Nationalsolo

Hi The replacement version is VP 7.10. This corrects the text scrolling error and whilst the transition between clips appears to work without the jump in clip2, transitions with a single clip...like Fade complete 1/2 way through the transition. This is more evident if you do Fade through White as this goes white by the half way point and then fades into black for the second half. With a single clip it seems that the WHOLE transition is being used instead of just the first half of it. i.e. a 10 second transition (which would normally be split 50/50 with the next clip..starting 5 seconds before the end of clip 1 and ending 5 seconds into clip 2) is being added 10 seconds before the end of the single clip. It ought to be added 5 seconds before the end of the clip and only the first half used. I am pretty certain that in earlier VP versions the transition at the end of a single clip was actually 1/2 the set duration. Apart from the fades, other transitions appear to behave as expected either in single clips or joined clips. Nat

Hi livo74 What settings ar you using to export your project? They can make quite a difference to the exported file size Using an original MPEG4 clip 1920 x 1080p H264 30fps the size on disc is 55.96 Mb Duration in VP of 33 seconds Exporting this as .mp4 H264 HQ 1920 x 1080p 30 fps gives a file size of 54.0 Mb. So virtually no change and the export was a matter of seconds. Exporting it as .mp4 MPEG4 HQ 1920 x 1080p 30fps gives a file size of 97.8 Mb.......almost double but visually no difference with the first export or original. Exporting as an .avi HQ MPEG4(Native) 1920 x 1080p 30fps gave a file size of 95.6 Mb but took longer to export Exporting as a wmv file Best quality (100) 1920 x 1080p 30fps gave a file size of 32.5 MB but took a long time to export. All these exports gave a similar quality image. Choosing the custom YouTube .mp4 1920 x 1080p H264 29.97fps export settings the file size was 54.0 Mb with fast export..same as the export 2 above.. The speed of export of course depends on the PC...Mine is an old slower Vista machine. Is this any help? Nat

Hi Jordie " I need some detailed instructions on the use of the position effect. " As you have found out, the scrolling text effect will animate for the whole length of the text image clip and can't be stopped mid scroll. The first thing to remember is that your text is in effect an image file and can therefore be animated with the Position effect. Try the following example procedure...... Place your main video clip on Video track 1 Move the red cursor line along the timeline to where you want the text to appear. Click the Add Text tab and choose Simple Text Overlay. This opens the text editor. Enter your text and its relevant properties , Note: Set the text central in the frame and choose No Scrolling. Close the text editor window (X) and your text image will appear in the image bin and also on Video track2 at the cursor position. Using the Position effect to scroll /move your text.... Click the FX box at the start of the text clip followed by the big Green +. Select the Position effect. The Clip Preview screen will display with your text shown in the centre. In the Effects window on the graph side move the red cursor line to the left side of the graph which represents the start of the clip Grab the text in the Clip Preview pane and drag it to its start position which can be off the screen if required. You can also enter position values into the boxes if you wish. Click the small green + with the red line to create a keyframe for the starting text position Move the red cursor line along the graph (or play the preview) to the point where you want the text to stop scrolling. Now grab the text again and move it down/along/across to the screen position where you want the text to stop moving. Click the small green + with the red line again to create a second keyframe for the text stop position If the text is to stay put until the end of the display time, slide the cursor line to the far right (end of the clip) Click the small green + with the red line to create a final keyframe for the end of the clip. When the sequence is played, the text will scroll into view from the first keyframe position and stop when it reaches the second keyframe position. It will then remain stationary until the end of the text clip is reached. The effects pane will look similar to this... Of course this simply shows a line of text scrolling to the centre of the screen and staying there until the text clip time has elapsed but all sorts of animation can be created in conjunction with other effects. This simple example could be enhanced a little by using more keyframes to make the text move off to the right after remaing stationary for a short time..... etc. e.g..... You can refer to the timing marks on the graph screen. The speed of the scrolling etc can be controlled by adjusting the distance between keyframes or by lengthening or shortening the text clip. Hope this helps. This is an outline. Experiment to find the possibilities. Nat

