Nationalsolo

Hi This was definitely a thing we noted in an earlier version. Anyway, I have just checked this way of fading with version 3.29. With a single clip on the timeline and an opacity fade to 0%, I don't see any frames at the end of the preview with VP 3.29. It fades out to black seemingly OK. (There is no blank black frame following the clip by the way Adding a blank frame made no difference. It seemed to work perfectly.... ...No bright image frame. Pulling the cursor bar along the clip in the effects window shows the chequred image developing until it is complete (0%) and then a black frame. It may be that the "image" effect was inherited with the earlier version. I would suggest placing the clip in question on the main sequence with the opacity fade but with a black frame positioned over the end of it on the overlay track. Positioned correctly it will "cover up" the end frame. What happens when you use the "Fade" transition with the clip instead of the Opacity effect? If the "image" is still seen, you could try pulling in the end of the clip a little to the left to eliminate it. Nat

Hi Could it be due to the fps selection???. HD MPEG4 from my camera is 30fps or 60fps. Just a thought but I may be totally wrong. As I am using the non commercial version of VP I can't output in mpeg4 to test this. Nat

HI In version 3.29. First of all load the clip to the Media list and then drag and drop (or place) the clip onto the sequence track. Right click the clip to select it Click the video effects tab on the tool bar and then the "Add Effects" tab. Select the "Opacity" effect from the list Your clip will now preview in the effects window with an Opacity% slider on the left and a keyframe box to the right with a blue line representing the opacity and a red cursor line. For a simple fade in.... Set the cursor line to the left of the box by dragging the blob at the top of the line. (The movement is reproduced in the preview pane) Now drag the slider to the left to show 0% opacity. Click the green cross to set the first keyframe; an orange square will appear on the blue line. Now drag the cursor along to the left a suitable distance for your fade in. The orange square will go green. Slide the opacity cursor to the right now to show 100% opacity and fix a second keyframe by clicking the green cross again. You can repeat (or start) this procedure anywhere along the clip with as many opacity changes as you wish. You don't have to start at begining of your clip as described here. A fade out at the end is the reverse of a fade in....opacity starts at 100% and reduces 0% at the end of the clip. You use the red cursor bar to specify where your opacity effect is to start or finish and the slider to determine the degree of opacity. You can also directy drag and drop the keyframe blocks onto the blue line as and where you wish. Simply right click the line to create a keyframe point and drag it to where you want. VP will update the sequence line as you work and on closing the effects window the sequence green bar will complete the registering of the efeect. The image that appears at the end is, apparently, a bug. I haven't checked but it may have been fixed in version 3.29 Nat

Hi You don't mention the format you are using but my experience using HD MPEG4 H264 format video (1920 x 1080) is that (on my PC at least) the image progressively lags behind the sound, and even in a short time can be up to a second or more out of synch. This is in virtually all the players I have tried. MPEG4 clips in a smaller format 1280 x 720 behave in a similar way but the synch error is less. I generally put this down to the fact that the larger the format the longer it takes a player to render the image but the sound is more rapidly processed, consequently the image gradually gets left behind. (This is logical but probably completely incorrect!) However If I convert the MPEG4 video to MPEG2 format, retaining the original image size there is no de-synch of the sound and image and editing in VP behaves quite normally (even faster). The output avi video looks fine. In fact the MPEG2 conversion always appears clearer and brighter. The MPEG4 original always seems to be of lower contrast. For the conversion I use Anyvideo converter... http://www.any-video...for_video_free/ Worth trying. Nat

Hi The size of the graphic is less important than its aspect ratio which should be 16:9 in order to fill the VP screen fully. If its not 16:9 (i.e 1920 x 1088, 1280 x 720 etc) and it can stand to be distorted then use a third party graphics package to change the ratio to 16:9. Otherwise add the graphic as it is to the media list. Drag it to the timeline and drop it in position. Select it and then use the CROP function to trim it but set the aspect ratio to 16:9 first by clicking the corresponding "Keep Proportions" box. labelled 16:9 Drag the sides of the rectangle out to make it as large as possible. It will remain 16:9 ratio. You will probably lose some of the top and bottom of the image when you do this but this is unavoidable unless you distort it as suggested above. But you can position the rectangle to give the most satsifactory effect. Nat

Hi Hmmm.....Goodun! Check that your video does not actually have its own soundtrack. If it is silent there will still be a horizontal blue line running along the track. If you try to drop your soundtrack onto this it will simply push the clip along. If you have any stand alone sound clip, drag it from the media list and drop it onto a lower soundtrack (Soundtrack 2 or 3 for example) From here you should be able to drag it right or left. If this works then mute the soundtrack belonging to the clip or click the track and unlink it; move it a little and then delete it. You can then drop your new sound clip onto the track to replace it. Also check through the options tab to check what is set for when you add clips to the timeline. Nat

