fh1805

Barry, I think the solution is out of our (the users) hands. I believe that the problems are caused by the design of the hardware and/or the design of the software drivers; and not by anything that we have done in using the equipment. The only way I can see to avoid hitting these kinds of problems is: - to identify a selection of sequences that are know to "stress-test" the graphics and copy them to a USB memory device - if buying a computer, take our projector along - if buying a projector take our computer along - whichever we're buying, take the USB memory along - insist on running all sequences through the proposed computer/projector pairing If the sequences run totally free of any problem, then buy: if they don't, the equipment has failed the "acceptance test". Caveat emptor! But, of course, the next sequence we build might be the one that shows up the hidden weakness of our pairing. We're "on a hiding to nothing" as they say! regards, Peter Footnote: For those who are not conversant with Latin phrases, "Caveat emptor" is usually translated with the meaning "Let the buyer beware". It is our responsibility, as the buyer, to be certain that what we buy will do the job we want it to do. Therefore, if we want it do something very specific, we should tell the seller and seek their agreement to this specific point. Under UK Consumer Law, verbal agreements form part of the legal contract of purchase.

Hi Dave, Yes, you are quite right, the Fujitsu is the oldest of my three PCs (bought in 2004) and is the lowest spec'd of the three. It had to be pensioned off in 2007 when I discovered that it couldn't handle the PZR effects of PTE v5 in a smooth manner. Now that I've discovered that it can handle some PZRs if I change from monitor+projector to projector-only I can think of it as a "last resort" backup to my Acer. So some good has come out of this investigation (at least, for me!) regards, Peter

Eric, Could you post a link to that website, please? So that everyone can read the information. regards, Peter

Barry, I'd be inclined to agree with you 100% but for one thing: I make one change on the Fujitsu laptop and something that didn't work correctly now does. I make an apparently identical change on the Acer laptop and it has no effect. My hypothesis is this: - on the Fujitsu there is an actual change in the way the graphics card and/or drivers are working to deliver the signal to the laptop monitor - on the Acer it simply shuts off power to the LCD without changing the way the graphics card and/or drivers are working Therefore, on the Fujitsu we see a change in behaviour of the projector whilst on the Acer we see no change in behaviour. I'd welcome comments from you or anyone else. BTW you seem to have duplicated a post higher up this thread (#24 and #25 look the same) regards, Peter

bjc, Thanks for the confirmation. regards, Peter

I have completed my tests and reported the details back to Ed and Jim via e-mail. This is a summary of my findings. I ran the tests using my Dell MP3300 digital projector (native resolution = 1024x768) connected to: - My Acer TravelMate 5510 laptop, native screen resolution = 1280x800 (the system automatically resets this resolution to 1024x768 when it detects the projector) - My Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo laptop, native screen resolution = 1024x768 The Acer has the ATi Mobility Radeon X1300 graphics with 128MB of native memory and 256MB of shared system memory. The Fujitsu-Siemens has the Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller with 64MB of total memory. (Details taken from Dxdiag reports) All testing was done using sequences stored on a USB memory stick. (N.B. The Acer and the projector are used to take my own sequences out for audiences. They have never shown any sign of being unable to handle anything that I throw at them). I started with the Acer. Ed’s sequence displayed OK on the laptop’s LCD monitor. But when projected there was a significant amount of “visual interference”. You know how you get a line of “snow” horizontally across the TV screen when you play a VCR tape that isn’t tracking quite right? Well that’s what the interference looked like: a line of “snow” that came in from the bottom of the screen and moved slowly up to about one fifth way up and then vanished. It was most easily observed well over towards the left hand side of the images but it did extend across the full width. I disconnected the Acer and hooked up the Fujitsu laptop. Same result. The sequence played fine on the monitor but gave the same “snow” when projected. Having now seen the problem several times I realized there was a timing pattern involved. Each line of ”snow” appeared at approximately one second intervals (I had no means of doing accurate timings but, as an experience AV worker, I reckon I can count seconds just as accurately as any NFL quarterback!). Quite what this timing pattern tells us, I have no idea! Up until this point I had been running both laptops with their screens active at the same time as the projector was active. This meant that I could look from one to the other to check whether the interference was present on both. When it was present on the projected image, I could and did also see it on the monitor image at the same time. When the projector was disconnected then the problem did not appear on the monitor. I used the appropriate Fn key to turn off the monitor on the Acer laptop: the interference was still visible on the projected image. I used the appropriate Fn key on the Fujitsu to turn the monitor off: the interference vanished! All pans and zooms now played perfectly! I repeated all these tests the following day and got exactly the same results. As a result of my tests I’m prepared to say that the fault is not in PTE code, is not in the PTE project setup and is not in the projector. These factors were common to all tests and in one specific arrangement, the sequence ran cleanly. The only component to be changed was the PC. Therefore, in my opinion, the problem is caused by the computer and is not attributable to either the projector or the exe file. In my opinion, the root cause lies somewhere in the computer hardware/software (excluding PTE) and most probably in the graphics card or its drivers. regards, Peter

I have spent time this morning re-creating the problem and building some test sequences. I'm satisfied that it looks like a solid bug in PTE and have opened a new topic: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9378 to highlight it for Igor's attention and so that other users can be made aware of this problem. regards, Peter

I've been assisting user baldsparky to diagnose a problem he has encountered and I think he has found a new bug in PTE. The problem appears if you build a multi-screen menu. I have built a series of test sequences and zipped them. The file is 3.3MB in size so I've uploaded it to MediaFire here: http://www.mediafire.com/?njdzyn41kyn. Please read the ReadMe file before running any of the sequences. It explains what the sequences do and what the problem symptom is. These project files have all been created using v5.6. regards, Peter

