Difficult story :

Some remarks that may be of help:

• Transitions should all show in the preview screen, there may be something wrong if they don't


• When saved (manually or automatically) in principle the complete status of what you have on your timeline and in the mediaroom etc. should be saved into the project file. If things are missing that that may mean that they were not there when the project was saved.


• When you load a project, AND there is already something in the timeline and/or the mediaroom, PD asks whether the new project should be added to the already existing or not. MAYBE you can use that to rebuild your project? In that case it would make sense to (re) load projects from old to new.....


• PD autosaves projects (default every 10 mins, you can change that to a higher or lower frequency). please have a look in the settings / Project to see WHERE PD saves your project files by default. In that directory you may also find the autosaved project files. They have a date-time stamp in the filename. MAYBE this is a way to restore your projects work (maybe in combination with the mentioned rebuild?

Going forward, based on your experience it may be good to make a project per event and save that separately. PD17 makes it easy to load several projects in the timeline e.g. one you want to produce?

Hopethis helps a bit

I'll add a couple more suggestions to Warry's helpful comments.

Using PD's Autosave is very helpful and can prevent serious losses of editing work that might be caused by a crash, for example.

On the other hand, every time PD makes a backup (which can be set as frequently as every 2 min), PD essentially stops what it's doing and saves the project. There's no way to stop/postpoone an autosave, so it can be very disruptive if you're in the middle of previewing or editing some critical detail. You'll probably have to find the right balance between saving your recent edits and not being interrupted.

As an alternative (or even additional precaution), save all your projects to a "live" cloud folder on your hard drive, like OneDrive. That way, each time you save the project, it's uploaded to the cloud, which also keeps a "version history" and would let you go back to a previously saved version.

Also, you may want to consider backing up your media to DVD/Blu-Ray discs or the cloud so you won't lose those irreplaceable records.

I think I said this an another one or your posts, but you should produce each of your mini-projects one at a time and all using the same output profile.

You can then create the master project, import all the produced clips, apply any transitions and final edits, then produce using SVRT. That will be very fast since it will essentially transfer all the existing clips to the output video, and only it will only render/produce the new parts.

Please note that there is a bug in the PD17 SVRT where having even a single image on the timeline can cause SVRT to render EVERYTHING, but as long as you have only video clips and tranistions, titles, etc and no separate images, you should be ok. The fix for that is coming in the next patch, which should be released very soon.

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Hi

Thank you for all of the help received,that I will certainly use. I have not been able to recover from the autosave. I do have my overall project there to work with albeit with large gaps to be filled again. Bacause I want to just fill these gaps am i right in thinking I cannot produce the samller projects and insert them, would they all have to be in projct form to insert? Iam using "split at current time" and "remove" to trim larger videos, is that the best way to do it?
And I believe I got into trouble originally messing around with effects and transitions so will use appluy random at the end of the overall finished project
Because of using very short clips I was thinking of using the video collage option, can I ask while I amhere is that option for very short videos only though?

No. The collage designer works with long clips too. Go ahead and try the Collage designer. It works well. Depending on the options set, you could run out of time on the clips that are too short if you use animation.

Quote ... Bacause I want to just fill these gaps am i right in thinking I cannot produce the samller projects and insert them, would they all have to be in projct form to insert? Iam using "split at current time" and "remove" to trim larger videos, is that the best way to do it? ...

There are no restrictions on using raw clips and edits vs already edited and produced clips in your projects. You can mix and match them any way you want, and as long as you use the same output profile every time you produce a shorter segment, you'll save producing time overall.

For example, last night I produced two clips with lots of processing-intensive edits (overlays, masks, and effects). It took over two hours to produce them back to back, but when I realized I needed them to be strung together in a single clip, I used SVRT and PD17 produced the full 28min clip in just over a minute!

YouTube/optodata

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Thanks again for the help here, may I ask another question before I go ahead with this project.
Some of my older clips are in 4.3, but most are 16.9 so I have ignored advice from the program to change to 4.3 am I going to be ok doing that?

Quote Thanks again for the help here, may I ask another question before I go ahead with this project.
Some of my older clips are in 4.3, but most are 16.9 so I have ignored advice from the program to change to 4.3 am I going to be ok doing that?

