Hi there gs,
I'll try to lift the fog here.
Your photos may be only a few megabytes each, but when encoded to video they must be viewed for a period of "x" seconds. Each second/minute/hour of your video is placing an image overandoverandover again, multiplying the megabytes per second/minute/etc. It's not as simple as adding up kilobytes and megabytes, you must add TIME!
Then you must add QUALITY! A crappy video-version of your images will multiply itself into smaller file sizes, a high quality version will be bigger file sizes.
I hope that helps, it was a lesson for me to grasp in the early years. 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

Quote: Hi there gs,
I'll try to lift the fog here.
Your photos may be only a few megabytes each, but when encoded to video they must be viewed for a period of "x" seconds. Each second/minute/hour of your video is placing an image overandoverandover again, multiplying the megabytes per second/minute/etc. It's not as simple as adding up kilobytes and megabytes, you must add TIME!
Then you must add QUALITY! A crappy video-version of your images will multiply itself into smaller file sizes, a high quality version will be bigger file sizes.
I hope that helps, it was a lesson for me to grasp in the early years.

OK, so in your opinion, a 2 minute and 38 second video using 30 pictures and good quality = 500mb?

Wellllll,
more questions...all part of the process.

What are you going to do with your video?
Youtube? DVD for the TV? HiDef for the TV(BlueRay).
How are your friends gonna see it?
And, quality is in the eye of the beholder, somewhat...
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

Quote: Wellllll,
more questions...all part of the process.

What are you going to do with your video?
Youtube? DVD for the TV? HiDef for the TV(BlueRay).
How are your friends gonna see it?
And, quality is in the eye of the beholder, somewhat...

The videos are going onto a 32gb flash drive which I can toss in my pocket and take to friends house and view on computer. At my home, I can view the flash drive on TV as it is connected to the computer. The large file size is eating up space on the flash drive so that is my problem with Power Director. I just finished a video, 380 pics, MP4, and it ended up 2.14gb. I doubt if you would be allowed to put that on you tube but not sure of their rules.

Hi gskywalkers -

The resolution of the images has little impact on the produced file size. Refer http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/27111.page#147770

I assume you're matching the 30 image slideshow to music to make it last 2 minutes 38 seconds. Yes?

Here - I just replicated what you've done (30 pictures in a 2:38 slideshow) and produced to a few different formats. Did you try customising the video bitrate?

As an example - I produced to AVC 1280x720/60p (default profile), which has a bitrate of 23MBps. The video was 440MB. When I used the same profile but dropped the bitrate to 10MBps, the produced file was 200MB.

MPEG-4 1280X720 @ 9MBps = 173MB... @ 6MBps = 117MB... @ 3MBps = 60MB

Bitrate has a huge impact.

Cheers - Tony

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Quote: Hi gskywalkers -

The resolution of the images has little impact on the produced file size. Refer http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/27111.page#147770

I assume you're matching the 30 image slideshow to music to make it last 2 minutes 38 seconds. Yes?

Here - I just replicated what you've done (30 pictures in a 2:38 slideshow) and produced to a few different formats. Did you try customising the video bitrate?

As an example - I produced to 1280x720/60p (default profile), which has a bitrate of 23MBps. The video was 440MB. When I used the same profile but dropped the bitrate to 10MBps, the produced file was 200MB.

Bitrate has a huge impact.

Cheers - Tony

Yes, I am matching the 30 images to a 2:38 sound file. I do not see a way to select a specific bitrate in PD Slideshow Creator. There are 3 choices, high, med, and low. Using the low bitrate, it reduced the video down to 91.3mb with a definite loss in quality. Also, why is the .WMV produce option so poor.......is this also a bit rate thing and if so, how can I increase the bitrate? Using the same pics, the PD Slideshow creates a .WMV size of about 7 mb but it is too poor to even view.

I do not see a way to select a specific bitrate in PD Slideshow Creator. There are 3 choices, high, med, and low.

What version of PD10 are you using?

When you use Slideshow Creator & you reach the last step, there's a choice of Produce Video, Create Disc or Advanced Editing. If you select Produce, you go to the "normal" Produce module where all the options are available for format & profile. If you choose Advanced Editing, you go to the timeline - then to Produce if you wish.

