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Lin, I have every confidence in your analysis. In any case, I'm involved quite heavily in Ed Overstreet's thread (shared with Jim Robertson) about differences between monitor and projector outputs. And I came across another problem associated with monitor and projector display at my local AV Group last night. So I don't need a third problem! regards, Peter P.S. Or were you wanting somebody to verify your findings (like a good scientist would)?

Stu, Not true, buddy! PTE begins playback of the slide from the start of the slide in both cases. The difference is that in the preview from the current slide, you get to see the immediately previous image in order to show the "in bound" transition whereas in O&A you don't see the actual transition effect. Hilary, With the settings you are using - YES! and that is what is puzzling about this problem. Ideally we need a problem that can be reproduced consistently. So there's your challenge for this weekend - find a way of consistently reproducing this problem! regards, Peter

Hi Hilary, That's also how I do it - and now I've run out of ideas, because I've never experienced the kind of problems you describe. Perhaps Lin will find the answer when you let him have the zip file. Sorry I haven't been able to provide a "quick fix" for you. regards, Peter

Eric (yachtsman1), Thank you for your vote of confidence in me: by putting my name forward without the courtesy of consulting me first. However, I'm not willing to do what is being suggested for one simple reason: - I am not prepared to be blamed for the situation that could occur when a computer+projector combination, subsequent to its purchase, fails to deliver the goods even though it ran the "Test Sequence" successfully. In my opinion, there are too many variables in this equation that are outside the control of the user. I will continue to work with Ed and Jim for as long as, collectively, we think there is any mileage in such continuation. I will participate in any discussion about what should form part of any "Test Sequence". But that will be the limit of my involvement in this matter. regards, Peter

Hilary, That's the simplest way of doing things. Those are the settings that I use. Next thought: - is your soundtrack one single file or do you have several files listed in the Project Options...Music tab? regards, Peter

Hilary, I've come to your post a little late but some thoughts strike me: - is all your sound added via Project Options...Music tab? - what is the status of each of the three tick boxes at the bottom of the Project Options...Music tab? - do you have "Synchronize music and slides" ticked in Project Options...Main tab? If you have added sound to individual slides, did you do it via Customize Slide...Music tab or via the "Add Sound" icon up in the top right of the main window? The various possible combinations give very different behaviour and could be the cause of your problems. regards, Peter

Brian, Thanks for the info (in post #84). I've just done those checks on my desktop system (to make sure I understood what you were asking me to do). I'll do the same with both my laptops, with and without the projector attached, sometime over this weekend. Also, during the course of this week, I discovered that my Dell projector has a menu setting that allows me to adjust the Frame-Refresh rate. I'll also take a look at this, but carefully! Right now my projector ain't broke, so any "fixing" will be done very carefully indeed. Rest assured, all tests will be done on the basis of one change at a time. regards, Peter

Brian, I have been working in collaboration with Jim and Ed on this problem. I agree with everything you are saying but would like to draw your attention to a point I made in post #50 (on page 3 of this long topic) which I now summarise here: If I use my old Fujitsu-Siemens laptop and connect it to my Dell projector, I can make the problem come and go as and when I want it to simply by toggling the laptop from: own monitor plus projector to projector only and back again using the appropriate Fn key on the keyboard. If what you saying in your posts is true, and I have no reason not believe you, then this suggests to me that the actual signal leaving the blue 15-pin D socket is different in the two cases. It would seem likely that the signal is operating at 60Hz when both the monitor and projector are active but at 30Hz when only the projector is active. How can the actual signal characteristics be monitored to confirm this? And if this is what is happening, then why don't all computers behave the same way? regards, Peter

Geoff, I go along with Lin on this. The current "hot topics" on the forum do include a lot of queries concerning Youtube. But that is one of the hot new features in PTE v5.6. So it is only to be expected that it would feature strongly at present. I think we should let the dust settle then if there is an apparent benefit in opening a new Forum sectuion, we can put this suggestion to the WnSoft team. Knowing their awareness of customer feeling, they will probably be ahead of us on this decision any way! regards, Peter P.S. I, too, am an old "stick in the mud", "dyed in the wool" AV purist who has no interest in videos or DVDs and not much interest in Animation either. But I'm also an "old dog" whose willing to be taught "new tricks". I read all the posts and try to learn from them.

Frank, Thank you for your post-script. You are quite right, copy & paste is possible now. I've amended my previous post accordingly. regards, Peter

Lin, Ah! Now I understand what you are wanting. Thanks to you and JPD I understand the principles of how the masks are used and how they work but I have not yet done any serious practical work with them. However, I'm in complete agreement with you on this suggestion. regards, Peter

HAG, Are you aware that you can place an object as a "chid" of another and the "child" will inherit its parents pan, zoom and rotate actions. In this way you can minimise the number of keyframes that have to be "re-programmed". I recognise that this may not always be a suitable solution to your problem. I, for one, would welcome the ability to "Ctrl+Click" a collection of objects or "Shift+Click" a group of them and then apply a "time-shift" + or - a number of milliseconds regards, Peter Edited 04 Feb 2009 at 12:10 GMT to remove references to copy and paste operations following stardealer's post below pointing out that this is already possible

Lin, If JPD's masks are GIF files then PTE already accepts GIF files as masks; or am I missing something? regards, Peter

Hi hastinga, You are not alone in having this problem. It has been reported several times recently. I don't use YouTube myself so cannot offer any specific advice. One of the other experience forum members will read your post in due course and will offer their advice. regards, Peter

