Photos into video & date stamp on vid

[willyr001]

Hi folks, from this newbie.

I am working with VS4 since another video program I have has crashed and for some reason they cannot fix it. I'm stuck, with a number of videos to complete, and looking for an alternate program.

I've got this, what seems to be excellent, video editing software pretty much figured out, and have read the manual and the FAQ's and yet cannot find a reference to my issue(s).

1)I've imported a .gif graphic into the time line. The other program allowed me to extend the duration of the .gifs to virtually any length by clicking on it, and dragging the right or left side to the duration desired. I want the them (I am adding a number of stills to the videos) to run 3-5 seconds depending on where it will be placed in the production. When I click the .gif in the timeline, it shows a duration of .01 second. How do I extend that?

2) When previewing a video in the preview window, there is a date and time stamp appearing in black on the video. Am I correct in assuming that this is the "watermark" created by the trial version, and this will disappear when I buy the program?

I very much appreciate any help.

Thanks,

Bill

[Ron P.]

Welcome to the forums,

1. GIF can be a still image or animated. How VS treats it depends on how you import/insert it. If you used the Insert Video, then it will see the GIF as an animated GIF, which should have more than 1 image. If you use the Insert Photo, it is treated like any other photo, thus you should be able to set the duration to any length. Another property that could cause your GIF to be a very short duration, is what settings in the program used to create the GIF. If your animated GiF is only 30 frames, that would equal 1 sec of video at 30 frames per second. Right-click on the GIF, select properties. If it is an animated image, it will show you the number of frames. Animated GIFs are nothing more than a series of images stacked. Each image is one frame. To remedy this you could go back to the photo program and change it their, or you could slow down/change the speed of that clip in VS.

2. The date/time stamp does not come from VS, trial version or otherwise. This probably is from the image itself. What program did you use to create the image?

[willyr001]

Ron, thanks for the welcome, and for the solution to issue #1. Importing the file properly worked just fine!

Issue number two, I'm bringing in an .mp3 video file shot with my Sony Handycam. When I bring the same file into Power Director (which, a week later, is still not working... and they don't respond on weekends, so I'm really stuck) no date or time stamp appears.

I've uploaded a screenshot of the preview screen, and you should be able to see the date and time stamp that is appearing, and unwanted, in the lower right. Any thoughts on this?

My very great thanks for the help so far.

Cheers,

Bill

[BrianCee]

Like Ron I do not believe that it is anything in VideoStudio that is date stamping your video - in fact we often get requests for a way to do just that automatically - but I am wondering whether VideoStudio is erroneously interpreting the date stamp in your video as DV code - can we just check that out. With VideoStudio open press F6 - that will open the 'Preferences' dialogue pane - down at the bottom (second up) is a check box against "display DV timecode on preview window" IF there is a tick in that box click to untick it. - - see if it makes a difference - if there is no tick I'm stumped.

Is the date shown on the video the date when you shot the video (assuming your camera clock is correct) - if so then it is your camera which is imprinting it on the video - I have turned the date stamping off in my camcorder as it is very difficult to remove later but very easy to add manually later.

[Ken Berry]

I recall that several years ago, we had users with particular Sony camcorders having this date and time stamp thing with their video. It turned out to be a setting in their camcorder. So what kind of camera are you using?

[willyr001]

Biran & Ken...

Thanks for the replies. Much appreciated.

"display DV timecode on preview window" is not ticked.

The date and time code appears when the video is rendered.

The date and time only appears on the preview window in VS4, but not when I play the same video outside of VS4. in Windows Media Player, for example.

It is a Sony Handycam. The date stamp is not toggled on in the camera. Yikes!!!

Thanks,

Bill

[willyr001]

Chaps, my apologies. I stand corrected. I assumed the date time stamp was not on as it had not appeared on any of my videos before, and only appears in VS4. Looks like the toggle might have been on in the camera, though. So, all my video files, if I use them in VS4, are going to show the date stamp.... I guess. Rats. Anything I can do to remove it from the video. I've got stuff in the can that I'm nowhere near the venue to reshoot.

Thanks,

Bill

[Ron P.]

Well you need to get creative. There's no way to remove it, just hide it. This would be a good time to start looking at using some lower-third graphics to cover it up.

[willyr001]

I very much appreciate the rapid and cogent responses, fellows.

Being a little " Missourish " I am going to take a couple of trial videos in the a.m. and see if the date stamp is really gone.

Mean time, it's about 20 min to Super Bowl kick off here, and in front of the tube is where I'm spending the next few hours. I'll hoist a cool one to you both for your kind help.

Cheers,

Bill