Edit multiple slides

[donw]

I have used Proshow for several years but have recently moved to P2Exe to allow me to show HD shows on my TV via P to Exe's

video file outputs and Dean Kasabow's MultiAVCHD program. I would like to add borders to all slides in a show simultaneously,

but if I select multiple slides, and click "objects and animation", the screen is "greyed out". Is there any way to edit

slides simultaneously?

Don W

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Don

I have tried that also without success, and think it would be a great feature. I have used "Customise Slide" to change multiple slides but the action you are asking for cannot be done from there.

Yachtsman1

[Ronniebootwest]

You will be able to do this in an image editor, e.g. Photoshop

Ron

[Ronniebootwest]

I was interested in the 'MultiAVCHD' program that was mentioned by Don so I downloaded it to have a peek. I tried trancoding one of my MP4 files (created with PTE) and managed to achieve this but I finished up with a whole load of different files in the output folder. I must confess that I found the whole process rather lengthy and confusing (as compared to my usual way of doing things with Nero 9) However, I will not be beaten and so would still like to finish the process and burn the transcoded file to a DVD, but I just cannot work out how this can be done from the many files that I have finished up with.

Don, I wonder if you could point me to a step by step tutorial that would help me to understand this program more easily and maybe you would be kind enough to let me have a few notes on just how you go about things.

Ron West

[donw]

I was interested in the 'MultiAVCHD' program that was mentioned by Don so I downloaded it to have a peek. I tried trancoding one of my MP4 files (created with PTE) and managed to achieve this but I finished up with a whole load of different files in the output folder. I must confess that I found the whole process rather lengthy and confusing (as compared to my usual way of doing things with Nero 9) However, I will not be beaten and so would still like to finish the process and burn the transcoded file to a DVD, but I just cannot work out how this can be done from the many files that I have finished up with.

Don, I wonder if you could point me to a step by step tutorial that would help me to understand this program more easily and maybe you would be kind enough to let me have a few notes on just how you go about things.

Ron West

Hi Ron,

My aim is to display HD (1920 by 1080 pixels) slideshows on my plasma TV (Panasonic Viera). I first tried making exe files with 1920X1080 px images, and sending them to the TV from a laptop. However the TV display is limited by the size of the laptop maximum resolution (1366 by 768 px for my laptop), also, I think by the VGA connection which I used. I suspect that if I used a HDMI connection that the image quality on the TV would be better, but my laptop does not have a HDMI port.

I read that some people have had success using a Media Player to send input to their TVs, but I haven’t got one.

I do not have a BluRay burner so I can’t produce a BluRay DVD, although I have tried without success to burn a normal DVD with the output files from the multiAVCHD program.

However I have been successful in using the multiAVCHD program to produce a set of files which I copied to a SDHC card. When I put the card into the SD slot on my Panasonic BluRay player, I got a fantastic, HD slideshow. My TV also has a SD slot but the card wouldn’t produce the slideshow from this slot. It does show jpeg images copied to the card (if they have been saved with the “baseline” option, not the “progressive” one).

My workflow to produce the files on the SD card is:

1. Produce a set of images sized to 1920 by 1080 pixels.

2. Make a slideshow in P2Exe.

3. Create a “HD Video for PC & Mac”: Select HD (1920X1080), high quality.

This produces a “.mp4” file.

4. Open multiAVCHD. Click the “add video files” tab and select the mp4 file.

5. Click “start”. I click on the “Panasonic Blu-ray players” button. I haven’t

explored the other options very much.

6. The program produces a set of files in a folder with a label such as

“AVCHD-20100512-162620”

7. To prepare the SD card for the files, I reformatted it using the sdfv2003.exe

utility suggested by multiAVCHD’s author Dean Kasabow. I then set up the

following folder structure on the card: F:\PRIVATE\AVCHD\

8 I copied all the files from the “AVCHD-20100512-162620” folder into the AVCHD folder on the card.

I have now converted some of my ProShow gold slideshows to P2X ones. I added white borders to the images using a Photoshop action, and added the “.ogg” files from the Proshow voiceovers to the corresponding images in the P2X show using the “add sound” button.

I think I'll get a Blu-ray burner soon. They have come down a lot in price (helped by the strong Oz $?).

All the best,

Don Weston.

[Ronniebootwest]

Thanks Don, for the detailed list of your workflow. I will have a go later on and see if I can save to a USB Pen drive instead of of an SD card.

I currently produce HD files of my slide shows for display on my web site and also on my Sony TV.

I have been very pleased with the excellent quality that I have achieved at 1920 x 1080 - I just wanted to discover if this quality could be better

if I use the MultiAVCHD program that you are using. However, so far I have found the program very difficult to use.

