Igor

Unfortunately it's not our mistake. NVIDIA video cards don't have this problem. This problem happens only on ATI video cards. They just ignore gamma settings in fullscreen 3D mode that we use now for slide shows. I discussed very long time with ATI and they confirmed that this problem exists and they said me that they can't quickly solve it. Maybe only in new fully re-written drivers for Windows Vista. There will be two solution for this problem that we can suggest (in the nearest beta versions): 1) Use second CPU based graphical engine (that works like v4.48). But Pan/Zoom effect will work very slowely. (Project options of PicturesToExe) 2) Or use hardware accelleration, but without "Vertical synchronization of a display" option (in Project options of PicturesToExe). Pan effect in this mode will not look so ideally smooth as with vertical synchronization.

I'm really sorry, Guido! But we had many unexpected difficulties. Aleksey and I - main programmers/developers of v5.00 Sergey is working on DVD Builder for PicturesToExe Deluxe. And two programmers (Pavel and Artem) are writing various parts of code for PTE.

Road to final release of v5.00 Beta #8 Due to optimization rendering of video will work in 2 times faster for slide shows without Pan/Zoom effects. DVD Builder as part of PicturesToExe Deluxe almost ready. We solved all important problems with compatibility and now PicturesToExe Deluxe creates 100% compliant DVD-Video discs. Small improvements. Full compatibality with Windows Vista of main PicturesToExe. (Slide shows already fully compatible with Windows Vista) I should say that it was very difficult to fix various visual bugs. It's totally another Windows and I'm afraid many programs will have same problems. Beta #9 We fully finished second CPU based graphical engine which will be automatically used on PCs that don't have modern video cards. This second graphical engine works exactly with same speed and quality as v4.48 So Fade effect, Circle, Line, Hour hand and other effects work very well as usually and you will able to produce slide shows that work anywhere. Now we're working on all modes of sound synchronization and all related features. Also you will able to control show of slides (Left/Right key arrows). Windowed mode. Beta #10-11 - Navigation bar; - Buttons, hyperlinks, text objects with real shadow as in DVD Builder menu or in Adobe Photoshop; - Textured background; - Importing of objects from old v4.48 projects; - Support of EXIF rotated JPEGs; - Adjusting of speeds for Pan/Zoom/Rotate objects. And that's all - final release of v5.00 At this moment we hope that it will be ready in 2-3 months.

Hans, Glad to see you again! I hope you'll like new v5.00 beta

Dear friends, I very need in your help with deleting of spam messages. Every day I should check up the forum several times to removes 2-5 spam messages. And however spam messages are visible from several hours up to a half of a day. If two-three known members agree help us, please write here. No other functions or control of discussions/members. And no special work, no obligations, just deleting of *obvious* spam when you found it.

By default version 5.00 installs to another folder and creates new shortcut in Start menu. So it should not damage earlier installed v4.48

There is no absolute protection, of course. Any protection can be hacked if necessary. So there is no reason make strong protection. Slide show doesn't put cookie. We use recommended by Microsoft places to keep expiration information. No potentially dangerous ways as some other programs do.

John, We completely re-worked DVD burning. Please wait for the next public beta.

Thanks! Lin, Al, Interesting slide show! I like stars and galaxies very much

Dominique, What amazing demo! I don't deserve such excellent work We all thank you.

Thanks, friends! But I never drink vodka, sorry

Fred, Thank you for excellent ideas about using of projector at home and in education!

John, We remember about this feature, but in PicturesToExe it is a subject of future versions.

Ken, I suspect one possible reason of this slowing down, I'll one my idea in the next beta #8 The reason is management of threads of CPU. Because DVD Builder generates DVD and PicturesToExe renders video for DVD Builder - they work together. Please let me know two additional moments: 1) When DVD Builder is encoding DVD do you work on PC in other programs? Or are there some programs that work in background with significant loading of CPU (more than 20%)? 2) If you have another product for DVD Authoring try to add AVI file and please let me know time of encoding DVD. I think you can use more short slide show, say 30 seconds and compare DVD Builder and AVI. If in both cases time of encoding DVD will be same, it means that we need to optimize rendering of video. If another product will encode DVD much more quickly than our DVD Builder - this problem we'll fix in the next beta. Thank you for patience and I hope that with your help we'll solve this problem soon!

Really strange, almost modern video card! And a very good CPU.

Ken, Please remind me what video card you have installed in your PC and what CPU? I'm afraid high quality rendering works very slowely on old video cards and probably I'll use second graphical engine (CPU based) on such systems. On my Geforce 6800 creating of 4 minutes DVD-Video discs takes 12 minutes. Our high quality rendering gives similar quality as Bicubic resizing in Adobe Photoshop.

Sorry for late response! I received all your emails. We're discussing this problem and searching for ways. I'll write you in 1-2 days, because I need to think more about this problem. Thanks for your patience,

After these problems we've choosed another DVD library which creates DVD folder and menu. As we found many coompanies use this new commercial library and I hope it will produce fully compliant DVD discs. Speed of rendering depends on video card. For example Geforce 7600 PCI-E may render video in 10 times faster than Geforce 2 AGP. Also we render video with highest quality and many filters of post processing. So it takes additional time. http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5053 But in the next betas I'll add several optimizations to speed up rendering.

Yes, it's inverted horizontally. But I just found that projector allows to compensate it in the settings. The background of picture should be black that becomes invisible in this second projection.

Please look at attached schema This second tree is not projected on wall, but located in the middle of the room (in the space)

Having rest at weekend I did several funny experiments with my LCD projector, PicturesToExe and large glass of wardrobe You can see these "holograms" over room in true 3D space when watching through glass (but not directly to projector and glass doesn't cross the ray of projector) In case of two glasses it looks better especially if watch stars and galaxies as on this photo. Especially impressive I found "Chariots of Fire" slide show, and Star Wars titles.

In the next beta #8 slide show and editor will work on any video card (but slowely without hardware accelleration). There is an unpleasant problem on Matrox G400/450/500 cards. In latest drivers they just don't support several main functions of DirectX and because of this slide show and editor can't use hardware accelleration on your system. But old drivers dated by 2002 works fine. It's a exceptionally strange thing that I didn't expect from Matrox and they also ignored our letter.

Please visit main menu | View | Advanced to change behavior of Video button: - Create AVI (as in previous betas and versions) - Create DVD - Dialog window with two buttons (now in beta #7)

Dimitri, Thank you for your suggestions! In v5.00 we use lossless re-compression of PNG and BMP because in our format re-packed PNG images load in two times faster that really necessary for slide show. Please use PNG or BMP format if you need to have lossless quality of images. Other lossless formats like Jpeg 2000 takes a lot of CPU time to load such image that not acceptable for slide show purpose. I did many test and found that better compression in Jpeg2000 required more CPU resources. Previous v4.48 supports WMA format. Current v5.00 beta temporarily doesn't support but will do it in nearest beta versions.

Rainer, 1280x720 is not DVD-Video. So we don't suggest this resolution in this version. When war between HD-DVD vs. Blue-Ray will be finished, we'll add support of HD video (1280x720, 1920x1080) in DVD Builder. In AVI video output we support all HD resolutions in v5.00 beta