Nationalsolo

Hi If you have applied a Zoom effect and the result is stretched it is probably because you did not check the Restraint: option in the Zoom parameters. This allows you to select a specific AR and will keep the zoom rectangle at the selected ratio when you make any adjustments to the outline. If you didn't make a selection then the sides of the rectangle are independant and the image is then stretched to fit whatever shape you create. If you don't want this to happen then set the Restraint to the AR of your video clip. e.g. 1920 x 1080 =16:9 1280 x 720 = 16:9 etc. Nat

Hi Select the clip either in the clip bin or the timeline. In Clip Preview (or Sequence Preview if you have the clip on the timeline) move the red cursor line to the frame required Right click on the Clip or Sequence preview screen Select Take Snapshot of Clip from the menu The snapshot will be saved as a .png image to the folder designated in Options/Disk/Save Snapshots to: and a copy will be placed in the VP Image bin ready to be inserted into the project. Nat

Hi Rob Just to illustrate Borate's post.... Preview screen was set to 16:9.....512 x 288 (AFAIA this has no bearing on the export) A 2560x1920 image .......... Here is such an image on the timeline. It's not AR 16:9 it's 4:3 So since the Preview IS 16:9, the same as the thumbnails there is a chequered area to each side as VP inserts it to fit so all the image is seen. window ....was scaled from 4:3 to 16:9 here..... The image is now 16:9 but although it works using Scale and the 4:3 - 16:9 preset in this way results in a centered result.Note that the top and bottom are cut off. Other parameters of scale might have to be used like Base x and Base Y to move the 16:9 area to show the bit you require. It's the reason I prefer to use the Zoom effect as this does the same thing as Scale and you can adjust the rectangle straight away. However, having adjusted the image using Base Y we now have....... Text that filled the 16:9 preview window width was added. ... Export using default settings in either AVI or mp4 at 1920x1080 results in a 16:9 image with full text, same the 16:9 preview screen... Screenshot from a 1920 x 1080 mp4 seen in VLC. (The Letterbox option was active but as I mentioned in my earlier post only it seems because the original image before scaling was not 16:9 and the export parameter WAS 16:9 so it was left) It all works OK... Nat

Hi There are a lot of variables here and it's a bit confusing. I shoot in AR 16:9 and don't have problems . I have the preview set to one of the 16:9 AR values and export at one of the 16:9 AR.values ...usually the resolution of the clips from the camera. As expected everything fits. Your VP preview resolution is set to 512 x 288...16:9......That's fine......It's the value that I tend to use. What is the AR of your background image? If it's not 16:9 then you will see a checkered area in Clip preview where there is no fit.(To each side or top/bottom. ) The resolution of the image is not important it's the AR that matters. If you have clips that are different AR then your timeline will look a bit like this.....The non 16:9 clips (the house) having a chequered area (The cat is 1920 x 1080 (16:9) , the house is 2272 x 1704... not 16:9).... If it doesn't fit and there is a chequered area (as seen here in the house clip) then use the Zoom effect restrained to 16:9 to eliminate the chequered area. (I don't use Crop and I prefer not to use Scale) The clip will now fill the preview window as the ARs are the same. Note that this action necessarily trims the image, this is unavoidable The timeline in this example now looks like this .... Note the house clip now (now trimmed) fills the thumbnail (and also the Clip preview window.) Export the sequence using one of the 16:9 settings....e.g. 1920 x 1080. .avi or .mpg Ignore the Letterbox setting..leave it at Letterbox. (AFAIK This is active as the clip/image in question is not (originally) 16:9) There will be no black bars etc in the export which will be 16:9...Here is a screenshot of the house clip (.avi) in WMP..... It is full frame exactly like the cat clip. You should have no problems with bars etc. using this scenario, and the export is 16:9 1920 x 1080.......Which I think is what you are wanting. Nat

