from .vf to dvd. HOW?

ana_geobel wrote on 6/23/2003, 9:43 PM

Please someone tell me how to go from my timeline of video clips to a burnt dvd. I can't figure it out and no one has been able to tell me so far.

I can't believe how frusturated I have become over this software. Is it just me, or are there so many things wrong with Videfactory 2.0 (2.0c, excuse me) that it makes sense to snap the disks in half, uninstall the program, and chalk the whole experience up to a bad Sonic Foundry human resources department? Or maybe it's just me.

I've used Acid Music, and know that program backwards and forwards. I don't understand why VF is so difficultly different.

Please someone help me.

ana
ana_geobel@yahoo.com

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ana_geobel wrote on 6/26/2003, 12:32 PM

you know what, gus? bite the bullet and get the dvd burner. sure you'll have to use the more expensive blank dvds and the think will cost you a couple hundred, but you gotta weigh stress and frusturation into the big picture here.

take it from me. I just dropped 4 bills on a sony dvd burner that claims to burn dvds from avi files. it better not be lying to me. 400 dollars is a bit much, you may say, but all this bs software is a bit much for my patience and nerves. I see the 400 as an investment into my happiness. Plus, the interest my purchase will acrue will help the horrible economy. at least that's what I tell myself.

good luck dude. I'll let you know if the dvd burner is the way to go. It better be, for my sake. but I'll let you know if it is, and my mourning roommate will let you know if it wasn't.

trevorst wrote on 6/26/2003, 2:15 PM

Hi Gus & Ana
As the person that advised Gus to try VF on another forum I feel that I need to try and help.
First of all Gus the SVCD you are creating in Picture Show is a still picture SVCD format that standard does not allow for transitions, panning or any other effect to be applied. it is just a slide show of still pictures. The quality is better than an a VCD/SVCD of a moving picture (Mpeg). To get better quality you must use MPEG 2 DVD standard output.

Now to the more technical issues:
When you set up your project you should use the settings that match the output you are trying to create i.e. for DVD use 720x480 for NTSC DVD output. When you render the video use the MPEG 2 NTSC DVD setting. This will give you a high quality video file that can be burned by programs like Uleads DVD Factory without requiring the other program to render it again. This is an important point because if your file is not compatible and has to be re-rendered the quality will drop considerably.

On your issue of matching the slide show to the music just select your first slide then right click, a menu will pop up, choose "select to end" now you have all the slides selected. Right click again and choose "Group" from menu. Now slide the timeline until you can see the last slide. Hold the control button down and drag the last slide until it lines up with the end of the music, you will see that all the slide durations have changed an equal amount to fill the space.

This can be a very frustrating hobby untill you learn. There are so many variables that impact the quality of the final video. As you are working with photographs you also need to be aware of how to prepare a photograph for convertion to video. The best results are achieved when the original jpeg is the same resolution as the output i.e. 720x480. Then the video software does not have to do the resize. This can be a challange if you want to add pans to your photos. When I am preparing my photos in photoshop I think about the possible pans I want and size the photo accordingly. One other tip for using photographs is don't over sharpen the photos, this will cause a shimmering in the video output.

Hope this helped.