alrobin

Yes, I've heard of people trying Virtual PC, too, and couldn't, probably because their Mac was too slow, or lacking in proper resources. This will be good news for Mac users, and also for Igor, who will have a whole new customer base from which to draw.

Dwight, welcome to the Forum. Sorry, PTE is not compatible with the Mac.

Hi, teefot, Welcome to the forum! The answer is "yes". See this recemt thread: Manual Control .

Hi, Vernon, This could be a problem with the music selection. Are you using mp3? Have you tried replacing the selection with another mp3 selection to see if maybe you have an incompatible music file? Does PTE run fine to the end if you do not try to interrupt it, and then hang up at the last slide when you try to exit? What happens if you select "exit after last slide"?

Cat, Roger is right about one track being the "ideal" way to prepare a synchronized show. The only other way to add 3 .exe's together, other than "packaging" them in some utility, is to program each one to run the next show (using "Project Options / Advanced / Run application after last slide"). Make sure you also check "Close show after last slide". Igor is planning to make it easier to fix certain slides and spread the remaing in between in a future version of PTE. My "Adjustor" spreadsheet model (available on Beechbrook) will also allow you to "pin" certain slides and spread the others evenly in between. I am currently updating the model to make it easier to do this. Hope this helps.

Hi, glazzers, The answer to both questions is, unfortunately, not at this time. Video shot with a digital camera is no different from other forms of video and there is no way as yet to insert it into a PTE show. However, you can convert a PTE show to video format, and then I believe that with the right video editing software, you should be able to combine these separate video portions together so that the whole collection looks and acts like a single video. Re your second question, this feature has been requested, and will possibly be available in the next version of the program. I am currently working to add this capability to my "Adjustor" spreadsheet model (available on Beechbrook), and will let you know when it is available. With this feature, one will be able to simply specify the times for certain images, and the model will automatically spread the intermediate images evenly between the various "pinned" times. You can approximate this capability now by judiciously changing the timing for the slides until those slides that you are interested in fall on the times desired, and then the model will spread the other slides evenly in between.

I would like to add to bjc's excellent idea if I may. Could you please also include an option to permit an overlap with the sound clip onto the next slide if no sound clip exists for the second slide, and then have this second (or third, etc.) slide remain on for the rest of the sound clip. An option button or check box could be added next to the "sound" line on the main window to indicate whether the sound clip should overlap or not for that slide.

Thanks, Guido! And, you're more than welcome! But no credit to me - I'm just passing on what I learned by listening in to the rest of you gurus!

Yes, Guru is right - there is no problem with timing discrepancies, even in the Fraunhofer-created mp3's, once you get them into PTE. Then you can modify and save the slideshow files as much as you want, and once the synchronization is set on the timeline, it is as accurate as you would want it to be, and also stable, thanks to the folks at WnSoft who worked on it (and especially the adaptation for Win 2000 - dual processor compatibility) for a long time in order to get it right. The problem occurs when you save as mp3, load back into Cool Edit, Sound Forge, etc., save again, re-load, re-save, etc. One should always create the sound as a .wav file, do all the editing, and saving, of different versions, etc., until one is happy that the file is suitable for the slide show, then save as an mp3 and don't go back into it for editing purposes. If you have to change something, use the last version of the .wav file, and re-save as an mp3. It's the same thing as with the images - best not to edit the jpeg's, but do all one's work on an original lossless .tif or .bmp or .psd file, and only save as a jpeg when all the editing is complete, unless, of course, as with digital cameras, one is starting with a jpeg. And in the latter case, if making modifications, go back to the original jpeg.

Alan, If you can't extract the text from your email as per my post in the thread previously identified, then you will need to email Wnsoft and have them send you a key in a "zipped" file so it will get through your email system properly. Are you using a web email system? If so this could be the reason for the problem with the text file, and you should either get WnSoft to send your key to a different email address, or have them zip it into a separate file.

Hi, Alan, Welcome to the Forum! Your problem with the key is a common one - sometimes the key file, which is a text file, is simply added to the bottom of the email message, so in order to use it you either have to go to WnSoft for a zipped copy of the file (so that it will be retained as a separate text file), or you can recover it yourself and copy it to the folder where you have installed PTE. Then you simply run "setup" again, and everything should be fine. You can find information on how to do this at this thread . Hope this helps!

I had a similar problem in an earlier version with Windows 2000 and mp3's created with the Fraunhofer codec in Cool Edit. Igor and I tested 7 or 8 alpha's before he found a solution, but he did manage to resolve it. Bic, would you be using Win 2000 by any chance? There is a known problem with mp3's created with Cool Edit and the Fraunhofer codec in that approx 25 ms of time are cut off of the beginning of the file each time it is read into Cool Edit and then saved again as an mp3. The solution to this, as Guru has indicated, is to use the Lame encoder.

