alrobin

Marco, I agree - accessing the main timeline from the animation window would be great. Possibly even merging the main timeline with the one for animation. But, I think this would represent a major effort and re-design. However, I believe it was already once suggested that the timeline and slide list could be combined in the same window. But, Igor, don't worry about it just now - it's time to take a good rest! Hope you have a great long-weekend! Thank-you for all you have given us so far with v. 5.0!

Many thanks, Igor! Will check it out in version 2.

Thanks, Ian. Igor is one step ahead of us. That is so cool! One thing I notice about the display in the object editor is that when working with aspect ratio 15:9 the image size for the added wide-screen objects (in my case 1280x768) isn't exactly the same as the displayed portion of the image I'm panning. So, when the show plays, I get two narrow bands of the panning image moving above and below the full-size image that I'm displaying over the panned image. 15:9 and 1280x768 should be exactly the same size.

Igor, Two design requests for whenever you have time to consider them, if I may: 1. It would be nice to have the capability to rename the "object tag" under "Objects" in the "Object & Animation" window. Once you have half a dozen images flying around the screen, it is hard to remember which is which. 2. It would be nice to have the "object tag" highlighted whenever one clicks on the object. The reverse is already true - when one clicks on the tag, the object "timeline" points are highlighted. I must say that after some initial frustration while becoming familiar with the program, it now seems very stable, and predictable, and also quite user-friendly. It is complicated, though, and not for the "faint-at-heart". Some of the design features are similar to those found in certain "timeline"-based graphics design and animation programs, but are much easier to follow and implement than in these other programs.

Robert, Try clicking on each of the "image" lines, in turn, under "Objects" at the bottom right-hand corner of the "Objects & animation" window. The keypoints should show for each image object as it is selected. I have also noticed that it is possible to have an image as a sub-object of another image. (This is a very clever feature in the program, and should lead to all kinds of interesting uses of pan & zoom!) I happened to put an image as a sub-image of a panning image, and wondered why the end-point had moved, but it was moving along with the image that was panning.

John, I use AVG which seems to be pretty unobtrusive, except when it is doing a scan of the system, and then it slows everything down. It is easy to cancel it, however. I am firewalled through my router. A hardware firewall may be the answer for you too, rather than doing it in software. When I have problems running a show, I shut everything else down, including anti-virus and email, etc. If both your email and internet utilitities are shut down, you should be pretty safe turning off the firewall for a few minutes while you run a show.

Bill, You've probably moved the original image and sound files around to different folders, and maybe even deleted some, since you created the show, so they may appear to be "lost" to the program. What you need to do if possible is to collect all the files used in the original project and put them, and the project ".pte" file into the same folder, then open PTE and open the project.

Igor, Something else to fix in Beta 2: When I start a new slideshow, set the list of effects possible to "fade" only, add some slides and music, select synch show, then change the transition timing on the timeline, the "Customize slide" menu for the images modified switches to "Effect / Use own transition effect" and "Use default effect but with own duration". However, when I then run "Preview", all the transitions are now "Circle (from centre)" instead of "Fade". I can force the "Fade" by entering "Customize slide" for each of the slides modified, and setting the effect to "Fade".

Ligia, You're on the right track. The steps for setting up separate presentation shows, all referenced by a menu show are as follows: Create the separate presentation show ".exe" files first. Make sure you choose the option "Project Options / Close show after last slide" for each show. Create the menu show. Choose the option "POptions / When show ends keep last slide in show on screen" and create buttons in "Object Editor", each of which has "Properties / Action on mouse click / Run application or open file" and input the name of the presentation show (".exe file") that you want that button to start up. There is another variant to this method which involves manually changing the slide-show ".pte" file for each presentation show in order to have background music playing when the "menu" show is "on", but we won't go there yet.

