smokinggoldfish

Sorry Yachtsman1, I forgot to add that I am using PTE 7.5 - smokinggoldfish

Hi Yachtsman1, in order to check that I had not changed something halfway through, I made a new project, setting the aspect ratio to 4:3 - as in your screen grab, and then went through the video convert stage again on the "raw" version of the video. I got exactly the same mismatch in the video converter dialogue box. So I don't think it is something I have done. PTE mistakenly says that my 1440 x 1080 video has an aspect ratio of 16:9! I guess it was a typo when the software was written? smokinggoldfish

Now that I am incorporating video into my shows the files are much bigger, and sometimes too big to put on to a CD for distribution to friends. Making an mp4 rather than an exe file makes it a bit smaller, but still some are too big. So I have to use DVDs to get the larger capacity. If I am going to burn DVDs then I might as well use a format that can be run on a DVD player rather than a computer. Then people who are not very computer literate can see my stuff too. So my vote is to keep the facility to convert to, and burn to, DVD. smokinggoldfish

Hi Yachtsman1, the aspect ratio was set to 4:3 in Project Options, smokinggoldfish

I got confused when converting a 1440 by 1080 video. The video converter dialogue box shows the source size as 1440 x 1080 but then puts (16:9) in brackets behind it. It should read (4:3) Or did I misunderstand something? Screen dump attached. smokinggoldfish

Last year we had another trip to Austria, to try to climb some peaks we had not been able to do in previous visits. The weather was awful, but we did manage to do two important tops, and at least no one got injured this time! I shot more video this time, on a little old compact camera so please excuse the low quality. I was pleased with the way that PTE 7.5 allowed me to mix stills and video together, and how nice to be able to pick off the audio track from the video footage! All comments welcome - both positive and negative! smokinggoldfish

I am enjoying the creative possibilities of PTE version 7.5, especially the easy way to incorporate video. In 2010 I went to Austria with some friends to do a few peaks. It was an eventful trip so I made an AV and posted it on you tube: In this sequence video is only used at the start and finish, but in a subsequent sequence I have used a lot more - see the post on "Another Alpine Adventure" Any comments gratefully received! Positive and negative! smokinggoldfish

Whoops, I see that there is already an answer to my question in FAQ: "How do I copy slides from one sequence to another" by fh1805. Forgive me for not looking thoroughly before posting. And thanks to fh1805. Also I see that I put this question into the wrong forum... Apologies , sg

Hi Everyone, Sorry if this is an obvious procedure - but I can't figure it out if it is.... Is it possible to join two PTE projects together? For example: Suppose I have completed a project called "My Holiday", and saved it, complete with narrative and music as My Holiday.pte. Also that I have made another one called Holiday Number 2.pte. Is there a way to combine these easily? Of course the first project could be opened and then the extra images, timings, transitions, sounds added in manually, but is there an easier way to make Two Holidays.pte? I suppose I could make two exe files and then arrange things so that the second exe file starts when the first finishes using the "More" tab in Project Options (under Run Application/slideshow on exit) but it would be good to be a bit more flexible. For example - I might want to change some bits e.g. put in some new images in the middle and an extra bit of narrative or music to join the two halves better.... I suppose what I want ideally is a "Cut and Paste" facility to mix parts of different shows together... Any ideas? sg

Apologies Yachtsman1, my memory did not serve me well - it was Peter FH1805 who remarked that he might need a new laptop: "When my desktop crashed last summer I deliberately chose a low capability graphics card because I didn't want to end up building sequences that would not run smoothly on my laptop (which I use to drive the projector when "on the road"). I have already made a mental note that the move into video might sound the death knell for the laptop. Peter" (Is there a way to have two threads open at the same time so that I can refer to one while replying to another?) I will probably be seeking the advice of all the experts in the Forum when I need a new laptop! SG

Thanks for your kind words Lin. I had fun making it, and the irritation I felt at this bad product has been replaced by much more positive feelings. I also like this forum - so friendly and helpful. I have used PTE for years for making presentations with still images, but have only recently woken up to the huge opportunities to be creative once you start to use the advanced animation functions and start to mix video and still images. It seems the limit is not so much the technology but more our imagination! SG

Hi Yachtsman1, In a previous post I reported on this: "I have just upgraded to PTE Deluxe 7.0 so that I can use video clips in my AV sequences. My first attempt is very disappointing though. A high definition 1920 by 1080 24 fps "high quality" MOV video shot with my Nikon D7000 plays OK in Windows Media player or Windows Live Movie Maker, but is very jerky in the PTE preview - either the preview window or the full screen preview. The sound is OK but it looks as though only a small proportion of the frames are being displayed. I tried converting the video file to the .converted.avi format using PTE but the result is still bad. And making a .exe file and running that did not improve things. Looks like I am up against some sort of software or hardware speed limitation? But the PC is quite new and running Windows 7 Home Premium. The processor is quad core 64 bit and I have 4GB RAM. Am I doing something stupid? Any suggestions?" This led to a lot of discussion, but the main conclusion I drew was that my graphics "card" was not good enough. Sample files that I posted on dropbox played fine on other members' PCs. So finally I decided to upgrade. The next problem will be that the files won't play well on my laptop..... I remember that you made the same point - did you get a new laptop? SG

Many thanks Lin, I had been looking at some of the Radeon 6000 models, but as this one does not cost so much more yet performs better I'll take your advice. Have just ordered one! Can't wait to see the improvement with HD video! I'll report back, SG

