|
|
Stevek
Fair enough, We'll simply agree to disagree. Though I may try your folder idea at some stage, to see how it works. But burning a DVD at HQ, does consume disc space, I'm one who likes to pack a lot into my videos! Sometimes they may be on one subject(like the annual Steamfest, held every April at Maitland, NSW, on the second weekend of that month. It's a weekend when all the steam locomotive enthusiasts descend on that city, video and stills cameras in hand, some hand-held, some on tripods. I just finished editing an hour's worth of video from my own camera and that of a friend for a combined video, the result of which I've extremely pleased with. I recorded the narration in a separate audio recording software and imported the narration as an MP3 track. With each comment I left a bit of a gap( a few seconds) between each comment so I'd have a point to snip, then cut, move along to the next point where the commentary is needed, paste and cut at the end of that comment, repeating the process until the last bit of commentary is in place. The resulting video ran for a smidgin over an hour, so I'll save it and put it with another video(of the same subject, or something else entirely, of at least an hour's duration). And it's this desire to pack a good 2 hour's worth of content into a disc, is the reason I ALWAYS burn at DVD SP. And because I'm shooting with a digital camera, I'm getting sharp, clean images and it's really hard to distinguish between SP or HQ. It's all "much of a muchness", really. As for the DVD player, it's built-in to the base of my flat-screen TV. It will happily play all commercially-made DVDs, including dual-layer, but WON'T touch a home-burn dual-layer, no matter where it was made or who made it. As for region codes, we're in Region 4 in Australia, but that does not apply to home-burn DVDs which are NOT region-encoded. The only reason for the Region-encoding is for the "big boys" like Warner, Universal, Paramount, Village-Roadshow(Aussie) and the likes to control their markets more closely. They're not the least bit interested in the movies themselves, they're just interested in counting the moolah as it pours into their coffers!
P.S. Hardware and Software encoding are a bit above my league - I'm self-taught and have picked up quite a few editing skills, but the inner "guts" of a computer are something I eave to those more knowledgable than myself. As for discs, I always use DVD+R from mainly Verbatim or TDK, companies with solid reputations in this field of recording media.(had to edit again - noticed a missing letter which is now in place( "my" should've been "may" - Keyboard Gremlins, you see! Ha-Ha!)
|
|
|
Carl,
MP3 files may sound good, but the timing drifts
Obviously that may be more of a problem with the user's computer.
In this past 24 to 48 hours I've completed editing on a video of an event held here called "Steamfest". It is centred on the City of Maitland, NSW and is held over the second weekend in April(during our Autumn, which runs from 1st March to 31st May). The event is all about steam locomotives(though some diesel locos get in on the act and there are some vintage rail motor pairs can also be seen at these events). I recorded the narration in Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio 10, then imported the resulting MP3 file into my work and used a cut-paste arrangement to drop the bits of narration at each spot where it was required. I had no problem with "drifting".
The video content in this production comprised material shot by myself using a Panasonic SDR-S71 and from a friend who was using a JVC Evario camera. I simply copied the content from the SD cards of each camera to my computer, renamed the files, brought'em into my PD8 and started snippin' and fittin' and it all came together very nicely! I wish I could upload it but the file size is far too large.
Cheers for now!
Neil.
|
|
|
|
Stevek, unless I miss my guess, our friend, "heismystrength" is intending to produce a video of his/her own wedding, recently shot. And I'm guessing the camera may well have been SD card-based. So, let's also assume our friend has one of the more recent Power Director versions, say, PD10 or PD11. Actually it matters not which of the PD programmes are in use, the main suggestion I would make is to burn the disc in SP and avoid problems of freezing when playing on domestic DVD players. It has been my experience with any video I make, if it's in HQ, a) I lose disc capacity[from 2 hours and 20 minutes down to an hour and 10, a 50% drop], and b) the video stutters and freezes at various spots through the playing on domestic players. It seems domestic DVD players can't handle HQ discs when they're home-burned! By setting your produce and disc authoring(burning) parameters to DVD SP, you avoid a lot of those problems but retain a clear and sharp image on screen anyway! As for the audio, that setting is available in the producing stage. After you've set the video's rendering parameters(producing), tick the box for Dolby 5.1 sound. It may not be immediately evident on a home DVD player, played through a normal stereo TV set, but there may be some improvement in the audio.
