Cheap Cyberlink Powerdirector 4 Create Stunning Home Movies (Software) (Windows XP, Windows 2000) Price

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Customer Reviews of Cyberlink Powerdirector 4 Create Stunning Home Movies

You need to read this before purchasing ANY Cyberlink Products
Below you will find correspondence between Cyberlink and myself after I purchased the unpredictable and useless PowerDirector 5 software. In short, the product is a sham and the support is non existent. You must shell out $30 more for 2mths of voice support. Their email support is nothing more than a cut and paste ritual that may or may not have anything to do with your problem. <
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>My Request to Cyberlink (March 26th 2006) <
>I purchased the PDR5 software with high hopes of producing some excellent quality DVD's/VCD's with your well reviewed and feature rich offerings. I loaded it up, imported a video file, some digital photos, and an mp3 audio file. Made a great little 5 minute video/photo/music overlay slide show. I was impressed at the ease and quality. I then decided to start capturing video from my DV camcorder. This is what I got it for. Well, BIG, HUGE dissapointment! Nothing but a big fat hairy time consuming mess. During Auto Batch Capture the software scans the DV tape and breaks it out into manageable sections great. No problems there. It refreshes the thumbnails with no problem. The problems start to manifest themselves during the next phase of the capture sequence. <
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>Here is a list: <
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>1) Sometimes, it won't rewind the DV tape at the end of the scan. You can wait 15 minutes and nothing happens. <
>2) If it does rewind and start capturing it will capture a few and then hang up. The camera will rewind a bit, play, stop, rewind, play a bit and keep on doing this till you abort the <
>entire project. <
>3) Sometimes during capture it hangs up on a random scene. It is the middle of a single continuous scene. That is what consternates me. I can't figure that out at all. <
>4) Sometimes, I get a message that loosely states, "PDR has encountered a problem and must shut down. Sorry for the inconvenience". That is just plain unacceptable. <
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>Results: <
>1) To date I have not produced one VCD/DVD because of the softwares inability to successfully capture a complete tape. Unacceptable. <
>2) Tried different settings to see if maybe the problem was isolated to a particular section of code. The settings didn't matter. The results were the same. Zero. <
>3) Defragmented my HD, Rebooted, closed all latent processes, and ran a trial run. Zero. <
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>My system: (Hardware) <
>ABIT SLI 939 pin motherboard <
>EvGA 7800 GT video card <
>1 Gig Crucial Ballistix pc 3200 memory <
>AMD 3700+ non overclocked processor <
>NEC 3550 Dual Layer DVD Optical Drive <
>320 GB WD Sata2 Hard Drive <
>Mitsumi Card Reader/Floppy <
>Coolermaster Praetorian 730 case <
>Logitech 3100 Wireless KB and mouse <
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>Software: (Actively used) <
>Power Director 5 (attempting to use) <
>Nero OEM <
>Musicmatch <
>Windows XP Professional w/Service Pk 2 <
>Microsoft Office <
>Logitech media life <
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>Video/Still Capture devices: <
>Panasonic PVGS-150 <
>Sony still camera purchased 1 yr ago <
>Memory cards uploaded via card reader <
>Video uploaded via USB 2.0 <
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>This computer is not connected to the internet. It is a stand alone station. There is no virus protection on it because it is not needed. <
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>Now, onto some questions. Could you explain the differences between MPEG1,MPEG2, and AVI to me? The manual wasn't very illuminating on that topic. Which format will produce the best quality DVD's/VCD's? <
>Will all format options offered in the software play on most consumer DVD players? <
>Should I use dvd-r or +r for best results? <
>How does dual layer burner figure into the equation? <
>What is the difference in quality in a DVD and a VCD? Is it the same, but you can get more on a DVD? <
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>Any assistance you can render me will be greatly appreciated. I don't have the code required below because I am in the office and the PC is at home. The PDR was purchased from Herman Street thru Amazon. <
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>CyberLinks Reply (March 28th 2006) <
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>Dear Robert, <
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>Thank you for contacting Cyberlink Online Customer Support. <
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>I understand that your camcorder is not recognized in PowerDirector 5.0. <
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>Please try the below steps: <
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>1. If it has a USB port, remove all USB devices from your computer and attach your DVD camcorder as standalone USB device on your computer. Also try connecting the camcorder to different USB ports and avoid using USB hub. Always connect the USB devices while computer is running. <
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>2. If it has a Firewire port, try connecting the camcorder to IEEE 1394 (Firewire) port. Make sure the connections are tight and secured. This port is more suitable for video capturing. <
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>3. You can also try capturing video through S-Video and Composite port is you have a capture card with similar ports. <
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>4. Switch ON and OFF DV Camcorder with Power Director launched. <
