RobertAlbright

I agree, Jill, but I think we must be living in a parallel universe.

Let's hope this is the end of the discussion. As a previous Post said:'But as it is so easy to just drag the grey bars on the timeline to amend effect duration/screen times I still wonder why we are trying to get it to happen automatically?'

I would just like to say (no heat, just light please) that yes, I do wish to be able to make transitions in PTE from Stills to Movies - and back again. Sometimes the transitions will be Cuts, sometimes they will be Fades, I don't want anyone telling the software designer that the options should be restricted. I take care with my productions so that every transition is thought through and placed manually on the Timeline, often adjusted many times before final publication. So I'm afraid I don't really understand the concerns about Length of Slide Duration. So long as I, as the author, can control it, I'm happy. PTE caters for many different types of AV producer. Some want a quick and dirty solution - Take 100 images, underscore with a single soundtrack (one track of music only) and move on. That's fine. Others want to produce Narrative work, images shot to the storyline, actors' voices and cross-fade music as underscore. That's fine, too. Others are absorbed by the technology of photography or software or sound effects. That's fine, too. PTE is great for all. HD Video is just the latest major development in AV production. Producers on the competition circuit know that, before long, it will be all the rage with judging panels when used effectively in combination with excellent stills photography. It will win AV Festivals by introducing something new and exciting. That's fine too. Everyone's welcome to enjoy PTE. Let's keep it open to all comers, whatever their intentions.

Further to my earlier post, here is the update from my friend: ' I decided to replace AVG with microsoft security essentials and everything seems to be working OK - including exe files made on 7. Looking on the Forum there were other people using the same, who said they were happy with it.'

A friend in Wales has rung me after seeing my Post of 09.01 pm yesterday. She is going to try this method and advise me of the result later this afternoon.

I also experienced this problem. The get around was to Uninstall AVG and then Reinstall from their internet site. This allows PTE .exe files to be opened - but not the ones already false positive identified as a Trojan Horse.

I'm hoping that the 'usual suspects' (meaning experts) will comment on the problem I reported with the Space Bar not working to start and stop the show in Objects and Animation - unless the show is already running. In other words, when you make a change in O&A you should be able to tap the Space Bar to see the effect, and tap it again to stop. This is the standard way in AV and video editing (both visual and sound editing)to play your work.

I see Items 4 and 5 as realistic and useful potential features. I'm not sure how I would use Item 3. I would add that use of the Spacebar in Objects and Animation to start and stop playback only seems to work when the production is running but not after any changes have been made to the position of the keyframes on the timeline - this is rather difficult to explain, but a tap on the spacebar should always play the production (or stop it), even after the position of the keyframes has been adjusted.

I agree that these changes would significantly improve the O&A experience

As the current United Kingdom Audio Visual National Championship Gold Medal winner and the current Flanders International Festival (European Championship) Gold Medal winner, I can confidently say that Pictures to Exe is a superb tool for editing and displaying your work. I have also judged audio visual championships around the world, from Australia to Ireland - PTE compares most favourably with other competing software programmes in terms of its image, sound and image in transition (animation) presentation. Robert Albright FRPS, United Kingdom

I found this interesting, looking at the attachments as well. For a learned article co-authored by Gary Sullivan of Microsoft, see http://www.fastvdo.com/spie04/spie04-h264OverviewPaper.pdf

I would check this with Maureen, Ken !

Hi Both I can't wait for the day when you both take up video. I must admit it's hellishly difficult to pull it off with a DSLR. I have a special viewer attached to the back of the camera to be able to focus accurately; oh, and a special muffler attached to the camera microphone to reduce wind noise. It really needs a separate microphone or, even better, someone else to hold the microphone! I'm also using a tripod again which was virtually redundant with the amazing capabilities of modern DSLR's allowing handheld in almost any light; and the tripod head needs replacing with one to allow smooth tracking. Come to think of it, you may be right Dave to avoid the whole darned thing !

