JEB

Brian, As above, I also would very much appreciate a copy of this. Regards John

Hi, Keep it up folks! This is good stuff! I'm in danger of learning something!!!!! All the best. John

Barry, I have listened again and yes I do hear the rain but very low. Those d..... bagpipes have taken over! Bagpipes are best heard from about three miles away and on the other side of the mountain. Yes I know I have used them myself but..... Regards John PS Did you not produce a short video recently on the third image? I must check my records.

Bary, Carol, You make me sick (with envy). You come up here for a week and put us all to shame. While I, living within a few hours of where you have been, am too lazy to get off my backside! All you have been saying elsewhere regarding quality of the original image is illustrated here for all to see. Excellent. I particularly liked some of the transition effects and the third images. Two suggestions I would make are, rather than the bagpipe music at the beginning, how about a rain drops sound effect. And my final thought is that I personally would like to see some of the images on the screen for longer. Thank you both very much for sharing. Regards John

Thanks Folks, I found I have Nero on my machine so after I established from another post that the AVI file created on VB is only temporary I was eventually able to create an additional copy in a fraction of the time taken for the first copy. It is just occurring to me as I write this. Is it necessary therefore to use the VB "BURN DVD VIDEO DISC" option in the first place? Could one not just go directly to the create an AVI file option and then to Nero as on the face of it it would appear to be much faster. I'll try. Yours with thanks and in anticipation! John

Ken, If you are implying that PTE VideoBuilder is only able to make one copy then that is very disappointing and very difficult to believe. Surely after having done all that hard work it must be possible to burn additional copies. If I am understanding this correctly the ONLY option presumably, is to select the "create AVI File" option and take it from there as you suggest. But tell me what is this ISO file I hear mention of? I understood it to be the similar to an AVI file i.e. used as the "half way house" for the creation of multiple DVD's - but I am beginning to have my doubts. Is there an up to date idiots guide to all of this stuff as I find all the terminology VERY confusing? Some of what I have been looking at I have assumed has been superseded with the introduction of VideoBuilder but then perhaps I have been expecting too much from VB. Regards John

Hi, I hope somebody can give me some guidance. I do not normally burn my shows to DVD as I generally prefer to have them viewed on a PC or through a projector. However, on this occasion I do have a need to burn one copy of a relatively short show (10 min.) but many (5+) of a much longer (26 min.) show. While successfully burning the one DVD of the shorter show I thought it would make sense to experiment by trying to save the ISO and or AVI file (whatever they are) with a view to making a further copy later, which is what I want to be able to do with the longer show. I selected the "BURN DVD VIDEO DISC" option rather than the "Create AVI File" option as this resulted in me being asked to select another special programme and I would much rather use PTE VB. I selected all the options - Create MPEG2 Folder, DVD Folder, ISO image, Burn DVD etc. and successfully burnt the first copy. Now that I want to make the additional copy to see how much less time this takes I am stuck!! Where do I go from here?? Regards John

Hi John, Some lovely shots but I also found some to be a bit on the dark side. Mind you I am overdue a monitor calibration!! I thought some of the transitions were very well thought out but I would have liked to have seen some of the images for a little longer. You appeared to have been in the area during the rainy season (between January and December) judging by the clouds and light. You remind me that I must take more texture and close up shots in the future. Thanks for letting us see your show. Regards The other John (Misty Isle)

Hi, Thank you all for your comments. I really do appreciate them. I am making changes notably to the pans (remove at least one of them and lengthen at least one). You are all perfectly correct, the last image is soft. However I like it (and know I shouldn't include it - BUT I plan to try and disguise it a bit by incorporating the same technique of swirling mist that I used in the opening slide. I hope this will work and also provide a rounded ending. However the major change that I will make is to the frame colour. I was always concerned about this but it did not truly hit me till I saw the show projected via my laptop. If I tell you I have sitting on my desk at the moment my club's Spyder2PRO you will know what I will be up to this evening! Patrick, (without opening old wounds) if you are reading this, take this as a recognition that my desktop DOES need calibration! Regards John

