Videostudio 11 plus and Powerdirector 6 compared

[gep]

Hello All, complete novice here.

I have a Sanyo Xacti HD700
The Xacti HD700 is a pocketcam from the house of Sanyo and packs in quite a punch. The HD700 can record 720p video and 7-megapixel still images to SD and SDHC cards. It features the familiar pistol-grip design like the rest of Sanyo's Xacti line. According to Sanyo, it can record AVC/H.264 MPEG-4 video, which greatly reduces file size while retaining quality; also this will let you fit more video on a card. The specs include the "Face Chaser" feature; a face-detection system that can track up to a dozen faces and adjust focus and exposure accordingly. The HD700 sports a 2.7-inch flip-out screen and uses a 38-190mm-equivalent, f/3.5-4.7 lens that only offers 5x zoom power.

I have Cyberlink Powerdirector 6, what is the difference between Videostudio 11 plus and Powerdirector 6.

Q.1. Can videostudio completely complete from start to finish a DVD to watch on my brand new samsung dvd player? And will it be good on a 50" screen??

Q.2. Can VS complete a DVD for Computer viewing on any windows based computer, to say watch through Windows media player, without the use of another program??????

I cannot for some reason get Power director to recognise my Sanyo Direct, through Import/Capture, it recognises my Twain Printer, but not the Sanyo.
I can import through the Card reader, but, prefer Direct Capture.
And, i want to know the difference between the two, if theres a lot, alittle, or a Gulf between them.

Thanks, GEP

[Ron P.]

Have a look at each of the programs' system requirements. Neither manufacturer has your camcorder listed as being supported.

http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/products ... 4_ENU.html

http://www.ulead.com/tech/general/compatibility_cam.htm

I read on Camcorderinfo.com, that your camcorder comes bundled with Adobe Premiere Elements 3. If so, have you tried capturing using APE-3?

Will it look good on a 50" screen? That depends on several factors, one main factor being, recoding. You are dealing with a highly compressed format. So you need to limit any recoding, to maintain quality.

I'm not very HD video literate, (ok so I'm HD video illiterate), but etech or one of the others will probably provide a clear explanation soon..

[Ken Berry]

I happen to have recently bought one of those small video cameras which use SD cards for storage and shoot in mpeg-4. In that sense it is similar to the Xacti, though nowhere near as good I suspect (I tend to think of mine as being more of a toy, though its still camera capacities are fairly good at 5 MP.)

Anyway, I don't think you are meant to use the normal Capture mode for these cameras. With mine, for instance, I open VS11.5+ on the Edit page, and simply right click on either the library pane or in the timeline, and select 'Insert Video'. I then browse to My Computer (or equivalent) where the camera (connected via USB and put in PC mode) shows up as a Removable Disk. I can navigate into it, like any other external disk, go to the DCIM folder (or whatever yours happens to be called) and various mp4s I have shot are there, and I can open them in VS.

However, that being said, think about it for a moment. This way, you would have to leave the camera switched on for your whole project, right up to the point where you convert it into another video format or file. Otherwise, the moment you switch off the camera, VS no longer has access to the video files on it. In other words, it is much better to initially transfer the files to your hard drive, and access them from there. Or as a fall back, take out the SD card and put it into a card reader in your computer and leave it there for the duration of the project.

As for your two specific questions, yes of course VS11 can do those things. But like Ron, I have no idea what the end result would look like on a 50" screen. There are too many variables. How long is a piece of string?

There was at one time a special plug-in brought out by Sanyo to make it work with programs like Video Studio. That was when VS9 was the then current version. But I am pretty sure the plug-in was only available in Japan. But I thought subsequent versions of VS had no trouble seeing a Xacti, as described above.

And if you install the patch and Power Pack for VS11, you should have no trouble handling AVCHD/H.264 as long as your computer is fairly powerful.