Hi Both work OK but Timeline mode allows you "see" the soundtrack properly in relation to the whole sequence as well as the sequence in "real time". Cutting and assembly is also easier in Timeline mode. Another point is that overlay tracks are visible in this mode. In Storyboard mode the overlay tracks do not appear which, if you have edited by using more than one track can make things difficult.On the other hand in Storyboard mode you can see a lot of long clips as equal length blocks with a thumbnail and they are easier therefore to move about to change the playing order. Using the zoom in timeline mode to see a lot of clips together on the sequence can make some clips too short in length to identify as when zoomed they can get so narrow that the thumbnail disappears. There are lots of other point for and against. So it's as Borate says...."Whichever best suits what you need" Nat

Hi Once you have completed a sequence, click the + to the right of the word "Sequence 1" at the left of the timeline. This places the sequence into the Media list under the "Sequences" tab and clears the timeline. (Note that there is always a dummy Sequence 1 in the bin at the start.) Start your second sequence on the empty timeline and when finished click the + again. to the right of "Sequence 2" In this way all your individual sequences are added to the Media list "Sequence" bin and the timeline is cleared for you to continue each time. Continue to create sequences in this way until you require to add them together for the finished movie.. With the timeline once again empty, open the Media list and click the Sequence tab. (The tabs also indicate how many files there are in that particular list.) Now simply add the sequences that you have created to the timeline as you would clips. Note however: The individual clips that you used to create each sequence are now joined together into a single clip that will include any effects that you used like crossfades etc. These can no longer be edited. Each sequence will behave like a completed single new clip. Save your movie when you are satisfied. Nat

Hi Just to add to Borate's post..... Note: Version 3.29 .........Using SCALE gives a smooth zoom from full frame up to a level of 3X the image size. But the starting or finishing value must be 1.00 If you set it lower than this at the start or end then the image is reduced in size. If you want it to remain full frame and zoom then you have to start or finish at 1.0. It would be useful if the highest setting could be made....say 10.00 as the degree of zoom with 3.00 is not a lot. You can zoom in or out with high (and often unusable) enlargements using the CROP effect but the results are not very smooth. However I am still not sure with this version how to mix CROP and SCALE together to get a closer zoom. Nat

Hi As you are referring to an image, you will need to crop the image to remove the unwanted portion. You can do this in a third party image processing program, or you can apply the crop function to the image via videopad. Removing the background might be more problematic but a lot depends on the purity of the colour of the flower image. You could possibly do this with the videopad chroma key function. However , it would be simpler to use a third party image processing program. With a third party program you would need to draw a mask around the flower, reverse it so the masked area is the background and then colour this masked area with a pure colour like green or red or black or white. At any rate a colour not present in the flower. Resave the image and load it to VP Add this to the overlay track and position it where you would like it to go and then use the chroma key function to make the flower background colour transparent (opacity = 0%) Provided the colour isn't in the flower you will then just have the flower in the corner of the underlying video. Nat

Hi Yes..That does work OK! But on my PC...if I delete the centre clip of three, the > (Right) arrow key goes LEFT and the < (Left) key goes RIGHT Still....it works but Safehaven will still have to use the mouse to go into storyboard mode. I can't find a keyboard way to change this mode in the help files. C:\Program Files\NCH Software\VideoPad\Help\keyboardshortcuts.html Nat

Hi With regards to the "Save Project" problem I mentioned in the above post.....Must have been a registry glitch as I cleared all references to NCH and uninstalled all the 3.28 software, cleared all the registry references to videopad and NCH using regedit and then re-ran the setup.exe for version 3.28. Works OK now. In fact, the latest version as of this date is 3.29. Nat

Hi [ and ] will step through the clips from the current cursor position as you already know but as you say, does not select the clip. However, use of the mouse is pretty well obligitary with this type of software. If a section is deleted the focus is lost as the next logical step is to close the gap formed by the deletion. Closing a gap removes the focus which is logical. It might be useful if VP retained the focus of the remaining section of the cut clip despite the formation of a gap which, I think, is what you want. You could put this in as a suggestion to NCH. With the latest version of VP (3.29); in order to find a clip on the sequence, right click the thumbnail in the Media List (or the name when in list format) and select "Jump to clip in sequence" followed by the sequence position and the cursor will jump to the start of the clip selected. (or the start of a splt clip) This is about the nearest you will get I think. You will still have to use the mouse though. Nat

Hi Versions 3.24 and 3.29 have got some audio effects that include a High pass filter. This is moderately effective at removing wind noise etc. but you will have to experiment with the settings. In 3.29 :Right click the clip in question to select it and then the "Audio Effects" tab on the toolbar. In 3.24 :Click the"Effects" tab and then select "Audio Effects" Nat

Hi So you can upload an image of the VP screen with the ghost text like I just did with my moon shot, but first... you say you have 3 text and one blank. Click the "Image" tab in the media list......what is there?...Should be 3 text and one blank. The actual tab in 3.29 should be labelled "Images(3)" Anyway, whatever the bin contains, delete them all so the bin is empty (apart from any jpgs of your own). Now... is the phantom text STILL there when you play the sequence? With the image bin empty there should be nothing now seen. If it is STILL there, it's either part of your sequence clip and can't be removed without cutting your clip or there is a bug in the program. (However 3.29 should be relatively bug free.) Nat