Hi all, I could not get ZIP to open it either so downloaded free version of WINRAR and that did the trick Regards John

Patrick, I unreservedly apologize. It was not my intention to offend. I simply do not agree with your comments and was trying to inject a degree of humor which I think perhaps as you imply has got lost in translation. I personally have benefited very recently from your input. I know everybody on the forum including myself holds you and your views in very high regard. Also may I take this opportunity of apologizing to you Jim for "hijacking" your post and to anybody else who may have been offended by my remarks. Regards John

Thank Igor, But you didn't bite on the bait!!! John

Jim, Thanks for that. I know much of the area covered and your show makes me want to get back there ASAP. I also liked the presentation method - something I have dabbled with in the past but not as yet taken it to a conclusion. Your show has given me the inspiration to have another go. I have to say that I don't agree with some of the points that Patrick has raised (sorry Patrick!) The background looked black on my monitor (and if it is not - so what!) Perhaps your not talking to the sheep politely enough (you can only photograph what is reality) I was not aware of any music synchronization problems but then that may just be my lack of sensitivity. Regarding the use of "THE END" - that seems to be an old AV convention that I fell foul of with my first show - but I still use it from time to time - just to upset people! Well done. Regards John

Igor, Thank you for that. Not much gets past you - for long! I think you said at one time that you intended to introduce major updates at approximately six month intervals. Should we take it that you are looking at between 6 and 12 months after release of vs 5.5? Sorry to press you (but its worth a try) Regards John

Ron, Pity ! - but thanks. John

Hi, Can somebody tell me if the new 5.5 will have an integrated audio capability similar to PSG? i.e. something to potentially replace Audacity. Thanks John

Hi, First and foremost I would like to thank all of you who have been so generous with your time in making the effort to reply so constructively and in such detail. I feel I am due you a response. Most of you have made very similar observations, which is encouraging as in my limited experience of “judges”, they seldom seem to agree! I will try to respond in an orderly fashion and will use the structure adopted by Patrick. PHOTOGRAPHY/GRAPHICS Patrick Yes I agree - either a bit of work in PS or more likely I remove this image.Patrick and Dave I will take a closer look at these. I took a number of shots all within 10-15 minutes of each other and from a tripod but it was beginning to rain - typical Skye weather. Everybody - "green border" - I confess I was not comfortable with this - I like the border concept, so will stick with that but I will have another go at selecting a more acceptable tone. Most of you have referred to this - Yes I have not ticked the right boxes in Project Options. However what I was trying to replicate was a similar ending to the opening. I have a few ideas how I might achieve that so will be playing later today!SOUNDTRACK Barry I think I lost more sleep over this than anything else! I find the selection of music VERY difficult and I was concerned that The Skye Boat Song and the pipes would be too "twee" but am pleased that you thought I got it about right.TIMING It was my intention to keep the show within six minutes but may be forced to consider increasing this slightly (see ref. to panning below). PTE MASTERY Patrick and others. Mouse cursor - didn't notice that - will do. Zoom in "Storr" - totally agree. Horizon not horizontal - also agree. Two excuses for above - carelessness and laziness! Pans - This I find very interesting and something of a dilemma. I think I may have been guilty of falling into the trap of using PAZ far too often. I try not to. Its rather like the situation where a judge tells you you have several pictures in one picture. Perhaps I should reconsider some of them. Regarding the Cuillin Ridge this is as you will have gathered several images stitched together taken from a vantage point that requires quite a bit of effort to get to. It is very interesting to find that most of you thought this was too fast as I was concerned that as it lasts 38 seconds (incl fade) it was too long! On the other hand many people who know this area well could name every peak - I certainly couldn't though I have climbed them all in the past but I digress. Barry and Dave I will take on board your specific comments on the technicalities of panning and experiment a little. I also agree about "back-to-back" pans. Regarding the "small" picture. I can't understand this. Barry - hang on to your seat! The show was produced at 1024x768 with my monitor set accordingly and it runs for me in precisely that way. When I change my monitor to 1280x1024 I get the small image you describe. However when I went into the PTE file I found that that image was like all the others sized as 1024x768 and in O&A filling the screen. I double checked the size in PS only to find it was exactly the same as the others size wise. I deleted it from PTE and then re loaded it, created a new version, resized my screen to 1280 and all was well! Don't know what I have done but it's sorted. Titles - Anthony - point taken! IN CONCLUSION If I have missed any observation by anyone then sorry my only excuse is that my head is spinning at the moment. This has been for me a good experience. I have learned a lot notably that I must take more time over detail in future. Finally I would like to thank you all again for your contributions. I'm pleased that overall you liked my effort and also pleased to see that so many of you share my love of the island. It is truly a magical place. Regards John

