goddi

========== DEN... We sure have. Interesting that it works for you but not here. Well, I just tried making an action to create the icon and it worked. The only problem is I don't know yet how to make it pause at the crop so you can move it around and pause before it is saved to rename it. But, I'll work on that. Thanks for the idea... Gary

==================== Den... Nope, again. It does the same thing and gets the same error message. The original one worked except that it created a crop area that was rectangular. Can that one be edited to create a crop area that is square? Gary

You're right Gary! The only thing I can think is that the resolution was set to 0 in the original crop menu. I've reset this to 72ppi and it seems to crop to a square now. Anyway give it another try - if not I give up. regards DEN (NE UK) ===================== Den... Nope... I attached a screen print. Now, the Crop highlights the entire image and then I get an error message. Gary IconAction2.doc

==================== Take a look at this Word file where I did a screen print of what I am talking about. The final result is a 32x32 but it takes the rectangle that you see and pushes it down so the image is squashed. And I uploaded the final result too. Thanks... Gary IconAction.doc IconActionFinalResult.ico

================= Geoff... That is strange. I just dumped everything and reinstalled the action. When I look at each "Crop To" statement, it shows "rectangle", thought the final result is a square. (Take a close look at the final result and see if it is not squeezing the image vertically.) So I don't understand how you are getting 'square' and I am getting 'rectangular' in the crop. Any idea??? I am using Photoshop CS (ver. 8). Garu

========== Geoff... Is yours giving you a rectangular crop or a square crop??? I dumped the old one and the new one is still creating a retangular crop. Gary

============= Den.... Nope... it does the same thing. Maybe you posted the original instead of new one??? Gary

============ Den... Thanks for the action. However, the crop part of the action seems to be cropping to a rectangle shape, as opposed to a square. And then it squeezes the image vertically...for example, a tall person is squeezed down to a short person. I may be using it incorrectly but each time I try it, it comes out with the same strange behavior. I tried to edit the crop step but haven't been able to yet. Is this the way it should work??? Thanks... Gary

================ Peter and Geoff, Yes, super thanks for the details. When I looked at the Mode for my file, it showed "color: 254" and it was greyed out. The only way to change it was to change the "Forced" setting to "Web," and change the "Palette" to "Local (Selective)." Peter, it works with me whether I have the "Preserve Exact Colours" box ticked or not. The key for me was the change to the "Palette" setting. Anyhow...we found the steps to get the icon to show up. Pretty neat. Thanks all, Gary

Greetings, I gave this a try and I am having a bit of a problem getting PTE to recognize my icon file. I installed the icoformat.8bi file in my Photoshop CS folder. I changed the size of one image to 32x32 (and I tried 16x16). Only after I reduced the size of the original image would the ico format show up in the Save As listing. Ok...I saved them. I have never tried this in PTE before but I went to the Main/Assign Icon and tried to "Add" the icon. I browsed to the location but I get an error message from PTE. With a 16x16 sized file, I get "Icon must be "16 or 256 colors"; with a 32x32 sized file, I get "Invalid icon file, number of images must be one." Can you tell me what I am doing wrong here??? Thanks... Gary

===================== Brian... Thanks for the reply but I don't have a problem with playing any mp4 or DVD or any video file. My problem is much less serious. It only has to do with setting up the HomeCinema program to automatically play any file, specifically the mp4s that PTE creates. The problem is getting Windows XP (SP2) to let me associate the mp4 extension with the HomeCinema program that Igor recommended to play the PTE's mp4 files. I wanted to be able to click on any mp4 file in MyComputer so Windows would automatically play it with HomeCinema. HomeCinema will play the mp4 but I have to open the program first, then browse to the mp4 to play it. I now find that I can associate mp4s with the VLC Media Player that Peter recommended. So I am just not going to use HomeCinema for now. Thanks... Gary Added later: Well, I thought I had it all under control. I now see that even the VLC Media Player bites the dust, too. I played an mp4 with it, though its file association to mp4s. Then I tried it again and got a Windows error message: "VLC media player has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." I re-installed it and now it won't even open the mp4 file in MyComputer. The mp4 will open/play if I open the VLC, then browse to the mp4 file...just like HomeCinema makes me do. Oh...boy. I guess I am back to using QuickTime. Back to square-one.

