Why is PTE Quality so much better than Photodex

[mightec]

This is a genuine open question.

I have both Photodex ProShow Producer (PSP) and WnSoft PTE BETA#5 and clearly the quality of the finished DVD in PTE is better than PSP, why is this the case?

I would like to use PTE, but a couple of downsides for me is that WnSoft do not operate a Sharing Server, nor can you produce a Flash output.

I have a website but I do not want to have my own server, the reason I am looking for a Flash output is so that I can give potential customers the option to run a slideshow in Flash.

I can of course produce an .avi file in PTE and transfer into PSP, but the quality in PSP deteriorates greatly.

What is the best way to capture a project from PTE so that I can give my potential customers the option I think they will need.

[lyndongrove]

This is a genuine open question.

I have both Photodex ProShow Producer (PSP) and WnSoft PTE BETA#5 and clearly the quality of the finished DVD in PTE is better than PSP, why is this the case?

I would like to use PTE, but a couple of downsides for me is that WnSoft do not operate a Sharing Server, nor can you produce a Flash output.

I have a website but I do not want to have my own server, the reason I am looking for a Flash output is so that I can give potential customers the option to run a slideshow in Flash.

I can of course produce an .avi file in PTE and transfer into PSP, but the quality in PSP deteriorates greatly.

What is the best way to capture a project from PTE so that I can give my potential customers the option I think they will need.

Hi Mike

I too have PSP but since I installed PTE last year I am sticking with it. It is streets ahead of PSP. Why the quality of output should be better i have no idea; maybe the other site experts can answer that.

What i love about PTE is this forum. I spend hours every day browsing through and i have learned so much. I feel like I am getting to know the regular contributors so a very big thanks to you all and keep it going.

Gordon Cochrane

[mightec]

Hello Gordon

I am the same, I am retired so I do have plenty of time, and this forum does fill most of it. I seem to be reading postings more than producing slideshows, although, thanks to The Dom I have just completed a couple of stunning shows using his Photo Album template and Frames Animation. I want to lean more about PTE, I can do the straight forward effects, but I am a lose to know how some others are done. I have been in contact with RayC in New Zealand about the opening effect in JPD's Chantilly show, I would love to know how it is done.

[Igor]

Mike,

Flash output (.flv and .swf with embedded video) in our plans (probably v5.10). Of course, I understand that currently it's impossible and we can't speak about it.

[ksf]

I have seen many examples of slideshows produced in PTE and ProShow and I agree with Mike that the quality of PTE stands out far and above ProShow (Gold or Producer). I can't explain why this should be the case but I wonder if PS applies some form of image compression when it saves a show? Perhaps other more learned members of the forum could shed light on this.

One other thing I would like to know is can you import an effect from PS and use it in PTE?

[Guest Techman1]

IGOR - Flash output (.flv and .swf with embedded video) in our plans (probably v5.10).

Excellent news Igor. I know many of us will look forward to this down the road! This will add the functionality of producing some very nice options for our websites as well as many other uses.

MIKE - clearly the quality of the finished DVD in PTE is better than PSP, why is this the case?

I'm sure Igor can explain the details, but we don't want him giving up the PTE secrets do we!?!?

I believe the reason why PTE is MUCH better is because WnSoft (Igor and Team) have insisted on a quality product all along. While it may take a little longer to market, they won't settle for anything less. Many of the other software developers spend their valuable time on Marketing to make their product look better on the OUTSIDE, while their products are much less on deliverables when you get to using them. I personally am extremely glad that I starting using PTE many years ago and plan on staying with WnSoft. This product is worth much more and yet they have kept the cost way down.

KSF - One other thing I would like to know is can you import an effect from PS and use it in PTE?

Hello, what do you mean by effect? Are you talking about Actions within Photoshop? Are you wanting some type of scripting language incorporated? I'm not sure I understand your question. Please expand!

Take care all and have a great day (and/or evening)!

Fred

[ksf]

Hi Fred,

Yes, sorry my comment was a bit misleading.

I'll try to explain it a bit better: I have seen some fade effects used in ProShow that I have sometimes thought I'd like to use in PTE. For example, what I can best describe as a "windmill sail" or "cheesecake" type of rotating fade. Others being the different variations on the mosaic style of fades.

My question is that as we can cut and paste slide effects from one PTE show to another I wondered if it is possible to copy a fade effect from ProShow and incorporate it into a PTE show? Or is the only way to try and recreate the effect manually within PTE using animated object layers and PNG cutouts etc?

