I want to make a presentation with lots of video tracks

If you have two or more consecutive videos, why not just edit them all together so they're one video file?

Also, I don't know about Keynote's abilities in that respect. I've dealt with video in Keynote presentations before, and I had to end up just sort of settling with how it worked. Perhaps PowerPoint would work better.

Here's an idea for you...
Try PVP (ProVideoPlayer)

It's dead easy to use, it's solid as a rock and it will do exactly what you are describing.

You can have individual clips looping as long as you like, you can even have them loop in tandem.
You can choose simple cross dissolves between clips, or have each one fade to black in/out.

I've never been impressed with Keynote's video capabilities either, although it beats the crap out of PowerPoint.

If you can't do what you need with PVP, then I suggest you look for VJ software such as Arkaos, or Resolume Avenue. (Likely OVERKILL for what you need)

Treatment

Why not just edit your clips to a fast tempo in you're editing software. Does one need all these additional software to present on screen to make a presentation which is enjoyable to watch?.
I might be missing the point here.

isifoo said:

Hi,
I need to make a presentation that will use lot of video clips
Every couple of clips made in after effects as
1. Short intro
2. Loop video
that I want to use keynote or any other software that can play them seamlessly in a way that there's a smooth transition between the two files..not a lot to ask for
So far I've tried building it in keynote and it doesn't do smooth transition between two slides, and also there's a black solid shown for a half a second between every transition.
I also tried adobe encore which making a DVD folder and that didnt come out seamless.
Any ideas will be very grateful

Tnx

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The VJ software suggestion from treatment is excellent. I don't know any of it off hand but suspect you'll find the solution there. Aside from that...

You might try VLC. I've just done a test and it looks like a hard cut between clips in a playlist, but no delay, freezes, or flashes of black. Then make the first second or so of each next clip a dissolve from the previous background to your new video, the background jump will probably be negligible.

If you really need it to be that seamless and easy, there are also hardware devices that are designed to push from one clip to the next on cue. I use them at work all the time for everything from editing sports highlights to playing back backgrounds for awards shows. Hopefully if your project is that demanding, you have a decent budget to go with it and can rent one. Yeah, it's massive overkill, but if you're putting on a presentation where you just can't have a half second of frozen video while the DVD searches to the next chapter, suddenly a dedicated hardware box looks more appealing.

All wonderful advice but our friend who started the thread gives us no clue in what editing software he uses.
I think giving advice without knowing what software he is using. I personally think all those people who spend there time giving advice should take note.

ibennetch said:

If you really need it to be that seamless and easy, there are also hardware devices that are designed to push from one clip to the next on cue. I use them at work all the time for everything from editing sports highlights to playing back backgrounds for awards shows. .

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Out of curiosity, can you enlighten me on some name brands for what you describe? I know Matrox has some pretty nifty stuff, but I'm certainly curious, as my shows require this kind of thing.

Treatment

Thank you. Personally I would have no idea regards the iPad generation. My wife has got one and she loves it.
Hope you get results.

I was also thinking "Renewed Vision products!" as I read the OP's first post and the follow-on responses. My church uses ProPresenter for this type of task. It is designed primarily for displaying song lyrics over top of a background (which can be video or still image, your choice). This is typically usage for churches and concerts where the audience wants to sing together with the band, but has all kinds of other overlapping uses as well. I use it instead of Keynote or PowerPoint sometimes for certain scenarios.

Keynote and PowerPoint (and the suggestion of editing the clips into a movie) are designed for very well-rehearsed presentations with a strict slide order and timing. ProVideoPlayer and ProPresenter are designed for situations where the timings (or even the choice of which slides you are showing!) might be unknown or inexact, in a live setting, and you want the transitions to be as seamless as possible.

This sort of VJ software's typical usage scenario is: you're doing a live presentation, you have a bunch of slides or images or video clips, you may or may not end up skipping certain elements or cut them short or run them longer (looped), you may be asked to go back to a slide or skip over some slides. Some even support impromptu "emergency" messages ("The owner of the red Civic parked in the fire lane, please move your car") or correcting of your slides in real-time (fixing spelling errors that you spot in the next slide, while the audience is still viewing the current one). But above all, whatever you are doing, you must transition seamlessly between them.

The biggest downside is that PVP and ProPresenter are very expensive ($400-500 as I recall), as they are rather specialized apps with less mass appeal than Keynote or PP. They are priced for institutional purchase, e.g. you or I wouldn't buy this for ourselves but your school or church or band might buy a copy for their AV room PC.

treatment said:

Out of curiosity, can you enlighten me on some name brands for what you describe? I know Matrox has some pretty nifty stuff, but I'm certainly curious, as my shows require this kind of thing.

Treatment

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The industry standard for what I do is EVS. Grass Valley used to have the Profile (which may or may not be easy to rent anymore; I haven't seen one in the wild in several years but they used to be an industry standard for high profile playback) and now Grass has various forms of their K2 server as well.

isifoo said:

I should have been more clean.
All clips come out of Adobe After Effects. So clips and loops are very accurate.
The main objective is to have this video presentation run on the iPad
That is why Keynote is the starting point. The VJ software is a good solution but very expensive(300£) for the budget, and also the new hardware solution.

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There is an app the we use all the time for ipad presentations. Its Kiosk Pro Plus (~$30). You can load up a video and set is as the "screen saver" and have it loop. (has to be 1 large file) then disbale the touch screen in the settings and your good to go.