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Sal, It's not the same product. Other than that, I know nothing about it. Check their web site, and you will see that it's a completely different program. I doubt if it has as smooth a dissolve as PTE!

Sue, You're welcome. 7 systems for two people - wow! Or do you have kids occupying the other systems when they aren't in production? It's good to keep an older-model pc around when making PTE shows, though, just for a "drop-test", as a final test of the show's ruggedness. By the way, instead of applying text using objects, it's almost as easy, and a lot more reliable, to do it in Photoshop, or similar image editor, thus making a second image with the title applied. There is no noticeable transition from the first image to the second, except for the appearance of the text, and you can control where in the image the text will appear..

Bill, This is very good advice - it's something I've been stressing often in reply to people with problems in the smooth operation of PTE. It also applies to background running of automatic email gathering software, virus software, fax software, etc., particularly on resource-challenged pc's. I find with my MS system monitor, though, that it uses very little processor time (approx 2 or 3%), and it can be set to scan only once every 3 or 4 seconds if desired. Of course it's probably not covering as many parameters as Task Info.

OK, it must be my machine just not able to keep up. I was pretty sure you would had synched it - I'll try it out on my laptop which is a little faster. My desktop speed is 400 KHz (Celeron). By the way, how large are your image files on average?

Hi, Sharon, Interesting show - made me a bit dizzy watching it, but it was well done! I would like to see the images in sync with the music, though. I noticed in experimenting with the newer PTE versions that if the images are too fast, they sort of back up, and get out of sync, but the show doesn't completely stop like it used to, so maybe it was because of my slow pc?? Great idea, though! Do you do your own MIDI compositions? If so, what sequencer do you use? I'm trying to compose some of my own, and it's a lot of work!! Keep up the original work!

Hi, Sue, Yes, you need to consider both the screen size and the "horsepower" (particularly processor speed) of your viewers when creating a PTE show. The Object editor does not have a scaling capability which takes into consideration the resolution of the viewer's screen, so you have to be careful when positioning and sizing objects, and be sure to test the show with the monitor set at the minimum resolution you expect your viewers to be using. Maybe in the future, scaling of the objects will be added to PTE??? If you put your shows in "windowed mode", the scale will be preserved. However, some if not most shows are created as "full-screen". To achieve the smoothest fades, use the smallest, but still satisfactory, images (usually less than 200 kb jpeg file size, and even smaller for older, slower pc's) You might even have limit the size to around 800 x 600, and file size no larger than 75 kb, for instance. Digital AV is an area where pc and video-card horsepower really matter. Hope this helps.

Thanks, Igor - that clears up the mystery. It's one which has been confusing me for some time now (the truncation in one OS and addition of silence in another). So, I always thought it was something caused by the OS. By the way, in the new beta 15, in Win XP, I don't notice any of these problems. I appreciate greatly your efforts on this problem which turned out not to be a PTE problem after all. (What other product support would give one this kind of attention?) And Guido, thanks for the links. I have been visiting the Cool Edit forum some lately, but missed this one. There are so many experts on this forum, I learn something every day!!

I'm still having problems in Win Me, for both the 22050 Hz, 128 kbps option and the 44100 Hz, 96 kbps option. In both, the music is too early for the transition (worse in the first option). The other two that I had tested in beta 14 are OK.

Igor, I tested beta version 15 in Win XP, and it seems to work as intended in all 4 scenarios! That's great! Now if MS would stick to the same parameters in all OS's, there would be a lot less work for all of us!

Igor, It acts up the same way in version 4.01, using Win 2K. I will send you the file - the two 10-min pulses are at exactly 10:00.0 and 10:01.0 (you can't miss them). The mp3 file is 10:45.802 in length. The pulses were positioned at exactly those times in the .wav file, but in the .mp3 version they occur at 9:58.776 and 9:59.776 due to clipping at the front of the wave. However, on the timeline, they still play back at the 10 minute mark if no pause and replay is selected.