Igor, Runs fine on desktop (ATI Radeon 9600 "All in Wonder") On second try, at 60 sec on laptop (ATI Mobility Radeon X600), I received the following error report: - Total Pointers: 2773548 - Peak Pointers: 1934 - Peak Mem: 68450896 bytes - Leave Pointers: -1 (0 bytes)

No need to be embarrassed - we've all done something similar at one time or another.

Igor, Ran both tests several times - both ran with no memory-leak indications.

Dan, It should be easy to tell if the DVD is full or not. If there is room for more data, but your pc says it is full, then perhaps it has closed it off and you may have to try a different way to burn it. Try creating the "TS" files and folders into a single folder (directory) on your HD first, put the ".exe" and "autorun" files in the same folder (directory), and then burn everything in that folder (directory) onto the DVD in a single "session", or operation.

Lin, Well said! And perhaps the greatest asset with respect to PTE is having a keen producer who is always watching the Forum and responds promptly to our requests/complaints. I couldn't believe my eyes yesterday when I received a positive response from Igor 32 minutes after my suggestion about expanding the range of the technical data for panning large images! This is unheard of in the software industry!!

Hi, Ligia, Sorry my advice re Audition messed up your programs so much. I have no problem with Audition and Audacity and Cubase SX all running side by side on my system. They each have their own special advantages. But I agree with Andre in that you should try out Audacity first, as it sounds like it may be sufficient for your requirements (for now! ) But one thing that mystifies me is the reaction between Audition and your photoshop files. I too use CS2, as well as raw images, and there has never been any interaction between them and any sound editors. Of course I have never tried to import a raw image into Audition, and after your experience, I don't think I will try. Best of luck getting sound working in your PTE projects! MP3's are the way to go, though, and Audacity will be able to produce them for you. Beware of MP3's that you download from music supply sites, though, as they may have to be converted in another great sound program called "dbPowerAmp Music Converter". This is another great program that all AV producers should have in their toolbox.

Thanks, Lin, I used a transparent GIF (Ronnie, this stands for "Graphics Interchange Format" ) for the introduction to the sample pan of Brasov, Romania, that I posted on my website. (See HERE ) However, I was not very satisfied with the results, so your comments about "PNG" ("Portable Network Graphics") are much appreciated.

Ligia, By objects I was referring mainly to the "button" object at the top-left of the "Object Editor" window. If you click on it, it drops down a button which you can move with your mouse cursor to where you want it, then right-click on it, select properties, and tell it to run an external application such as another slide show. You can create a single-slide show, place a number of buttons on it, each programmed to open a particular segment of your slideshow, and use it that way as a sort of "menu" or "table of contents". You can find information in the Forum postings as to some tutorials on this, and information on how to set up each mini-show, etc.

Igor, That should do quite nicely, thanks. Now I'll have to go out and buy some more RAM so I can utilize the capability.

I've been experimenting with a slow pan through a very large panorama (11,000px x 3,000px), and while v. 5.0 displays it correctly, the position data stops incrementing at "1000" (either in pixels or percentages), making it impossible to line up the end view with the starting view of the next pan back in the opposite direction. I've put a simple and very boring version of this up on my webpage, just to show what can be done. Igor, would it be possible to increase the maximum allowed values of the panning data to something like 20,000 pixels, and in percentage format, to around 5,000% ? I want to be able to break up the pan into several images, but need the data in order to accurately position the start and end points for each image. Otherwise, the pan is very smooth, and easily covers that large a territory. Very impressive programming! One other feature which I like is the ability to change the duration of a slide on the timeline by typing in the appropriate value in "customize slide". The "Timing" values entered in "customize slide" now reflect more accurately the time on screen as shown on the timeline, without including the transition times. One thing to be aware of, though, is that if you increase or decrease the value for one image, all images after it are moved accordingly along the timeline. This is not a problem - just something to remember to compensate for when one is editing a show.