Can you list the steps you're taking after the slideshow is built?

Cheers - Tony
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Quote:

I do not see a way to select a specific bitrate in PD Slideshow Creator. There are 3 choices, high, med, and low.

What version of PD10 are you using?

When you use Slideshow Creator & you reach the last step, there's a choice of Produce Video, Create Disc or Advanced Editing. If you select Produce, you go to the "normal" Produce module where all the options are available for format & profile. If you choose Advanced Editing, you go to the timeline - then to Produce if you wish.

Can you list the steps you're taking after the slideshow is built?

Cheers - Tony

I am using PD Ultra 10.0.0.2231. After the slideshow is built, I go to "Produce" where I see .AVI, Mpeg1, Mpeg2, H263Avc, .WMV, Mpeg4, .MOV and the music symbol.

I see the various options under the down arrow on each of the above selections and how that changes the video size and bitrate so let me spend some time with those and I will get back to you.

Quote:

I do not see a way to select a specific bitrate in PD Slideshow Creator. There are 3 choices, high, med, and low.

What version of PD10 are you using?

When you use Slideshow Creator & you reach the last step, there's a choice of Produce Video, Create Disc or Advanced Editing. If you select Produce, you go to the "normal" Produce module where all the options are available for format & profile. If you choose Advanced Editing, you go to the timeline - then to Produce if you wish.

Can you list the steps you're taking after the slideshow is built?

Cheers - Tony

Tony, I think I have worked this out. I used .WMV and in that drop down box I selected WMV 9 DVD quality with 1600 Kbps. When Produced, it gives me a very good quality video and only 28.7mb. I do have one other problem. All of the images have a black background on either side so is it possible to change that?

I'm glad you're getting closer to working it out.

Personally, I would not produce to that profile for displaying images (DVD quality is only 720x480). You mentioned the original images are about 1200x900. I'd consider using the WMV Standard Quality profile (1280x720)

but if you're happy with that, then...

█ The black bars █

You'd only be getting those if you're using the "Normal" template. All the others either frame or crop images. Here's a tutorial on the different templates http://youtu.be/J6PDeatLY1Q (PD9).

If you want to get rid of those bars, you need to insert your images in the timeline (as it shows in the tutorial) - right click and choose Set Aspect Ratio... then Apply to All (image attached). You can't do that when you're working in Slideshow Creator mode. If that is your preferred mode, you'd need to crop the photos to the correct aspect ratio before importing them.

Cheers - Tony
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Quote: I'm glad you're getting closer to working it out.

Personally, I would not produce to that profile for displaying images (DVD quality is only 720x480). You mentioned the original images are about 1200x900. I'd consider using the WMV Standard Quality profile (1280x720)

but if you're happy with that, then...

█ The black bars █

You'd only be getting those if you're using the "Normal" template. All the others either frame or crop images. Here's a tutorial on the different templates http://youtu.be/J6PDeatLY1Q (PD9).

If you want to get rid of those bars, you need to insert your images in the timeline (as it shows in the tutorial) - right click and choose Set Aspect Ratio... then Apply to All (image attached). You can't do that when you're working in Slideshow Creator mode. If that is your preferred mode, you'd need to crop the photos to the correct aspect ratio before importing them.

Cheers - Tony

I looked at the tutorial a couple of times but have yet to grasp how it works. I am able to get a background to display in the viewing window but I have been unable to move on from there. I am also grappling with the pictures themselves in the full edit mode and not the slide creator. I put in say 40 images and I can't figure out how to expand the timeline of all the images at the same time. I can make them play longer one at a time but how do I increase the time say from 1 second to 5 seconds for all the images.

OK - sorry if I was making it sound harder than it really is.

Can you please post:
1. whether you want a 16:9 video or a 4:3?
2. whether you're wanting to use the "Normal" slideshow template

If you're using ANY of the slideshow templates, in the main timeline or slideshow creator, you cannot control the image duration. It's built into the templates & can't be modified.

