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rectro46

Newbie Joined: Jul 08, 2020 05:13 Messages: 11 Offline

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Jul 17, 2020 05:05

Hi

Iv used several other video editors over the years including Adobe Premier, Movieplus X6, recently Resolve, Natron for me 3D projects. Iv also tried all the other video editors to in a trial to compare and find a good all round experience to recommend to my brother. The key things I look for is software that sits in the middle between professional and Beginner, this is where MoviePlus X6 sat very well as it was easy and intuitive yet had many advanced features.

After finding and trying out Powerdirector I had no trouble recommending it to my brother so he purchased it. As he is new to Video editing in general Im teaching him PD even although I cant afford to purchase it myself right now so am using the trial to learn it in which there are differences in the build.

So here is some feedback that Id like to give and am sure these things have been mentioned by other long term users.

1: Mixer channel names. (Found Fix for track names, not for mixer names)

When you have multiple audio tracks I expected the mixer to show the track name, the problem is tracks dont have names in the timeline which I found odd. Adding to this the mixer channels also show no way of knowing what volume slider a track belongs to.

I suggest to allow track names in the timeline and auto-update the mixer volume slider to reflect this. Also for a more simple solution highlight the volume slider to a track selected on the timeline.

2: Apply effects / Colour grading to a track or clips

In Movieplus I can assign a multitude of colour grading options to the track itself, this means everything on that track, all clips get affected by this. I see that you can opt to apply to all clips. Should I add more clips to that track I have to apply the effect again to include the new clips. It would be good If I can select the track (far left) and apply the Fix/Enhance.

3: Solo tracks

Rather than mute all other tracks to solo an individual track there needs to be a Solo button for each track.

4: Zoom on cursor location

When I zoom in using the hot keys Id like the zoom to move in on the cursor location as at the moment the position gets lost.

5: Save custom presets

It would be good to offer the ability to save custom presets of any editing your do regarding colour, Audio adjustment, or even key curves. This is something iv come to get used to in Movieplus. One such curve would be to apply a preset fade in / Out for audio tracks.

6: Copy Paste effects. (Found fix, copy/paste attributes, may not want all attributes, however)

I would like to see the ability to copy a clips effects or to be more precise Fix/Enhance from one clip to another either as a whole or selected adjustment. For instance Colour Adjust/Hue channel by right-clicking and select copy effect, then select another clip and paste it.

7: Trim with Audio Scrub.

Audio scrub is great to have and essential in fact but why is this feature missing in the Trim toolset? This of ll places is where Audio scrubbing needs to be as you cant make trims based on visuals only, and the whole idea of trim is to speed up the process for multi trims, but if you have to keep playing back areas before trimming it defeats the point of having the Trim in the first place, to save time.

8: Keys and curves too small in the timeline.

Although we can go into the Keyframe window which is very nice and clean I find the key knots and curves are too small visually on the clip. It would be better to have an expanding sub-track which opens up to show the keys much larger with a better display of the curve. Copy and paste keys would be also great to have in the timeline. Maybe show a larger key knot when you get closer?

9: End of clip button in the transport buttons set. (End key, still no button present in UI)

I can't seem to find an end of clip button with the other transport buttons, why?

10: Audio fade from the mixer

I find the Audio face feature to be limited and fiddly. You need to be either at the beginning or end of the clip to apply the auto fade buttons, this is tricky when you have no end of clip button in the transport buttons.

11: Auto key for mixer adjustment?

I noticed that every time I move the volume slider from the audio mixer it adds a key. This really needs an option to turn this off.
I may just want to adjust the overall level regardless of where in the timeline I am on that clip. Again presets for audio effects are needed with the ability to save them such as for compression.

12: Allow the use of 3rd party audio plugins.

Id like to use my purchase audio plugins, this will open up audio editing a huge amount.

13: more adjustment of track size, more so for waveforms. (Right-click on track to select presets which don't expand more than manual adjustment)

Allow more adjustment for tracks, need to see larger waveforms, this must be very hard on a 4K monitor.

14: Auto return to the beginning of the timeline. (Fixed, found in settings)

Each time I get to the end of a clip it auto returns back to the beginning, this is minor but gets me everytime. I wish the play head to remain at the end when it gets to that point.

