JRR

Stu, Guido Thanks Guido: Is there any difference between adding the sound in the slot under the slide list, or adding it under the "Customize Slide" and then under the music tab ?? Using the slot under the slide list is certainly faster - I just forgot it was there as I have never used sound clips on a per image basis before. (I will have to see if the "Play background music" on the PROJECT OPTIONS will stop the sound clip on the indivdual slides if advanced to the next slide (that has not sound clip) before the clip is finished.)

Stu: Of course !!! How dumb we are at times and get lost in the simplest thing. There is nothing to PAUSE if there is nothing moving the slide along. Guess I had better go back to grade three. Thanks Guys

I am using version 4.12. I am trying to set up the navigation bar to include the PAUSE button. It is on the list along with the next, previous, first, exit etc, but it will not show on the bar ! Any hints ???

With some help, I have partially solved the above questions. The sound clips stopped on #2 and #4 because I had forgotten I had the "play new music" ticked on in the music section of the customize slide for #2 and #4. If the "play new music" was not ticked then it would go on. Glad I spotted that as it is a useful feature that gives you the option to allow the sound clip to go on to the next image. I suspect my question #2 suggesting that the shows not be to back up past #1 image might upset some people as taking a feature away, so perhaps the solution is to allow a button to be ticked that would allow the show creator to prevent their viewers from back ing up past #1.

I am working on what will prove to be a complex PTE show with links to various other PTE shows. I normally do synched shows to music or music/narration. this will be the first non-synched with sound clips attached to individual images (not all, but many). I set up a test show with 8 images. Sound clip attached to #'s 1 & 3. I have the navigation bar set up. (fwd, back, exit, first slide) When I start the show, the sound clip starts with image one and will cut out if I advance to #2 as expected. Sound clip for #3 starts when I advance to it and stops if I advance to #4 before it is finished. All OK. The same applies backing up, BUT if I back up past #1, #8 comes up on the screen and the sound clip for #1 keeps playing. 1. Should the sound clip not stop playing ? 2. Why am I allowed to back up into the end of the show, from the start of it ? Shouldn't it be set up to not back up past number 1 ? (See second posting below)

Mike: It took me a number of tries to get my shows uploaded. Your ISP provides a much lower upload speed than download speed. For my shows the difference was like well over an hour to upload and slightly less than 5 minutes to download it (once up there as a test). That was a 35mb show being uploaded by a highspeed cable connection. (I used a friend's computer as I only have dial-up ) I found it best to start the upload and then go do something else and it eventually goes through. (as they say: A watched pot does not boil) It is not through until you get a message on the screen saying it is successfully uploaded. You will have a blank grey screen for a long time for the "success" message appears. There is an e-mail address on the upload page to ask Bill if there are problems at his end.

Harold: Auto-back-up is OK except if it defaults to the "project" name, then it can be worse than losing all the current work if your PTE file is named something else and the auto-back up clobbers your other version under the same project name. As mentioned before, it would be nice if PTE lost the PROJECT name concept.

Igor: Since you asked..... Some alternative to OBJECTS that won't with changes with screen resolution changes. I thought they wouldn't move in windowed mode, but they still do thx Glad you are still so keen

Marianne: I have a little chart in front of me that I use when sharpening in PS (Unsharp mask) "normal" image 75-100% radius 1-1.5 threshold 4-8 Detail image 200-400% radius 0.4-0.6 threshold 4-8 smooth image 50-100% radius 2-3 threshold 4-8 Those numbers give me a starting point with each type of image. I do get noise the odd time, if the background plain, then I hit it with the FILTER > NOISE > DESPECKLE, but then you lose some sharpness. It is a trade-off I find.

David: I will add my welcome to PTE too. Just one additional word to Alrobin and LumenLux's excellent advice. I tried a similar approach the other day with a very small show. I had the duration virtually equal to the transition, the transitions were almost continuous, but the music lost its synch. I ended up, as per the advice you received, backing off the durations a little to give PTE a chance to breathe before the next transition and the music synch was fine The transitions to my eye were no longer quite what I wanted, but others who saw the result claimed to not really see the slight "holds" in the transitions. We sometimes are our own harshest critic. Have fun with PTE

Come on over and teach us a thing or two Oleg !!!!!

Bill: I am blushing with embarrassment. I will pass your compliments along to Linda too !! The connection from the Discovery channel to here must be broken - no one has called yet Thx

Thanks for the comments on the Beekeeping show. It has more verbage in it than I planned, so I had to add more images (Still a few short I think). I was aiming at a 10 minute show. The narrator is my wife who, while not a professional voice, does an excellent job. The sound recording is done with an audio-technica MB1000H microphone and my TASCAM tape deck. I then record from the tape deck into the computer. (I need to get a better arrangement so I can record directly to the computer. The recording is done in the middle of my woodworking workshop, not a sound studio or room. I then mix the narration and the music in COOL EDIT, but Audacity and Acoustica can do it too. BTW: There is a down side to the bees. We had a very cold winter early on last year before the snow came to protect the hives. As a result all the bees in these hives died, as did many other hives throughout Ontario, Quebec and likely parts of the US too. This show, and many others I have, are done in both digital and 35mm as I do not own a digital projector and laptop....yet.

Bubba: One added thoughts to nobeefstu's advice (assuming I understand it correctly). Keep in mind that using OBJECTS in PTE is a great option, but OBJECTS' positioning is dependant on the screen resolution the viewer uses. You can check the postioning when you are setting up the OBJECT by clicking in the left top corner of the screen.

