Im not very good at Lateral thinking. Your answer creates more questions for me. if I set the frame rate to a 100 a second, wont that burden the software with a lot more information? Films run at 25 or 24 frames per second normally. I assumed Edit Pro (being digital) could divide that up any way it wanted. Ive a lot to learn, but the last time I synced this showreel up everything worked perfectly, thats why I asked the question. It might be easier to stretch the music, but then it will sound wrong. I'll search for some youtube tutorials before I start meddling proper.

thanks for replying

steve

Hi Steve,

The table that John EB has given is a good reference. Since you mentioned 25fps, then you are likely in PAL land. What that means and using the table, is that the length box will give you minutes, seconds and frames. As John says, there is no fraction of a second, only frames. A frame is the smallest video fraction available. At 25fps, you can't get exactly 5.5s, only 5s + 12 or 13 frames.

You can use timestretching on the audio to fine tune if necessary. Just make sure that pitch doesn't also change.

There is a feature is MEP to determine the beat of a song and automatically modify the length of the images to match the beats. Look this up in the manual. If you do, please report back on how you made out and any problems encountered along the way.

Enjoy!

Hi John....this isnt a VIDEO or film im loading. but individual stills, all entirely seperate and of different subject matter. I understand why the properties box says that frame rate is not applicable. I cant see where to change the frame rate anyway.

Hi

. . . . this isnt a VIDEO or film im loading. but individual stills . . .

Makes no difference - it is the frame rate of the project that controls the accuracy you can get and the units of measurement..

. . . . if I set the frame rate to a 100 a second, wont that burden the software with a lot more information . . . .

No the only time the load becomes relevant is during preview, export or buning a disc when the timeline is converted to video at the projects framerate.

Setting the project to 100fps does not really help for 25 fps video material.  MEP will effectively create each frame 4 x  to give 100fps. If you want that kind of frame accuracy for video then you must shoot at 100 fps. 

For stills there are no frames to start with.  It is only when you preview, export or burn a disc that images get converted to frames of video.

John

Hi Steve,

Further to what John EB indicated, see this answer for PhotoStory. The same applies to MEP.

The frame rate is set when you open MEP or if you change the settings. It is supposed to be set for the media that you use and the output - PAL at 25fps or NTSC at 29.97. Simply, afterthat, you do not touch it.

What you want is for your still images to stay on the screen for a longer or shorter time period. See the link above. This has nothing much to do with the frame rate and you do not touch the frame rate at all.

I thought as much, John C.B. as it turns out I found a time period it WOULD rest on that matched the music, as it turned out 6.1 seconds.....it goes out about halfway but then I just make one frame shorter duration and it catches up.

Still odd it lets me do all manner of fractions of a second, but nothing past 5.28....or 6.28 etc

Sorted!...and thanks!

Hi Steve,

You didn't tell us your location. In Europe, normally PAL at 25 fps is used, whereas in North America, NTSC at 29.97fps is used. It is important to set the correct video setting for your location and to burn to the correct location format. Most DVD players support one or the other, not both. Press on E to get the Project/movie settings and look at the Video settings under the first tab. Note the frame rate. You do not adjust this without understanding what you are doing. As you have found, you do not adjust the frame rate to get an image to appear on the screen for a longer period, you adjust the duration of the image on the timeline.

In your 5.28, which is actually 05:28, the 5 is the seconds and the 28 is the number of frames after 5 seconds. So for a frame rate of 29.97fps, the next one would be frame 29. If you type in 30 for the frames and press enter, the duration box will automatically adjust to 06:00, meaning 6 seconds and 0 frames. Remember, it is minutes:seconds:frames. Since NTSC at 29.97 fps is a fraction, things don't work exactly as you might expect. You can calculate the number of frames by multiplying whole seconds by 29.97. 5 seconds gives 149.85 frames. Since you can't have a portion of a frame, you would actually have 150 frames, meaning that the clip would be slightly longer than 5 seconds. 6 seconds gives 179.82 frames, which means 180 frames and slightly longer than 6 seconds. 

If you are using PAL, then you should not get 05:28, only 24. 25 would become 06 seconds. If you are on PAL and you get 28 frames, then your set up is probably wrong. It should be PAL at 25fps.

The program does not let you do all manner of fractions of a second, only frames.