Hi Dave Just catching up with the Forum. I've seen your later correspondence with Peter which all makes sense to me. Incidentally, I watch at home on a 52" Panasonic and, when projected, on very large screens, so image quality is vital. The goal is that in future productions, there will be no quality drop-off when moving from stills to video and vice versa. When I shoot at H.264 video, I import this content (Stage 1) into my editing progamme. The edited version is exported into PTE (Stage 2), mixed with music, sound effects and voiceover and finally (Stage 3) exported from PTE as an .exe file. My current editing programme gives me the option at Stage 2 to export as H.264 or as MPEG 4 Native. It is the H.264 exports which seem to cause the trouble. Going back to your previous note, I'm not sure I understand the comment: 'I am not importing H.264 video into PTE and exporting as H.264 MPEG4. What I have been talking about is exporting normal PTE Projects as H.264 MPEG4'. By ‘normal PTE projects’, do you mean stills + animation projects that don’t incorporate HD video? Do you not intend to incorporate HD video into your future projects? (I know lots of AV producers who said they would never go digital!) Robert

Hi Dave I think Xaver was just responding to your question which seemed to imply you were not satisfied with the quality you were getting on your Sony TV. My understanding is that 25 frames per second is the normal frame rate on European TV's (24fps in the USA). Incidentally, I shoot on the Canon 5D at 25fps with the shutter speed at 1/50th of a second. These are the normal recommended settings. When you are not using an HDMI/laptop combination to show PTE .exe files on your TV, are you putting a memory stick straight into the TV via USB? Perhaps this would explain the missing 2% of image quality ? I note Xaver's comment which accords with my experience: 'I export my PTE sequences as MP4-videos encoded with Xvid (MPEG-4 Part 2) which run better than those encoded according to H.264.' In what programme are you editing your video ? It must be a good one (and a powerful computer) if you are able to play, edit and then export H.264 files, put them into PTE and then export from PTE as an .exe file which plays perfectly. Robert

Thanks, Xaver. An interesting link in Wikipedia is their Comparison of container formats. It says - 'Video formats supported: AVI - Almost anything through VFW; H.264/AVC is problematic due to the limited B-frame support. (B‑frames can use both previous and forward frames for data reference to get the highest amount of data compression.)' This statement about H.264 supports several members' experience and Igor's advice. I note that Dave Gee seems to have no problem with H.264. I do endorse, however, Dave's preferred native resolution: 1920x1080px, the standard for high end monitors, projectors, laptops (or 1920x1200) and TV's.

I quote from Wikipedia: 'MPEG-4 is method of defining compression of audio and visual (AV) digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) (ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11) under the formal standard ISO/IEC 14496 - Coding of audio-visual objects. Uses of MPEG-4 include compression of AV data for web (streaming media) and CD distribution, voice (telephone, videophone) and broadcast television applications. MPEG-4 provides a large and rich set of tools for encoding. Subsets of the MPEG-4 tool sets have been provided for use in specific applications. These subsets, called 'Profiles', limit the size of the tool set a decoder is required to implement.[1] In order to restrict computational complexity, one or more 'Levels' are set for each Profile.[1] A Profile and Level combination allows:[1] 1 A codec builder to implement only the subset of the standard needed, while maintaining interworking with other MPEG-4 devices that implement the same combination.[1] 2 Checking whether MPEG-4 devices comply with the standard, referred to as conformance testing.[1] MPEG-4 consists of several standards—termed "parts"—including the following: (Each part covers a certain aspect of the whole specification.)' [A long list follows.] I would conclude that MPEG-4 (MP4 is a misnomer which refers to a player?)is capable of being used for editing and saved ('exported') at different resolutions. It is known and acknowledged by Igor that H-264 compression is extremely demanding on computer capacity. Empirically this is confirmed by my own experiments whereby the video file at H264 only shows a green screen in PTE. Now I converted from VideoPad Video Editor at MPEG4-Native rather than H264, as Igor suggested. The video file played perfectly in PTE and in combination with still images (auto fade from video to stills and stills to video). The specification is now HD 1920x1080 HD 1080p, File Format .avi, Frame Rate 25.00 TV PAL, Video Compressor MPEG4 (Native), Sound Format MP3 up to 44100HZ with no playback problems. I don't deny that H-264 will work on some members' computers and on their HD TV's when connected via HDMI cable. However, for those having playback problems with files saved using H-264, it is well worth trying MPEG4 (Native)compression at the point of saving (exporting) their file.

