smokinggoldfish

Thanks Mick, I'm quite happy now with my choice of two meters, and I have two monitors, so the meters can go on the smaller one while PTE runs full screen on the HD monitor. What a great forum this is for sorting out problems! sg

Some of my PTE shows have a lot of video, and several audio tracks. While playing the sequence with the timeline and small preview window open (see screen shot) I find that PTE does not always stop when I want it to. I press the "pause" icon at bottom left of the preview pane, but PTE carries on running, often for many seconds. It's as though PTE is too busy to take notice of my instruction. Eventually it will stop, usually at the end of a slide (still or video). But sometimes it behaves normally and stops instantly. Maybe something else is running in the background and consuming the PC's resources (virus checker, disc defrag....etc)? Is there another way to force a pause? sg

Thanks again Denis, I have got the vumeter running OK, and this works fine with PTE and Audacity. And after I realised that you had to click on the microphone audacity meter that started OK too and runs while PTE is playing. Many thanks for your help, sg

Thanks Denis, I managed to move the Audacity meter alongside PTE as you suggested, but the meter does not operate when PTE is running. It does work as usual in Audacity. I guess the meter is not picking up the sound output signal correctly? I guess I have to fiddle around with the sound card or audacity settings? sg (I did also try to download the old style meter from vuplayer but it does not install with Windows 10...)

I've had the same problem. It's a pity because it was nice to go direct to YouTube from PTE. So I now have to convert to mp4, log in to YouTube and then upload it. sg

I would like to be able to adjust the levels of audio tracks in a PTE project using VU meters. I find it hard to get it right by just listening, and have been advised to do it visually by looking at the output instead. I may have narrative, music and ambient sounds on several tracks within a project. I am running windows 10, and can't find a suitable gadget or app. There is a digital display app called "decibel meter" that I downloaded from Microsoft, but it won't run and has very bad reviews. I would in any case prefer a conventional moving needle or bar (like the one in audacity). smokinggoldfish

Thanks Gilio. I can already use two monitors since Windows 7 makes it easy, and for separate applications that works fine, e.g. having a word processor open on one monitor and a spreadsheet on the other. In PTE I want to split one application (PTE) so that part of it (time line, file tree, etc) appears on one screen and the preview pane shows on the other. It needs a new bit of software within PTE to do it, so let's hope that the next version of PTE will allow it. Ray

Thanks jt, I see that quite a few people already requested this. Ray

I certainly support this suggestion. At present I have to use the same audio clip several times over, trimming each one so that I get just the bit of sound (speech) that I need in the right place. Being able to cut bits out or put in bits of silence would be much quicker, and does not seem to be much more than PTE does at present with the ability to trim the ends non-destructively? Ray

You understand my requirement bb. Did you put in a request for this feature in the next edition? Ray

Thanks Ken but it's not what I want. I want, during normal editing and construction of a show, to have the preview pane visible on a second monitor so that I can use more space on the main monitor for the file tree, slides and audio tracks in timeline view.

Thanks Peter,but its not quite what I was looking for. I wanted the pane that shows the current image or video - top right in the attached screen dump - to be movable to a second monitor to give more space for the other info. So in that attached screen dump the 4 figures would be displayed on my second monitor. That doesn't seem to be possible? It's only the preview that can be moved, and it then becomes "disconnected" from the timeline etc on the main window? Ray

I use two monitors on my PC running Windows 8 and generally find it very useful, e.g. you can have a spreadsheet open on one and email open on the other. In PTE it would be nice to have the preview panel on one monitor and the file list and slides or timeline on the other. Especially when there are lots of audio tracks one screen is not enough space to see everything. Is there a way to open the preview panel on a separate monitor? sg

Thanks jt, the tiny resolution trick works well. And good to see that it will be even simpler in the next release! I agree it would be good to be able to extract in wav format too. sg

Thanks jt, in fact I have used this method, but didn't like it for two reasons: It is slow to create the video file. But your idea to reduce the pixels to a tiny amount solves that nicely! I guess a lot of to and fro processing of the audio degrades the quality. E.g. if you have taken care to use mostly .wav files which then get compressed. But maybe this is not a problem in practice..... I'll try it again with the tiny video size trick you suggest. sg

I like the ability to manage audio tracks and clips within PTE. It makes the production much smoother and quicker if you don't have to go back and forth to a sound editor like Audacity. But sometimes it would be useful to strip out the whole audio in order to reduce noise, equalise, add effects, adjust stereo balance etc. As far as I can see this is not possible at present. After processing the audio content could be simply put back into the project, replacing the original. So my request is to be able to do that.

Thanks Lin and jt. I will try the test. I assume then that using a mono track will give an even split between left and right channels.

It appears to me that PTE treats all audio as mono. Am I right or have I missed something? The ability to edit the sound clips and tracks together with the images and videos is terrific, and greatly speeds up the work flow. But it would be nice to be able to do it in stereo, and have stereo output in the finished work.. If indeed PTE only does mono then this is a request for a future feature, and I'll post it on the correct forum!

Thanks again everyone. Good to know it will be possible in the next release. Video Pad Editor worked OK, and also allowed me to do some more editing of the video clips. Thanks Mary for the suggestion about Photoshop CC. I am on CS5 at present, and trying to put off the day when I have to start paying monthly! But as I use it for my still images anyway it would be a neat solution. Happy New Year to all,

Yes I create them for easy distribution of shows. But I am usually disappointed by the quality. Seeing full HD on a good projector or PC monitor is so much better. But I would like to facility to remain within PTE.

Well, what a great response - thanks everyone! I tried Lin's suggestion of VideoPad Video Editor and it was easy to use and seems to have done a great job. Thanks Lin. Only puzzle was which output to use from the choices offered. I chose avi at 1440 by 1080 although the original was MP4 at 1440 by 1080. Not sure if this was the best choice but now I am building it into my AV so will soon be able to tell if the quality is OK. smokinggoldfish

I have shot some short video clips to incorporate into an AV. But some of them are too dark. Can anyone suggest a simple way to brighten them up? I have tried some free video editors but they seem very complicated, and don't appear to have this function. Would be very nice to be able to do it in PTE, but version 8 does not have this facility as far as I can see. I usually shoot MP4 and let PTE convert the file to a avi.

Thanks potwnc, So now I know that if I am to mix video and stills in a PTE sequence I should match the formats of both, rather than the pixels. In this case I should crop my stills to 1920 by 1080 to match the video of 1440 by 1080? (At least if I am to avoid black bars at the edges or missing bits of images.) Are there other common video formats with non-square pixels?! smokinggoldfish

Hi nobeefstu, this is all very confusing - how can 1440 x 1080 be wide screen? Unless the pixels are not square the aspect ratio should be 4:3? But as I said below to Igor, when played back in Windows Media Player it is indeed widescreen. smokinggoldfish

Hi Igor, The file was created with a Sony DSC RX100 compact camera. In the MP4 types you can shoot at 1440 x 1080 or VGA, and I chose the higher resolution option. The file is large 44.5 MB, so I shot another with the same settings but much shorter.The file properties state that it is 1440 by 1080, but when I play it in Windows Media Player it is clearly not 4:3. Measuring the screen image I get an aspect ratio of 1.76, which is almost exactly 16:9! But the picture has not been stretched - the round plate that I shot remains round in the playback. Windows tells me in "Properties" that the file is 1440 x 1080. So it now appears that this file is not correctly described by the camera! I tried to upload it but the file was rejected even though it was under 3MB. So I have put it in a dropbox folder: My link smokinggoldfish