Hi If you don't take the options available on the Welcome dialogue page and go to the GUI instead then you can easily access all those options you missed by clicking the File menu (Green "hamburger" button with three white bars in some versions) at the top left of the toolbar... the options are all available in the File menu.. Nat

Hi Place all the images on the timeline Left click the first image to select it Press Ctrl and A together This will select All the clips on the timeline. Right click the first clip and from the menu that appears select Change duration. In the duration box that appears under the preview window type in the new duration value and press Enter. e.g. Type in 4 if you want all the images to show for 4 seconds . (The current value is highlighted blue,) All the clips will now have a duration of the new value. Nat

Hi JR That would be much better and would solve APPLIANCES problem although in his case the reason why "Loading" appears apparently every time he opens VP remains . Nat

Hi Hmm That's an odd one. renaming it would have the same effect of courseI actually removed the file in question to the dustbin to check on this and VP simply Generated it again (as above) . I haven't see the Load icons etc that I am aware of..... Nat

Hi The "Loading effects and Transition icons" window that comes up is when VP updates when it sees these folders are missing. When you have closed down VP check the following folder... User name/AppData/Roaming/NCH Software/Videopad You should find the following files.... (at last I do in Vista).... If the effects_transitions folder is not there VP loads it at startup (not sure where from) and puts up the Initializing VideoPad window..... On my PC this runs for only a few seconds but is mostly covered by the VP Version number Splash screen. I would have expected the Splash screen and the Load screen to vanish leaving the Wecome screen and its choices, but here THAT screen closes as soon as the load screen is complete. That may be a bug. and I'll report it. However the initiator (here at least) is the absence of the effects_transitions folder. Check you have it when VP is up and running, and check if it is there when VP is closed down (or you PC has had a shut down. Nat

Hi The "Loading effect and transition icons" comes up on occasions here but it certainly isn't a regular event. It's not a bug though. Ive never checked why it happens but may be associated with running a new version of VP for the first time; possibly after Cleanout program is run or following a similar Windows utility. Perhaps after a Windows Restore. I can't remember in fact if the Wecome Dialogue page disappears as a result of that particular loading window coming up. I would have thought it would remain after the icon loading was complete. Originally all the VP program was incorporated in the setup file which about 5Mb now it's only around 2.5 Mb so it appears some features are loaded when the program is run for the first time . But it's not every time it is launched. Although it may prevent you making choices from the opening Welcome Dialogue screen on these occasions, the options (New project/Open project/Open Template etc.) can be accessed from the File (or Hamburger) tab at the top left of the toolbar. Nat

Hi That's a heavy workload. (My machine would probably have exploded!) Have you checked the CPU usage when you are exporting? Is it running flat out at 100% the whole time? If it is and you think it shouldn't be then check what processes are running in the background and try shutting some down and see if there is an improvement. Nat

Hi Checked this out in VP 7.11 with a 1280 x 720 mp4 15 second clip outputted as mp4 of same resolution at 48fps final duration 50 seconds . Perfectly smooth slow motion. Applying auto levels with speed change made no difference to the slow -mo..It was just as smooth. Applying temperature (variable with keyframes) with speed change made no difference to the slow -mo..It was just as smooth. Trimmed the clip to 3 seconds and applied the same effects with 30% speed setting. The slo-mo in the resulting 10 second clip was excellent with no obvious pauses. Can't think of a reason why your export is choppy. Nat