You may be interested in a pdf tutorial, that I have written, giving full details of how I go about things.

If you would like a copy, please send me you email address.

Ron

[davegee]

Don,

You might be slightly wrong about the VGA connection and the way it applies to your setup.

If you use the TV as your monitor you laptop's graphics card should go up to 1920x1080 and beyond.

HOWEVER, when doing this you possibly will only be able to see the TV and NOT the Laptop monitor.

The 1366x768 is POSSIBLY the max res of the TV.

Although it is HD Ready etc it is not necessarily 1920x1080.

One of my TVs, a Sony 26" is HD Ready at 1366x768 and my Laptop is 1280x800, but full HD shows (via HDMI) at 1920x1080 are "fit to screen".

Even if you had a LT with HDMI (or a MEDIA PLAYER) you would still be limited by the 1366x768 res of the TV (if I am correct about your TV).

Check your TV manual.

I've tried all of the alternatives and what I am about to say is IN MY HUMBLE OPINION (!) - there is no substitute for a suitably equipped Laptop sending a PTE show to a 1920x1080 TV (or projector) via HDMI.

DG

[donw]

Don,

You might be slightly wrong about the VGA connection and the way it applies to your setup.

If you use the TV as your monitor you laptop's graphics card should go up to 1920x1080 and beyond.

HOWEVER, when doing this you possibly will only be able to see the TV and NOT the Laptop monitor.

The 1366x768 is POSSIBLY the max res of the TV.

Although it is HD Ready etc it is not necessarily 1920x1080.

One of my TVs, a Sony 26" is HD Ready at 1366x768 and my Laptop is 1280x800, but full HD shows (via HDMI) at 1920x1080 are "fit to screen".

Even if you had a LT with HDMI (or a MEDIA PLAYER) you would still be limited by the 1366x768 res of the TV (if I am correct about your TV).

Check your TV manual.

I've tried all of the alternatives and what I am about to say is IN MY HUMBLE OPINION (!) - there is no substitute for a suitably equipped Laptop sending a PTE show to a 1920x1080 TV (or projector) via HDMI.

DG

Hi Dave,

My TV is a 42 inch Panasonic Viera (not sure why the TV industry still uses inches!). Its resolution is 1920 by 1080 pixels. Its manual states that when connected to a computer by a VGA cable, its maximum input resolution is WXGA, or 1366 by 768 pixels. I rang the Panasonic technical people who confirmed this. They also confirmed that if I connected via a HDMI cable, the maximum input resolution would be 1920 by 1080 pixels. I then did a Google search on the maximum resolution of VGA cables and came out with a lot of interesting information. The consensus was that these cables are limited in the signals they can transmit. There is an interesting diagram in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vector_Video_Standards2.svg

There is also a lot of information about getting the maximum resolution from a laptop’s graphics card. I played around a lot with the settings, nominating the second monitor to be a HDTV etc, but still could not get more than 1280 by 800 out of the Dell laptop I was using.

Regards,

Don

[davegee]

"I played around a lot with the settings, nominating the second monitor to be a HDTV etc, but still could not get more than 1280 by 800 out of the Dell laptop I was using".

The maximum res that you can get from your LT's graphics card is dependent on the monitor to which it is attached.

I use my 1280x800 laptop with my 1920x1200 monitor and under those conditions (with the 1920x1200 screen designated as MAIN MONITOR) the maximum res I can get is, of course, the native res of the 1920x1200 monitor. This is true for both HDMI and VGA. I have tried both and quickly threw away the VGA cable on quality grounds! No comparison!

If I had a higher res monitor the graphics card would cope.

Interesting point about the VGA res of the Panasonic.

With the Sony 26" that I mentioned the native res is 1366x768 but when using VGA it is limited to 1280x768 (or thereabouts). VGA will not allow the full 1366x768.

DG

[donw]

"I played around a lot with the settings, nominating the second monitor to be a HDTV etc, but still could not get more than 1280 by 800 out of the Dell laptop I was using".

The maximum res that you can get from your LT's graphics card is dependent on the monitor to which it is attached.

I use my 1280x800 laptop with my 1920x1200 monitor and under those conditions (with the 1920x1200 screen designated as MAIN MONITOR) the maximum res I can get is, of course, the native res of the 1920x1200 monitor. This is true for both HDMI and VGA. I have tried both and quickly threw away the VGA cable on quality grounds! No comparison!

If I had a higher res monitor the graphics card would cope.

Interesting point about the VGA res of the Panasonic.

With the Sony 26" that I mentioned the native res is 1366x768 but when using VGA it is limited to 1280x768 (or thereabouts). VGA will not allow the full 1366x768.