Yes. You have to chose one format, and any clips or images that are a different format will be scaled so that the longest edge fills the frame. In a 16:9 project, 4:3 media will have black bars on the left and right; in a 4:3 project, 16:9 media will have black bars at the top and bottom.

There are 3 ways to deal with this, and you may use any combination of them in the same project:

1. Do nothing. Let the black bars appear


2. Manually zoom/crop the "misfit" clips so the main content is visible but the image/clip fills the screen


3. Place a background image/video on Track 1 that's the same format as your project, and put all your content on Track 2 and below. The edges of that image will show wherever black bars are present, and you may want to apply a blur or softening effect to give you a subtle background, rather than one that's sharply focused.

There's no right or wrong way, so try out some ideas and let your creativity shine through!

EDIT: I think you should use 16:9 for your project, since most of your clips are that format and because there's more room for content

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

Quote

Yes. You have to chose one format, and any clips or images that are a different format will be scaled so that the longest edge fills the frame. In a 16:9 project, 4:3 media will have black bars on the left and right; in a 4:3 project, 16:9 media will have black bars at the top and bottom.

There are 3 ways to deal with this, and you may use any combination of them in the same project:

1. Do nothing. Let the black bars appear


2. Manually zoom/crop the "misfit" clips so the main content is visible but the image/clip fills the screen


3. Place a background image/video on Track 1 that's the same format as your project, and put all your content on Track 2 and below. The edges of that image will show wherever black bars are present, and you may want to apply a blur or softening effect to give you a subtle background, rather than one that's sharply focused.

There's no right or wrong way, so try out some ideas and let your creativity shine through!

EDIT: I think you should use 16:9 for your project, since most of your clips are that format and because there's more room for content

Yes I thought I may be left with black bars. I will remember this advice for future reference, but on this occasion after so much trouble I don't want to move things around. I think I will put up with it. Thanking evryone again.
I have actually redone lost clips separately and inserted them and now have verything back together on the timeline as it was, and hopefully saved successfully for me to then add the rest of what is needed

I apolgise that I am back again at the risk of ultimate embarassment.
All inserted extra projects went well, so with still more to add however I produced my work so far . I did so in avi and Mpeg and when asked did i want to upload to the cloud I did that as well for one of the produced projects
Today I inserted a project into the Mpegproduction and then saved that under a new name wanting to add today's date.
.It went blank again for the most part when I reopened it to add more.

I tried to download from the cloud and itis not there , nor was it backed up to where settings tells me it should be and I have set the backup for every 5 minutes, I am being slowly driven mad.
I do have an avi saved although without today;s work included, but I will survive that. Just so afraid of doing something wrong and losing that file so I am asking questions here again.
So did it not like a project being added to a production? Can I add to the avi file? I did want to edit that a bit at the end though If possible . Am I better leaving it intact? The produced avi is huge so I believe it better to be in MPeg to get onto a dvd so can I change tthe format and at what stage is best? Will power director burn mpeg to dvd, I have used avi in the past to do this?
Apologies again especially for the long winded moan and I am very grateful to all who help.

Quote I apolgise that I am back again at the risk of ultimate embarassment.
All inserted extra projects went well, so with still more to add however I produced my work so far . I did so in avi and Mpeg and when asked did i want to upload to the cloud I did that as well for one of the produced projects
Today I inserted a project into the Mpegproduction and then saved that under a new name wanting to add today's date.
.It went blank again for the most part when I reopened it to add more.

I'm so sorry this is happening to you. None of this is normal, and I'm sure everything is still on your computer somewhere, so let's take this step by step.

Can you please clarify what "It went blank again for the most part" means? Does that mean when you opened the project again, most of the clips on the timeline were blank (empty/black clips with no content) or were actually missing completely? What about items in the Media Library?

A screenshot would be very helpful. Press Alt + Print Screen at the same time, then open Paint (or any image editor) and use Paste (or Ctrl + v), then save the image where you can easily find it. Use the blue Attachments button to upload it:


I'd also like to see the screenshots of the Preferences | File and Project screens. Those will point to the folders where your austosaves will be and also where your produced file went even if it also went to the cloud.

Quote I tried to download from the cloud and itis not there , nor was it backed up to where settings tells me it should be and I have set the backup for every 5 minutes, I am being slowly driven mad.

I would be too! Can you give more details about what happened when you tried to download from the cloud? COuld you access your account, where they any saved items, was there a problem in downloading your project? A screenshot of what Windows File Explorer shows when you go to the folder you've asked PD to auto save the project to would be useful, too.