Tom: Joining two pieces of music together is trial and error until you get comfortable with it. It would make for a nicer show if you could smooth out the "joint". It is usually caused by the first piece not ending with a fade, or the second piece starting without a fade in. What I do if the mixing is a little jarring is to fade in/out the guilty track so the joint becomes "quiet". I have used Audacaity a little (I use Acoustica and Cool Edit more but they all accomplish the same thing) In the lastest AUDACITY (Beta 1.2), just use your envelope tool to squeeze the volume down starting from about 3-5 seconds from the end, or into the second piece. Whatever sounds good. Then do your "mix down". (I assumed you have both pieces of music on different tracks within the same session) Does that help any ??

Bill: If we are going to post things in both places, then I will repeat my response from the other thread too. That is the trouble when a thread evolves to the point that its description does not fully reflect its content. It is important that Igor have one thread to look at for requested changes. Here is the summary of my response to the other thread: Yes, the music wave line would be nice, but other items, for my uses of PTE, are a higher priority: e.g. 1. OBJECTS (or something like that) that do not move with different screen resolutions when using the full screen mode. 2. A sound mixer within PTE so we can line up different tracks with particular images. ( e.g. animal sounds mixing with music backgrounds) Currently you have to go back and forth to your sound mixer until you get it right. 3. Output in VCD and SVCD formats (If I have the technical terms right for output that will run on a DVD player) 4. thumbnails in file lists (I realize I am likely dreaming in technicolour re #2, and perhaps #1)

I have "firmware" for my Arion Wizard (I use it with my 35mm slide AV show versions) that does have the music wave timeline on the computer screen when I am synching. I use fades for virtually all my shows, and yes the visual music wave is nice to have and does help, but I find I can do my synching in PTE almost as fast. Most of my shows do not require EXACT timing as I am not doing cuts, so maybe I am biased. Would you not need to have the time-line very well spread out to get the timing exact from the wave time line. I think the moving of transitions points by milliseconds as per the current version is more than adequate So yes, the music wave line would be nice, but other items, for my uses of PTE, are a higher priority: e.g. 1. OBJECTS (or something like that) that do not move with different screen resolutions when using the full screen mode. 2. A sound mixer within PTE so we can line up different tracks with particular images. ( e.g. animal sounds mixing with music backgrounds) Currently you have to go back and forth to your sound mixer until you get it right. 3. Output in VCD and SVCD formats (If I have the technical terms right for output that will run on a DVD player) 4. thumbnails in file lists (I realize I am likely dreaming in technicolour re #2, and perhaps #1)

Andrew: If Mixmiester does it automatically for you that is great, but if you want to do "custom mixes" you can use any of the sound mixing softwares that have been mentioned frequently elsewhere in this forum. Audacity, Acoustica, Cool Edit (If you have it already, otherwise it is now called Adobe Audition and comes only in a somewhat sophisticated version and costs $$$$) Audacity is free and will do all that you want for a custom output. You will need to download separately the file required to generate mp3 files though. Acoustica has the mp3 generator built in.

Charlie: I'll add a little to Boxig's note. The Opener/start page should be a one image slide show that is set to remain on the screen at last slide. Place your objects on this one image (I often use a small version of the individual show's title slide for these objects) As Boxig says set the action to "Run application or open file" and add the link to the appropriate show which should be set to close last slide at end. Hope that helps. This is one of several routines that should be in a FAQ someplace, along with: - how to make an autostart CD, - sound editing software and techniques, - image/file size to use - can I use this software on a MAC - etc etc

Photgrapher45: There was a long discussion re sorting with the new versions of the program. I think they finally sorted (bad pun I know !!!! ) it all out, but not wanting to sort by time image was taken (I still shoot slides) I did not pay a lot of attention. I suspect you can do a SEARCH on "sort" and find the thread quite easily. It went on for a few pages I think.

and it is free too !!!!!!!!!!!!!!(dBPowerAMP) I discovered it a few years ago when I was working with my Arion Wizard slide show firmware with my 35mm slides Remember those funny little square things called slides ?? (I still do most of my shows in both 35mm and digital)

Liz: If your file is 600mb (And I assume you mean the .exe file you created when you finished working on the show) it sounds to me like the images are too big and creating too much of a draw on the processor. So a few thoughts: 1. Did you check the show before you created the .exe file by using the "preview" on the main page ? 2. Your images should be between 100-200kb each. They should be 800x600 pixels or up to 1024x768 pixels saved at about quality 5-6 to give you the 100-200kb size. 3. Did you mix the 3 songs to give you one mp3 file and use custom synch ? Hope that helps

Okiediver: I usually mix the three pieces of music together into one track(string) as a MP3 file. You need to record your music through a software program (I use MusicMatch Jukebox but there are others) Then you use a mixer such as Audacity, Acoustica, or Cool Edit (all of which have been mentioned many times over in various threads) Just google them to find the websites. Audacity is free, Cool Edit is relatively expensive, Acoustica is in the middle. Once mixed, put enough silence in front part of the track to have your piece of music (in the mixed string) start where you want the slide to transition in via the Custom Synch option on the Project Options box of PTE. Help any ?? or clear as mud ?

Pete: I use Thumbs plus from time to time, but not fully up on it. I suspect there might be a way to print a file listing, but in the meantime I use either "Directory printer" (http://www.galcott.com/) or Karenware Directory Printer (http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptdirprn.asp). Both are free. You would have to use them on "real" file, not the Thumbs Plus db file I suspect. Good luck

A LONG vacation Igor !!!!!!!!!!!!!! You earned it