Sorry, I don't have a guess to offer you. Jeff is far more knowledgable & experienced in these things.

I do know that, over many years, PDR has thrown up these sorts of audio issues from time to time. In many cases they can be replicated but in some cases not. Sometimes, the particular clips or the PC setup might be factors.

I'd have preferred to do the tests using your clips, but you must have removed them from OneDrive.

Cheers - Tony
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Quote I'd have preferred to do the tests using your clips, but you must have removed them from OneDrive.

Cheers - Tony

They're still up, but OD gives a message about something going wrong because it can't preview the .MTS files. If you click on the X at the top right of the page, you should be able to see and download the clip.

I've just downloaded both and also the PD18 project (PDS) file. I had to browse for 0114.MTS to use for clip 1, but clip 2 was imported from the same folder automatically.

newfielander, I see and hear exactly the issues you've described when I preview your project, and I'll see what I can do now that I have some time available.

YouTube/optodata

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Thanks optodata!

I've downloaded them now. I'll put them to the test...

Cheers - Tony
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Ok. After trying out a whole bunch of options, I can confirm that the issue is caused by the audio codec that the source clips were recorded with. MediaInfo describes it as Codec ID: 4532 (0x1100), and PD18 doesn't handle it very well. It can play it back fine, but none of the transitions or manual fades worked if one clip ever overlapped another.

The solution is to transcode the audio using a 3rd party app like Handbrake or VirtualDub2, both of which are free. I used VDub2 and converted both clips to .AVI but using PCM and audio codec ID:1. Note I manually changed the file extensions to .M2TS but PD will still play them correctly.

I also tried converting the clips to LPCM using PD, but they used codec 4532 and still had the problem; so it isn't Dolby Digital vs. (L)PCM, it's audio codec ID: 4532 vs. ID: 1.

By the way, VDub2 can transcode using audio Codec ID:2 PCM and the clips play fine in VLC, but there's no sound (or waveform) with clips using that codec in PD.

Here's a brief screen capture of what I expect to be music to your ears:



You can download the transcoded clips from here.

To make them work in your test project, rename the original clips to something else. Then download these to the same folder and open your test project. PD will automatically load the new clips and should work normally (for a change!)

YouTube/optodata

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Hear! Hear!

I've just finished a series of screen captures, showing exactly that... although I didn't get up to the "fix" stage.

I mentioned earlier that I hadn't been able to replicate the issue Jeff posted, but I wasn't using .m2ts clips with the same audio format.

I've replicated the same issue Jeff described with other .mts clips from Canon XA20 (same audio codec).

My next step was to be the one you took (re-encoding), but I think that would be superfluous now.

I'll post the screen capture when I stick it together.

Cheers - Tony
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Guys thanks for all the effort you have put into this!! I feel its not the user that should have to do all these workarounds to make a seamless project. PD needs to figure out something for their users. I think to complete this project I will be using a different editing program, which handles these files perfectly.
Opotdata, I really appreciate your help, you did provide a way to beat this!!

nice thanks guys.

Quote Ok. After trying out a whole bunch of options, I can confirm that the issue is caused by the audio codec that the source clips were recorded with. MediaInfo describes it as Codec ID: 4532 (0x1100), and PD18 doesn't handle it very well. It can play it back fine, but none of the transitions or manual fades worked if one clip ever overlapped another.

I don't think that's generically true with clips that utilize this very standard audio codec. Yes, I noticed it too with these particular clips. My mts files with this audio codec have no issues with manual fades, transitions or one clip overlapping another, but always have the audio glitch. Hence my comment several days back,

Quote Another issue for CL to resolve more permanently vs simply trying to suggest a work around.

PD18 was a base release with way too many major glitches and nonexistent proactive patch support, for perpetual key holders, much worse patch support than prior releases.

newfielander, I can't blame you for the nonsense workarounds view and the simple choice to use a product that works, happy editing.

Jeff

Quote

I don't think that's generically true with clips that utilize this very standard audio codec. Yes, I noticed it too with these particular clips. My mts files with this audio codec have no issues with manual fades, transitions or one clip overlapping another, but always have the audio glitch. Hence my comment several days back,



PD18 was a base release with way too many major glitches and nonexistent proactive patch support, for perpetual key holders, much worse patch support than prior releases.

newfielander, I can't blame you for the nonsense workarounds view and the simple choice to use a product that works, happy editing.

