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Eric, Try this one for UK. http://www.epson.co.uk/Projectors/Epson-EH-TW9000W Peter

The band owned the "performance copyright". If you recorded that performance, you own the recording copyright. If the composer and/or arranger of the piece have been dead for less than 70 years (UK rule), they own the copyright to the sheet music from which the band played. Confusing innit! Peter

Al, With KFSD checked, the video duration extends from the start of the incoming transition to the end of the outgoing transition automatically - so the motion never stops, not even during the transition into the next image. With KFSD unchecked, you, the user, if you do not want the video to pause on its last frame, must either calculate the durations to ensure that the video extends as above or use an unnecessarily long video that will safely extend beyond the end of the outgoing transition. This discussion is about video as "main image". Video as a "picture in picture" object is controlled via keyframes just like any other object. regards, Peter

The above quote is from a post in the topic entitled "Shiny Happy People". Upon reading it I was struck by a couple of thoughts:... The IAC licence used by many UK AV workers does indeed allow the playing back of short video clips on YouTube. But, as I understand it, its terms also preclude using the copyright material for any commercial purpose (at least that is implied although not, I believe, explicitly so stated). By insisting on being allowed to run advertisements superimposed upon the video, are YouTube now in violation of their own agreement with the IAC? Are they placing us in violation of our agreement with the IAC? And the other point was this: Suppose I create an AV sequence as an amalgam of both imagery and sound and upload a video file of it to YouTube. Whether I have violated somebody else's copyright or not in the material I have used, that assembled sequence is my work and I own the copyright in the sequence. If anyone then makes a copy, in total or in part, of my work without my permission, they are in violation of my copyright. If YouTube accept a video but suppress the music, they have made a variant copy of the original piece of work. Does this mean that they are now in violation of the video producers copyright in that work? No doubt YouTube's small-print in their Ts & Cs will cover their backs on this matter! Just a couple of points to ponder... regards, Peter

Al, There's another aspect of PTE that comes into play when using video clips and that you need to understand: the impact of "Keep Full Slide Duration" (that little tick box tucked away in the bottom right-hand corner of the main PTE window). The best way to investigate and understand this is to create a short test sequence of three slides, each containing just the one video clip. Set them to use the fade transition and set three different transition times (say, 2s, 3s and 4s). Build this sequence with the box unticked and watch the Preview. Then build the same sequence again, from square one, but with the box ticked. Again, watch the Preview. Study the way in which the slide durations and transition times are being shown - and what the effect of the two different options (tick/untick) is. Be very aware: this feature (often referred to in other topics as KFSD) is actually a "system preference" and NOT a project option. Whatever setting that box had when you close down PTE will be used when you start PTE next time, even if you start PTE by double-clicking a project file that you built with the opposite setting of KFSD. regards, Peter

Joy, What size are your images - in pixels by pixels? What you describe can occur if the images are excessively large. As for your question about resizing the verticals. There is no quick way to do just the verticals, but are you aware of Project Options...More...Default settings...%age of slide to show main images. You can use this to set all your main images to, say, 95% size. regaards, Peter

Den, If you are confident using Notepad, you can do a "global change" edit of the .pte file to change the paths for the image files. The PTE project file is just a standard text file as far as the format of its contents is concerned (i.e. just like a .txt file). Obviously it would be prudent to take a copy of the .pte file first! regards, Peter

John, There's a debate about iPad resolutions already running here: You might care to join in? Video seems to me to be a "can of worms" in terms of the potential complexity of things. For me it has proved to be not so much "Been there, done that, got the T-shirt" as "Am there, doing that, getting the scar tissue!" It's taking longer than I expected to acquire the skills and experience. Maybe that is the inevitability of tackling a new, alien medium. Peter

Joy, You'll find the instructions for downloading and installing LAME here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#lame If you need further advice about Audacity, their forum is a very active one. I can recommend it. They've helped me a few times now. Peter

Joy, Is the final size of the PTE exe file an issue for you? If not, why not use the WAV file? If file size is a major concern then Xaver's suggestion is good. I use 192Kbps as my MP3 setting. Another consideration might be: what will be the age range of your audience? If mostly adult tending towards elderly, they will have lost some of their high-frequency hearing. Therefore you might even get away with a lower bitrate than 192kbps for an MP3 file. However, do not go lower thn 128Kbps. That is typical for music downloaded from the Internet. Peter

Hi Joy, Yes, I do give talks, demonstrations and slideshows to AV groups, Video clubs and Camera clubs. Sheffield would be just under a two hour drive for me, so would be close to the limit of my working range (I live up near the north-east Yorkshire coast between Middlesbrough and Whitby). And since when has Sheffield not been "real" Yorkshire. It has always been within the borders of God's Fair County! regards, Peter

Joy, You must use just one "instance" of PTE. So your step 4 must be done from within your existing instance of PTE as "File...Open...<show#1>". You must not double click the PTE project file for "show#1" and have it open in a second instance of PTE. regards, Peter

Jose, "TODO" is more usually written "To Do" (two words). A list of things that must get done, or that we'd like to get done. Peter

