isabel95
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Posts posted by isabel95
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This reply interface is a bit daunting. I'd like to thank each one of you individually, but I'm confused about how to do so.
Thank you all for your input. I will try all methods, some of which sound a lot less complicated than others! :-)
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It's been several years since I've used PTE, and in fact I've regularly updated and not even used the updates - shame on me!
Happy to report that the program is much better than when I last used it - very intuitive, but I can't figure out how to fade to no music. It ends abruptly.
Can you fill me in on how to fade to nothing?
TIA
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thank you, Jan.
I will bear your suggestions in mind the next time I try to upload to Vimeo.
I think I recall that I may not have chosen the 1080p.
Isabel
Thank you Isabel.
I looked at Vimeo and found your projects there, mostly video, but also at least one slideshow you made with PTE (Kaleidoscope).
The only thing that came up to my mind was, that you might not take a benefit of your PLUS membership on Vimeo and upload your MP4 video at fullHD resolution (1920x2080), and even if you did, you might not have choosen the 1080p button?
Things I think influence the quality on Vimeo:
- editing the pictures "good enough" with e.g. Photoshop before making the slideshow
- to use 1080p high pictures (with any picture ratio) in a 1920x1080p size PTE-slideshow
- to make the final sharpening with the 1080p high picture
(e.g. PS: Smart sharpen, Radius 0.4px, Amount 80-100%, or if the pictures are noisy: e.g. Radius 0.8-1px, Amount 30-40%)
My "secret" is (when using 18MP pictures taken with Canon 7D):
- I first resize the picture to approx. 2160p height
- then I do color correction and adjust the levels
- then I mostly run noise reduction with Neat Image plugin (if the noise reduction is made to a 18MP full size camera picture, then the actual noise might not be filtered)
- then a new resize to 1080p height
- finally I make the sharpening
(there might be flickering when zooming in the pictures in PTE, so another way is to use larger pictures and make the final sharpening with Sharpness control in PTE)
- making a MP4 file with PTE following the compression guidelines explained on Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/help/compression
- choose the 1080p button when the video has been uploaded (otherwise a 1080p video will be showed at 720p resolution).
(you have to be a PLUS member on Vimeo to been able to show the video at fullHD resolution)
Jan
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I only looked at Christmas in Finland and it was spectacularly beautiful. I didn't see any loss of quality. The clarity and color were excellent. Loved the music too. Stunningly beautiful production.
Isabel
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Good idea!
I had forgotten I do have my own web space.
I pay Yahoo about $35 every 3 months for a small business website.
thanks for the reminder.
Isabel
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As I recall we used to be able to upload directly to Vimeo, but that's been changed and as far as I can figure the only thing we can do is make a high quality mp4 file and upload that - but that file is too compressed by Vimeo to produced acceptable image quality.
Seems the only option is to upload to Youtube because Facebook's compression is terrible too.
Any suggestions for better public viewing on the internet?
Isabel
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Sorry I haven't responded sooner - I haven't been receiving email notification of replies - Just noticed it says "You are currently receiving email notification of replies". Wonder why I didn't get this one.
My neighbor, who is trying PTE, was wondering about audio fade and zooming - he will be happy to hear those are included.
Hi Isabel,
Actually, it is well worth the upgrade. As with all versions, the upgrade to the basic PTE program is free and you only need to pay for the two year cycle upgrade of Video Builder.
There are lots of great new features which you will enjoy. To begin with, audio now can be faded in and out, you can have multiple tracks and even a waveform envelope to visually handle synchronization with images. It's possible to set where to begin within a song and also to set fade-in and fade-out. You can do many neat things with audio and there will be even more improvements with version 7.5 which will begin beta testing before long.
We can now drop in video clips and treat them like any other object. This means it's possible to size, position, use three dimensional transfers and lots of other neat things. PTE now has built in masking and borders around images, etc.