Hi The Polygon Mask is quite a useful effect but there are no presets. As an example I would like to produce an animated circle with a transparent centre (or exterior) that expands to a certain size to reveal a background overlay..perhaps with a title. This is the type of thing..... This would be similar to the circle transition. The difference being that the transition cannot be controlled with keyframes.It opens all the way and cannot be stopped. Obviously one can create a circle like mask from the current ractangle but only with a certain amount of experimentation and the use of multiple points. It wouldn't be perfect and animating it would be awkward. (The mock-up image above was produced by taking a snapshot halfway through a circle transition.) What is needed are some preset shaped masks that could be picked from a list that changes the mask rectangle when picked into a circle/oval etc. having just a size control.This would allow easy animation of the mask with keyframes. Any comments or thoughts? Nat

Hi As Borate says there is a transition problem with the recent VP 7.05 which has been reported and is being looked at. In the meantime you could look at the following work-around for Crossfade (at least.) Place the first clip on Video track1 Place the next clip on Video track 2 Pull the clip on Video track 2 back over Clip one, creating an overlap of (say) 2 seconds. Right click on Audio track 1 and select fade out. Fade out the sound by 2 seconds. Right click on Audio track 2 and select Fade in. Fade in the sound by 2 seconds. Click the f printed at the start of the clip on Video Track 2 and enter a a value of 2 seconds. The Tracks should look like this... When played the clips will crossfade smoothly and the sound will do the same. Inevitably using a transition will cause the clips to "Lose" time where the overlap occurs but provided the sound tracks remain linked to the video tracks they will remain in synch. Of course, in this case, being separate clips their tracks will not be continuous anyway unless they were shot on separate cameras at the same time. if that were the case you could then use a single uncut sound recording of the music with its video and place this on Video track 1. The cut-away clips could then be placed on Video track 2, muted and with fade in and fade out each being matched to the main sound track visually. Nat

Hi Thanks for that info Jimmy....so the cut-off point is 7.01. Seems I will have to reload some earlier versions of VP if I ever need to re-edit some of my older projects. I know there was a similar change some time ago when the .vpj started using numbered clips but hadn't realized this much later point. Nat

Hi A bug has been reported in version 7.05 where adding transition (overlapping or fixed image) causes Clip 2 to jump back to the start where the transition ends. Not checked to see if the audio is put out of synch. Nat

Hi "...If I run an older version of Videopad with my current projects, will it say the project has an invalid version number? ..." Normally, unless you run a VERY old version of VP your projects should load OK. Scrolling...... T-B does T-B B-T does T-B.....Oops! L-R does B-T.....Oops! R-L does R-L Nat

Hi Confirmed....The transition Clip1 - Clip2 shows a jump back to the start of Clip2 when the transition finishes. The effect work OK on their own. I have reported this to NCH Nat

Hi Jimmy Export Wizard now working OK. Buttons are active. Export All Sequences also working OK. Thanks. Nat

Hi Italiangen Amplify and compress at the same time. I felt it sounded better. Clip on the timeline Click the FX box on the Audio Track and select Amplify set the cursor line to the start of the clip and enter 315 in the Gain% box. Click the Green + and select Compressor effect Set the following values ....Threshhold 0 Ratio 1 Limit 2 The questions now become audible but the answers are not overly loud. See what you think Nat

Hi B With the SHIFT still pressed Are you clicking the FX on one of the selected clips ? It looked like you were clicking the toolbar option.... Got a rehearsal in a short time so have to go out, but I'll try 7.04 and see it is behaves in the same way when I get back. Nat.

Hi B What happens here with SHIFT down.. Click C1....Click C2...Click C3. All grey out so all are presumably selected Click FX on C1 This opens the effects window but now C2 and C3 now go blue so only C1 remains selected and therefore Apply to all does not work. BUT.... when all are apparently selected Click FX on C2 instead and C3 goes blue and only C1 and C2 get the effect applied......... (That seems to be a bug) Click FX on C3 and C1 and C2 turn blue only C3 gets the effect applied. (That seems to be a bug) Select in reverse (C3,C2,C1) and click C1 all the clips get the effect. (Apparently not a bug but very inconsistent) HOWEVER ....selecting all the clips with SHIFT and then using the toolbar tab the choice option box appears and the All clips works. It's all a bit hit and miss with SHIFT. Using Ctrl things seem to work correctly.... (Control/select Ctrl +A etc.) As I said I have been in the habit of using SHIFT for selecting........I shall have to change that habit. Nat

