Making a HD video for PC or MAC

[Bruss444]

Just joined and a completely new to this forum and software. Last week I purchased the PicturesTo.exe Deluxe. I have also been using Proshow Producer commercially for several years and have been building DVDs for my customers and usually can work through the challenges. I have already built a test PicturesTo.exe presentation and was AMAZED at the detail on my Apple 23 inch Cinema running off my PC. Incredibly pin sharp!! I made a DVD and found it to be close in quality to Proshow Producer (not near as good a resolution as an .exe file on the computer) when watching on our HD TV but when burning the DVD it would hang at 99% and would lock up the PC but apparently finished the DVD since it would run on the TV/DVD player. That was one Problem but I also can't figure how to make a AVI Video file. It simple goes part way and a small window comes up and say "CatCantCreatfile". I also find when trying to make a H.264 video file that when done I can see the Quicktime Icon with MPEG-4 but it says 0 kbytes. I downloaded the recommended Media Player Classic HomeCinea and it wouldn't recognize the Quicktime file either. I was hoping to make a H.264 video file and then hoping it would also possibly play on my new MacBookPro. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Bill

[fh1805]

Bill,

The next version of PTE (v5.7) will create an exe that will run on a MAC. V5.7 is going through its beta programme at present. You can download the latest beta here. See also here for recent discussion about PTE for MAC. Finally see here for guidance on creating a custom AVI file.

Hope this helps you get going.

regards,

Peter

[Bruss444]

Hello Peter, Greetings from Quarryville, PA!!

Thank you for your help and links but Peter I must be missing something very fundamental here since I as of yet can't resolve my problem. Here is a step by step list of what I do.

1. Load all my photos and MP3 sound file into PTE Deluxe with transistions and it runs beautifully!

2. While this program is still loaded in PTE I then click on the "create" button- lower left hand corner.

3. Then I select "AVI video file"

4. In the next window I choose (small circle) Create custom AVI video file

5. Set audio codec to default 44,100 khz, 16 bit stereo and then the video codec I have tried several listed there including the "PictureToEXE Video Codec. Must I purchase one of these video codecs and install it on my pc or is the PTE Codec fine and is in included in the PTE software? I have a feeeling I may be completely misunderstanding something here at this point.

6. click on on the "create AVI button

7 asked to save at my choice of folder destination

8. click on save and get this exactly spelled message in a small window "catCantCreateFile"

I would appreciate your help very much!

Thanks again Bill

[fh1805]

Bill,

As I understand it (and I don't currently do any burning to DVD) the PTE codec is suitable only for preparing a temporary AVI file for use when burning a DVD through the VideoBuilder part of PTE DeLuxe. I believe that this codec is not suitable for creating an AVI file that you then save and burn through an external burner program such as Nero or Roxio.

If, when you see the list of video codecs, you have other choices (Microsoft MPEG4 for example) you should try one of these.

Regards,

Peter

(This might be a case of the blind leading the lame! - but I hope not)

[davegee]

I just tried it WITHOUT altering any CODEC settings and it worked fine.

[fh1805]

I, too, have just gone through the steps that Bill has gone through and, upon clicking the Save button, I then get a pop-up window advising me to take this file into my favourite burner. But the file has not been saved into the folder that I asked it to save it in. After using Windows search, I can find a shortcut but that shortcut is a broken link - there is no target file.

I repeated the test but this time choosing one of the Microsft MPEG4 video codecs and now the PC is busy encoding the AVI as I write this.

Bill, try a different codec!

regards

Peter

[davegee]

....or accept the default?

[fh1805]

Dave,

When I tried it with the defaults it didn't save the avi file. I had to move away from the PTE video codec to get it to encode and save the avi file.

In case it's relevant to your situation, I'm doing these tests with v5.6.4 not v5.7 beta.

regards,

Peter

[Bruss444]

Hello Dave and Peter, I tried all of the video codecs and everytime get the same window with "catCantcreatefile" Actually MPGE4 isn't even in the list. Bill

[fh1805]

Bill,

You're not tight for free-space on your hard-drive are you? The AVI file creation needs a fair old whack of temporary space and there have been problems reported in the past that were attributed to insufficient free hard disk space.

Is this the only option that fails? Can you Create an AVI using the DVD-Video disc button instead of the Create custom AVI button?

Let me back up a bit...

Has this ever worked? If so, you need to consider what other, possibly related, changes you have made recently.

Is the problem restricted to just this one sequence? If so, in what way does this sequence differ from a sequence that does work OK?

Are you able to burn a DVD using VideoBuilder (Create...DVD-Video disc)?

If the answers to all these questions are, essentially, not positive ones, then I think you need to report this as a possible bug in PTE.