Hi VP 1.77 This how it should look...... Add 1 clip to Video Track 1.......... The thumbnails on the track are of reasonable size. You can drag the white bar (seen above the red cursor line) up or down to reduce or expand the thumbnails. This actually is at the expense of the preview screen size which that control is adjusting. You can also click the down/up triangle at the extreme left end of the track to reduce or enlarge the Track. Add a second clip this time to Video Track 2 (The overlay track).... The thumbnails will reduce in size as shown. This is normal and the size is the maximum you will have with more than 1 track in use. However moving the white bar up will not increase their size above this.(but it will make the preview smaller.) The result is that the Drag and Drop area will become higher at the expense of the preview screen/s Note that clicking the white triangle at the left will shrink the track down even smaller .....So check you haven't done this. .OK...Put this back to "full" size and add a further clip to Video Track 3 (Overlay track)........ The thumbnails will now remain the same size (unless the track is collapsed). Initially Video Track 1 may not be visible but dragging up the white bar will bring it into view. At the Screen resolution I have set on my PC one can have a maximum of 5 tracks visible "full" size without having to scroll up the track area using the slider at the right. If your PC is set with a higher resolution you may see more (but relatively smaller) I suggest that you might try to slide the white bar up or down since with two tracks in use and a reduced preview screen size (as the slider is too high) the Drag and drop area can be quite large.... Hope this helps. Nat

Hi It's confusing. As far as I can see this feature becomes active in the export dialogue if you select an export resolution (AR) that differs from the AR of your project. Then gives you the choice of either shrinking the frame down to fit (letterbox) or cropping to the selected values and zooming to fit. If all your clips are 16:9 then for all 16:9 export resolution values the option is inactive. If you try to export at a none 16:9 export AR then the option becomes active. What I do find confusing however is if, for example I zoom into a clip that is not 16:9 and set the zoom at 16:9 or crop to 16:9 and then export the clip at a 16:9 resolution the option remains active. I not sure why this happens. Using automatch here chops the image up. e,g, Here is an image placed on the timeline .............. The next step was to crop it to a 16:9 AR..... So far so good. Exporting this with a 16:9 resolution is OK......... the letterbox option is active however and the output is letterboxed ..nevertheless the export is WYSIWYG.......... If the export AR is Automatch content and force 16:9 the result is the same as above BUT if just Auto match content is used that is where it becomes confusing........ This is the letterboxed version. I can see that the original format is present but the cropped area is not exact. Choosing the Crop and zoom option,,,(you have to use one of them in this scenario if you use auto match 16:9) gives this........... This even more confusing. but if I think hard I can see what is happening. However it's not exactly what I originally had in mind. The export will have the letterbox feature active in this scenario. Why..the preview is 16:9 the image (cropped) is 16:9 and I would have expected a 16:9 export just like the preview. Letterbox is not exact as there is still a narrow border. Trying to force 16:9 using automatch has the same result but without forcing that AR it's not good... I think this is where users are confused..(I know I am) WYS IS not WYG. This is with a single image on the timeline; there may also be some confusing output if the timeline clips are all different AR as then the AR isn't the same for all clips and the permutations become a bit complex. I think I can see where NCH are coming from but its not intuitive. Nat

Hi Oh! Doh!........Thanks Borate. 😡 Scale does have a preset AR!!!!! (or a way of changing one to another). I am used to seeing it as a list in Zoom effect which I prefer to use....Not a dark grey bar at the top of the effect settings window that looks like a heading!!! In fact using 4:3 to 16:9 it does a letterbox crop and zoom, and one has to use offset Y to shift it up and down to set where you want it centered. Still prefer Zoom though. I'll have to spend a little time fully absorbing these options........ Nat

Hi Take the video clip first.......What is the AR and the resolution of the clip? In your posted image it looks like a vertical format...but is it actually a horizontal format that you have cropped? It's difficult to tell from that image. A vertical format cannot be made Full Screen unless it is cropped or zoomed (or stretched) to a 16:9 format. This means logically losing something from the top and and/or bottom. Unless this is done it will (AFAIK) always have black bars to either side in normal players. Nat

