alrobin

Bill, This is a wonderful addition - I believe most slideshows need a preamble to set them up and explain the context in which they were created and give any other useful (and necessary) background information. I hope people use this new feature to make their shows more meaningful. By the way, Ron, I used only the "Reply" button here. "Quote" doesn't seem to do anything except light up when I press it. But pressing "Reply" alone seems to work just as well. One thing which people don't seem to realize is that it is possible to edit the original quote down to the particular point to which one is replying, thus saving reams of space in the Forum.

That works very well - you can also use the Object Editor and select the "picture" button (4th object icon at the top left) to insert a smaller jpeg or gif image over the background image. You can position the smaller image where you like, and even add in several small iimages over the same background image. Then, if you don't want the background image itself to show, simply un-check the "Show image" option opposite the name of the slide in the main window. Or, you can use a "black-slide" to overlay your smaller images as a way of reminding yourself which image on the slide list contains the "object" images, since so far there is no visual way of seeing which image has been "modified" in the Object Editor, without clicking on the image in the preview window or opening the object editor. I use both ways quite often myself - if using the object editor, however, you have to keep in mind the different resolutions that the show might be displayed on with other computers - there is a "scaling" problem in PTE whereby the images might overlap on lower monitor resolutions. You can test this out in the object edidtor at the top left corner by selecting various screen resolutions.

Lin, It works better now for me too. However, perhaps because the "network" was busy this AM, the show would suddenly stop until the stream caught up with it, continue on for a bit, and then stop again. I agree with you that this is not a satisfactory way to distribute one's shows. I much prefer to download a show and watch it at my leisure on my own pc setup (perhaps with the benefit of large-screen projection), even if it is a show of over 300 mb.

Lin, I get a message "Video not found or locked for fash.flv" when I click on that URL.

Sorry, Robin, I should have said "you add as much as 250 msec to the length of the music ...". It's been a while since I was faced with this problem myself. Also 250 msec is worst-case. The usual amount is more like 75 to 125 msec. If you don't want to have to go back to the original music selection each time, and replicate all the changes, it helps, whenever you save an mp3 file, to also save a ".wav" version as well, and then go back to this file when doing further editing.

Bill, A show at 800x600 is not out of the question if you are content to live with smaller-size images. If the show is designed for viewing on a TV set, this could be quite acceptable, as the normal resolution of a TV set is quite small (unless it is one of the modern high-definition sets, or a flat-screen monitor and you are used for playing movies from dvd's, or digital tv from a satellite dish). If you are planning on converting to DVD format for TV viewing, as Ken indicated, starting with a higher resolution before the conversion to video will produce more-satisfactory results. If you are viewing the show on a computer monitor, you have the choice of viewing the slideshow in its smaller format at your normal higher-resolution monitor settings, or else adjusting the resolution to 800x600, in which case you will fill the screen, but you will find that "jaggies" on the straight-lined objects to be quite pronounced. Below 800x600, the lower resolution could be a real problem. As you say, you really have to experiment to see what works for you.

Robin, One other thing you have to be aware of when using Cool Edit is that every time you save a music selection, you clip off as much as 250 msec from the length of the music (this amount depends on the bit rate you are saving as). This is a peculiarity of the Fraunhofer encoder - it is not a problem with the Lame encoder. So, when working with music files, every time you bring the music back into your sound editor it is important to go back to the original version of the music (unless of course you are working with the file in .wav format). Successive loadings and savings of an mp3 file in Cool Edit will make the music progressively shorter and shorter, thus putting your synchronization off.

Hi Bill, Welcome to the Forum! The current "standard" seems to be 1024x768 px. However, some people are now using larger formats - either for greater resolution, or for wide-screen formats to match their home theatre setups. 800x600 is usable, but it is definitely inferior to the higher-pixel dimensions. And, unfortunately, you can't satisfactorily resize these to 1024x768. It's best to go back to the source and either re-shoot, or re-scan, to a higher resolution. You need to define "will work with all these". The answer to your question really depends on how you plan to use the completed shows.

Igor, No problem! It didn't take you very long to get things back in service. It must be frustrating for you though, to have something like this, especially when you are so hard at work on the new version of PTE.

