New Zealand Landscapes

[Almark]

As a result of feedback I have taken some of my landscape photos of New Zealand and created this short AV. Just over 4 mins, and i am sure you will enjoy the music.

BTW the music was recently featured in the last episode of 'Top Gear' - when Jeremy Clarkson took a V12 version of the Aston Martin Vantage out for a spin. He mentioned 'an ending' and many viewers thought that this was a sign that 'Top Gear' was also ending. I suspect he was just having fun, the music is entitled 'the ending' - by Brian Eno.

New Version in HD 1920x1080

Click here to download

No borders this time, 48MB

[Barry Beckham]

Mark

As someone who wants to visit New Zealand your slide show was a nice one to watch. There certainly appears to be plently of photo opportunities there. Not sure when we will go, maybe 2010 and it is now only a short hop from Australia compared to what it would have been when we lived in the UK.

The haunting quality of the music worked very well with the volcanic shots. Nice sequence and I wonder why tourist boards don't use PTE more, far better than those puny poor quality streaming videos.

I did notice that your show suffered the same fate as many I watch in that your images were expanded to fill my 1920*1200 monitor and that badly affected the quality of your images. You may want to tick the box in the Project Options > Screen Tab that says "Fixed size of slide (in pixels)" to prevent your show being enlarged beyond the size you created it on higher resolution monitors.

However, I took your show into another room and watched it on my laptop and there I saw the quality of your images, which were then presented just as you intended.

[coopernatural]

As a result of feedback I have taken some of my landscape photos of New Zealand and created this short AV. Just over 4 mins, and i am sure you will enjoy the music.

BTW the music was recently featured in the last episode of 'Top Gear' - when Jeremy Clarkson took a V12 version of the Aston Martin Vantage out for a spin. He mentioned 'an ending' and many viewers thought that this was a sign that 'Top Gear' was also ending. I suspect he was just having fun, the music is entitled 'the ending' - by Brian Eno.

Hi Mark,

Images,duration,timing and music now working much better. (the Travelogue was just too long and images were displayed too quickly)

Eno's music has an ethereal quality and works for me.

Well done with this version.

Davy

[Almark]

I did notice that your show suffered the same fate as many I watch in that your images were expanded to fill my 1920*1200 monitor and that badly affected the quality of your images. You may want to tick the box in the Project Options > Screen Tab that says "Fixed size of slide (in pixels)" to prevent your show being enlarged beyond the size you created it on higher resolution monitors.

Thanks Barry, I will fix that straight away.

Just on 'Full HD' what res do you recommend; 1920x1080 or 1920x1200? I was thinking of making a HD version of this one.

[Almark]

Images,duration,timing and music now working much better. (the Travelogue was just too long and images were displayed too quickly)

Eno's music has an ethereal quality and works for me.

Well done with this version.

Davy

Thanks Davy, I spent some time getting the right 'blends' with this one.

[Barry Beckham]

The resolution you settle on is more of a personal choice, but the HD res (1920*1028) is not a bad size to settle on. It looks good on a large flat screen, cropping to that format doesn't generally hurt the composition of the image and it is perfect if you want a DVD.

I have sttled on 1920*1200 to match my monitor as I don't make DVD's myself, but if I chose to, s isn't a great problem to re-rop images to 1920*1028

Large images show much better on small screens than small images do on lae screens, particularl if the smaller images get enlarged beyond their physical size

[dpeterso]

As a result of feedback I have taken some of my landscape photos of New Zealand and created this short AV. Just over 4 mins, and i am sure you will enjoy the music.

Mark –

It’s amazing what some finesse can do to a slideshow. I was so distracted with the original presentation that I bailed out early. This edition was much, much better. In fact I even got to see all of your pictures this time. You have many nice pictures.

Thanks for sharing, and thanks for the revision.

Dave

[Lin Evans]

Hi Barry,

Just a couple questions -

I assume you mean 1920x1024?

Was wondering if you meant DVD or Bluray DVD?

Best regards,

Lin

The resolution you settle on is more of a personal choice, but the HD res (1920*1028) is not a bad size to settle on. It looks good on a large flat screen, cropping to that format doesn't generally hurt the composition of the image and it is perfect if you want a DVD.

I have sttled on 1920*1200 to match my monitor as I don't make DVD's myself, but if I chose to, s isn't a great problem to re-rop images to 1920*1028

Large images show much better on small screens than small images do on lae screens, particularl if the smaller images get enlarged beyond their physical size

[Barry Beckham]

Lin

A typo, I should have typed 1920*1080

I have only ever converted 2 slide shows to DVD and the last one I did at 1920*1080 and it not only filled my 60in screen edge to edge, but the quality was darn good too. I don't have the ability to make a blue-ray yet

[smithrg]

As a result of feedback I have taken some of my landscape photos of New Zealand and created this short AV. Just over 4 mins, and i am sure you will enjoy the music.

BTW the music was recently featured in the last episode of 'Top Gear' - when Jeremy Clarkson took a V12 version of the Aston Martin Vantage out for a spin. He mentioned 'an ending' and many viewers thought that this was a sign that 'Top Gear' was also ending. I suspect he was just having fun, the music is entitled 'the ending' - by Brian Eno.

