Embedded videos in PSG

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Embedded videos in PSG

Postby picsdude » Fri Jul 19, 2013 4:43 pm

I have the latest Photodex Gold 5.0.331, and I am pretty happy with it creating photos slide shows.

I am particularly disappointed with the videos feature. To start I am trying to create a slides show with a single video in the middle ..... once getting this to work looking to embed it into an EXE with a menu and multiple slide shows (both photos and videos shows).

So I have a 1600X1200 monitor screen, i.e. 4:3 aspect, into which I am trying play a 640X360 video, i.e. 16:9 aspect. So the show settings are 4:3 and the slide settings, (the single video), are 16:9 aspect, fit to frame into the 4:3 show setting, 65% zoom. This generates a jerky playing video. If I reset the show settings to 16:9, I get a 1600X900 show that plays perfectly, but I get black letter boxing bars on top and bottom. Somehow when the slide show aspect does not match the video aspect, the fit to frame bit causes PSG to mess up my video.

Called customer service, and I got lip service. EXE is an old format, so they are not going to do chips about it. Told rep I need to output to something which has a menu, so he told me to burn it to blueray. Told rep I do not care to have blueray CDs hanging around my computer, and that I need to be able to generate this as an EXE.

Anybody around experienced with generating slide shows with videos ..... ones which have an aspect ratio different than their slide show ratio?

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Re: Embedded videos in PSG

Postby im42n8 » Fri Jul 19, 2013 6:25 pm

You have a 4:3 monitor and a 4:3 show into which you are importing a 16:9 video.

For starters, the program is NOT a video program but will accept videos. The video options are minimal but passable. The "jerkiness" you say you are experiencing is going to be only during the creating stage (that is, during the PX stream). Output to a video stream and you won't see that "jerkiness." What you are experiencing while playing the show from within the program is the computer struggling with the amount of data. Export to a video format to see how it looks that way ...the video will be smooth.

You are always going to get a letter box effect if you have a 4:3 Show and a 16:9 video. A 16:9 video in a 4:3 show and set to a scale of Fill Frame will have 100% screen width at 75% zoom and a height of 75 percent of the screen. At 100% zoom you will have 100% of the screen height and 133.33 percent screen width (that is, the whole screen will be filed and the video will extend beyond the sides). If you set the scale to Fit To Frame, at 100% zoom, you will have a layer that also fits the screen at 100% width and 75% height. Unless you want to distort the video by using "stretch to fit", you are stuck with the letterbox-like effect. You can cover the area not covered by the video using your own background layer (just put it in a lower layer than the video). What do you want to have happen here?

BTW, a 16:9 video imported into a 4:3 show and set to 65% zoom with a fill frame scale will have a height of 65% and a width of 86.67%. If you use Fit to Frame, your height will be 48.75% and width will be 65%.

I don't know what you mean by "... a single video in the middle..."; in the middle of the slide (as in being used as a background) or in one of the slides near the center of the slideshow?

Menuing is NOT ProShow's strong point. However, it will work. Just import each of the shows into the "Included Shows" section. Then select a menu option from the choices offered in the Layout dropdown in the Menu Layer section. It's simple.

What does the fact that the EXE format is "old" have to do with what you're trying to do? You will have a menu choice to play ALL, or one of the shows you've included in your EXE. What's the problem that you're having?

Dale
What's New: Tools for ProShow: v11.42a Access ProShow capabilities Photodex doesn't provide (For PSG & PSP).
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Re: Embedded videos in PSG

Postby picsdude » Fri Jul 19, 2013 11:48 pm

He, he Dale ..... thanks for your thoughts.

Yes, I have the 4:3 monitor, on which I am trying to play the 16:9 video. Hope that is not a sin.

I am exporting to EXE format Dale, not to a video format. I can not export to a video format, cause I am trying to bundle 6 shows into an executable show with a pretty menu up front. The "jerkiness" I am experiencing is in the final EXE format .... whenever I am outputting the 16:9 avi aspected movie to the 4:3 aspected EXE using fit to frame, 65% zoom. My computer is pretty strong, and does not seem to be struggling too much.

I understand the bit about the letter box effect, and I am not complaining about it. Just mentioning that I am getting it whenever I output to 16:9 aspect, and why I can not really choose to output to 16:9 on my 1600X1200 screen.

The bit about menuing is important because I am outputting to EXE format, so that I can have a pretty menu for my 6 shows which I am trying to include in the EXE, once I can figure it all out. In other words, I can not output my show to video because video output lacks clickable menu up front.

The fact that EXE format is "old" came into play this morning when I called the Photodex customer support. He went on explaining that Photodex does not care much about this problem, cause I am outputting to EXE, and this is too old of a format for them to be bothered debugging kinda thingie.

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Re: Embedded videos in PSG

Postby im42n8 » Sat Jul 20, 2013 4:44 am

You EXPORT to a video format (which can be an exe if you wish) to test your output.

