Slideshow duration

jbrett14

Newbie Joined: Jan 27, 2013 12:02 Messages: 7 Offline

Solved by

Jan 27, 2013 18:35

OK, can someone tell me the logic behind this?

In the "Slideshow Preferences" > "Duration" options, it lists two:

"Fit photos to music" and "Fit music to photos"

I understand that to fit music to photos, it will shorten the music to fit the length of time that the photos will display. This makes some sense. But when choosing "fit photos to music", one would think that it would increase the duration of each photo in order for the entire slideshow to equal the time of the music. This is how my old Nero program does it, and it makes perfect sense. But this program does NOT fit the photos to music, instead it just REPEATS all the photos, again and again, until the music ends.

This is a very poor design. It's as if no thought went into this.

I don't get it. Why would a 5 year old program from Nero get this very simple concept and yet this new CyberLink program does not? Am I missing something?

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Jan 27, 2013 19:55

Which slideshow did you choose? 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.
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ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Online

Jan 27, 2013 19:56

Hi jbrett -

You're missing nothing. You're right - it's a bit primitive! It's been like that in previous versions of PD too. PD does not do any calculation of music duration divided by number of images, when that is probably what you're after.

If you select "Fit photos to Music", let PD build the slideshow, then choose "Advanced Editing" to return to the timeline... then right click > "Show Individual Photos", you'll see how many images have been repeated.

e.g. 24 photos in timeline - select fit to music - 2 minute piece (by division 5 seconds each) - PD repeats 16 images. In other words, for single image display slideshows, PD is locked into an image duration of about 4.5 seconds. Using the multi image templates (Montage, Scrapbook etc), even more are repeated.

The way around it (depends a bit on the template you want to use) is to:
1. Import your images
2. Build the slideshow without music
3. Produce (without music)
4. Clear the timeline
5. Insert the produced SS file
6. Import the music
7. Use Power Tools > Video Speed to change the SS video duration to match the music

This tutorial from Cap'n Kevin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMqUCY2rjJA shows how it's done.

I agree that it's a bit of mucking round... and that it would be better if "Fit Photos to Music" meant just that.

Cheers - Tony
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jbrett14

Newbie Joined: Jan 27, 2013 12:02 Messages: 7 Offline

Jan 27, 2013 20:25

Quote: Which slideshow did you choose?

Any of them. They all present the same problem.

jbrett14

Newbie Joined: Jan 27, 2013 12:02 Messages: 7 Offline

Jan 27, 2013 20:39

Tony, thanks for that response. You confirmed that it's not just me.

This is really a bad design. What good does it do to have a "slideshow" feature that you cannot even alter the duration of the images? This makes no sense whatsoever.

I think I will just stick to creating my slideshow by not using the "slideshow" tab, and just continue as if making a movie. That way at least I can change the duration for the images to fit my song. It would have been a nice shortcut to have been able to use the "slideshow" tab as it eliminates having to create a menu, transitions, etc.

They really need to change this flaw in the program. At very least, they need to change the option from "fit photos to music" to "REPEAT photos to music". There is a HUGE difference. Not sure who in their right mind would interpret "fit photos to music" into a repeating function, but thus far, those I have asked, have thought the same thing I do.

Overall this program does have some nice things, but it is not nearly as user-friendly as my old Nero program. And the instructions & tutorials are lacking in detail. If only my old Nero program would work with my newer camera outputs. I feel like I down-graded. I wonder if any makers have a sensible slideshow creator.