|
|
|
|
Hi, Martyn.C! The suggestion I would make borrows from Ynotfish, as far as the shooting of the sequence goes, but in the editing I'd take a different approach. Add the sequence with your daughter going into her spin as the starting point of the sequence, then add the piece where she's in costume, coming out of the spin. These should be on the master video track. Between these shots, add a transition effect, such as "glow" and set it for about 3 seconds duration. To add that extra touch of magic, add a delay effect from the effects room(the second icon down, below the clapperboard icon, "media room) set the effect to start at the point where your daughter starts her spin, and end - naturally - where she stops spinning and heads off to "save the world".
|
|
|
|
Thanks for the heads-up, Carl312! And to lukasDED, Hope you solve your problem soon! Carl and others have a touch more expertise than me on this matter, so I'll leave it to them. My only comment was that I genuinely have had no problems using MP3, either on the narration(voice) track or the music track(s) with PD5, 7 or 8!
|
|
|
|
Hi, all! I came on-line because I was notified by Email I had a response to my post on this matter, but upon coming on-line I see the question asked by Carl312 wasn't aimed at me, but rather at LukasDED. But in the event that Carl's question might've also been directed toward me, I'll answer thus: I've had no problem with MP3 audio files and can use them easily and safely on ALL audio tracks in PD8 and was able to use them easily in PD7. As I explained in my description of how I occasionally add narration to my videos, these narration tracks are MP3, as are any music "beds"(background music) I may insert. Using MP3 audio has never caused me any problems at all.
|
|
|
|
Funny, this. I've never had any problem using MP3 in any of my projects, first in PD5, then in PD7 and now in PD8. I often record my narration tracks in MP3 using Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio 10, then import them to be inserted into my work. To do so I first edit my video, then watch it through, pausing at bits and writing down notes to relate to those points on the video. I then read those notes into a microphone, recording into SF10, Do any audio adjustments as are needed and save as "Narration Track For....", note that between each read, I leave a gap of a few seconds so I know where I can split the audio track. I add the track to any of the audio tracks(it doesn't necessarily HAVE to go on the track with the microphone icon). At the end of each comment, I split and cut(ctrl+x), then watch until the next comment point comes up, then paste(ctrl+v), listen to the end of that comment, then repeat the cut and paste process, doing so until all the parts of my narration are in the spots I want them to be. I ALWAYS edit in TIMELINE rather than storyboard as it gives greater control of what I'm doing.
|
|
|
Is the PiP a still image or a video clip? If a still image, you can stretch it, click at the end and drag along the timeline, or set the wanted length using the "duration" setting. If it's a video clipit is fixed to however long the clip plays for. You just have to remember to shoot a longer sequence to use for your effect.
Cheers!
|
|
|
Hi, Stevek! Thumb drives? We usually refer to them here as "flash" drives but I can see how you'd call them, as you do, because they (almost) resemble a thumb. The answer to your query is: No! The TV, though it is an LCD flat-screen set, has no USB port, the DVD player built into the base, likewise has no USB port. However, I can play back from such a flash drive into the TV by way of a set-top-box which has a PVR function. I can play MPEG2 but I'm not sure, until I've tried it, whether I can play AVI files through the PVR.
Something interesting I've learned recently, and I've only been able to do this with Windows 7(couldn't do it with Windows XP), and that is: successfully play back on my computer via Windows Media Player, what I've recorded on my PVR. Trying this on XP got nothing but hash-noise and no image(ugh!), plus I've been able to copy the file to my hard-drive then edit it in Power Director 8. Mind you, these is a catch(isn't there always?), It only works with "standard-definition" signals. Our ABC, a non-commercial "national" network, has a news channel called ABC24, which broadcasts on digital(Australian) ch.24, but in "High Definition" I recorded an edition of the "Insiders" political chat show from ABC24, got no audio and hurried through the video, plus recorded in three files, but totally unusable for a computer. Won't be trying that again any time soon!