Zooming in and out and panning are very easy to do as well as myriad other things which were not available early on. Once you get version 7.0 up and running, you may want to avail yourself of the many free tutorials available. I have created over 40 myself which will help you quickly learn the ropes. I will give you two links. The first is a "shortcut" to my own tutorials which are here on the forum as well as on my own website. Mine are in avi format so you can watch and listen while I walk you through the various features and how to accomplish different goals. There are numerous other tutorials as well and it's worth looking at them in no particular order since they are mostly independent of each other and don't make too many assumptions about prior experience.
http://www.learnpte.com (click on Tutorials link - this is on my website)
http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?/forum/8-tutorials-and-articles/ (internal link to all tutorials)
Best regards,
Lin
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Thanks, Lin.
I pretty much came to the same conclusion.
Isabel
Hi Isabel,
Actually, there are very few reasons to use an AVI for your shows any longer. It can definitely be confusing because some codecs are fairly "common" and some are not and one is never sure whether the system the file will be played on has the proper codec installed.
By using the "Publish" feature and choosing "HD Video for PC and Mac" you can create an MP4 h.264 which will be acceptable to virtually all users whether MacIntosh or Window based. You have the choice of file size and can create anything from a small dimension show to full HD (high definition) such as 1080P (1920x1080 pixels).
I would recommend using this feature rather than creating an AVI. The quality is excellent and it's pretty much an automated process.
Best regards,
Lin
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I hadn't used PTE in a long time, but quickly threw together a program with some low res pictures from a 5 megapixel digicam. I didn't expect the outcome to look so good...and to be posted online so quickly.
Decided that since I didn't want to look at version 5.6's defunct Vimeo upload option, I would upgrade to the latest version.
I'm sure glad I did!
Also tried (from version 5.6) YouTube upload and that went flawlessly too.
I find creating an AVI file extremely confusing, with all the codec options, so I haven't been too successful with that - maybe the user guide for version 7 will explain that.
Isabel
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Decided to upgrade figuring I was way out of date...then had trouble with paying - got a message asking if I wanted to continue because it was an insecure connection, but the address was an https address...next I get an error message from PayPro that an error occurred while processing. Contacted them and hopefully will get the purchase straightened out.
Thanks for the previous info!
Isabel
Thank you, Lin.
I am a little rusty in how to create the mp4.
I guess I am a few versions behind with PTE and probably should update, but the older I get the more reluctant I am to upgrade programs because it means I have to learn a new interface.
I am a paying member of Vimeo and don't use it all that much, actually. I think it's stinky that they don't allow direct uploads and should think about not renewing when my contract is up.
I went hiking today with some friends and wanted to go light so I took a little digicam with me - thought it would be nice to put together a quick show for them and dusted off PTE.
My friend was so impressed that last time I spoke to him he was trying out the program and said it was easy to use (He's in the computer field). Wanted to know how to fade out music - I don't recall that being a feature of my version - suggested Audacity - but when you use that on an mp3 file the sound really degrades when you resave it as an mp3. Also wanted to know how to zoom in and out and I haven't done that because anything involving animation has given me agita.
Can you tell me what features the latest version has that are irresistible?
Isabel
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Thank you, Lin.
I am a little rusty in how to create the mp4.
I guess I am a few versions behind with PTE and probably should update, but the older I get the more reluctant I am to upgrade programs because it means I have to learn a new interface.
I am a paying member of Vimeo and don't use it all that much, actually. I think it's stinky that they don't allow direct uploads and should think about not renewing when my contract is up.
I went hiking today with some friends and wanted to go light so I took a little digicam with me - thought it would be nice to put together a quick show for them and dusted off PTE.
My friend was so impressed that last time I spoke to him he was trying out the program and said it was easy to use (He's in the computer field). Wanted to know how to fade out music - I don't recall that being a feature of my version - suggested Audacity - but when you use that on an mp3 file the sound really degrades when you resave it as an mp3. Also wanted to know how to zoom in and out and I haven't done that because anything involving animation has given me agita.
Can you tell me what features the latest version has that are irresistible?
Isabel
Hi Isabel,
Long time ... Glad to see you back here!
Actually, it's no longer possible to directly upload to Vimeo because they refused to release their new and changed API protocols with some lame excuse, and attempted to "hold up" users for fees. In general, it was an unsatisfactory situation which prevented both Wnsoft and Photodex (Proshow Gold and Proshow Producer) users from automatic uploads.
