goddi

========================== Barry, Yes, it is coming back to me now. I remember when I started using the Autospread that I 'complained' that the Timeline did not display the actual spreading of the slides. I now understand what Peter was saying. I have transitioned to using the Timeline more now and I forgot all the problems that I had when I was trying to understand how the Autospread function worked. Funny how you forget things that you think you will never forget. Thanks for reminding me... Gary

====================== Peter, Apparently, I am not seeing what you are seeing. When I tick the Autospread, the Timeline gets grey-out, and nothing else happens. After highlighting a string of manually coded synchronized slides, I have to select the Time Points/Arrange Selected Points to get PTE to autospread them amongst their section in the Timeline (not affecting any other slides). If I understand what you are saying, I should be able to untick the Autospread feature and all the formally manually coded synchronized sides that I just Autospreaded will revert back to where they were? I don't see that happening. That does not happen to me. As I mentioned before, it seems the only thing the Autospread does when ticked is to grey-out the Timeline. What am I missing? When I first started to use PTE, I used Autospread for every show because I did not want to deal with the Timeline. I never was able to Un-Autospread them even if I had first manually adjusted any of the slides before I did the Autospread. Are you saying that by only ticking the Autospread feature (and nothing else) that something happens (besides greying-out the Timeline)? Gary

============================= Barry, I just discovered something. After reading these posts, I went back and started to play around with the Autospread function. It seems that there has been a change to this function or I did not understand fully how it worked in the past. Now, whether the Autospread is ticked or not ticked in Project Options/Main tab, you can autospread all or selected groups of slides. If you select Timed Points/Arrange All Points, all of the slides get spread evenly over the music(s) selections. If you highlight a group of slides, and then select Timed Points/Arrange Selected Points, only the highlighted slides are spread over their own time lengths--the other slides are not affected and the ending slide ends at the original ending point. I did this with the Autospread being ticked and unticked and it did not make a difference. Perhaps this is what you were pointing at in your original post. So it seems that the Autospread function in Project Options/Main tab should have a note for the user to then go into Timed Points to actually make it happen. Seems like the only thing ticking the Autospread does is to grey-out the Timeline (?). Gary

============================ Barry, I brought this subject up back in July 2010, and got no responses. When I started using PTE, the ability to Autospread the slides over a music selection(s) was what got my attention. No other program did this at that time that I could find. But it seemed a bit quirky since you had to, after selecting Autospread, then go into Timed Points/Arrange All Points to make it actually work. Now I am using the Timeline more, but I appreciate both functions, but as it seems, the Autospread is a bit tricky. http://www.picturest...h__1#entry77713 Gary P.S. I notice that I also brought up this issue back in November 2008:

===================== Eric, Cameras are getting so complex that I never use many of their abilities. Taking a still while taking video could come in handy. My Nikon D7000 does not do that (l think), so I have used VideoPad to take a still image of a frame of my video clip. I took a beginning and an ending shot and put the video in the middle. Nice effect to use as a fade in and out of the video clip. What will they think of next???? Gary

===================================== Eric, Yes, indeed, I could not remember who or where someone pointed out about 'abrupt' starts in one of my shows. Now I remember. But I thought the 'abrupt' starts had to do with the transition from a still image to a still image, not from a video clip to a still image (or another video clip). The technique to eliminate the 'abrupt' transition is a bit different. I think once someone starts shooting stills and video, it will be a natural desire to include both in a show. And I think it can work well...it just needs some trials and errors. I am happy to hear one of my shows encouraged you to start to dabble with the video. It really is a lot of fun. Hope you have thawed out. Gary

============================== Eric, I see one technique that would improve the transition from your video clip to a still image or from a video clip to a following video clip. If you look at, for example, the transition from the swinging pirate boat video to the next still image, the pirate boat stops swinging at the end of the video clip, then it transitions into the still image. If a video clip is, say, 10 seconds in duration and you insert the video clip, PTE will drop it in with a 10 second duration. This is the problem. This will cause the end of the video clip to show a 'freeze frame' at the end of the video clip and then do the transition to the still image. This is not a smooth transition. For a smoother transition, the solution is to shorten the duration of the video clip to about 9 seconds or so, so that the video clip will continue to play as the transition to the still image comes in. It will eliminate the 'freeze frame' at the end of the video clip and show a smoother transition from the end of the video clip to the following still image, or from a video clip to a following video clip. So it might be important to be careful where a video clip is trimmed at its end. Maybe leaving a couple seconds after the point that you really want the video clip to end so you have some leeway to work with when in PTE to be able to make the smooth transition without eliminating any important portions at the end of the video clip. Gary

