Nationalsolo

Hi Borate and bzuitgeest "In versions 3.xx the scrolling text is disabled. This may be a bug or oversight (probably the latter) or NCH have simply kept the option in but inactivated it ..........." What I stated here is partially incorrect as following your post I have just tried out all the scrolling text options in version 3.10 . My comment was based on the idea that bzuitgeest wanted to scroll his text from bottom to top which is the option I tried out and for which I quoted the alternative steps for.. In fact Bottom to top is the ONLY text scrolling option on the list that failed to actually work hence my comment! All the others, in fact did work as I have just discovered. Oddly, even though no bottom to top scrolling occurred during the preview, the thumbnails in the RH preview screen showed the text at different points up the screen. If you can confirm this, it still does show that there seems to be a bug in there. (Sorry about that ) PS (BUT........SEE LATER POSTS..) Nat

Hi In versions 3.xx the scrolling text is disabled. This may be a bug or oversight (probably the latter) or NCH have simply kept the option in but inactivated it as you now have to use the Motion effect to scroll the text. In effect you are scrolling the overlay Image that you create when you develop your text. Ignore the scroll command and leave it as "None" Having develeoped your text it will be present under the "Images" tab in the media list. Drag this "Image" from here and drop it onto the overlay video track where it will appear as a "Text Clip" If it is not blue or "selected" (should be) left click it. Now left click the "Effects" tab on the toolbar. Click "Add effect" Select "Motion" In this example we are going to scroll the text up the screen. This involves only the Y axis. So.. Check that the blue blob on the red cursor line is positioned fully to left in the boxes with the blue lines. (i.e. to the start of the clip) Set Position Y to 100% by sliding the slider fully to the right. Click the green cross to fix the position of the blue line for Position Y. This is keyframe 1 Grab the blue blob and slide the red cursor fully to the right (i.e. to the end of the clip.) Now set Position y to 0% by sliding the slider fully to the left. Click the green cross to fix the position of the blue line for Position Y. This is keyframe 2 In effect you have now created 2 keyframes between which the position of the image (your text) will move from the bottom of the screen (100%Y) to the top of the screen (0%Y) Click the < (Play) button under the display to see the effect. Click "Close" and play the sequence line preview in the right hand pane. Your text will scroll from bottom to top. By using a combination of Position X, Position Y ,Rotate and Scale you can make your text move about in innumerable ways. This example only uses 2 keyframes but you can develop numerous keyframes for each motion property (they don't have to be lined up as each is independant) and create very complex movements. It's not confined to text, the effects can be applied to any overlaid image or video. Nat

Hi Branner The text problem of faulty formatting is common to all the 3.xx versions. The three line text box has been enlarged in 3.11 but you can't really indent your text from the left justified positions, except by adding a character to the start of the text like a ".", even then it will jump to the next line in the preview depending on character size and line length. If you have a second longer line of text under the first, then you can add a limited number of spaces to start of the top line to move the text along a little on that line but the output on the preview does not always resemble the layout in the text box as at some point new lines will appear in the preview that don't exist in the text box. Essentially the left or right text positions are justified as a matter of course. If you choose the central positions then the text is centrally justified and the lines are arranged each side of the centre but the text window is left justified which can be confusing. Further, if you try to insert characters then the output can really get messed up. NCH know about this and are apparently correcting it in the next version. Nat

Hi Normally I shoot MPEG4 at 1280 x 720p so loaded a clip into Version 3.10 and outputted an avi as H264 HD1080p Result played in full screen with VLC vertically central with no side bars. Filled screen side to side. Seemed perfectly correct. Same with version 3.11 Same with version 3.12 The only difference was the quality of the image. Although acceptable it wasn't as crisp and bright as the original mpeg4 (720) when played in WMP with the Divx codec (whose logo appeared botton right of the screen) or VLC. On my system the exported avi (1280) wouldn't play with WMP...stopped it responding but was OK in VLC. Converted to MPEG4 with Any Video Converter, it played in both viewers with reasonable effectiveness but with visible compression artifacts. Obviously it's better to output with the original resolution rather than a bigger resolution. It takes longer to render and the final result will have no more detail, and probably less. Nat

Hi 15 minutes seems a bit long and I think this may be a PC speed problem. I can't check rendering time for a 15 second IMAGE clip as VP 3.xx has a fault.- It can't render a single image or the last image on the timeline as I have noted elsewhere! However, a 15 second 1280 x 720 MPEG4 video clip was saved as a HD 720 avi in 2 minutes on a dual core Packard Bell computer running at 2.2 Ghz and 2 Gb of RAM The versions 3.xx save more data than 2.41 for the same sequence so if upgrading is out then I might think of going back to 2.41 if rendering time is important. I can hear my PC speeding up dramatically with these versions and they still run slow. Nat

