alrobin

Thanks again, Lin Not bad for a web-based application. As I mentioned before, the dissolves still leave something to be desired, but the other effects are quite impressive. Nice images, too.

Hi, GRC, Welcome to the Forum! You might find this THREAD helpful. Best of luck.

Lin, Thanks for posting this info and the link to the example. It's very impressive. I found that my pc wasn't keeping up to the streaming (or vice versa), though, and the show stopped mid-stream in a few places near the middle. I've never been too impressed with the alpha dissolves in Flash, but the dissolves in your example are not bad for a web production. Here's hoping Igor will come up with an even better way to achieve the Ken Burns effects in an actual show as well as the ability to convert to Flash for web viewing. What software did you use for the MPEG conversion? Woops - you answered my question as I was typing it. Thanks for the info. I'll have to give it a whirl!

Thomas, With the latest version of PTE, you will find double instances of the same image on the slide list if you add the transitions by clicking on "Insert slide". However, if you add a transition by clicking on "New transition", there should be no double occurrence of that image on the slide list unless it was there already. I referred to "New transition" because you mentioned version 4.31. With this version, after you add the images to the slide list in a new project, there won't be any transitions on the timeline until you add them either by clicking on "New transition" or "Timed points / Add arranged points" under "Automatic sync" mode. However, in my version 4.41, beta 3, all slides appear on the timeline as soon as they are "Added" from the main window. If the music is too short for all slides to be added at the 4-second default interval time, then the remainder are shown as being added beyond the end of the music selection, from where they can then be dragged and dropped onto the active portion of the timeline. Do you have the same experience with version 4.41? The only other thing I can think of that might cause your problem is that not all images are compatible with PTE. Try replacing the ones which don't show up on the timeline with other jpegs to see if this helps.

Lin, I have dabbled with Flash, and while it cannot replace PTE in terms of smooth fade effects, I tend to agree with you as far as zoom is concerned. Unless Igor can come up with an algorithm of his own, of course. He has already produced an excellent pan capability. More and more image programs are providing an output to Flash format. I seem to remember that Igor has already indicated that he intends to look into the possibility of doing so with PTE.

Thomas, Welcome to the Forum! Did you try to add images on the timeline by placing the cursor to the point desired and clicking "New transition"? With the older versions of PTE, the transitions are not automatically added to the timeline when you drag in new images to the slide list.

fuzzy, I agree with you that in these days of peer-to-peer music sharing there has to be a technical way around the problem. One way would be for someone to set up a special peer-to-peer network whereby one could reach out to certain folders within other members' pc's and "borrow" PTE files found therein. However, here in Canada, the music industry is trying very hard to put the boots to the peer-to-peer networks which at the moment are legal. Another way would be, as you suggested, for Igor to build in the capability for the slideshow to be put together (in fully synchronized mode) using a music selection downloaded legally from a music site (or taken from a CD), the identity of that piece recorded and noted in the slideshow, too, and then created without the music being included. The viewer would then have to be able to somehow add an identical selection of the same music to the show, or somehow be able to play it in synchronization with the show. Another alternative is to just forget about the problem and maybe it will go away. It would be interesting to know if anyone has ever been prosecuted for using a favourite selection of music from a record or a CD in a non-commercial slideshow. For a commercial show one should be prepared to legally obtain permission to use the music, whatever that may require.

Ken, I couldn't agree more with Dierdre's views on this. And this is especially true of music used for AV shows since not many would go to the trouble of "grabbing" the music from a slideshow to play on their home audio equipment - they would be more inclined to go out and buy the CD as the music on the AV is likely "distorted" somewhat to suit the theme or length of the show. I suspect that with music used for AV's the economics are by far in favour of the music industry.

Hi, yogi, Welcome to the Forum! When you say you are not allowed to open your old pte file, do you mean the project file? And what happens when you try to open the file? Do you get messages saying it can't find images and music, or is there a problem even getting the pte file to respond at all? If it's the former, you will need to assemble all the images and music files into one directory - the same one in which your old pte file is located. If you write to WnSoft support, they should be able to send you the version of pte that you want. They used to all be posted on the site, but the earlier ones have recently been removed.

Thanks, Brian, for a well-crafted and informational summary of this sensitive and oft-discussed topic. I believe that with the new technological capabilities, we are in the midst of radically revising the whole economic model associated with the distribution of "proprietary" material, and the associated issues of copyright and "piracy".

Jeff, To reinforce Jim's post, I believe this is the way Igor intended PTE to work - i.e. once you have decided to synchronize the show, the duration time adjustments on the timeline itself take priority over any changes in "Customize slide" or "Project options". Up until one decides to synch to the timeline, however, the other means of adjusting duration are in effect. I believe this is the way it should work - otherwise, how would the program know which information to use? And, if one is synching to the timeline, it is more accurate to make duration changes there. However, there is still another option available along the lines you are suggesting, even when synching on the timeline. You can enter actual times at the bottom of the timeline window by clicking on the transition point for image "X", entering a new time, and clicking on "Update". Of course this only changes the occurence time for a single image, "X" - you now need to highlight all transition points to the right of it by using click on the next image, and "shift-click" on the last one and "dragging" them to new times in accordance with the changes you made to image "X". You will find that if you have already clicked "Use own time preference" for certain images, the "customize" times for these images will also be updated in this process. Hope this helps some.