Bob, I couldn't have said it better! I agree 100%. And, I'll bet you could win in court on that argument, too. Unless, of course, the slide show was deemed to be degrading or detrimental in some way to the music selections or the artists involved, which would rarely be the case. Our copyright laws are continuously being amended, but, unfortunately, not very wisely, and certainly not for the better. The recording companies are shooting themselves in the foot with the latest amendments. It really all boils down to greed on the part of those already making more profit than they deserve - while the artists themselves, (except for a minority of the more well-off and more vocal ones, who spoil it for the others), would love to spread their work around to make themselves known. It reminds me a little of the current standoff in the National Hockey League between the fat-cat owners and the even fatter-cat players. We the audience are caught in the middle. That's how I see it, anyway!

Thanks, Maureen. I'll need every point I can get! Especially when up against such formidable competition as your crew in the UK!!! Bob, According to the rules of the Super-Circuit, "entering a digital diaporama implies permission for public projection and acceptance of these rules. Digital diaporamas presented at any festival will be considered to be free of rights of ownership (artistic or otherwise) held by others. In case of dispute the French rules will prevail!" (whatever that means! ) So there is nothing really preventing the authors from providing the shows for public viewing if they wish to do so. In my case, I plan to post my show on my web site as soon as the competition is over (sometime next spring, as it is a 4 or 5-part circuit, with points being accumulated (hopefully) in each location). Maybe next year we can add some N American locations to the circuit.

Brian, It sounds interesting and I'm sure the procedure would be useful for those people looking for such a set of controls for lecture-type tutorial shows. How large is the demo file? Maybe you can get Bill (Cottage) to host it on Beechbrook. I would be interested in an email version of the procedure.

This means that the images are not where PTE thinks they are. Double-check the pathnames and image names of the images in the right-hand slide list (below the large preview image) and ensure that all pathnames and image names are correct. If this doesn't solve the problem, please come back and give us some more information as to how you are putting the pictures in the list, what list you are referring to, etc.

Maureen, Congratulations to you, Ian, Peter, and Ron on your success in both competitions!

Dana, IMO, mp3 seems to be the most popular "standard" at the moment, even though other formats are slightly more efficient or may have other advantages such as higher quality. I would stick with mp3, unless you want to go with a "free" format such as Ogg. I don't know if the IPOD will recognize the latter, though. And, I would stick with 128 kbps as I find it more than adequate for Hi Fi. However, you might want to consider the fact that in a few years you may be having to convert your collection to yet another format, and the greater the bit rate, the better the fidelity of the conversion. Storage of your collection is probably a greater consideration than format. Be careful what CD's or DVD's you save them on, and be sure you have back-ups. You will probably want to re-copy everything every 2 to 5 years, just to make sure the collection is archivally safe. Hard-drives can and do crash, too, so if you are storing on your HD, you should back that up, too. This is my opinion at the present time - music "standards" are in such a state of change and development at the moment, though, that next year we probably won't even recognize the equipment and software on the market. But, like everything else in this business, we will learn to accept and appreciate the advantages and make the necessary adjustments. For those who would like a summary of various options, with a short discussion about the issues involved, dbPowerAmp have a good page here on their Web Site .

solarwind, You would also need to add a "pause" button to stop the automatic advance under control of the "duration" timing. Then "advance" and "back" buttons will have the desired effect while leaving the show still in "pause" mode. A lot of extra work just to make sure the show does not get away from you, but it does give you a little more positive control.

Peggy, If you set your times at 5000 sec., you would have to "sit" on one slide for 83 minutes before it would become a concern.

Maureen, I think this would be a good option to have, even though it can be worked around, but this "work-around" process becomes tricky, especially to people new to PTE. And, just to add to your suggestion, if I may, it would also be handy to be able to view the images as thumbnails when in the timeline view, and simply click on one in the file list and drag it up onto the timeline to replace the one deleted (and also to add new images to the timeline).

Peggy, IMO, most "sensible" people would use PTE! What if you set the default delay time to say, 5000 seconds? Would this do the trick? You would also have to make sure all customized times were long, too, except where you want the program to take over.

Hi, Squeaky, IMO, unless your show is some sort of a documentary, you are best to custom-edit each image one at a time in Photoshop (or other image editor such as IrfanView) as some of the images probably need to be cropped and you will want each image to look its best. In Photoshop you can resize each image at the same time as you crop it. However, once the initial editing (cropping, sharpening, colour, brightness and contrast adjustment, spotting, and other digital manipulation) is finished, or if your images are so good they do not need any cropping and other individual treatment, then you can batch-resize them in both Photoshop and IrfanView. The latter is a free download from their web site. In Photoshop, set up the details of the automation in the "Actions" window (next to "History"), and then use the "File / Automate / Batch" menu to set up the batch process.

Hi again, Polkadots, PTE shows are too large to play properly from the web site, but it is possible to save a show to a web site for downloading and put a link to the file on a web page.

Hi, Polkadots, Yes, there are several ways to pause and resume a show, either by clicking on buttons or by pressing a mouse button. Check out the navigation bar and mouse customization in the Project Options / Advanced menu, and the various options for buttons in the Object Editor. My tutorial PTE-101 (available on the Beechbrook site) covers some of these options. Hope this helps!