Cheers for now!
Neil.
|
|
|
Hi, Stevek! Yes, we can buy them for around A$10 or so, maybe more, maybe less. But I've found that even burning regular MPEG2 to these discs in the same way I'd produce a single-layer disc, is problematic. Domestic DVD players won't accept home-burned dual-layer discs, though they'll happily play on any computer. It's for this reason that I generally only use them for storage of MPEG2, MP3 or other types of file. It's no point me spending an hour or more in putting together a DVD of over four hours of content, create a menu, and burn to a DVD-9(dual-layer) disc if it ain't-a gonna play on-a my DVD player!(fake Italian accent there from a fake Italian - no, I'm not Italian!). As for double-layer(if you equate them as double-sided) discs, I've only seen the odd commercially processed movie disc in this format but haven't seen anything for home video burning. The main problem there is label space, or the lack thereof. But if you're referring to double-layer as an alternate term to dual-layer, then what I said earlier applies. It's just a waste of effort to go to all the trouble to make a three- or four-hour video compilation if you can't play it on anything else but a computer. To answer your other question(briefly), yes, I do see a difference, a detrimental one. A) the capacity of the disc is reduced to one hour, and B) the discs tend to freeze during playback on a DVD player. Picture quality-wise, there's no discernible difference, but if you render a video in HQ and burn in HQ, you get the freezing effect, if you render in HQ but burn to disc in SP, you regain the disc capacity but still get the freezing effect. It's always best to render the video and burn in DVD-SP. There's NO real advantage in HQ, there are only disadvantages!
Cheers for now!
Neil.
|
|
|
Thanks for the rapid reply Dafydd, but after what you've told me, I think I'll cut my losses and continue with good ol' MPEG2. As an old Australian TV commercial for a brand of insecticide spray once said, "when you're on a good thing, stick to it!" So I'll continue to render(produce) my videos to MPEG2 at DV-SP quality so I can fit 2 hours-plus onto a standard DVD-5(4.7Gb) disc.
Cheers, all!
|
|
|
I'm not entirely sure about DivX or XVid, to be honest. I only know the disc containing these movies played on my domestic player without any problems so I'm assuming my DVD player(built-in to the base of a flat-screen LCD wide-screen TV, which only had an analogue tuner, requiring me to use set-top-box to receive digital TV, but that's beside the point) is compatible to those types of discs.
As for the computer, Windows Media Player will handle the files off the discs. The reason I asked is that I have an external hard-drive(one of three) dedicated to movie features and TV content(sit-coms, dramas, documentaries and such-like) It's a 1TB capacity hard-drive, another which is 2TB has all my home movies(and stuff I've edited for friends), and the third is around 350GB and is for general stuff - word and publisher documents, bitmaps and MP3s of my music. I'd like to take those movie features and re-render them to the compressed AVI file type, to free up space on my 1TB external hard-drive. I'm hoping the DV-AVI option in my PD8 will do this job. As I said, the last time I looked at this option, I was using a Windows XP computer running PD7, the AVI option would've rendered the content at several gigabytes rather than the less-tan-1 gigabyte I was looking for, thereby defeating my purpose. If this DV-AVI rendering proves successful, I could then, drop a few titles on one disc for friends of anything I have that they might be interested in, just by using the old drag-&-drop method of copying files to disc - easy-peasey!
|
|
|
If by "thumb drive" do you mean those little "flash" drives, that are of values up to 32 gigabytes, but are usually bought in popular capacities of 8 or 16 gigabytes, you can save an MPEG-2 video file in either PAL or NTSC to one of these devices, it's just a matter of copy+paste(ctrl+c for copy) from where you've stored the file on your hard-drive, then (ctrl+v for paste) to the "thumb" or "flash" drive plugged into a USB port on your computer, then pack it and send it! It's likely the better method as it avoids DVD player compatibility problems. Modern digital-tuner TVs can handle video content in NTSC and PAL anyway. And they generally have USB ports on them to play video as well.