Hi Folks, I have posted a new show entitled “Skye – The Misty Isle” at Media Fire. Not having posted to Media Fire or Zipped before I am not sure that I have been totally successful. The URL is (I hope) as follows. http://www.mediafire.com/?2m4ntyy1s39 The file is approximately 39 MB (Zipped to 37.5MB), which seems to me to be fairy normal when compared with others. However, when trying to download it myself by way of a test it took much longer than I would have expected – perhaps I just had a poor connection (only 20 – 50 kB/sec.)!!! – Hope you do better! In line with recent debate I would welcome any constructive feedback. For my own benefit I have made a list of potential criticisms, which I will be interested to compare with any posted here. I hope I have a thick enough skin – time will tell! Regards John

Barry, Thanks for that. I can download it for them when the time comes. I felt sure there would be a simple answer but thought I would take the opportunity to ask while this topic was active. Regards John

Barry, I personally have no problem updating PTE over the internet. However, I arranged the purchase recently from you of several CD copies for friends and indeed for my camera club as none of them have internet access. Now that 5.5 is on the horizon I am sure these friends and the club will wish to upgrade. How do they achieve that without internet access? Regards John

Cor, Thanks for sharing your show with us. I liked it a lot. I thought it a great example of music/image timing. I hope you have no objection to my showing it at some time in the future to my Camera Club members. We are at present considering various options for a club show to be started during our summer break and I have a building in mind which may feature, as an element of our show, which could benefit from a similar treatment. First class, Regards John

Xaver, Thank you. That finally explains it for me. I was not certain if and when rendering occurred in slide shows as opposed to video. It all makes sense to me now that it would happen during pan, zoom and rotate though presumably not to the same extent during a simple fade. Thank you again for your time. John

Jean-Pierre, Thank you for your reply with all the additional information which I will add to my "memory bank" and hope it will stick and come out when needed! Can I assume that my question regarding clarification of Lin's response (Post #8 of the above topic "Video Clips, ....Inclusion Possible in PTE?") that rendering takes place not only with video but also with still image transitions is correct? Regards John

Lin or Others! Within an earlier posting discussing the merits, or otherwise of, perhaps in the future, including video within P2E, Lin gave an excellent layman’s explanation of the differences between hardware and software rendering. I found this most enlightening. No doubt I’m being pedantic but can I assume that that explanation applies not only to video but also to slide shows? What I am getting at is do programmes like PSG drop still images to a lower resolution (800x600) and then re size up again every time they carry out a transition? My reason for asking is that I am often asked why I use PTE as opposed to PSG and give all the usual answers. However, when I get on to the question of quality of output I am usually, due to my lack of technical knowledge and understanding, at a loss to explain why PTE produces so much better results. If your explanation, referred to above, also applies to standard still AV's then I can be confident in providing a sound answer when next asked. Thanks in anticipation, John

Barry, In support of your reply above to Ken, I think the survey he refers to does in fact support your views unless I am mistaken. 800x600 2002-2005 21% 2005 - Now 9% 1024x768 2002-2005 48% 2005 - Now 41% 1280x1024 2002-2005 14% 2005 - Now 23% The trend certainly appears to be towards 1280x1024. Personally I find it easier to read at 1024x764 - but perhaps..............? Regards John PS Thanks for the tips on the montage. PPS When does the video come out ??!!