Igor, Based on a quick check of my worst-case scenario, the new beta works perfectly! Thank-you so much! (you must have worked all night??? ) Edit: Woops! All is fine in W 2K for the 22050, 96kpbs scenario. However, both the 22050, 128kbps and the 44100, 128 kbps scenario still have the same problem - sound bursts coming too early. (as much as 1.4 sec at the 10-minute mark.) However, playing through without pausing or clicking on the timeline sounds just right.

Test results for Win 2K were very interesting! With mp3, CBR 96 kbps, 22050 Hz: - 2 min: Pause: music 0.2 sec delay; Click: 0.4 sec delay (it's always 0.2 sec later than for pause). - 6 min: Pause: music 0.5 sec delay; Click: 0.7 sec. delay - 10 min: Pause: 1 sec delay; Click: 1.2 sec. delay With mp3, CBR 128 kbps, 22050 Hz: - 2 min: Pause: music early by 0.3 sec; Click: 0.1 sec early . - 6 min: Pause: music 0.9 sec early; Click: 0.7 sec early. - 10 min: Pause: 1.4 sec early; Click: 1.2 sec. early. With mp3, CBR 96 kbps, 44100 Hz: - 2 min: Pause: music early by 0.3 sec; Click: 0.1 sec early . - 6 min: Pause: music 0.6 sec early; Click: 0.4 sec early. - 10 min: Pause: 1.0 sec early; Click: 0.8 sec. early. With mp3, CBR 128 kbps, 44100 Hz: (almost same as for128 kbps, 22050 hz) - 2 min: Pause: music early by 0.3 sec; Click: 0.1 sec early . - 6 min: Pause: music 0.8 sec early; Click: 0.6 sec early. - 10 min: Pause: 1.4 sec early; Click: 1.2 sec. early. Go figure!

Results for Win Me, with mp3: CDR, 128 kbps, 44100 Hz: similar to those for Win XP. Even at 2 min. (no difference for either pausing or clicking back.) 6 min: - Pause: no delay - click back: approx 0.1 sec delay 10 min: - Pause: no delay - click back: approx 0.2 sec delay Again, there is a discontinuity in the music when one pauses, clicks back in time on the timeline, and re-starts the playback. The cursor backs up momentarily and there is a slight glitch in the music. Conclusion so far: it makes a big difference if you convert to mp3 using 22050 Hz sampling & CDR 96 kbps. Will do some tests to see if mp3's at 96kbps react differently than those at 128 kbps or whether the delay is caused by the sampling rate alone.

Jim, At least the show starts with different slides when you play the preview again. I haven't used this feature so can't give you a definitive answer. Igor will have to speak for the design, and how effective it is. Re your second query, why would you want to synchronize a show if you don't know which slides will be played where and when? Synchronization usually signifies control, which is opposite to the idea of randomness. But, then again, why not? I imagine Igor felt that the random-slide feature wouldn't be needed if the show were synchronized. Maybe it could be added as a feature in later versions of the program if a real need for it can be demonstrated.

Igor, I have made some tests of Beta 14 on my Win Me setup, using an mp3 file, CDR of 96 kbps, & 22050 Hz sampling rate. The results are as follows: As I have earlier indicated, the mp3 file length varies between Cool Edit and PTE; saving as an mp3 with the above parameters cuts off some of the silence at the beginning when viewed back in Cool Edit. However, in PTE, it plays close to the original .wav file timing. ????? Pressing "pause" and clicking back on the timeline now both cause a delay in the music. This delay increases over time on the timeline. For example, at 2 minutes, "pause" causes a delay of approx 0.2 sec., and "click" back on the timeline causes a delay of approx 0.4 sec. There is also a slight discontinuity in the sound when one presses "pause", repositions the cursor back a few seconds, and then presses "play" again. The cursor also momentarily backs up a slight amount. These discontinuities do not occur when one clicks back on the timeline. At 10 minutes, this delay increases to approx. 0.9 sec for "pause" and 1.1 sec for "click". I will continue to make more tests, particularly using 44100 Hz and 128 kbps on the W Me system, and 22050 hz in W XP for comparison with the first two tests. Let me know if you have any other ideas.