An EXE is simply a PX file and Presenter merged into a single file. If you're having jerkiness in THAT final result, your computer is simply lacking the OOOMPH required to process the large amount of data. Additionally, if your video card doesn't support hardware acceleration (that is, offloading the video processing to the video GPU), then your Computer's CPU is trying to do all the work. That could be causing the jerkiness. Try reducing the size of the EXE. If your computer is not struggling too much and you're still getting jerkiness ... your computer IS struggling.

What is so special about an EXE? You can do the same thing with a DVD output (just play the DVD on an upconverting DVD player). Or Blu-Ray (if you had a blu-ray writer). Both of these options provide you with a "clickable" menu. As for the Exe, it looks like (in Gold) that's your only other option for a multiple show video. The other option would be to export all of your videos to separate files and then compile them together in a video editor creating the menuing from within the video program or a program such as DVD Encore. For the DVD output, you can always run the ISO file from a program such as the VLC Media Player. It'll play as if it were on a DVD.

The fact that the EXE has been around for a long time and "old" is not an issue. That's stupidity of the highest order (WHY the Photodex rep would say ANYTHING like that is beyond me). But, it doesn't need debugging. If your computer doesn't have the requisite hardware oompth ... you're going to have jerkiness (dropped frames and such).

There's probably nothing wrong with your video ... Your monitors aspect has absolutely nothing to do with the final output ... it's just that when playing a 16:9 aspect show on a 4:3 device, you're going to see a letterbox-like effect ... because the aspects are different. However, if your video is letterboxed, that means something else is going one. If you specified a 4:3 window for the playback, you might get letterbox; especially if the shows themselves are 16:9. Readjust the window size.

Dale
Last edited by im42n8 on Sat Jul 20, 2013 6:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Embedded videos in PSG

Postby picsdude » Sat Jul 20, 2013 5:36 am

Well, dunno. I mean I can see what you saying, but it just doesn't sound right.

1. That embedded video is playing fine when it is not embedded in the show.

2. When the show aspect is 16:9, i.e. 1600X900 with letter boxing, the video plays fine within the show.

Because of these 2 listed reasons, I'm just not buying the argument of weak hardware.

It seems to me, but not sure, that the "fit to frame" for the slide properties of that single slide which contains the video, somehow does it. PSG is doing some monkeying around when the aspects of the video and show don't match, generating this shakiness .... which it does not do when the 2 aspects are the same. In both cases the displayed size of the video is the same, cause the slide with the video is always fit to frame, 16:9, 65% zoom.

But I really bought PSG for my photos processing, and the videos bit was just an adventurous afterthought.

Thanks for your effort Dale.

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Re: Embedded videos in PSG

Postby im42n8 » Sat Jul 20, 2013 6:43 am

Just because something plays well OUTSIDE the program isn't indicative of how well it'll play within the program. ProShow will add additional overhead to the video.

When you change the aspect of how a show is played, you're adding additional processing requirements. It may not make sense to you but the program sees the difference in additional calculations.

Whether you buy into my arguments doesn't mean they're invalid, not a a long shot.

The scaling only scales the video. ProShow isn't monkeying around with the video ... but it has to make calculations related to its scaling. Scaling is normalizing the video to the slide (so it knows what 100% across the screen means). For instance, normally, a fill frame scale means that the scaling stops as soon as the left and right sides of a layer are the same as the screen's left and right sides. That means that the layer is 100% as wide as the screen. Generally, the Fit to Frame scale works such that scaling stops as soon as the first layer sides reach any side of the screen. Often that's the top & bottom sides.

A 16:9 video placed in a 4:3 show with a fit to frame scale at 100% zoom will be 100% of the screen wide and 75% of the screen tall. By changing its zoom to 65% the width is now 65% as wide as the screen and is 48.75% as tall as the screen. By going to 65% zoom you've just changed the amount of work the program has to perform.

If the video is set to Fill Frame, at 100% zoom it's 100% of the screen height and 133% of your screen width. At 65% zoom it's 65% of the screen height and 86.67% of the screen width. Again, changing the size of the video on the screen changed the amount of work the program has to perform to properly display it. ProShow has to consider the region not covered by the video layer, at a minimum. Then there's the necessary calculations to adjust the video's on-screen size for the given scaling. So, there is a performance consideration whether you realize it or not. Your hardware is being stressed by the requirements necessary to properly display your video.

So, it certainly does appear as if your hardware is not fully up to the task. An EXE file is generally more stressing on the computer (relative to hardware requirements necessary to display a video) than a video format (such as MPG4).

Good luck on whatever your decide to do... and have Fun! :D

Dale
What's New: Tools for ProShow: v11.42a Access ProShow capabilities Photodex doesn't provide (For PSG & PSP).
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