Export into Quicktime Movies

[captbrando]

Here is a feature request that would easily solve the "I want my mac users to see my presentations." (pieces of this have been mentioned before in other threads, but I thought I'd start one dedicated to this topic.)

Could PicturesToExe have an add-in that would create a PicturesToMOV type scenario? If the slide show could be exported into a quicktime movie file, you have easily created shows that can be viewable by mac users, as well as a host of other possibilities (streaming, web shows etc). Granted, some functionality would not work, i.e., buttons etc. But hey, as a quick fix for those mac users this might be an easy solution.

Of course, exporting a .swf file is another quite impractical solution

[RodB]

Hi

A down side to this would be the huge file size , times a 3minute PTE show by 29 frames per second = 5020 images to be shown in that 3 mins , now if you want any sort of quality so it can play fullscreen or at least 640x480 you will need a bitrate of at least 1 to 1.5 mg per second , so to do all this it will run out at about 100mg per minute of slideshow , not very economical .

Video is not a very good medium for static objects , as video dont stop while you a looking at a still image .

To go swf , Igor would probably have to pay royalties to macromedia and this may stop him , l would actually rather see swf import into PTE than export .

If you want to build a slideshow in Swf format , any of the flash content editors like Swish or Koolmoves can do it , but the quality is not as good as PTE as swf is far better at handling vector graphics than bitmaps .

Regards Rod

[captbrando]

Why do you need to worry about the frames per second? Who is going to flip 29 different images up on the screen every second? If I have a 5 second wait time, there should be a way to optimize the quicktime movie to show the slide, wait, then the transition animation, then the slide. etc. I've watched many quicktime movies (granted not full screen, but 640x480) that were not 100meg/minute of movie.

[RodB]

Hi

l havent seen any video or mov file that has a wait option , l havent seen this feature in any video editor , video is all about motion ,they dont stop and wait , not that l have seen anyway , l must open up quicktime pro and see if it has a function like this .

To say you have seen quality video of 640x480 , yes that true , but not the same quality PTE will give you for the file size , to get this quality you will need a high bitrate , if your image in PTE is 100kbs in resolution + size , you will then need for video a bitrate of 2.8mg per second to equal the PTE quality , has to be its just mathematics , of course compression will get it down somewhat , but for quality video you need high bitrate !

l guess its whatever you are satified with .

This is based on 29fps and 25fps , do you know for sure this wait function is available or are you thinking it should be ?

Regards Rod

[alrobin]

Rod,

My RealOne player has a pause function - most other players I have seen also use it.

Ciao,

al

[RodB]

Hi

I understand that the players have a pause , but l mean the editors so its built in to the video , eg still image stays on screen for set time video plays transition next image stay static for set time then video plays transition , l have not seen anything like this ?

Rod

[mandarinfish]

Quicktime works fine for still image slideshows. Liveslideshow generates Quicktime movies, and there is some capability built into the latest Quicktime Pro for still shows. You don't need a frame rate of 29 fps to display stills. You can get by with as few as 7 fps, even with the transitions. Also, not all of those frames need to be key frames, and if you have a decent codec, the bitrate is not that bad. I've done some slideshows in Flash movies with a very low frame rate, and it was fine. The size of the movie was smaller than my PTE executables, but the problem I had with Flash was that the audio wasn't smooth (Flash just isn't designed for it).

I've only been trying the demo version of Liveslideshow, which only allows 5 images, but for those 5 images (approx 800x600 not highly compressed), running nearly a minute, with transitions, the size of the QT movie was only 517kbytes (no audio added yet). And it looks fine.

[RodB]

Hi

Very interesting stuff , l had a look at thier site and the app looks good for this purpose .

The reason the audio would be out in Flash is that with Flash the animation and the audio run independate , unless the audio is a streaming swf and then Flash will drop animation frames to keep in sync with the audio , if its not streaming audio , it will prolly run way out of time and finish way behind the visuals ,how much depends on the length of the movie and how heavy the animation is .

Low frame rate can work , but if you have any sort of heavy animation it will be as smooth as a gravel road , low frame rate is totally content relevant ,one thing for sure you will not get a transition out of flash as smooth as PTE with a frame rate of 7 , you wont get it with a rate of 30 unless you have a beast of a machine running it ,as we all know PTE has very smooth fades even on slow machines .

You can cheat things to get acceptable results using compression ,low frame rates , small playback window size etc , and thats what you will get acceptable , it may even look great , untill ,, you view the same deal with a higher frame rate , less compression . and bigger files

Nice chatting with you guys and will have a good look at LiveSlideShow .

Have a nice day

Rod