senns

Problem Solved!! There was some problem with the music file(s), which I had found and downloaded from some Greek website. They each played fine in Windows Media Player, but no matter what the order, the corruption problem continued. I then downloaded a utility to convert .mp3 files to .wav. The .mp3 format files were removed from the slideshow, and replaced with the .wav files. The slideshow now appears to be OK. I haven't watched the whole show in .exe format yet, but the burned DVD's appear to be just fine. Thanks again for the help, Roger and Sandra Blessed Memories Photography senns.photosite.com

Thanks for the replys! Al: PTE version is 4.42. I checked the latest, but didn't see any related notes in the newer releases, and haven't tried updating. For music, I just grabbed a few traditional Greek songs from some website. They seem to play fine on their own, and I have tried adding/deleting songs as well. Pic sizes are all reduced in size, around 60k to 150k range throughout. All files are from the hard disk. Other than length of this show, and number of songs used, I see no difference. Most of Sandra's work is less than 100 pics, with one or two songs. Ron: I'm pretty sure all pics are .jpg. The reduced screenshot looks a bit fuzzy, but that should be clear if you expand it when viewing. Admin: The slideshow (.exe) is definitely not OK. When playing, it simply terminates when it reaches the offending area of the show. I tried also creating DVD's. They play fine, but when the offending area is reached, music skips, images overlap, and the time counter on the front of the DVD player shows skipping forward and back. I must admit being surprised at these issues, since we've been quite happy with our purchase aside from this issue. On another note, I switched recently to Nero from Arcsoft ShowBiz2. The DVD quality (before the 11 minute mark...) is noticably improved. Images appear clearer and more stable. Thanks again, Roger.

Interesting to note that after deleting a few pics in the offending area, the lockup again occurs at exactly 11:37:753

We have been using Pics2Exe successfully for a while now with smaller slideshows. This spring my parents went on a trip to Greece, so we offered to put together a slideshow for them. As experienced PTE users, this should only take a few minutes... In any case, it's been a nightmare. There appears to be a problem somewhere in the middle of the slideshow that causes the .exe version to abort. If running through that section in preview mode, PTE shuts down. This occurs about 11-12 minutes into a 20 minute show. EDIT: I also tried removing the pictures at which it stalled, and the problem has persisted. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks, Roger and Sandra.

An update... The DVD exercise of last night worked well. The disk plays in our player just fine, and the image quality is good. There is slight flickering visible in a couple of the pictures, but nothing serious. I'll burn another with chaptering details tonight, and the project should be done. Settings I used: Custom AVI output from PTE - Audio Codec - MPEG Layer 3, 8Kbit/s, 8000 Hz, Mono - Video Codec - DivX 5.1.1 Used ArcSoft ShowBiz2 (came with the HP burner) to burn the DVD. Thanks to all, Roger.

I really doubt the explanation is at fault! I suspect it's my comprehension of the explanation that is the problem. This field is very new to me, and doesn't crossover much with my areas of expertise. I may also be biting off more than I can chew at this point. Time will tell. I'm nearly done the avi generation step now, and might still burn a DVD tonight. BTW, the smaller slide shows my wife created and put to music look great. I've burned both SVCD and DVD's, and we're very happy with the results. The software is amazingly easy to use for those applications. I appreciate the patience! Roger.

Ken, I have read through those referenced documents. Thanks for taking the time to point them out! Those temporary files still confuse me, as I thought by switching out to windows prior to hitting 'Finish', I could grab copies of them and save them for later use. This apparently does not work for whatever reason. I am now following one of the options mentioned, whereby custom AVI's are created. This is all quite confusing for a newbie like myself, as the custom AVI function produces list boxes full of audio and video codecs to use. I am concerned about quality, and will burn to a DVD when completed, so hopefully my DivX choice was adequate. My present project involves creating a slideshow DVD for my parents, with in total probably 1000 pictures. It is broken down into about 8 pieces, and my hope is to author a DVD that will allow them to jump to individual sections via chaptering, or simply watch the whole thing. We tried just putting jpg's on a CD-R, but the quality was poor on their DVD/TV combo. Given my wife is now making slideshows of her photography using PTE, I thought I'd try using it to create the DVD. It is certainly overwhelming at first... Choice of media, format, authoring, chaptering, conversions, inversions, subversions... In the end I hope a playable DVD results. As far as my initial question goes, it appears that PTE will not create avi's until an audio file has been selected. That bit, if not already present in the documentation (I didn't see it mentioned anywhere) could be added to help out the next fellow. OK, 47% thru Brisbane, just Sydney, Melbourne, and the Cook Islands to go! Cheers, Roger

Jim, Thanks for the reply. A fellow Canuck! I'm from Kitchener, Ontario! I did manage to create avi's, but am still not clear on this 'Finish' button business. What happens when the 'Finish' button is pressed? Why can't I save those avi's for later processing/merging into one dvd image later? I thought I could just copy the avi file prior to hitting the 'Finish' button, and save it, but when viewed later, the video portion is gone. I have since read that others open multiple instances of PTE, with each sitting at the 'Finish' button step, and then create the DVD. This seems quite odd to me, and I am hoping there is a better way. Now that I am past the first hurdle of creating avi's, I'll post further questions to the DVD area of the forum. Thanks again, Roger.

With some further experimenting, it appears that avi's cannot be created without an audio track. Probably obvious to most, but not to me. I assumed 'dead air' would automatically fill the audio track if no music was selected. I ended up creating a short 'dead air.wav' file, and will test with that. At least the avi is created now.

I've been using PTE for a few weeks now, and purchased the product. I have successfully created two nice slide shows with music, and burned to both SVCD and DVD. No problems at all, burning with standard software that came with the HP DVD burner. Very nice, and easy to use program! Now I am now trying to create a much larger slide show (285 images approx 350k each), with no audio track. The slide show can be created, previewed, and viewed as .exe with no problems. However, when hitting 'Video'->'Create AVI', a window appears asking for filename, quickly followed by 'Finish', with no avi created. Not even an empty shell file of the selected filename is created. A quick check and search of this forum did not uncover any similar complaints. Any ideas?? Thanks in advance.