davegee

Brian, I can't disagree with any of that. Perhaps you have some knowledge on different types of mikes which might be useful? i.e. What's the benefit of using a "phantom powered" mike? Are they a) cost effective and/or any better? DaveG

Brian, At £139 plus the cost of a GOOD microphone, wouldn't the EDIROL unit I linked to above be a good alternative to the H4 etc etc for anyone just wanting to do desktop work? Why route a recorder through it? DaveG

Brian, EDIROL also offer a number of USB Audio Capture devices one of which is: http://www.ediroleurope.com/product_overvi...&country=GB I have used a more basic Edirol UA-1D to interface between a variety of optical output equipped devices such as the MD Recorder, the 16 Track Recorder and my PC for many years very successfully. DaveG

Hi Brian, Comprehensive review - if lacking a little in detail (apologies - just saw the expandable bit) - but no mention of the Fostex FX-FR2LE? http://www.scvlondon.co.uk/catalog/product...products_id=673 The Sony also sounds interesting. I know that it is a slightly backwards step, but for anyone wanting a CHEAPER alternative, there must be plenty of the Sony Mini Disc Walkman units out there ready to be snapped up at bargain prices. I have an MZ-R50 which, when used with SUITABLE Mikes, will produce results comparable with the H4. DaveG

Hi Peter, Maybe I should re-phrase. I have been working with a 16 track digital studio since they first became available and know the pitfalls of having too "hot" an input. My experience is with recording musical instruments and not voice so I bow to the experiences of others. My question, crudely put, was to try to ascertain if the recording level is "automatic" or if it can be adjusted - if it can then I don't see a problem - experience with the machine will tell the user what setup to use. I am not talking about moving the recorder closer or further away from the sound source here. By the way, Peter, back in the early 50's when microphones were sold with instructions that they should not be nearer than three feet from the sound source, a guy by the name of Les Paul started "close miking" his partner and vocalist, Mary Ford. The recordings they made were used by Audio Magazines etc as an example of how things should be done for many years and the quality still holds up very well. Close miking with the correct setup will, I believe, give a far superior result to the other alternative and produce recordings with far less background noise (when recording the voice). Anyone have any experience of the EDIROL or Fostex variants of this type of recorder? The Fostex has: "2 x professional phantom powered XLR mic inputs with precise recording level adjustment control" as well as a built in stereo mic. DaveG

Perhaps it would help if it was explained that CLIPPING is comparable with BLOWN HIGHLIGHTS in photographic terms. What is CLIPPED or BLOWN OUT cannot be recovered. Brian, Is it possible, with this unit, to reduce the recording level to avoid clipping? DaveG

Ray, You said: "given that there are enough pixels in the source images to achieve this" The number of pixels in the source images is immaterial - when making a DVD the images are reduced to fit to 720x576. When playing on ANY TV the 720x576 pixels are INTERPOLATED back up to fill the screen. DaveG

To find the original key, search your old computers PROGRAMME FILES for "reg.txt" If you still have version 4 installed it will find it. Copy the "reg.txt" to a new secure folder on on new computer and when you install v.4 load the key. DaveG

Eric, It is Panasonic's way of saying that the dvd was not formatted on a Panasonic machine and is therefore not recordable to the HDD. All of these machines regardless of make are, to my knowledge, the same. (This is where Brian steps in to say I'm wrong!). DaveG

Hi Ken, I believe that what Eric is trying to do is record two PTE shows of differing aspect ratios onto his Panasonic HDD Recorder so that he can then record them back onto a single DVD. I made the point earlier that on my Sony HDD Recorder this is not possible - it is not possible to digitally transfer a computer burnt DVD onto the Hard Drive of my Sony. Only DVDs originally burnt on the Sony can be digitally dubbed. I suspect that the Panasonic is the same. The only way to do it is via a seperate DVD player in the analogue domain. Eric has not confirmed that his Panasonic is/isn't a HDD model. DaveG

Eric, Is your Panasonic an integrated Hard Disc Drive Recorder or just a recorder/player? If it is a HDD see my post above. You can only "dub" digitally from a DVD made on the Panasonic - a format issue? DaveG