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>5. To avoid any compatibility issues, please close all other software and utility applications including virus scans, screen saver and instant messaging software before you launch Power Director. Try to uninstall any other software that can use your Camcorder. <
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>6. Please update your VGA card driver, sound card driver and capture card drivers. You may contact your computer manufacturer to get the latest drivers. We recommend and support WDM drivers for capture cards. <
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>If the issue still persists then please visit this web site to know the compatible camcorder list with PowerDirector: <
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>dv_cams.jsp <
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>If your camcorder is not in our compatible list then it might be an issue of incompatibility. <
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>Please feel free to contact us back for any further clarification in this issue or for any assistance related to Cyberlink Products. <
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>Thank you and best regards <
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>(Nowhere did I make mention of my PC not recognizing my camera via a USB connection) <
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>My 2nd Request to Cyberlink (March 28th, 2006) <
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>I hope this is not what I can expect in terms of support for this increasingly frustrating piece of software. Read my previous attempt to get assistance and please attempt to address the issue instead of cutting and pasting some boiler plate. To clear things up, my USB device is recognized perfectly. <
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>Also, in addition to my last request I have encountered yet more problems with the software. The last set of problems related mostly to automatic batch processing. This new set includes the manual batch processing. Problems are as follows: <
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>1) The operating manual and the actual screen processes are not the same. <
>2) The "mark in" and "mark out" buttons do not allow usage at the proper (as outlined in the manual) places. <
>3) You can manually scan to the "mark in" position on the tape and, if the "mark in" button is even available, and mark the position. When it comes time to choose the "mark out" position, the only button available is "mark in" <
>4) If you do manage to capture intervals of tape manually and decide you want to enter a time mark to either "mark in" or "mark out" and hit enter. YOU LOSE ALL THE PREVIOUS MANUALLY MARKED INTERVAL SEGMENTS!!! <
>THAT IS TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE!!!! <
>5) Product performance completely unpredictable and inconsistent. <
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>I purchased this software based on professional reviews and discounted the numerous reviews by disgruntled consumers as people who had outdated computers. Never again. I will pay close attention to the warnings of the consumer in regards to future software purchases. They are the ones that truly know. <
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>Every other piece of software functions flawlessly on this machine. Cyberlink is the only one that is giving me any grief. That grief is starting to pile up and has gone way past frustration. It is starting to look like the only editing this is good for is for still photos with music overlays. Maybe you should change the name to something more in line with what the software is more capable of performing because the only thing the software does is Power Direct you to the nearest onramp to frustration highway. <
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>Do what it takes to make this software work for me. I truly believe that you are on to something with the potential this package offers and the price bracket in which it is located. But it does not work as advertised. As delivered, this software is a lot like driving a Porsche that is blowing oil around the piston rings; looks good, sounds good, but is greatly lacking in performance and dependability. On top of that, it smokes and smells bad. Makes the owner wary to even pull it out of the garage, much less use it every day. <
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>I have saved all my correspondence with Cyberlink. I do not like to get all bent out of shape over something like this, but if I don't get resolution of this in a timely and effective fashion I am going to cut and paste my correspondence with you on every review site that I can find. Especially, Pricegrabber, BizRate, Epinions, Reseller Rating, Amazon, and whoever else is in the Top 50 most visited review sites. Your product as released truly SUCKS. Please, I beg you. Reinstate my trust in your product by making this right. <
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>(Oh! Don't forget! If you want to talk to an actual human it will cost you 30 bucks for 2 mths of actual human voice support.) <
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>Addendum to Cyberlink (March 28th) <
>Did Cyberlink release the Power Director v5.0 software prematurely or on purpose? It is becoming apparent to me that possibly your software, as delivered, is so defective and the online technical support is so ineffectual that maybe these things are the way they are in order for you to make money on your voice support at 30 bucks a pop which would bring the total package price up to that of your competitors. <
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>By the way: You misspelled Professional below. It is not Windows XP Professinal. That should have been a hint too. <
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>CyberLink's Reply #1 (March 28th) <
>Omitted because of deletion from their website before I could capture it. Their site only allows the current and previous Q & A session to be displayed. I wish that I could have saved it because it was so long, complicated, and confusing it would have helped readers see how messed up dealing with these people are. <
