Import .mp4 file into PE10 slideshow project

[Finnkai]

I am in the middle of a project to make a slideshow for a god-son's 21st birthday. I have already had good advice from several members on how best to combine stills (with pan and zooms) and video so it will look right on an eventual widescreen PAL DVD. I have now been sent a couple of clips which were purchased when my god-son ran in in the New York marathon. They have the file extension .mp4.

When I import them into the project they seem to lose some of their sharpness and become a bit "noisier" so I wondered if there is a better way to do this. I have Steve Grisetti's book and tried converting them to .avi using Streamclip but it did not seem to make too much difference (although I may not have used all the right settings). I was wondering if I should first bring them into PE10 using a high definition preset (but which one?) and then export from PE10 to a .avi file to use in the slideshow?

Any advice welcomed!

[Steve Grisetti]

Well, it depends -- but most likely .mp4 video (as I point out in my Steve's Tips article on codecs) is from a smartphone or an iPod. This type of video isn't really made for editing. It's designed to be just shot and then uploaded to YouTube. But it's not hopeless.

I recommend starting a new project using the settings for Flip Camcorder HD. These are about as close as you can get to that format. Load the .mp4 onto its timeline and press Enter to render the file. It should look somewhat acceptable. Then use Share/Computer/AVI (with the DV preset) to output your video as a DV-AVI.

That should create a file that will load right into the DV project you've got set up for your slideshow.

[Dave McElderry]

I've had excellent luck working with video from my iPhone in both PrEl 9 & 10. Do as Steve says and it should work well.

[Finnkai]

Thanks for the suggestion, Steve.

I used the "Flip Mino HD and Ultra HD 29_97" preset (in NTSC as there isn't an option in PAL) which I assume is the one you meant to create a new project. I then loaded the .mp4 material to it and output the project to computer DVI-PAL .avi format (16:9) and imported it into my slideshow project. Interestingly for some reason the imported 16:9 clip (.avi clip) seemed to have been scaled down so did not fit the full frame although the proprtions were right. After careful analysis of the output DVD video, I am not sure it really made a lot of difference. I compared the quality seen in the final DVD version to that from the same clip (in.mp4 format) imported straight into the slideshow project. The quality wasn't too bad either way and in the "simple" route fully fills the frame, so I will probably go this route.

Thanks again