As for comparing Power Director 6 and VS11/11.5, can't help there. I used to use Power Director, but that was nearly 2 years ago and I am pretty sure version 5 had only just appeared at that stage. I have no idea what changes might have been made in version 6.

[gep]

Hello Ken Berry, Vidoman, i have Premiere elements. Somehow i placed it in a different folder and overlooked it, stupid.
Will have a go later.
I think for now, will just test Premiere elements and Power Director, before making my mind up on Videostudio.

I will just have to copy files onto the hard drive instead of direct capture to the program.

If so, have you tried capturing using APE-3?

Vidoman. Whats APE-3????

And AVCHD/H.264????

Thanks for your help, not to clever Re:Photography.

Thanks, GEP

[Ken Berry]

APE-3 = A(dobe) P(remiere) E(lements)

AVCHD/H.264 = the codec which your camera uses for high definition video. Apparently Sanyo has their own H.264 codec, but I imagine that VS11.5 (i.e with the Power Pack already installed) would still be able to recognise video filmed with it, though as I say, you need a pretty good computer even to be able to play H.264 HD video back with any smoothness.

[etech6355]

I'm not very HD video literate, (ok so I'm HD video illiterate), but etech or one of the others will probably provide a clear explanation soon..

I read where "Quicktime Pro" (purchased retail version) allows you to encode/convert video. Quicktime Pro should be able to load those h264 files and save them without re-encoding the video portion.
This makes them more compatible for the video editiors.
Something with the audio codec used is what the editors doesn't like.
So search the web.

[gep]

Hello all, i can now import through files, import media, through Adobe premiere elements, also, Cyberlink, Quicktime ordinary, and WMP.
So can you answer this question please.

Say i have imported a video file into Adobe Premiere, or any of these programs what next???
I am a so photographically stupid, need a bit well, lot of help.

Can you read through the list and tell me in order where to start, and where to finish please, then i can read up on the programs i need, instead of reading them all.

Also, one last thing, those h264 files, is there anything in the list below, that would save me buying Quicktime Pro??????

I have these programs installed:(1) VCD Easy v 3.1.0 VideoCD Authoring Suite software. www.vcdeasy.org
(2) Memories onTV I use earlier version http://www.codejam.com/index.htm only does photos.
(3) Photoplus 6. http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PhotoPlus/
(4) AVI to DVD converter. http://www.billionsoft.com/
(5) Faststone Photoresizer, image viewer, maxview. http://www.faststone.org/
(6) FFdshow http://cutka.szm.sk/ffdshow
(7) Photostory 3 for windows
(8) Photosuite ver 4 (still use it for photos)
(9) Irvanview 4.10
(10) Avidemux x 2.4 www.avidemux.org
(11) Photovista Panarama 2.02 http://www.downloadpipe.com/Photovis...hot-80063.html
(12) Picaso 2
(13) Mp4Cam2AVI Told by others to download this for turning MP4 to AVI files, can anyone explain how to get this from AVI to work on TV/Dvd???
(14) Quicktime player.
(15) Windows Media Player.

Thanks to you all for your time and effort, hope i can catch on quick?

Thanks, GEP[/b]

[skier-hughes]

Say i have imported a video file into Adobe Premiere, or any of these programs what next???

Can you read through the list and tell me in order where to start, and where to finish please, then i can read up on the programs i need, instead of reading them all.

Do whatever you want to do with it, I assume cut out parts that you don't want, add music and save to dvd? This can be done in APE or VS.

Also, one last thing, those h264 files, is there anything in the list below, that would save me buying Quicktime Pro??????