15: Copy. Paste keys from Pan, Zoom and crop.

When you apply a Pan, Zoom OR Crop you may wish to carry the last frame of these adjustments on to the next clip to maintain the position, this would also apply to images in which you took a snap shot of which had some pan zoom or crop on it. There seems to way to copy the keys for Pan, Zoom and Crop onto another clip or image.

16: Ripple Edit when moving a single clip.

In other applications when you enable ripple editing should you move a single clip to the right all other clips after it also move wth it to maintain its sync, Iv searched and found no way to do this. If you drag a clip over another to its right the only option is to insert the clip and move, this is not what I expect. This thread seems to suggest it is possible. https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/41972.page

I know there are more so will add them when I remember them. Iv picked these things up from only one single day of use so some things maybe there and Im not seeing a solution.

Thanks,
Dan

This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at Jul 18. 2020 06:50

Philwild

Senior Member Location: Hemel Hempstead, UK Joined: Oct 05, 2017 12:04 Messages: 208 Offline

Jul 17, 2020 05:35

You may want to use Rate us & Provide Suggestions under the file menu to let Cyberlink be aware of your feedback/suggestions.

I can't speak to a lot of your points as they are things I don't really do. But a couple of points.

There are track names on the timeline and you can rename them as you wish. It's possible that you haven't expanded The leftmost section of the timeline to show the track titles.

2 PowerDirector has an apply to all function for this. Though I realise that's not the same.

8 You can change the height of any of the tracks as you want.

9 The End key on the keyboard will do this.

14 This can be turned off in the settings.

Maliek

Senior Contributor Location: San Antonio, Texas USA Joined: Nov 10, 2012 12:01 Messages: 851 Offline

Jul 17, 2020 07:57

CyberLink will not see the feedback you leave here. As Phil stated you can use the "Rate Us & Provide Suggestions" option in the program under the file menu to share your feedback with Cyberlink. Subscribe to PowerDirector University on YouTube.

Subscribe to PDU Mobile on YouTube.

AVPlayVideo

Senior Contributor Location: Home Joined: Apr 06, 2016 19:03 Messages: 703 Offline

Jul 17, 2020 10:28

Hi rectro46

Most of the tools you mentioned have PD18.
You must select video, audio or photo to appear, other tools, right-click on the material, the options menu appears.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jul 17. 2020 10:29

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optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Jul 17, 2020 14:08

Posting your user experience is helpful, but almost everything you've called out is actually present.

In addition to what the other members have posted:

6. Right click on your edited clip and choose Copy Keyframe Attributes. Select as many other clips as needed then right-click and choose Paste Keyframe Attributes. Note that the attribute clipboard is separate from the standard Windows clipboard so copying attriubutes doesn't interfere with normal copy/paste operation.

11. Simply click and drag the blue volume line running through the horizontal center on the timeline clip up or down to change the volume for the entire clip. You may want to expand the vertical size of the tracks to get more precise control (see below)

13. You can click on any upper/lower track edge and enlarge/shrink that particular track. Audio and video tracks can be sized separately. You can also right-click in track header (left-most section) and set all video or all audio tracks to Small, Medium or Large

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pmikep

Senior Member Joined: Nov 26, 2016 22:51 Messages: 285 Offline

Jul 17, 2020 16:42

Audio scrubbing is only in the Ultimate version of PD 18. (At least, for the non-subscription model. I can't speak about 365 version.)

rectro46

Newbie Joined: Jul 08, 2020 05:13 Messages: 11 Offline

Jul 18, 2020 05:59

Quote Posting your user experience is helpful, but almost everything you've called out is actually present.

In addition to what the other members have posted:

6. Right click on your edited clip and choose Copy Keyframe Attributes. Select as many other clips as needed then right-click and choose Paste Keyframe Attributes. Note that the attribute clipboard is separate from the standard Windows clipboard so copying attriubutes doesn't interfere with normal copy/paste operation.

