alrobin

Robert, I haven't started using DVD's for image storage yet, but I have about 100 slideshows on a DVD, and the file list comes up right away when I insert the disc. It takes 2 1/2 minutes for win XP to re-draw each of the little icons in front of the file names, though. And when I highlight all the files and right-click to see the properties (total files, and total file space, etc.), the DVD player clicks and churns away for several minutes before coming up with the information. The slideshows themselves play very promptly, and smoothly right from the DVD, though, so I think it will be OK as an image-storage medium. This is on my main P4, 2.8 GHz, machine.

Jim, Glad to hear you solved the problem, and in the process added important information to the body of knowledge on PTE. We'll have to bookmark this thread in case anyone else runs into a similar situation! Nice work!

Hi, Jim, PTE uses its own internal sound facility now. This is a strange problem. Sorry, I have no suggestions to offer.

Jim, How large are your image files? Do you have one large image or a couple of transitions very close together near the beginning that are hogging all the resources? Try replacing the first 2 or 3 images and make sure they are spread far enough apart to allow the computer to process them to see if this may be the problem.

Tony, When I play a piece of music through PTE I can hear it properly on all 5 speakers plus my sub-woofer - sounds great. And it sounds the same as when I play the same piece from the CD. Your system must not be set up correctly, particularly if you are only hearing the sounds from PTE through the back speakers. I'm afraid I can't help you without actually going through the setup procedure for your amp. The amp should interpret the music regardless of where it is coming from.

Yes, We can't always have our cake and eat it too! Unfortunately.

If you use the timeline, you are automatically (by definition) synching to the music. And, this is the only way to put together a "professional" show where the slide transitions will always occur in the same place in the music regardless of the computer which plays the show. If you are not synching, you can have certain slides start up a new music selection, and when you re-direct the show to those slides, that music will always play. If you are synching the show and have selected "permit control of show", the music will always play at the same position for the same slide, even if you back up or jump ahead to a certain slide. You don't have to join the music together (PTE works well with a list of music in Project Options), but it is easier to visualize the overall result (e.g. by using the waveform if you are synching the show) if all the music is joined together into a single selection. Hope this helps.

Tony, It really has nothing to do with Audacity or any other sound editor (unless you are using one of the more advanced editors such as Cubase which can create surround-sound files.) If you are using the back speakers only and playing a surround-sound-encoded piece of music, you will hear it differently than if you play a non-surround-sound piece from PTE through your pc.

David, I assume you are synching the show to the timeline. Just add a couple (or more) of slides to the end of the show on the "slide list", but do not add them to the timeline. Put your buttons on the first of these, and have one of them refer to the next slide by number. Don't forget to click "Permit control of show" in Project Options. Put in the oven for 35 minutes and then run!

In Dolby surround-sound, the vocals are contained in a so-called "phantom channel" which is derived basically from the front L & R speakers. Hence, if you only have the back two speakers connected, you will hear instrumental but little vocal music. One way to test the ability of PTE to produce suitable sounds is to temporarily replace the vocals in your show with the instrumental music that you can hear OK through the back channels. You should hear it equally well through PTE as separately on their own from the CD or mp3 player. In Dolby 5.1 however, the surround effects are encoded right into the audio so that you need a 5.1-compatible amp with speakers set up properly to achieve the true surround sound.

Igor, That seems to correct the error-report problem, but there is now a little "blink" when the view returns to the desktop.

I only get the error messages if I unselect "Show image" for one or more of the images. Doesn't have to be the first image.

Gary & Chuck, I just verified that I encounter the same two error messages when transitioning to the desktop at the end of a synched show. Looks like it may be a bug.

Gary, you have to make sure you have added all of the slides in the slide list to the timeline. While the timeline is playing, try clicking on "New Transition" to see if any more slides "drop" onto the timeline.

sdipjmc, Do your mp3 files have the extension ".mp3"? If you are still having trouble seeing them in the "Add Music" browse menu, double-check that they are there (using Windows Explorer or My Computer), and if they are where they should be, try rebooting your pc. The presence of the ".wav" files should not have any bearing on the problem.

