Nationalsolo

Hi With a 10hr clip (It seems long clip to me) it will take some time to regenerate the audio track (and the video track) if you split it at some point. Have you checked that the visible audio track has completely been re drawn for the full length of the timeline before you delete the unwanted section? If not it MAY have some effect on what is cut off from the audio. I don't actually know if anything actually occurs if this is done as I don't use clips that long . What does VP do with shorter Debut generated clips......say 30 mins long? Nat

Hi If it makes you feel better..... Using SCALE on a clip can take an age. e.g. With a short (8 seconds) mpeg2 clip on Video Track 1 and a second mpeg2 clip (5 seconds) on Video Track 2....both sound clips; If I add a 50% x 50% "SCALE" to the clip on Video Track 2, it takes about 80 seconds from scratch to scale the clip after pressing Apply. with the effects window doing nothing (the Windows eggtimer symbol is up) If I try to get back to the main display before this time, my PC displays a white screen and on occasions can crash! Once the thumbnails generate (the cache is up to date) a second attempt can go quicker. Adding a POSITION effect to place it into one corner can, in my experience cock things up This can also takes an fair bit of time to implement and the scaled clip sometimes doesn't display at all in the effects preview window. When this happens it also does not display in the SCALE effects page either. Occasionally the main sequence preview doesn't show the clip on video Track 1 even though the scaled clip is visible. Trying to speed things up usually causes a crash. OK. It's probably my PC even with a new faster graphics card as I can sometimes put both effects on a clip and have even demonstrated multiple scaled images in different positions over a clip. I think you just have to be patient between steps and make sure you have saved your project as... before trying multiple effects and don't try to rush. Nat

Hi When you say "previewing" I take that you mean viewing it in Videopad? Are you having a problem with this? Exporting and playing the result may be a different problem if it is coming out too short. What is the length of the video on the timeline, and does it play correctly? (Click the Sequence preview tab and then the "Go to END" arrow. What reading to you get in the box marked Current: under the preview screen? Is this the expected length of your video? How are you exporting? Nat

Hi Either slide the button (Track Volume) at the left hand end of the Audio Track to the extreme left to show 0% or click the blue loudspeaker icon above this (pointed to by Borate) . The track becomes chequered when muted. As an alternative you can right click the audio track and select Unlink from Video then right click it again and select Delete This will remove the audio track leaving a blank track for you to add your own. Nat

Hi You are referring to picture in picture which can be done in VP quite easily but you will be limited to a rectangular image. VideoPad doesn't have the facility to cut a clip into odd shapes unfortunately as in the example you show.. Nat

Hi Are you referring to files that you have loaded into Videopad for editing? Are the files being copied (you use the word downloaded) from a DVD disc which normally contains VOB files, or a data disc which can have several different formats? Normally if you load VOB files into Videopad, they are converted to .avi format. (Having said that, I have some .VOB files that load to Videopad and appear in the media list as .VOB files ) Nat

Hi Roffen Its a good idea to start a new thread if the subject of the post is different from the heading. That way members will see this doesn't refer to reversing clips. ... and may have an answer. Nat

HI You should note that occasionally in some versions of VP, splitting a clip or simply adding clips to those on the timeline leaves a thicker than normal blue join line although there is no actual gap. Playing over these clips can show a "black flash". This is not seen every time. However it is not visible when the project is exported. Nat

Hi You may have to sing wearing earphones. Without more sophisticated equipment I can't see how you can do it. You can try this however:... Place your backing track on Audio track 1 and play it through earphones from your PC. You should add a further audio clip ...an intro cue of some sort for a few seconds duration at the start of the audio track before your backing clip starts. Using the VP Video capture screen, set up the camera to give you a suitable image with sound (use a mike on the IN socket of your PC if necessary, check you can make a video clip with sound and then close the Video capture window. (You don't need this test video so dump it) Put in your earphones and start the audio track playing FIRST and THEN during the intro you added, open the video capture window again. You should now be able to hear the backing track for you to sing to through the earphones. The intro cue you added is just to allow you enough time to open the camera recording screen and press the red button. Start singing when your backing track starts. The camera should then record only your voice with your image whilst you are singing but you will be hearing the backing track via the earphones. Small earphones could be almost unnoticable. I think this is what you are after. Your clip which will appear in the media list window when you stop recording should then be just of you singing. The backing track will not be heard. NOTE: If you open the video recording window first you won't be able to open the audio track. Nat