11. Simply click and drag the blue volume line running through the horizontal center on the timeline clip up or down to change the volume for the entire clip. You may want to expand the vertical size of the tracks to get more precise control (see below)

13. You can click on any upper/lower track edge and enlarge/shrink that particular track. Audio and video tracks can be sized separately. You can also right-click in track header (left-most section) and set all video or all audio tracks to Small, Medium or Large

Thanks for your reply. I would like to see if as you say almost ll of these observations are fixable or have the features. So far number 6 has been solved, so thanks.

6: Copy Paste effects. Your advice worked for what I asked for, its a shame at least from what iv tried so far this don't expand to added effects, and pan, crop, zoom?

11: Auto key for mixer adjustment: The horizontal line I find is too sensitive due to the small space it takes to make huge changes, hence why it makes sense to use a mixer fader, this is also why the longer the fader the more fine-tuning you have. It still needs a option to turn off auto keys for the mixer as this is automation something that should be an option only.

13: Adjustment of track size: When manually adjusting the height for instance it seems to be restricted, I need more adjustment. The Small, Med, and large just expands it at most to the max limited which was there already when manually doing it, its more of a short cut of sorts than and enhancement from the manual adjustment.

I will read others repllies as maybe more of my observations will be fixed, shame this forum dont allow multi quotes.

Dan

rectro46

Newbie Joined: Jul 08, 2020 05:13 Messages: 11 Offline

Jul 18, 2020 06:07

Quote You may want to use Rate us & Provide Suggestions under the file menu to let Cyberlink be aware of your feedback/suggestions.

I can't speak to a lot of your points as they are things I don't really do. But a couple of points.

There are track names on the timeline and you can rename them as you wish. It's possible that you haven't expanded The leftmost section of the timeline to show the track titles.

2 PowerDirector has an apply to all function for this. Though I realise that's not the same.

8 You can change the height of any of the tracks as you want.

9 The End key on the keyboard will do this.

14 This can be turned off in the settings.

Hi.

1: The track names are indeed there as was hidden in my screen space so thanks for pointing that out. We just need the mixer to reflect these names.

8: Unfortunately I need more adjustment, more so when working on a laptop, so its not that there is no adjustment, it's just not enough.

9: Thanks, that does the trick and certainly is a work around to use, PD needs this button natively as buttons.

14: There is indeed a setting and does fix this issue. I wish they had an option for the stop button as I keep reaching for it rather than pause and it takes the play head back to the beginning.

Thanks, Again.

Dan

rectro46

Newbie Joined: Jul 08, 2020 05:13 Messages: 11 Offline

Jul 18, 2020 06:11

Quote Audio scrubbing is only in the Ultimate version of PD 18. (At least, for the non-subscription model. I can't speak about 365 version.)

Hi.

It is in the Ultimate version and in Trial that Im using. It just is not in the Trim tool set were at of all places it needs to be. Im sure they are aware of this already of this limitation but I thought its worth mentioning as the more people ask for it the more chance it will get implemented.

Thanks,
Dan

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Jul 18, 2020 15:55

Quote Thanks for your reply. I would like to see if as you say almost ll of these observations are fixable or have the features. So far number 6 has been solved, so thanks.

6: Copy Paste effects. Your advice worked for what I asked for, its a shame at least from what iv tried so far this don't expand to added effects, and pan, crop, zoom?

The easiest way to transfer settings that Copy Keyframe Attributes doesn't cover is to simply copy the entire "master" clip and paste it elsewhere on the timeline. Next, drag the desired media clip from the library directly onto the copied clip and choose Replace from the pop-up menu. The original content will be replaced by the new clip and all masks and other settings will remain intact.

If you're wanting to apply the settings to another section of the same clip, use the Range Select sliders then click on Produce Range to convert the selected section into a standalone clip.

Quote
11: Auto key for mixer adjustment: The horizontal line I find is too sensitive due to the small space it takes to make huge changes, hence why it makes sense to use a mixer fader, this is also why the longer the fader the more fine-tuning you have. It still needs a option to turn off auto keys for the mixer as this is automation something that should be an option only.

There are usually several ways to accomplish most tasks in PD, and IMHO, the more willing you are to see how PD works, rather than insisting that various things need or must be the way you expect them to be, the quicker you'll get up to speed.