Ok, Igor, here is the result from my latest test, with Win XP. This time I saved the original wav file to .mp3 based on 44100 Hz sampling, 128 kbps CBR The test music selection has 3 short bursts of tone (20 ms) at 1-sec intervals, every minute, starting at 2 min. I still detect a slight delay (about 0.2 sec) in the music, this time only when clicking back on the timeline as before for Win 2k, and not until about the 9-minute mark. However, it does seem to clear up when I press "pause", reposition the cursor, and then continue again. I've checked the tones against Cool Edit to ensure they are at the exact positions in PTE. I'll do a similar test for W 98 and 2K, and also for the 22050 Hz sampling rate again this weekend. Are you having similar results with the new beta, Harold?

Yes, the sound quality is great, even when stopping and starting! You've done a great job on the new sound player.

Igor, CBR, 10:44.6. And 22050 Hz sampling rate. I will create another mp3 and set sound bursts as you suggest, for a more accurate test.

Igor, For me now it's worse than before. Now the timeline goes out of sync in W XP too, by about 0.3 sec. Also, in all OS's (XP, Me & 2K) it goes out of sync when I press "pause" and then "start" again. (W XP used to just back up the moving cursor and continue on, without losing sync, but only when I clicked back on the timeline.) Now it happens both when I click on the timeline and when I press "Pause". Hope this doesn't spoil your weekend! It can wait til Monday!!

Guido, I have the same problem in both Win Me (400 KHz Celeron) and Win 2000 (dual 400 MHz Celerons). It shows up first around 2 min into the show. When I click back on the timeline while the timeline is running (I've only tried it in AutoScroll Style 1 so far), the music becomes delayed by approx 1 sec. However, if I pause the timeline, click back to the same spot, and then start the timeline again, everything is back in sync. Then if I click back while running, the same delay occurs and does not catch up until I either pause or stop the show. I don't seem to have the same problem in Win XP (700 MHz). However, in XP, I notice that the scrolling cursor backs up approx 0.2 sec periodically and continues on from there, so maybe this is its way of "catching up" in XP. (someone already complained some time ago about this phenomenon). I don't use this method of synching much (maybe because I use mainly slow dissolves, and don't have occasion to get too accurate with my dissolves most of the time) so didn't notice this until Harold pointed it out. I usually pause and stop the show when adjusting the transition points.

Harold, I just went back and re-tested my Dempster show under the new beta 12b, and you are right about it losing sync. It seems to go off by about a second (the music comes in a second later than it should) around the two minute mark after I go back a few times by clicking on the timeline. You were right! Igor, we definitely need a fix on this one!

Harold, I noticed something similar, in that around the 5-min mark, the synchronization seems to build up a delay of about 1 second in the re-positioning process. I am using mp3 as well, and testing with my Dempster show. In other words, when you click back in time, the current music plays for about a second until the music at the new position "kicks-in", but from then on, everything is in perfect synch. I assumed that this is just due to a processing-time delay, and found that if you reposition the cursor far enough back (at least 1 sec, but preferrably a couple of seconds) on the timeline, by the time it reaches the transition being tested, everything is back in sync. Is this the same as what you are experiencing?

Sorry, Harold, I didn't see your posting before I started mine. But, we both said more or less the same thing.

Jim, That is what Igor originally intended with the use of the "project name" idea. In the programming world, as you mentioned, the use of projects is commonplace, and necessary, as one is dealing with a number of different files, all of which are part of a "project". However, in PTE there is really only one file, not counting the different versions one might "save as" so as not to lose earlier versions. So, the use of a "project" is not really necessary. And, the way it was being implemented was counter to the normal file-saving process, and Igor received quite a few complaints. So he agreed to eliminate the use of the "project name", except as a default name to start the ball rolling in a new .pte file, where the default filename for saving one's pte file or for creating one's exe file, is this "project name". Now, when you save your file, you just "save" or "save as" like you would with MS Word, or notepad, etc., etc. The only difference between the way PTE operates and other similar programs, is that PTE prompts you for a filename when you first open a new file. These other programs wait until you do your first "save" or "save as" to obtain a file name.

Hi, Bill, Sorry I didn't reply earlier - got carried away with "captions" I guess! Thanks for the comments - glad you caught the meaning of my licence plate - not many people get it, even other photographers!