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>CyberLink's Reply #2 (March 28th) <
>Thank you for contacting Cyberlink Online Customer Support. <
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>I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you faced with PowerDirector 5.0. However, we have provided some troubleshooting steps in the last email (CS000326863). Please follow those steps to troubleshoot your concern. Please feel free to contact us back for any further clarification in this issue or for any assistance related to Cyberlink Products. <
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>Thank you and best regards <
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>My 3rd Request to Cyberlink (March 29th) <
>When I auto batch capture I rewind the tape to the start as the instructions state, I then fast forward to the point of the tape I want to start recording and hit start. It produces and refreshes the thumbnails of the quick scan. I hit start to begin capture. Now here is where the question begins. Sometimes PD5 rewinds the tape fast without displaying the image to the point I want to start recording and begins the capture. At other times it will begin a slow rewind displaying the tape as it goes. It gets to the point I want to capture and begins capturing. I can't remember if, in both situations, that the tape rewinds all the way to the beginning and then proceeds to the desired point or if it just goes to the desired point initially. Could you tell me which operation is the one the software was designed to do? Should I rewind to the beginning of the tape with the play button engaged or is fast rewinding to the start of tape the correct way to do it? Also, I downloaded the patch from your site and it seemed to help my previous problems a little. I haven't used it enough yet to be for sure. Ever since the patch download, though, the timeline jiggles and moves continuously. I will investigate further on that one. <
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>Cyberlink's Reply (March 29th) <
>Thank you for contacting Cyberlink Online Customer Support. <
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>This is to inform you that PowerDirector 5 designed for both options; therefore, you are both options in this software. However, we recommend to rewinds the tape fast without displaying the image. Please feel free to contact us back for any further clarification in this issue or for any assistance related to Cyberlink Products. <
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>Thank you and best regards <
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>4th Request (March 29th) <
>I did as you suggested and it works a little better. In response to your last explanation stating that PD5 has both options, rewind playing or fast rewind, I don't have that option. It somehow chooses which way it wants to do it and then does it. Frankly, I'm scared to touch it for fear of messing up the counter. <
>Also, in manual batch capture last night I manually marked in and marked out an entire tape. I initiated the start capture process and it captured the last segment. Having nothing to lose, I hightlighed the first clip and hit start. PD5 told me it could not find the time marker. I physically rewound the tape to the beginning. It captured it and then moved on thru the list of marked segments. Success! I thought. Then I noticed that it was capturing the entire tape on a single pass without heeding my marks. I said to myself,"At this point if it captures anything I will be happy." After spending an hour capturing what I had spent 2-3 hrs manually marking in all I got was the first segment and the last segment. Complete and total waste of time. I ended up capturing the tape in real time. But guess what, even Nero can do that. Be honest with me here. Are other people experiencing this. Are you reading this at all and applying the information I give you to improve your product. If you are reading this, please show me you are by typing, "We are here to help you" in the reply to this email. Like I said in earlier correspondence, I feel like you are on to something with this package. But, if it doesn't work what's the <
>point? <
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>Reply from Cyberlink (March 30th, 2006) <
>Nothing more than a cut and paste from the manual that I already own. Answered Nothing, <
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>6th Request to Cyberlink (April 4th, 2006) <
>A cut and paste from the manual? That's how you answer a very detailed question? I've got the manual. I can read. The manual is pretty useless. It tells you more of what the software is supposed to do (which it doesn't) and doesn't go into much detail on how to do it. If it does go into any detail at all you don't know if your doing it right because the software is [...]. I now know that you don't read these emails because you did not include the phrase I asked you to include to prove you were reading them. More problems encountered for your information(Like your going to learn anything from them because you obviously don't read them thru) <
>The DVD authoring part of the software will not allow more than a few seconds of imported audio to play no matter what time you input. <
>The Video clip trimming feature is absolutely useless because it does not work. <
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>You know what? Maybe you will see this, BECAUSE I AM TIRED OF TYPING. THE NEXT CORRESPONDENCE YOU GET FROM ME WILL BE A LIST OF REVIEW SITES ON WHICH OUR PAST CORRESPONDENCE IS POSTED. YOU CAN GO SEE FOR YOURSELF AND IT WON'T BE PRETTY. YOUR [...] PRODUCT AND EVEN WORSE TECH SUPPORT/CUSTOMER SERVICE WILL BE THERE FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE AND I HOPE IT COSTS YOU PLENTY. I AM ALSO GOING TO FORWARD THIS CORRESPONDENCE TO HERMAN STREET WHICH SEEMS TO BE A PRIMARY VENDOR FOR YOUR, I USE THE TERM LOOSELY, PRODUCT. YOU SHOULD BE FLOGGED FOR THE CROOKS YOU ARE....... <
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