For example, if you're not happy with trying to adjust the clip volume via the timeline, click on the Keyframe tool and set a single keyframe for the volume. You can drag the slider or type in a specific value from -28dB to +28dB (with +/- infinities as the stops).

There are many, many threads here already that discuss almost every concievable shortcoming or feature that somebody couldn't find, although it requires time and effort on your part to search for and read through the pertinent ones.

Quote
13: Adjustment of track size: When manually adjusting the height for instance it seems to be restricted, I need more adjustment. The Small, Med, and large just expands it at most to the max limited which was there already when manually doing it, its more of a short cut of sorts than and enhancement from the manual adjustment.

I agree that it's a shortcut, and it's also a way to set all video or audio tracks to the same size rather than doing each one individually. Not a big deal if you only have 2 tracks but it's a time saver when you have a dozen.

Quote I will read others repllies as maybe more of my observations will be fixed, shame this forum dont allow multi quotes.

rectro46

Newbie Joined: Jul 08, 2020 05:13 Messages: 11 Offline

Jul 18, 2020 22:09

Quote

The easiest way to transfer settings that Copy Keyframe Attributes doesn't cover is to simply copy the entire "master" clip and paste it elsewhere on the timeline. Next, drag the desired media clip from the library directly onto the copied clip and choose Replace from the pop-up menu. The original content will be replaced by the new clip and all masks and other settings will remain intact.

If you're wanting to apply the settings to another section of the same clip, use the Range Select sliders then click on Produce Range to convert the selected section into a standalone clip.

There are usually several ways to accomplish most tasks in PD, and IMHO, the more willing you are to see how PD works, rather than insisting that various things need or must be the way you expect them to be, the quicker you'll get up to speed.

For example, if you're not happy with trying to adjust the clip volume via the timeline, click on the Keyframe tool and set a single keyframe for the volume. You can drag the slider or type in a specific value from -28dB to +28dB (with +/- infinities as the stops).

There are many, many threads here already that discuss almost every concievable shortcoming or feature that somebody couldn't find, although it requires time and effort on your part to search for and read through the pertinent ones.

I agree that it's a shortcut, and it's also a way to set all video or audio tracks to the same size rather than doing each one individually. Not a big deal if you only have 2 tracks but it's a time saver when you have a dozen.

Again, not true You just need to make liberal use of the BBCode quotePostId tag in your reply.

Also, your #12 request to use 3rd party plugins already exists, but it requires AudioDirector.

First thanks for your reply. I'm new to PowerDirector but not to video editing and working in very technical software environments so understand the process you have to go through to work with the logic of new software. While as you show there are workarounds or ways to get there it can be the case that such workarounds are excepted as so, due to long term use, growing with a piece of software over a long period of time, or put simply you get used to working that way even if the workarounds are unconventional, impractical, unacceptable to someone that has a fresh pair of eyes on the software which knows there are far better ways of implementing features. as demonstrated by other similar software. No software is perfect, but there is a point in which you start to ask yourself "why am Im being forced to use workarounds that I should not be needing to use"?

Im willing to learn things a different way, but not willing to go against the grain of logic by taking a long overly complicated route to a solution thats avoids the core issue, a poorly implemented feature or lack of thought about the workflow you come to expect from other similar software.

Im saying to myself all day "why?" This means to me that this software while on the surface looks to be intuitive, yet powerful is working against my logic, and that logic is set by other software that works in a very similar way to each other.

Slice a clip that already has been cropped, panned, zoomed. I dont expect the sliced clip to the right to have a replica set of keys on it, but I do expect the first key to be that which matches the last key from the clip in which it was sliced from. why?

I added a freeze frame, either manually or via the Action Camera Centre. The colour corrections that you have applied to all clips will not apply to the image, why?

I wish to ripple move a clip in order to move all clips with it to its right, I cant, why?

I wish to raise the volume of a audio track after I added fade in and out, but I cant move down the volume curve, and if I move it up it moves all keys including the fades beginning and end keys with it, why?

I cant simply copy and paste keys from pan and zooms to another clip, why?