Hi Tom, I was under the impression that my new desktop PC would be fine, but it seems that it was made for the average user, and that the graphics chip is not so good. Maybe that is the limit rather than the amount of memory it can use. Lin Evans said this in a previous post of mine ( see "Jerky video from D7000 in PTE 7" ) "Click on the "Search For Your Video Card" and type in "6530D" you will find that it ranks 258th with a G3D rating of 540. A decent video card today will have a G3D rating of probably better than 1400 and the top one is 3958 so probably investing in a new video card would definitely help. Laptops are generally worse than desktops and one has to be careful when choosing a laptop to get one with a good video card as well as good CPU and RAM performance." That shows that it is rather poor. sg

Can anyone help me choose a graphics card upgrade for my desktop? The current chip is an AMD Radeon HD 6530D, which has a poor ranking, I learned from a previous discussion. I would like a card that allowed me to view HD video smoothly, straight from the camera and after PTE conversion and incorporation into a show. Currently the HD (1920 by 1080) MOV files from my D7000 are jerky on my desktop. I learnt from a previous post, and the many responses from the forum, that the graphics capability is probably to blame for this. I don't want to spend more than necessary - I'm not into high speed gaming! Some details of my machine can be seen in the attached screen dump. There are three PCI-E slots and one PCI-E x16 slot free on the motherboard. The PSU is 300W. Hoping for your kind assistance, sg

Success! As I could not easily find a tutorial about inserting stills into video I had to do it the hard way by experimenting. I managed it this way: Trim the ends of the video clip (in .MOV format) from my D7000 using the Nikon View NX2 software supplied with the camera. Put this video into the project, just like adding a slide. Go to the animation tab, and select the 6 still images. Then make 5 keyframes for each image. They all have one at the start of the clip with Opacity = 0. At the point where you want to show a still image make another keyframe also with Opacity = 0. Just after make one with Opacity = 100. This fades the still image in, on top of the video. The remaining two keyframes set the end point of 100% Opacity, then fade down to 0%. So each still can be faded in and out when you want, and can be synchronised with the sound track from the video (which had to be preserved). I'm chuffed, but I guess this is all just plain sailing to most of you! You can see the finished result on YouTube: sg

I have just tried it and found it a simple way to crop the unwanted ends from the clip - thanks DG, sg

Thanks DG, I do have this software, and had forgotten that it does some basic editing of video. It will certainly be useful for the cropping. I'll give it a go. sg

Thanks Yachtsman1. I see there is indeed a lot of material on this subject! I was under the naive assumption that PTE7 would be as easy to use with video and slides as previous versions were with just slides. The whole subject seems to be much more complicated than I realised. I'll trawl through the posts and try to get some answers. I also realise that I made a mistake with this post - by asking several questions instead of one! Can you tell me if the "out of sync" vision and sound that I get after converting my clip in PTE7 is a symptom of an inadequate video card? sg

Hi everyone, I have made a low res video using my Nikon D7000, at 640 by 424 pixels and with 25 fps. I would like to edit it a bit (crop both the ends off) and to show a few still slides on the screen while the video soundtrack is playing. I guess this is straightforward but I don't know how to go about it. For example, as soon as I do anything involving video conversion or cropping within PTE the soundtrack becomes displaced from the video. Maybe this is another sign that I need a better graphics card..? A simple tutorial about mixing video and stills would be appreciated. Can someone point me to one? sg

Wow, I never realised that this subject was so complicated. But I would like to restate some facts about my problem. Let's stick to the clips of my hand moving in front of the filing cabinet. These were shot with the camera on a tripod so there is none of the complication from panning. The clips loaded to dropbox (see above) were: DSC_2541.MOV this is HD i.e. 1920 by 1080 at 24 fps. Actually reading the camera manual the frame rate is really 23.976. DSC_2542.MOV this is low res 640 by 424 at 25 fps. The manual does not qualify this rate so I assume it is the real one. Both files play OK in Windows Media Player (WPM) straight from the camera, on my desktop PC. Because of the speed with which my hand is moving there is some blurring, but it is not jerky. When I put the files in to PTE and preview (full screen or windowed) the HD clip is very jerky with only a small proportion of the frames appearing, while the low res one plays OK. If I convert the files to the .converted.avi as suggested by PTE then the HD is a bit better but still not nearly good enough. More frames appear, but there are some pixellated artefacts appearing which weren't there before. The low res clip is still good. The crux of the problem seems to be that PTE cannot do as good a job of showing the HD clip as WMP, which is disappointing. I hope this clarifies my problem, and therefore helps diagnosis and remedy! sg

Thanks to Robert, Lin, and Yachtsman1 for your helpful comments. After some thought I have decided to concentrate for now on the content of my sequences, and if the video clips have to be in a smaller resolution in order for the hardware to cope, then so be it. I will upgrade the video card later. But then I will face the job of upgrading or renewing the laptop too, so it is looking expensive. Sometimes I have to remind myself that this is supposed to be fun! sg

Just to add to my last post: The laptop does not perform any better than the desktop - the HD file runs in a very jerky way while the low def file is quite smooth.....? sg

Thanks again DG, attached is a screen dump of my system spec. Maybe someone can spot something significant. I'll also try to run the clips on my laptop - seems unlikely to be better but worth a try, sg

Thanks Lin, my graphics "card" is an AMD Radeon HD 6530D with 512 MB dedicated memory and 1529 MB shared (system) memory. The graphics capability does seem to be the weak point in the "Windows Experience Index" scoring only 4.5. I have no idea what this number means but it is the lowest one - the other hardware all gets a better rating. Is there a way to test graphics performance e.g. with a utility that I can download? sg