I just wanted to revive this thread and provide an update on our experience with the Canon Realis SX50 SXGA projector in the recent SuperCircuit Festival. The projector on loan from Canon, through a local retailer, performed marvelously, although as Andrew mentioned, we didn't really test out the higher resolution as most shows were designed for the most commonly-used 1024x768 size. However, the brightness was suitable for our 5.5 x 5.5 m. screen, and the image was very sharp, even projecting from close range (about 10 m.). Colours were bright, and real for the most part. We did have some trouble with calibration, but then no one knew how to do it properly. (I have since learned to calibrate the laptop instead of the projector.) I used my 3 MHz laptop to run all the shows, and everything went very smoothly. My laptop is a WXGA model (with maximum resolution 1440 x 900 px). For the projection, I set it to 1024 x 768, and everything worked fine, even though the images looked distorted on the laptop. I found the SX50 to be too bright for home use, and so I have since purchased the new Mitsubishi HC 3000 DLP WXGA projector (maximum resolution: 1280 x 768). I learned that most new projectors of the WXGA variety have a max res of 1280 x 720 px, so I appreciate the extra vertical pixels when I project a "normal" 1024x768 show. Also, this matches the 1280x768 setting on my HP laptop perfectly. I can use the PTE "Push" transition for panoramas on both the laptop and projector without leaving a gap between images, for both horizontal and vertical pans. Brightness is only 1000 lumens, and this can be toned down even further, so it's ideal for home use, but it makes use of the new Texas Instruments "Brilliant Colour" feature which can be switched on to give a semblance of greater brightness if using it with a larger screen. I have yet to test this feature in a public presentation with a large screen. I gave up the idea of a projector with even higher resolution mainly on the basis of price, as most of the new ones coming out now (and therefore the ones with the best price advantage) are targetted toward the HDTV and wide-screen home-theatre users. I also chose the wider aspect ratio over the common 3/4 ratio (e.g. 1024x768) as it allows me to display a full-frame image from my camera with the least amount of cropping for the same size image on-screen. 3/4 is not an ideal aspect ratio for the equivalent of 35-mm slides. We seem to be locked into this ratio because of the popularity of older pc monitors. However, the greatest feature of the HC 3000 is its density range of 1:4000. Even B&W presentations look awesome, with good contrast range through the highlights and shadows. I'm still working on the colour calibration - the yellows and greens are too intense, so I have to tone them down on the laptop when projecting slideshows. For some reason, though, the colouration in DVD movies looks perfect (skin-tones, fields of grass, etc.) They must use some more-advanced method of colour control.) I have also set up a special profile on the laptop in order to obtain a perfect neutral grey from grey-scale presentations. This is not suitable for colour presentations, however, so I will have to try to develop a more complicated profile that matches both. Overall, however, I'm very pleased with the Mitsubishi projector. I would be interested in other people's experience with colour calibration.

Jeff, Your timeline user guide is excellent! It should take a lot of the mystery out of using the timeline, especially for newcomers to the program. And you're right, it is a complex subject to master. Very well done! Hope you're all geared-up to modify it once Igor releases Version 5.0!

You're welcome! All the best - let us know if you have any problems or queries about the best way to go about preparing the sound for PTE.

Bill, What contributes to your greatest cost - storage space or bandwidth or both? I have lots of space on my site, but not any additional bandwidth, as my shows on Beechbrook are actually served from my own website, and I have noticed that my usage amounts are just under the maximum allowed. So, if bandwidth is not a big problem, I would be willing to provide space on my site for the older shows for free, once the initial flurry of downloading is over, in order to free up space on your site. I would transfer the show over and provide you with the link, so you could make the appropriate reference to it on Beechbrook. Storage costs in Canada are horrendous, so I transferred my web site over to "Brinkster", a US-based server, and so far they have proven to be very reliable, both for web hosting and email services. Their price is less than 1/5 th of the price for similar services in Canada. Their address is www.brinkster.com in case anyone wants to check them out.

I'd like to add my greetings to Ken's and wish everyone one on the Forum a very Happy Christmas, and a Wonderful New Year. And to you, too, Ken, all of the above, and the best of Health and Happiness!

Hi, Anne, Welcome to the Forum! In "Project Options / Screen / Screen Options", make sure you have "100% of screen to show slide images" set with no shadow. In the Background section, it also helps to choose a "solid colour" black background. Also select "Full-screen" mode instead of "Windowed mode". Also, make sure PTE is using the images you resized to 1024 x 768. However, if your monitor is set to a different resolution, and particularly one with a different aspect ration than the images, you will still see space around the images unless you choose the "fit-to-screen" option. You can see the file-spec for an image opposite "Show Image" on the main window when you click on an image in the slide list. Hope these help.