========================= I kinda see what you are saying but I have only one 'mplayerc.exe' and that is for HomeCinema 1.2908.0. I did a Search. No matter what I do, the file association will play whatever program I had the cursor sitting on when I did a Browse to "Always use the selected program...". Must just be a Windows thing... Gary

========= Brian... I looked at each of my players and none of them have the "Always on Top" ticked. So, at least in my case, that does not seem to have any effect on the problem of file association with the "HomeCinema" program. Gary

============== Peter and DaveG, I finally gave up. I dumped both Quicktime and Winamp, and I still could not get the HomeCinema to associate with the mp4 extension. I reinstalled both. Then I installed the VLC media player and it works just find and associates with the mp4. The VLC seems to be the trick. Thanks. I think it is just the way HomeCinema was programmed. Gary

======================= Nobeefstu... Yes, Windows does have the .mp4 extension in its File Types. I tried re-setting the file association as you mentioned. No luck. I even deleted the MP4 association it had and made a new one but it wants to associate it with Quicktime. No matter what I do, I can not get the MP4 to be associated with HomeCinema. I do see that the Program list does show the icon for HomeCinema, but Windows will not let me do a file association with it. Gary

======================== Peter, Yes, I tried that but it does not help. But I did just notice something. After I did the Browse to the location of the HomeCinema's exe file, Windows is not pulling it into the list of Recommended Programs. I noticed this because if I just happened to have my cursor on a non-video program, like Acrobat, then click on "Always use...", the Acrobat program will try to play the MP4, even though I had finished the process and selected the HomeCinema program. Windows is ignoring my selection and defaulting back to whatever I happened to have had the cursor on before I selected the HomeCinema program. Must be just a Windows bug. As soon as I click into the "Always use..." block, the highlighted program, like Acrobat, would go grey, so you'd think it would not be selected as the program to use...but it does. It is ignoring my choice for HomeCinema and reverting back to whatever I apparently had the cursor on when I started the process. Strange. I just wonder if others have this same problem setting up the MP4 file association with HomeCinema. Gary Added later: I dumped the program and reinstalled it and I still have the same problem. I think that it is just not registering in Windows properly. Not sure why, though.

QUOTE (admin1 @ Oct 24 2008, 06:26 PM) * The best result with software player is using of free Media Player Classic HomeCinema: http://www.wnsoft.com/soft/other/setup_mpc.exe It already includes all necessary decoders to play created video files with slideshows. ================= Greetings, Now that I am using PTE to create some MP4's, I want Igor's recommended HomeCinema program to play the files. However, my problem is I can not get the file associations to work. I want to be able to just click on the MP4 file in MyComputer so the HomeCinema program will automatically open it, as Windows does with other programs. Each time I click on an MP4, either Winamps or Quicktime opens the file. Winamps gives me only audio and I don't like how Quicktime operates. I have gone into both of these programs and manually taken off their association with MP4 files. I have also tried the 'Open With' in Windows and browsed to the HomeCinema's exe and clicked on the "Always use...". Even when this is done, it reverts to the Winamp or Quicktime program to play the MP4, not HomeCinema. The only way to play the MP4 in HomeCinema is to actually open the HomeCinema program first and open the MP4 directly there. Kind of a pain. Is there any way to make the MP4 file association work with this HomeCinema??? I am using Windows XP. Thanks.... Gary

=============== Lin... Thanks for the nice words. But 'mastered'?,....not. I just discovered how to do something that most of you do with your hands tied behind your backs. But thanks to all of you on the Forum, I pick up hints on things that I don't really understand and make an attempt. I marvel at many of the really intricate shows you and others have done. It keeps my brain working...PTE is a great program. Gary