Thanks for the link which was well written for the period, January 2004. However things have moved on a lot since then. In practice, we have found that 1920x1080 px is not a constraining factor on modern equipment. The limitations are far more to do with the Codec selected - see my Post 'Video Editor which claims to use PTE video codec' dated 29 June 2011 with replies, including Igor Kokarev.

Thank you, Igor. This explains why PTE Video Compressor appears in VideoPad Video Editor/ Encoder options/Video Compressor. I have resampled as Encoder options/Video Compressor/MPEG4 Native. This plays well in PTE, and also when Published as .exe. As you have indicated, H264 native does not work well with PTE and should be avoided. This advice applies to VideoPad Video Editor/ Encoder options/Video Compressor. MPEG4 Native seems to be the best compression codec for HD video in PTE.

Ian Can you try the free download for VideoPad Video Editor and by following the path above, see if you get an option for 'PTE codec'? Thanks.

Much to my surprise, VideoPad Video Editor gives an option to save .avi files as Picture to Exe Video Codec ! (I was exporting HD video from VideoPad Video Editor using different containers and codecs). This is the path:VideoPad Video Editor/Save Movie/Preset- HD movie/File Format.avi/Encoder options/Video Compressor/Picture to Exe Video Codec Of course I had to try this ! I dropped it straight into PTE, mixed it with still images, and saved it as an .exe file. It works brilliantly, plays HD video and its associated soundtrack with no problem. Does Igor know that VideoPad Video Editor is using Picture to Exe Video Codec ?

Hello Igor The video file at H264 only shows a green screen in PTE. Now I converted from VideoPad Video Editor at MPEG4-Native rather than H264, as you suggest. The video file plays perfectly in PTE and in combination with still images (auto fade from video to stills and stills to video). The specification is now HD 1920x1080 HD 1080p, File Format .avi, Frame Rate 25.00 TV PAL, Video Compressor MPEG4 (Native), Sound Format MP3 up to 44100HZ . (No playback problem at 1920x1080px.) Superb. Многие Поздравляем! Clients can now integrate (inside PTE) HD video with 1920x1080 single images . This is a major development in our world of audio visual production.

I've found on the internet a free download called VideoPad Video Editor. HD movie editing in this program seems to me very intuitive, far more so than in my £25 Sony Vegas program. The edited movie can be saved (at highest quality settings) as: [a] HD 1920x1080 HD 1080p, File Format .avi, Frame Rate 25.00 TV PAL, Video Compressor H264 (Native), Sound Format MP3 up to 44100HZ 1920x1088 (not a typing mistake), File Format .mov, Frame Rate 25.00 TV PAL, Video Compressor 1.0 'High Quality', Audio Bitrate 320 kbits per second Both .avi and .mov (edited and saved) files play excellently in free downloads DivX Plus Player and Nero Show Time. I've inserted both the .avi and .mov files into PTE. The .mov plays smoothly, the .avi doesn't play. What puzzles me is why .avi plays really well on free download movie players but not in the excellent PTE.

Thanks, Peter. I agree with all your points, except that I think a single AV producer will be able in future to take advantage of video-stills combinations. This won't make us 'real' movie producers; as you say, at the moment it needs too much resource, both human and technical, for one person to achieve full-on cinematography. Nevertheless, at Wantage we are experimenting with AV incorporating HD video - and so far we like what we see. Bear it mind we're like the Wright Brothers in 1904 in this game. I take your point about Copyright in documentary work - which is one reason I avoid it. (The same copyright issues are often involved when using 3rd party stills in AV productions- a big issue in The PAGB and The RPS). But for artistic work the possibilities are most exciting!