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Hi Guys,
A quick test of stabilization and 360 titles, and a new feature: Set initial view (!)
Test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i16I27essCw
The stabilization works amazingly well! I was considering buying a Guru, but will keep that money in my pocket now  The new feature Set inital view is also very welcome and works well, BUT only if you shift horizontally. It allows you also to look up/down, but this changes orientation of the Z-axis, making the horizon spin around that: not good. I will post to the PD forum as well tonight.
You can see this happening a bit in the third clip with my dog in the video.
{resolved in another topic: it's visible in 16:9 mode, not in 360 mode} [s]Also, the View Designer menu item is completely missing here. I posted this here in the forum already. Randomly when I click the Set Initial View, I get a warning about switching to 2D for View Designer, but clicking it does not open View Designer but the Initial View window. Anybody else have this?
I imagine the Little Planet option is in the View Designer?[/s]
regards, Frank
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Hi there,
I just upgraded to v16. The View Designer for 360 clips to 2D video is missing from the menu's. It's just not there. Look at my screenshots.
Instead, when I click the new item to set 360 initial view (great feature btw!!!!) sometimes (not always) it gives a warning that 360 view and effects are not available once I switch to View Designer. But I am not choosing View Designer but set initial view.
Patch?
regards, Frank
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Hi Joe,
I'll try my best 
I actually don't know wether Youtube is using a different zoom level then the one the video is originally in. Interesting though, I will look into it, but not today.
What I do know is that Youtube (and Facebook for that matter) do their own processing of the video, and I hear a lot of complaints about loss of quality.
That said... If you watch the video directly after upload, it can be the processing is not complete and YT shows a lower resolution. Check in the bottom right of the player to what resolution it is set. I see yours is now upto 1440p HD.
Of course I'll link to to some LG shot videos of mine:
This one is a flat 1080p HD video created out of some 360 footage by the LG:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxUy-2x2cbo
This one is original resolution, like yours it's 1440p HD and in 360 format:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHMvqVEBCN4
The last one has been produced in 4K (PowerDirector) but based on LG's 2K footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je_2bcqaTKs
If I find anything on the viewport in YT I'll let you know...
regards, Frank
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Hi Joe,
The video you posted on Youtube (and previewed in PD) is _NOT_ stitched. It is a raw dual fisheye video, straight from the camera. That is the issue you have. All unstitched dual fisheye videos from various 360 camera's will look like this when played. This is not an error, this is just how the video is created by the camera.
You can view the file _stitched_ in the LG Cam viewer, so there it seems perfect, because the cam viewer shows it stitched.
The LG Cam viewer is not only a viewer, it does the stitchng for you. If you drop the file on the viewer, it takes some time to load. You see a circular progress bar. Once it's done, in the folder you have your video file in, are now TWO videos: the original (dual fisheye) and a stitched version, called an equirectangular video. The equirectangular video WILL preview well in PD and Youtube.
You will see there are two files. The original is called similar to "20170806_120843_SA3D" and the stitched version will be called "Result_20170806_120843_SA3D". That last one is the one you will want to use.
I own a LG 360 myself : Nice cam! I hope you understand now.
regards, Frank
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Hi Peickelb,
From the ones you mention I would buy the LG 360 Cam. I own one. The blurring at the stitch line is really not that bad (I've attached a few images taken with my LG). Plus the operation via the app is pretty well thought out, offering more control over things like shutterspeed, white balance and so on.
It's also easy to wake up from sleep mode via the app and the battery has a proper lifespan before recharging. It has indeed a removable storage SD card, unlike the Theta. And no time limit to the video, also unlike the Theta which can only tape 25 minutes (Theta S) or even only 5 minutes (Theta SC).
The LG is also very portable, with it's hard-cover sleeve that doubles as a handheld and tablestand. I've got it with me almost always when I go out, slips in any pocket easily.
I have no issues with muted colors in the LG footage, but in any case a little color correction is no problem in PD 15, so don't let that stop you.
Resolution wise almost all of them have some issues. The thing is: they sell as shooting in 2K (LG) or Full HD (Theta) but that is the resolution of the full spherical image. What you see in a 360 viewer though is only a portion of that, so you will never (with any 360 cam) see the full resolution in the final video.
The thing I don't really like in the Insta360 is it's dependency on a phone to operate it (It needs to be physically attached to a phone). If that's fine with you, the Insta360 would be a good choice too.
One that is supposedly better then these three is the Xiaomi Mi Sphere, but it's not widely available. You can order it online though. Have a look at that, it has some good reviews. Also falls in your price category.
