goddi

Greetings, I have been successful in making an HD file with one of the previous 5.6Beta versions. I just tried to make an HD file with a new slideshow with Beta4 and I am not sure if it is working as it should. This show has about 90 slides and 2 music files (about 44mb). I get the Progress Window and it shows the audio extracting going but then I see all Done's and then only the Elapsed Time meter going. I attached an image of what the progress window looks like. I let it run for almost 3 hours but then I stopped it since it did not seem it was really doing anything. A similar show (maybe a bit smaller) only took 10 minutes before. Is 3 hours too short to wait or should the progress window be telling me something more that it is? Gary

================= Greetings, I have been reading all of the "original mode" postings and have been trying to understand them, without much luck. When I read JPD's postings, I think my head exploded. I have always used the default setting, "fit to slide" so I have no experience using "original mode" and don't really comprehend why it is useful. I would appreciate if someone could give me a very simply and as non-technical explanation as possible why and when someone needs it. I am trying not to be too dense but I am missing something. I think it has to do with playing the show on a PC or projector that would have a different screen size than the original, but it escapes me what the problem is and what the solution is when all of you are saying we need the "original mode". Many thanks in advance if someone can educate me... Gary

================ Peter, Your above post made me just learn something and resolve another confusing menu item. Customize slide When I see this menu item, it has always made me think that I have to customize one slide at a time. I now see from Peter's comments above that if I highlight a bunch of slides, I can apply the customization to a group of slides all at one time. So...my suggestion to clarify this is to change name to Customize slide(s). This would let a user know that he can customize more than one slide at a time. Gary

Igor... Main menu's Slide vs. Slide List's right-click menu items. Here is one suggestion that I have not see mentioned before. It has always been a confusing menu setup. The Slide choice at the main menu level has only some of the menu items that you find when you right-click on a slide in the Slide List. And some of the menu items that you see when you right-click on a slide in the Slide List appear in the Slide choice in the main menu level. I think that all of the choices you have when you would right-click on a slide in the Slide List should be in the Slide main menu list. This would make it easier for a new user to find such menu items as Start Preview from the current slide. And upon further thought, shouldn't the menu items in the Slide menu affect only the slides in the Slide List, as opposed to the slides in the Directory List? If so, the name of Slide in the main menu level should be changed to Slide List and all actions should be directed to only the Slide List. Gary

Igor... Rename Synchronize Music and Slides. This is a confusing menu item. Not use exactly what the best way to rename it, but here is one suggestion: Keep music spread over Slide List when 'Start Preview From The Current Slide' is used. Gary

Set Defaults button: I have put this in the New Ideas forum but it really is a confusing button: Currently, when in Project Options, the Set Defaults button resets every setting you have made in every tab back to the default settings. (Peter pointed out that there can be Factory Defaults and User Template Set Defaults. This needs to be addressed too). I suggest that the Set Defaults button be changed to Set All Defaults and a second button, Set This Tab's Defaults Only, be added so that it will only reset the setting in the tab the user is currently in. (Not sure how to handle Peter's Factory Defaults and User Template Set Defaults). Gary

Igor... (For the current Beta 561) Here is one of the confusing buttons of PTE that has bothered me from my first use of the program: Set for existing slides The button Set for existing slides is in the Main, Comments and Screen tabs. When I see this button, I ask myself, "...existing slides?...what other slides could it be for?". Redundant? It makes me think I have a choice of existing slides vs. maybe one slide. I suggest that it should be changed to Update Project. This tells me that after I input my choices, the entire project will be updated when I press the Update Project button. Also, in the Screen Tab's Additional Options section, separate the 3 possible actions with thin lines. The Color outside slide area does not need the existing Set for existing slides button to be pressed. So Color... needs to be separated from the other choices that need the Set for existing slides to be pressed. And, by the way, I can not figure out what Color outside slide area does, as opposed to the choice for setting the Background, in the same tab. What's the difference??? Gary

================= Igor... Just for clarification, if we have already posted a suggestion in the "Ideas...for next version" forum, do you want us to restate and consolidate them here, or only new, different ideas? Thanks... Gary

Greetings, With Beta2, I successfully created a 3 minute HD video at SD(800x600), low quality. Worked out just fine. Then, I just tried creating a 15 minute HD video at HD(1280x720), high quality. Work out just fine, too. Looks great. When I play the SD(800x600) version in Quicktime, I see the entire video on my PC's screen. However, when I play the HD(1280x720) on my PC's screen, the top and the bottom are cut off. No matter what View I choose. I am trying to understand if this is what is to be expected. They were both created at 4:3 PC/DVD. Is this what is causing this problem? Do I have to create the original exe at something different than 4:3? If this is true, can someone give me an explanation about this? Thanks... Gary

Igor... This is not a bug but just a suggestion: Would it be possible to put the 'preset' that has been chosen for HD encoding in the progress window? After it has been running for over an hour, I forget what I set it at. It would be nice to have reassurance what I am encoding at. This is especially helpful when I am testing various 'presets'. Thanks... Gary P.S. Can any of the mp4 HD Video presets be played on a DVD player? The SD I first tried would not play.