Cheers - Tony
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Hi gskywalkers,

Regards your question here:

Quote: ...in the full edit mode and not the slide creator... I can't figure out how to expand the timeline of all the images at the same time... how do I increase the time say from 1 second to 5 seconds for all the images.

This quick [01:18] tutorial might help (?).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3peYtyQsUk

And of course you can set the default duration of all imported images in your PD Preferences via (Alt+C > Editing > Image files)
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Quote: Hi gskywalkers,

Regards your question here:

Quote: ...in the full edit mode and not the slide creator... I can't figure out how to expand the timeline of all the images at the same time... how do I increase the time say from 1 second to 5 seconds for all the images.

This quick [01:18] tutorial might help (?).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3peYtyQsUk

And of course you can set the default duration of all imported images in your PD Preferences via (Alt+C > Editing > Image files)

That Preferences page is what I was looking for. I have been using 16.9 and jumping back and forth from the slide show creator to the full editor. I put up one of the pages that I have just completed. The content probably won't mean anything to you as it is directed to a particular audience. Thanks very much for the tutorials and your help.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyye65NpEAM

Thank you for posting the video.

The reason there are black bars on YouTube is that it's a 16:9 player & your video isn't. To avoid the black bars (on YouTube), build a 16:9 project & produce to a 16:9 profile.

Using the highlight template (as you have there), you'll get no black bars whatever the original image sizes are.

Looks like you're winning with it anyway.

Cheers - Tony
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Quote: Thank you for posting the video.

The reason there are black bars on YouTube is that it's a 16:9 player & your video isn't. To avoid the black bars (on YouTube), build a 16:9 project & produce to a 16:9 profile.

Using the highlight template (as you have there), you'll get no black bars whatever the original image sizes are.

Looks like you're winning with it anyway.

Cheers - Tony

That Jamie Plates video went pretty well for me. I have been getting over a thousand hits a day on it but that has mostly to do with Diana Gabaldon who is a "Best Selling Author". She has had about 10 or so books make the best seller list. The video deals with Jamie Fraser, who is the main character in her book "Outlander" and she posted the link on her site.

Sometime this week I am going to make another video and see if I can't figure out how to use those backgrounds. I still don't get how that works. What I would like is a background that would fill the entire screen and then have the slideshow display over the top of that. Is that possible?

I'm not sure what backgrounds you're referring to.

CameraView & 3D templates can have the backgrounds customised - 2 tutorials showing how http://youtu.be/J-AjznxEg0o and http://youtu.be/DCo94HbfOkw

Using ChromaKey, both the above templates can be used over a video background too - some examples http://youtu.be/qHj3Bhr0HNo (CameraView) and http://youtu.be/EQrc7-W5MmI (3D)

Some of the templates use the first image in the sequence as the background - Collage, Montage & Scrapbook.

Cheers - Tony
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Quote: I'm not sure what backgrounds you're referring to.

CameraView & 3D templates can have the backgrounds customised - 2 tutorials showing how http://youtu.be/J-AjznxEg0o and http://youtu.be/DCo94HbfOkw

Using ChromaKey, both the above templates can be used over a video background too - some examples http://youtu.be/qHj3Bhr0HNo (CameraView) and http://youtu.be/EQrc7-W5MmI (3D)

Some of the templates use the first image in the sequence as the background - Collage, Montage & Scrapbook.

Cheers - Tony

The backgrounds I was referring to are in the top left large window in the full feature editor. There is a small arrow in the window that says "display/hide explorer view" when you hover over it and when you click on it, you have the option to select color boards or backgrounds. I have no idea how to use those.

As for the tutorials and examples above..........you have given me another week of watching the tutorials and attempting to do it myself. Thanks much for all of your help Tony, it is really appreciated.

Ah - you mean the background images supplied with PD. They're just images that aren't intended to be used as slideshow backgrounds.

If you're using the slideshow templates in PD, the only way to control the background is as I posted above: (a) modify CameraView or 3D template or (b) place "background" image first in Scrapbook, Montage or Collage slideshow.

There are manual (very manual) ways to do it, but I'm not sure that's what you're after.

Cheers - Tony
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