Common question.

You can adjust the preview quality using one of the buttons under the preview window. Its a rectangle with a solid rectangle inside it.

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Quote: Common question.

You can adjust the preview quality using one of the buttons under the preview window. Its a rectangle with a solid rectangle inside it.

check it out.

Thank You.

I'll check it out tonight.

Rgds
Patrick

Hi

How do I trim or adjust a track to match only the 17 pictures I have prior to the video?

Rgds
Pat

Hey Patrick,

I am glad you came to visit this forum as well. I think you will find that it is a bit more focused and you will find lots of experienced users of Power Director that can offer you tips and answers to questions.

Now my attempt at an answer to your question:

How do I trim or adjust a track to match only the 17 pictures I have prior to the video?

Method 1.

Lets say you have set a 4 second duration for each picture giving you a total of 68 seconds. If you want something exact, select the MAGIC MUSIC icon to the left of the timeline. Browse through the STYLES of music, and keep in mind that only the songs that are displayed in BOLD can be modified in length. The others are merely samples that you could purchase if you like them. Enter in the DURATION, your time....1 minute and 8 seconds. Now you can DRAG the song variation to the MUSIC track and it will fit exactly to your pictures.

Method 2.

You could import your own music...mp3 as an example and place it onto the Music track and use AUDIO MIXING ROOM to adjust the sound. Notice when you open this...that the MUSIC track has a slider to control the volume. Or you can selct the FADE IN and/or FADE -OUT buttons to make it sound more fluid.

See if either of these works for you....and don't forget to take a look at www.freeplaymusic.com , it has a wide selection of music. Many songs have 10 second,30 second, 1 minute, etc. variations. So you can download the length you need and then make slight adjustment to your picture duration to match the song!!

I hope this helps you out some....others may offer you their ideas as well!!

Kevin

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Hi Patrick -

I won't add anything to Kevin's suggestions, which are well worth following up... except to say that... one option I have used (at times when the length of the audio track is fairly close to the length of the slide show) is to:

1. Make the slide show and produce it (without audio)
2. Import the audio track
3. Ditch the slide show & place the produced file in the timeline.
4. Adjust the speed of the slide show (which is now a video) to the exact length of the music.

Re: picture quality - even at high quality, the preview screen will not be as good as the final produced file.

Cheers - Tony


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Hey Tony,

I Love that method for precisely adjusting the Slideshow to fit the Music. It is much easier than attempting to adjust the picture duration to fit the music!!

Thanks for adding that!!

Kevin

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Thanks Kevin and Tony

In my project, I did not create a slideshow. What I did was simply add the 17 pictures into the storyboard, followed by several videos. Shoud I create a slideshow first?

I went into the Production Room and played the preview and the pictures played first with the selected transitions followed immediately by the videos.

How do I adjust the audio to fit the length of the pictures? Option 2 from Kevin?

I am trying to add background music for those 17 pictures only.

Thanks
Patrick

Patrick -

If you (a) don't want to pre-produce the slide show (which is just a series of images with or without transitions) and (b) don't have a piece of music the has about the same duration as the slide show... DO WHAT KEVIN SAID in option 2.

The alternative is to make the slide show (with music), as I suggested, then whack the video on after that.

Botth methods have equal merit - neither is better than the other. Just a different way of doing it.

You choose - cheers - Tony
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Ok. Thanks Tony.

I use Proshow Gold for many years for my slideshows and I can add videos too to the newer build.

Problem with Proshsow Gold is that it does not recognised '.mod' files as is without having to rename.

I'll perservere with PD8

Rgds
Patrick

Patrick -

You could always use that other software to produce your slide show, then export it as a video file to use in PD... if you could see some advantage in that.

We all use a variety of software to make whatever we're making.

Cheers - Tony
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I had success creating my 1st slideshow via PD8 via the slideshow feature. I've added background music to the 17 pictures, then added the videos to the storyboard after the slideshow.

I am still learning. I selected the 3D slideshow but I've not produced it yet. Can I change the slideshow style at this stage and how do I do this without affecting anything else, especially the background music? My wife feels with the 3D slideshow the pictures are cropped to fit the floating frames and she's got a point

Another question I have is the checkbox split screen where I can see the before/after adjustments. 2 days ago while I was enhancing the pics/videos for the 1st time, I could see the split screen. I've applied changes to all. Yesterday, I attempted to make further changes or just unchecking some of the other enhance boxes, my screen did not split even when I had the spilt box ticked. I am concluding that I already made changes and I cannot make changes over changes?
Many Thanks
Patrick

Hi Patrick -

Learning is a wonderful thing, is it not? Congrats on getting over the first few hurdles.

Sadly, once you've clicked that nasty little NEXT/OK button with slide show templates... that's it. All you can do is go back and start again with your pictures... unless you haven't saved it, in which case just UNDO (ctrl+Z).

If you want to retain your music, just drag it along the timeline, past the slide show (to the right) & delete the slide show. Oh - sorry - that rather depends on the source of the music. Could you elaborate please?

I'm not partial to the 3D template myself. We all agree. Just a personal preference.

Once you've saved a project, you cannot undo previous changes. What many people do is use "Save As"... so they end up with Project 1.1, Project 1.2, Project 1.3 - each representing a different point of progress.

There is an issue with split screen in PD. It has been referred to CyberLink R&D.

There is no problem making changes over changes - well - not that I know about.

Cheers - Tony

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Sadly, once you've clicked that nasty little NEXT/OK button with slide show templates... that's it. All you can do is go back and start again with your pictures... unless you haven't saved it, in which case just UNDO (ctrl+Z).

Why is that, just select the footage in the timeline a click the slideshow tab above the timeline and change slideshow format if you wish.

Jeff

Hi Patrick,

I think that's awesome!! You sound like you are making progress in your project. At this stage you might consider saving the project "SAVE AS" to reflect the 3D slideshow....as an example....PATS3D.pds. Then selct the slideshow on the TIMELINE and then select SLIDESHOW and choose another slideshow option....say MOTION and try that...then save that one as PATSMOTION.pds....do you get where I am going with this?

EDIT: Tony, Tony, Tony....I wish I was a faster typer....although he gives wonderful answers!!

Kevin
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Thanks Gentlemen

I will try tonight.

Another question I have is when I am in the Produce Window, I need to select a file type i.e. avi, mpg 2 etc. Do I need to select mpg2 as I am going to burn to an image iso? At the preent moment, I have not dug deep enough to find the ISO option.

Rgds
Patrick

That's correct Jeff. My apologies Patrick. I'm still hung over from PD7. Thank you for correcting me.

Thanks Kevin. They'd be even wonderfuller if they were correcter!

Patrick - the format you select should be governed by what you intend to do with the file... DVD? Media Player? Stream ON THE INTERNET? YouTube?

Cheers - Tony
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Quote:

Patrick - the format you select should be governed by what you intend to do with the file... DVD? Media Player? Stream ON THE INTERNET? YouTube?

Cheers - Tony

Tony, so you're saying that in the Produce Window, I should select MPG2?

Rgds

Patrick -

I don't think I was... but mpeg2 is OK.

What are you going to do with it? (apart from impressing others with your skills in videography)


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Patrick

It's not real clear what you are trying to do, or at least I'm confused. I’m not sure if you want an iso image of a file, a DVD formatted folder or exactly what, how and where you want to play this iso image. But save your time looking, PD8 does not have an iso image create feature.

Jeff