LumenLux

Thank you Ken and nobeefstu. That clarifies some of the issues. One aspect still confuses. I have indeed set in Irfanview, the extensions that it should be the default program for. For most chosen extensions, I can click on the file and Irfanview will open and display or play or whatever. However, for mpeg video files that does not work. If I simply click on the video file, Irfanview opens itself to full screen and the entire display area is filled with rapidly flashing multi-colored horizontal lines. The only way I can use Irfanview to play the mpg video is by going to Options/open multimedia player/ and then loading the mpg file. Can you try this and see if you have the same situation? I had previously read something on the Irfanview site that led me to believe I could click-n-play without having to open Irfanview and then the MM Player and then load the file. I'm editing this post to also mention, if I use Irfanview "normally" to play the PTE-produced .avi, only the audio plays. If I use Irfanview/options/multimedia plug-in/ both audio and video play. And I am once again impressed by the quality of avi produced by PTE.

This avi "tip" has to do with using Ulead Video Factory2 with PTE. I dl'd and installed the Ulead 30 day trial version on November 24. Today, December 3, the trial version has expired! Surprised as I was, I am even more surprised at the FAQ I now find on Ulead site: Q: After installing the trial version, it expired even before the 15 or 30 days allotted for the trial period was reached. How can I continue to try it? A: We are sorry to tell you that you cannot continue to try the program unless you reinstall the Windows system or install it on another machine. Please do not try to change the system date and time to extend the trial period. It will cause the trial version to expire immediately. There must be more to this story, that someone can explain to me?

Actually Dana, I've been anxiously waiting for you to do it with Studio 8 - so you could teach me how. I really don't know Studio 8, but when I tried it to produce a PTE SVCD, I received the same messages you found for making a real DVD. But I have confidence that you will figure out how to do it with Studio 8. (Other members have made SVCD using Pinnacle's expression. I have not tried that as I thought Studio 8 was the more likely choice.)

The new PTE avi feature has me looking more closely at Irfanview function. Although I have used Irfanview for a long time, I find there are undoubtably simple things I don't understand. Any help here would be appreciated. Initially, when I tried Irfanview to run a PTE avi file, I experienced sound only. Now I see in Irfanview that I can open the irfanview Player and that will indeed show video and sound of the PTE produced avi. But from reading the help info in Irfanview, it appears there may be a way to use a plugin so that it would be unnecessary to open the Irfanview Player. I would like to simply click on the PTE produced avi file and have Irfanview be the default player that would open and run the avi file. Related question. When downloading Irfanview I always download the "All Plugins" file for Irfanview. But how do I install the plugins? Do you need to install individually any of the plugins you desire to use? If so, I click on a selected plugin (.dll) but I get the old "open with" dialog. I can't tell if the plugins actually are activated. Maybe if no one else knows, guru can appear and explain how this should work.

Harry, there may be concerns with SVCD as to which DVD players will play them. BUT, concerning quality of picture - SVCD is much, much superior to VCD. SVCD from PTE can be very good. See Michel's comments as well.

Ken, coming from your photographic background, you will certainly appreciate a great leap in quality when you compare SVCD to your good results with VCD. (Or have you already made SVCD?) I agree with Dana that I would never waste another minute with VCD, but I surprised myself with the quality of the PTE to SVCD result.

Anyone using or know about the external DVD burners by TDK?

RayPar and DanaB - did you get your computer labs put back together yet? I am eagerly awaiting your experience and advice on PTE implementation to DVD/SVCD. Also, anyone who would like to give advice on DVD burners. I think that will likely become a important topic for many of us who have not yet taken the plunge.

I 'm with you boys. Now if I just had anything more worth adding at this point, I'd bring it here. Also, nobeefstu, that is an interesting observation.

Hi Joy. As far as I know, there is no reason to convert to .mpg if you only want to play your shows on PC's. If you want to play them on a DVD player (as DVD or CVD or SVCD), then you have to convert them to other formats. I think .avi files must be converted to .mpg before they will play in a DVD player. Igor's latest innovation produces the .avi file if you select the process. Then external software can take the avi file into mpg formats that are then burned to disk for DVD players. The .mpg file is also considerably smaller than .avi. (I hope this is all correct. )

Welcome Aspectslink. You have jumped into this forum at a time where Igor's latest Beta version of PTE has created a lot of excitement. The new excitement is the feature to be able to use PTE to make presentations that can play on many DVD players. But this excitement may have confused you? The original and (always improving) main point of PTE is the ability to present very high quality photos, with sound, on computers by simply running the .exe file. No reader or player needs to be installed on the viewers computer. It can be exciting and potentially handy to be able to play on a DVD/TV a show that previously could only be played on a computer. Igor has done amazing work with PTE and the latest DVD/SVCD capability is no exception. But ONLY if you need the non-PC playback feature, do you have to mess with .avi or .mpg etc. The new TV viewing is much better than ever before, it is not equal quality to viewing your shows on your decent pc monitor. Enjoy!

Alan, is your Win Media Player up to date? My default avi player is Irfanview, which on the PTE produced avi, will play sound only. But on same avi (with PTE "finish" not pushed), the Windows Media Player plays sound and picture just fine.

I can easily agree with you both. Any real show I intend, I prep the pix first in outside editor. But there are times where I am experimenting with PTE and find myself avoiding using photos that I have to go out to rotate.

