emails, web development etc - but not PD at all... Then I started using PD with a few browser windows and windows explorer left open.
There had been ten explorer windows and some big development tools running all day.

PD ran terribly (slowly & with some small delays) and I happened to be dragging segments from the middle of a 5 minute long original AVI to the end of the movie.

I ended with about one minutes worth of 5 second clips, some were movie-in-reverse and some had other scene manipulations like speed and brightness applied.
Then PD froze for about 20 seconds and I had not saved the project . I was afraid it was a solid freeze up and I would lose my work, Then it continued OK.
I saved my project and rebooted Vista and continued editing for another thity minutes with absolutely no delays.

Maybe nothing to do with Roberts experience, but Vista should be booted before going into a 'troublesome' test project.
If you can't solve the problem - Change the problem

Hi Cranston, thanks mate, I am glad I am preparing the way for others to have a smoother path than me. Regarding uploading another clip of mine I don't really think it will work. The reason I say this is I just dropped 4 small clips all under 40 meg each onto the timeline and I split them, cut them, faded them to within an inch of their lives and not a problem when previewing. The project I am having problems with has clips that total about 20gig.

Now I still have the problem of rendering even a 10 meg video that has a stabilisation and video enhancement effect on the video when using all of my cpu's cores. Thankfully as a work around I can enable 2 instead of 8 cores.

Hi Videocentricity,

I would agree with you re the ram if I was using a lot of it. I have an lcd screen on my keyboard which shows cpu and ram usage. When previewing this particular project my ram usage is only around 41-52% and my cpu usage fluctuates from 1% to a maximum of 28% and this is with Firefox open as well with 7 tabs.

I still think it is something to do with the cores though, as using the 2 cores solves my preview and rendering problem. Plus even with a freshly booted computer with nothing open other than PD I still have the transition problem.

Just one thing about the cores, I find it interesting that it is built into the operating system the ability to turn off cores. Why would they even make that an easy option for a person to use unless they know that it causes problems with some programs. I have also heard of turning off cores to get certain games to work also, so maybe it is not just Cyberlinks fault.

Cheers

Robert My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Well some more information for Cyberlink.

1. I rendered my project using Mpeg2 using 2 cores but ended up with a video that had tears in it almost like it was interlaced. I have a post here somewhere with an example of the tearing on a separate video.

2. Sorry I did not take note of exactly what I did over the next hour or so as I was using 2 cores and did not expect any trouble. I did not re-render straight away and I am sure I closed down PD and did some other work on my computer.

3. When I re-opened PD the render failed with the old "out of system memory" fault again. I tried this twice and it failed at the same place. I checked the video left after the crash and it failed at a transition AGAIN!!!!

4. Just for information of Cyberlink all I did then without rebooting my computer I just restarted PD, took out the "fade" at the place where it crashed and rendered again which was successful with a proper clean render, no tearing.

I say again it appears PD has a problem when it gets to the end of one clip and goes to the next clip. I do not see any repeatable circumstance other than it is at a transition. The transition this time was a transition that had a pause when previewing but did not crash. The transition that was continually crashing when using all the cores rendered fine in the render.

The size of the project may have a bearing on the problem, I don't know. The project videos added up to over 20gig and the final output was 1.6gig.

I will post a link to the youtube video sometime tomorrow afternoon. It is not perfect but I just got tired of working on it and decided to just render it as is.

Cheers

Robert My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Hi Robert,
I am reading the posts here and monitoring what everyone is writing. I'm also requesting CyberLink R&D read the feedback etc etc.

Dafydd
[Moderator]

Thanks Dafydd, I really appreciate the effort you put into this forum and for Cyberlink.

Cheers

Robert My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Another workaround for anyone having Panasonic GH1 720p problems in PD8 - Nero 9 allows you to put all your clips on its timeline, then export to a single file with no rendering. Put that onto the PD8 timeline, right click and tell PD8 to use the video format "interlaced top field first", and if you then split it into separate clips again during editing or by using scene detection, each split item will retain that video format attribute. Then PD8 will handle it with no video freezes. Well, here at least...

Well as I mentioned above I successfully rendered my 1.6gig video in mpeg2 format but I am having a hell of a problem manually uploading it up to Youtube. I decided to render it to youtube from inside Powerdirector using a special setting I set in the profiles for a higher resolution.

Well back to the crashing at a transition again. This time a different transition than before but the same transition each time I try to render. This video should render to 1.1gig but has crashed twice leaving two videos of exactly the same length of 716mb and the exact same transition.

I am trying again but as there is no fade at this transition to remove, I don't really know what I can do. This transition though is going from a video in the timeline to a video in the pip track with a colour board in the timeline to take up the space to the next clip after the pip video.

Just a reminder this is rendering 1920X1080 video I may have to go back to 1289X720 for upload although I would like to render my videos just once instead of twice, once for the net and once for my archives. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Give me a break, I take out the pip that was causing the trouble and put it in the timeline minus the pip edit and render the video using the Youtube option..... I was using a youtube setting that I had created in the profiles. I know I know I changed it to a different resolution and size from the default settings but.......I then get all the way to the end of the a 1.3gig render successfully.......then PD says "Can't upload video to youtube"

Not only that it did not save the 1.3gig version anywhere I can find. So I can't even upload it manually.

EDIT====I found it, PD said it was rendering it to Produce 10 but actually saved it as Produce 9???

1. PD rendered the pip included video fine using Mpeg2 and M2ts successfully but not .wmv.

2. Youtube will not play back my m2ts videos properly. The audio chokes after about 5 seconds of replay. Vimeo won't even accept m2ts so there must be a problem with the format.

3. The Mpeg2 video uploading to youtube is giving me trouble.

4. I am going to try once more and render the video to .wmv which is the format PD is using for youtube anyway and see if I can manually upload it.

EDIT====I didn't have to render again as i found thr video so I am now in the process of uploading the .wmv video to youtube......wish me luck, I think I need it.

I tell you it better be worth it when Cyberlink fixes the i7 cpu and transition problems. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn