fh1805

Ken, I've just added the results of my tests using XP to the main topichere. And, yeh, when you start doing repetitive tests of very similar items the brain does kinda go hazy. I found it difficult to maintain concentration over the last two days. regards, Peter

I've now completed the tests using my XP system. This gave much more consistent results across the various permutations than had the Vista system. But still there were some problems as detailed below. With the Taskbar turned on, it flashed on screen, wholly or just in parts, in every single situation; so turning the taskbar off is essential on an XP system (just as it was highly desirable on a Vista system). With the Taskbar turned off and with D3D turned off in the menu sequence, all three versions of the menu (v5.52, v5.64 and v6.01) behaved flawlessly. This combination was a clear winner. With the taskbar turned off but with D3D turned on in the menu sequence, there were problems with all three versions of the menu as follows: Menu built with v5.52 (PTE552MenuB) had a problem when running the three 5.52 target sequences. Each of them hung until the mouse was moved. The movement had to take the mouse outside the area occupied by the thumbnail image before the return to menu was completed. Menu built with v5.64 (PTE564MenuB) had a problem with the third v6.01 target sequence (S601-3). There was a double flash of the menu screen during return to the menu. Menu built with v6.01 (PTE601MenuB) had a problem with all target sequences except that built using v4.49. There was a double display of the menu slide during the launch of each target sequence. So, the overall conclusion is: In PTE, turn D3D off in all menu sequences (and by implication, don't use any fancy features in the menu sequence) In Windows, set "Keep taskbar on top of other windows" off via Taskbar Properties Run the sequences on an XP system rather than a Vista system I've attached an updated version of the Test Results spreadsheet to this post regards, Peter Test Results.zip

Andrew, There's no accounting for taste - and obviously your club's selection committee was lacking something in that department. Don't let yourself get dis-heartened. I'm fairly certain that most, if not all, of the members of this forum who make A-V sequences primarily as a hobby or leisure activity will agree that there is only one person who has to be pleased with your A-V sequence - and that's you! (If you are building sequences as part of a commercial enterprise then the situation changes - you have to build what the client asks for). You - and we - know that your Auschwitz sequence was a very good one. It's not your fault that others didn't have the intelligence to appreciate just how good it was. regards, Peter

Xaver, Thanks. I haven't tested on an XP system yet. That's tomorrow's homework! Jim, Xaver obviously got a successful download! regards, Peter

Tomorrow I'll copy all the files over to my XP laptop and re-run the tests (all 120 of them!). Expect another bulletin later tomorrow. regards, Peter

I just checked and everything seemed OK; it tried to start the download which I then cancelled. But of course, I get auto signed in as me. Let's wait and see if others report problems. regards, Peter

I've attached to this post the Excel workbook file in which I documented my test results. regards, Peter Test Results.zip Please note: The latest version of the Test Results is attached to post #10