Yes, Harry you can preview before you burn. You can first preview your PTE show as you always have. Then, you push the avi button on PTE main screen. When the conversion to .AVI is done, a little pop-up box informs you to use whatever external software that will burn you a VCD, SVCD or DVD. As long as you leave that pop-up box open, the .avi file which you just created can be previewed by Windows Media Player or many other players. My brief experience (see PTE video to disks for TV) is that the actual burned SVCD plays much smoother than the avi file that I reviewed prior to actually burning.

Thank you Tom for your experience. I now have some more experience myself, but it's a bad sign when I am the only one responding to myself. Tired of fiddling (for now), I too dl'd Ulead Video Factory 2 (30 day trial). First try, easy interface, ran like a pro. Using my original posted PTE show, It's Not About the Fish, PTE 420B2 created the avi file from the existing project file. Video Factory knew exactly what to do with it when I checked the box for SVCD. The conversion/burn took about 30 minutes and the show plays just under five minutes I think. I am totally impressed with the quality Igor has brought to this SVCD medium. Prior to seeing this, I had always convinced myself to simply wait for true DVD burning. But seriously, I think this SVCD is good enough for many, probably most, uses. As for the actual number of DVD players that will play the SVCD, hope we will also hear some number of experiences.

Igor, the avi function (PTE codec) seems to run just fine within PTE. Then, leaving PTE open, I try Pinnacle Studio to make SVCD. No matter what I try, Studio error tells me "The selected clip has non-standard Video Frame Rate thus cannot be encoded to MPEG" I can make SVCD with other avi files, but not with the avi file made by PTE. Can you or I do something to make it work?

Maybe this new topic can focus one aspect of the many threads now going on PTE to dvd players. Igor has indeed recommended Ulead as a high quality necessary link. It may be what many of us end up using - especially if it does produce a noticably better quality. But as Rick stated, many of us would like to try the possibilities we already own or find freeware or shareware. Maybe one is even better than Ulead. I suggest as each of us try various back-ends for the PTE produced .avi we can help each other by posting both successful and non-successful experiences. My own experience so far has been with Pinnacle's Studio 8 to produce SVCD disk. I think someone has been successful with other Pinnacle products, but has anyone produced a PTE-SVCD using Studio 8? If you have, please share how. I admittedly don't know Studio 8 very well, but it appears I should be able to use Studio to take the PTE .avi file to MPEG for the SVCD. The way I have tried, Studio gives me a message The selected clip has non-standard Video Frame Rate thus cannot be encoded to MPEG. I think I might be able to try the alternate codecs but will not Igor's proprietary combination likely be better if I can make it work?

I think Cindy, it is not automatic. Bill personally views each show before posting. He probably does it each night if he can. There have been cases though where it is hard to be sure the upload was successful. If you did get the screen confirming the successful upload, it is probably just a matter of a few hours (til evening?) and Bill will have it posted and promoted to the list of eagerly waiting viewers like myself.

So Dana, if a user burns any svcd, dvd, etc. with the finish button not yet pressed, the burning process takes the capability of the open PTE with it onto the DVD? If the above is true, would it not also be possible for the avi itself to contain the necessary capability. As you have pointed out, that might have drawbacks, but such an option would allow us to more readily assess the avi before committing it to the permanent medium?

Ray, my brief experience has yielded similar situations. I tried to pin down the behavior but did not come up with the solution. It may be a matter of what we do or perhaps don't have already on our machines. Igor will either solve it or perhaps point out that I am not using the system correctly. Or maybe someone else has come up with the answer. I was trying to just test the avi before trying to burn an SVCD. If you burn a true DVD with your (video deprived) avi, does the DVD have only the sound?

Ron, Thanks for sharing the Raglan scene. Very sharp pictures. I always enjoy the glimpses of the world that members of this forum share. Thank you for this one.

Thanks Bart for posting the show. It is always nice when one of the old timers gets a chance to actually use the program. We are all so wowed with Igor's wonderful program and users talents that sometimes we don't really have time or we forget to to have the fun of just putting a show together and feeling a little satisfaction. Which reminds me Bart, doesn't Guido still have a promise on the table for a show for us to enjoy? I know he is swamped, but for his lurking pleasure I throw out this reminder for when he gets a moment for diversion.

What a well done show and custom sound track.

Yes, welcome Mido. Al's post made me curious, so I had to read your profile also. Did you join the forum as the best route to Michel? I hope we will also see some of your photo or artistic talent too. Knowing the very good taste that Michel has, we have to assume you are of the same high quality.

You have done very good work with this demo. It shows well. The two of you make a good team on this one. I was going to say it ran perfectly, but then there was a quirk on my machine. I started at the first and ran each option to and including the "full screen" option. The phone rang so I left the show running on the end of the full screen, waiting to push "return." When I came back 15 minutes later, the show would return to the menu but any option I chose would bring up the appropriate background slide but the flash (I presume) portion would not work. I could continue to go back and forth to any choice but no flash would display. I escaped out of the program and then ran it again. It did run perfectly through all the choices in any order. Would I use such capability. I don't know. You say it is "simple" to do, but I don't know. I might like to try it to see what I could learn and do. On the other hand, it may over present for some presentations. I mean, some display of simply photos may seem overshadowed by such flashy presentation. But that is what is also great about PTE. If great features are available they can be used by those who do find a need or desire for them. I think it is great that there is always someone pushing the horizons with PTE. I'm sure I'd enjoy shows where you use such techniques. But depending on the show, I might enjoy it just as much without all the fancy. Conclusion: great work guys. And with so many things, opening the door may bring forth more ideas and sometimes things that seem at first only a novelty, end up becoming frequently used essentials. "What would I do with that?" sometimes ends up "How did I ever do without it?"