Could be the sound-card / music-file combination on your laptop, and something being incompatible. At least your Dec 17 deadline is met! It would be interesting to know if you can replicate the problem with another slideshow using different sound and images. Good luck with your detective work.

Igor, We will be forever grateful to both you and Aleksey for this improvement.

Sorry, Linda - I misread your original quote and started everyone off on the wrong track. For some reason I had Icons for brains that day!!

Dave, Welcome to the Forum! As I mentioned to you in my email, I tested your show by substituting music and image files and everything seemed to be in order, and ran fine on my XP machine. Also, your pte file seemed to be OK too (the transitions were very evenly spaced on the timeline and of consistent length, with no conflicts due to not having enough space between them. So, either it is your music file which is not good, or there is some other wierd bug showing up. Just out of curiosity, do you have the same experience if you first create the exe file in Win XP and export it to your Win2000 pc? Also, have you tried to replace the music with another selection? What sound cards are you using in your machines? If none of this helps, Igor may have to have a look at your files to see if he can spot anything amiss.

Hi, Linda, Welcome to the Forum! First of all, selection of an icon is optional. One way to create an icon is to obtain a plugin for Photoshop - there are some sites which offer either free or very low-priced plugins. I don't know if version CS-2 has that plugin already or not. You need to resize your image to 32 x 32 pixels or 16 x 16, depending on whether you also want a toolbar icon. Then you need to convert it to "Indexed" mode, with only 256 colours. Then you can save it as an ".ico" file if you have the Photoshop plugin, or use IrfanView (free download, and very useful for creating icons or batch modifications to images, etc.) If you do a search on the forum, you will probably find some more detailed information and links on where to find the required software and/or plugins for PS. Hope this helps.

Elijahnow, You won't need the CD recorder to create the sound track for the show. Just record through your sound card. There is already a simple recorder built into Windows that you can use if you don't have an alternative, but I would recommend using a sound editor such as Audacity to do the recording as you have more flexibility for re-recording over parts you don't like, etc. (Audacity is a free download). Save the completed file on your hard drive as an mp3 file and then put your show together in PTE, using the narrated track as your "music". Then, when you have "created" your completed show, you can burn it onto a CD if you wish.

Dave, I like to set the transition points by ear on the timeline, one after the other, as I listen to the playback of the music. Then, using the waveform, I revisit each point and drag it to the correct position in relation to the beat of the music as shown by peaks on the waveform. I set the transition point slightly ahead of the beat, the distance ahead being proportional to the length of the transition, as it takes a few milliseconds before one notices the start of a longer transition.

Den, You might just need to re-install your windows media player, or reinstall the free copy of RealPlayer.

Good advice, Ken! I bought an IPod Photo with 30 GB of memory before our trip to Romania this summer, along with the Belkin converter for the plug-in to the camera, and it worked very well. It's also nice to have the little preview window for viewing your photos, and the ITunes mp3 content for entertainment while travelling. Gives you an excuse for not listening to your wife all the time! The image transfer from the camera (Nikon D70), and the offloading to the pc when I got home worked like a charm. The main disadvantages of the unit are the small Li-Ion battery, and the fact that you can't easily (and cheaply) replace it once it dies.

John, Nothing very elaborate or complicated. My model is the "MAudio Firewire 'Audiophile'", Model 13, (with 1 line input, 2 line outputs, MIDI in and out, and S/PDIF in and out.) For the Output panel, I have all the volume sliders at maximum, even though I am only using output 1/2. On the Hardware panel, the sample rate detected shows 44100 Hz, and the ASIO buffer size is 256 samples. Sync source is "internal" and "level controller assignment" is the output bus. "hp source settings" are: A: 1/2 out, and B: 3/4 out. Most of these settings are "default" settings. If you are using a MIDI sequencer, settings get a little more complicated, as the ASIO settings become more critical - it took me a while to learn how to disable my internal pc soundcard, and make everything work through the new module, with the correct buffer size, etc. The Win XP "Control Panel / Sounds and Audio Devices" icon is very important. I have to go in periodically and reset the Volume control for all of the various output channels (wave, synth, CD player, etc.) and also reset the default "sound playback" module to "MAudio FW AP 1/2". My sound recording is all done through a mixer, so I just use the same settings on the MAudio unit for everything and control the volume, etc. with the mixer. Good luck with your new toys!