Slide audio vs added music track

[SeismicGuy]

I think I figured this out but wanted to see if there was an easier way.  In the program I had been using for creating slideshows (MOTV) it was rather easy to to lower the audio in any video slide independent of the overall background music you might have for the overall show (see below).  It looks like in order to do the same thing in PTE AV you need to right click the video slide and choose "Separate Audio from Video" which then shows the separate audio for that particular slide.  Then you can play around with fading in and fading by clicking/creating the adjustable volume points--correct?

Is there another way or did I hit on the right way of doing it?

 

[rosy]

Hi Seismic Guy

There are 2 methods in PTE I use, the first you have to insert the video /sound clip separately from the background sound by linking it in the Project Options tab, see sr3. Secondly, with all the slides inserted including the video clip's, go to the timeline view, highlight the video clip you want to lower the sound, click the solid line above the waveform, which will leave a marker point, move along the solid line a short way to give a fade out of the video sound, click the solid line again & drag it to the bottom of the waveform, then move along the line you have dragged down to where you want the video sound to resume, click the line, move on a short distance to give a fade in, click the solid line & drag it up to its original height. See sr1 / sr1a. If you want to mute the video sound completely.  Highlight the video clip, open objects & animation screen, tick the Mute audio box. See sr2.

Suggest you read the official instructions to get a more professional description.

Rosy. 

[SeismicGuy]

Not sure we are on the same page here.  I add various background music on one track (or I guess it can be separate tracks).  Of course ALL of the mp4 slides will have audio that can be manipulated and typically I want to mute out that audio since it is often just background noise.  But to do so you first have to "expose" the video audio so that you can play with it.  So that requires the Separate Audio from Video" button.

[tom95521]

That is the method I use. Before we had the separate audio from video option (right click on timeline video object), there was a different method that I think still works. You have to mute the video and then import the video again as an audio track (change file type option to video).

Tom

[SeismicGuy]

Hey Tom--thanks.  Looks like I stumbled onto the correct way. The only other beef I have with the program so far is that if I select ALL of the slides (jpg ones plus the few mp4 slides in my program) and change the slide duration (I typically want ALL of the jpgs to be about the same duration), the program also applies that duration to the mp4 clips.  I generally want to keep the entire original duration of the mp4 clips but that gets overridden so that now I somehow have to go back and restore the correct full duration to those slides.  Seems like the program should be smart enough to OMIT changes like that to mp4 slides.

[tom95521]

I think after you spend more time using the software it will be less of a problem. PTE is like a musical instrument, if you practice you will get better. You might try adding your videos after you apply the default duration to your slides (Project Options, Main, Timing, Default slide duration). Some users like to time their slide durations to the music using the + - transition point option on the timeline tab.

Thanks,
Tom

[SeismicGuy]

Adding the mp4 videos back in at the very end is one solution I also came up with.  But my suggestion to have video slides in the timeline somehow stand out differently than jpg images (e.g., by using filmstrip symbols or special highlighted or colored border) it would make it so much easier to deselect the video slides after selecting all of the slides or to omit selecting them altogether when making changes that you just want to apply to jpgs.  Or even have a checkbox somewhere that lets you apply changes to jpgs but not mp4 slides.  Seems there a several ways to skin the cat for future options in the program.

[stranger2156]

5 hours ago, SeismicGuy said:

I want to mute out that audio since it is often just background noise

In O&A, under the properties tab, you can mute the video. Separate it from the video unnecessarily.

 

3 hours ago, SeismicGuy said:

... the program also applies that duration to the mp4 clips.

What's stopping you from excluding video slides from the general selection before changing the slide timing for JPG? Stills from videos are displayed as thumbnails to distinguish them from photographs.
P.S. But I agree with the possibility of "hanging a lock" on any of the slides while it is playing. This can be very useful after making numerous movement adjustments in it.

Paul

[jkb]

Making all of your slides the same duration becomes extremely boring and predictable to watch. Unless of course you are presenting them as individual single images and not as a whole AV playing in time to the music.

It is a standard windows function to Ctrl+A to select all slides, then you can deselect the ones you don't want by Ctrl click on them. Or click on the first then shift click on the last to just select a section.

For audio on a video to completely mute it do that in O&A. To adjust the volume right click on the video in timeline and select seperate audio. Then use keyframes on the volume line to adjust.

The status bar will show the filename so you can see if jpg or MP4 etc. You may need to turn that on in preferences.

PTE really is easy to use and very powerful. The fact that the user has to do things rather it being all automatic is what gives it the flexibity.

Jill

[davegee]

2 hours ago, jkb said:

 

The status bar will show the filename so you can see if jpg or MP4 etc. You may need to turn that on in preferences.

PTE really is easy to use and very powerful. The fact that the user has to do things rather it being all automatic is what gives it the flexibility.

Jill

Alternatively, you can rename the Slide Name in Slide Options when the Video is added to the Slide List (or in O&A).

DG

[wideangle]

I get what seismicguy is saying, in that he wants a quick, visual way of checking along the slide list to pick out slides that are just videos.
( My crude way is just to look at the duration of slides along the slide list, because my video slide durations tend to be pretty obvious by being numbers like 12.271 etc rather than nice round figures!)

The problem with looking at the filetype in the status bar is that you have to click on each slide in turn to display the information, which rather defeats the object of wanting it to be quick. Ditto if you need to rename each slide that contains a video.