Hi Put the clip onto the timeline and select it by right clicking it. In the menu that appears select the option Clip Speed. As well as being able to change the playing speed of the clip there is a tick box labelled Play clip in reverse Click this followed by Set and the clip will play in reverse. Nat

Hi Greyam If you are really stuck and desperately want something, you can create a limited mixed font/size heading using multiple overlays of your texts, each set with a different position and with a different font or size. These would have to be static or use side to side scrolling as vertical movement would be very difficult to reproduce at the same speed. In most cases when I have wanted something like this I have used a third party graphics program to create a "Title" image and then scrolled this, but again, its limiting. I rather like the idea of a rich text editor. I think it would also be useful if the font list was displayed with the font names actually written in the particular font as one gets a much better idea of what each one looks like. (My graphics editor actually does this, so it can,t be too difficult to implement. This forum editor does it as well but with a limited number of fonts) I mean..........do you know what Egyptian505 Md BT actually looks like?? If you have it on your PC it might be just what you are looking for. Here's an example of multiple fonts on the same screen using overlays. They can all scroll either together or independantly. Nat

Hi I can't reproduce this effect with Version 3.79. Every scrolling text I tried (different lengths/sizes-even multiple lines) worked OK when outputted to my PC. as an avi.file. Are you exporting directly to UT from VP? There might be a problem there, particularly if the original clip played OK in the editor. Nat

Hi Steph With no clip added to the timeline there is no label relating to the overlay track. The overlay tracks are Video Track 2 and up. As soon as you add a clip to the main sequence track...Video Track 1 you will see a prompt appear regarding the adding of overlays.as shown here... (It doesn't appear earlier as there is no clip to overlay until you add one.) Once you drop a subsequent clip to the area indicated it becomes Video Track 2 (as shown below) and overlays (plays over) anything on Video Track 1 and consequently hides it. If, however you make this clip smaller as Borate mentions then some of the underlying clip on Video Track 1 will be visible and both will play together. They must, of course be vertically aligned on the tracks. Note that above video Track 2 the prompt reappears in the grey area again... and you can continue to add further overlays. (Video Track 3 etc.) As well as allowing several clips to play together in the same frame, the overlay tracks can also be used to edit the clips on lower tracks without having to chop the soundtrack about. i.e. you can use the overlay track to insert Cut-aways. etc. Note these images were produced from Version 3.85 (latest) but 3.79 is no different in this respect. Nat

Hi "How do I lock the captions to the video?" Subtitles are located (as far as I know) by time along the sequence. I don't think you can lock them to a particular clip (as they may extend in fact over several clips) or move them along as a group. Subtitles as such are generally added after editing is complete and can be saved as an independant SSA file. .Adding further clips, as you have seen mucks the positioning up. Perhaps NCH will comment. If you know the duration of the inserted clip (and its position,) you could go through every subtitle position and add on the value to the boxes under the Subtitle tab. to reposition each entry..... not recommended. "Should I be captioning via some mechanism other than "subtitles"?" When I have used text subtitles (and I have used them quite a bit) I find it best to place them in position as Text. i.e. use the Add Text tab which allows text to added as an image to the overlay track (Video Track 2). This way using the text controls, you can add your text and position it within the frame, and scroll it if required, You can use any font and set it any size. You can have more than one line of text, even lines in different colours if multiple overlays are used. As image clips you can use effects with them..like fade in/out. The duration of any of the text images can be altered to fit the visuals as they are independant of the clips on the main track and, as they are placed on the overlay track, in the event that you displace the main sequence line by adding or inserting further clips, you can select the text images as a group and move them all together to their new location without altering their relative spacings. Consequently they will remain in synch once realigned. I think Borate's suggestion is worth trying but I fear may not work as it is still the time values along with the text data which are saved in the SSA file. Nat

Hi The overlay track is the grey area directly above Video Track 1. If you have no clips on the sequence track it is not labelled or visible. Drop or place a clip into Video Track 1 and you will see a line of text appear.. "Drag or drop your video, text or image clips here to overlay" When you now drag or place a clip here it will "overlay" (play over) the clip on the main Video Track 1. and will appear labelled as "Video Track 2" and its associated sound track will appear below Audio Track 1 labelled "Audio Track 2" You can add numerous tracks in this way, each appearing stacked above the other and taking precedence over the lower tracks. Nat