Quote VI do have an avi saved although without today;s work included, but I will survive that. Just so afraid of doing something wrong and losing that file so I am asking questions here again.
So did it not like a project being added to a production? Can I add to the avi file? I did want to edit that a bit at the end though If possible . Am I better leaving it intact? The produced avi is huge so I believe it better to be in MPeg to get onto a dvd so can I change tthe format and at what stage is best? Will power director burn mpeg to dvd, I have used avi in the past to do this?
Apologies again especially for the long winded moan and I am very grateful to all who help.

AVI isn't usually a great format to use because it's going to be very large. There are lots of other options, and if your gaol is to burn to a DVD we can figure out a better option. If you also want to upload to YouTube or FaceBook, you'd want a higher resolution MP4, but we can sort that out once we've figured out the more pressing issues.

YouTube/optodata

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Can I say that i think it is so nice for anyone to help and to respond so quickly
Before I trouble further I will attempt to unravel what is going on with the latest problem. And hope it all makes sense
I think that it went wrong with saved project after inserting a non-produced project into a produced version. Am I right tothink a produced project iss not editable ?
When opening again from the folder saved to, it saved only the small non produced bit with blanks on the timeline around it.
When I ooked in the auto save folder, looking for the complete new project it was not there, just one incomplete as explained above.
I did find the MPeg I thought was missing though without the addition that caused my problem and since then I have produced sone of my other bits and added them successfully. Hooray
Regarding the cloud, I thought I had set up my cyberlink cloud account, but will look into that again
Can I ask again, however, if PD17 will convert my saved Mpeg to dvd or do I need a separate converter?
Big thanks once againr

It is all a big learning curve for me. I have successfully made home movies in the past ,but not with many different segments and formats to be included. Also, working with a new PC using windows 10 for the first time, which I am not too fond of.

Where to start Irenej.
Basically, a project is a project, whether it has been produced or not. A production is not more than the creation of an output file, the result of whatever you have in the time line.
The result of the production, the video file created will be added to the media-room (when you go back to the edit mode after production).
There is one reason I can think of that both files disappear in the media-room and on the time line, and that is that after you have saved a project you have deleted the files from your disk or have moved them to another place. In both cases PD is not able to retrieve them and will consequently leave empty spaces. This has nothing to do with production or not.
Should PD not find files used in the project at save time, you should when loading the project get error messages that files are missing and whether you want to browse for them or ignore them. Do you get those messages?
If you see reason to move files around or delete them after production but want to be sure that all your project resources are kept save, then pack the project files/resources together in one folder by using the “pack project materials” from the PD file menu. If you want the resulting video file added, please go back to edit mode after production and let PD automatically add this file to the media room.
You can use the cloud to save files and projects and even pack and save into the cloud. Unless you have insufficient disk space, or want to use these files from other computers as well, you should want to use your (safe) local disk and not the cloud storage, which may lead to yet other problems:
Hope this helps a bit or triggers you to look at the file/media maintenance in windows around the PD usage too.

Quote ... Can I ask again, however, if PD17 will convert my saved Mpeg to dvd or do I need a separate converter?...

You can do it either way. If you haven't produced the final/mega version, PD will produce it before burning the disc (or creating an image to burn later).

If you click on the Create Disc room and have any clips on your timeline, you'll see them appear in the Content tab:



The two "+" icons above will let you import already-produced videos, and also finished (but not yet produced) projects. For your saved Mpeg, you can either place it on the timeline in a new project, or simply import it using the left-most "+" icon straight from the Create Disc room.

Once you've chosen/created/modified the menu and related settings, you'll have the following choices:



Burn to disc is best if you're only going to burn 1 disc, especially if you are going from a project to disc (rather than from an already-produced video). PD has to produce the video first, and then burn it to disc, so that will take time.

If you're planning on making several discs, it's probably better to use the Save as disc image or Create a folder, and then you can use any burning utility (even the one built in to Win10) to actually burn the discs at any time.

There are lots of tutorials that will help once you get to this stage.

YouTube/optodata

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Thank you both again
So firstly I can insert into a produced project with a project that is non produced, that was not the problem then.

I am saving into new folders on the desktop as I go along not always from where projects were originally stored, is that . in that moving them.
When this appens I do get the error message that files are missong,etc.

