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For the past couple of days I've been getting a pop-up asking me to update to a new version of PD10. My copy of PD10 is working just fine, and I hate to disturb something which is working well. I've been reluctant to install the update, since updates of some programs have caused serious problems. I haven't seen anything on the PD10 forum about the new update. Has anyone installed it? Have there been any problems with it?
Bill Hansen
Ithaca, NY, USA
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Even before you make your slide show, be very careful about the resolution and sharpening of your original images, unless they're subjects which dont require a lot of fine detail. Charts and graphs, and some landscapes, will do well almost no matter how you handle the originals, but photos of pets and other animals, for example, will show up every bit of grain or digital noise at a large display size. Also, it's very easy to oversharpen images if they're to be displayed at a very large size. Sharpening which is perfect for a display of 1000 pixels transversely will be way too much for a display of 3600 pixels, and so forth.
Others will give better informed replies to the video part, but my undetstanding is that either MEPG4 (not MEPG-2!) or AVC H.264 will provide maximal video quality. There's even a neat way to project the resulting MP4 or M2TS files, which Dafydd Bevan has pointed out.
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Thanks Dafydd. I'll hold off on posting the screen shots and the video clip. My next "try" will be reducing the video bitrate from 13Mpbs to 9 Mpbs, same 720X1280 resolution. If that works, it may give me the compromise I've been looking for.
And once again - many thanks to you and all the others who are willing to offer your help. You make PD possible for those of us who are newcomers. Not every program or forum is lucky enough to have people like you.
Bill
POST EDITED
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That new audio bitrate is 128, of course. I keep forgetting that this forum uses smilies by default.
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More info on this - I just checked the Produce file of that video, after it rendered in (what I hope was) my attempted custom profile. The file size is 1.13 GB, while the file size of the original H.264AVC file (no clips were changed or edited, except for the decrease in resolution to 720X1280 and the decrease in audio bitrate from 360 to 12 - so maybe my custom profile was applied after all. The resulting file play very well on my 24 inch computer monitor (yes, my camera work and my control of exposure, contrast, WB and noise need a lot of work - but that will come, in time).
Bill
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Dafydd - Thanks for your reply. I did write to the forum recently, about attempting a custom profile, but I had other things about PD to learn, so I never quite got to the custom profile.
You wrote:
2. I know we've gone through the SVRT custom use previously and i want to make sure what you're using is SVRT/mp4 compliant.
Would it help if I also post the screen shots of my recent attempt to create a custom profile with PD 10? I'd post them as attachments to an email to this thread.
I will also post a short clip of the video in question, once I know whether you'd also like me to post the screen shots. I assume you want a clip of the video itself. That video has previously been rendered in H.264 (so if I post a clip of the video itself, it would be in AVC), but I could post one of the original, unedited MTS clips if that would be preferable.
FYI - the video was shot at AVCHD 1080, 60p using a Panasonic TM900 camcorder.
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I've been trying to create a custom profile, starting with MPEG4, hoping to find settings which will allow me to upload good quality HD video to YouTube in less than 4-5 hours' time for a 10-15 minute video. I'd like something better than MEPG2, but I think (only for the purposes of YouTube) I can live with slightly less quality than full MPEG4. For my own use I'll continue to burn and/or playfull H.264 AVC. The profile I've started with seems to look okay on the screen, but it appears that it isn't applied to videos when I click to use the new custom profile. At least,when I think I've applied the custom profile, there is no change in file size from produced version done in the 1920X1280 profile.
Here's the profile, with the changed values in italics: Resolution of the "custom profile" is 720X1280 - bitrate 13,000,000 - audio bitrate 128 - quality indicator 6 (looks like that can't be changed unless it's moved to 1) - Framerate remains at 59.94 - "profile type"="main profile" - avg bitrate 13000000.
I have 5 screen shotsof the profile settings and I can post them, if they will be helpful.
In summary, I haven't changed much, so far except the resolution and the audio bitrate. I would be grateful for advice on whether (and how much) to change the average bitrate, file type, video bitrate of 13,000,000, and whether the quality indicator can or should be changed.
I'd also be grateful for advice on how to be sure the custom profile is going to be applied. If I click on SVRT while in the MPEG4 mode, the resulting dropdown box does not contail the "custom profile" and the "Apply" button is blacked out (inoperative).
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LuLuBee - If you download the free program Belarc Advisor, and run it, it will analyze all the components of your computer. It will tell you the make and model of your graphics card. You can then go to the website of the graphics card manufacturer (be careful that you're not misdirected to a fake site! - that happened to me, and it was quite confusing for a little while) and download the latest driver.