In order to upload to Vimeo, you will have to create your MP4 and upload manually as in days before the automatic upload capabilities. There was a good bit of discussion about this issue when it first happened. The principals of Vimeo apparently don't particularly care for slideshow people and are courting only video producers. They gave a really poor excuse that they thought it was "too easy" for slideshow people to violate copyrights (ignoring that it is just as easy to "copy and use" video clips as it is to copy and use still images.).
In short, some of us including myself have simply boycotted Vimeo since. I got the distinct impression that we were not welcome there unless we wanted to pay them so I pulled all my support for that venue. This, of course, is my personal opinion and in no way reflects any official view by Wnsoft, etc.
Best regards,
Lin
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I successfully updated a video to YouTube, but when I try to upload to Vimeo it won't accept my sign-in data and a box comes up with "Name" in it.
Can this be corrected?
Isabel
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I've been linking to blank pages with my flash slideshows.
I'm not an html expert and am wondering if I use a page with design elements on it, which I would create using Yahoo's SiteBuilder (since I buy my web space from Yahoo) how do I indicate how much space to leave for the video window and how do I direct the placement (left, right, middle, etc.)
I'm glad someone else here uses Flash Video MX.
Isabel
Hello Peter,
Ken Cox has pointed me to your recent post about creating flash files from your PTE slide shows and I may be
able to offer some advice.
I now include similar slide shows on my own web site and I use the same program as Isabelle (you will have to
obtain the full working copy in order to improve the quality and remove the watermark)
Have a look at the slide shows on my site and check that it is what you are trying to achieve.
Ron
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I've found it helps to use uncompressed avi to start with and also you can improve video output by raising the baud rate. The files will be larger, but that's the price you have to pay.
To get rid of the watermark you have to buy the program.
Which codec did you use in PTE to make your avi file? (I was a little confused about that.)
Isabel
Hi, Isabel!
I'm Peter from Germany, and I've seen your flash movie with Shebang's photos. They are great, and I envy you for this
I'm trying to make a swf.-file for days now. I've been using Panos' PS action, and everything worked fine (well, with the help of Panos I have to admit). Anyway, I succeeded to make an .avi-file out of the animation I made, but now here comes my problem. I tried out, as you did, Moyea Flash Video Studio to convert the .avi into .swf. It worked really fine with that software, but it's not a full-working copy. It will create a watermark on the movie, and it's very defocussed. The .avi-file, however, that I made with PicturesToExe looks much better. Is this because of the comprimation, or is it because of the watermark? Or both of it?
Can you tell me what else I can do?
Kindest regards, and have a nice Sunday!
Peter
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I have a Fantom F76 keyboard and am recording from it to a Sony Minidisc MZ-RH10.
I haven't used the keyboard in a few years and when I hooked it up to my Peavey Escort I realize that my stereo outputs from the keyboard aren't working. I can get sound from the mono outputs but not the stereo. I didn't know whether the problem was with the Peavey or the keyboard...but when I went to record in stereo to the Minidisc and didn't see any response in the recording level I realized something must be amuck with the keyboard.
Has anyone had to deal with something like this?
Isabel
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I haven't been using Windows Media Player to rip CD tracks, so I didn't know that!
(A friend was here and ripped so CDs for me using it.)
I use Exact Audio Copy as suggested in the user guide for PTE. STrange thing, though. I have two DVD burners, and EAC will only work with one of them - and that one is also a BluRay burner.
Thanks!
Isabel
I have been asked a number of times about WMA files and why won't they open in Audacity and I wonder if people get hung up on this because when Windows Media Player is used to rip music from a domestic CD, the is automatically converted to a WMA file.
However, if you go into the rip options you can select Mp3 and even the quality you want. Once done all these aggravations of converting files becomes a thing of the past.
Well for me it has
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thanks for this info. I guess I didn't sign up for email notice of replies!
This will be very helpful as I have lots of wma files!