Igor, I agree that both "undo" and "file-recovery" would be valuable features. As for the latter, I agree with your suggestion to use the registration code as verification for enabling the "recovery" process, as that way there are no separate pin numbers or passwords to remember. Every system has its drawbacks, but IMO, I feel that your suggested approach would be the best. As for providing for potential recovery by the user, as alluded to by Ken, perhaps an "either/or" approach could be implemented so that if the maker wished to have the images more easily recoverable, provision could also be made for adding a password if desired, which the program would recognize if the registration code did not match. This feature would only be activated, of course, in those shows for which the maker specifically wished to allow a friend or client the capability to access the original images and/or music files. The default would be to be able to open the files only when the registration code matched. I also like your suggestion to give the user the option to disallow recovery under all circumstances, even by the author himself or herself.

Ron, I haven't had a problem saving as a suitable icon with my installation of PS-CS and the plug-in I'm using ("icoformat.8bi"). You may have to convert the image to "Indexed colour" mode first - I had to do this with one of mine. Note also that you have to convert the image mode to 8 bits per channel before you can select "indexed colour".

Daniel, I agree, it is normal to pause and continue, go back, etc. However, when we view an actual scene, we can stop and look whenever we want to, but in the PTE version we are constrained to stop at certain pre-determined locations. IMO, this somewhat destroys the "normal" effect. Maybe if Igor were to design a "pause" button that would stop the presentation in the middle of a transition this would help.

Ron, Did you do a search for "icons"? Here is an old thread that may help: Icons . I don't remember now where I found the plugin I use in Photoshop, but a search on Google resulted in the following hits: http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/ (photoshop plugin) http://www.icon-editor.net/ http://www.iconcool.com/ http://www.axialis.com/iconworkshop/ http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/gmm/fwicontools.html (freeware) http://www.cursorarts.com/ca_if.html http://www.hermancompute.com/ http://www.iconedit2.com/ etc., etc. Most are shareware, but even if you just download a free trial version every time you want to save an icon, there are probably enough there to keep you going for many years.

Igor, I hope it will include the ability to create icons for PTE.

Daniel, I often use MIDI but I like to convert it to an mp3 file to preserve the tone of the music. The only way I can think of adding a "finale" to your show would be to add a final slide with an ending of its own. There would still be a discontinuity, though when the music switches over to the final piece, but if it is similar to the main piece, this might be acceptable. Nice piece of work showing some great PTE capabilities! I'm waiting for someone to add a 360 deg panorama with movement in both horizontal and vertical directions.

Dave, You're absolutely right. And when you save your pte project file and images for future modifications to your show, you should always save the original wave files for your mp3's as well. If you start with mp3's you should always convert them to wave files first, work on them, and save them as wave files as well as mp3's, in case you want to go back and make changes.

Hey, Lin, that's not a bad idea! It shouldn't be too difficult for Igor to implement, either. It could be set up under password control, as a checked option, and perhaps it wouldn't be be to much more of a stretch to be able to instruct the executable to produce the original photos without significantly adding to the size of the .exe file, since they are embedded in it anyway. I think Granot's method uses a screen-capture procedure, doesn't it?

Ron, You have touched on one of the biggest fallacies in modern digital history - the dpi "wives' tale". As long as your images are 1024x768 pixels in size, you can set the dpi to 2 if you like, and there will be no change in the projected image!

Steve, There are a number of considerations. First of all, check to make sure the icon is in "indexed colour" mode (you can change this in PS or other image editor). Secondly, your icons must be in 16 or 256 colours, to be accepted by PTE. You can set the number of colours in the image editor when you are creating the graphics for the icon, or change it afterward in IrfanView. Last of all, make sure you are adding the 16x16 icon in the correct slot on the PTE menu. (There's one for each of 16px and 32 px.) Have you also added a 32x32 icon? Hope this helps.

momofoto, Welcome to the Forum. Just right-click on the link in the first post at the top of this page. Save it to a folder and then unzip and install the enclosed files.

JockOnTheRocks, Welcome to the Forum! InAWord, No. Sounds like you know what to do in order to convert to jpeg or gif format. PSD's would make for a very bulky slideshow file, anyway.

Hi, ClubMud, Welcome to 'Club PTE' and the Forum! Sorry, but there is no direct conversion. You would have to import all your images and music and graphics into PTE and start afresh. But, unless you have some exact synchronization of images to music, and some fancy transitions, it should not take long, provided you already have all your images and music files intact where you can readily find them.

Steve, On the timeline, just click on any particular transition point and the preview will start from there.