Hi Yes..That works! @Italiengen I downloaded the sound file you posted. It's a bit more complex than the simple example I used which was very clear cut. As far a VP goes yours comes out best if the whole clip is amplified to around 300 - 350% gain. The questions become audible (better) and the answers aren't too loud. See what you think. There might be some tools in Wavepad that might also help @borateAs far as the multiple clip effect problem......When you do a multiple select do you use Ctrl or Shift? Both allow the clips to be selected and grouped but I have just found that using SHIFT to keep the clips selected when choosing an effect inactivates the Apply to selected clips tabs. I have usually used SHIFT to group clips so that may be my error. Can you check that out? Nat

Hi all After playing around with this for a bit. I think I have found out why things are not working correctly.... so make a note of this and try it out to confirm... Separate and different clips on the timeline can be grouped or linked with Shift + Clip first then clip last and then the "Append to other selected clips tab will be active....BUT the action of splitting any of the clips (making more clips) will cause the tab to be inactive. If you add a single clip to the timeline and split it into three clips..(ie. to make 4 clips..as with a loud soft sound clip made to test this thread) although you can link them or group them VP still sees them as a SINGLE CLIP and hence the tab is not active. I think this is an oversight, This means that in the context of this post, splitting out the loud and soft areas of the soundrack means that even though you would appear to have made numerous clips they cannot all have an effect added at the same time as the tab will not be available. My tests didn't work until I removed the split test clip. 2 mins later.... Still..There may be something else as repeating with just three clips it again didn't work. 😡 Nat

HI I don't understand this.......The blasted tab is active now!!+@+** Added three clips in various ways....Linked the clips in different ways and the B******** button is now lit up. Yet previously as well as just before all the FX went blue and using the Audio FX toolbar tab as well as the Video FX toolbar tab AND being asked if I wanted to place the FX on all the selected clips (i.e. three) .... it didn't work!!! Well.....I have a loud soft clip so I'll try it out. Nat (Bit Frustrated.....emed sam to take a look as well,,,😡

Hi Setting effects keyframes is done on a CLIP and hence the CLIP is monitored in Clip Preview. Indeed when you click FX it is the FX for a particular CLIP. and so the Clip Preview window automatically opens and shows any options (like the box for crop) and the results of the effect when the parameters are altered. The cursor line in the effect window is the same as the cursor line seen in the Clip Preview window..They are linked. That is not to say you can't also swap to the Sequence Preview window (or view them both side by side)..but this only shows the preview frame at the position of the timeline red cursor. (Of course if you only have a single clip on the timeline this also becomes the sequence, but the cursor line position behaviour still applies. Remember that the timeline cursor baris not the same as the clip cursor bar. Moving the timeline cursor to find a split point automatically opens the sequence preview window. Having split the sequence you have created another clip with an new FX. Clicking this then opens the clip preview..... " Wouldn't be nice if I could Copy and Paste the entire Q&A clip and have VP level out all the valleys on the Q's. Several might have to come up and additional gain of 100% others, just 50%. " THAT was the idea of dropping the low volume questions onto Audio track 2 and applying the effect to all the clips at once...As I said despite following the advocated steps for this...it wouldn't work. Did Borate's method for doing the same thing work for you. Here the 5th "Append to chain" tab was not highlighted and therefore inactive. No idea why. Nat

Hi italiangen "... What I'm understanding now is that I only need 1 Fx window for all ANSWERS and then 1 AMPLIFY effect adjust for each KEYFRAMED answer, then another KEYFRAME for the next Answer + another AMPLIFY effect... 20 times. Lets say that a few of the Answers are still too low; then I can increase the markers gain% for that answer, independently. Am I correct? Big thanks......" That's about it. You don't really need to split the clips (or the unlinked sound clip) and add amplify to each bit.which, as you note is somewhat labour intensive although effective. The method outlined simply allows you to use the whole intact clip using the amplify effect with keyframes. to treat different parts of the sound clip. Any adjustments to either question or answer can be made on the single clip by moving the keyframe markers. With this type of sound difference in a clip I think any method of re-adjusting is cumbersome unfortunately I looked at this from another perspective that should have worked somewhat better but doesn't. I split the clip to isolate questions and answers and dragged the quiet questions down onto audio track2. (The video went up to Video Track 2. I then grouped the sound clips (or selected them all at once) and tried to apply the amplify effect to the multiple clips. (So all questions could be amplified to the required level in one go.. This did not work even though VP asked if I wanted the effect added to all clips...it still only added the effect to the last clip selected. This is a bug in version 7.03 which I though had been fixed. Had it worked it might have simplified matters. This is a complicated area in VP as in this instance all the "clips" are actually sections of the same clip and I thought that that might have been the reason but in fact (at least here) the "multiple clip effect doesn't work even on a selection of different clips. I'll mention this to NCH and see if just me. In the meantime I think you are stuck with the methods outlined above.....I tried this splitting and changing track idea and in some ways in fact, I found it not too bad once you had the level set........Goes to show! Nat

