Video Editing - PowerDirector 11

[blaknwite]

Hey guys,

I hope I'm posting this in the right section, I couldn't find a video editing software section.

Anyway, I recently bought PowerDirector 11 and was fairly happy with it. I was editing and rendering videos from my digital camera and game footage from fraps.

Everything was going well but just a few days ago, for some reason the videos no longer render properly. The quality is lower and the videos look pixelated. On Windows Media Player they look even worse, with strange colors pixel blocks all over the screen on some spots. On other players they just look pixelated (blurry) and they didn't use to (I have not changed any settings or anything).

I contacted CyberLink and they are looking into it I guess... Though I'm not hopeful that they'll be able to come up with a solution.

Anyone have a similar problem to this and maybe has a solution?

Also, if I can't get this fixed I'm going to try to get my money back, which is a shame because I was liking the software, so can anyone suggest a good video editing software? I'm looking for something where I can layer videos, crop and resize videos, have multi audio tracks and if it has the ability to capture audio (from a mic) that would also be a plus.

Thanks in advance!!

PS: If you want to help and need any further info let me know

EDIT: I should also point out that I tried rendering videos in higher quality than I had been using before and it STILL pixelated them as if it weren't even taking my choice into consideration.

 

[nboy22]

Adobe Premiere is pretty easy to use. It sounds to me like you have switched some sort of output setting to render in a different, worse-quality codec somehow.

 

[blaknwite]

Adobe Premiere is pretty easy to use. It sounds to me like you have switched some sort of output setting to render in a different, worse-quality codec somehow.

I don't know if something changed without me noticing but I'm still using the same "produce" options as before with the file being made into a WMV of 1920x1080/30fps

*shrug*

 

[mechBgon]

You might try a System Restore to see what happens.

 

[pandemonium]

I'm wondering if your video drivers were updated, and Quicksync, CUDA, UVD or the like are now being forcibly used (with a low bitrate)? A long shot, but just a guess.

 

[blaknwite]

I'm wondering if your video drivers were updated, and Quicksync, CUDA, UVD or the like are now being forcibly used (with a low bitrate)? A long shot, but just a guess.

I just recently updated my video driver, and I thought maybe that was the issue so I tried rolling it back and that didn't help.

I'm not sure how to check the other stuff though

I was trying to avoid a system restore because the only one that goes back far enough is my image restore which I did a few months back when I first got my computer, all the other restore points are after I started having the issue.

 

[bruceb]

Perhaps you need to set it to 60fps ... 30fps is very slow and to avoid choppy video, you need 60fps which is how most movies and videos are usually at.

 

[Diogenes2]

Movies on film are 24fps.. DVD's will usually be 30fps..

However, the OP is having trouble with picture quality, not choppy playback ...

Higher fps will produce even lower quality video if the bit rate is not increased.


For the OP, I think you would find that Vegas Movie Studio or Corel Video Studio would be a good, if not superior alternative to Power Director.

The new Corel Video Studio even has a screen capture utility that would replace Fraps for you ..

 

[blaknwite]

Movies on film are 24fps.. DVD's will usually be 30fps..

However, the OP is having trouble with picture quality, not choppy playback ...

Higher fps will produce even lower quality video if the bit rate is not increased.


For the OP, I think you would find that Vegas Movie Studio or Corel Video Studio would be a good, if not superior alternative to Power Director.

The new Corel Video Studio even has a screen capture utility that would replace Fraps for you ..

I'll check those out, thanks for the tip :thumbsup:

 

[nboy22]

Perhaps you need to set it to 60fps ... 30fps is very slow and to avoid choppy video, you need 60fps which is how most movies and videos are usually at.

This is actually completely incorrect. Most movies are shot in 24 fps, or 23.976 actually. and TV is always around 30 FPS, like 29.97 as well. 60 FPS is overkill and usually produces unnatural looking movement. I work at a studio so I deal with these frame rates all day, every day.

It sounds more like the OP has changed his bitrate settings, which is causing crappy looking video because there is not enough data per second to make it look good.

Is this what you screen looks like? If so, what number does it have next to where it says "variable bitrate" which is right under the Frames Per Second (FPS) number?

 

[bruceb]

I stand corrected.

 

[blaknwite]

This is actually completely incorrect. Most movies are shot in 24 fps, or 23.976 actually. and TV is always around 30 FPS, like 29.97 as well. 60 FPS is overkill and usually produces unnatural looking movement. I work at a studio so I deal with these frame rates all day, every day.

It sounds more like the OP has changed his bitrate settings, which is causing crappy looking video because there is not enough data per second to make it look good.

Is this what you screen looks like? If so, what number does it have next to where it says "variable bitrate" which is right under the Frames Per Second (FPS) number?

Data Rate: 10000kbps
total bit rate: 10320kbps

EDIT: those numbers are from the video properties, on my "produce video" screen it says "Video Stream: 10000kbps 29fps 1920x1080"

 

[nboy22]

Data Rate: 10000kbps
total bit rate: 10320kbps

EDIT: those numbers are from the video properties, on my "produce video" screen it says "Video Stream: 10000kbps 29fps 1920x1080"

Hmm.. those settings should be fine to produce a high quality video, 10000 kbps is a pretty high bitrate and should retain a lot of quality.

Can you post a video example to show us what exactly the video is looking like once it is produced?

 

[Diogenes2]

Also check out this free app:

MediaInfo

Once you have the app insatlled, you can right-click on your video - choose ' MediaInfo, and it will give you details, - bit rate, etc - about the video.

Maybe your encoder is not really using the parameters you are selecting..

Also, in Power Director do you get a choice of encoders to use ? You may have some rogue codec that is crapping on your render..
http://mediaarea.net/download/binary/mediainfo-gui/0.7.61/MediaInfo_GUI_0.7.61_Windows.exe