tom95521

Hi Lin, The Steam Link box sits close to the TV and is connected to an ethernet cable. The bedroom PC is also connected to an ethernet cable. There is an ethernet switch connecting both Link and PC together. The link is 100 Mbit. The Link is connected to the TV using a standard hdmi cable. The Link also supports wifi (2.4 and 5 Ghz) but I have not tested because ethernet was easily available. From what I have read newer versions of the Link firmware has greatly improved wifi. There is a detailed stats overlay that shows dropped frames and average about 27 Mbs stream. The latency runs at about 20 mSec. I never have dropped frames and it runs at 1080p 60. I think it helps if you have a newer graphics card because the Steam streaming server running on your PC supports real time hardware encoding using the graphics card. The only downside is that you can not use the PC for other purposes when the Link is active. The PC display mirrors exactly what the Link sees. When you stop streaming you can use the PC. https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9772-WHJM-4676 Thanks, Tom Update: I tried to capture the Link hdmi output with my Avermedia 30 fps max hdmi to usb encoder but it actually looks much nicer than this. No noise between fades or hesitation with your snow style. The Link does 60 fps decoding if your gpu is relatively new.

If anyone is interested the Link is on currently on sale at Steam this week. I purchased a spare for $4.99 US dollars. It is a very interesting device and can play both exe and video slideshows streamed from the remote PC. http://store.steampowered.com/sale/controllergames/ Tom

I have tested the Steam Link device and it is very impressive. The connection between my PC and Link is wired ethernet 100 Mbit (did not test the wifi option). The PC running the steam software can hardware encode the stream using Nvidia, AMD, or Intel GPU options. I have a Nvidia GTX 1050 ti graphics card. The steam PC server can be configured for Nvidia NVFBC (frame buffer capture). The client stream speed is up to 50 Mbits/second. The PTE slideshows are very smooth with very good audio quality. Latency should not be an issue with slideshows but with other games and apps I did not notice a delay. The link device is small, very well constructed with 4 types of AC power connectors included. You can use a keyboard/mouse and game controller either using bluetooth or direct usb connection. In the steam software you can create a category just for slideshows. I recommend this device if you have a powerful PC in one room and want to watch slideshows (or run any other windows app) on your living room PC. You do have to install the steam software on your PC to enable streaming. https://www.amazon.com/Steam-Link-pc/dp/B016XBGWAQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(software) Tom

That's good to know. My desktop PC has a Nvidia GTX 1050 and it works great with PTE. I have been testing Bandicam screen recorder using the Nvidia NVENC VBR encoder for H.265 at 1080p 60fps. The Windows 10 media player will play H.265 videos. It's amazing how well it captures without dropping frames. I hope some day PTE will also support 10 bit and H.265 encoding. Tom

Would it be possible to use the hardware encoder option on the gpu to speed up encoding of H.264 and H.265 (HEVC) without sacrificing quality? I notice that some screen recorders like Bandicam, Nvidia ShadowPlay, AMD ReLive, and the Steam Link host PC allow you to chose the encoder. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/HWAccelIntro Thanks, Tom

Another free and open source screen capture and recorder program for Windows. It's not new and seems to work better capturing PTE if you use the default color profile. It can capture higher than 30 fps if your PC is fast enough. https://getsharex.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShareX Thanks, Tom

This hardware device was originally designed to play video games on your living room HDTV from a PC in another room. I was wondering if anybody has tried using the device to stream slideshows (or PTE editor). It's supposed to do 1080p 60 over wired ethernet (for best results) with support for USB and Bluetooth devices like a mouse, keyboard, and game controllers. The remote PC does near real time encoding (up to 30 Mbps) so the quality should be as good or better than most mp4 video slideshows. I have one on order after watching a few YouTube reviews. Apparently it goes on sale quite often and I purchased it at a lower price than listed. http://store.steampowered.com/app/353380/Steam_Link/ Thanks, Tom

Hi Lin, Very nice. I didn't travel up to Oregon to see the event. My PTE created version from 3 weeks ago based on how I thought it might look. It does have the ISS passing in front of the sun during the eclipse. Also a few stars are visible. :-)

Hi Lin, That is much improved. I'm still playing around with using Z pan instead of zoom because (I think) it will allow me to change direction of the dots from shrinking to expanding by just reversing the frame 180 degrees. Also it would simulate parallax like a real infinity mirror and since white can be used as a mask it leads to interesting possibilities with image dots instead of just white or single color dots. Thanks, Tom

Masking with text allows you to do interesting things. Thanks, Tom

That is great news. I did remember that I can add a custom shadow by duplicating text, change color, blur, opacity, etc. That will work until a better method is available. Thanks, Tom

It would be nice to be able to set text alpha channel transparency like you can for rectangles. I know you can set the alpha channel of the font in animation properties but that also changes the shadow transparency.