It would do no harm to download v5.7 beta from the forum and give that a go. The two versions will happily co-exist alongside each other.

regards,

Peter

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Bill

Just a long shot, did you install two keys when you purchased the De-lux version, the De-lux section uses a different key to activate it.?

Yachtsman1

[davegee]

Dave,

When I tried it with the defaults it didn't save the avi file. I had to move away from the PTE video codec to get it to encode and save the avi file.

In case it's relevant to your situation, I'm doing these tests with v5.6.4 not v5.7 beta.

regards,

Peter

Hi Peter,

No, I tried it with 5.6.4 and the defaults are the PTE Video Codec and the No Compression (PCM) 44.1Mhz;16Bit;Stereo.

When you say "it didn't save the avi" did you mean "it didn't CREATE the avi"?

P.S. I'm using XP - aren't you using Vista? Edit - I tried it on my Vista laptop - same as XP - OK.

[fh1805]

Dave,

Nothing wrong with your memory! Yes, I'm a Vista user. On my first attempt, when I got to the File Save window and clicked on save, the window simply closed and returned me to PTE. I didn't get the "expanding green bar" indicating that the AVI was being created. And there was only a shortcut file added to the directory where I had pointed the File Save to go.

On the second attempt, where the only change was to pick a Microsoft MPEG video codec instead of the PTE Video codec, after the file save I got the "expanding green bar" and after about 2-3 minutes the file was succesfully created and saved into the expected directory - and it subsequently played back OK via Windows Media Player.

I'm baffled. It is starting to "smell" to me like either a bug or a corrupt installation. Which is why I've suggested to Bill that he tries the v5.7 beta release. If that fails - its a bug of some kind somewhere. If v5.7 works then his next step should be a fresh download of v5.6 and a re-install of that.

regards,

Peter

[fh1805]

Bill

Just a long shot, did you install two keys when you purchased the De-lux version, the De-lux section uses a different key to activate it.?

Yachtsman1

That's a fair point Eric but I think it is unlikely to be the root cause. My tests were done using a version of PTE without the DeLuxe key installed. On that basis I, too, should have seen the failure just as Bill did.

regards,

Peter

[Bruss444]

Hello and thanks for all the input. I am running XP Pro and is blistering fast with 4 gb Ram and loads of extras HD space. (I have been using Proshow Producer for several years and made many DVDs for my customers) I just checked my key and there are 2 double lines of code so that should be fine. I did make a DVD with PTE and it played on our DVD/PLAYER and HD TV but when I burnt it it froze in operation at 99% and wouldn't go any farther, but it played on our player. (P use DVD-Rs which I have used for a long time) Any idea why the Microsoft video codec H.224 doesn't even show up in the list when choosing a video codec? Thanks Bill

[Bruss444]

Sorry I meant H.224 codec

[Bruss444]

This is what I meant Microsoft video codec H.264

[davegee]

Dave,

Nothing wrong with your memory! Yes, I'm a Vista user. On my first attempt, when I got to the File Save window and clicked on save, the window simply closed and returned me to PTE. I didn't get the "expanding green bar" indicating that the AVI was being created. And there was only a shortcut file added to the directory where I had pointed the File Save to go.

On the second attempt, where the only change was to pick a Microsoft MPEG video codec instead of the PTE Video codec, after the file save I got the "expanding green bar" and after about 2-3 minutes the file was succesfully created and saved into the expected directory - and it subsequently played back OK via Windows Media Player.

I'm baffled. It is starting to "smell" to me like either a bug or a corrupt installation. Which is why I've suggested to Bill that he tries the v5.7 beta release. If that fails - its a bug of some kind somewhere. If v5.7 works then his next step should be a fresh download of v5.6 and a re-install of that.

regards,

Peter

Hi Peter,

It could still be memory - my file was a very small trial.

[Bruss444]

Here was a short and quick test. Started new project, no music and just 5 slides with fade in and fade out.Runs fine! but then I choose create and then Choose AVI Video file and then "create custom video file and then preview and the same window comes up "catcantcreatefile". I too updated to the 5,7 beta version but same problem. Thanks Bill

[fh1805]

Bill,

If you get the problem with both v5.6 and v5.7 beta then it smacks of either a bug in PTE code or a fault of some other kind on your PC. Either way we need the help of the WnSoft technical team.

I'll alert Igor to this topic - just in case he hasn't spotted it yet.

regards,

Peter

[fh1805]

Hi Peter,

It could still be memory - my file was a very small trial.