Two thoughts: If the Panasonic is the same as my Sony you won't be able to "dub" from the PTE DVD to the HDD. You will have to use a second DVD player. This will probably involve a loss in quality because you are entering the analogue domain. You are probably right about the VGA (same as HDMI) - you would need to use a seperate lead for the audio. No problem. DaveG

Hi, I haven't tried this, but it MIGHT be possible. The manual for my LCD TV suggests that the scart connections can be used as both input and output. My TV has HDMI and VGA inputs. Using one of these it might be possible to input from a laptop to the TV using HDMI/VGA and output from the scart to my HDD Recorder/Burner and record to the HDD. The resulting recordings can then be edited and burned to DVD - as many as will fill the 4.4Gb. The BIG if is this - does the signal input to the HDMI/VGA input appear at the scart output? DaveG

THANKS XAVER - That's it!! DaveG

I think I have found a bug in 5.52 when using a 1920x1200 monitor. In the timeline, the Customise Slide and Objects and Animation buttons are hiding the Timed Points button making it impossible to access Timed Points. I have reloaded 5.52 - that does nothing. I have 5.52 loaded on my laptop running at 1280x1024 and that is fine. Both versions were installed from the same 5.52 download. I have only had the 1920x1200 monitor for a couple of weeks and this is the first time I have tried to use this feature. DaveG

Hi Brian, What are the comparative figures for "Blue Ray" DVD? DaveG

I think that we all probably knew what you were doing Alex, but I offered you an alternative way which would give you exactly what you want using the other connections on your TV and computer. The HDMI and VGA connections between computer and TV will both give superior quality when compared to a DVD version of a PTE show. Until Blue Ray is more widely available (and affordable)......... DaveG

The Sony Bravia, if it is reasonably new, should have a HDMI connection which will allow connection of a suitably equipped laptop or desktop and will allow viewing at full resolution (in your case, probably 1920x1080 but possibly 1360x768 - your TV manual will tell you which). If you use the VGA connection the width will be restricted. On my Sony 26" the HDMI resolution is 1360x768 and the VGA resolution is restricted to 1280x768. So, in my case I make shows at the 1360x768 resolution, connect via HDMI from my laptop and it is, as you said, stunning. I no longer see the point in making high resolution PTE shows, reducing them to PAL standard (720x576) for a DVD and then have the TV resize the whole thing back up to the resolution of a 40" TV monitor. Once you have resized to PAL you don't get any of those lost pixels back! It's the same thing as watching "normal" TV broadcasts on a HD ready TV - when compared to HD broadcasts on HD TV it's no contest. Hence the loss in quality. DaveG

Tony, It might be an advantage to use 1024x768 and "original" mode for the screen grabs in place of the default "fit to screen". That way they would be OK on the laptop and be readable (albeit smaller) on the larger monitor. I presume that you will do the 1024x768 screen grabs on the laptop? I have more or less the same setup as you: 1920x1200, 1200x800 and 1280x1024 monitors. To complicate matters further, when connecting to my TV via HDMI, the required resolution is 1366x768. DaveG

Bill, You might need to explain what you want to achieve in the slide shows? For instance, do you want to start with a full frame and zoom into the sitter's face? That would involve a certain amount of both Pan and Zoom. I would suggest that no PZR effects would be better for you. I don't think that an automated or randomly generated show is going to give you what you want. Take a look at Lin and Jeff's tutorial and maybe that would help you get started? DaveG.

Go back to the shows on the D drive and create TEMPLATES. Transfer the Templates to the C drive and they will recognize the image files. Ken, This is a recurring problem - could the solution not be "pinned"? DaveG

Set time for slides to maximum (5000Sec?) and click on Set For Existing. DaveG

Thanks Peter. DaveG

Hi Peter, I have been analysing the various components and cannot see where the Black Slide project file fits into it all. Could you explain a little (or did I miss an earlier post?). DaveG

Thanks Peter - I knew that you would get there in the end! I have not tried it yet but will do sowith my Vista laptop asap. NOW, let's hope that Igor doesn't do anything silly with the Windowed Mode. There was a suggestion regarding Windowed Mode a while ago - can't remember too much about it but I remember being concerned! DaveG