alrobin

Steve, Now why would you even want to consider countering positive postings like these? We need more positive atitudes and encouragement, not negativity. "Soon" is a very relative term - much different when applied to building a house than when used in connection with development of software, as we have experienced many times with practically every product on the market. The "final release" of v.5 is more likely to be several years from now. As Lin Evans so eloquently pointed out in the preceding post, there is nothing that significant about a "release". In the case of PTE version 4, we had the first beta in 2003, with the "release" in March 2003, but the "final" release of v.4 was not until 4.48 in April, 2006. After the "release" WnSoft continued to improve on version 4 for 3 years. In the case of v.5, Igor elected to release the betas at an earlier stage in the development in order to obtain feedback from a few of us willing to test new features and provide suggestions and requests. But the overall development time, from initial beta to completion, for what has turned out to be a much more complicated and ambitious project, is, so far, about the same as for version 4. And Lin's other point about usability of v.5 is equally true in that we have already seen a number of very excellent AV productions created with it.

Neil, This is excellent, especially for a first show. A short, "no-nonsense" treatment of what must be a very relaxing, photogenic place to spend time wandering around and soaking in the surrounding beauty. From a personal taste point of view, I would like to have seen a few close-ups of people in the images. Must be some real characters hanging around a place like that??

Paul, I enjoyed watching your show. Some very nice photography, and the panning/zooming was tastefully done. I agree with the comments about shorter slide durations - maybe mix it up a bit more to increase the interest with some fast "cuts" interspersed among the slower dissolves. And I like the titles - IMHO, they make the show much more meaningful and interesting to watch, without detracting from the mood or message of the show, especially for people like myself who wouldn't recognize the locations.

Jeff, Glad Igor fixed your particular problem - he and Sergey did the same for me a while ago, and they are both amazing when it comes to understanding DVD issues.

Jeff, MP3's are the ones to use as they are more compact, but it's just that sometimes downloaded files are copy protected. Wave files are generally too big for use in PTE, and can cause problems too - when playing directly from a cd, for instance. Instead of going to "wav" files, try a different mp3 file.

Pat, Make sure you also check "Close show after last slide" in Proj Ops.

Tapeka, Is your previous version still fully functional? If so, then you don't need a new key. Only if you plan to move to a different computer. Clicking on the key adjusts the registry, after which the key file is only required if you have to re-format the drive or change computers. But, if you have lost your key file, it's a good idea to arrange to get a new one right away anyway. Best of luck!

Tapeka, Welcome back to the Forum! If you are already a registered user, and you still have the old version on your pc, then you shouldn't have to load a new key. Look for a 231-byte file called "REG.KEY" or "PTE.KEY" in the PTE folder, and if you still have it, make sure you copy it to a floppy disk or CD in case you need to install the program on another pc someday. If the new version of PTE doesn't seem to recognize it, then double-click on the key file, and it will register the program. If you have a new pc, and haven't kept the original PTE files, then you will have to send an email to WnSoft support and ask for another one. Hope this helps.

Fergy, This is an optical illusion - in fact the actions in v.5 are all perfectly linear. However, Igor added a "perspective" option which increases the speed of approach at the end of a zoom to more closely simulate reality. You can activate it by selecting "Perspective correction for Zoom" under the "Common" tab in "O&A". I'm not sure what happens when zooming out with this control applied, but I suspect it slows down the action toward the end.

JP, Very sorry to hear about your misfortune, and hope you are feeling stronger each day now. We need you back here on the Forum!

Thanks, and you too, Jeff! And please keep those spectacular desert landscape shows coming!

I reduced the resolution to 1440x900, and everything is fine. It only shows up at the maximum monitor res of 1680x1050 for some reason, but that's the resolution I use most of the time - I know what you're thinking (and I'll admit it - my eyes are gradually deteriorating, and I'll soon have to switch to a smaller resolution!)

Hi, Jeff, Thanks for posting the show - it's amazing how sharp the images are, particularly considering they are from scanned snapshots! This brought back some fine memories for me - my wife and I drove through that area on our honeymoon 42 years ago, and we actually bought gas from some of those old pumps. Of course, since we didn't know the area, we didn't see some of the highlights you showed in your presentation. (and, of course, we had other things on our mind! ) I have one observation - more for the benefit of Igor in the design of v.5: when I view the wide-screen show at my monitor's maximum resolution (1680x1050) there are annoying light-coloured lines along the left hand side and the top of most images (except where zooming in or out on an image larger than the screen area.) The attached image illustrates this. Everything is fine when I reset the monitor to 1280x768. Perhaps an underlying blackslide, slightly larger than the main image, would resolve this, but it should also be easy to correct it in the design of PTE. Please excuse the technical talk - overall, Jeff, it didn't really detract from your fine show!

Steve, As you know from past experience, issuing an "official" version is not the end of the design process for Igor and his team. It is really just a formality, as PTE is continuously being updated and improved, even after the "official" version is completed.

Dom, Igor asked us a while ago what our preferences were with respect to changes in slide duration, so I don't think the present situation is the final one. I believe he is going to give us some options.

Steve, I'm a bit puzzled by your comments on the "comments" facility in PTE, especially coming as they are at this time in the development process. It seems to me that your suggestions would have been more useful to Igor if they had been presented much earlier in the process. I have every confidence in Igor's intended designs for this feature, especially having seen how the other objects have been implemented in v.5 to date (i.e. with full PZR features, "liquid" transparent effects, different fonts, variable shadow control, etc., etc.) That being said, however, for advanced special effects, I personally prefer to add my comments and titles as part of the image, using other programs such as Photoshop, PhotoPaint, and 3D programs such as Xara, etc. "To each his own", I guess!

No one knows for sure, except maybe Igor. I have a feeling it will be quite soon.

Yes, as Keith says, if you have included them via CS2 then they should certainly be there in the video version, unless they are outside the "safe" zone and you are viewing on a TV set, but as Igor says, even then they may still be visible.

Jon, Unfortunately, that is one of the features not activated yet in version 5.

Gerard, The original image size doesn't matter a whole lot since in the rendering and compression process the images are all reduced in size to 720x540 (or some similar proportion, depending on PAL/NTSC, the codec used, etc.), and then upsized to show properly on your TV screen. (Since the TV is a fixed size, you won't see any difference in quality anyway with larger originals.) Remember, we are dealing with "video" here now, not a "normal" AV sequence.

Bernard, That scrolling credit line shows up much better now against the 3D background image. You did a wonderful job of capturing the 3D effect of those mountains while flying over them. Very effective!

Not many people have beta versions later than "u" - these were provided privately by Igor to some members having problems burning DVD's with the new beta versions, to attempt to resolve certain design issues.

Jon, Welcome to the Forum! I presume you are using version 4.48, so you will need to use a video-rendering and burning program such as Nero or Pinnacle or Premiere Elements, etc. after you have prepared the show in PTE. Version 5 betas have a second program called "Video Builder" which has the capability by itself to prepare and burn the video to a DVD. This might be one option for you if you don't need the version 4 features which have not yet been provided in version 5.

Fred, Were you by any chance using the option, "Cover Slide", in O&A? This will crop some images in certain scenarios. Or is the problem only after you have converted to video and played the presentation back on a TV or projector?

Thanks, Ken I noticed your post after I had replied here. (you have to scroll down now to reach the smilie, or else click "show all").