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Aha! Thanks for the visual road map of how this option is found. I went back to your original reply, and I was (and am) just not knoweldgeable enough to follow it. In fact I've been keeping SVRT turned off, because of some early troubles which may have been complicated by SVRT. But I can follow the procedure as you've outlined it in this latest post. Thank you very much!
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Quote:
I render to 59.97fps and have no problems playing on a TV.
How do you do that with PD10? That was my original question when I posted this thread - how could I burn at 60p using PD10.... So - is that something I could do - and if so, where in PD 10 is the option to do that?
Or have you set up a custom burn profile? (I am guessing that setting up a custom burn profile would be beyond my abilities, but it would be nice to know that it could be done.)
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Jaime-esque - But don't you have to burn it somewhere,either to disc or to the computer's HD or a thum in order to view it? And if you're not going to view it, what's the point of producing/rendering it?
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Jaime-esque - But don't you have to burn it to something - disc, HD, thumb drive - in order to view it? And if you're not going to view it, why produce/render it at all?
I'm content that there is no way to burn in 60p, and (I didn't know this) that there's no way to view 60p on "ordinary" computers or TVs at present - I'm just a little puzzled that the option to render in 60p is there, if it can't be used for anything.
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Abslayer - I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who's puzzled by the inability to burn at 60p.
For what it's worth, I've rendered several short videos at 60i and others at 60p, burned them at 1920X1080 60i, and they play well on my more powerful desktop computer, and also on the TV.
Of course, computers which can't handle AVCHD cannot play those videos. To play a video on my laptop, which is old and underpowered, I can still render at 60i or 60p, but I must burn it as a "DVD". Using the "DVD HQ" choice in the Produce page, the videos come out fairly well - nowhere near as good as AVCHDs, but with a lot of care in processing/editing, they can be acceptable.
I have not used the 24p options in PD 10.
Bill
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Jaime-esque - Thanks for that answer. Just to be sure I've understood correctly - there's no way to burn in 60p, using PD10. Doesn't it follow, then, that there's no point in rendering in 60p? Just let PD render in its 60i default and follow through with burning at 60i?
Omitting the ability to burn at 60p seems a shame, but I wonder - would the difference (between burning at 60i and burning at 60p) even be noticeable during playback?
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Hi Dafydd -
I understand what you say, and of course I know the difference between rendering/producing and burning the disc. I am able to produce in 60p, but I do not see an option to burn AVCHD in 60p, which is what I want to do. Videos at 60i are good, but I don't see why PD would allow me to render (produce) at 60p and then not allow the final video to be burned at 60p, which is what I want to do.
FWIW - of course there are several options to burn at 60i and 24p - I see those - but I don't see an option for 60p.
So - is there an option to burn AVCHD at 60p in PD 10? If there is one, how do I access it? In the Create Disc/AVCHD page there are several 60i options and 24p options, but I don't see 60p.
Bill
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Another starkly Noob question - but I'm not going to learn if I don't ask questions -
PD 10 gives me the option to produce H.264 at 60p, though I notice that PD's default seems to be 60i. I don't see an option to burn in 60p, only in 60i or 24p. That seems to defeat the purpose of producing in 60p. Is there in fact a way to burn in 60p - and if there really is no option to burn in 60p, why is that?
Thanks - Bill Hansen
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Tony - I replying to RKKs question, you recommended:
Using a standard DVD, go to Create Disc - select (Disc Type) AVCHD > (Profile) 1920x1080 60i - burn & play in BR player
Isn't there an option to burn AVCHD in 60p? (I thought there was, but just now,checking my PD10 with a clip produced in H.264 1920X1080 60p, I see only a 60i option in Create Disc/2D Disc.)
Bill Hansen
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Thanks Dafydd - I'll attend to those things. It's been a while since I had the case off, and we now have three dogs, so there are lots of opportunities for dust and dog hair.
Bill
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Hal and others -
The practice of bringing the mpg files (from Preferences/Export) into a software media player before burning them to HD or disc is very helpful. Thanks to everyone who helped me find this and understand it - especially to Hal, for your patience and for the lengthy explanation.
It doesn't solve the "green screen" problem, but I can live with that mystery. It doesn't happen often, and thanks to Tony's suggestions I know what to do about it when it occurs.
I'm all set until the next mini-crisis. :
Bill
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Aha! This was very very helpful! A few lightbulbs went off as I read. I'm pretty sure I still don't understand it all - but at least I know how to bring the mpg files into the time line, and that's a big jump forward.