Hi Roffen If you have saved your original downloaded vppsetup.exe file as well as your registration code to safe place (separate drive/usb chip etc, you can suffer a total PC crash or breakdown andwhen recovered be able to load the software back with no problem. Once up and running and you have loaded and re-run the setup file, you will be prompted to enter the registration code. Until this is done your program will remain unregistered and will still run but all the limitations imposed on it by NCH will be in force. Nat

Hi If, for example you have a videoclip on track 1 with the sound on Audio track 1 and you have an added soundtrack on Audio track 2, and then you have split all three tracks in error having meant to keep Audio track 2 complete, all you need to do is..... Delete the left hand bit of Audiotrack 2 (leaving a gap). Now select and then grab the left end of the remaining Audio track 2. A thick yellow bar will appear. Drag this to the left across the gap. It will fill in the gap with the original sound again and there will be no split. This will work with both sound clips and videoclips. It's best to imagine that even though you seem to have split and even removed a portion of a clip it remains complete "underneath" so to speak and you can drag it back into sight. If you have in fact, during your editing "closed the gap" on any removed bits, then dragging them back into view will still work OK but will create a gap in any lower soundtracks and these would need then to be closed. Nat

Hi Lou The DVD generation part of videopad only writes the project to the disc in a single playable form. It will not add menus, play buttons etc. or add more than one project to the disc. Using VP the nearest to having multiple projects is to render all your efforts to your PC first and then add them one after the other to a new sequence line with bookmarks between them. (You can also keep "projects" separate using sequences and then adding the sequences (individual projects in effect) together with bookmarks between them. This is abit like cracking an egg with a sledgehammer. The bookmarks will enable you to skip through the DVD from bookmark to bookmark or, as it were, project to project using the skip buttons on your player, but the DVD will still start with the first one. Not really very good. This is what you have apparently done. The best way is to save your finished projects to your PC as separate avis (or similar) and then use a third party dedicated DVD creator to produce your DVD. This way you can have previews, menus and choice buttons. If you have Windows movie maker then you will probably also have Windows DVD maker which will do the job. I prefer DVDStyler which is a free DVD creator program and which gives you full control over nearly all aspects of the creation process. Backgrounds; menus; music and titles. http://www.dvdstyler.org/en/downloads However you seem to have had some difficulty in getting this to work. Another free program is the SoThink DVD maker. This does a similar job but, if you haven't bought the software it places a green advert screen between each film (or at every bookmark if you have used these). It's not particularly annoying though, otherwise it is free to use with no time restriction apparently and the results are good otherwise. http://www.sothinkme...ovie-dvd-maker/ Worth a try Nat

Hi Roffen Original thread getting a bit off topic......So to place your clips or to rearrange them.... On opening VP (or even with your project loaded) click the "Options" button. (You may have to reveal it by clicking the >> at the top right of screen depending on your version of VP.) In the Videopad Options window select The "Media" tab. The first option in this window is "Add new clip to the following position:" Click the little down arrow and make a selection. If you are creating your project in sequential order then you could select "Place on sequence at end" If you are not certain that this will always be the case then select "Ask me" If you now create your clips directly from the clip preview pane as you have been doing using the IN/OUT markers followed by the green down arrow, They will now be placed automatically at the end of the sequence or you will be prompted each time depending on which of the two options you have selected. (Note there are other options shown if you are asked) If you are adding clips by selecting them from the Media list then the same prompts will be shown each time. This should ensure that your timeline is always in sequential order when you preview it. If you have already got clips on the timeline and you wish to move them, then they can be selected with the mouse cursor and dragged to the required position and dropped. In Timeline mode you should ensure that the end of the yellow boxes that appear as they are dragged, are released on a join where they will be attracted. If you drop a clip ONTO a clip it will insert inself by splitting the underlying clip. However, it may be slightly easier to rearrange your clips in Storyboard mode where the clips to be moved can be selected and only dropped into place (always on a join) shown by the bright green line which appears. In this mode you can't do a split and insert by accident. Nat Nat

Hi I am pretty certain that any bookmarks you add during editing will only produce chapters if the project (the timeline with the markers) is saved as such directly to a DVD via Videopad, when chapters will be created at your bookmarks. If you have saved your project in the interim as an avi (or similar) to your PC then the bookmarks will not be saved. This is not the case with saving a project file however. Data concerning bookmarks ARE saved. As Borate says, you should always save your project as a .vpj file. at regular intervals (using Save Project as...) , particularly before saving to your PC as an .avi. This will ensure that the bookmarks are retained if you wish to add further clips to the project. And no, you can't add a .vpj file to another .vpj file like clips. They are separate data files. If you imagine the contents as being numbered, the second and subsequent .vpj files start counting at 1 again. They aren't consecutive. Sorry. You are in a difficult position now unless you can remember where all your bookmarks were. If you have the .vpj file from your first part (with bookmarks) you can load that at least and then add the files from your second part (Add files from a project option) but you would need to re-edit these. Nat

