What browser are you using?
HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

Quote: What browser are you using?

Hi Barry

Firefox 3.5

I read somewhere to try selecting 'Open' instead of 'Save'. Might give it a go tonight.

Rgds
Patrick

I use IE, just for DZ.
However, I still have had issues with downloads, most work fine.
Sometimes, if you try the menu, or alter it in some minor way, save it, it will work. Not always. I think motion/video menus are the issue,
but I cannot pinpoint it. HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

Is it just the menus that fail? HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

(My apologies for piggybacking on your thread) I too have the same problem. I have tried every way of doing it. Running it from disk, clicked "open" and not "save", restarting PD8 after each installation, even tried renaming it. Most of the time it doesn't appear at all, but sometimes I get the black box mentioned in the first post. I reinstalled, tried it on a different PC, no luck. I have PD8 Ultra and Windows 7. Any help will be appreciated. I have only tried the DVD Menus, none of the others yet.

I think I found a part of the solution. When I do get the black box after downloading, I right click on the box and choose "modify". I make a slight change and click "OK". It asks me for a name and I name it to something else. And PRESTO, there it is.

Quote: I think I found a part of the solution. When I do get the black box after downloading, I right click on the box and choose "modify". I make a slight change and click "OK". It asks me for a name and I name it to something else. And PRESTO, there it is.

I have this as a work-around too for black boxes but I don't understand is why most don't even turn up after successful installation as indicated by PD8. Very frustrating.

Rgds
Pat

Victor

I do the same thing only I don't make any changes, just save it using the same name. Then I have two menus with the same name. I just remove the black one from disk and the other one works as expected.

Quote: Victor

I do the same thing only I don't make any changes, just save it using the same name. Then I have two menus with the same name. I just remove the black one from disk and the other one works as expected.

I do that too but the frustrating this is why some appears as black boxes and some do not....in my case mostly do not

Rgds
pat

Patrick

I have only downloaded a few. At first they worked properly (no black box), then I tried to be clever by just dropping the .dzm file on the menu preferences page. A window popped up saying it was installing the menu. When it got to 89% it just stayed there. It didn't hang just would not complete the install. I finally shutdown PD8 from the taskbar icon. Three successive windows crash error windows popped up. I did this twice with the same results both times. After that, I only get black boxes when I install menus by double-clicking the .dzm file.

One more thing. When I modify a menu, the save allows me to use the same name as the original, but does not over-write it. I find that bizarre. I would rather it did over-write (with warning) or force a new name. Am I missing something subtle here?

Arn

I just tried dragging and dropping the item, but that didn't work at all.

So I've spent a good 18 hours on this, testing, retrying and so forth.

.....Aaaaaaaaand here is what I have found. While I still do not know why they sometimes don't show up at all, I do know what to do when I see the black box. After running the .DZM file and refreshing the menu screen (I didn't need to restart) I get a black box - sometimes 2. The box that has the name under it is the right one. I right click on it and select "modify". I make a tiny change on the menu and click okay. It asks me to save it under a name, which I do, and hey Presto, there it is. I can then delete the black box(s) from the disk (not just remove from library because it will reappear when I refresh the screen), and I am done.

Interestingly enough, I don't have any problems with the PiP/Frame files (*.dzp)

Now, if only I can get it to download faster.

I hope this helps someone.

Exactly same scenario Victor.

I just can't understand why it's so difficult to get the menu properly.

Rgds
Pat

In my case, all downloaded menus now show up black - even ones that originally worked ok. Therefore something has changed, probably in the registry. I opened a support ticket so maybe they can shed some light.

In any case, all work if you convert them to custom menus. Just open the black menu for modification and click the save button top left. You don't need to make any changes and you can save to the same name as the black menu.

Here is some more info about how PD8 works.

When you double-click on a dzm file, a folder is created in
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\CyberLink\Downloaded Menus
These folders are named menu001, menu002 etc. The created folder contains all the information for that menu and you can tell them apart by opening the thumb.png file

When you save a menu in the menu editor, PD8 creates anothe folder in
C:\Documents and Settings\Arnold\My Documents\CyberLink\Custom Menus\3.0.
These folders are named menu_001, menu_002 etc. and contain the same set of information as the menu folders in
C:\...\Downloaded Menus.

When you save a menu, a new folder is always created even if you saved to the same name. That means you can have lots of menus, in menu preferences, all with the same name. The actual menu name is buried inside the menu_nnn folder in one of the .xml files. I don't like this. I think, if you use the same name, the original data should get updated and you should be warned that you will over-write existing data. I don't know why cyberlink chose to do it this way, but I am a programmer and I know it don't have to be so.

Anyway, hope this is of some help or at least interesting.

Arn

Thanks arn123 for your details.

I have instances, more often though, that I do get a black box (when so called successfull) but no name. Just the black box. With those I cannot right click and modify.

Have anyone experience this?

Rgds
Pat

Had one instance where two black boxes showed up when importing a menu. One had no name and could not be modified. The one with name worked once converted to a custom menu. I always remove black boxes from disk after converting them.

Patrick, I do get that as well. I usually just download it again and sometimes that works for me.

And yes, you are right, I saw now that you don't need to make any changes. Just click on "modify" and then save it. Thanks for that tip.

Cyberlink support suggested downlading and installing these files

Latest PowerDirector 8.0 (build: 2220c) [Win7, Vista ready]
PDR8_Program_2220c_VDE090831-02.exe
and
PowerDirector 8.0 Content Pack
PDR8_Content_1931_VDE090609-01.exe

So far I have only installed the content pack and that seems to have corrected the black hole problem for me. Worked for two menus so far.

You need a username and password to download these files, so you may have to contact support to get them.

Arn