Mark, great show, wonderful music, and great photography.

Best regards, Gayland

[Almark]

The resolution you settle on is more of a personal choice, but the HD res (1920*1080) is not a bad size to settle on. It looks good on a large flat screen, cropping to that format doesn't generally hurt the composition of the image and it is perfect if you want a DVD.

I have settled on 1920*1200 to match my monitor as I don't make DVD's myself, but if I chose to, s isn't a great problem to re-rop images to 1920*1028

Large images show much better on small screens than small images do on large screens, particularly if the smaller images get enlarged beyond their physical size

Thanks Barry, my monitor is 1920x1080, so I will stick to that in future.

[Almark]

Mark –

It’s amazing what some finesse can do to a slideshow. I was so distracted with the original presentation that I bailed out early. This edition was much, much better. In fact I even got to see all of your pictures this time. You have many nice pictures.

Thanks for sharing, and thanks for the revision.

Dave

Thanks for the feedback Dave, I blame the wife! She was complaining that my AV's were far too short, didn't show all my photos and i had left out all the (most important) ones on her and my daughter 'in front of'. So I made her an AV for a 'girlies' night with my hq full size jpgs and it was 222MB. The travelouge version was one with the 'in front of' taken out and the size of the jpgs reduced - but i agree it was far too long and I can't blame you for bailing out early! You may have noticed but I normally never create an AV longer than 5 mins.

So after some feedback, and also, i must admit finding that music, i knew i had to cut down the images to the ones that would work best.

[Almark]

Mark, great show, wonderful music, and great photography.

Best regards, Gayland

Robert,

Thank you for your feedback.

[Almark]

Feedback by email mentioned some crackling in the sound track. Cleaned with Audio Cleaning Lab, I think it sounds better now, no pops or cracks, but i am rather deaf ;-) Also fades slightly longer, and music doesn't cut off at the end. i have also noticed a couple of probs with the photos that i will fix later.

Download updated, now 10MB

[Almark]

Feedback by email mentioned some crackling in the sound track. Cleaned with Audio Cleaning Lab, I think it sounds better now, no pops or cracks, but i am rather deaf ;-) Also fades slightly longer, and music doesn't cut off at the end. i have also noticed a couple of probs with the photos that i will fix later.

Download updated, now 10MB

Updated again, as discussed various probs fixed.

Download here

[Almark]

I showed this AV at my local AV workshop.

New Zealand

Almost all the feedback was about the white border. This generated much debate, and the consensus was that borders do not work for AV's.

I thought it did work, but clearly there is no point seeking feedback and then ignore it.

So what do you think?

Border or no border?

All feedback is most welcome.

New Zealand

[Barry Beckham]

None of your links appear to be working here

[Ken Cox]

Mark

Border or no border? no border

i always have trouble with r hand vertical borders - - i have mentioned it many times

I used to video skaters and under certain light ing conditions i would have a bright line on r side of skaters

ken

[Barry Beckham]

Almark

For reasons I don't know it was a battle to get your show to download. First I got no such web site when I clicked the links, then later it downloaed but would not play, but third time lucky and I have now viewed it.

My personal view is that the border is OK, but I think you have it too thick and too white.

I think a 1 pixel line is adequate and often if you make the line grey instead of white it still does the job, but then just appears more delicate and will not compete with the images.

The slide show was very good, a place I would like to visit myself, very haunting around the volcanic areas.

[Almark]

Thanks Barry, I think I will re do this in 16:9 OR 16:10 format.

New Zealand is a wonderful place, I certainly intend to return some day.

[Almark]

New Version in HD 1920x1080

Click here to download

No borders this time, 48MB

[dpeterso]

New Version in HD 1920x1080

Click here to download

No borders this time, 48MB

Oh yes, now we're talking! 1920 x 1080! Big, wide, bright, and beautiful. Very enjoyable Mark.

Dave

[davegee]

Hi Mark,

Just to prove that you cannot please all.

The 16:9 version (without line) plays nicely in the width of my 16:10 monitor with black bands top and bottom into which any black object will bleed.

To me the THIN white or gray line around the 16:9 show would prevent that.

I have spent a lot of time figuring this and my view is that, to make your show appear as good as possible on ALL monitor aspect ratios, that little line is essential!

From THIS point of view I prefered the original.

DG

[Barry Beckham]

Anyone who has the opportunity to watch this show on a large flat screen monitor, first in it's original version and then this revised HD one would instantly be sold on this HD resolution. The issues aside that Eric raised in another thread about PC's that can't handle anything above 1024*768 aside, this is the way to go.

Soon 1024*768 will be like the Dodo....dead!

I fully agree with DaveG about the line and for exactly the same reasons, but even without the line, for me this had more impact, yet we are only talking about size. There was a time when I would have said size isn't everything and of course it isn't, but all things being equal its hard to beat.

[Almark]

Thanks guys,

I showed this last night at my camera club. We are lucky to have a wizz bang computer and a HD projector. Seeing the show fill the screen was great. Everyone agree it was a big improvement on the smaller version. I agree Barry, HD is the way to go.