Hi Slo Mo,,, When a clip is slowed down, VP has to duplicate frames to extend the clip. Under normal circumstances the action is applied to clips of normal length....say, 10 seconds or so. Slowing this to half speed means duplicating each frame once. Visually the effect is smooth as there are plenty frames to go at. In this case the clip is a very short clip and only consists of a few frames. Slowing this down to 15% means that each existing frame will need to be duplicated around 6-7 times so you will be seeing each "action frame" of 7 frames for around 1/5 of a second making the playback jumpy. It may also be (I'm not sure) that VP assembles these in real time as the clip is previewed making the jumpiness worse. The obvious answer to this is not to use slo mo ( negative speed change) when there is inadequate material to work with. That is why I suggested to Avskedfestto lengthen the clip a bit and re-apply the speed change. Theoretically that would make it a bit smoother. Coming out of this post (and also another)....If Scale is used to reduce or enlarge a clip/or image it is difficult (or perhaps impossible without a bit of calculation) to end up with an AR that matches exactly the other clips on the timeline with a specific AR. Using scale means pulling this side or that side about until it looks OK in the preview screen. You can't set a specific AR. The resulting difference in AR between the scaled clips/images and the other clips/images on the timeline will invoke the letterbox option at export. This leads to what looks like an average fit particularly if you auto-match. So....If, instead of using Scale one uses Zoom, the AR can be set so all clips will then be the same. (As I mentioned Scale does not have precise list of selectable ARs..just a maintain AR feature) If Zoom is used to scale an image at a selected AR the letterbox feature will be inactive as everything will have the same AR. (Obviously one should select that AR as the export value.) Nat

Hi Rob "...I scale the background jpg to fill the editor/preview screen, which is set to 16:9 (512 x 288)...." The fact that you need to Scale the background jpg implies it is not already a 16:9 image otherwise it would automatically fit the 16:9 (512 x 288) preview screen. (whatever the actual pixel size of the image.) Using Scale will NOT automatically produce a 16:9 image even it appears centered and without borders etc. in the preview screen. Because of this VP will not see it as a valid 16:9 image and consequently will invoke the letterbox options at export. This will do its best to produce a centred image using an average AR which can leave some borders . To get around this use the Zoom effect it will achieve exactly the same thing without the hit/miss of filling the preview accurately as this effect can be set to an AR of 16:9 correctly. Once used the image will be 16:9. The letterbox will not be invoked at export as all the clips would be 16:9 and the export will be a correct full screen 16:9. If the clips/images are different resolutions (pixel numbers) but the same AR it might result in different degrees of clarity between the clips but not the AR "....Now, the videos I save as AVI or MP4, the Widescreen Fit is never greyed out no matter what resolution I select...." I suggest that this is because you have used Scale to reduce or enlarge your image/clips and not obtained a true 16:9 format compared with other clips on the timeline. Scale does not have a specific list of ARs; only the option to maintain the status quo. As I mentioned above use Zoom with the AR set to 16:9 Nat

HI What dimension is your raw animated gif? Are you reducing or enlarging the .gif in size to fit if so to what size? Are you using the Scale or Zoom effect to do this? Is the pixelation seen in the export or in the VP previe? If in the preview check the preview display parameters they may have a bearing on how it looks.(But not the export) What are the export parameters? Using VP 7.11 here an animated gifs look OK both in preview and when exported as .mp4. Sharpness is slightly less but these are vector images with many narrow lines so massive degredation would stand out. Nat

Hi ".....Given that the .mp4 files were corrupt ....." My test here with VP 7.11 of your mp4 upload played fine here... The only odd thing I noticed was VP labelled all the clip files in the bin as .mp4 but the timeline clips showed as MTS............ This might be normal VP behaviour but I have never noticed it before. On the other hand as you say Prism failed to convert your files it may be that your MTS files are in some way odd. The only other thing I can add is that if your clips are scaled or zoomed to an AR of 16:9 and fill your 16:9 preview screen then a 16:9 output selection should be the same. Here the letterbox options are NOT highlighted for either mp4 or avi choices and even if they were with a 16:9 AR either of the selections should still produce a full screen output meaning that letterbox would have no effect even if applied, and crop and zoom would also have no effect as the correct AR is already present. For conversion..... https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjrlNX0i5jiAhUNRBUIHTT2BYsQFjAAegQIABAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.any-video-converter.com%2Fproducts%2Ffor_video_free%2F&usg=AOvVaw2dywWZMg3Vicr19RRwF6YN Nat

