Mpeg video

[yguy]

I don't often write to the forum but I wish to thank you all for so much that I have learnt over the years.

v5 is super. I am a tour guide and do a presentation for every group that I guide. It gets better and better with each group. I can now do a map at the begining of each days tour. I have a picture (or sometimes more than one), in the background and a map in the foreground and a bus that moves a long the route that we take. It looks great.

But something that I have not succeeded in doing is adding snipits of video in the presentation. I use a Sony Mavica and and take occasional Mpeg pieces a few seconds in length. Every time I have tried to add these to the PTE presentation the video comes out fine but there is no sound. What should I be doing or what am I doing wrong? What should I convert the Mpeg file to, or what do I have missing (I have been trying to understand the whole deal with codecs but too no avail).

My thanks to Lin and Dom and Boxig (who we haven't heard from in a long while) and many others who have taught me so much.

[alrobin]

Probably the most effective way to incorporate a video into a sldeshow is to create and burn a DVD version of your show. Once a PTE file is converted to AVI or MPEG format, it can be combined with a similar file from a video camera.

[yguy]

Probably the most effective way to incorporate a video into a sldeshow is to create and burn a DVD version of your show. Once a PTE file is converted to AVI or MPEG format, it can be combined with a similar file from a video camera.

Thanks Al I think I understand what you are saying and shall try it.

[thedom]

You can integrate a video in a PTE 4.48 slideshow using granot's utilities :

- ShowVideoPTE

- HideShowTaskBar (not mandatory, but if you don't want to see the taskbar when the video plays, you need this tool).

You can find those utilities here : http://www.thailandphotoalbum.com

You will be able to do it too in PTE v5.00 as soon as the "run external application" is re-integrated.

It should be avalaible in beta #10 or #11.

I think the ability to integrate a video in PTE without those utilities is a subject for a future version (5.10 or after).

[yguy]

Thanks Dom for your input. So you think that I cannot intergrate the Mpeg file into the presentation as Al suggested in v5. I thought that I would have to finish the PTE presentation in DVD format as Al suggested and then edit and intergrate the Mpeg file into the presenation by means of a video editing program.

[Lin Evans]

Thanks Dom for your input. So you think that I cannot intergrate the Mpeg file into the presentation as Al suggested in v5. I thought that I would have to finish the PTE presentation in DVD format as Al suggested and then edit and intergrate the Mpeg file into the presenation by means of a video editing program.

Actually, using the yet to be introduced (run external code) via Granot's accessory or by doing as Al suggested, converting to an AVI then editing in a video editing program you can achieve what you want to do.

I'm not absolutely certain of this, but I "think" the reason it's very difficult to simply drop in a video file then create an executable or DVD revolves around the very featue which sets PTE apart from the rest of the presentation slideshow software - hardware rendering. Hardware rendering gives very high quality and very high resolution potential to an executable slideshow. Other slideshow software user software rendering and actually everything is rendered at DVD quality then for executable code the lower resolution images are interpolated to screen display dimensions which are often much higher in pixel count than the original rendering.

There are several technical issues which need to be addressed before simply being able to drop in an AVG or such and seamlessly continue with the creation of a show. AVI or MPEG files are huge in terms of storage space compared to executable files. If you look at the size of the little AVI files which come from your still camera you will find that just a few moments of video/audio recording eats up a tremendous amount of memory. Then there is that issue of image quality and not having a huge jump in visible quality between the video portion and animated still portion.

If you want to incorporate video into your present shows, it might be best to use one of the software programs for this which do software rendering. This will adversely affect the quality of your still images, but is still the most expedient way to accomplish what you want to do. Proshow Gold (Photodex) is a reasonably priced product which does an excellent job with this and you can simply drop in "most" AVI clips and continue on with your show. You "could" do it as Al suggests with PTE, but then you are lowering your overall quality to the level of the DVD.

The bottom line is that no one product does it all. PTE has by far the greatest image quality, smoothest and most flexible animation capability and many other superior features, but for simply dropping in snippets of video code and continuing seamlessly with your slideshow Proshow Gold is my personal choice. Though I seldom use Proshow Gold any more, in this one area it has right now the decided edge and there's nothing wrong with using more than one product. Personally I use PTE, PSG, Vegas Video, Memories On TV, MediaShow and several other slideshow programs.

I normally would not recommend a different product on a forum dedicated to my favorite software, PTE, but in your case you can do exactly what you want to do right now without the hassle of jumping through hoops by just using it for those cases where you want to drop in video.

Best regards,

Lin