Hi Michael ".... but I cannot figure out how to add an effect at one time and make it stop at another time.... " Assuming you have a single clip on the timeline, the SIMPLEST way would be... Split the clip where you want the effect to start Split the clip where you want the effect to end Apply the effect to the central portion. (Click the FX for the portion. Click green + and choose effect. However you may not want to split the clip at all, so in order to add an effect that starts and stops at different points within the clip do this... e.g. Using the zoom effect.. Click the FX for the clip Move the red cursor line to the start of the clip. (Either the Clip Preview cursor line or the Graph effect cursor line....They are both linked. Click the large green + and select the Zoom effect. The Zoom area will appear on the clip preview window and will be full screen. At this point there is no actual zoom as it it full screen.. Create a keyframe (KF1) by clicking the small green+ with the red line above the graph screen. Move the cursor line (either of them) along the clip to the point where you want the effect to start. Create another keyframe (KF2) Move the cursor line (either of them) along the clip to the point where the effect is to stop. Adjust the parameters of the effect (For zoom one might set the AR by clicking the Restraint box and choosing a value and would then drag the corners/sides or the whole rectangle to resize it and re-position it by dragging to create a final zoomed in area. Create another keyframe (KF3) to fix these values. From this point nothing is to change so.... Move the cursor line (either of them) along the clip to the far right (the end of the clip) and... Create a final key frame (KF4) Your effect window should now look something like this..... Between KF1 (Clip start) and KF2 the effect parameters do not change. So there is No zoom. Between KF2 and KF3 the image zooms smoothly from the original parameters to the ones you have set up.. Between KF3 and KF4 (End of clip) The image remains zoomed in with the same parameters up to the end of the clip. You have used the keyframes to mark the points in the clip where effects are started/stopped or altered. You can use keyframes with the majority of the effects and is an easy way to animate certain effects. Where you decide to place the keyframes for the timings is up to you. If positions/values are not correct you can grab and move the keyframe markers on the graph. Try a few examples ..It's easier than you might think. Nat

Hi Michael Its a free open source app called Mediainfo. There are versions for Windows and Mac. Above display is version 7.4 but latest is about Version 18 now so may look different. Check the sticky at the top of the forum.. http://nch.invisionzone.com/topic/23659-tips-for-getting-help-on-this-forum/ There is a link towards the bottom of the post or try here... https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo Nat

Hi Thanks. Glad the contributions were helpful. That is what the forum is for. Just click Start a New Topic at the top of the forum page and follow the prompts.(It's not really a rule, but it allows forum users to see a new topic when one arises. It would get missed if simply added on to an old and different thread.) However, I assume you have a audio track that has: Question (quiet)....Answer (Loud).......Question (quiet).......Answer (loud) etc. If so your Audio track might look something like this..... The questions are too quiet but the answers are OK.... If so, you could try this..... Click the FX on the Audio track. Select Amplify from the choices. The Default level is 100%. Select the Audio Track and go into Clip Preview. Set the cursor just before the start of a question Click the small green + with the red line at the top of the graph to set a keyframe. This will draw a line across the graph at 100% value and create a small keyframe marker on the line.. Enter a higher value in the Gain% box or move the Gain% slider to the right. The graph line will move up. Play the clip in Clip Preview to test the level. Keep adjusting the value (moving the red cursor line back to keep it on the question area) and note the Gain% value when the question sounds OK. (e.g. 195%) You have now found the gain% value for your audience questions. Now..Using the Clip Preview screen to monitor... Reset everything by deleting the Amplify effect (White X) and re-selecting the Amplify effect.(Large Green +) Move the cursor back to the start of the first question (or the start of the clip) and enter your found Gain Value (195%) The blue line will jump up to 195% Click the small green + with the red line to create a keyframe. Using the Clip Preview as a monitor move the red cursor line to a point just after the question and create another keyframe.(195%) The question sound has now been enhanced to your selected level Move the cursor line just past the new keyframe marker and enter 100% The line will jump vertically down to 100%. (If you get a slanting line you have not gone past the keyframe marker..) Create another keyframe. Move the cursor to the end of the Answer and create another keyframe (100%) The answer will now be at 100% Gain. Move the cursor just past the new keyframe marker and enter 195%. The line will jump vertically back up to 195% Create another keyframe Move cursor to end of next question and create another keyframe (195%) Continue like this. Your Amplify graph should now look something like this.... Playing the clip the sound of both question and answers should be a similar levels. If the questions are still too quiet (or the answers too loud) you can grab each of the markers and adjust the levels vertically until they are close to what you require. You will need to experiment a bit. It's not perfect but does work. Nat

