alrobin

Also make sure the second chapter was saved as a v.5 slideshow.

Garic, What is the total time in PTE? Are your images very large? What type of music are you using? It's possible that the total time is a bit too much for the DVD. I would try burning the second chapter by itself, and experimenting with different options, both in VB and in PTE (maybe select different music, change the picture and transition times, etc.) to see if this changes anything.

Lin, Sorry to hear about your server problems, but glad to hear your eyes are on the mend!

What do you mean by a "Startup Window"? OK, I think I know what you are referring to. It may be that the"Startup Window" is not fully functional in the new beta. It's not transparent in my example. Have you assigned an image to it?

Henri, The question has come up before regarding running PTE on a PDA, and the answer is "no" - not possible in Windows CE.

Sharon, The RPS have an AV section, which sponsors excellent demo sessions and tutorials, etc., throughout the UK. Maureen Albright, a regular contributor to this Forum, has created an excellent website for the Society, and I am sure she would be happy to point you in the right direction regarding other resources in your area (she knows everybody!). Unfortunately (for you, not for her), she is about to depart for Australia where she will be helping to judge an international AV competition, so she may not have time to help you out much at this time. The website is well worth investigating, however, if you haven't already done so. http://www.avg.rps.org/

Hi, Sharon, Welcome to the Forum! As you are aware by now, PTE has some clever features and by far the smoothest transitions for assembling professional-type sequences of still images. And it is affordable by anyone. To answer your questions, as Ken & Kieth have already mentioned, start slowly, as the learning-curve for any program with this many features and capabilities is very long and steep. You can learn enough to put together a simple show in an hour, but the rest will take weeks of searching the Forum, watching other people's demos, downloading and watching other shows (for example those on www.beechbrook.com/pte .) But it is certainly worth all the effort. I would start with version 4.48 as it is the most recent "official" version - version 5 offers pan, zoom, and rotate capabilities, but it's development is not yet finished. But it is fun to play with. A long time ago I put together a "basic" tutorial, PTE-101 available on Beechbrook, or from my website: www.alrobinson.com/pte101.zip . This might help you get started. It is a little out of date, but the basics still apply. Many of the features described are not yet available in the new beta. No - it is all-inclusive. In fact, the new version will also have the capability to burn a DVD of your shows. www.wnsoft.com Everyone is "PTE Challenged" at first introduction to the program - but anyone can learn how to use it if they are persistent with it. Post your questions here and there are lots of people to help you get on your feet. But try experimenting with the program first - you can't hurt anything by trying out the different features. And read all the past Forum postings. They will seem confusing at first, but if you follow them in the order in which they were posted, they will start to make sense. Everything, except make the morning coffee (it even has a piece of toast! - inside joke) Best of luck!

Bill, They aren't numbered. But you can count the edges of the pages as they turn, and just like a real book, the pages gradually move to the front section of the book as they are turned.

Exquisite, JP! I noticed you even counted the pages and showed the correct number on each side of the book as they were being turned - very clever! Of course I wouldn't expect anything less from you! One thing I noticed - just a picky little thing (and it doesn't detract at all from the overall effect) - the images seem to "adjust" themselves slightly to the frame at the beginning and at the end of the "turn". Is this because they are being activated separately from the frames?

Lin, That's quite a snowstorm. Hope you don't have to shovel out from under this one, too!

Sorry, Igor, I misunderstood you to mean "create ISO image and burn the show to a DVD at the same time", features which are already available in VB. I didn't think of the option to burn a previously-created ISO image. I guess that this would be a handy feature for creating multiple copies of a DVD.

When you select the option to create an mpeg file, VB calls the file "0.mpg", and overwrites any other "0.mpg" file in that directory. It would help if VB would name the mpeg file the same as it names the "iso" file. It would help too if VB would also automatically put the mpeg and iso files in the same video directory as it puts the "AUDIO_TS" and "VIDEO_TS" folders. (i.e. a directory by the same name as the VB "Project Name".)

Igor, I thought that capability was already in VB? While Sergey is doing that, could you please ask him to have VB create a unique file name for the mpeg files, too?

Norrie, Welcome to the Forum! Will you be posting the show? Would love to see your panoramas!

morasoft, You certainly have a flair for dramatic openings! My head was spinning by the time I reached the images of the volcano and surroundings. Beautiful images, and great colours in the rocks and hillsides. Thanks for sharing, and continuing to improve the show!

Peter, I have been successful in creating the two video folders with their files on the HD and then simply copying them over intact to a DVD. No loss of audio, even though its folder is empty. However, as Igor mentioned in another thread, this is not advisable as it does not always work for every DVD player (particularly the older ones).

Jane, Most mp3's will work, as will most "wav" files. However, the "wav" files should be converted to mp3 for size considerations. You can find a lot of good free music by doing a search in Google. There is also a lot of music for which you pay a few cents to download, but these are quite often copy-protected and not useable in PTE unless they are converted. A good free music converter is "dbPowerAmp Music Converter". You might have to pay for the "Lame" mp3 codec. However, I believe you can still find free copies on the net. And, of course with a sound-card, audio editor, and CD player you can "rip" music from CD's and re-save as mp3's. A great free editor is one called "Audacity".

I know it doesn't always work - but it works for me with my player, so it's a handy way to copy a show to a DVD. However, the ISO file is probably the best way to do it.

Gary, The problem is with the "customize" function. If you select to have only one button, the wrong one gets applied - I thought Igor had corrected that a while ago, but apparently not. It only shows up if you deselect all but one of the buttons in "PO/Advanced/Customize".

Maybe not, but at least it also provides a way to globally clear all custom comments and replace them if you want.

Jim, In V.4.48 you can also select "Windowed mode", and you can then move the show over to the second screen. This feature is not active yet in v.5, but will be eventually.

Patrick, Igor already addressed this problem many moons ago, and provided a way to both globally enter comments and also retain custom comments. 1. Use "Proj Ops / Comments" to assign file names to the comments for all slides. 2. Exit Project Options. This will make the comments visible on all slides. 3. Open Project Options again and uncheck "Select comments for all slides". This will disable the ability of Proj Ops to change your custom comments. 4. Type your custom comments in "Comments" on the main window for each of the 4 slides you want to customize. Project Options will not change these now. The order of operations I described earlier will also work.

Peter, The video files required on the DVD, and which Video Builder automatically creates, for a single show, are the following: VIDEO_TS.BUP VIDEO_TS.IFO VIDEO_TS.VOB VTS_01_0.BUP VTS_01_0.IFO VTS_01_0.VOB VTS_01_1.VOB The last file contains the video content for the show, and the one before it controls the content of the menu. As Ken has indicated, all of these files are contained in a folder called "VIDEO_TS". The other folder on the DVD will be "AUDIO_TS", but if you have used "Video Builder" to burn the show, it will likely be empty. You can see these folders and files on your HD if you select "Create DVD folders" on the third options screen of Video Builder. Look for a folder by the same name that you gave to the project at the top of the same screen.

Patrick, everything is not OK. After you modify the comment of a slide, and before you save the project, open project options again and de-select "Select comments for all slides as" on the "Comments" tab. This will prevent Proj Ops from changing the custom comments you added.

Welcome back, Bernard. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your wonderful 3d photography. Everyone I show your 3d scenes from Paris to is absolutely amazed, especially when I project the sequence onto a large screen.