DG

Thanks, Dave. I'm using a Dell laptop with a Nvidia graphics card. I tried setting the TV to be the main monitor but still couldn't get

past a resolution of 1280 by 800. Maybe that's due to the VGA cable. I got into the Nvidia setup on the laptop but couldn't find any evidence that it could output 1920 by 1080.

Regards,

Don

[davegee]

Hi Don,

Here is my setup for connecting my Laptop to my 24" 1920x1200 monitor.

The 1920x1200 is designated as the MAIN monitor with the desktop extended to the 1280x800 LT screen.

I will post the LAPTOP/TV setup later.

DG

[davegee]

...... and for the TV setup here are the relevant settings.

These arrangements are both using HDMI connections - I don't have a VGA lead to try for you.

The 1920x1200 Monitor and the TV are designated "Main Monitor" respectively and the desktop extended to the LT Screen.

When connected to my 26" TV the slight anomaly is that the TV Res is 1366x768 while the nearest graphics card setting is 1360x768 (not a true 16:9 AS) but it is not noticable.

When connected to a 1920x1080 TV or Projector the true 16:9 AS is set.

Also when connecting the 16:10 LT to the 16:9 TV the LT screen assumes the 16:9 AS with thin lines top and bottom.

DG

[donw]

...... and for the TV setup here are the relevant settings.

These arrangements are both using HDMI connections - I don't have a VGA lead to try for you.

The 1920x1200 Monitor and the TV are designated "Main Monitor" respectively and the desktop extended to the LT Screen.

When connected to my 26" TV the slight anomaly is that the TV Res is 1366x768 while the nearest graphics card setting is 1360x768 (not a true 16:9 AS) but it is not noticable.

When connected to a 1920x1080 TV or Projector the true 16:9 AS is set.

Also when connecting the 16:10 LT to the 16:9 TV the LT screen assumes the 16:9 AS with thin lines top and bottom.

DG

Thanks, Dave. I'll try and borrow a laptop with a HDMI port and try it out.

I found that my burning software (Ashampoo Burning Studio 9) will burn P2X .mp4 files as video files onto a DVD, but the results were not

really sharp and the pixels "shimmered" in the transitions. There was nowhere to set the parameters such as mode and bitrate with this software.

Regards,

Don

[donw]

I was interested in the 'MultiAVCHD' program that was mentioned by Don so I downloaded it to have a peek. I tried trancoding one of my MP4 files (created with PTE) and managed to achieve this but I finished up with a whole load of different files in the output folder. I must confess that I found the whole process rather lengthy and confusing (as compared to my usual way of doing things with Nero 9) However, I will not be beaten and so would still like to finish the process and burn the transcoded file to a DVD, but I just cannot work out how this can be done from the many files that I have finished up with.

Don, I wonder if you could point me to a step by step tutorial that would help me to understand this program more easily and maybe you would be kind enough to let me have a few notes on just how you go about things.

Ron West

Hi Ron,

I have carried out a lot of experiments and have established a workflow for producing HD DVDs of P2X slideshows which will play on my Panasonic Blu-Ray player:

1. Produce a set of images sized to 1920 by 1080 pixels.

2. Make a slideshow in P2Exe.

3. Create a “HD Video for PC & Mac”: Select HD (1920X1080), high quality.

This produces an “.mp4” file.

4. Open multiAVCHD. Click the “add video files” tab and select the mp4 file.

5. Click “start”. Click on the “AVCHD Strict” button in the “AVCHD for optical

Media” section.

6. The program produces a set of subfolders in a folder with a label such as

“AVCHD-date-number”. The key one is the BDMV folder which contains the

“Backup, Clipinf, Playlist, and Stream” subfolders and a couple of bdmv

files. The video is located in the “Stream” folder as a “0000.MTS” or

“0000.m2ts” file.

7. Open ImgBurn. Set Mode to “build”, and the output to “Image file”. Click on

the “Browse for folder” icon, navigate to the required “AVCHD-date-number”

folder, and click on the BDMV folder. The information pane will show the

number of files included for burning, and the % of the DVD which they will

occupy. Click on the “Label” tab and type the file name into the “UDF” box.

8. Click on the “Folder-to-disc” icon to create an ISO file. A summary box pops

up. Click OK and the ISO file will be created. I close the program, then re-

open it.

9. Click on the “Write image file to disc” icon. In the box which appears, click on

the “Browse for file” icon in the Source area.

10. Select the ISO file. Insert a DVD into the DVD burner. Click on the “Write to

disc” icon. If you are using a RW DVD, the program will go into erase mode,

even if you have already erased the contents with Nero etc.

11. Play the DVD!

This will also work with Proshow mp4s, but I get "pixilation" on the transitions unless

I set the transition time to zero.

Regards,

Don