[mightec]

Igor/Keith/Fred

I thank you for your comments, I agree we don't want Igor to disclose his fine details of the workings of PTE, I suppose my original questions was a little naive. I again suppose that I was acknowledging the excellence of PTE.

[Barry Beckham]

PSG and PSP need to have the parameters carefully set as the final show is made or the quality of the output does suffer. There also appears to be a problem with PSG where it appears to work OK for some people, but not others. I have 4 PC's and cannot get smooth animation in PSG on any of them. This is using the new version 3 and in fact I cannot get sweet fade transitions either.

The Photodex boffins took up my query and said they had reproduce the problem on the show I sent them. Their reply was.

That the spec of my machine was not at fault and they will continue to optimise the software so that it runs smoothly on all computers. That seems to me to be quite an admission that the software is not up to the job. Had I bought the software (it was a journalist copy) I would have wanted my money back.

Igor is right to take all the time he needs before launching PTE5 deluxe. While we are all waiting for it, better to wait and have a good product than do what Photodex appear to have done and released something that does not do what is says on the box.

I wanted to produce tutorial DVD's using PSG, but can't do that if my examples are jerky and unprofessional. It has forced me to put it aside until such time as it catches up to PTE

The time line is awful on PSG too

BB

[Lin Evans]

Hi Mike,

There is no reason why you can't convert PTE's AVI output to Flash, I do it all the time. There are a number of good AVI to Flash converters and some are quite inexpensive. If you have a website, you can always post your slideshows there, there is no need for a dedicated server to do this. Long ago I posted many examples of Flash and rather complete information about the differences in Flash SWF and Flash FLV. One thing to keep in mind is that Flash is designed as a way to highly compress information and doing so has its downside as far as image quality is concerned. If you compress sufficiently to make your slideshows amenable to web use, the quality will suffer. If you don't compress greatly then the problem is that the file size is so large it takes a long time to upload and those who don't have the latest broadband connections will have problems playing the shows over the web.

Besides Flash, there are other web formats which are also amenable to use. If there is sufficient interest, I will repeat the content of my posts about how to convert to Flash and other amenable formats and furnish samples.

Best regards,

Lin

Igor/Keith/Fred

I thank you for your comments, I agree we don't want Igor to disclose his fine details of the workings of PTE, I suppose my original questions was a little naive. I again suppose that I was acknowledging the excellence of PTE.

[Ronniebootwest]

Lin Evans

I would be very interested in you older posts on converting flash (SWF) Count me in please.

KSF

I think that KSF is referring to the 'Transition' effects in Pro Show Gold.

However I am of the opinion that the use of to many transitions will often 'kill' the impact of a good slide show.

Ron

[mightec]

Hello Barry and Hi Lin

You will know that I am recent convert, having purchased ProShow Producer 3.0 for $399.00, it is now on its 16th re-build and still doesn't come close to PTE.

Lin - I would also be interested to see your past posting on the subject of converting to Flash. I do have a website but I thought that I would need to use my hosting comapany's server and I believe the cost of storage is quite high, that is why I am looking for some other way of customers being able to download my demo slideshows, etc. I understand that Flash is of lower quality, but everyone seems to have a Flash Player on their PC.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Mike,

Let me just make a couple comments. Storage is dirt cheap. Let me give you an example. My hosting is through 1and1 (very good company). I have 250 gigabytes of file storage space, 2500 (two thousand five hundred) gigabytes per month of transfer bandwidth and this costs me less than $90 per year. You can get 120 gigabytes of storage and 1200 gigabytes of transfer per month for less than $45 per year:

http://order.1and1.com/xml/order/MsHosting...amp;__lf=Static

There is absolutely no reason why anyone who wants to host their own slideshows on their own site should have to worry about storage and expense. As a professional photographer and storing hundreds of slideshows, demos, thousands of images, etc., I haven't even began to use the capacity I have.

I'll begin gathering the data I have put up in the past on Flash and such and get it organized and re-posted. It may take a couple days, but I'll get on it.

Best regards,

Lin

Hello Barry and Hi Lin

You will know that I am recent convert, having purchased ProShow Producer 3.0 for $399.00, it is now on its 16th re-build and still doesn't come close to PTE.