=========================== Jean-Claude, Yes, I see that it is for the purpose of adjusting keypoints. But when I 'Play' the slide, I don't see it happening in the main screen. I don't hear the portion of the music that was associated with that slide. I don't see the keypoint move in the main screen as I make the adjustments. So I must be doing something wrong. Let me fiddle around some more and I will see what happens. Thanks for the program. Very interesting. Gary

Greetings, I downloaded and installed the Oak program. I figured out how to get to the English menu. I figured out how to Copy one of my more complicated O&A's from one of my slideshows into Oak. I tried to read the PDF, but I am not sure of a few things. Here are my questions: 1-When I 'Play' the slide, I do not see any 'action' in the main screen. Why not? 2-The music associated with that screen does not play. Should it? The slide I am using is a map that automates the route driven through a country. A gif is attached. Thanks... Gary

====================== Greetings, I think I have resolved the issue. After running an updated Malwarebytes, it found 2 bugs. See below. After these were removed, the error message does not show up. I hope this holds up: Registry Values Detected: 1 HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Associations|bak_Application (Hijacker.Application) -> Data: http://shell.windows...edir.asp?Ext=%s -> Quarantined and deleted successfully. Registry Data Items Detected: 1 HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Associations|Application (Hijacker.Application) -> Bad: (http://www.helpmeope...p&l=%04x&ext=%s) Good: (http://shell.windows...edir.asp?Ext=%s) -> Quarantined and repaired successfully. Don't know where it came from but so far so good. Gary

============================== Steve... And then, I am not sure if I really understand what is happening. I just tried your original River Mouse.exe on my wife's PC, playing if from a thumbdrive. I get the same error message. Is it possible that one of the videos that you are using for the show are actually in a different folder than the other files? It just looks like the exe is trying to pull in a video file from some other location. I saw that Tom did not get the error message, but I am drawing a straws here to understand what is going on. Thanks... Gary

========================== Steve, I think I may have resolved the problem. Not sure exactly what was going on, but here is what I did. I went into my Windows7 Disk Management and deleted 'Disk 3'. This 'Disk 3' is one of the 6 inputs of my Card Reader/Writer. Now, when I play your file, it does not create the error message. But....why in the world would I have gotten the same error message when I was playing one of my PTE files on a different PC?????????????????? Still a mystery!!! Gary

===================================== Steve, Now I am not sure if your file has anything to do with this error message. I was at a friends house this morning and I played one of my PTE shows on her computer. I got the same error message!!! I was playing it off of my thumb drive. So, in this case, there does not seem to be any connection with your file. What is strange is that on my PC, your file is the only one that has created this error message. I have Googled around to see what I might find but nothing has shown up yet that helps figure out this problem. I have looked into my Disk Management (Windows7) but there is nothing strange in there. I can not get the error message to appear when I play my PTE files on my PC. But when I play your file on my PC, it happens every time, at the same place. I just don't know yet what is going on. Always something.... Gary P.S. And now the error message says "\Drive\Harddisk3\DR3", instead of "\Drive\Harddisk4\DR4"

Steve, Here is a gif of the error message on the slide that it occurs. Do you know what it might mean??? Gary

====================== Steve, I downloaded and ran your show. However, in the middle of the show I got the following error message and it froze: "There is not disk in the drive. Please insert a disk into drive \Drive\Harddisk4\DR4" Had to do a Alt-Ctrl-Delete to get out of it. Gary

