Hi Ron,

(I guess Norwegian will not go well??)

Slideshow matters have been up in posts many times over the
various numbers of PD. If search-function work these days, you should be
able to find good posts in PD9 forum.
This toot, made by the Cap'n, might also give you some hints.
It's made during #8, but should still apply.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=PDtoots#p/u/33/dMqUCY2rjJA

skål
Just something.
https://www.petitpoisvideo.com

Quote: Hi Ron,
(I guess Norwegian will not go well??)
skål

G'day Nina. Your norsk will be perfect ... mine is very uff! So lets please stick to Aussie English : I live a bit out of Oslo in Bærum.

Didn't think of looking at earlier versions of PD in the Search function but the video link you kindly guided me to was the best clue. Seems I have also found another method for when music is not yet part of the editing ... it works for slides but one has to avoid adding any 'true video' to the Timeline until the slide show is produced first!
Using my method, I worked as follows:
- Produced Slide Show in basic form
- Opened a new project and placed this 'video' in the time line and adjusted its length using ctrl and the 'hand'
- Added other 'true videos, text, colour boards, effects etc.
- Added music/voice over as needed
- Produced this full version and all was correct

Thanks for your help
Ha det
Ron CYa Ron (W10/i5gen8/Nvidia)
Someone famous once said: "We only have the 4th dimension of 'time' so that everything does not all happen at once"

It is very common practice to pre-produce parts of videos to be combined later. You are off to a good start! HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

RonH ... YES... you have the idea correct.... that is one very good way... if not the best way, when you halve everything you need to start with.

Almost all of my slide show projects are at least 1 to 1 1/2 hours long with hundreds of photos, hundreds of titles each different, and a hundreds transitions.

Although rendering it in parts is a good idea I can never do that. I keep it as one continuous project because I never get ALL the items I need to put in at once. So I put in "place holders" a color board with a preset name for the pictures I do not have yet, and when I do get the picture I need, I just rename it to the placeholders name, and overwrite the placeholder file with the new one and when PD starts the placeholder is now the picture I needed... I have several annual projects I do locally. One is the graduation video for the Senior class graduation. I have done it 15 years in a row, it is always 1 1/2 hours long and I have to make 300 copies. (at no charge I might add)

But if you have segments that are complete, rendering them and then plugging them back in the timeline as a video is the way to go.... Barry is correct in that idea. When I am working on a slide show. and I am near the end, I am still waiting for pictures/video that has to be plugged in all over the place... The place holders I use are different colors and each color is numbers up to number 20 in case I need that many for a particular spot. When I place the placeholder I rename it to what I will need to use later (like name-12) and when I get the picture I rename it to name-12 and overwrite the original name-12. When PD starts the next time the placeholder is gone and the picture is in it's place. I got that tip from Dafydd about 5 years ago...



I also NEVER use the magic slide show wizard. You can do so much more by doing it all yourself...

I always have my autosave set for 2 minutes, and I uses a save folder of my choice, not the default folder. Autosave actually saves your butt a lot if you use it a lot... and I always keep ALL the things I will use for a project in the same folder that is easy to find. And I keep the project "packed" in a sub folder of that folder. I work on some project for several months waiting for everything to trickle in...


__________________________________________
Windows 8 Pro 64 bit

CyberLink PowerDirector 10 Tutorials
PDtoots PowerDirector Tutorials

**NOTICE**
When you are asked to provide a DXDIAG you go the following link and do part "B". Your posted specs are NOT what we are looking for as they tell us nothing. The specs on the box of your computer mean nothing. The DXDIAG shows us how your computer is configured as it runs.

DXDIAG Link

Thanks for all your imputs and ideas.
My earlier comment 'produced this full version and all was correct' is sadly incorrect ... when I played the dvd on the tv there is significant 'judder' where I used the magic slide show wizard on either 'Highlight or Motion', these being the only two that I have so far tried out.

So I conclude that 'stretching' these wizard creations is not a good idea ... I stretched the approx x2 (using clrt/hand) and made various adjustments to the actual motion timings by shortening them using the keyframe features. I prefer my slides to be around 10sec long, including any transitions etc, but the wizard 'likes' them to be much shorter.

Overall, I conclude that its much faster to do 'your own thing' ... I spent many hours using the magic and ended up with an inferior result ... but I learnt a lot!

