The short answer would be if PD7 got a "5 out of 10" star rating for crashes, PD8 would probably get a "7.5 out of 10" rating. Sometimes it feels like a totally different program, but other times it feels like it crashes just as bad as PD7.

I'm on my third job with PD8 right now. Over the last couple of days on the current job, it's only crashed one time on me ("PowerDirector has stopped working"). But, I have not yet used a transition. I have added multiple Power Tool and Enhance options though. It seems like when you add transitions is when you start really having problems. I'm in a habit now of waiting until the last possible moment to add those.

Also, PD8 seems to get in "moods" where you can scrub the timeline or jump to a clip and it will just stall out for long periods of time for no reason. Sometimes these "stutters" only last a couple of seconds, but at worst they can go up to two minutes. The odd part is that most of the time I won't see any hard drive activity, or the process monitor won't show any real CPU usage. I installed PD8 on my wifes computer a month ago and I do see the same problems. So, it seems like it's not just something happening on my specific system.

From PD7, I'm use to hitting the save button constantly. So, I'll close and restart PD8 a lot. I mean the first time I see one of those "stalls", I'll just go ahead and close and reopen it.

Thanks John for the detailed reply.

Over the past month or so with PD7 (and probably) PD8 I have been doing small amounts of 'work' adding clips, transitions etc and 'saving as' PDS versions V1, V2, V3, V4 etc etc. And touch wood haven't had a single 'PD has stopped working'.

My last project ended up being V24! This was a one hour detailed DVD though. I then delete all bak files and keep the last version if I need to edit it again.

Once I’m satisfied I produce it as a MPEG in both SD (DVD HQ) and HD 1920x1080 and then delete all PDS, bak files relating to this project.

Neil
Cubby House Films
Happing editing

Best Regards

Neil
CubbyHouseFilms
My Youtube Channel
My Vimeo Channel
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