fh1805

The following statement has been copied and pasted from the "Buy Now" page for Pictures to Exe on the Wnsoft website: "One license gives right use this software product for one PC only (any number of users), or one user may installs and use it on 2-3 PCs or laptops." regards, Peter

Well, what do you know. Simples! Thanks, Stu.

I know a good few AV workers who use Acers and are happy with that brand. regards, Peter

Yachtsman1, I'm not sure that is possible in PTE. The simpler solution would be to play the music via something such as Windows Media Player and play the PTE sequence as a silent one. If what you want can be done in PTE, I'll be interested in the solution myself. regards, Peter

Dave, I've sent an e-mail to the relevant member of staff at Wnsoft. I know that there was some sort of technical glitch between the order system and the registration system during part of last week. I suspect your order got caught in that. regards, Peter

Jerry, I cannot add to Jean-Cyprien's post. Like him, I do not know what you may have overlooked. regards, Peter

Jerry, Project Options...Advanced...Show Copyright logo is the obvious "first step" but I suspect you've already tried that. The only other option I can think of would be to add your copyright logo as an independent object to every slide. When you pan or zoom the main image the copyright object should then remain unmoved. regards, Peter

Ray, 10 slides max is the restriction in a trial version - and a scrolling banner across any video that you create. regards, Peter

Ray, I've sent an e-mail to Wnsoft alerting them to this problem. If you installed the new version on the same PC that had v5.6 on it, the new version should have automatically accepted your old Standard-version key. I am presuming, from what you say, that it is the Deluxe feature (Videobuilder etc.) that is no longer working. If this is the case it is probably because your Delux version key has passed its two-year date. The Standard component of PTE has a registration key "for life". The Delux component registration key has a two-year life. You should be able to produce EXE and SCR files with no restrictions even though the Delux component key has expired. regards, Peter

Jack, I've sent an e-mail to Wnsoft, alerting them to this post. regards, Peter

Snapcam, The UK Copyright Clearance Licences available from the IAC specifically permit sequences to be uploaded to Youtube. If copyright is your prime worry then that would be the way to go. regards, Peter

Den, What happens if you set the Slide Number on every slide using Project Options|Comments and then delete the "offending object" via O&A on those slides where you do not want it? regards, Peter

Ron, Firstly, you must have "stuttered" on the keyboard when posting, because there were two identical copies of your topic. I've deleted one of them. Secondly, PTE is limited only by the file size limits of the PC technology that you use. I'm not sure exactly what these are, even for my system. I seem to recall seeing the figure of 2GB (giga-bytes) mentioned in the past - but that might be platform-specific. Thirdly, to expect any audience, even family, to sit through a two-hour presentation, is, in my opinion, expecting too much. Conventional wisdom is to break things down into smaller chunks - perhaps 15-20 minutes max for each. (My average sequence duration is about 5 minutes. The largest single sequence I ever built was just under one hour and it had a file size of 120MB - that was in the days of 1024x768 image size. If you will be building yours to HD standard (1920x1080) then expect it to be proportionally larger.) Finally, I'm sorry, but I do not know how PTE works "under the covers". regards, Peter

Jose, If you installed v6.5.5 before 19 Dec 2010 then the old key is still valid and will remain valid indefinitely for v6.5.5 and all earlier versions of PTE Deluxe. You will need your new key only when you install a PTE version after 19 Dec 2010. regards, Peter

Colin, Great news! And now we know that PTE keys are backwards compatible. regards, Peter P.S. Now make sure you have an "off hard-disk" backup copy!!!

Colin, PTE keys are certainly "forwards compatible" (i.e. a key for v4.49 is good for use with any v5 and v6). But I do not know whether they are backwards-compatible. I suggest you use the key with the latest version first, to prove it is working OK. And then try it out with progressively older versions. You're about to become a forum-expert on PTE keys! So, please do report back with your experience. regards, Peter

Peter, It may simply be saying that the install process tried to delete a file that was already not there. I seem to recall having a similar problem with a software install one time (not sure that it was PTE). I took option to Ignore, and the install seemed to work - and the product, whatever it was, has done so ever since. regards, Peter

