VideoStudio Wish List for Future Versions

[Black Lab]

1.) A better ability to save settings in case you have to go back, or the program crashes along the way, as it sometimes does. For example, I don't like having to retype in the chapter names.

After you set up your menu, just close the window. It says it is saving the project then sends you back to the timeline. Then save that project, and your chapters, menus, etc. will be saved.

2.) More flexibility in choosing the thumbnail image that appears in the DVD menu, not just limited to the two seconds following the insert point. An alternative would be to let me call up a previously saved still image and use that as the thumbnail. For my purposes, I don't care whether the image is near the start of the video, I want the image that best conveys the essence of the video.

You can choose any point on the video, from that chapter point forward, as the thumbnail for the chapter. Just double click on the thumbnail and navigate to the clip you want. For a title thumbnail you can choose from any point in the video.

[brodwidr]

Thanks for your help, Black Lab.

You said:

You can choose any point on the video, from that chapter point forward, as the thumbnail for the chapter. Just double click on the thumbnail and navigate to the clip you want. For a title thumbnail you can choose from any point in the video.

But when I try that, I find that I can choose any point from that chapter point forward on the same clip but not any point on any subsequent clips. For many people this won't make a difference, but if I have my chapter start with a five second long clip of a title on a black background, for example, then I can't select a frame from the actual video clip that follows the title. Is there a work-around here?

This example shows the issue: http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t213 ... iponly.png

This is from an hour-long production, and -- as you can see in the image -- I've scrolled as far as I can, and I can't get past the end of the current clip.

** EDIT **
I just figured it out! VS lets you select a thumbnail frame from anywhere between the current chapter point and the next chapter point, which could be one clip or several, but is not the whole video. But I think that is the best way to do it, on the whole.

[Black Lab]

I think some clarification is needed here. A title is a separate video file in your project. You may only have one title, or you could have several. Each title would have it's own thumbnail on the main menu of the DVD.

A chapter is a marker within a title. Again, you could have one chapter or several on any given title. Each chapter would have it's own thumbnail on the title's menu.

Can you clarify which you are talking about?

[brodwidr]

Sorry for being unclear. I was talking about chapters. I only have two video files on the time line in the "share>burn to disc" model. One is a 30 second intro that becomes berfore the menu, one is the video itself. I disable the main menu, and just use the chapter menu. So I am talking about creating thumbnails for chapters within a single video file.

[Black Lab]

I just figured it out! VS lets you select a thumbnail frame from anywhere between the current chapter point and the next chapter point, which could be one clip or several, but is not the whole video. But I think that is the best way to do it, on the whole.

Exactly. That's what I was trying to explain (It's a lot easier to see it and do it than it is to explain it )

Do you have DVD Movie Factory? That has better menu control than VS does. If you don't have it you could download the trial to see if it does what you want.

[brodwidr]

1.) Ribbon edit ought to have an option for tying in chapter points as well. Right now, if you put in chapter points and then add or delete some video, the chapter points need to be re-set.

2.) there ought to be a "favorites" panel where I can have my favorite transitions, color bars, filters, etc. always available to drag and drop into the timeline. this would save a lot of clicks.

3.) The program should not automatically delete adjacent transitions when a cut is made or an existing clip removed. Although others have argued that when a clip is eliminated the adjacent transitions cannot logically remain, I do not find this argument persuasive.

There are several situatiosn where there is no reason to delete the adjacent transition:
- suppose I have 3 clips "A" "B" and "C"separated by fades. Suppose I want to split "B" in two so I can clean up a few bad frames in the middle. There's no logical reason why that should kill the transitions between A & B and between B & C.
- suppose I have a clip that I want to split simply so I can apply an affect to one part but not the other. I am not removing anything. There is no reason for the adjacent transitions to be deleted.
- supposing the same three clips as above, with fades between them, and I want to simply get rid of clip "B". Most of the time I will still want to keep the fade between "A" & "C".

It would be much more reasonable if the program had as its default behavior just to eliminate duplicate transitions where the duplication is caused by removing an intervening clip. In otherwords, if you had clips A B and C each with a fade, and then you eliminated all of clip B, the program should eliminate one of the two back-to-back transitiosn that remain between A and C after B is removed. But that if you simply cut B in two and eliminated part of clip B, the default behavior should be to leave the existing transitiosn in place since no "back to back" transitions are created.

This is comparable to what happens in MS Word when you double click on a word in the middle of a sentence and delete it. Word is smart enough to guess at what you intend. It does not leave you with two spaces between the remaining words. Nor does it leave you with no spaces between adjacent words. It leaves you with a single space, which is usually what you want.

- David

[jparnold]

3.) The program should not automatically delete adjacent transitions when a cut is made or an existing clip removed. Although others have argued that when a clip is eliminated the adjacent transitions cannot logically remain, I do not find this argument persuasive.

I would qualify that to -
The program should ask you do you want to delete the adjacent transistions
or better still
A preference to set or unset "delete adjacent transitions when removing clips from timeline"

[Ken Berry]

I thoroughly endorse that suggestion!!

[JBRichter]

I would like the ability to put all videos and pics of a project in one folder and sort by the date time stamp. That way, you would have the complete story from start to finish. Personally, I hike with allot of people and we all have digital cameras and I shoot the video as well. Putting their pics and mine plus video together sorted by the time stamp and dragging it in the tme line would have create a true story from start to finish very quickly.

JBR

[Black Lab]

I would like the ability to put all videos and pics of a project in one folder and sort by the date time stamp.

Just above the library thumbnails are a row of icons. The middle one is the Library Manager. Clicking on that enables you to create new library folders. The icon to the left of the Library Manager is Sort Clips. Click on that to sort by name or date.

[brodwidr]

One ought to be able to change the duration of a clip (both video and audio) by increments more fine than an integer value (e.g. 1 percent, 2 percent but not 1.37 percent.) I had a situation recently where I needed to synch audio captured separately from the video. The timing of the recording equipment was a bit off, and so by the end of the hour-long video there were several seconds difference between the two. The lack of sync was obvious. I needed to compress the audio by something between 1 and 2 percent to make the match. Since I knew the exact duration of each, if it were possible to enter a decimal value instead of being limited to an integer, it would have been quick and easy to make them both play at exactly the same speed. One percent of an hour is 36 seconds, and that's far too coarse an adjustment.

Of course I could have cut the video and sound into shorter clips and synced each piece separately but it's far more efficient to sync the whole recording at the outset, and then keep the parts in sync using ribbon edit.

[Nounours18200]

Not yet tried, but it seems to me that UVS10+ is not able to export HDV to the camcorder in order to backup the edited HDV videos ...

In the future it will be a valuable feature (if it is not yet supported).

[sjj1805]

VideoStudio 11+ has now been released in Japan
http://www.ulead.co.jp/about/release/2007/070417.htm
and so therefore it should be released to the rest of the world within days.

I am therefore locking this thread and will start a fresh one.