Hi If the system hasn't crashed and the blue check bar is still moving, I would be patient. Normally this window only shows for a second or two. However, I have had it linger for longer. Are you certain that ALL the rendering on the timeline has finished, as if the soundtrack has still to show up, "Scanning available drives" may take longer. Nat

Hi I assume that your .vpp file is a Visual Paradigm Project File in which case I am pretty certain it won't open in video pad. (But you can try adding it to the media list and see. However, if we are talking about a .vpj file - a Video pad project file then as that is basically a list of data and not an actual video file it can't be incorporated into an existing project. If you save your current project, you can, if the original files are available on your PC (and have the same names and are in the same loacation as they were originally)...load your old project. You will now have to export the resulting timeline to your PC as an avi (or other format). Now re-open your current project and then load the avi to media list. Now you can add the avi to your current work. Thats all you do. Nat

Hi "I found that if I bring the slider to the edge of a clip and EXPAND the timeline, I can see where I have left pieces of images where they don't belong. And if I simply delete these extra pieces, the problem goes away. " This, of course works but it might be easier to remove tiny bits of clip that have been left after trimming a clip by simply switching into Storyboard mode when ALL clips, even TINY bits will show up as equally sized thumbnails. You can easily see the unwanted bit now and delete it (it's duration will also be shown so you won't mistake it amongst similar clips) Nat

Hi One thing to note if you are adding subtitles...... and that is the aspect ratio of the output video. This must be same as the video that you have on the timeline otherwise the text won't be correctly sized or positioned. e.g. Version 3.10 Put a short HD clip on the timeline (I used a 1280 x 720 MPEG4) Add a subtitle......"This will be too wide for the screen" At the default character size of 18 it will spill off the screen at each end. This is common to all 3.xx versions of VP. (Version 2.41 started a new line to accomodate long subtitle texts.) So,...Reduce the text to size 10 and it just fits OK. Export to the PC as HD 720 avi and the result is OK Export it to the PC as a TV PAL (768 x 576) or TV 640 x 480 NTSC and the ends of the subtitle will be missing. Although your original video will be reduced to fit the new frame size and the image will retain its AR within this frame shape, the subtitle text will not be corrected in this way and will retain its original size and AR. This means it may not all show or be too big or appear too large under the screen image . I have also noticed that on occasions (not every time) the video refused to preview in the right hand pane when I returned to VP to try another export with different settings. I even had one black right hand preview pane that showed TWO correctly sized subtitles, one placed placed at the bottom of the pane and the other upside -down as a mirror image along the top of the pane . Wierd or what? Nat

Hi Have you clicked "Toggle editing mode" on the toolbar? at the top left. This will blank out the text controls. Nat

Hi Even allowing for the speed etc. of the computer being used, after 2.41 the whole program became slow. I suspect that with the multiple videotracks and the alpha channel data also having to be saved for each along with many more thumbnails etc. that this might be the source of the problem, but it doesn't explain the slowness experienced when a single video track is used as in 4.21. There is also the "introduced" fault that when images are used the final one (or the one after the last video clip) ifails to render in the exported film. This didn't happen previously. Nat

Hi Just tried this with v3.12 Clicked the clips on the media list and used the IN/OUT flags and the DOWN arrow to put them onto the timeline with no transitions. I noticed a tiny delay at each clip join in the preview and in the saved avi (HD-720) an almost imperceptable black "flash" Checked back on VP and stepped through the track frame by frame. There seemed to be a "black frame" at every join. I also noticed that the joins on the timeline were actually a noticable thick black line. It wasn't possible to drag the clips closer together. Adding the clips straight from the media list with no prior cutting gave a similar result although not all joins showed a black "frame" In 2.41 the joins were sometimes a broader blue line but simple adjustment by dragging the clips together or overlapping them (which is not possible in 3.xx) and they would jump back correctly. I think this is probably a fault and should be looked at by NCH.....Anybody else notice this?. Nat

Hi Dougie I don't know what algorithm is used to get the clips to come up on the timeline once they are dropped there or a project is loaded but I have noticed that the green bar quite often stops as a soundtrack is loaded, and this might be a soundtrack from a clip elswhere on the timeline. Overall I find this slooooow and seldom renders in the order that the clips were added. e.g. Starting with an empty cache: I placed 6 MPEG4 clips onto the media list. They loaded in the reverse order 6,5,4,3,2,1 but rendered to thumbnails on the media list in the order 1,6,4,3,2,5 I thought this might have been due to their size but the small to big order was 4,5,2,1,3,6 so no correlation at all. Dropping the lot en mass to the sequence line they rendered logically 1,2,3,4,5,6 but the soundtrack started with 1 and then stopped half way through until all the thumbnail clips had rendered and then continued quite rapidly by finishing 1 then 6,5,4,3,2. The whole process took several minutes, presumably since the cache was empty. Total video time 2 mins. Saved as a project and then reloaded without touching the cache file, it loaded in a matter of seconds.....Great but going on to just split one of the clips it took several minutes before the green bar, thumbnails and sound tracks for the two halves had rendered. Altogether this is too slow and one of the main drawbacks to this version of the program. I have three projects currently on the go and I'm using 2.41to do them. Nat