================== I used to have the ACE pack installed but it gave me a problem that I just can not remember now. I dumped it. So it is interesting that the 'Homecinema' version worked. Gary

================== Ken... I had downloaded the 'Media Player Classic Homecinema' from the Sourceforge site, I got the V1.1.604.0. It plays the mp4 just fine. After seeing your link, which looked like a more recent version, I downloaded the V6.4.9.1. However, it is called 'Media Player Classic (no 'Homecinema') and it DOES NOT play the video part of the mp4, only the music. Below is the first part of an error message: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - E:\PTE-2004 France Soaring\France-Soaring.mp4::GPAC ISO Video Handler Media Type 0: Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 800x600 AM_MEDIA_TYPE: majortype: MEDIATYPE_Video {73646976-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71} subtype: Unknown GUID Name {31637661-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71} formattype: FORMAT_MPEG2_VIDEO {E06D80E3-DB46-11CF-B4D1-00805F6CBBEA} bFixedSizeSamples: 1 bTemporalCompression: 0 lSampleSize: 1 cbFormat: 164 ....etc. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Are you sure your version works with mp4's??? Gary Added later... here is where I found the 'Homecinema' version: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=170561

========= DaveG... Yes, the only player that I can get to play the mp4 is QuickTime and the player Igor recommended, Media Player Classic HomeCinema. I like this Media Player Classic because the slideshow starts by itself and the last slide stays opened at the end of the show. I also tried WinAmp and it will only play the music part, not the video. Gary

================== Igor... I just tried the Beta 2. Tried the Create HD Video at the low settings. Super!!! I got the very nice progress bar. I played the mp4 file and it looked terrific. Thanks. It took about 10 minutes to encode a 3 minute show to an mp4. I am impressed that the size of the mp4 is just a bit larger than the exe file. The original exe file is 17.7mb. The mp4 is about 20.4mb. An AVI of the same show is 192mb, and not nearly as sharp as the mp4. I'll keep poking around with the new Beta. Nice work... Thanks Gary

=========== Peter, I might see the tip of the iceberg, but you guys catch the details. Good points. I hope Igor can tweak the program. Gary

Gary, Thanks! That's important info. By the way, could you please check up "old" feature - Create AVI file and then click Preview button. Will it work? ====================== Igor... Great. I tried the Create AVI in the 'special' Beta and it worked just fine. The 20 second Preview tool 1:49 minutes to make and it played perfectly. Glad to be of help. Gary

============= Igor... I installed the test beta program and tried to Create the HD video again. I chose the lowest settings. However, again, no progress window and got similar "not responding..." notes in the Windows Task Manager. Also, when I try to open MyComputer, the icon depresses and the hourglass appears but it will not open. I had to reboot by PC. Same thing happened in prior Beta version. Something else strange happened. It might just be a coincidence, but, when I rebooted, my Firefox would not start and I got a "Crash" window from Firefox and it will still not open. I had to open another version of Firefox that I happened to have on my PC. I am attaching the VideoBuilder.log. I had to zip the file to upload it. Gary VideoBuilder.zip

====================== Igor and Sergev... Correct. When I opened a project, choose "Create HD Video...", I choose "Convert", it looks like it starts the encoding and I get an icon "Creating..." in my Tray, but nothing seems to be happening. (I tried HD-low; SD 800x600). When I look in the Windows Task Manager, I get "Not responding" to Videobuilder and Creating HD Video... . I am attaching screen prints of its Applications window and the Processes window (2 files, top part and bottom part). I tried the Create AVI and it worked just fine. Specs: Windows XP Pro; Svc Pack 2 NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 (256megs) Processor=3mhg Ram=2Gigs. Gary Applications.doc Processes1.doc Processes2.doc

=========== I was trying a 3-minute show. Each time I tried the HD Video choice, I'd check the Windows Task Manager and it would show '...not responding'. I think the Create AVI was working. I got the progress window but I stopped it after a few minutes. Gary

Igor... With the Beta, I tried to Create an 'HD Video...', an 'AVI...' and a 'UTube...' and each time nothing really happened. I could see an icon for the Create function in the Tray but nothing seemed to be going on. When I did a Ctrl-Alt-Del, each time I would see '...not responding' to the PTE function. Are these supposed to be active in this Beta??? It seemed to be using up all the resources of my PC (Windows XP) because other functions like MyComputer would not come up. Had to reboot to get everything back to normal. As others have indicated...no progress bar. So I'm not sure what is going on. Gary