I'm not familiar with MOTV.
Did it allow you to have a mixture of pictures and videos within one slide?  If so, how did it indicate the slide contents in its slide list, because you would have exactly the same problem here in PTE AV Studio, where a slide could have a mixture of content?

Regards

wideangle

[davegee]

31 minutes ago, wideangle said:

 

I'm not familiar with MOTV.
Did it allow you to have a mixture of pictures and videos within one slide?  If so, how did it indicate the slide contents in its slide list, because you would have exactly the same problem here in PTE AV Studio, where a slide could have a mixture of content?

Regards

wideangle

 

[Xenofex2]

I would like to thank Seismic Guy for that original question. It just came at a time when I had a video file within my current Project that only as I had progressed, I then realised I wished to lower the audio level – but though not Mute it completely!

Later I intend to add background track(s) and voice overs so obviously did not want the sound level on the video to be at a higher level.

As a result of the question I looked more closely at my options. The only option I could see within PTE was to right click on ‘Audio Comment’ and then select ‘Unlink Audio Clip’ but in this case nothing happened.

I then went back to this particular video clip and outside of PTE. First I unclipped the Audio from the Video and then re-exported both and this time I found within PTE, that I had the choice when right clicking to, ‘Separate Audio from Video’.    

As Tom mentions earlier, I for one am definitely still learning.

George

[SeismicGuy]

6 hours ago, jkb said:

Making all of your slides the same duration becomes extremely boring and predictable to watch. Unless of course you are presenting them as individual single images and not as a whole AV playing in time to the music.

PTE really is easy to use and very powerful. The fact that the user has to do things rather it being all automatic is what gives it the flexibity.

Jill

Hey Jill--I don't necessarily have ALL of the slides the same duration and I might tweak some to be a bit longer or shorter than whatever default I would pick.  Also I would often create a number of multi-picture slides (e.g., two or three images coming together on a single slide) and those are typically longer anyway.  Also the videos that I scatter in help to break things up.

4 hours ago, wideangle said:

I get what seismicguy is saying, in that he wants a quick, visual way of checking along the slide list to pick out slides that are just videos.
( My crude way is just to look at the duration of slides along the slide list, because my video slide durations tend to be pretty obvious by being numbers like 12.271 etc rather than nice round figures!)

The problem with looking at the filetype in the status bar is that you have to click on each slide in turn to display the information, which rather defeats the object of wanting it to be quick. Ditto if you need to rename each slide that contains a video.

I'm not familiar with MOTV.
Did it allow you to have a mixture of pictures and videos within one slide?  If so, how did it indicate the slide contents in its slide list, because you would have exactly the same problem here in PTE AV Studio, where a slide could have a mixture of content?

Regards

wideangle

Wideangle--EXACTLY right.  With MOTV it takes no time at all to select only jpgs and skip over the videos.  I never would create multi-picture slides by combining jpg and video although there was nothing to stop you from doing it.  Once the multi-picture slide was created the program would convert that entire slide to an mp4 clip and that resulting slide would be placed into the show, although it was still possible to edit the slide if it turned out that you wanted to change something.  

[SeismicGuy]

3 hours ago, davegee said:

 

Anything could be placed in a multi-picture slide (jpgs and videos).  At the end when you were satisfied with what you had the program would "process" the slide into a single mp4 file that would be inserted into the show.  Again the things that could be easily accomplished with this program were amazing even though the interface was deceptively simple.

[davegee]

23 minutes ago, SeismicGuy said:

  At the end when you were satisfied with what you had the program would "process" the slide into a single mp4 file that would be inserted into the show.  

Well, that is one thing that you will never have to do again. 

Does my suggestion of changing the Slide Name to identify Video Slides help??

DG

[SeismicGuy]

22 minutes ago, davegee said:

Well, that is one thing that you will never have to do again. 

Does my suggestion of changing the Slide Name to identify Video Slides help??

DG

 

Changing the slide name in advance of moving it into the slides view or timeline view is a workaround but the FILMSTRIP symbol stands out much more than reading the name of the slide.  

For the multi-picture slide, there was really no grief or effort in doing this.  First you would create the multi-pictures slide with whatever images you wanted:

 

Then when you were done using one of the prepackaged effects or creating your own, the program would "render" the result into a single video file:

 

I hope I don't get kicked out of the forum for constantly referring back to MOTV but the program has not been sold by the developers (Codejam) for a few years now so it is really not a currently competing product.  Still I think if you google around a bit you might be able to find a source to buy or download the last version.  The program was ridiculously cheap and was only about $50 or less at the time.  If you can find it, it is worth downloading and playing around with it.  The learning curve is almost nil and the versatility was incredible.

 

[davegee]

You have misunderstood.

You can change the SLIDE name without changing the image or video name - go to Slide Options / Slide Name.

DG

[SeismicGuy]

Just now, davegee said:

You have misunderstood.

You can change the SLIDE name without changing the image or video name - go to Slide Options / Slide Name.

DG

Yes understood.  But having to look at the name versus just having the slide itself stand out in some way (filmstrip effect) is much easier.  In other words a picture is worth a thousand words.  You IMMEDIATELY recognize the slide as being a video rather than a jpg WITHOUT having to look at the file name.

[davegee]

Well, while you are waiting for Version 11…..........

DG