You're very welcome - I too came over from the "Dark Side", and never looked back.

1) - PASS! I'm waiting for the DVD+ - thing to settle down - yes? In the meantime I use U-Lead MF 1.0 - it works - it makes decent enough VCDs.

2) - This is sooooo easy you will think VF is being weird! - Okay dokey . . . Find the "frame" you want to be used as the Final frame. This is where it gets difficult [ hee hee ;) ] Just above the Preview window, and a tad to the right, you will notice a small "floppy disc" icon - yes? Click on that! You now get an option of where to save this "Snap Shot to File" . . you get JPG or PNG formats to save your Snapshot in - I TOLD YOU IT WAS DIFFICULT! - - Now you have saved this "Snap Shot" AND you know where you saved it, IMPORT it into your MEdia Pool - Once there, Grab it and place it at the end of your video - THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT! - NEat eh? . . Well it gets even better - You could now streeettcchhh the Photo/Still by laying your cursor over the right-edge of the still - a square thingy with arrows appears - HOLD down the CTRL key and STRETTTCH that clip - This makes the clip extend as far as you want - You could even DISSOLVE-OUT the last part of the still by reducing the opacity to black -OR, as I've done, gradually BLOW it out to white. That's pretty dramatic too!

Welcome to THE forum where WE have FUN FUn FUN - NOT ANgst ANgst Angst . . .

"VFers Do It On a Timeline!"

Welcome . . . You've made a "Great Pick"!

Grazie

BB - Yar beat me 'gin! Darn it!!!!

Cheers

Grazie

Welcome to the “bright side”. I came over from using Pinnacle Studio 8. It’s amazing how much bad software is really out there. VideoFactory is a breath of fresh air.

I’d have to agree with BillyBoy, Ulead MovieFactory 2 is not really overkill. It’s a lot of function for the price. It doesn’t really compete with VF at all. It lets you capture but has no real editing capabilities other than trimming scenes. The capture part is aimed at people who just want to burn their video footage to DVD without any editing. No titles, no transitions, nothing.

If you’re using VF you really want DVD MF2 for the authoring capabilities. You can try the 30-trail and see for yourself. If after 30 days you still think its overkill, you don’t have to buy it. There are no limitations on the trial so you can burn for 30 days.

Do you have a DVD burner yet? Most burners come with software so you may not have to invest any more money at all if you like the burning software that comes with your DVD burner. Unfortunately a lot of burners come with Sonic MyDVD which doesn’t allow you to make chapter points unless you capture with the software. (which VF people don’t do).

I would give the DVD MF2 30-trial a test drive. You have nothing to loose.

~jr

Hi ya Grazie, yea it happens to me to too. I write a longer response someone usually posted a answer already. LOL!

You guys are awesome!!! Thanks Grazie, JohnnyRoy and BillyBoy. BillyBoy, I should have added you to the original list of guru's!!

Thanks for the help. The trick on the Snapshot is exactly what I need.

And I will get Ulead DVD Move Factory - it seems that is what I need.

Keep up the fun!!!!!!!!!
Pick

Pick - Let me tell you something. I was about to throw in the towel, when it came to this NLE stuff. VW, nearly did it for me! And then a certain VinceG over on the "Dark-Side" gave me an invitation. That was . . . mmmmmh..... 8 months ago, maybe more - less than a year anyway.

Having come to VF and "Seen-The-Light!" [ viz the Blues Brothers! heeh hee ;)] my faith has been restored - Yeah . . WInME crashes; firewire nonsenes; IRQ 'n Quirks; DirectX run arounds; my fan/s sluggin it out with Print To Tape (oh yes that was a drama . . . ); clashes with other CODECs; and so and so on . . . These things would have happened in or out of VF - BUT here's the thing - IMHO: VF is a truly bolted down product. Mostly (99%) it does what it says it can do AND some! Really, the more and more you delve into this labirynth [ hasn't helped my spelling much! ] of functionality, the more and more you will be amazed at what it can do. . . . If VF has a failure, it is it's inability to "give" you all its virtues upfront - I think others will agree with me on this much.

Well enough from me praising this s/w package too much, other than saying if it wasn't for SoFo's Video Factory I would now have been spending BIG Pound Notes on something like a dedicated REalTime deck with Premiere, getting even more frustrated. Now I've had enough left in the budget to invest in the migration from a analogue Panasonic cammy to the latest Canon XM2 [ Woah there's a camera! ] AND enough left over to buy the upgrade to Veags Video. Do you see where this is leading? SoFo has allowed me to "hang-on-in-there" in staying with digital video activity. And this forum is FUN! - Oh yeah I aint no Guru! Nor any type of African gazelle - yeah! [ wink! ]

Welcome aboard - Grazie ;)

FYI. When you extract the still photo as a JPEG file using the procedure the guys have outlined, make sure you select the 'Display at Project Size' option first (right-click on the preview screen) before you click the 'floppy' icon, otherwise, the resolution of the JPEG is very poor and you will not be real pleased with the results.

This is somewhat of a klunky implementation by VF and I'm not sure why they did it this way. It's klunky because when you select 'Display at Project Size', you can only see about 1/4 of the frame. So, you have to keep changing between the display sizes.

Just a note about size of the preview window.

The preview window is undockable, meaning it can "float" anywhere on the screen above the timeline for example. Look very closely just to the left of the preview window for a thin gray vertical seperator line. Click on it while holding down your left mouse button and just drag. That should "undock" it. Now once you have it up and away from its home you can stretch the corners of the window to resize just like any Window's "window". BTW, the other windows to the left of the preview window are also undockable and can be floated. <wink>

Oops, almost forgot... To return a undocked window to its home and original size, just drag and drop it where you originally saw it.

I still find it odd that the still capture feature is based on the preview size. I would think that the default should be to capture a still at the source media size regardless of what the preview size is. Capture at the project size is a useful distant second option. About the only situation i can think of in which capturing at preview size would be useful is if someone is collecting thumbnail images. But even then it's possible to resize larger captures and get a better quality image at the exact size desired rather than trying to make the preview window that size.

I think the function should automatically capture at media size.

Sorry BB - I don't think the Preview window is undockable in VF. One of the reasons I went and upgraded to VV - yeah?

Grazie

Oh darn... I better keep my mouth shut about VF features and stick to Vegas. Thanks for the heads up.

Do you like undockable windows? I myself don't really. I guess my memory is failing faster than I thought. I would have swore VF fist did, then didn't, then did have undockable windows depending on version. Maybe that was Vegas, Oh nuts, now I'm really confused. This in 1965 right?

<wink>

Beatles have another hit with "Love, Love me do!" and play Shea Stadium [ I think? ] . The Rolling Stones issues their 3rd LP. I get my first Levi Jacket WITH studs! And, and, and . . . you know how it goes BB.

Tell you what - I had to fire up VF just now to reeeeally convince myself too!

Hey ho, was it always so. BillyBoy what YOU'VE forgotten I'VE still to learn - think about that one. RESpect where it's due - "BB" King - Oh yes you are ;)

Grazie

VideoFactory 1 had dockable windows. VideoFactory 2 doesn't. I recall partaking in many heated discussions about this when 2 first came out.

Understood Chienworks. I came in at 2.0c. BillyBoy must have started with ver 1.0. Sooooo . . .. respect to the "BB"!

Grazie