I have these programs installed:(1) VCD Easy v 3.1.0 VideoCD Authoring Suite software. www.vcdeasy.org
(2) Memories onTV I use earlier version http://www.codejam.com/index.htm only does photos.
(3) Photoplus 6. http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PhotoPlus/
(4) AVI to DVD converter. http://www.billionsoft.com/
(5) Faststone Photoresizer, image viewer, maxview. http://www.faststone.org/
(6) FFdshow http://cutka.szm.sk/ffdshow
(7) Photostory 3 for windows
(8) Photosuite ver 4 (still use it for photos)
(9) Irvanview 4.10
(10) Avidemux x 2.4 www.avidemux.org
(11) Photovista Panarama 2.02 http://www.downloadpipe.com/Photovis...hot-80063.html
(12) Picaso 2
(13) Mp4Cam2AVI Told by others to download this for turning MP4 to AVI files, can anyone explain how to get this from AVI to work on TV/Dvd???
(14) Quicktime player.
(15) Windows Media Player.

Thanks to you all for your time and effort, hope i can catch on quick?

Thanks, GEP[/b]

NO, get quicktime Pro, very cheap and very good.

13. Did they tell you what sort of avi files you'd get? There are over 800? You need a dv.avi, import this into say VideoStudio and make your dvd.

[gep]

Hello Skier Hughes, etech6355, and All,


Video is recorded in the advanced MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format encoding technology.
see here for info Re:My Camcorder. http://www.sanyodigital.com/product.aspx?v=18

Also, take a look at this webpage http://forums.steves-digicams.com/forum ... orum_id=27

I will have a look into purchasing Quicktime pro soon.

Can you please take a look here to see if mp4cam2avi is enough http://sourceforge.net/projects/mp4cam2avi/

Thanks All, for your help here, GEP

[Ken Berry]

As far as I can see, that program is nowhere near enough. All it does is in effect wrap an mpeg-4 in the .avi wrapper to make it ready for conversion to DivX/XVid (which are similar to mpeg-4). There is, moreover, no mention as far as I could see in that very sparse website, to high def mpeg-4 such as that taken by the Xacti.

I repeat what I said above:

And if you install the patch and Power Pack for VS11, you should have no trouble handling AVCHD/H.264 as long as your computer is fairly powerful.

[etech6355]

I'm downloading raw videos taken from that camcorder.
I'll post back and let you know if they work with VideoStudio 11+

etech

[etech6355]

I loaded the samples into VS11+, they are 1280x720 using 9000kbs frame_based/progressive.
I'm converting them to 1280x720 @ 16000kbs CBR progressive/frame_based.

You could test this yourself since you already have this cam.
If you want to make dvd's from your videos VS11+ can convert them.
Get ready for a wait though, my computer is pretty fast & converting them is taking a long time.

As fas as I can tell so far VS11+ retail with all the patches can import these Mp4 videos and you can create a dvd.
Might take you a day using a P4 class computer (make that 2 days)

You can also try a program called "SUPER" to convert them.
I don't think you need "Qucktime Pro" although it may do a fine job of converting them.

[sjj1805]

SUBJECT: Please use a subject that describes your exact problem instead of making us guess what's in your post.

Sorry if you this sounds like I am telling you off - I am not.
You can alter the title by using the button on your first post.

The purpose of providing a meaningful title is this.
There are a number of members on the forum who try and help troubleshoot problems - myself included. In the early days of the user forum it was not too difficult to be able to read all of the posts submitted since the last time I (or one of the other troubleshooters) had logged on.

On the Forum Home page at the top right is a link
[view posts since last visit] In the forums early days this would perhaps range between 10-30 posts. Today however the board has grown in popularity and more products are now catered for including the former Intervideo products before the merger with Ulead.

There have been days when I have logged on to find over 70 new posts since my last visit. It is of course impossible to read each and every one of them and so it is necessary to look at the titles to pick out posts where I feel I am able to offer some worthwhile input.

if you are viewing perhaps the VideoStudio forum and a post is entitled
"VideoStudio" - it doesn't really give you a clue, similarly in the PhotoImpact forum a post entitled [PhotoImpact] is equally as meaningless.

Giving a post a suitable title is a means of helping us to help you.

[gep]

Hello etech6355 and all, thanks for your replies, need soon to update my computer, or buy another, money permitting.

Thanks, GEP