I went to a 13 clip project which I had previously rendered in MPEG-2, brought it into PD, re-rendered it without any further editing, just to be sure I was following the procedure you outlined. Rather than "pack" that project, I went to Preferences/Edit/Export and set a new folder as the Export folder. For some reason, only 4 of my 13 clips went into the new Export folder. They were brought into Create Disc and played in the Preview there. They looked considerably darker than they did originally, though no changes had been made to them, but otherwise they were unchanged. I took everything out of PD, went to File/Open Project, brought the original project back into PD to be sure I hadn't lost the other 9 clips along the way. All 13 clips were there, and brightness was the same as I remembered it from earlier in the day. I haven't had time to burn them to the HD, but from past experience, I expect brightness and all other attributes of the movie will be the same as the rendered project appears, except for the amount of video noise, which will be greater than it appears in Create Disc viewer. Brightness of the final burned versions has always been the same as brightness in the Edit preview, and also in the Create Disc viewer.
I need to stop obsessing about this for a few hours. Tomorrow I'll re-produce the thirteen clips in MPEG-2 again, Export to that separate folder, and see how they play then.
Thanks very much for taking the time to write this all up for me, and special thanks for the screen shot. I knew about the Export location, but for the past few weeks I haven't been paying enough attention to it.
I'll post back to this thread after I've run my next attempt through Edit/Produce/Edit/Export and then played it in WMV, Nero, or other player.
Bill
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Maybe I can save a little bandwidth by replying to both of your notes in this one.
Hal first, because I'm totally confused about how to import a pds file into the time line. I tried, and of course the whole project comes up. So obviously I haven't understood what you suggested. I also tried playing a pds file in WMP and in Easy Media Player. Not surprisingly, neither of them would recognize the pds. So - exactly - how do you import a rendered project into either the time line or another software media player?Is it the pds file you import, or something else? Do you import via "import media files" or some other choice? Of course I know how to play the rendered project in the previewer on the Create Disc page. I do that all the time. But the Create Disc previewer does not indicate the amount of noise I'll see in the final burned version of a DVD format. It works fine for AVCHD, but as you know, it's not accurate for DVD.
Tony - I did as I said I would, and put the offending clip into the time line with *not edits at all* and one clip before it, one clip behind it. I got the same green screen as before. This time, for the first time, I could see a green band just before the offending clip would begin. I thought "AHA!" I'll just remove this green band, and the problem will be solved. No such luck. With the green band removed, no green visible even with the time line spread out, I still got the green screen. Removed the whole offending clip - and as before, the rest of the little video played normally. It will have to remain a mystery.
Back to Hal - Someone along the way asked if my source files were all MTS. I know that people interpolate jpgs, and maybe other things, into "slide shows" made using the video module - so in my case, yes, all the source files were MTS. No jpgs or other graphics. In the time line, however, there are often rendered MPEG-2 files, becuase I'm opening a prject I've worked on earlier, and I've rendered those files (and usually found that there was way too much noise, so I have to go back....). Again - before I've begun any work on the videos I'm talking about, all files are MTS. When I'm re-editing a project, files in the time line have sometimes been edited and then rendered as MPEG-2s.
Hal again - I have to quote your last few paragraphs, because you've gone around a couple of curves I can't understand. You wrote: [i]"One thing to note is that after you produce/render the project in the produce module, the newly created file is only added to the library." [/i].....Which newly created file? At first I thought it could be the pds file, but I think that is not added to the library. At least, I've never seen a pds file in the library, or in the time line.
Next you write "PD does not use this new file in the create disc module, unless you specifically empty the time line(s) and add this file to the time line..... Understood.
FInally "Many of use create a new project specifically for disc creation." .... I guess all of my projects eventually wind up for disc creation, though I've taken to burning them back to the computer's HD first, because I'm still learning the limitations of the Create Disc previewer.
And "Importing the produced files that were created during the editing stage and adding these files to the time line.. " .... Again, I'm sure I'm missing something important. Was there more to that sentence which didn't come through to the forum? Once rendering (producing) is complete, aren't the files in the time line always those which were produced? Are there some different files somewhere which I should be importing into the time line?
Finally, to both Tony and Hal, and anyone else who has had the patience to read through this long note - never apologize for asking my questions, or for asking for more information, or for noting numerical or technical things. I worked in a very technical part of the health care industry for over 40 years, so I'm used to all of that, and I don't mind it at all.
Bill Hansen
Importing the produced files that were created during the editing stage and adding these files to the time line
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