I think Mick has just "nailed it" with that statement! If your AV uses good quality images, suitable music or other sounds, an engaging narrative (if using voice-over) and gets the viewer "hooked" in the first 10-15 seconds, it doesn't matter what aspect ratio it is built to. Peter

Tony, I also felt like that when I first moved to making 16:9 sequences. I have found that, for me, the secret is to "shoot wider". By that I mean, don't crop tight in the camera, compose generously and leave the cropping until in the computer. Following that line of reasoning, I now believe that the ideal sensor for a digital camera would be a 1:1 (square) of, say, 100MP or more. We could then place our subject more or less centrally on every shot and do the composing with the crop tool in the computer. Peter

Jose, If you make your own masks, isn't this just a case of reversing your process? If you currently start with a white slide and paint black on it then, to create a "negative mask", all you would do would be start with a black slide and paint it white! Or were you, in your original post, asking for there to be two more preset masks "Negative circle" and "Negative rectangle" (to use your terminology)? Peter

Having, with the assistance of Lin Evans and nobeefstu, resolved the problems in achieving this capability, and at the suggestion of davegee, here's a brief tutorial of how to do it. Video-Builder #1.pdf regards, Peter

Here's the update I promised... Unticking the "Create Menu" box in Video-Builder, when combined with ticking the "Repeat Playback of Disc" option in the Video-Builder Project Options, results in the DVD-Video launching straight into play when the DVD is inserted into the player and then automatically starting over again after it finishes playing. Brilliant! Thanks for the guidance, Lin & Stu. Peter

It can't! At least, it can't without either showing black bands somewhere (top/bottom or both sides) or having the images cropped arbitrarily. This is the challenge that you, as an AV worker, now face. Your computer monitor is 16:9, as is your TV, your camera shoots 3:2 and your digital projector shows 4:3. Which aspect ratio do you choose? You cannot satisfy them all. In fact, you can only fully satisfy one of them without some change happening that you would probably rather not happen. For what it might be worth: I shoot 3:2 with the camera. I build 16:9 in PTE because that fits the computer monitor and the TV. I project 4:3 and accept that there will be black bands at top and bottom. Peter

@Dave, @Tom, Both very viable alternatives that would do the job! @Eric, I agree, it would be nice to have the simplest solution. But as has been pointed out, there are several work-arounds available. Peter

@Gary and Paul, Thanks for your comments. I'm glad that you found it interesting and enjoyable. @Gary, I'm not sure what you meant by lots of techniques. The sequence does not make use of many specific techniques: just still images, simple transitions, a little bit of gentle zooming in and a soundtrack. From my point of view, the complexity was in the soundtrack: extracting the relevant sections from Bill's tour commentary (the tour lasts one hour!) then piecing together 49 separate sound clips (my voice, his voice, ambient location sounds and the two bird calls) into the final form. @Morturn, Thanks for your words of praise. The underground photography was a real challenge. I'd never done anything remotely like it before. As my introductory remarks made clear, this sequence was done for Killhope. I currently intend to do two more sequences: one on the processing of the galena on the surface (but not including smelting: there never was a smelting shop at Killhope) and one of the social history side of lead-mining: communities, way of life, etc. Both of these will require fine weather for the outdoor photography, so I'm waiting until later in the summer (I've had enough of being a cold, wet, mole, working in the dark!) regards, Peter

Eric, As you know, I'm only a few steps ahead of you along the "video learning curve", but I think that, at present, in PTE you will have to resort to making two separate trimmed files in the Video Converter. The only other alternative that springs to my mind would be to have one slide carrying the whole video and introduce the still images as objects that fade in/out during the life of the video clip. This has the down sides of: - requiring you to have shot enough video in the first place (implies that you knew in advance that you were going to do this) - requiring you to accept simple fade in/fade out transitions on the still images (unless you use masks and 3D transforms to do clever things - I've never tried this but the late JPD was a master at it) Peter

Stu, Thanks for your insight. I'll give both of those a try this weekend on my system and see what happens. Peter

This is all associated with the sequence about, and for, Killhope Lead Mining Museum. They would like the DVD playback to begin as soon as the disc is loaded into the DVD player. And they would also like, if possible, for the video to loop back and start all over again. My own "gut feeling" is that the first should be possible but the second is probably not going to be achievable. Finally, it is quite feasible that any testing I do using my Blu-ray player will not be representative enough of their ageing DVD player and TV. @Lin and Ken, Having read your responses, I realise that I need to clarify my questions. Is it possible, in PTE, to produce a DVD-Video disc that has no menu and which begins playing,with no further operator intervention, as soon as the disc in inserted into a DVD player which is connected to a TV set? Can this DVD video be made to play in a continuous loop mode in a DVD player connected to a TV set? @Lin, Thanks for alerting me to the Create menu tick box. I had not spotted that lurking next to the Project Options button. @Ken, Thanks for digging out the v4.4x info. That's useful background for me. regards, Peter

Two related questions: Is it possible, in PTE, to produce a DVD-Video disc that has no menu and which begins playing as soon as the disc in inserted into the DVD player with no further operator intervention? Can this DVD video be made to play in a continuous loop mode? regards, Peter