========================== Mary, I would be happy to give you the PTE file minus the videos but it really was nothing fancy. All I did was take a snapshot (using VideoPad) of the last frame of the first video and use that as a background image for each of the following videos. So I'd have the snapshot image as the background and bring in a video on top of it and resize it and put a thin white border around the video (using PTE). I did this for each video. Each video faded-out with the next video fading-in...just like still images. Nothing fancy. I can still send it to you if you want. Also, if I take out the videos, all you would have are the background snapshots. So let me know and I can give you the entire PTE file with the videos and I can put it on Mediafire. Then you can play with it. You saw only a tid-bit of the available food!!! It's all like a humongous collection of 'fast-food' joints that are great fun to watch the action. Most every thing was cooked and you could eat your way right to a heart attack!!! Looked great but we did not sample any of it. They had huge vats of hot oil cooking stuff--I thought if anyone bumped into it or it fell over--ouch!!!! But most everything looked fresh and tasty, as was all the food we had in Thailand and Cambodia! Gary Added later: I sent you a PM with link to PTE file.

========================== Morturn, The first thing I did when I watched the show was to place my hand over the 'white tee shirt' guy to see what it would be if it was cropped out. I think if the image can be cropped, it would give a more intimate feeling. In that vein, I would probably remove the image with all the tourist in it. I know it is almost impossible to take a full image of such a site without tourist. But by removing the 'white tee shirt' guy and the 'tourist' image, I think it will save the intimate mood throughout the show. I did not mind the thin white border. In my recent show of Phuket's Night Market, I put each of the videos in thin white borders because it helped to separate the video from the background image and make it stand out better. Probably I am comparing apples with oranges, but I am kind of liking the thin white borders now. I did not notice any 'sync' issues because the music was so mellow, I didn't see any reason for 'sync' being needed. And, yes...too short, but I liked it. Gary

============================= Morturn, Well done. Beautiful photography and music. Reminds me of our trip to Athens over 35 years ago. Oh...and I like your listing of the descriptors for your slideshow! Gary

====================== Mary, Not sure if this helps, but I put together an exe with several versions of your clip. It is attached. One of my programs I use to convert video files is Freemake Video Converter ( I also use Video Pad). The attached exe shows your Original file; then your Original converted to AVI by PTE; then used Freemake to convert the Original to MP4; then used Freemake to convert the Original to AVI. You will have to judge yourself if there is any improvement, but I think all the converted clips are a little bit better than the Original. But I think you need a clip with less movement to really see if there is any improvement. But my PTE played your Original. Gary Project1.zip

=================== Morturn, Thanks for the comments. Yes, the Night Market in Phuket is quite an event to experience. I didn't take any still images because only video would bring in the chaotic nature of the place. And it is difficult (for me) to take pictures of people in such a setting. Never sure what they would do. Video seems different. The quality of the video would have been even better if I had used the original 1920x1080 and the 14,000+ bitrate. I had to reduce all of the video (except 2 segments) to 640x360 and a bitrate of 2,000 to get the size file down. But I can't disagree with you. I should have taken stills and included them. Your question is "Is this an AV slideshow". I think, sure it is. Not the normal one (so far) but I am trying different aspects of using PTE. Igor has open the gates with more possibilities (with video) and I am exploring them. In the past, I used shorter sequences. I tried to see what would happen with using more video--going to the other extreme. I have found the biggest problem is how large the PTE exe gets. I spent a lot of time figuring out how to reduce it down to a more manageable size. But I can see as time goes on, we will be getting larger PTE shows as more users get into adding video into the shows. I am just pushing my own envelope and learning a lot. This was more of an experiment. And we need to be able to control the audio levels, fade-in and fade-out of video segments in PTE. To me, this is a biggie. You might notice that I did not add any background music because of the conflict with the video audio. To adjust each video segment's audio outside of PTE would be a hair pulling task. Thanks for watching the show and your comments. In the end, for me it really is just a great way of creating memories and sharing them. Gary P.S. Actually, any bravery award should go to the people in the back seat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I shortened a few fingernails throughout Thailand.