Hi Although my system doesn't crash, I recently commented on a problem with v3.11 and v3.12 of this software in which if the last clip on the timeline was an image it did not render in the created video. I have now found that if just a single image is placed on the timeline with a default time of of several seconds (e.g.10 seconds), it plays for the correct time in preview and shows 10 seconds on the time line as well as under the frame in storyboard mode, but the rendered video shows this image for just a fraction of a second. It may be related to your own problem. NCH have yet to comment. What happens if you add video clips instead of images, does it still crash? Nat

Hi "Panasonic are telling me my DVD player won't play stuff recorded onto rewritable media, so I'm making some progress." You are correct...The following is from the s27 user manual.. Discs that cannot be played DVD-Audio, DVD-ROM, CD-ROM, CDV, CD-G, DVDiR, iRW, DVD-RW, SACD, Divx Video Discs and Photo CD, DVD-RAM that cannot be removed from their cartridge, 2.6-GB and 5.2-GB DVD-RAM, and “Chaoji VCD” available on the market including CVD, DVCD and SVCD that do not conform to IEC62107. There are also some limitations using CD-R and CD-RW discs as well And it seems that DVD-R discs might only play if their contents are finalised on Panasonic equiment . Looks like a new DVD player might be in order. Nat

Hi You have to set the default image duration time BEFORE you load any images to the media list or sequence, otherwise they will appear with the default setting which you can't then change. (You can change it but it has no effect) Nat

Hi brko Bit of a longish reply but it confirms what you have found. I have just switched into version 3.12 to try the subtitle option... Loaded a short MPEG4 clip waited for it to appear in the media list. Dragged and dropped in on the sequence line Selected it and clicked the Subtitles Tab. Typed in a short text Waited for the thumbnails to render in the window Dragged the IN/OUT markers to display from START to FINISH of the clip and waited for the thumbnails to render in the window The subtitle text appeared on the thumbnails between the markers. i.e. All looked OK. Although not necessary I then clicked the Green + to add another subtitle, didn't add another and then closed the subtitle window. On the main screen I played the clip... THE SUBTITLE DID NOT APPEAR IN THE PREVIEW Clicked the return to start button < and again played the preview..NO SUBTITLE APPEARED UNTIL I STOPPED THE PREVIEW PLAYING THEN IT DID APPEAR! To check , I Clicked the return to start button < and again played the preview..NO SUBTITLE APPEARED UNTIL I STOPPED THE PREVIEW THEN IT DID APPEAR! My first observation is that ...You can't see where your subtitle actually is on the screen. Playing the sequence doesn't show it until you stop the preview when it then appears....not much use! After clicking the return to start < button I exported the video to my PC as an avi. THE SUBTITLES DID NOT PLAY IN THIS Returned to VP and played the preview for a short distance and then stopped the preview when the text then appeared again as noted above. Exported again.......again NO SUBTITLES! Thinking it might be the Show Subtitles tab (which showed grey) I clicked this turning it the same coulour as the other tabs and the text disappeared in the thumbnails. Exported video was still without text. There is a bug here and NCH should have a look at it. Nat

Hi Glad to hear it's OK. I also mostly use 2.41 which, of course, only has 1 video track and an overlay track, as I find it renders and previews editing changes a lot faster than the latest version. Still, I'm not sure what your "flickering" effect might have been. If it comes back, post in with a bit more detail, someone will answer or give advice.That goes for any other questions. Nat

Hi Dougie I have to say I agree with you. After 2.41 everything slowed down to a crawling pace. At the moment I am doing an animated slideshow for a friend in France using a couple of hundred images, a few video clips and subtitles. This was so slow in VP 3.1x that I am actually doing it in 2.41 which works with no problems Nat

