Hi Jennifer,

PD offers 2 basic choices :-
Link all tracks (default - changed by Alt-C>Editing)
Lock a track (padlock icon on left of track)

When the tracks are linked :-
removing main track contents removes the linked track contents

moving main track contents (by inserting say an image clip) moves the linked content

All other main track operations - copy,past split etc are not "mirrored" so such operations have to be done "manually" to linked tracks.

When a track is locked no editing is possible and the track timeline is fixed.

Often the best way may be to use a workflow in stages.

In this case maybe do the main matching of video and audio as a separate project and produce as a "new" video - this "recombines" the video/audio link.

This can then form the basis for the other editing, effects transitions etc since this new file can be split and edited as required but the audio is now directly linked.

You didn't mention the distances involved but you might be interested in using a cheap (c. £10) wireless mic for some things:-

http://www.smwov.com/view/41/freedom-1/
or modified to give about 85m range
http://seemyworldonvideo.com/view/722/modifying-a-wireless-mic/

Cheers
Adrian



Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

Hi Jennifer -

Just to echo what Adrian has said, I've only recently done exactly that. I started with clips from 2 cameras & a separate audio recording & followed the same sort of process Adrian described.

1. Sync audio with clip from main camera - mute clip - no editing done - Produce.
2. Produced file in main video track - clip 2 (muted) in PiP for overlays.

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Hi guys,

I have a similar need - a wedding video I've shot has two cameras and one audio. I want to line up the one camera as the master video and the second camera in the pip track and then 'cut away' slices of the pip track to flip between the two camera angles. This is great however the pip track makes things difficult in 2 regards:

1) You have to carefully set the scaling of the pip track as it defaults to a small box
2) SVRT isn't available as it thinks the video is modified even though I've tried to scale the pip box to full frame. As at least 50% of the movie will be the pip track this makes rendering much longer

Is there no way to create a proper second full frame video track? Pip tracks seem a little too fiddly for the purpose of multiple camera angles.

Appreciate your thoughts,

Andrew

Hi Andrew,
There is no facility to have a second "main" video track.

However, depending on your video clips, your workflow might make it easier.

Ideal for this purpose would be to have two cameras running constantly. One dropped into the main track the other into the PiP. If they synch OK then adjust the PiP size etc and then start your PiP splitting/editing. In this way, your positioning needs only to be done once.

However, that might not be possible (depending on the 2 cameras etc) but the same basic principle might apply to the PiP clips anyway to make it less of a hassle.

I did a brief example of another technique using a .png grid system and a screen magnifier to give precise pip placement if it's of any interest :-
http://seemyworldonvideo.com/view/582/precise-pip-placement/

Cheers
Adrian



Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

Quote: Ideal for this purpose would be to have two cameras running constantly. One dropped into the main track the other into the PiP. If they synch OK then adjust the PiP size etc and then start your PiP splitting/editing. In this way, your positioning needs only to be done once.

Thanks Adrian - This approach makes sense, although it still won't allow for SVRT during the pip clips. Ah well, you can't have everything!

Andrew