This post, another long one, describes the testing done on this subject and attempts to summarise my findings. The most consistent and cleanest results were all obtained with the Windows Taskbar set to not “Keep taskbar on top of other windows” in the Taskbar Properties. But this setting did not eliminate all problems. The most successful combinations with “Taskbar off” are: • PTE v5.52 menu with D3D off – ran everything cleanly • PTE v5.64 menu with D3D on – ran everything cleanly The test environment The test environment comprised 6 menu sequences and 10 target sequences as follows: Menu sequences All the menu sequences comprise two slides: black, coloured. The first slide has a text object that summarises the nature of the sequence. The second slide carries the menu (built using thumbnail images that have the action “Run application or open file…” defined). The sequences are: PTE552MenuA – D3D turned off PTE552MenuB – D3D turned on but no PZR effects used PTE564MenuA – D3D turned off PTE564MenuB – D3D turned on but no PZR effects used PTE601MenuA – D3D turned off PTE601MenuB – D3D turned on but no PZR effects used The above are all manually controlled sequences that use Left Click to advance to the next slide. Target sequences All the following sequences comprise three slides of four seconds duration each: black, coloured, black. All sequences use fade transitions of 1500ms duration throughout. File PTE version Comments S449 PTE v4.49 S552-1 PTE v5.52 D3D off – no PZR effects S552-2 PTE v5.52 D3D on – no PZR effects S552-3 PTE v5.52 D3D on – slide #2 image is rotated 180 degrees S564-1 PTE v5.64 D3D off – no PZR effects S564-2 PTE v5.64 D3D on – no PZR effects S564-3 PTE v5.64 D3D on – slide #2 image is rotated 180 degrees S601-1 PTE v6.01 D3D off – no PZR effects S601-2 PTE v6.01 D3D on – no PZR effects S601-3 PTE v6.01 D3D on – slide #2 image is rotated 180 degrees All sequences were built on a desktop PC running under Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack2 and subsequent updates installed. The tests were performed on the same system. Summary of results Various problems were identified as follows: In some situations the Windows Taskbar was re-displayed briefly either before or after the target sequence. This was completely eliminated by changing the Taskbar Properties to not “Keep the taskbar on top of other windows”. However, since some of the PTE Exe files could be launched without the Taskbar being displayed, I feel this represents a weakness, if not an actual bug, in the PTE code. In almost all cases, launching D3D enabled sequences from a D3D enabled menu resulted in unwanted flashes of either the Windows desktop or the first image of the launched sequences and unwanted flashes of the menu image during the return to the menu. The PTE v5.52 menu with D3D turned on exhibited an unusual problem when running a PTE 5.52 sequence that had D3D turned on. After completing the execution of the target sequence, control was not returned to the menu sequence until after the mouse pointer had been moved to a position outside the area of the thumbnail image used to perform the launch. The PTE v6.01 menu with D3D enabled exhibited a problem which has to be a bug and has been reported as such to WnSoft. It would launch the v4.49 target sequence and the v5.64 target sequence that had D3D disabled but would not allow either of these to take control of the monitor. It was only by using Windows Task Manager to monitor activity that I realised that these two sequences were being launched and were running to completion. My initial reaction was that they were not being launched. The following question remains unanswered: Why does a PTE v6.01 menu with “D3D on” give a double flash of the menu slide when a v5.52 target sequence is launched? No other PTE version exhibits this behaviour. And the behaviour occurs whether the Taskbar is on or off. Why does a PTE v6.01 menu with “D3D off” running in a “Taskbar on” environment show the Taskbar when launching v5.64 or v6.01 target sequences but not when launching v4.49 or v5.52 sequences?

I've found three new bugs in v6.01 in respect of its ability to handle the launch of sequences built using various versions of PTE. The new topics are: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11316 http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11317 http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11318 regards, Peter

This bug report arises from my on-going investigation into Menu Sequences (see here). The zip file has been uploaded to MediaFire and includes all necessary files to explore this situation. It is the same zip file as in my other bug reports of today's date. A PTE v6.01 menu sequence with D3D turned off, when running in an environment that has the Windows Taskbar set to be "Keep on top of other windows", displays the taskbar when launching a PTE v5.64 or PTE v6.01 sequence but not when launching a PTE v4.49 or v5.52 sequence. Why can the taskbar not be successfully suppressed in all cases? regards, Peter

This bug report arises from my on-going investigation into Menu Sequences (see here). The zip file has been uploaded to MediaFire and includes all necessary files to explore this situation. It is the same zip file as in my other bug reports of today's date. A menu sequence built using PTE v6.01 and having D3D turned on (file name PTE601MenuB) will cause a double flash of the menu slide when launching a PTE v5.52 sequence. None of the other versions of PTE, that I have used to build menus, exhibits this problem. The problem occurs when the Windows Taskbar setting "Keep taskbar on top of other windows" is turned on and when it is turned off. regards, Peter

To re-inforce Maureen's message above still further... No matter where in the world you are, no matter what use you intend to make of it, any copying of any piece of work that is not your own is illegal under copyright law, unless you have the permission of the copyright owner to make and use that copy. You cannot legally copy anything unless you have the necessary permission. regards, Peter