Cheers!
|
|
|
I'm not too sure about this 24p business, I usually go by the fact that video shot in the PAL colour system has 25 frames per second and video shot in NTSC colour system has 30 frames per second. This variance is due to the line frequency of the power supply(not how many volts) Our Australian power supply is delivered at 50Hz(cycles per second) while I the USA and Canada, the power is delivered at 60Hz. Basically it works out at 1 frame of image for each two cycles of power delivered.
A bit of history here: In 1972, the Australian Government announced that Colour TV would come to Australia in three years from a date to be determined. That date was 1st March. In the intervening three years the stations geared up for the switch, acquiring all the necessary bits, cameras, monitors, image mixing desks - the whole kit and caboodle! Even as early as 1972 it was the government's decision that the system we would adopt was the German PAL system as it was the proven superior colour TV broadcast system out of all three. The American NTSC system still had phase-shift problems and the French SECAM system was so awfully bad that they couldn't even use it in their studios(the French won't admit it but they had to equip their studios in PAL, then transcode the signal to SECAM at the transmitter). In late October, 1974 the stations started test transmissions in colour - sports events like the 1974 Melbourne Cup, cricket test matches and such, entertainment shows like Young Talent Time, The Mike Walsh Show, soapies, like the infamous Number 96, all manner of Aussie and overseas shows were given brief glimpses, then came the big day, 1st March, 1975... And we haven't looked back!
|
|
|
Hi, I'm asking this because I normally produce my work to MPEG-2. I got a bit curious about AVI after a friend gave me a DVD with 5(not 1, but 5) full-length feature movies contained thereon, complete in 16:9 widescreen and stereo sound - and splendid picture quality. They were stored to the disc in AVI file type and each movie clocked in at around 650-700 megabytes - less than 1 gigabyte! The last time I attempted to save anything in AVI was using PD7 on my previous computer which ran Windows XP. I aborted before starting the render because I saw that it would swallow up anywhere between 15 and 25 gigabytes - OUCH! So which AVI file type to I need to render to, in order to get these sorts of figures(of less than one gigabyte)? I know there are two types of AVI file, which do I need?
Cheers!
|
|
|
|
Just adding to Jaime-Esque's remarks, it may depend on the make and model of DVD player used by your rellies in America. Some early entry-level models(basic players) may only handle the colour system for the country for which they're intended, for the USA and Canada, that's NTSC which is built around a 117 volt/60hz power supply but our country uses the German-developed PAL system, built around a 240-250 volt/50hz power supply, and it's the frequency of the power supply, not the voltage, which determines the frame-rate. 60hz + 30 frames per second; 50hz = 25 frames per second. But better model DVD players have a compatibility feature in them which allows them to play videos in other colour systems. Many TV sets will have the same compatibility built in. This compatibility goes back to VHS tape-based VCRs that had a provision to play NTSC 4.43 or 3.38(one of which is a Japanese derivative) tapes through PAL TV sets, and I'm almost certain America had VHS decks that could play PAL tapes through NTSC TV sets. So it all comes back to the DVD player and its capabilities. The one element you certainly DO NOT have to worry about is "what region?" Commercial DVDs have a region code embedded which means that even if the colour system matches, that region code will trip you up if you tried to play an American import commercially-made feature film DVD on your Australian player. The USA and Canada are "Region 1", we are in "Region 4". This system(an unnecessary extra complication) was added to big companies like Time/Warner, Paramount, Universal, Columbia/Tri-Star and others could control the markets for their product more closely. Thank goodness we humble little "Cecil B. DeMille" wannabes can produce a disc that will play anywhere, provided the player is compatible.
