I would like to create a movie of about 300 jpg files for a family reunion with captions.
I have used Picasa 3 to add captions to each of the photos. I created a video file (the only option being .wmv) which WD TV Live could not open:
General
Complete name : C:\70th1.wmv
Format : Windows Media
File size : 219 MiB
Duration : 7mn 2s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 4 350 Kbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 6 789 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2010-04-21 06:48:05.641
Video
ID : 2
Format : WMV2
Codec ID : WMV2
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Video 8
Description of the codec : Windows Media Video V8
Duration : 7mn 2s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 4 198 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 30.000 fps
Resolution : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.067
Stream size : 211 MiB (97%)
Language : English (AU)
Audio
ID : 1
Format : WMA
Format version : Version 2
Codec ID : 161
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Audio
Description of the codec : Windows Media Audio 9.2 - 64 kbps, 44 kHz, stereo (A/V) 1-pass CBR
Duration : 7mn 2s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 64.0 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 3.22 MiB (1%)
Language : English (AU)
I tried to convert this to an avi file using Windows Movie Maker 5.1 on an XP laptop:
General
Complete name : C:\70 Movie.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 145 MiB
Duration : 42s 0ms
Overall bit rate : 28.9 Mbps
Video
ID : 0
Format : DV
Duration : 42s 0ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 24.4 Mbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Standard : PAL
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Interlaced
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 2.357
Stream size : 144 MiB (100%)
Audio
ID : 0-0
Format : PCM
Muxing mode : DV
Muxing mode, more info : Muxed in Video #1
Duration : 42s 0ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 0.00 Byte (0%)
WD TV Live could not open this .avi file.
Are there any suggestions on how I could create a movie from the .jpgs with their captions that I can read on the WD TV Live please.
Take that WMV file and convert it to a format the Live understands (and enjoys :>). You can do this with ffmpeg (freeware), but it will require some (not much, but some) command line interface ease. You could probably do it like this:
(but that’s off the top of my head and might be incorrect – I can give you the exact format if you want to go this way).
If you don’t want to mess with command line stuff, Handbrake (freeware) will do it pretty simply – just choose the High Preset and output to an MKV container and the Live will absolutely play it with no issues (the High Preset combined with an MKV container will massage just about anything to a Live playable format). You are compressing the video, so there is always the possibility of quality loss, but at the High Preset you won’t notice a thing (even with blu-ray sources the High Preset is identical to the original).
Yeah, High Profile. For some reason I can never remember that correctly (but I use it about twice a day :>).
Should work just fine for you as long as you output to an MKV file (the default is an MP4 file, which *might* play but MKV is always a better option for the Live). Let me know if you have any issues.
Let me throw out something totally different; you could download the trial version of Pinnacle Studio and make your slideshow there. It will let you output in a bunch of different formats, DVD being one of them. Once you save your DVD to your drive, you can play the VOB with the WD Live, or use Handbrake to convert the DVD to an MKV.
Just drop your file, select your required output and press convert. You will then find your converted video in your documents under ‘Any Video Converter’
The output will be exactly the same as your .wmv file but should be readable by your WDTV.
Thank you Handbrake created my MKV file with I can view on my PC (with captions).
However when I play this file on the WD TV Live it shows no captions.
… Reading the WDTV Live manual …
Thanks
Margaret
Are the captions actually imbedded in the video, if so then you should see them.
Are they at the bottom and missing due to the over-scan on the TV.
Later: I just made up a short video with captions using Picasa and I was correct about the overscan. The captions are there but cut off by the TV. If you play the video and zoom out (option button - zoom out) you will see the captions. Not sure how you overcome this at the moment. (other than zooming out)
You might be able to get Handbrake to adjust this. I’d try the Picture tab, turn on custom in anamorphic, and try entering values in the Display Width either smaller or larger than normal and see what happens.