Jeff

Jl_JL, thanks for the reply and effort, do you think PD will try and resolve this kind of issue?

Deon

Quote


Jl_JL, thanks for the reply and effort, do you think PD will try and resolve this kind of issue?

Deon

Hello,

In order for it to be resolved we recommend submitting a customer support ticket using the following link:

https://membership.cyberlink.com/support/service/technical-support.do

Be sure to include the links to the sample files in your ticket, and also the link to this forum thread. When Tony posts his screen capture video, that will also help CyberLink CS team duplicate the issue in their lab.

Cheers
PowerDirector Moderator

For customer support related issues, please contact:
- Customer service: https://membership.cyberlink.com/support/customer-services.do
- Technical support: https://membership.cyberlink.com/support/service/technical-support.do

Hi all -

Here's the combined screen capture (delay caused by repeated self-inflicted glitches), showing the difference between PDR18 & PDR17 when using particular clips. Here, the issue is obvious both in preview & in the produced file... with occasional exceptions to preview/timeline playback.

As posted above, PDR18 has no issues editing or playing back these clips... until they're overlapped or transitioned. I draw no conclusions except that there's something wrong!



Attached are the MediaInfo reports for the clips used in the screen captures.

Cheers - Tony
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Did we ever seem to find a resolution to this? I have been having the same issue which has made powerdirector essentially unusable on both of my PC's. Thanks for your help.

Quote Hi all -

Here's the combined screen capture (delay caused by repeated self-inflicted glitches), showing the difference between PDR18 & PDR17 when using particular clips. Here, the issue is obvious both in preview & in the produced file... with occasional exceptions to preview/timeline playback.

As posted above, PDR18 has no issues editing or playing back these clips... until they're overlapped or transitioned. I draw no conclusions except that there's something wrong!



Attached are the MediaInfo reports for the clips used in the screen captures.

Cheers - Tony

Quote Did we ever seem to find a resolution to this? I have been having the same issue which has made powerdirector essentially unusable on both of my PC's. Thanks for your help.

There won't be any resolution until this issue is officially submitted to Cyberlink, and then they'll have to confirm the issue on their end, assign someone to fix the issue, test it, and then release a patch. That will take time, and I'm not sure that OP has even submitted the ticket.

In the meantime, using a free 3rd party converter as mentioned in my earlier post is a simple workaround if PD18 isn't working correctly with your clips.

YouTube/optodata

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I have submitted this issue to tech support on ticket # CS002126531

YouTube/optodata

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Good news! Tech support has responded with this:

With reference to your query, by pilot checking, we have reproduced similar condition in our lab using video files that are encoded with Dolby audio. This case has been escalated to engineering team for further investigation.

Thanks for your report.

As workaround, if you have urgent needs to edit the video now, user may consider using the 3rd-party open-source video converter: Handbrake to transcode the video file into H.264 MP4 AAC format, and then re-import the converted video file to PowerDirector for further editing.

YouTube/optodata

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GREAT NEWS

After messing around for a few days, I was able to get rid of my sound hiccup completely. Using Handbrake or another program to convert does work, but I found the actual issue was with my recording format. Using a Panasonic Lumix G7, I have been recording in AVCHD format resulting in a .MTS file for video, which has been what I have been using to edit in Powerdirector. I tried something new by converting and exporting that .MTS file using Powerdirector, into a standard MP4 video file. I then placed the exact same clips, the original in .MTS format and the newly converted clip in MP4 format on the same timeline and added PIP videos over each clip in the same exact spots. The .MTS video continued to have sound hiccups, while the exact same video in .MP4 format was smoooth and had 0 audio issues at all. I have since changed my setting in my camera to do MP4 instead of AVCHD and I haven't had a single sound hiccup since. I have no technical idea behind it, but I'm guessing Powerdirector didn't like that.MTS file format. Hopefully this helps someone else. I am, now able to use Powerdirector again