Thanks Borate Hi Michael_DK Similar results from a .mp4 export show this....... Note that the MAXIMUM Audio bit rate is 320 Kbps (as requested at export) but the quoted bit rate would seem to be 154 Kbps. This is because the Bit rate mode is Variable. with his type of export. This seems to be the answer to your post. However exporting as an .avi with MPEG4 (Native) codec gives this...... The bit rate is now 320 Kbps and the Bit rate mode is Constant. It seems that if you want a constant 320 Kbps you will have to export as an .avi. MPEG4 (Native) Nat

Hi michael "... . I DO have some experience. I like your word SHOULD. Pls try it for yourself. We talk about facts here, not "should" and "could". I have spent some hour on this, enough for now. ....." As an author I am sure you have more than some experience. However, I use of the word "should" in the conditional sense .....i.e. provided everything else is correct...Unless something is wrong the project should export OK. with the stated 320 kbps audio quality. etc. I do not mean to say that it will. " The .avi is just a container for the MP4" - it seems, that you do NOT know about this subject. " I am sure you are correct. in this . I can only go by the fact that the VP export window allows one to select .avi and choose the MPEG4 (Native) codec and the exported file is an .avi. The contents I assume are in mpeg4 compression....please correct me if I am wrong .....and then explain why VP says MPEG4 (Native)....As far as I know AVI files may use different types of compressions (MPEG4, DivX, XviD, RM, etc.) to encode the video. I hope you can see where my statement is coming from. "@Nationalsolo: your screenshots are NOT correct. they show video encode being MP4, but actually you are displaying audio after selecting .avi video format " In the example I illustrated you are correct...I selected .avi. before selecting the video compressor (MPEG4 (Native) Nevertheless as I stated and illustrated above VP will allow you to export an MPEG4 (mp4) with 320 kbps audio quality. Which is apparently what you want and say you are not getting. Instead of then selecting .avi, (which you don't want,) you select mp4 from the drop down list. This allows you to choose MPEG4, H264, or H265. So, select MPEG4. and as stated above, 320 kbps is available from the Audio Quality list. See the MPEG4 export settings below...... This not an mp4 associated with the .avi container which is MPEG4 (native). It exports as an .mp4 at 320 kbps Are you saying this is incorrect or not working for you or you are not seeing 320 kbps? Regards Nat

Hi The .avi is just a container for the MP4. However if you select .mp4 from the list of formats ........ you will have the choice between H264 or MPEG4 ........ Either of these options will allow you to set 320 kbps for the Audio Quality Bitrate by clicking the down chevron on the Audio Quality/Bitrate box....... The project should then Export with the required settings... Nat

Hi In version 7.03, Audio quality can be set to 320 kbps . If you have the free version I would select .avi as the output format. In the export video window click the High quality/Larger file size text in blue. This brings up AVI Encoder settings window with a Sound format box. The kbps value shown here maybe a default...... ...So click the down chevron to the right of the box... Select the top value which is 320 kbps. Now recheck the encoder settings under the High Quality/larger file size text as shown above...it should now show the new Sound format value... Your export should now retain this sound format. It seems 320 kbps is the highest value shown in the list. Nat