Isabel
Hi Isabel
You can convert your WMA file to wav or MP3 using Switch Sound file converter. You can download it free from http://download.cnet.com/Switch-Sound-File-Converter/3000-2140_4-10327491.html
Regards
Yachtsman1
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I have a couple of microphones which I used with my Sony Minidisc a while back.
I don't use the MInidisc these days, even though the sound is better than that from the H2 because the gum stick battery doesn't retain a charge - I don't use it frequently enough.
Isabel
Getting a quality recording if often quite difficult I think. I had to purchase quite a good microphone before I could get a quality I was happy with, but an aquaintance I once visited was getting superb quality from an off the shelp PC Mike.
I would say, try the web cam mike, but don't be too surprised if that doesn't return really good quality.
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Good point! I'll try to remember it when I get version 6!
Isabel
A point about the white line feature in v6.
It "strokes" the image and therefore, if that image is subjected to PZR, the line goes with it so for the purpose of creating a line around the SHOW its use is limited to only slides without PZR.
The PNG line is probably still the best way to go for that application.
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Don't really have to do this.
I've decided I will use my Zoom H2 digital recorder in a carpeting room.
Isabel
Lay some old sheets or towels down when you do a recording session.
regards,
Peter
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I HAVE heard my voice and that's why I am reluctant to narrate a slideshow! :-)
Isabel
Isabel,
I use the Zoom H4 for my sound recordings. I do the voice-over recordings in my study where the computer system resides - but I power down every piece of electrical equipment in that room in order to eliminate unwanted noise. I also have two chiming clocks so I'm familiar with that problem, too. It's just a matter of timing (recording between the hour and half-hour chimes) and doing a re-take if I get caught out.
As for the accent, don't let that put you off. I firmly believe that regional accents are no barrier to successful voice overs. If you have never heard your own voice played back from a recording, be prepared for a big shock! When you hear yourself speak you hear your voice with your entire body - the vibrations of your voice box are transmitted through your body in addition to the sound coming in through your ears. When you listen to a recording being played back, the only sound route is via your ears. That gives your voice a, to you, strange sound.
Have fun!
Peter
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May not be a bad idea since I usually have a dog whining or cat scratching near me. I have a Zoom H2 digital recorder which ought to do the job. I'll have to lock myself up in a carpeted room and give it a try.
Isabel
Isabel,
I have chosen to record my voice-over away from my computer using a digital sound recorder. I then simply copy the sound file from the sound recorder to my hard drive and then import that into Audacity like any other sound file.
I deliberately omitted any discussion of the technology from my document because different people do their voice recordings using different technology. But the points that I make in that document are independent of any particular technology.
regards,
Peter
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I've found the noise reduction effect in Audacity to be very primitive and ineffective. I do my sound editing in Sony Vegas Movie Studio. I'm by no means an expert, but when I record sound effects with my Zoom H2 recorder (usually birds outside) I'm able to tone down some of the traffic drone in that program.
If you can prove me wrong about the noise handling in Audacity I'll be happy to learn about it!
Isabel
P.S. Who now knows how to add voiceover to her music tracks but isn't sure she wants to reveal her metropolitan New York accent!
The single most important part of sound recording for me these days is cleaning up the sound after it is recorded. Whether that is commentary for an AV or tutorial commentary and from whatever source program. There always seems to be noise present and some of that may be the PC on the floor beside me.
Using the noise reduction options inside the sound editing software makes the biggest difference and perhaps using those options correctly it may be possible to use any reasonable quality microphone.
When I discovered this I had no idea how good it was.
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I am embarrassed to say that shortly after I posted that question I did a little more web-surfing and found a tutorial for Audacity that mentioned the Record Button which I apparently overlooked - right there in the middle of buttons I use all the time!
Thanks for the heads up, however.
Isabel
try this
get your headset /mike on
set adaucity to record what you hear
and press the record button
save as mp3
failing that
set it to mike and try it
ken
Fading music to none at end of show
in General Discussion
Posted
Hi Lin...Thank you so much for making this video for me. Very helpful.
Very simple to the editing I do in Sony Vegas Movie Studio!
Really appreciate your customized help!
Why is replying on this forum so darned complicated?