3D-Album Home

[ronenright]

I recently upgraded from Picture Pro to Platinum, and to CS ver 3.28 and I'm trying to create an AVI presentation, using about 50 still photos.

The style I wanted was "Dispatch". After I was satisfied with my display, I hit the "Build" button, chose a folder for the application and then went to capture. I would then choose another folder for the movie file. In the past, I've used the following settings without any problems.

AVI
29.97 FPS
720 x 480
Movie Quality 100

Upon hitting record, I would choose from the dropdown list "Intel Indeo 4.5" which again, has worked for me in the past.

Problem:
1. Capture window displays a zoomed-in effect of my presentation. Like the capture window is too small for the content being displayed.

2. Photos are being displayed totally different from the original presentation, one at a time, rather than 3 or 4, and then shoot off screen before they should, etc., etc.

I tried some different styles, different capture settings (DV AVI, MPEG 2, etc.) without success.

The only changes I'm made since before this became a problem, was getting a new monitor (went to a wide screen).

I have spent days trying to troubleshoot without success.
Any suggestions would be most appreciative.

[nan]

Maybe you should try the 3.29 update:

http://www.3d-album.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2702

[ronenright]

I installed the 3.29 update....did not correct the problem.

Other things I've tried:
Reinstalled all the 3-D Album program upgrades and updates.

Checked the size of each photo to make sure they weren't too large.

Switched to a standard size monitor, rather than the wide-screen.

Tried other styles. Some would work, others would have the same problem.

I know it's going to turn out to be something simple or stupid that I've overlooked. But, it's driving me nuts.

[Bill Smith]

I wonder if it has anything to do with the display settings in the CREATE tab (where you do the BUILD) versus the dimensions in the CAPTURE tab.

Since you upgraded to a wide screen monitor, you may also have changed the settings in the CREATE window (or the DEFAULT may have changed automatically). They are the ones on the left side just under the actual preview window. Normal settings are DEFAULT, 4:3, 16:9, etc.).

Try experimenting with those settings and see if it makes a difference or not. Maybe force it to 4:3, do another BUILD, and then do a CAPTURE.

Let us know if that helps.

PS - The settings in the CREATE preview area don't really change the built application. But they do sometimes lead us to expect to see a certain result. The dimensions in the CAPTURE tab however do affect the final output. So - the key to what I'm suggesting is that you may be expecting to see one thing because of how the CREATE window looks - but you're seeing something else when you do the CAPTURE. A simple thing is to set the preview window in CREATE to match the settings that you plan to use in the CAPTURE. Your settings of 720x480 are 3:2, but I find the 4:3 to be a close match.
_________________
Bill

HOW TO: www.northwestpages.com/3dalbum_tutorial/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/northwestpages
Facebook: www.facebook.com/NWpages

[ronenright]

Thanks Bill (and Nan) for your help.

After troubleshooting this problem for days and days, and following your suggestions, I was finally able to pinpoint the problem and got things working again.

Apparently, it was the recent addition of my widescreen monitor. Luckily, I have a dual monitor setup with the other being a standard size monitor.

What I ended up doing was.....
#1 Uninstalling Commercial Suite, and all previous versions, that were on my computer. Restarted my computer and defragged.

#2 I then shut down the computer again and physically unplugged both monitors, and then just re-attached the standard size monitor to the input where I previously had the widescreen. The computer then recognized this monitor as the primary (since it's the only one attached).

#3 Reinstalled Commercial Suite 3.27, and again downloaded the 3.28 and 3.29 updates. Capture problem was eliminated.

#4 Shut down computer again, and attached the wide-screen monitor (to where the standard size monitor was previously attached). Upon restart, I went into Windows' Control Panel (Display) to ensure the standard size monitor was now the "primary" monitor, and the wide-screen was the "secondary". I then adjusted my settings in the Display panels and also in the NVIDA Desktop Manager, to move the windows-based controls from the primary monitor (standard size) to the secondary monitor (widescreen) so I could still use the wide-screen as the newly "disguised" primary.

If it sounds confusing, it was. And I'm by-no-means an expert, or confident, in the way I chose to fix this problem. It was all trial and error. Bottom Line....it worked! For folks with a single, widescreen monitor, setup.....I'd be at a loss.

I think 3D Album definitely needs to address this issue and come up with an update to recognize wide-screen analog monitors. I can't be the only one that has experienced this problem?

Thanks again for your help.

Ron

[Bill Smith]

Glad to hear you were able to solve your problem.

It's interesting. My laptop has a wide screen monitor, and I haven't had any problems creating albums and/or videos using it.

I just bought a new wide screen monitor for my desktop. It is the only monitor on my system. I ran a quick test using one of the DISPATCH styles from 3DTime, and everything seemed to work fine.

One key difference between your system and mine is that I use ATI video cards on both laptop and desktop. Don't know if that makes any difference. If I do run into problems with my new monitor I'll come back and re-read the steps you used to fix your problem. (Hope that doesn't happen).
_________________
Bill

HOW TO: www.northwestpages.com/3dalbum_tutorial/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/northwestpages
Facebook: www.facebook.com/NWpages

[nan]

I have used a 16:9 monitor with one of my desktops for more than one year and did not have any problem with it.

In Create Window, I always set 4:3 ratio, which is the aspect for standard DVD. If "Default" is used, the apsect ratio of the preview window will be set to the same as the monitor, i.e. 16:9, which will give a different view than standard 4:3 DVD capture.

When the preview window was set to 4:3, it is better to use DVD capture directly. The resolution of NTSC DVD is 720x480 which is actually a wider screen than 4:3. But 3D-Album DVD MPEG2 capture tried to adjust the screen to 720x540 and then compressed video into to 720x480. If you use AVI or MPEG2 for DVD production, you'd better use the resolution 720x540 instead of 720x480. Otherwise, not only your view will be distorted in the final DVD production, but also, what you see in the capture window will look bigger (or in other words, the capture window looks smaller) than what you see in the 4:3 preview window.