If I pack the project materials, will the project load to timeline as a completed project again? I have not tried that before.

I, also, have received messages on my PCaboit hardware acceleration. Th is has happened in the past because I have used a special magnifying programme that has caused some issues. I am now using instead the windows accessibility option of high magnification and have wondered whether this might have something to do with my rpoblems.

To be honest once I have finished this particular overall project I did not know whether it might be better to reinstall PD17 again

Thanks for the information regarding the burning to DVD, I usually go straight to Create Disc from a finished project and did'n't know whether haveng produced most of my work in Mpeg2 first might alter the method I need to use.

Many thanks again

Hi IreneJ
Inserting produced and not produced project, in a disk menu should not be a problem. As was pointed out, the disk creating process will take longer because PD likely has to do some additional work because of the features you may have used in the timeline.

Your reaction about the missing files messages indicates that we have found your problem of the missing pieces in a reloaded project. PowerDirector stores the place of the files used rather than the files themselves.
The recommendation is:
1) make sure that the files you will be using for a project are in the folder where you (finally) want them.
2) then insert them, edit them with PD etc.
3) save the project
4) do not move the files around anymore.
5) loading projects and/or using projects in the disk menu should go fine as PD is still able to point to the files in their final place and you have not moved them around.

The packing of a project is actually PD collecting ALL the files and features used in the project and copying them all into a folder you have assigned for the package. As I understand the communication we had on this topic, the packing is doing what you expected the saving of the project to do. You may now have understood that is not the case.

So, Saving the project is saving the status of what is in the media room and on the time line, PD points to files used in there location on disk, at the moment of saving.

Packing a project is copying all de media to a folder.

Since PD17 PD is checking the display-hardware used and its driver software. If there has been a change, like a new driver, PD recognized that and will ask you whether you allow it to select/define the most optimal usage of the display hardware. PD17 might also recognize (changes in) the magnifying software. I am not familiar with that.

Using the Windows magnification or scaling might have the same result, but I find that less obvious. Anyway, we must assume that PD handles all that well, and (as we have seen) it is not the cause of the black holes you have seen :

Unless there are any other issues, I don’t see any reason for re-installation of PD. It seems to work fine, it is only the user who needs to get the hang of the software :

In principle your method of creating a DVD disk is fine. PD should be able to handle that. The disk creation time might be reduced if you produce/create MPEG2 files and use them as the source for the DVD. However, the MPEG2 specifications of these files must match those for the DVD thus should be selected very carefully. (It can be done and as Optodata writes, PD can do that for you, you don’t need an additional video conversion program)

But If the DVD creation process works for you as it is, I would stick to that.

Take care!
Warry

Hi,

Just to add a further level of detail to the info from other contributors:

The Pack Project Materials is a specific function to gather all the assets used in a project and copy them to a user specified folder.

Crucially, the .pds file is also modified to remove the absolute file locations and the overall aim is to produce a "portable" project that can be archived, copied or transferred without any concern about the original locations and resources.

For example:

The the standard .pds file holds the absolute file references in the format Drive:Folder Path: File name like this :
SRC="D:\Sandra Maggie visit\SANY0019.MP4

When a project is packed the absolute format is changed to a "relative" format like this :
SRC="SANY0019.MP4"

This PACKed folder will hold the assets used, including the modified .pds file, and the modified .pds file can "run" from that folder and find the packed assets in that folder.

The huge advantage is that the project becomes "standalone" and the folder can be archived or transferred to another location, system etc.

The small disadvantage is that the assets will be "duplicated" into the folder and therefore storage space requirements will increase.

For offsite archiving the PACK function is an essential tool to get comfortable with using.

Cheers
PowerDirector Moderator

Tthanks for all advice

Thinking I was being orderly, I know now not tomove things

As my project is growing larger I am thinkig now it is time, also, to move away foom DVD creation and put my finished video on a flash/USB drive.

Hope for plain sailing from now on and thanks again for helping me to understand better the software

I'm glad to hear that things are better now.

These days, online platforms like YouTube make it very easy to share high definition content, and while DVDs are a convenient way of watching videos on a TV, they don't have anywhere near the quality that a Blu-Ray disc has. If your set has a USB port, however, then creating and viewing an HD MP4 would be even easier.

Good Luck!

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

Many thanks