Just now getting back into playing with PTE. This style is based on an infinity mirror. I used xy axis zoom and to be accurate it should probably use z pan instead. 16:9 screen 10 seconds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity_mirror Infinity Mirror White.ptestyle Infinity Mirror RGB.ptestyle Infinity Mirror RGB 2.ptestyle

I have a Google Nexus 5x android phone. The internal camera sensor is mounted upside down (thanks Google) and some video players do not read sensor orientation metadata and play the video upside down. I have used PTE in the past to rotate the video in OA and publish the fixed version. If it's possible to add to add a rotate feature to the video converter I would give it a +1 vote. Thanks, Tom

I automatically save as a new version when opening an old project so I did not see the assertion failure. I see it now if I don't save the file first. The project was created in 8.013. Tom

I was able to open it, preview it, publish, save it as a new filename, and open again. Everything looks normal on my Windows 10 PC. Tom

I think Windows 10 users are better off using the built in (free) screen recorder. It can record mic and YT audio. https://betanews.com/2015/07/19/windows-10-secret-screen-recording-tool/ Thanks, Tom

Possible replacement for jpeg if the licensing is not too restrictive. Based on the HEVC codec which is used for H.265 https://iso.500px.com/heif-first-nail-jpegs-coffin/ https://www.cultofmac.com/487808/heif-vs-jpeg-image-files/ https://nokiatech.github.io/heif/comparison.html Thanks, Tom

Hi Lin, I'm still using Faststone Capture for image and video capturing. It was not free but the 5 user family license was not that expensive. Thanks, Tom

Hi Judy, Today we have so many image enhancement programs available to choose from compared to 5 years ago. I usually just use jpg capture in my camera but now I have more time to experiment with raw capture. I have used dcraw many years ago and was amazed how well it worked from the command line without preview. Maybe if I reach the limits of Affinity Photo raw conversion I will upgrade to LR. I also want to try HDR image stacking too. Now I need to find a good tripod. Thanks, Tom

If anybody is interested I decided to purchase both Affinity Photo and Designer programs while they were still on sale in January. It's definitely a different workflow than my old Photoshop 5. Besides performance and features I looked at software development cycle, forum, and great video tutorials on Vimeo. I have not loaded the free Google Nik Collection or my Topaz plugins but others have posted that they both work. Now that Spring is around the corner I hope to use my Panasonic FZ1000 that has been sitting idle for over a year. Thanks, Tom

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm still reading and watching tutorial videos of the the various photo editors. Some of them like Paintshop Pro/PhotoFiltre are very reasonable in price and even free like Gimp. Photoshop Elements is a little more expensive. I have no doubt Photoshop and LR are great programs but I'm recently retired and have other hobbies like woodworking/gardening. One interesting feature of Affinity Photo is that it can store edit history in the image file so you can undo any edits in the future. I wish PTE had a feature like this inside the .pte file. And something not related to PTE but since it's very close to where I live I thought it was funny (and stupid wasting Coast Guard time and money).

I am looking for a Photoshop CC alternative that is not too expensive but does more than PixBuilder Studio. I know Photoshop is great but it's just a hobby for me and I don't like subscription based software. I see Graham Houghton recently mentioned Affinity Photo and is only U.S. $40. Before I purchase I was wondering if anybody has tried Affinity Photo or has a recommendation for their favorite image editing software (non-Photoshop). Thanks, Tom Affinity Photo mentioned on one of Graham's blog pages. http://us9.campaign-archive2.com/?u=9925264577c370e71ea96e132&id=e6bbc0f82a His blog https://www.grahamhoughton.com/

I decided to purchase the Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 1050 ti with 4 GB DDR5. Should be fast enough. Currently on backorder. Tom

Instead of buying another computer I thought I should try to upgrade one of my older i7 computers with a SSD and graphics card. I can't decide on ATI or Nvidia. My gamer friend (plays GTA V) says Nvidia is better. I just turned 60 so first person shooter games do not interest me. HDTV 4K HDR monitors are more affordable so a graphics card that supports 4K is important. I also like the idea of multiple monitors for graphics programs, and truck simulator/flight simulator type games. Would you buy a Nvidia GTX 1050 ti or a AMD RX 460? Is 4 GB DDR 5 enough ram for any PTE slideshow? http://www.itechpost.com/articles/41410/20161015/budget-gpu-battle-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-ti-vs-amd.htm Thanks, Tom