Location: Phuket, Thailand. Year: November 2011. Aspect ratio: 16:9. Screen resolution: 1920x1080. Videos: Reduced most videos to 640x360 and a bitrate of 2000 in order to reduce the file size. I did keep a couple videos at the original resolution to retain better detail. Size of file: 76 Mbs. Run time: 2:10. Manual control (yes/no): Yes. Camera and lens: Nikon Coolpix AW100. Any other info that you can provide: This is a short show with all videos on a background image. It is just the tip of the iceberg as far as what you will see at the Night Market in Phuket. http://www.beechbrook.com/pte/ Comments and critique welcomed. Gary

=========================== Lin and Xaver, All of the videos came from the same camera. They are pretty much the same size within the background image. I just uploaded the show to Beechbrook (Phuket's Night Market) that has these videos with the borders. If you can take a look at it, you might see what I am talking about. To me, there seems to be slight variations in the white borders around the different videos. I didn't make any changes to their Canvas size. Gary

Greetings, I just started using the "Adjust Video and Border" tool and it seems to be giving me different results with different images...actually with videos. I am making a show that has several videos and I make them smaller than the background image. I decided to put the same sized border around each video in each slide. I chose the '2' width setting. However, I notice that the actual width of the borders seems to be a little different on many of the videos. Some are slightly thicker and some slightly thinner that the others with the same '2' width. In fact, when I put in a width of '2' in one of the videos, it did not show any border and I had to up it to '4' to get a small border to come close to the other borders that I had used a '2' setting. So I am wondering if the width setting for 'Adjust Video and Border' is a relative setting or is it supposed to be an absolute setting. If it it a relative setting, what is the width based on? Or if it is supposed to be an absolute setting, why am I seeing different widths? Thanks... Gary

Greetings, I have been trying out different video converters, including PTE's Converter. Before I delve into the other programs I have tried, I'd like to understand a bit more about PTE's Video Converter. First, my primary purpose when I convert a video file is to reduce the size of the original MOV and keep reasonable quality. Below are the test results of converting a file using PTE. My assumption is that the file size is based primarily on the chosen bitrate. If this is not true, then my questions are probably moot. However, here are my tests and my questions: My original MOV = 14,622kbps TBR; 25,346 Kb file size. Here are my conversion test results: -PTE Converted at 50% Quality = 16,060kbps TBR; 27,351 Kb file size. -PTE Converted at 25% Quality = 10,792kbps TBR; 18,376 Kb file size. -PTE Converted at 10% Quality = 7,375kbps TBR; 13,005 Kb file size. (TBR=Total Bitrate) I expected that PTE's '50%' selection would have reduced the file size and the bitrate by about 50%. It actually increased the bitrate to 16,060kbps and the file size to 27,351 Kb. In order to reduce the bitrate and the file size by about 50%, I had to choose the '10% Quality'. When I put both videos in PTE and reviewed them on my 27" monitor, I could not see any real difference in quality. I have converted videos to have a bitrate of 4000-5000kbps with great quality. So my questions are: 1-What does the '50% Quality' mean? Does it have anything to do with bitrate? 2-Why does it not allow for the selection of a bitrate instead of this nebulous 'Quality' selection? 3-Why does it not allow for a change in FPS? 4-What is the best FPS choice? Thanks… Gary

======================= Eric, I have a Nikon D7000. It is similar to the D90, in that the viewing screen does not flip out, as some do, I believe. I thought that was a good feature when I got my D7000, but now I see the problems. As you mentioned, it is difficult to view the screen AND make any adjustments like focus or zooming while taking the video. Since I wear bifocal glasses, I have to hold the camera in difficult positions to being able to watch the viewing screen AND fiddle with the controls. I am still learning how to set up the camera to take the video (but that's another story). It is really not straight forward as one might think. I have recently been taking video of myself playing racquetball (10mm lens) and it does work really well. But it is on a tripod and I don't have to worry about making any adjustments during the shoot. When on a trip and I took videos with the camera, it was a real pain to have to hold the heavy camera up to my eye level and out far enough to be able to view the screen. This does not help in trying to get a steady shot. The video quality is really good but real difficult to handle the camera body to avoid the shakes. I guess practice is the only solution. And maybe using a light monopod to keep it a bit more steady. I used to use a short monopod and I would stick it in my waist to steady the shot as I walked around. I might revive that technique next time I try shooting hand-held video. But I have found that I can get excellent quality video with my little Nikon AW100. It shoots HD1080p, 29 fps video and sound quality is really good, I'd say. And it is waterproof, with GPS and really too many neat functions I haven't even tried yet! When I went ziplining in Thailand, I used my D7000 with an 18-200 lens. I should have used the compact AW100. I learned my lesson. Gary