Hi You could create a Template from your images/text etc. This is like a .vpj file that can be added to any already open project. Open VP and create your template using your Clips Titles/Text and Images Click the down chevron to the right of the Templates tab on the toolbar Select the Save Project as Template option You should now be able to select that template for any other project by clicking the Template tab and selecting the one you created. This is a simple explanation but templates can be created that are themed with gaps that can be filled in for different projects having the same theme These require the use of placeholder clips. Check out more details ...... http://help.nchsoftware.com/help/en/videopad/win/templates.html?software=VideoPad&appname=VideoPad Video Editor&version=7.11&base=videopad&domain=nchsoftware&buyoffer=videopad&pclass=plus&rgst=1&svar=VIDEOPADSSQualonLLIBControlonVIDEOPADNoisereduceonVIDEOPADCustomoffVIDEOPADPlayoverlayonVIDEOPADTutorialTabonLLIBTtbhamtxtonVIDEOPADRecordingsbinoffVIDEOPADScrollearlyonLLIBAllowalloutputformatsonLLIBComplatest3off&antivirus=expired&instby=dl&iid=YwrL9DjTCAA&help=5&usage=042A07&usagestats=mft..wmv(1)&usechoice=trnd(3000)&days=29&runs=102 Nat

Hi Avsk... Well, the mp4 files from your upload to dropbox (despite being MTS in VP) dowloaded OK here. (Took a bit of time.) and the project loaded eventually. Once cached however, it loads back in a matter of just seconds. With respect to the slo-mo section, in the downloaded project this has a duration (at 15% speed) of 5.527 seconds. As the clip actually belongs to the 00000.mpg4 you can grab the right hand end on the timeline and drag it along so it is about 11.00 seconds in duration. The sound track also extends but it works very well. Your star transition of 1 second is OK and after this extension there was no still shot noticeable. I checked to see if VP "sees" the contents of the mp4 container as having the original file type but this does not happen when I converted some test files so I suspect that this behaviour is something related to the specific program that you used to convert your MTS clips to mp4 clips. nevertheless they work. BTW I have the same graphics card as yourself but working on a slower Vista machine. Nat

Hi Place the image on the desired Video track. Click the FX at the left end of the clip Click the Green + and select the Scale effect Make sure that the Maintain AR box is ticked Slide either the Vertical or Horizontal sliders to the left so reducing the size of the image to the size required. Grab the black circular dot on the clip preview screen control and drag the image to the required position. You could also use Scale to reduce the image to the desired size and then add a second effect - Position, to place it. Note...You can do all this with an image (or video clip) placed on any track but if it is on Track 1 then the background (or surrounding area) will be black. However if you place the reduced image/clip on Video Track 2 (the overlay track) above another video on Video Track 1 (the main track) then you will have a PIP ("Picture in Picture") with your reduced image playing on top of and within the main video. Nat.

Hi Avskedsfest Your download ... https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RYfuq4-cbK56IzGVc1IYVlvbCzHwBI-v worked OK here and (after a time) loaded to VP where here it played correctly. There were 4 x mp4 files but there was something odd here. There were no MTS files in the bin yet selecting any of the clips on the timeline the properties box that comes up stated that they were MTS files...see here... Normally this would state that the clips were mp4 clips. It just may be that VP reads the contents of the mp4 container and retains the original file type as identifier.(I shall have to look to see if this is the case but never noticed this before. I presume the slo-mo is the CU of the goalie as the speed is shown as 15% This is a tiny section taken from 00000.mp4 (or MTS) made longer by changing the speed.The problem at my end with this is that there is a static image as the transition (Star) passes to that clip. It might be best here to keep the transition very short (about 0.5 seconds) . Lots of jump shots but otherwise it all worked. (Did yellow win..they seemed to score a lot? ) Nat

It happens! Nat