Jeff, If you can see the network disc from your laptop, can you also see (in Windows Explorer) the folder that contains the image files? If you can see the folder, can you see any files listed within that in that folder? If you can see files listed, can you open any in Windows Preview? From your brief description, it sounds to me as though your problems might be related to Windows access permissions? From my limited experience of sharing across home computers, the simplest approach is to store all the image files, sound files and the PTE project file for a PTE sequence under a folder that is unique to that sequence. If you can access this folder with read/write/delete/create authorities from your laptop, PTE should then look after everything for you. Start point: check that your laptop userid has all the required access permissions to the folder(s) on the network drive. (Use something simple like Notepad to do your tests). Until you know that the permissions are correct, you're chasing ghosts. regards, Peter

Eric, No, it wasn't that. I knew how to convert to greyscale and how to create a new greyscale image. It was the significance of the numeric values 0, 8, 16, etc. Xaver explained what he'd done in the post prior to yours. Now that I understand what those values mean, I can have a go myself. regards, Peter

Dave/Xaver, Forgive me for being incredibly stupid today, but I cannot find a route by which I can save the image file in any format except a webpage. Also, I do not understand how to create my own grey shade images to match your specifications as I do not understand what the values 0, 8, etc. signify. (I know how to create a uniformly coloured slide in Photoshop Elements but cannot find any reference to these specifc values. The only way I can set the colour value is via separate R, G and B values). If I knew how to create my own "grey slides" to the same specification as yours, I'd happily run the test and post the results. regards, Peter

Lin, That provides a plausible explanation. Rubik's Cube has large areas of plain grey background and a (relatively) small area occupied by the animated cube. Rievaulx has "edge to edge" detailed picture content. So the compression of each video frame, when applied to the Rubik's Cube sequence, would be able to produce smaller "files"; thus giving the perceived end-result. Once again, I've learnt that nothing is ever as straightforward as it first might seem. Thanks for the enlightenment. And thanks to everyone else who has responded. regards, Peter

Further to my reply above to Eric, I would expect the impact of the soundtrack on the video file (*.mp4) to be lower compared to the impact of the image frame data. This is the exact opposite of the impact of the soundtrack on the size of the executable (*.exe) file, where it can be a very significant element of the final value. regards, Peter

Dave, Thanks - but I'm not sure that adding a further example helps me to understand what is going on here. Eric, Both sequences have an MP3 soundtrack ("Windmills of my mind" for Rubik and Allegri's "Miserere" for Rievaulx). But the actual MP3 content is irrelevant; the only point of relevance is, I believe, the fact that the MP3 files are encoded at different bitrates - as I have indicated in my initial post. This difference will have an effect on the file size - but the perceived effect is the reverse of that expected. The sequence with the larger MP3 file comes out as a smaller video file. The sequence with the shorter duration comes out as a larger video file. As our trans-Atlantic members would say: Go figure! regards, Peter

That's a good suggestion, Stu. And I guess it should be a fairly simple coding change for the wizards at WnSoft. Let's hope Igor reacts to this. regards, Peter

I've treated myself to a Samsung LE32C650 TV set for Christmas. It has a built-in USB port that supports H.264 codec MP4 files. So I'm experimenting with PTE's "Create HD Video for PC and Mac". The playback quality is stunning. It's going to be much easier to bore my friends with my slide shows now! However, there doesn't seem to be any obvious logic behind the final video file size. Let me use two sequences as examples: Rubik's Cube - all images are 1920x1080, the duration is 143 seconds, the soundtrack is MP3 encoded at 256kbps (These values are taken from the PTE project file and the MP3 file's Properties tab) Rievaulx Abbey - all images are 1920x1080, the duration is 133 seconds, the soundtrack is MP3 encoded at 128Kbps (These values also taken as above) When both sequences are rendered using Presets of: HD (1920x1080),Medium Quality, Pan & Scan Enabled, the sizes are: Rubik's Cube video file = 38752KB Rievaulx Abbey video file = 75352KB The shorter sequence, which uses a lower grade MP3 file is almost twice the size of the longer one! What's going on? My limited understanding of video files is that a frame of 1920x1080 pixels should require the same number of bytes irrespective of its content. Am I wrong in this? The calculation of video file size should then be: (no. of bytes per frame x frames per second x seconds duration) + size of MP3 file. Is this right? Or have I over-simplified things? I'd welcome some words of wisdom. regards, Peter