I cant save any preset for noise reduction so I can apply it again to other clips, why?

Action camera center Will remove any fix/enhance adjustments you made or any crop or pan you added, why?

All day long, this is going on for. I think I will stick with my good old Movieplus X6 although alot slower. I will continue my search for a closer alternative to Movieplus X6. PD was close but has some serious drawbacks that I cant get back from.

Dan

PowerDirector Moderator

Senior Contributor Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan Joined: Oct 18, 2016 00:25 Messages: 2104 Offline

Jul 19, 2020 14:24

Hi,

I understand the search for software that is optimised for your own needs and working environment, and I suppose most users have experienced that compropmise at some time or another. Whether that results in them moving from PDR to another product, or whether they use PDR for certain workflows and then other products to fill in "gaps", or add capability, is of course, a path they may take.

Overall, I think it's worth making a couple of points:

This is a user to user forum mainly focused on allowing members to seek assistance from others or for members to offer help with issues that occur. So to ask members why a particular design feature is as it is, just cannot really be answered!
Members have demonstrated how they use workarounds and workflows to adjust to the design and features of PDR, but if these suggestions do not meet your needs then no-one here can do much more!
CyberLink does welcome feedback, hence the Rate and Suggest option, and user experience does feed into product development, but no-one here can guarantee what is eventually included into new releases.

In most folk's experience, I think it's true that a piece of software very rarely is without it's individuality, very rarely is it ideally optimised for a specific user - even bespoke software often comes up short - and mostly users have to compromise somewhere along the line. That compromise will be down to their individual situation and context and others might perhaps make different compromises. You will no doubt make your own compromise.

As you explore PDR further, I'm sure members will assist in answering questions as best they can, but I'm afraid none of them will be able to answer some of the "why...." questions you pose.

Cheers
PowerDirector Moderator

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jul 19. 2020 14:25

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

rectro46

Newbie Joined: Jul 08, 2020 05:13 Messages: 11 Offline

Jul 19, 2020 16:21

Quote Hi,

I understand the search for software that is optimised for your own needs and working environment, and I suppose most users have experienced that compropmise at some time or another. Whether that results in them moving from PDR to another product, or whether they use PDR for certain workflows and then other products to fill in "gaps", or add capability, is of course, a path they may take.

Overall, I think it's worth making a couple of points:

This is a user to user forum mainly focused on allowing members to seek assistance from others or for members to offer help with issues that occur. So to ask members why a particular design feature is as it is, just cannot really be answered!
Members have demonstrated how they use workarounds and workflows to adjust to the design and features of PDR, but if these suggestions do not meet your needs then no-one here can do much more!
CyberLink does welcome feedback, hence the Rate and Suggest option, and user experience does feed into product development, but no-one here can guarantee what is eventually included into new releases.

In most folk's experience, I think it's true that a piece of software very rarely is without it's individuality, very rarely is it ideally optimised for a specific user - even bespoke software often comes up short - and mostly users have to compromise somewhere along the line. That compromise will be down to their individual situation and context and others might perhaps make different compromises. You will no doubt make your own compromise.

As you explore PDR further, I'm sure members will assist in answering questions as best they can, but I'm afraid none of them will be able to answer some of the "why...." questions you pose.

Cheers
PowerDirector Moderator

Thanks for your time to reply. Iv been in search for an alternative for about 2 years now as my often used editor Movieplus x6 is not in development. I hope my questions didnt come across as flanking down the overall product, that was not intentional during my height of frustration. The "Why" questions are really aimed at nobody in particular but to my self within my internal dialog. For the price and sheer speed of PD there is nothing else out there.

Aside from the things that iv not found good workarounds for, especially the lack of ripple editing it is by far the closest Iv found my own old editor hence why I recommended it to my brother and he purchased it before I even have. Going by the releases it looks like new features in a core upgrade is around September time, not sure if this year is on target but I hope maybe some of the things I feel need tweaking will be in version 19. Copy zoom keys, reset zoom and pan for a key, reworked timeline volume when it has fades in place, ripple move when editing to name a few.

As Iv got to teach my brother it I will stick with the Trial till the end.

Thanks,
Dan