As part of my on-going investigation into Menu Sequences (see here) I have discovered a very unusual bug. The zip file has been uploaded to MediaFire and includes all necessary files to explore this situation. Start by extracting the zip file into a new folder. Then launch the PTE601MenuB file. Left click to advance to the actual menu page (second slide) and launch any of the 10 test sequences. On my system, when I launch either the v4.49 sequence or the v5.64 #1 sequence nothing seems to happen. However, if I activate Windows Task Manager to monitor the situation, when I try and launch these two sequences they do actually launch; but they never get control of the monitor display. All the other 8 sequences behave as I would expect. The PTE601MenuA sequence does not exhibit this problem. The difference is that MenuA has D3D off and MenuB has D3D on. neithe rof the menus actually uses any animation. With earlier versions of PTE (v5.64, v5.52) this problem does not occur. Only with v6.01 and only with D3D enabled in the menu sequence. regards, Peter

A new day, a new fall of snow and a new set of sequences to test. I've built 17 of the 18 sequences that I need (haven't built the v4.49 menu yet) and I've started testing. This is just an early "heads up" to the fact that I'm getting some "interesting" results. I need more time to re-run the tests (to confirm the repeatability of the results) and also more time to think about what the results might be telling me. Once I've got everything clear in my head and documented, I'll be back. The general summary is that none of the PTE versions I'm using behaves the same as any other. They each have their subtle shifts in behaviour. Watch this space! regards, Peter

Dave, I think the problems with multiple tracks can be attributed to the different ways in which they can be added: via Project Options via Customize Slide via Add Sound plus the fact that there are switch settings on various control panels that influence when they start and stop - and some of these settings have effects which are, at times, capable of causing confusion. All we can do is wait and see how WnSoft implements sound management in the next version. regards, Peter

Ken, It ain't over yet!! Off forum I've just been telling Jim: I've identified a need for 18 sequences and 320 separate tests in order to check out all permutations of the relevant variables! regards, Peter

Lin, I think that's a "red herring"! I built my own sequence from scratch and was able to re-create Gary's problem (see post #7 above). I did note that Gary had not started at origin=0 for that slide but I did NOT copy him in that respect in my test. regards, Peter

Readers of this topic might find the following one of interest, too: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11310 regards, Peter

Readers of this topic might find the following one of interest, too: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11310 regards, Peter