Has anyone had success using wizard slideshows
Is there any way of overcoming my problems CYa Ron (W10/i5gen8/Nvidia)
Someone famous once said: "We only have the 4th dimension of 'time' so that everything does not all happen at once"

Ron -

I've used the Slideshow templates a fair bit in various "family" productions, but I've never
(a) stretched any sections hugely, or
(b) relied on DVD production

I certainly think you're onto something, even if it's not good! Certainly, the combination of greatly increasing slideshow duration & burning to DVD are going to be contributing factors. Particularly when there's motion involved, it sounds to me like that would be pushing PD to its limits. I agree with you that the inability to control the duration of each image is a limiting feature.

I'm going to do some digging to locate the .xml files that control how the templates function. Maybe there's a way of making them more flexible.

Ron - here's a video I made for my Dad's 80th birthday last year. There's no sound because YouTube didn't like the songs I chose for some reason Anyway - you can see the slideshow templates in action throughout. When it was played from my laptop onto a huge screen, it looked crisp & sharp with none of the problems you're describing... because of (a) & (b) above. It was played as a Full HD AVC H.264.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ynotfish777?feature=watch#p/a/u/0/OsN4qBoVRww

It's uploaded as a 1280x720 WMV so it doesn't look nearly as good as the original (1920x1080 m2ts). It's also over 30 minutes long, so you might want to just flick through it.

I'll get back to you if I have any luck with those files & modifying them.

Cheers - Tony




Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Hei Tony,
Great video and lots of use of the wizard slideshow maker. I like the way you have used many of the variations within the one video ... didn't think of that! Shows that I have a lot to learn and that is good because the fun is in the journey.

Yes, I would love it if the slide times could be flexible ... I tried all I could think of but ended up with ctrl/hand. It must be possible to acheive a good result hope hope. One prob that I had also was I generated huge temp files with all my 'tries' on the 1+hr show ... I was loathe to delete anything and slowly PD 10 ground to a halt! I was pushing it much too hard and got the result I deserved ... this morning PD10 would not open but a few reboots, coffee etc got it all back to normal and its been 'cleaned'.

I am sure a lot of us would be pleased if there is a way of 'stretching' these wizard productions so good luck with your digging.

Thanks again.
Ron
CYa Ron (W10/i5gen8/Nvidia)
Someone famous once said: "We only have the 4th dimension of 'time' so that everything does not all happen at once"

Is this what you are looking for

Quote: Is this what you are looking for

That is where I have set the 10sec but Magic Slideshow does its own thing it seems. However Magic Movie Maker does provide more flexibility so I am in experimentation mode ... Fun times CYa Ron (W10/i5gen8/Nvidia)
Someone famous once said: "We only have the 4th dimension of 'time' so that everything does not all happen at once"

Quote:

Quote: Is this what you are looking for

That is where I have set the 10sec but Magic Slideshow does its own thing it seems. However Magic Movie Maker does provide more flexibility so I am in experimentation mode ... Fun times

That is your mistake Do not use Magic Slideshow set every thing up your self.

Quote:

Quote:

Quote: Is this what you are looking for

That is where I have set the 10sec slide duration but Magic Slideshow does its own thing it seems. However Magic Movie Maker does provide more flexibility so I am in experimentation mode ... Fun times

That is your mistake Do not use Magic Slideshow set every thing up your self.

As I explained, I did set the 10sec myself on the Edit Preference page to which you refer in your link so this is not the limitation. It is 'preset' in the Wizard Slideshow variations and not generally alterable as far as I understand. But if you know the solution then I am all ears.
Thanks for your interest
Ron CYa Ron (W10/i5gen8/Nvidia)
Someone famous once said: "We only have the 4th dimension of 'time' so that everything does not all happen at once"

I never use the slide show wizard for those reasons... BUT if you only have a hand full of photos it seems to work better than a lot of pictures. With 30-40 pictures or more, older versions of the Wizard would leave out about half your pictures......

Tony... you tube will not let me view that video..... I am in the wrong country..... sometimes that is a true statement..... __________________________________________
Windows 8 Pro 64 bit

CyberLink PowerDirector 10 Tutorials
PDtoots PowerDirector Tutorials

**NOTICE**
When you are asked to provide a DXDIAG you go the following link and do part "B". Your posted specs are NOT what we are looking for as they tell us nothing. The specs on the box of your computer mean nothing. The DXDIAG shows us how your computer is configured as it runs.

DXDIAG Link

Quote: I never use the slide show wizard for those reasons... BUT if you only have a hand full of photos it seems to work better than a lot of pictures. With 30-40 pictures or more, older versions of the Wizard would leave out about half your pictures......

Lesson learnt ... the hard way but then you don't forget!
Be good though if a 'deal can be struck' with Cyberlink CYa Ron (W10/i5gen8/Nvidia)
Someone famous once said: "We only have the 4th dimension of 'time' so that everything does not all happen at once"