alrobin

Hi, Brian, I guess I was thinking of the PTE "creation" process literally as being just that final step of pressing the "create slideshow" button rather than the whole overall process of previewing, saving, editing, etc. Thanks for the clarification! I'll give this utility a try! I'm like you, I hate to mess around with regedit! But, thanks, too , Michel, for adding this to our knowledge base - it helps too to know just what these utilities are doing, and how to get out of a jam when other things fail.

Hi, Photo1, Welcome to the Forum! Two methods: 1. In both methods, make sure you have added your sound files in Project Options. Then open the timeline and press "Timed points / Add arranged points" and rearrange the transition points by clicking on the small rectangles and moving them with the mouse. or 2. In the timeline, add the images by playing the background music and clicking on "New transition" whenever you want a transition to occur. Try experimenting with these two methods, and you will soon develop a methodology which feels best for you. My tutorial, "PTE-101", available on the Beechbrook site, might help with some of the details. You can also use my spreadsheet model, "PTE Adjustor", also available on Beechbrook, to help distribute the slides evenly over the individual music selections. You must realize that all of this requires some trial and error in order to get the transitions appearing precisely where you want them. While not essential, it may also help to control the timing if you first "splice" the music selections together in a sound editor such as "Audacity" or "Audition". All the best!

Hi, Brian, Thanks for the info - this sounds like a very useful utility. Just a quick question - what role does it play in the creation of a PTE exe file? Or did you mean "run" an exe.? Just showing my ignorance!

Hi, Brian, Project Options / Customize Synchronization. This you have to set up before "creating" the show, or saving it as an "avi" file for burning a dvd. I wasn't sure if you were going the dvd route - you mentioned Roxio in your original post, but it can also be used to burn a cd with your "exe" file. I don't know if synching the show makes any difference if you are burning a dvd, but it might help stabilize the music/image synchronization there too.

Hi, David, The link worked for me! The suggestion is slightly different from the suggestions in the previous thread and has more to do with rearranging slides on the slide list or light table, or even adding new slides to the list, without upsetting all the work in fine-tuning a specific sequence of slides in between. The Adjustor model provides a "work-around" for this situation, but it would be handy to have this feature built into PTE, itself, as an option, as well as the "slide-pinning" capability mentioned by both you and Alan. It sounds like Igor is going to do something on this in the next main revision.

Briank, To achieve perfect synchronization between music and images you have to use the timeline to line everything up. Using the slide delay times in "customize slide" will work for the pc on which the show is created, but the show will lose sync on different pc's.

I have just noticed one problem with this feature - after playing the entire synchronized portion of the show, and then manually advancing a few of the remaining slides, it is not possible to go back to the start and replay the synced portion without exiting from the show. Woops! JRR was over, and he tried "homing" the syched part of the show and it started playing again - guess all it needed was a magic touch!

I was wondering at first what you two were talking about, and then I discovered that fast pause works only in non-synch mode. Igor, would it be possible to enable it in synchronized shows, too?

Just fine, Brian! The beer here is not as good as over there, though! I have to buy my Smithwicks in little half-pint bottles! Probably so they can charge more for it! In another thread, Igor says he is going to work on the synch features in the next version. Should be something to look forward to, and have a chance to input to as well.

Good news! I (and others) will look forward to your next round with great anticipation! If the improvements in v 4.40 are as good as the ones in 4.30, we are in for a real treat!

The addition of "permit control of show" to synched shows has given us an interesting new capability in PTE. It is now possible to set up the show in synched mode for a certain number of slides at the start of the slide list, and once the music has finished, the show will pause, and one can then continue on with the remainder of the slides in manual mode (either by clicking on the nav bar, or having the mouse button programmed to advance to the next slide. This could be useful when a manually-activated show is desired, but one wants to include a synched introduction at the start.

Sorry for the double post - must have hit "Submit" twice! Guido, please feel free to remove this one if you wish.