Greetings... I posted this request some time ago. Many read the post but no one replied to it. I'd like to post my request again since I don't see this change in the new 5.6 beta. Currently, when in Project Options, the Set Defaults button changes every setting you have made in each Tab back to the Default settings. I was playing around with the new curl, flip and swap Effects that Igor added to the 5.6 beta. Very cool tools. But, after playing with the settings, I couldn't remember what the defaults were. After hitting the Set Defaults, ALL settings are reset to default. All I wanted was the Effects tab's settings to be reset. I think it would be an improvement to have the name of Set Defaults changed to 'Set All Defaults' and add a second button, 'Set This Tabs Defaults' so that it will only reset the setting in the tab the user is currently in. Thanks... Gary

=============== Igor... I'd like to make a suggestion as a user who does not work in the Timeline much, but needs to use the 'Arrange all points'. New users, and users like me, don't need to get into the Timeline except to view the waveform to insure that the slides have, in fact, been spread to the end of the music selections after we have clicked on 'Arrange all points'. My suggestion is to put the 'Arrange all points' button to the right side of the O&A button. This would solve the problem. Each time slides are added/removed, the 'Arrange all points' button would be easily available in the Classic View. What would help to identify when we need to re-select the 'Arrange all points' button would be to have this button go Bold anytime a slide(s) is added/removed/moved from the Slide List. The 'Arrange all points' button can be kept in the Timeline view if it also makes sense to keep it there. Also, I would rename the 'Arrange all Points' to something like 'Spread/re-spread Slides Equally Across Music Selections." I'd like to add another 'improvement' I think would be helpful for people who like to work in the Classic View. I'd like to see a horizontal thin blue line at the point where each of the music selections ends/starts in the Slide List (especially if you have more than one music file). This would help in rearranging the slides to fit within a particular music selection. Yes, you can also do this in the Timeline View, but it would be a nice feature to see where the music ends/starts when you want to 'Start Preview from the current slide' just before the music selection ends/starts to see if that works the way you wanted it. Much faster than having to get into the Timeline and find that thin blue line. (In fact, I'd like to have that thin blue line in the Timeline View to be more prominent. It is a little hard to find.) Thanks... Gary

================= Peter.... Yes, I see what you are saying about the mini-player not working correctly when slides are added/removed. I think this is a BIG problem because it causes confusion. Especially when the slides are spread out correctly in 'Preview' and 'Start preview from current slide', but NOT in the mini-player or the Timeline. After one would add/remove slides, and looked at the timeline to see that the slides were not spread to the end of the music, or play it in the mini-player, surely would cause a great deal of concern. If the 'Auto Spread...' worked by automatically re-spreading the slides after adding/removing slides (in Preview AND in the mini-player), I would agree with you about the global values for the project level being in Project Options. But since it does not work, it has to be fixed or it should be taken out of Project Options. The 'Auto Spread...' is not functioning as a global value. This is what has cause me, and others, problems. This is what I have not been very effective in trying to express. And, if 'Auto Spread...' is fixed to work as a global value, what is the need for "Arrange all points"? Would that still be needed? Not sure under what circumstances you would use this. In my added comment, I did not say that Synchronize music and slides spreads the slides along the music. In my suggestion to rename it as 'Spread/Lock Music Over Slides', it was to make it more clear that this choice spreads the music over the slides (as it does), as opposed to spreading the slides over music. You might have read it too fast. One choice, 'Auto Spread...', spreads slides over music and the other choice, 'Syn music and slides', spreads music over slides. (And when 'Auto Spread...' is fixed, there is no need for the word 'Lock' since both would be functioning in a similar manner.) Gary

==================== Peter... Sure, if you press the right buttons in the right sequence, everything works. However, if it is not intuitive, then, maybe, there can be some improvement in the programs menus to make 'everything work' better. I have been scratching my head about this issue because I really think the menus can be tweaked a bit to make it clearer. Here are my latest thoughts: 1- Move the Auto spread slides along music from Project Options to be a button to the right of Objects and Animation. I say this because it is a button that you would click on each time you add/remove slides from the Slide List to re-spread the images over the length of the music. I would also rename this button to be Spread slides over length of music. And each time slides are added or removed, the button should become bolded to draw attention that it should be re-clicked to re-spread the slides. (Currently, even though Auto spread slides along music is selected, it does not actually keep the slides spread over the music. You have to go into the Timeline/Timed Points to click on Arrange all points each time slides are added/removed to re-spread the slides.) 2- I would also remove the Arrange all points from the Timeline/Timed Points menu. I would do this because you would have direct access to the newly positioned Spread slides over length of music, mentioned above, and I don't think this function necessarily belongs in the Timed Points menu. I think this would solve this recurring issue where the user thinks the program is not doing what he thinks it should be doing. I say all of this from the standpoint of someone who practically always likes to spread the slides over the length of the music. I don't think it would step on the toes of those who use the Timeline to do more fancy things. What do you think....???Gary Added later... Perhaps Synchronize music and slides should be renamed Spread/Lock Music Over Slides.

==== Ooppsss... Sorry. I use the Beechbrook site so often to host my PTE shows, I forget not everyone goes there. http://www.beechbrook.com/pte/ Thanks, Gary