Goddi, If you scroll along the timeline, you will see small vertical blue lines at the end of one piece of music and the start of the next. This is the only indication in PTE as to which images are lined-up with which music selection. However, if you take note of the lengths of each music piece, it is not too difficult to calculate which images will appear for each music selection. If Igor would add the lengths for each music selection to the .pte script file, I could easily change "PTE-Adjustor" to show which images were associated with which piece of music.

snapper, I suspect that you may have some pictures in the Object Editor which are not where the program thinks thery are.

For Excel 97 users, there are several ways in which you can use the new version of PTE-Adjustor with Excel 97. Brian (Conflow) tells me he has successfully tested the new Adjustor in a version of Office 97 which has been upgraded to the basic Office 2000 features (see Microsoft web site). It isn't a full upgrade, but apparently contains the necessary features to be able to run the new Adjustor. Or, if you don't want to upgrade to Office (or Excel) 2000), you can manually open a .pte file in Excel 97, once you have Adjustor open. You will be faced with the "Text Import Wizard" instead of the automatic loading form presented when opening Adjustor in Excel 2000. Simply click on "Finish" and the file should open as a second open single-column worksheet. Next you must save this worksheet as "ptesource.xls" in order to continue working with the model. This is a temporary file so don't worry about saving over a previously saved "ptesource" file. When you are finished working with Adjustor, you must save "ptesource.xls" as a ".prn" file. You can give it whatever name you want, such as "MyPTEFile.prn". Then simply go into Explorer (or My Computer) and change the name from "MyPTEFile.prn" to "MyPTEFile.pte". Hope this helps all the people out there who do not wish to upgrade to MS Office 2000, but would still like to use PTE-Adjustor.

Jeanie, What type of music file are you using? If you are using ".wav" file that may be the problem. I had trouble running an otherwise trouble-free show from a cd on a laptop once because I was synching to a large wave file which took up all my pc resources.

Jean-Claude, Welcome to the Forum! You're starting off with a real "bang"! I had a quick look at your utility, and it is obvious you have put a lot of effort into it! It should be very useful. I especially like the fact that it interfaces smoothly with the PTE files, something that I was not able to do with my spreadsheet-based "PTE-Adjustor". I also applaud your efforts in making it bilingual. Can you give us any information on how long it took you to build it, and what programming language you used? Congratulations on a very well-thought-out and all-inclusive model! Nice work!

Dave, There are basic instructions on the "Help" tab (#2) at the bottom of the spreadsheet. By the way, I've just uploaded a revision to the model, to include on the printout sheet any external applications to be run at the end of the show, and also a column indicating the time at which the transition for each image occurs. Please check in from time to time, as over the next few days I may upload new versions under the same version number as I work out some of the minor bugs. I will post a note here on the Forum for anything major.

I have posted a new version of the PTE-Adjustor Model HERE on my web site. It permits the specifying of times from the start of the show for certain slides and then spreads all other slides evenly in between. Other new features are: - ability to toggle directory pathnames on and off for images, music files, and external application files. - display of other parameters such as those images using objects, images which are not shown, sound files, list of music files, comments, smoothing, and external applications. - provision of a compact worksheet for printing. - ability to delete specific slides. If you try it out, please let me know of any glitches. Unfortunately for some, it works best with Excel 2000 or better. Excel 97 users who do not wish to upgrade their Office 97 can use it manually as per post below.

Happy Birthday, Igor!! You deserve it! And here's to many more to come!

Igor, I think this option would be very useful, and more user-friendly than the present system for editing an already-prepared or semi-prepared show. If you are adding the ability to delete points when slides are deleted, how about also the option to delete a slide when you delete an assigned transition point? I don't think it would be useful to have slides automatically added to the timeline when first starting a new project, as some prefer to spread the slides evenly, and others prefer to add them by pressing "New transition". I think these features should be applied as options as some people already have their preferred method of adding and deleting slides. Like Marco, I'm not too sure about the usefulness of having linked slideshows start on specified slides - however, it may be useful to some, and would certainly provide more flexibility in using linked shows. Looking forward to the new features!

Jan, That's a very beautiful show - could be an award-winner! You utilized PTE very cleverly, and kept the show simple, concentrating on the main theme. And the timing with the music was also very good. Was it synchronized to the timeline?