If you spend a bit more (400/500) there's the Nikon Keymission, but it has connection issues, so can be frustrating. Or the Kodak Orbit360/4KVR360. That came out a few weeks ago and I own one of those too. It has a much clearer image and video, but the stitchline turned out to be more blurred then the others. I'm finding ways around that though.
A good resource to do some research: www.360rumors.com And there are usergroups for just about any of those camera's and general 360 enthusiasts on Facebook. Just type the name of the camera and you'll find them.
Good lukc, and let us know which one you chose
regards, Frank
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As I am eagerly awaiting this, is this just wishfull thinking or based on what?
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I don't really want to make promotions for the Pinnacle software, but it can be easily found. Just goto their site, the current version is now 21, and among the features it is said:
New Formats for 360 Video
Edit your 360 video in your way and in the formats you can do with your camera. Pinnacle Studio Ultimate now supports all spherical 360 video formats, including rectangular format, fish eye and double fish eye. You only need to import your 360 ° video recordings and get started with editing.
and:
Edit video in 360 degrees
Give your video a surprising "turn" with the new controls for editing 360 ° video. You can edit and crop your 360 video and add titles for viewing on 360 video players or your VR headset - you can even convert 360 video to default video so your audience never misses those important moments.
So common (dual- )fisheye formats can be imported, and there is a hint to other editing improvements. They actually released a 20.5 version a few weeks ago to include dual/fisheye formats as soon as they had it. It is a rapidly in popularity rising format.
Now, knowing Cyberlink, I know they can do better. I've tried Pinnacle before and liked Cyberlink better. Also some 3rd party plugins I have (by Pixelan) don't work with Pinnacle. So I won't go to the trouble of buying,trying,reimburseing but for now just wait for Cyberlink.
Nothing to do with reading sales releases, just keeping up with the field
regards, Frank
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I'm greatly looking forward to PD 16. It's inevitable there will be significant improvements in 360 editing. Bare in mind this has only been booming in the last year or so, so companies like Cyberlink have some catching up to do.
Pinnacle just came out with their Studio version 21, in which supposedly are significant improvements to 360 editing. They now natively support fisheye and dual fisheye footage for instance. Don't really know what else, but there's more. Cyberlink will definitely not want to lag behind this very long.
Meanwhile, I have a workaround (two, but one is camera dependent) :
What I do is create a duplicate clip exactly below the original, and then just move the clips left/right so the view wraps around and the view direction is changed. This actually works. You can even use Pip Designer to keyframe a panning motion. Make sure what runs out of view in the first clip is brought in view on the other clip so the view keeps lining up and wrapping fully. Creating motion can be a bit fiddly sometimes, if you are not carefull a vertical 'crack' can appear where the two clips meet. But in all my attempts were succesful. The movie is not finished yet, but soon I can show it.
Another workaround goes only for my Kodak Pixpro 4KVR360/Orbit360. In it's desktop software Pixpro VR Suite I can just drag the video left/right to change the initial view direction, or record a pan movement (not so smooth, by hand, no keyframes). This is different then View Designer or Insta360 Studio because the clip remains in 360 here. The VR Suite software only opens files created with the Kodak camera though. Other camera's files are not recognised.
Hope these can help some of you out. I'm pretty sure the next PD version will have this capability built in. If not... hmm... perhaps I need to change
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I missed it because PD15 is my first version But thanks! I guess I will upgrade rather then keep the old version. Just hoping it comes soon...
regards, Frank
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Hi all,
Any news/rumors on PD 16? I'm dying to know what improvements there will be to 360 editing. Pinnacle just came out with v21, and it has a LOT of improvements on editing 360. Need that also, but am willing to wait if it isn't months to come...
Also, is there an upgrade price or do I have to buy it again full price? How was that when upgrading from 14 to 15?
I'm getting more serious on 360, did my first assignment with it just yesterday. That was only pictures, but assignments with video will follow shortly and I'm in need of better editing capabilities.
Any info greatly appreciated!
regards, Frank
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Hi Hanson,
As to the first question, I would say shoot in RAW anytime. It gives you far greater control over the outcome. If you would use RAW or jpg in PowerDirector depends. I never used RAW photo material, so I wouldn't know too much. I know PD can import RAW files, I don't know how much control it gives you in manipulating them. In any case RAW gives you more flexibility to (if needed) create better jpg's for use in PD.