Hi Ron, Which option are you using to trigger the next sequence: Run Slideshow or Run Application? If you are using Run Slideshow (or its variant Run Slideshow and Return) then both the menu exe and the triggered sequence's exe must have been created using v5.6. This is because only v5.6 has the necessary code to provide full compatibility with this new feature. regards, Peter

Stu, Thanks for that, I hadn't spotted that that was where it was now hiding. regards, Peter

Loading from CD is always slower than loading from hard-drive or from a USB memory device. But 4 minutes is indeed excessive. I cannot offer any explanation that is related to PTE but I have witnessed something similar on my own system recently. I loaded a CD that had several hundred PDF files on it and it took several minutes to show the file lists in Windows Explorer. Because it took so long I activated Windows Task Manager so that I could see what was going on. I then ejected the CD and re-loaded it. Windows Task Manager showed that my anti-virus software had jumped into life. I concluded that the anti-virus software was scanning every one of the PDF files and that the file list didn't display until all files had been scanned. Perhaps you are experiencing something similar. regards, Peter

Whilst agreeing with the implications of those who feel the EXE option should be top of the list, that would be ergonomically unsound if it is thought to be the most used option. In this case it should be nearest to the Create button - not furthest away. regards, Peter

Ken, That's fine. You disagree with grading. I have no problem with that. I don't know whether this is feasible for the programmers but if it is: how about a "tool tip" pop-up when the cursor is hovered over any of the options, to give more detailed explanation of the benefits and limitations of each option? regards, Peter

Ken, My experience, admittedly very limited experience, is that I wouldn't want anyone to see any of my work as a DVD presentation. The images are so very soft focus in appearance. Sure, it all works but not at a quality that I'm willing to accept. Yes, I know that for some people DVDs make a lot of sense - but Igor's concern seems to be to get the new user seeing the best quality. And in my experience DVDs do not provide the best quality - they provide the worst. However, those of you who have vastly more experience than me are far better placed to rank the various outputs in "quality of image display". Instead of having a go at me, why didn't you offer an alternative ranking, or an argument to refute the idea of any ranking system? regards, Peter

Hi Igor, That's a good point that you've raised. And I can understand your concerns. You would like the new user to see the excellent quality of image that PTE can deliver. But that requires them to create either an EXE or a Screen-saver, doesn't it? I don't have any personal experience to draw upon but I guess the next best options would be HD MP4 for PC or MAC, Vimeo and YouTube. Would that be correct? And the lowest quality would come from DVD, iPhone and AVI. Would that also be correct? If I am right in these very approximate gradings then, would it make sense to re-group them and to provide an indicator to show which is the best and which the worst quality? regards, Peter P.S. And while we're discussing the Create option, in your new system there is no obvious facility to do a Create As. The command is still there but is now only available off the File command menu. When I now want to do a Create As, I've altered my working method to always do File Save As of the project file before doing a Create EXE from the button's pop-up menu. This isn't a request for anything to be changed: just mentioning it in case other users are wondering where it has gone. My new method of working is probably a better one to follow, in anycase.

DaveOR, In my experience at camera clubs and AV Groups the individual slide shows are usually built to go straight in from the desktop; but to start and end with a Black Slide that fills the whole of the projector's resolution (e.g. 1024x768). They are also built so that at the end of the sequence they return from the last (black) slide to the desktop. regards, Peter

Hi Alena, I also would like to welcome you to the Forum even though I feel I already know you quite well from our recent exchanges of e-mails. regards, Peter

Brian, Let me check my understanding of what you've said in post #52 and how that influences that which I had previously thought I understood. A laptop's in-built LCD display (which I have been calling a monitor in my posts above) is a digital device and will be getting fed a digital signal from the graphics chipset in the laptop. Is that a correct understanding? In the case of both my laptops, the projector is fed from a blue-coloured 15-pin D-shaped socket which I have always referred to as a "VGA-out". This will be an analogue signal. Is that correct? Your explanation for the behavioural change on the old Fujitsu laptop is that the graphics chipset cannot provide both an analogue and a digital signal at the same time and keep both of them in perfect condition (The italics are my words inferred from your post above). Therefore, I further infer, that using the Fn key on the Fujitsu causes some kind of interaction, probably in the graphics driver software, that causes one half of the graphics processing (the digital feed to the LCD monitor) to be totally switched off, thus leaving the entire graphics resources available for the remaining signal processing - the analogue feed to the projector. Would you regard that as a reasonable conjecture, given that we have no way of knowing exactly what is going on "internally"? I also, therefore, infer that the Acer simply switches off the LCD monitor's power and makes no change to the signal processing demands made of the graphics resources. It is doing exactly what I do to save a little bit of electricity. If I'm going to be away from the desktop PC for a few minutes, I power off the LCD monitor but leave the system unit powered-up and booted-up. Fujitsu's solution is neat and sophisticated; by comparison, Acer's solution is quick and dirty. Does that sum it up? regards, Peter

Brian, I go along with Jim in thanking you for your clear and concise explanation of what is obviously a very complex technical subject. However, one aspect of this problem that isn't, as far as I can see, obviously addressed by your explanations is this: why does my old Fujitsu laptop only exhibit the problem if I run it with both the monitor and the projector active at the same time? - Monitor on its own - no projector attached = no problem - Monitor and projector both operating together = problem - Use the Fn key to toggle off the monitor, leaving just the projector operating = no problem. I would have naively thought that the signal going to the projector would be the same in all three cases - but clearly it isn't. Can you offer any enlightenment, please? (The pun wasn't intended but having written it I couldn't resist the play on words!) regards, Peter