Igor, There has to be an easier way to modify the transition timing in sync mode. When I have a number of images using quick transitions (cuts), it is necessary to double-click on each image, or click "customize slide" on the timeline", to bring up the "customize slide" menu, click on "use own transition effect", and then scroll down to the bottom of the list to access the "quick transition" check box. With a number of slides to change, this is a very tedious and unnecessary process. Could you please provide a means for changing the transition times, either by clicking on and moving the ends of the grey horizontal bars on the timeline, or else provide a text box in which on can simply enter the transition time (e.g. "0" if a cut is desired)? This feature would help immensely in setting up and editing synched shows.

Igor, Now that you have v4.30 working so well, how about adding another feature to assist further in moving images around on the slide list and the light-table? When one is using the sync-to-music mode, moving an image from one location to another on the slide list (or light-table) often disturbs the delicate timing between sequences of slides (e.g. where there are a number of fast cuts close together). In particular, if one moves a slide from after such a sequence to somewhere before the sequence, the images in the fast sequence retain their transition times ok, but are "squashed" up (in time) against the slide preceding them so that the transition times now overlap at the beginning of the sequence. It would be great if PTE would automatically compensate for this by adjusting the times for all slides between the old and new positions so that the slides in between would retain their relative positions with respect to the slides on either side of them. This feature would have to be optional (e.g. invoked by pressing a button) as there are other times when one wishes to have the shifted slides assume the positions of the ones they are "replacing", as is presently the case, in order to keep them aligned with the beats of the music. Just some food for thought, in case you were looking for ways of putting PTE even further ahead of the competition.

Barbara, On my pc, the registration key is called "PTE.KEY". Whether it is "PTE.REG" or "PTE.KEY", double-clicking on it will install the necessary information to the registry, thus "registering" and "unlocking" your copy of PTE. It should be exactly 231 bytes in length.

Phill, If you are running a show synched to the timeline, you can also have problems if you are not leaving enough time between the end of one transition and the start of the next, so that may be another source of your problems, especially playing from the cd. Start with 1/2 sec, and experiment with shorter times until you find something that is suitable and still works. Lots of "tweaking" required, especially on a more complicated show. You can spend hours at it, but the end results are usually worth the effort.

Thanks, Roger! You're right - Kb, not Mb! Just wanted to see if anyone reads my posts anymore! Phill, sorry, I can't help you with Granot's utility either, as I've not used it. However, judging from the size of your file, your images must be larger on average than 200 Kb - maybe a little too much to expect from all the client pc's.

Hi, Johny, Welcome to the Forum! Some more information about the types of shows (size of images, type of music, synch to music, length of transitions, etc.) and whether you are running from a CD would help. Also, other programs working in the "background" will interfere with the smooth running of PTE shows. Have you tried to run some of the shows from Beechbrook?

Chris, Since the show is not meant for educational purposes, I feel that not using "fades to black" between different species would be preferable. If, instead, you superimposed the title at the beginning of each new species over the first slide for that species, the show would run more smoothly, IMHO. Also, I feel that varying the times on screen, and dissolve rates a little more would help, too Otherwise, a good show, and very good photography. You have some good action shots as well as excellent "portraits".

Andrew, It's best to do this in PS or other image editor, anyway, as the objects do not have postion stability under different screen resolutions.

Lenk, There are utilities in c++ available which will enable you to manage bmp files in your c++ programs, but PTE is not one of them. It is a free-standing slide-show program, and does not have any command-line interface capabilities, either. Do a search with Google and I'm sure you will find what you are looking for.

The key shouldn't be a problem as it is copyable from one pc to another. I upgraded to a new pc a while ago, and there was no problem at all in transferring the program to the new one. Also, since the downloaded program will be installed on your friend's pc, she will have the "key" file installed there, too. It is immaterial as to which pc actually received the downloaded files.

I find the same thing. It seems to occur due to the fact that when you exit the full-screen light-table view by pressing "ESC", no particular slide is highlighted in the slide list. The same slide as was highlighted before going to the light table view is outlined but not highlighted.

Terry, As far as I know, there is no reason why you or another member of your club can not download the software, using your friend's name, and then install it on your friend's computer.

I use Irfanview for most of my batch resizing, re-jpegging, thumbnails, you name it - it's easy to use, and it's free! For unsharp masking, brightness/contrast adjustments, cropping, etc., though, I like a little more individual control.