January 2011 Newsletter
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Welcome to the Photo to Movie NewsletterJanuary 2011Welcome to the January 2011 edition of the Photo to Movie newsletter! In this newsletter:
Lost Your License Key? If you haven't downloaded Photo to Movie in a while, check out the latest versions here: You should purchase Photo to Movie now by clicking here: DVD vs. Blu-ray vs. 1080p videoWe still get a lot of questions and many users have confusion over what video formats to use when presenting an HD slideshow -- either on an HDTV or on the web. So we thought that this month we would summarize the advantages and disadvantages of the various formats, when to use them, and try to answer a few other questions along the way. The full reference article can still be found here: HDTV - DVD vs. Blu-rayFor presenting your videos on an HDTV, you have a few choices. The easiest choice, but with the least desirable video quality is to burn your slideshow to a DVD and play the DVD on your HDTV. DVD's have an intrinsic resolution of 720x480 pixels (NTSC) and 720x540 pixels (PAL). Those pixels are either displayed in a 4:3 (standard) aspect ratio or a 16:9 (widescreen) aspect ratio. This is typically called 480p video. As you can see, 480p is a whole lot less than 1080p. So DVD's played on your HDTV will appear with about 1/2 of the available resolution. For many situations, this is acceptable. For instance, if your viewers are typically sitting back further than the optimal viewing distance, then the lower resolution may be unnoticeable. However, for truly HD video, you have two options: 1) Burn to Blu-ray and play the Blu-ray on your HDTV. 2) Burn to a HD video file and play the video file using a computer or an online service such as YouTube. The problem with Blu-ray is that it is not widely available in everyone's home. So if you have a Blu-ray player connected to your TV and a Blu-ray disc recorder connected to your computer, this may be an acceptable solution. However, Blu-ray players (and recorders) are not as widespread as DVD players. So if you want to distribute your video, you will need to assess whether your recipients have a Blu-ray player available. If you have a media center connected to your HDTV that is running on a computer, you might also choose to render your slideshow to a 1080p video file and then upload or otherwise play that video file from the media center. See the section below for specifics. Similarly, you might be able to upload your video to YouTube (at the highest 1080p quality settings) and play it directly from YouTube. Web - 1080p VideoUsing Photo to Movie, the easiest way to publish high quality videos is to use Photo to Movie's intrinsic support for uploading to YouTube. Using this technique, you can create your slideshow (make sure it is using the widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio) and upload it directly to YouTube as 1080p video. Make your slide, click the Make Movie button, choose the YouTube format option at the top of the Make Movie dialog, choose the High Definition video format, enter your username and password and Photo to Movie will do the rest. If you have other requirements that aren't met by YouTube, then you can use the QuickTime (Mac and Windows) or Windows Media (Windows only) video formats and adjust the rendering for your specific requirements. We published a few articles that have in depth information about publishing for the web. http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/article_publishing http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/article_h264 The November 2009 newsletter also has some addition information about web publishing: http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/newsletter_200911 Photo to Movie 4.7Photo to Movie 4.7 is our latest release. It has been available since September 2010. If you haven't checked out the new version, please consider upgrading. Photo to Movie 4.7 is the most feature rich and stable version we've ever released. In addition, anyone who purchases an upgrade now will be eligible for the free upgrade for at least a year (including Photo to Movie 5, when it is released later this spring). You can upgrade here: Photo to Movie Upgrade Here is a quick run down of the new features since Photo to Movie 4.2 (Mac) and Photo to Movie 3.5 (Windows):
Recover Your Lost License Key OnlineHave you lost your Photo to Movie license key? We can send you your latest license key to the email under which you original purchased or registered. To retrieve your Photo to Movie (or Motion Pictures) license keys, visit our website and enter your email address: We also offer other support for using Photo to Movie on our newly redesigned Training and Support web page: Photo to Movie Training and Support Special Deals Mailing ListDue to numerous requests, LQ Graphics now has a special mailing list for special deals, offers, and discounts on LQ Graphics products and 3rd party products. This is a great way to SAVE MONEY on software. We're negotiating with several other companies to offer special DISCOUNTS to our customers on their products. We expect the first special offer to be available in early December -- SIGN UP NOW. This special deals mailing list is opt-in only. You must click on the link below and check the appropriate box to be included. Newsletter ArchiveAll of our previous newsletters are available on our website. Check them out for tips, news, and information items. Browse through the Photo to Movie newsletter archive NoticesTo unsubscribe from this list click here. LQ Graphics, Inc., 7172 Regional Street #297, Dublin, CA 94568 Copyright 2011. LQ Graphics, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