Hi I find subtitles a bit difficult to use as "Subtitles" as one needs to continually adjust the in/out times. I would suggest that you use the "Add Text" option instead. Click the "Add Text" button on the toolbar and enter a line (even 2 or 3) of your subtitle text and then the "Add" button Each text entry will appear in the media list as an image. These can then be positioned exactly where you want on one of the other video tracks and extended or shortened in duration by dragging the ends of the "image" in or out. Clicking the text "image" box on the video track will preview it in the left hand pane and initially the text will be central on the screen. Click the big T and it will open a parameter box where you can alter the position, size and colour of the text to make it a subtitle. A preview will appear in the right hand pane showing the current text position if you have the main track cursor positioned over the text box "image". In the control window, clicking the centre bottom square of the alignment block will place the text in the normal subtitle position. A long line of text can be placed bottom left. etc. By reducing the size and position of your text you can enter 2 or more lines if required. If you need to retype your text there is a small 3 line edit box but this does not always work correctly and NCH have said this will be corrected in the next version. If you do need to redo the text it's better and probably easier to just make another complete subtitle from scratch and delete the faulty one from the media list. As it is considered to be an overlay image you can use the "Opacity" control effects and key frames to create a fade in/out if required. In my opinion you have more control of text here than you get with the subtitle option. Nat

Hi I have switched to v3.12 and duplicated your setup with 18, 0.5 second images between two video clips. This seemed to play OK. No crashes. Nat

Hi "On another note, is there a more extensive and in depth "manual" than what comes up under Help > Videopad help that I can download?" I don't think there is. However for basic info the Help pages are useful and there are a number of videos available on UTube. These however are not always clear and often refer to previous versions of VP. Probably the best way to get advice is to come onto the forum with your problem as (unlike in the past) there is usually someone willing to offer advice. "I can get a nice fade/overlay transition until it reaches the end of the first clip then it will snap to the second clip and continue the fade in from dark into the second clip." The most probable reason for this "jump" is that you haven't pulled in the ends of each clip sufficiently and you are seeing a momentary still image from one or both of the clips. It's best to drag in the ends of each clip to just past the ends of the transition bar as this ensures that there is enough "unused" video to play over the transition. Just pull them in a bit further and see if there is any difference. Nat

HI I am not clear what you mean when you say "Clips leave pieces throughout your video" What are you doing to the clips that you have on the sequence line to produce this effect and what version of VP are you using? Are you refering to different clips being placed on different video tracks? Nat

Hi If you want to add a crossfade between 2 consecutive clips on the same track then Dougie's advice is correct. Select clip1 by left clicking it. Now left click the transition tab on the toolbar and select Crossf Fade from the list. Enter the duration (say 2 seconds) then the OK button. The crossfade will appear over the thumbnails between the two clips as a yellow bar. This may be satisfactory but depending on the amount of movement seen in the clips there may be a "still image" effect during the transition. This can be removed by setting the IN/OUT markers for each clip as Dougie suggests but a simpler method is as follows.... First select clip1 Now grab the joint between the clips where it will turn into a double headed arrow. Drag the end of clip 1 to the left, back to the start of the yellow transition block line (A vertical yellow line will appear as this is done so you can see where you are) Now select clip2. Grab the join again and drag the start of clip 2 along to the right hand end of the transition block. The transition will now play without any still image effect. You are in effect trimming the ends of each clip back . The sections being "trimmed" off are played during the transition. Using the OUT marker on clip1 and the IN marker on clip2 achieves the same thing but is a little more fiddly. If your clips are on different video tracks then a crossfade is slightly simpler. Note that the upper track will overplay the lower track and it is to this track that the transition (actually an effect) is applied. I am gong to assume that clip1 is on the lower track and clip2 is on the upper (overlay) track. Select the uppermost clip and then click the Effects tab on the toolbar. In the window that appears click "Add Effect" and select "Opacity" from the list. Slide the opacity control fully to the left so it reads 0% Click the Green cross to fix this value. Grab the cursor bar by the blue blob in the level window on the right and drag it along about 2 seconds along the time bar. Depending on the size of the clip you will have to estimate this distance or use the time markings visible over the box. (It can easily be readjusted later) Now click the Green cross once more to set this value. Don't move the cursor now Drag the opacity fully to the right to show 100% opacity. The blue line reflecting the opacity should now start at the bottom of the window and rise quickly (over a couple of seconds) to the top and then remain there for the remainder of the clip. In effect what you have now done is to make the start of clip2 totally transparent but totally opaque after 2 seconds. Click Close and you will see the effect on clip2 as a checquered thumbnail or two. Now grab clip 2 and drag it left so that the checquered section is over clip1 on the lower track. When the sequence is now played, clip2 will fade in over clip 1. If the intervals are not correct then its an easy matter to alter the points in the effect window or the amount of overlap beween the clips. Nat

Hi The short answer is No. VP is a film editor and not a player, Its purpose is to create a video from film clips and images and as such this will have a beginning and an end. You can , of course, create a sequence and repeatedly add this to itself so producing a long video of many identical repetitions. You could then control the player on which this video will be shown. Nat