As to the technical side of actually capturing it with a photocamera, the link below leads to an extensive tutorial on how to best capture them. It's from 1999, so it deals with film and not digital images, but many of it that involves f stops, shutterspeeds and the like still holds up today. It's on a website dedicated to eclipses so you might find more useful info there:
http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality2/TotalityCh12-1.html
You may also want to consider using a videocamera capable of timelapse recording if you have one. Or use both a photo- and videocam if possible.
Sadly I live across the Atlantic so it won't be visible here.
Last peace of advice: In addition to making the shoot, don't forget to also enjoy the event itself
regards, Frank
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Simple workflow request:
Could you you add 'file in projectfolder' as destination for Snapshots?
They all end up in a big heap in my standard export folder, but I would like to have them separated in my projectfolders.
regards, Frank
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Quote
I'm exactly sending in here to seek any users has idea about this syndrome, as I got none solution from Cyberlink
Carl is suggesting you post the info you sent to Cyberlink also here, since we can't see what you have sent to Cyberlink. If we can also see your DXdiag and some screenshots of the issue, perhaps then we can see possible causes.
Speaking for myself, PD 15 is my first version and I don't experience the same problem. I do recall (I think) I had a similar issue once when I tried to drag a video over USB directly from the camera to the library. Copying it to my PC first solved that. No time to test now though.
Could you try this to see if your PD can read jpg's:
- Add a video and make a Snapshot within PD (click the camera icon next to the play/stop controls in preview window)
- Drag that Snapshot from the library to the timeline.
Then you would have a jpg that's created by PD itself, it would help to know if PD can read that.
regards, Frank
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Please add native support for fisheye and dual fisheye 360 footage (like Pinnacle just now in 20.5). An increasing number of consumer users, including me, now have 360 camera's that output to those formats: Ricoh Theta S, Samsung Gear 360, LG 360 Cam, Insta360, 360Fly, Panoview, Nikon Keymission, Kodak Orbit 360 to name a few...
regards, Frank
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Hi,
If you mean virtual tours where the viewer can actively navigate between various scenes, then no, PD can't do that. You would need something (expensive) like Kolor Panotour with the Livepano plugin.
If you mean rotating the view in the clip to 'tour' through the movie (but stay in 360) then again no, not at first. I'm experimenting with two duplicate clips layered above another, and keyframe moving them both (in PiP Designer) in the 'X' direction so the view 'wraps around' to get a sense of turning your head in the 360 view. That works, but is fiddly to do, because at times there's 'cracks' visible. You'll have to experiment and nudge the edges a bit to get it right.
A better way to do that is doing it while your filming, which requires a bit of planning your shots. You will be in the picture then, or you would have to use a motorised panorama head on a tripod for instance.
If you mean it to show as if the camera is tracking a moving object and don't mind it becomes regular 2D view, then yes, you can do that with a 360 clip in View Designer.
If you mean you walk through, say, a building and want to merge clips to get to a full tour in the end (but viewers can't choose different scenes or routes) then yes, it's just a matter of transistioning from a clip to the next one.
If it's something else, please let us know
regards, Frank
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Hi Cyberlink,
If you read this... Pinnacle Studio recently updated to 20.5, adding native support for fisheye and dual fisheye 360 footage. That means importing raw footage from Samsung Gear 360, Ricoh Theta S, Kodak Pixpro SP360 4K, 360Fly, LG 360 Cam, Insta360, XDV PanoView and many others. No need for separate programs for conversion to equirectangular anymore.
IMO Pinnacle Studio and PowerDirector are the most closely related competitors. Since 360 video is hugely gaining in popularity, people who now buy or own a 360 camera are very much tempted to opt for Pinnacle I fear.
I myself are tempted to switch if PD does not add support for those two popular formats. But I would much rather see this coming to PD as well, perhaps sooner then PowerDirector 16. Make a Patch for it please? Add support for those?
And while your at it... please add a 'center view' button to the 360 tools, little planet projection format to View Director (like Insta360 Studio, way ahead of Pinnacle and PD in it's implementation of View Director style editing) and a keyframed way of rotating through the video while remaining in 360 (so unlike View Director).
I'm a big fan of PowerDirector and 360 editing, but also want a practical and less time-consuming way of working.
regards, Frank
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Hi Briancher,
I have an XDV 360 camera as well, Pano View 360 Panoramic Action Cam. A one-lensed 360 camera that outputs a circular fisheye type of file. Is it that one?
To use this footage, you need to convert (stitching it's called) the fisheye video to an 'equirectangular' format using other software. There's a few options here that are free.