Ligia, Be careful about Cool Edit and Cool Edit Pro. This program was bought out by Adobe, and they renamed it "Audition". Last I heard, Syntrillium wasn't supporting it any more, so there may be some people out there still trying to sell copies of it without the ability to provide proper support, so make sure you check them out first. At least make sure you will be able to obtain the proper "key" to unlock the program. 45 minutes! Whew, that is a long slideshow. It might be easier on both you and your audience if you broke it up into sections, and then designed an introduction page with "Objects" programmed to call up each section as desired. Much like a DVD with a menu for different scenes. There is lots of information on the forum on how to do this, as well as examples on Beechbrook. Good luck with the project!

Hi, Ligia, Welcome to PTE and the Forum! This is a great program, and with the development and beta release of version 5, these are exciting times for both newcomers, and the "old hands" who have been using it for years! One way to incorporate several music selections and divide the show into segments, is to add the music, then identify the images which will make up the start and end of each segment. If you are adding separate music files, then the transition between them will be marked by blue vertical lines on the timeline. If you want the music selections to fade in and out, you will have to "trim" and "fade" each one first in another program called a "sound editor" (e.g. "Audacity", "Audition", etc.) The appropriate images can be spread evenly across each segment on the timeline by highlighting the first transition in the segment by clicking on the grey number on the timeline which represents it, and then "shift-clicking" on the rectangle for the last image in the segment (e.g. "to 10"). When highlighted, the transition markers will turn dark blue. Then select "Timed Points / Arrange selected points" to spread the transitions evenly over that segment. You may have to add or subtract some images in order to make them "fit" the music. Or, you may have to truncate a music selection in the sound editor to make it fit with the number of images desired. The most efficient, and safest, method of synchronization is to join all of the music selections together in "Audacity" (or other sound editor), along with any required fading, overlap, etc., and then adjust the positions of the transitions in a similar manner as already described. However, you will have to determine the end of each music selection by listening to it or knowing in advance how long it is. Hope this helps. It's not an easy topic to describe, as there are many different ways to go about this, and everyone has a favourite method. You really have to just experiment by starting with a simple show, and working your way through it. And, the more fussy you are with the timing of each transition, the more complicated it becomes. Best of luck!

Igor, Thank-you very much for posting this new beta - as you must have noticed, the troops were getting restless, so this should quell most of the scepticism about whether it would even be possible to implement the "Ken Burns" effects into PTE. Personally, at first glance, I like the way you have redesigned the Object Editor, and the ease at which it is possible to set "before and after" views of the various objects. Very clever and user-friendly! Of course we miss the "text" object, but that will come. I thought I noticed some text objects in your demos, though. And, it is now possible to quickly resize objects added to the Object Editor - a feature which was lacking in earlier versions. We all await the incorporation over the next few months of the rest of the many features which make PTE such a great and flexible program.

Igor, I was searching for updated drivers for my ATI Radeon 9600 card as you suggested and one of the pages I visited suggested I update the DirectX. So, I logged onto this Microsoft Website and downloaded and installed DirectX version 9.0c. The "PteShow.exe" show now runs fine, without the little hitch half-way thorugh the scrolling title, "Create your slide-show". I never did find any updated drivers for the ATI card, but everything is smooth now. Sorry, but I don't know which version of DirectX I had before.

Igor, I updated DirectX on my desktop pc (P4 with Radeon 9600), and now it runs perfectly, without the slight hiccup.

Igor, Just tried out the demos on my laptop (3.2 GHz P4, e.w. Radeon X600 video card), set at 1440x900 px. The shows run perfectly, without any noticeable glitches, except that after the first time I ran "PteShow", and only for the first time, I received the "Allocation Leakage Memory Report" with message:"Leave pointers: -1 (-28 bits)". The technology behind this demo is amazing. I think at one point there must be at least 4 objects all moving in different directions, at different speeds, while initiating a smooth transition into a "zoom" out at the same time. The possibilities for amazing special effects with this new version are going to be endless! You and Alexey and the rest of the team have really outdone yourselves with these fantastic results.