As there has been quite a bit of discussion on this subject already this year I thought it worthwhile producing this topic, which is of necessity a long one. This post documents my recent experiences building menu sequences using Pictures-To-Exe. By “menu sequence” I mean a sequence which launches another sequence by clicking on an object (in my case, a thumbnail image) that has an action coded to “Run application or open file…”. My own previous experiences had indicated that there was a problem when running menu sequences on Windows Vista operating system that used “Run application…” to launch the next sequence. The problem appeared as “flashbacks” to the Windows desktop between the menu and the launched sequenced and upon return from the launched sequence to the menu. The problem was well-documented in posts on this forum some 3-4 years ago. WnSoft provided a solution by introducing the “Run Slideshow…” feature. This solution works excellently in a PTE-only environment. However, further investigation was now required because later this year our local A-V Group will be holding its first public A-V Festival. And as the members of the group use both PTE and ProShow, the “Run Slideshow…” solution would not be useable for all the sequences. I therefore set about trialling different options to find the solution that gave the best results when using “Run application…”. The initial investigation was done on my desktop PC running Windows Vista Home Premium Edition at Service Pack2. I set up a menu system to launch three different PTE sequences using the “Run application or open file…” option. The three target sequences were: 1x PTE v5.5, 1x PTE v5.6 and 1x PTE v6.0. The menu was built first of all with PTE v4.49. Then that file was opened under each of PTE versions 5.52, 5.64 and 6.01. An exe file was created using each version of PTE: PTE449Menu, PTE552Menu, PTE564Menu and PTE601Menu. Using PTE v6.01 The best results were obtained with Hardware Acceleration turned off and with the Project Option set for Windowed Mode rather than Fullscreen mode. The window was sized at 1024x768 as that is the native resolution of the projector that will be used for the Festival. The problem was still present using this software and these settings. Using PTE v5.64 The best results were obtained using the same settings as for v6.01. The problem was still present using this software and these settings. Using PTEv5.52 The best results were obtained using the same settings as for v6.01. The problem was still present using this software and these settings but seemed, somehow, less intrusive. Using PTE v4.49 The best result was obtained using Fullscreen mode. The problem was much less noticeable. However, it was observed that the Windows Taskbar flashed up briefly as each sequence was launched from the menu. This new problem was eliminated by turning off the option to “Keep the taskbar on top of other windows” in the Taskbar Properties. Re-testing the other menus with the Taskbar option turned off gave some improvement in every case but did not eliminate the “flashback” problem completely in any of them. So, none of the above options was entirely satisfactory. The best options seemed to be either v4.49 or v5.52 with, in both cases, the Taskbar set to not stay on top of other windows. Then, whilst doing some overdue tidying up of my File System I came across a menu sequence that I had built in late August 2008. All the sequences that it launched were also built prior to late-August 2008. When I ran this menu it displayed as a Windowed mode menu and ran faultlessly – no flashbacks, no taskbar being displayed. Upon opening its PTE project file in Notepad I found that it had been built using v5.52. So why couldn’t I get the same smoothness using v5.52 now? I have checked back through my financial accounts, and the desktop PC was purchased in 2007. So, all the menu sequences (new and old) were built using the desktop PC. The only significant change that I can see is that the desktop PC has had numerous Windows upgrades applied to it. I can conclude only that somewhere along the way one of the Windows upgrades introduced a code change that made this problem of “flashback” come to light in the first place. However, further thought brought back to my mind that this problem never happened on a Windows XP system. That realisation prompted two questions in my mind: What would happen if I took these various menu sequences and played them on an XP machine? What would happen if I built the menu sequences on an XP machine and then brought them to run on a Vista machine? As I still had an old laptop system that ran XP, I decided to give this a try. After allowing the old laptop to update its Norton Internet Security files and letting it install the small backlog of Windows updates, I tried all the menus. Every one of them worked perfectly after I turned off the “Keep taskbar on top” feature of Windows. So, the simplest solution for our forthcoming Festival would seem to be: obtain a PC that uses Windows XP operating system and turn off the Taskbar option of "keep on top". But the PC will have to have a fairly “meaty” graphics card so that we don’t have to worry about any problems with any animated sequences. I have not yet tried building the menus on the XP system and then running them on the Vista system but, if my memory is accurate, that was what I was doing when I found the original problem 2-3 years ago. But I will give that a new test and report back with the outcome. First, I'll have to track down the PTE download files in my archives. Could take an hour or two. regards, Peter

Igor, I think this is an excellent suggestion. I think it will be best if the topic starters take the responsibility rather than the moderators. Speaking as a moderator, I do not always try and re-create every problem. Some I cannot re-create (e.g. any that are Windows 7 related). Therefore I could not accurately confirm that a particular problem has been fixed. But, as a moderator, I could send a PM to a topic starter prompting them to update their topic. What do others (moderators and ordinary users) think about this? regards, Peter

Igor, That's wonderful news! Do you have any idea when we might see the first beta code for the new release? regards, Peter

Lin, No, I'm not using the 2010 version of Norton; I'm still using the 2009 version - after renewing the subscription to the database updates. Just before Christmas my Norton LiveUpdate software offered me a free upgrade to Norton Internet Security 2010 but, having seen the posts here on the forum about the problems with SONAR, I told LiveUpdate where it could stick the free upgrade!!! My read off the Symantec site is that SONAR is part of the version of Norton that they market towards businesses and enterprises; and that it is not part of the version of Norton Internet Security that they market towards the home PC user. Am I wrong in this interpretation? regards, Peter

Ken, I, too, was advised that a wireless router offered an additional layer of protection. But I was lead to believe that the router firewall was primarily a blocker of unsolicited in-bound activity; and that it would allow all out-bound activity. In otherwords, it might help stop malware getting in, but if the malware is already there doing tracking or key-logging or whatever, the router firewall will not stop the malware from "phoning home" with the results of its capture. When my router was installed I was told to keep the software firewall in order to be able to control the out-bound traffic. I use Norton Internet Security for Anti-Virus and Firewall. When it installs it disables the Windows firewall in favour of itself. This eliminates the potential for the sort of "conflict problems" that Brian Kelly (Conflow) explained to us in one of his posts (a good while back in time, that was). regards, Peter

Gary, Just an acknowledgement of my e-mail. regards, Peter