First, XDV has it's own Windows app to convert your videos. If you format your SD card within the camera, a textfile with links to it should be placed on there. Sadly the Windows link seems to be broken (a few weeks ago, maybe fixed by now, I don't know). Since you own it and the software was free in any case, I've attached it here (is that ok Cyberlink?)
Other options are the stitching software for either the 360Fly camera (360Fly Director) or for the Kodak Pixpro SP360 4K camera. You can Google for them and download them from the official sites for those camera's. The software is free to download and use.
I'm seriously hoping (and counting on it) that PowerDirector will support fisheye and dual fisheye footage per quick patch or at least in version 16. They have to. Their main competition Pinnacle Studio in it's 20.5 version recently added native support for those.
regards, Frank
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Hi there,
Thought to share a tip I just picked up. It was driving me mad to not be able to change view directions in a 360 video. For example when you find out at home you had your front and back lens switched when shooting. Or when you want to mix looking forward and looking backward (like shooting with two cameras).
I found in Premiere Pro you can do this by using offset, which essentailly wraps the equirectangular source when you shift it left/right. But I don't own that. A guy in the Vegas forums (found via Google) had the simplest solution and tha works in PD as well!
To change the viewdirection, duplicate your clip underneath it, so you have two the same clips. Then open the first one in Pip designer (doubleclick the clip) and use Position > X to move the clip left or right untill your desired viewdirection is centered. You have to switch to equirectangular view, not 360. Then open the second clip, and use Position > X to move that clip in the opposite direction untill both line up again.
That's it, easy and quick! When you view the movie in 360 mode, it's now looking in the direction you put center via the PiP designer!
Using keyframes you should also be able to 'autorotate' your 360 movie, but the keyframes would have to line up exactly in both clips. I will definitely try this tomorrow (it's uh.. very late here)
I get confused about front or back at times, because my LG 360 cam says the side with the button is the backlens, and when viewed in the LG 360 viewer on my PC, that is indeed so. But if I play my movies in either VLC or PD, it is the front lens. As a result I have some nice footage, but if I want to use it, it opens up looking in the wrong direction. This tip just resolved a couple of weeks worth of looking for an answer!
Hope it can help you guys out too,
regards, Frank
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Hi there,
I'm afraid that's not possible, not in PD or any other editor. You either stay in 360 or stay in regular 2D.
However, there are ways to combine the two, but the final production will still be in either of the two formats from start to end.
One way to do it is use ViewDirector (tool inside PD 15) to create a 'guided journey' through your 360 footage. That way you can be sure the viewer sees all the angles and things happening around the 360 field. The tour then plays as a regular video, so no 360 navigation anymore. This tour is a regular video, so you can combine it with other footage.
A nice tip for this way of working: If you create multiple different 'guided journeys' you can load them in Multicam designer and treat them as separate camera's. Record a two-cam interview situation with just one cam.
An example I made using ViewDirector and Multicam designer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4MOhzU1RCw
The second way will retain the 360 navigation throughout the movie. In this way you could paste a 2D video as a PiP object inside the 360 footage. It will be distorted a bit because of the fisheye effect of 360 movies, and it would be like watching TV inside your 360 movie, so the 360 surroundings remain. You would have to direct the viewer inside the 360 movie to navigate to the right viewpoint to see it too.
But combining the two is not possible technically.
regards, Frank
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Hi Steve,
Look at the Samsung 360 site? Do they have anything to do with PD? I only know they're using a licensed branded version of ActionDirector. Perhaps you think I've got one? In that case, nope, I have an LG 360 Cam, a PanoView 360 and on the regular side a Canon Legria FS200 and a Fujifilm Finepix SL300. And as soon as it comes out over here a Kodak Pixpro 4KVR360.
I'm fairly new to this forum, so I wasn't really sure in how far the developers participate or not. I'm kind of spoiled by the forum of Image-Line, the makers of the FL Studio DAW. We're just one happy family over there, users and developers actively participating in the forum. User requests drive the development of FL Studio, and active dialogue between 'us' and the dev's is key to that. It would be fantastic if Cyberlink do the same though...
By your experience, are there 'standard' release cycles in PD? Say once a year in the fall or similar?
regards, Frank
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Hi there,
I saw in the suggestions thread for future versions that the planning phase for PD 16 is done. Any word on the expected release date?
I'm anxious to know what improvements are being done on the 360 editing. Especially things like setting orientation and/or stitching capabilities.
regards, Frank
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