Eagle-Condor Peru

[LumenLux]

Ever since the first Beta's of PTE Version 5 came from Igor we've had opportunity to learn how to deal with movement within the framework of our still photos. Most of that has to do with the O&A tools. But we have also had some questions and discussion of how to integrate video clips into our PTE presentations. I for one am still hoping for even better and simpler ways to combine the two visual forms.

Before V5, I was collaborating on a project where we had shot both stills and video and wanted to use them in the same presentation. At the time, I could not satisfactorly bring the extensive video into PTE. After using PTE to compose sequences of the still photos, I had to sacrafice the resolution and clarity of PTE by inserting the sequences into the video framework. Never-the-less I was quite pleased with the over-all result. Now, I would love to hear what our trusted PTE forum members think of it. I have never had the opportunity to have any critical comment or reaction beyond my non-critical, non-AV-minded target audience. I think there are many considerations in this combination of stills and video, similar to those we consider in making our normal PTE sequences. So I would certainly welcome any of you, if interested, to take a look and then really give me some reaction.

From a technical standpoint: The original (16 minute) DVD version is 1.5 gig. To make this online version available for a least a few of you to download and view, I now have the file size down to 153mb. I realize that is still too large for many of you - I'm sorry. When I download, my broadband connection takes 5 minutes. I hope you will enjoy and comment.

Eagle-Condor Peru download here.

[Barry Beckham]

I downloaded and played the video and had to use some obscure player on my PC to do so, the resulting image on screen was probaly only 3in by 3in.

Is that the size I should be seeing or will I get a bigger image with something like quicktime

[Ken Cox]

Barry

same for me

vlc wanted to be the default player

so i took the file and converted it with one of my tools to a mpegII and played it with WMP - ended up basically the same physical size as original file -- will try and make a dvd as a test later- - QT did not want to play the standalone file without burping a couple times - Seems like Robert has a queer codec

ken

[LumenLux]

I try to make things simple, but it isn't always easy.

As best I understand the.mp4 extension in this case is a type of .avi file.

I find the downloaded show will play for me with either the VLC Media Player or Quicktime. It does not play in Windows Media Player as it is configured on my pc.

With either of the VLC or Quicktime players, the display size is variable but will not be clear at full screen. That was a sacrifice I had to make to get the file download possible for some.

Personally, I find myself going first to VLC for most of my viewing as it seems to handle many common and uncommon video.

You can download VLC here. (I had first used VLC for Mac users to be able watch video versions of my PTE slideshows that they otherwise would miss.)

[bjc]

Robert,

A very good presentation ~ I really enjoyed watching it ~ there are of course (as you and we all know) serious limitations with regards to showing ‘still’ images and videos all wrapped up in the same output file.

By producing a video that plays at (for example) 30fps you are forced to display your stills at the same frame rate ~ therefore, if you want high quality full screen still images (on-screen for say 8 seconds at time) each still image is forced to display as 240 identical image frames ~ if there are 30 images in your ‘slideshow’ ~ that will equate to 7200 still images !!

Whilst admittedly ‘video’ has to run at a given frame rate in order to animate, what is required is a format that will allow a single image (frame) to be show for any given length of time whilst at the same time being able to run video at the frame rate necessary.

Currently there is one program that I know of that is capable of doing this ~ but it ain’t cheap ~ $599.oo in fact !?

The name of this program is MEDIATOR (currently on version 9). It can output content to HTML, FLASH, as well as its own dedicated ‘exe’ file format. And it all works very well too !!

Needless to say each format has it’s own limitations (although it’s own dedicated ‘exe’ file format has very few), but in broad terms it offers extensive end-user interactivity in all formats, including animation, interactive buttons, fades and dissolves, and allows for still images to be displayed in much the same way as PTE (one image on-screen for X number of seconds etc) whilst at the same time being able to incorporate video content (at whatever frame rate is required) into the finished project.

When outputting to MEDIATORS own dedicted ‘exe’ file format, the resultant product is a single file containing all the elements, in much the same way as PTE. HTML output of course produces a multitude of files, as indeed needs must, but all this is done fully automatically by MEDIATOR and no coding (programming) is required ~ all very clever.

Producing an interactive FLASH project allows for any numbers of ‘stills’ (plus animation, interactivity, fades and dissolves etc) but any video content must be provided as a separate file (flv) which the FLASH file then calls upon, and streams, when it’s needed. A finished FLASH project incorporating both stills and (a single) video with therefore consist of two files, etc.

I have produced a very basic (and far from polished) demonstration of a MEDIATOR ‘exe’ project for anyone that is interested in seeing it. The images I have used are small, and there ain’t that many of them, and the video is short and captured at just 3fps (for the purposes of this exercise) ~ however (if it ‘works’ on your PC) it will give you an idea of what can be achieved using MEDIATOR ~ and what Igor may one day be able to incorporate into PTE !? Sorry Igor ~ I’m not pushing you !!

Link: (this is an ‘exe’ file, not zipped, and 11MB is size)

http://www.lsaps.org.uk/PTE/StandardMediatorFormat.exe

bjc

[Lin Evans]

Hi Robert,

I downloaded and played the video and love the content and effort, but you really are beating yourself to death trying to essentially build a piece of fine furniture with a framing hammer. Why don't you just use something like Proshow Gold for a project like this? You can easily mix video and stills and the overall result will be much superior.

PTE is the very best at what it does, which is produce incredible high-resolution image quality AV shows, but trying to get it to mix video and stills is just banging your head against the wall. If you don't need PZR in the stills, even MediaShow (Cyberlink) will give you excellent results mixing video and stills and it has superb text effects.

Perhaps some day in the future when typical video resolutions reach 1080p it will be feasible for the developers to configure PTE to mix video and stills, but right now even though it's "possible" to combine stills and video either by decompiling video to jpgs and animating them (not simple and rather crude) or do the stills animation in PTE, convert to video MPG II then mix in a video editor such as Vegas Video, Encore, etc., it's still a rather cumbersome way when you can just drop the video clips into a program designed for stills and video and end up with a superior product in a fraction of the time.

Really, it's horses for courses I think..

[LumenLux]

Robert,

I have produced a very basic (and far from polished) demonstration of a MEDIATOR ‘exe’ project for anyone that is interested in seeing it. The images I have used are small, and there ain’t that many of them, and the video is short and captured at just 3fps (for the purposes of this exercise) ~ however (if it ‘works’ on your PC) it will give you an idea of what can be achieved using MEDIATOR ~ and what Igor may one day be able to incorporate into PTE !? Sorry Igor ~ I’m not pushing you !!

bjc

Thanks for your personal experience. As you say, there are some clever routes available. I appreciate the example you posted which demostrates well until the video. On my pc, the video does not display. I hear your excellent sound track and the controls on the left of the video, do not function. On the other segments, seeing your very fine photos reminds me that even so, nothing does, nor likely, will surpass the quality that PTE delivers for us.

Thank you for your input here.

[LumenLux]

Hi Robert,

I downloaded and played the video and love the content and effort,

Really, it's horses for courses I think..

Lin, thank you for reacting to both the contents and the container. Your extensive experience, and success you have displayed with different approaches, really gives new credence to the "horses for courses" conclusion. Thanks again.

(Now, as mentioned in another post - I hope that two good comments, or my reponse, don't close the topic in the minds of others who might share their thoughts.)