Hi Not done it myself, but I think you have to upload your image to a website first and then click the square in the toolbar here in the "write" window and then enter the URL (web address) of the image you want to appear.............I think! Later.. Well I just did it....The Moon pic is one of mine I posted to a site on the web. I just right clicked it and took the URL from the properties and pasted it into the box supplied by the forum window. Nat

HI Sounds odd! Might you have placed the text on another overlay track that is above the zone you have visible for all the tracks....say track 3 or track 4? These can be covered if the preview windows are made larger. You can use the small scroller to see, or pull up the preview panes with the 5 dots underneath. Just a thought. Of course if there isn't a text image in the image bin tab then I can't see where it is coming from. How many text images have you in all? Nat

Hi OK may be a fault with the version, (and in that version the number of files in each bin will not be shown.) You say that the "phantom" text has a black background?... This must be as seen in the right hand (sequence) preview screen. This suggests that the text "image" is placed above a blank black frame positioned onVideo track 1. So... Is there a black frame on Video track 1? Where is the red cursor bar when the ghost text appears? Check the overlay track (Video track 2) for anything at this pont. If the overlay track is really empty and you are still getting that text then it is most likely to be a bug in that version. The main video doesn't have any text on it by any chance..........? Therefore I suggest..... Click on "Options" and then click "Clear all the cache files on exit." Close VP and then reopen it. Load your saved project. If all the constituent files are in the same place on the PC, the project will load back OK, but will take slightly longer than normal. Now check if it is any different. If it is still there now... I would suggest going to the NCH site and downloading version 3.29 (Save the setup.exe ) and load your project into this..it should load OK. Nat

Hi Referring to version 3.29 First I have to assume you have added your text images to the overlay track. On the main screen in the Media List window....what does say next to the title on the Images tab? There should be a number in brackets indicating the number of images in the bin. If you have deleted the first text image and added another it will say (1) but if both text images are there it should say (2) (You should, of course see two images in the bin...which you say is not the case.) Try zooming in on the timeline. Use your mouse wheel to zoom in and then grab and delete all text blocks you can see on the overlay track. Play through your timeline from the start and stop when the "ghost appears. This will give you a more precise position of the "defect" A this point check Video Track 2. If there is a file there (zoom right in) ....delete it. Note You can delete a text image from either the timeline or from the bin Nat

Hi OK....It's working all right now. Uninstalled VP via Windows and then manually deleted all remaining references to NCH and Videopad and then cleared out all the NCH related registery entries with CCleaner and then reloaded the software from the setup .exe file for 3.29. Nat

Hi Borate Thanks for the info...Well, from what you say it should work then....It might be because I am running on Vista....... I shallget it out again and give it another go.... I have another idea to look at. I am transferring some VHS tapes at the moment with 2.41 so it may have to wait a while. Nat

Hi Just downloaded version 3.29 (Latest) from the NCH website. As with 3.28 this version won't save a .vpj project file as the feature is disabled. Exporting the sequence to the PC is OK in all the available file types as the demo has not yet expired. However, saving a project as a .vpj file no longer works. Pressing the "Save Project" Tab or selecting it from the "File" tab brings up the message.... "This a trial demo version of VideoPad video editor Professional for evaluation use only. Please buy the program now to use this feature." Back in the Bin along with 3.28! Nat

Hi Interestingly I mentioned in a separate post that I tried version 3.28 as downloaded from the NCH page and thought for a start it was working OK (at least as well as version 3.24) The missing "Last image file" problem had been corrected and probably the "Gap" effect. It would output in all the listed formats, consistent with being a demo version that hadn't time reverted to the limited output format. But then I noticed that it wouldn't save the project .vpj file. It just put up a window to say it was a demo version.....blah...blah...etc. Saving a project file is a basic requirement, even of a demo version. Of all the version 3.xx I have tried ,Version 3.24 seems OK. Nat

Hi If you want "quick" then I would suggest trying to get a copy of version 2.41 from somewhere. The 3.xxx versions are a lot slower but offer more features. I have just tried out version 3.28 from the NCH site but have found that (at least on the copy I opened) that it wouldn't save the project (i.e. generate the vpj file) - just putting up a window to say it was a demo version. However it was only downloaded 4 days ago and still allowed export in all the available formats so it hadn't actually reverted to the demo version. Demo or not, not a lot of use if one can't save the project from time to time. However you should be able to download version 3.24 from here... (unless it has been updated.) http://download.cnet...4-10906278.html This is pretty much the same as 3.28 AFAICS and seems to work OK. Worth a try.. Nat

Hi I can't get this version to save a project (vpj) file. Just a message to say its "A trial Demo version" etc. It was installed 20 Jan...4 days ago. However.....I can still output it in all the formats! Awkward if I cant creqte a project to test it on Nat