I’ve just completed my first video using LRTimelapse, and although I have yet to finish the book and absorb all the necessary information, there’s one thing that’s been bothering me now for some time.

The quality of the timelapse is not in question. Considering I shot in Program Mode (before I’d read the book) the final *.mp4 is really very good and I’m happy with the near DVD quality of the mp4 that’s exported from Lightroom 4.

Where the problem lies is with the conversion I get from Vimeo. I upload near DVD quality and after conversion to Flash Movie, it looks as if I had shot it on a camera phone. It really is that bad. I’ve uploaded two movies before and each time I’ve deleted them, hoping that eventually I can find an answer to the problem

On this occasion however, I’ve been given an error message.

>>>>>>>>

I uploaded a 16:9 (widescreen) video but Vimeo squished it to 4:3, what gives?
Vimeo uses square pixels when converting your video. You will need to export your videos with square pixels and manually set your aspect ratio to 853x480 for widescreen DV, or 1280x720 for high definition. Read our Compression Guidelines for more information.

>>>>>>>>>

The thing is, I did carefully read the compression guidelines and followed all the instructions very carefully. I exported from Lightroom 4 in 1280 x 720, and 720p in the save dialogue box, but as there are no other options, I’m not too sure on how to proceed from here. Also, I’ve also exported from Lightroom 4 as 1290 x 1080 but that didn’t make the situation any better, and as Vimeo complained about the size I went back to using the 720p setting.

How can I improve on the poor quality I’m getting from Vimeo and YouTube. (I went to Vimeo because of the very poor quality I got from YouTube. I had hoped that by paying a fee to Vimeo it might improve the quality of the playback video. So far it hasn’t. Although the LRTimelapse is marked improvement over my previous attempts.)

The Video on question is Here

Any suggestions?

Are you sure you used the LRTimelapse Lightroom templates when exporting (green) and not those provided by Lightroom itself (red)?

[Image: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2088648/web/img/lrt-exp.jpg]

This post was last modified: 2013-01-22, 21:55 by Motorised.

        Hello Gunther

I don't have access to the dialogue box as shown in your screenshot. I've imported your templates satisfactorily, but in the export/save dialogue box the options you show in your screenshot are not available. See screenshots...

It seems that the video export presets are not correctly installed.
Please download them from http://lrtimelapse.com/download
and install like I describe here:
http://forum.lrtimelapse.com/Thread-how-...ee-and-pro

This post was last modified: 2013-01-23, 10:39 by Motorised.

    Gunther, that's exactly what I did.

I installed the templates exactly as you explained in the first place.

I followed your instructions very carefully and have done it again, just in case I made a mistake the first time. And, no I didn't make a mistake.

I installed the pro templates that came as part of the package with the commercial licence I bought. After spending all that money you can't expect me not to take what you say seriously. I can assure you I have followed your instructions explicitly.

It seems to me that Adobe have moved the goal posts with version 4.3 and now we've got broken api's.

Just to reiterate. I deleted the templates from the list, and re-installed them again, following the same procedure that I used originally, and the outcome is the same. Just to show you that I've got the correct path to the Slideshow Templates folder, I'll include a screenshot.

Yes the slideshow templates are there, but those are the ones you see on the left of the slideshow module. What you don't see is the video-templates, the should be in:

C:\Users\****\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Video Presets\User Presets

Please check if they are present.

I can confirm you there are no broken apis with 4.3. I'm certainly using that version as well.

This post was last modified: 2013-01-23, 13:59 by Motorised.

Gunther, I’ve got it. Thank you for your perseverance.

As I’m just starting out on my Time-lapse journey and I’ve still got a very long way to go, no doubt there’s a chance I shall be needing your help again. So I am indeed very grateful to you for your help and assistance.

I’ve now finished the book so all that’s left is to get on with it, and to see what I can do. Thankfully you’ve made my task all that much easier. I’m certainly very impressed with your expertise and the enormous effort you’ve put into building the program and the unselfish way you’ve passed on your knowledge to others, so they may benefit from your hard work.

I am sincerely grateful to you for all you’ve done. It’s simply a marvellous achievement and you have every reason to be very proud of yourself.

Once again, thank you for your time and trouble.

Chris Carson

Thank you Christ, for your words! I'm glad we could get you up and running!