Best way to create a combined movie and slideshow project?

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 6:26 am

Hi,
I have tried to read a lot of the material on this forum and also the tutorials etc but I would like someone to clarify this for me -

What is the best way of creating a project that is a combination of movie (DV) and slideshow (jpeg), is it better to do 2 separate projects and combine after rendering each? The reason I ask is that I see that a movie should be rendered "lower field first" but when I have combined movie and slideshow the mpeg analyzer shows "frame based"?

Thanks for any help.
George

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:03 am

I would personally always do them separate, but that is just a matter of personal choice. You can also do them combined. The thing is that photos, being single frame things, would normally be frame-based (and this is what I usually use for them anyway). But they can also take on the characterisitics of Upper or Lower Field First (since the single, solid frame that makes up a photo can be broken into two fields, but as they are identical, it doesn't matter which is broadcast first).

So if you do in fact go for a combination of video and slideshow, make sure that the final field order of the whole project matches that of the video, not the photos. In other words, in your case, Lower Field First...

A video which is frame based will be fine if you have a digital/high definition TV which uses progressive scan (or a computer monitor). But they in any case have a translator in them which can read interlaced signal (i.e. UFF or LFF) so you could still send it a LFF signal and it would be broadcast just fine. The downside about doing it all Frame Based is that if you then distribute the DVD to friends who don't have progressive scan TVs, they would have trouble viewing it -- or else they'd have to play them in their computers!

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:40 am

Ken,
Thank you for your advice. I didn't realize the impact of frame based so I've just quickly checked some recent DVD's and thankfully they must have been lower-field!

We're very lucky to have the regular input of yourself and the other "super-contributors".

George

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:59 am

Thanks for the nice words!

I am not sure if it is precisely because more and more TVs these days are using progressive scan that VS11 at least seems now to set Frame Based as the default project setting on installation, and you have to manually change this in File > Preferences. In your case, I was also wondering if in fact you might have done the slideshow first, or inserted photos first, and the project took on the quality of the 'first clip' i.e. a frame-based photo...

One of the first things I do whenever I install (or reinstall) successive versions of VS is to go through File > Preferences and one of the first things I change there is the field order to LFF as that is what I normally use (mini DV and Digital 8/firewire cameras). Mind you, in exactly a week from this very moment I will be touching down in Singapore en route to Europe, and I will be buying a HDV Canon HV-20, so I guess in future I am going to be even more careful since that uses UFF!!!

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 8:19 am

Have a great holiday (business trip?)!

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:29 pm

Ostensibly a business trip -- well, they are paying the airfare and hotel for the three days of the conference at which I am presenting a paper. But after that, I am free... with tons of wonderful European sites to try out the new camera!!!

Stix99 · Post by **Stix99** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:42 am

Ken

Just some more info on a project that runs perfectly in VS10 but when rendered the video is fine but the jpgs are a little out of sync with the music. All I want is an Mpeg or AVI file I can burn to a DVD, its around 500MB as an Mpeg. I tried removing smart rendering with no effect

Running XP, core intel2CPU processorT5300, 2Gb RAM, media accelerator 950 graphics card, 160MB SATA hard disk,not sure on the sound card

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:00 pm

Well, if stopping SmartRender didn't work, the only thing I can think of is that you may have arranged your photos, synchronised with the music, then inserted transitions between the photos. If you did this, it would have thrown the timing out for each photo by half the time you set as the default for each transition... Transitions take half their time off the end of one photo/clip and the other half of their time at the beginning of the next. It's one of the reasons we suggest you do all your editing, transitions etc before you do the audio editing.

Stix99 · Post by **Stix99** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:54 am

Would it make a difference if the music and some pictures were coming from a thumb drive to be rendered??

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 12:54 pm

Notionally it could. Some thumb drives, as you know, are faster than others. But equally notionally, digital data is digital data and one would imagine that if the digital photos were coming in on time, then the audio would be coming in on time as well.

However, I can't say that for absolute certain, and it would certainly be worth trying to do it again with the photos and music on your hard disc instead...

What about my speculation about whether you added transitions after you added, and timed, the music???

Stix99 · Post by **Stix99** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 10:05 pm

Moved everything off the thumb drive to the hard drive. It all seems to work great in the small VS preview screen but when you maximise the screen it runs just a little slower and out of time, which is how it renders as well. Removed the music & re added it, but its still anoyingly behind the beat

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Best way to create a combined movie and slideshow project?

Best way to create a combined movie and slideshow project?

Vidoe & Stills