|
|
|
Hi, Carl312. The camera was dirt-cheap because it lacked its auxiliary components(battery, power-pack, etc.) but I hope to throw something together to get it up and running as a future project(not too far into the future, I hope). If it works, terrific! I'll have the means to play back camera tapes from my old Samsung mono model(bought new in 2001 but recently "turned up its toes", "carked it", breathed its last... you know what I'm getting at) and any stereo tapes from friends, as long as they're analogue, because the cassette format was used for later digital camera models. I got caught out before on that, don't want to be tripped up like that again. I'll rummage through any old transformers I might have(battery eliminators). If I find a spare 6-volter, I'll snip the plug and put a couple of alligator-clips on it. Job done! And if, after all that, the camera doesn't work, I'm only out by a measley two bucks! Hardly worth crying over, I'll just check out the pawn shops for a better-conditioned replacement, that's all.
Cheers for now!
|
|
|
|
As you have by now figured out, transitions can only be added to the "native" video track in Power Director, so if you're intending to add video overlay on a PiP track and want to add a transition, it may be best to join the two wanted clips together for this purpose as a separate item, giving it a name like "insert item" or something like that. If more than one of these are required, given them numbers, e.g. "Insert Item 1, 2, 3 and so on. These could be short bits that, on their own are less than 10 seconds duration but together may add up to 15 or 20 seconds, depending on the length of the transition. Transitions do eat up some of your running time. If you set your transition effect at, say, 5 seconds, each time you add a transition, that's the amount of time by which your video work will be shortened. If you're using Corel Video Studio, you can add a transition between two clips on a PiP track but you're restricted to 1-second duration. Just a tip.
|
|
|
Hi, DJP, I honestly wish you good luck but I think I have exhausted all possible solutions that I could come up with for your problem.
And hello, Carl312. I ended up buying that Hi-8 stereo videocamera, it's a Canon, UC-X15Hi8 model, for the PAL system. Its power requirements are 6volts DC and the battery terminals are exposed to a little rigged-up adaptor(alligator-clips to a miniature socket should do the trick with a multi-voltage battery eliminator pack set to 6 volts from 240 volts AC(50Hz) Australian standard. The reason I'm chasing this is so I can transfer Video-8 and Hi-8 camera tapes to DVD for myself or friends. How much did I pay? Just $2 at a recycling centre. If it don't work I'm just down by two bucks! Nothin' drastic!
Cheers!
|
|
|
Hi, Carl312. I think one of them was a Sony, the other might've been a Canon. Buying from recycling centres has its risks, the device might not work if you get the rest of the "kit" that goes with it. These are cameras that have been dumped by the previous owners, more often than not for the simple reason that they've bought themselves the newest model. I'll more likely check out some second-hand goods(pawn) shops and other op-shops in the Newcastle area, next time I'm there. I'm not in any hurry to find one.
Cheers!
DJP, might be time to upgrade! Look about for a new digital camera. They generally all use SD-card storage these days. This is good because, even without the camera's software, you can still access the content by slotting the SD card into a card reader.
|
|
|
|
Hi again, DJP. It seems Rocket Science might be an easier subject than a cam-corder's refusal to interface with a computer(ha-ha!). The reason I asked if you had a second DV-camera/recorder was based on my friend having two from the same maker(Canon, I believe). If you have a recycling centre nearby, keep an eye out, you may be able to pick one up fairly cheaply, as people are discarding tape-based camera/recorders in favour of SD card-based units. I'm actually on the look-out for a used Video-8 or Hi-8 camera as I have some tapes in that format that I want to copy, but my poor old Samsung has died the death on me. I saw a couple of models at a recycling centre near my home but they were missing their power-packs(batteries and recharger kits). Pity! They were stereo Hi-8 jobs too, would've come in handy if any of my friends had stereo camera tapes they wanted put on DVD. I'm still lookin'! In the meantime I continue to use my trusty Panasonic SDR-S71. Hope you eventually sort out your interface problem. Sorry I couldn't have been more help to you. By the way, in your post before last, you appeared to have a problem with "keyboard gremlins", letters missing or jumbled in some of the words! It's a real bugger when that happens!
|
|
|