Dave,

I was refering to the memory that sits between your ears - not PC memory. You had remembered that I use Vista.

regards,

Peter

[Bruss444]

Hello Peter! Thanks for your help here. This really has me stumped. Any idea why Microsoft Video Codec H.264 is missing in the video codec choices too? Thanks again for all of this help!!!! Bill

[Lin Evans]

Hi Bill,

Just a couple thoughts:

First, the codec used by PTE for burning an AVI to DVD is not designed to create a stand-alone file. This stems from earlier versions of PTE where one could burn a PTE show to a DVD by creating a temporary "template" hence the PTE codec.

You are on the right track by choosing "custom AVI" and then choosing an audio and video codec. Both the audio and video codec's resident on any particular computer will be highly variable depending on previous software which has been installed. PTE simply reads the available codecs and presents them in a Windows provided tabular form for selection.

There are numerous free codec packs such as found here:

http://www.free-code...Codec_Packs.htm

They include the ACE Megapac, K-Lite, etc., and any of them can provide codecs such as the Microsoft MPEG 4 or MPEG 2, or others which will allow you to create a stand-alone AVI. The one you have chosen for audio is fine.

That you are able to burn a DVD means that a codec is available (the default is the PTE codec) so your system including the DVD burner is properly operational. The way I would approach this is to get some rewritable media to experiment with for h.264. Next would be to try to create a stand-alone avi file without the preview. If you can tell me which video codecs are available in the drop-down list, perhaps I can help you choose one which will work for testing.

For the purpose of your MacIntosh use, just use the 5.7 beta to create a native MacIntosh executable. This is one of the options, and what I would suggest is to choose the "zip" output. This puts all files necessary to play a full resolution slideshow on the MacIntosh exactly as the show plays on your own Windows computer. This is "far" superior to h.264. Truthfully, I'm not overly impressed with h.264 as implemented by "any" slideshow program. h.264 works pretty well for video, but I've yet to see any really smooth pans or even zooms when a high resolution (1920x1080) slideshow having much in the way of animation is played back on a computer. My take on it is that MP4 h.264 is not there yet for presentation slideshows make with any really demanding animations. On the other hand, the shows which are output for the MacIntosh via the native Mac exeutable format in PTE are absolutely fantastic - just like the PTE executable shows on a Windows machine with a decent graphics card.

The other issue with h.264 is that there are very few players (if any) which actually handle the files correctly when they don't conform exactly to 1080 or 720 wide angle. For example, I can create a 1600x1200 h.264 which will convert on Youtube and play perfectly as the Youtube Flash file, but which absolutely will not play properly in "any" player which I have tried, and that's about every player available. Even with the Classic Home Cinema player (about the best) the bottom of the image is cut off; yet, when I send the same file to Youtube, the Flash conversion plays properly. This tells me that there are still unresolved issues with computer players and h.264 which can complicate an already complex issue.

Since it's possible to play an executable Windows show directly to a large screen 1080p via an HDMI port, I would just skip the h.264 all together unless all you are doing are simple transitions and no animations.

Of course the important thing is to get your system to create a stand-alone AVI and h.264. This can be worked out, but it's difficult to say without some testing what might be causing the problem. The first thing I would do would be to disable any other software temporarily, especially virus protection. Just disconnect from the internet and kill other programs via the Windows Task Manager and see if you can create a file then. If you can, then re-introduce other items into the task manager one at a time to see what may be causing the problem.

Best regards,

Lin

Here was a short and quick test. Started new project, no music and just 5 slides with fade in and fade out.Runs fine! but then I choose create and then Choose AVI Video file and then "create custom video file and then preview and the same window comes up "catcantcreatefile". I too updated to the 5,7 beta version but same problem. Thanks Bill

[Bruss444]

Hello Lin. Thanks for your added information!!!

Here is the list of codecs:

Cinpak Codec by Radius

Intel 4:2:0 V 2.50

Intel Indeo ® Video R 3.2

Intel Indeo Video 4.5

Intel IYUV Codec

Microsoft RLE

Microsoft Video 1

Microsoft H.263 Video codec

Microsoft H0261 Video Codec

Indeo Video 5.10

picturetoexe Video Codec

full frames (uncompressed)

Thanks Bill (I actually have tried most of these)

[Lin Evans]

Hi Bill,

None of those are actually much help. I would download the K-Lite full pack or the Ace Megapack (perhaps the K-Lite has more current codecs) and install a few of the more popular ones such as Mpeg II and maybe Mpeg 4 and DivX, etc. Don't install any more than six or eight. You can get the Microsoft Mpeg 4 here:

http://www.afreecode...icrosoft-mpeg4/

Once you have a few of these you should be able to make a stand-alone AVI and MP4 without problems.

Best regards,

Lin