Hi The Transparency effect (as per my post) is the one you want, and labelled as such in the Effects pane of my Windows version of VP. Oddly the slider for this is labelled "Opacity" which, although it means and works in the inverse manner has the same effect. It's a slight anomaly which might be confusing. I should think it's a pretty simple change to make the labels the same. The inference from your post is that the Mac version is consistantly labelled. Anyway,using "Opacity" (or "Transparency" ) is the road to go down if the regular FADE effect is too quick. Nat

HI " I set a fadeout for 1.5 seconds, but the clip fades out in .5 seconds and remains solid black for 1 second. How can I make the fadeout last the whole 1.5 seconds?" With version 3.6 ( the closest I have ..but this will work in later versions as well) a 1.5 sec FADE applied to the last clip on the sequence is lasts 1.5 seconds but becomes black too soon as you have noted. This probably due to the way the number of frames available are darkened, the range being too short. I think this has been altered in later versions. The way around this is...... Place a BLACK BLANK CLIP onto Video Track 2 (the overlay track) Adjust the duration of the clip to 1.5 seconds. (Either drag the ends in to match the time scale over the track or set default image to 1.5 sec beforehand in Options/Media) Move the blank frame along Track2 until it ends where your main sequence line ends Right click the blank and select Effects. Choose the Transparency effect. In the effects window move the preview scrubber bar to the start of the clip and adjust the slider to 0% Opacity. Click the green cross to set the keyframe. Slide the scrubber bar to the end of the clip and adjust the slider to read 100% opacity. The blue line will now be a diagonal line from bottom left to top right of the keyframe box as shown below. Click the Apply button. When you play your sequence now the fade will be 1.5 seconds and will finish black on the last frame. Nat

Hi Mig42 The method for inserting an image in your post requires you enter the URL (web address) of your image. You will need to send it to a server. This could be your own web space for example, but there are free ones... Try.. http://pictr.com/ Once you have uploaded your image there, use the URL indicated (copy it )and then paste it into your forum entry. There are several links under your server image, one will put a link into your post, the other will directly insert your image in the post. Reduce it to a suitable forum entry size first before sending it to the server though. Nat

Hi "A way to navigate the cursor between boundary(start/end) of the clips." Select the clip in question on the time line and hover the mouse over it....the Start and End timeline positions and other info for the clip will be visible in a small white box. Enter the required position into the "Current position" box under the sequence preview window and.. PING!.. the cursor line will go there. (Note: You will need to remember the value for a second or two as the reference box disappears when you select the "Current position" box) In storyboard mode the values appear on the timebar above the frames and can be entered in the same way but without losing sight of them.. Nat

Hi again Roffen "All goes well up to where the first edited clip appears on the timeline. From there on, I am not able to do anything. I am trying to move the scrubber around and clicking the mark buttons, but get no green arrow. But I am adviced that I can't have the end before the begin point, and it seems I am unable to get out of that situation." Your first step is OK.... ...But.... If you have used the clip preview pane to create an edited clip by means of the scrubber bar and the IN/OUT marker buttons and then placed it onto the timeline with the Green arrow you have to re-select the same clip again from the media list window (just left click it) to make a second edit of that clip. etc. So..The steps are... Activate the clip preview window.........(Left click the tab) Select your clip from the media list.....(Left click it..It will now appear in the preview window) Move the preview scrubber bar to your start point for the edit. ..(The IN point) Click the red IN POINT button under the window Move the scrubber bar to the end point of your edit. Click the Blue OUT POINT button. ...Your selected section will be highlighted in the thumbnail line) Click the Green arrow to place the selected clip section onto the timeline. The arrow will now disappear and further selections cannot be made..........So to continue.... Select a NEW clip from the media list OR RESELECT THE SAME CLIP......(Left click it) Move the preview scrubber bar to the IN POINT.........etc & etc... Note that clicking the green arrow this time will place the new edit on the time line at the position determined according to what you have set under "Options" /"Media" Nat