Lin - I would also be interested to see your past posting on the subject of converting to Flash. I do have a website but I thought that I would need to use my hosting comapany's server and I believe the cost of storage is quite high, that is why I am looking for some other way of customers being able to download my demo slideshows, etc. I understand that Flash is of lower quality, but everyone seems to have a Flash Player on their PC.

[mightec]

Hi Lin

Thanks for your advice on storage, I will look into again and see what I come up with. I greatly appreciate you reissuing the posting on Flash, I will be looking forward to it.

[mightec]

Hi Lin

I have been in contact with 1and1 by email and awaiting a reply. I think that I will be going down the route of using an external server for storing my slideshows that can be viewed through my web site. I am now able to handle the Flash side, I am using Swishvideo2, and that seems to working OK. However, the quality is not the same as .exe file. I want to store my ,exe files on the external server, the problem is I am not sure how best to access these. I am looking for some sort of video streaming option, do you have any advise.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Mike,

Unfortunately there is no way for you to have executable quality without actually having your customers run an executable file from their own computers. The overhead is far too large for web streaming.

The way to do it is to zip the executable then simply post a link to it so the user can click on the link, download the zip file and run it (the executable) on their own computer. The other way is to post an AVI or MPEG 2 file which also won't be up to executable standards but is better than Flash. The down side is that there is no streaming technology yet to allow that so the entire file must download to the user's site before playback begins. That could take a long, long time.

Best regards,

Lin

Hi Lin

I have been in contact with 1and1 by email and awaiting a reply. I think that I will be going down the route of using an external server for storing my slideshows that can be viewed through my web site. I am now able to handle the Flash side, I am using Swishvideo2, and that seems to working OK. However, the quality is not the same as .exe file. I want to store my ,exe files on the external server, the problem is I am not sure how best to access these. I am looking for some sort of video streaming option, do you have any advise.

[RayC]

Hi Mike,

Unfortunately there is no way for you to have executable quality without actually having your customers run an executable file from their own computers. The overhead is far too large for web streaming.

The way to do it is to zip the executable then simply post a link to it so the user can click on the link, download the zip file and run it (the executable) on their own computer. The other way is to post an AVI or MPEG 2 file which also won't be up to executable standards but is better than Flash. The down side is that there is no streaming technology yet to allow that so the entire file must download to the user's site before playback begins. That could take a long, long time.

Best regards,

Lin

Hi Lin,

While on the subject of quality of an EXE maybe you could help me out, this problem as only started

within the last month or so, when I make an EXE in PTE the music is very scratchy yet on computer or a DVD in DVD builder it is perfect.

Any help most welcome thanks Lin.

Ray

[Lin Evans]

Hi Ray,

It's difficult to say without looking at the files, but the first thing I would suspect is that perhaps in the conversion from wav to mp3 or such you may have bitrates which are set too low or too high. Have you changed software for converting or are you using mp3's which have worked correctly in the past?

If they have always worked (the same mp3's) then suddenly started having issues, there may be some conflict with other software.

If you could zip up one of the pte projects along with the sound files I would be glad to have a look for you.

Best regards,

Lin

Hi Lin,

While on the subject of quality of an EXE maybe you could help me out, this problem as only started

within the last month or so, when I make an EXE in PTE the music is very scratchy yet on computer or a DVD in DVD builder it is perfect.

Any help most welcome thanks Lin.

Ray

[RayC]

Hi Ray,

It's difficult to say without looking at the files, but the first thing I would suspect is that perhaps in the conversion from wav to mp3 or such you may have bitrates which are set too low or too high. Have you changed software for converting or are you using mp3's which have worked correctly in the past?

If they have always worked (the same mp3's) then suddenly started having issues, there may be some conflict with other software.

If you could zip up one of the pte projects along with the sound files I would be glad to have a look for you.

Best regards,

Lin

Thanks for that Lin but I have sent a Zip file to my Daughter in Uk and it as woked fine, the only problem is when written to CD everthing else is perfect.

I did change to another brand of CD's and thought it may have been that but since have reverted back but still the same problem.

The MP3's I have used before and I use nero to burn them and I have not added or changed anything on my computer

In a long time.

I will try different disks and give that a go.

Thanks anyway if i find a cure will let you know.

Ray

Update:- Lin have found that if I copy EXE files from the Disc to Computer the problem is solved, so would imagine that

its to do with reading from the CD. Thanks for your Time Lin. all the best. Ray