Greetings, If the user has ticked Auto spread slides along music and then either adds or removes slides, the show will not play properly in the mini-player. PTE should, ideally, re-spread the slides along the music automatically, or at the very least, give the user a pop-up reminder that the slides need to be re-spread. Otherwise, the show will not play properly in the mini-player. While the slides and music will play properly (slides evenly spread along the music) in Preview and as Created, it will not play properly in the mini-player. As it works now, to get the mini-player to play the show properly, the slides must be re-spread along the length of the music by going into the Timeline and select Timed Points and then Arrange all points. Thanks... Gary

=============== Peter....Yaaahoooo!!! That's 2 of us. I am going to put your succinct rephrasing of the problem in the Idea forum. Thanks... Gary

Peter, Ok...I just did a test and, yes, I see your point that the mini-player will show the 'autospread' effect only initially. And, then, if images are added to the slidelist, for example, the music will not automatically be re-spread over the new longer number of images in the slidelist. The music will stop right where it stopped originally and the remaining slides will have no music played as the slides are displayed. From what I read, it seems that this is OK and normal, and this is the way it should be. However, this, to me, is a bug or major defect in the program. Why shouldn't the program automatically re-spread the music over the new number of images when you have the Auto spread slides along music selected? If PTE re-spreads the music for Preview, I think it should do this for the mini-player too. This would remove the requirement to have to go into the Timeline to do the Timed Points/Arrange All Points steps. I think the way it is only causes confusion to, especially, new users who have no idea how to use the Timeline, (like I had been). It if can't be made to do it automatically, I would suggest that, if b]Auto spread slides along music is selected, anytime an image is added or removed, a button should pop up to allow the user to 're-spread' the slides along the music without having to get into the Timeline menu to go through the Timed Points/Arrange All Points to do this. Thoughts??? Gary Added later: And also, if you have music that lasts, say 2 minutes, and all the slides are spread over that time, and then you dump many slides leaving the slides that played up to the, say, 30 seconds point, the mini-player will just stop playing the music at the 30 second mark and the user will just wonder what happened. Does not make sense to me.

Greetings... I finally figured out how to use the Timeline, at least to a limited point. All of my past slideshows have use the 'Autospread' technique, which has worked out well. I needed a new challenge. I found some music and some old images that would lend itself to working in the Timeline. After reading many of the Forum postings, I figured out how to position the images so the transitions can be made to the beat of the music. Here is my first attempt using the Timeline, called Wild Thing, posted at Beechbrook: http://www.beechbrook.com/pte/ Gary

===================== Peter... We have been through this discussion before so if I have forgotten something, let me know. But, I don't understand your last statement, "The effect of "Auto-spread" cannot be viewed in the mini-player area of the main window. It can only be viewed during full-screen Preview or in a Created file." Are you sure? I don't think I have seen that the mini-player does not show the 'Auto-spread' effect. However, I always go into the Timeline/Timed Points and click on Arrange All Points which will actually re-do the 'Auto-spread' effect and reposition all the slides if you have added/deleted slides in the process of making the show. This, I think, will then show the correct 'Auto-spread' effect in the mini-player (and maybe Preview and Create???). I think that when someone uses the Auto spread slides along music, they MUST do the Timeline/Timed Points/Arrange All Points dance to insure all the slides have been spaced evenly across the music. Please correct me if I am wrong... Gary

=============== Just to let you know, I tried my recently created Beta9 15-minute show in Beta10 and I did not have any problems. I opened the show in Beta10, saved and made exe and played in Preview and no problems. No help for you, but just to let you know I did not run into such problems. Gary

============= Brian... Great. Glad to see you are working on this strange thing. It only happened to me once but it wasn't logical on how I got rid of it and I just can't remember what really got it to disappear. Keep us posted on what your results are. Thanks... Gary