Paul, I think you might have found a bug in v5.6 when used to build multi-page menus. I build my menus using thumbnails to launch the sequences rather than buttons. Normally my menus are single screens. But, just in case your problem was associated with buttons, I have just built and tested a three page menu using thumbnail images instead of buttons. I still get the problem. I don't believe it is you; I don't believe it is me. I believe it is PTE getting it wrong. But I'm willing to be convinced otherwise if anyone out there has a successful multi-page menu built and running using v5.6. I now want to sleep on this and come back to it tomorrow - just in case I've missed something obvious! regards, Peter

Paul, Just a quick update... I replaced three of your sequence links with three of my own (all on top left button - titled Cornwall on first page) and turned off your Customize slide settings - I get the same as you. If I wait six seconds it plays the sequence off page two. I will set up my own three page menu to test further. watch this space! regards, Peter

Hi Paul, I've received your e-mails and downloaded your zip file successfully. I may need to dig a little deeper but I've spotted one thing that doesn't look and feel right to me. In Project Options...Main, you have ticked "Wait for a key press..." which is what I advised you to do. This causes PTE to ignore the 4 second slide timing that you have set at the bottom of the same tab. On each of your menu slides you have, under Customize slide...Main, ticked "Use customized settings for this slide". This means that the 4 second slide time that you have set at the bottom of the same Tab is now active. So you are making conflicting requests of PTE. What I think might be happening is that PTE, perhaps not visibly to you, is advancing the slide image in memory in accordance with the Customized values but, in accordance with the Project Options...Main value, not advancing the displayed image. What I would like you to try is turning off the "Use customized settings..." on all three slides and also return the button values to "By default..." on each of the three slides. If you are wanting sounds with each slide, let's address that after we get the slide sequences triggered correctly. (One step at a time!) regards, Peter

Paul, Sorry my suggestion didn't work. I suspect there is something else about the way you have built your menu sequence that is "getting in the way" of a nice, simple, clean solution. Would you be willing to do a "Create backup in zip" of your menu sequence and upload it either to the forum (if under 2MB) or to a file hosting service such as MediaFire so that I can study all your settings? regards, Peter

Eric, Your suggestion of burning to DVD and connecting a DVD player to the projector is, for me, a non-starter at this stage. It introduces far too many new variables: VideoBuilder software or whatever to create the AVI or MPEG file, the DVD player, the cables, etc. I haven't finished my part of the testing yet but, to give a sneak preview: I, too, get problems on all the same slides as does both Ed and Jim when I play the exe on either my Acer laptop connected to my Dell projector or on my old Fujitsu laptop connected to the same Dell projector. But, whilst testing last night, I found a setting on the Fujitsu that let's me "turn off" the laptop's monitor. When I did this, all the problems vanished and the exe projected perfectly. Tonight I need to confirm that this result is repeatable and I also need to find the equivalent setting on the Acer to see if it also resolves the problem on that system. Watch this space, as they say! regards, Peter

Paul, For a "Menu" sequence I use Project Option...Main...Show settings...Wait for a key press or mouse click to show next slide. This causes all automated advance of the "Menu" sequence to be ignored. I also have Project Options...Advanced set to Always show mouse cursor. These are the only changes from my usual settings that I need to make for a manually advanced sequence. I suggest you try putting the Customize slide... value back to its default and try this technique instead. regards, Peter

Eric, Not sure what point you are trying to make... If you are suggesting that the problem stems from these projectors being "home cinema" projectors then, surely, they ought to be capable of projecting "moving" images extremely well, shouldn't they? If this is a factor in the problems seen by Ed and Jim then perhaps the "frame rate" or "refresh rate" is going to be a significant factor. I've become involved in the problem diagnosis activity with Ed and Jim. Once we have something new and certain to report, we'll be back. For now, we continue to test, analyse, test again, analyse again, etc. regards, Peter

Mike, Run the exe. Use the spacebar or pause key to stop when the links are displayed at the end of the exe and then copy/paste the link into your web browser. regards, Peter

After discussion with Ed via e-mails and an exchange of PMs, he has asked me to Lock this thread from any further posting. Posts #18, #19 and #20 all include active links to the new thread in which the discussion is continuing. regards, Peter

Betsy, If you mean "How can I add an avi file into my PTE sequence?", the answer is you cannot. PTE is software for assembling audio-visual sequences of still images - with animation capability via pan, zoom and rotate. It is not a video editor or video assembler. You may be able to add an avi file into the list of files to be burned to DVD (for playback through a DVD player and TV) using Video-Builder but I have no real experience with that part of PTE that I can draw upon. I'm sure someone else will give you a more definitive answer on the Video-Builder aspect,. regards, Peter

Hi Steve, I can only give my experience with Vista Home Premium... I operate with my taskbar Locked, Not Auto-Hidden, Keep on top..., Group similar..., Show Quick Launch With that combination I've never noticed the taskbar stay visible when running any of my sequences or any of the several dozen that I've downloaded from this and other forums and websites. My laptop gets used at our local Digital AV Group and it has never displayed the taskbar during any PTE or Proshow sequence. regards, Peter

Hi Mike, The "Hawk" method is a technique for copying slides from one PTE sequence to another. It was first explained by the user "Hawk". It is included in the FAQs that are part of the Tutorials section of the forum. See here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8702 regards, Peter

I use only one "userid" on my Vista PCs - and that user is defined as Adminstrator rights. However, Vista then routinely downgrades the userid's rights until I try and do something (such as software install) that requires Adminstrator rights. At that point I have to work through a succession of "nag" screens while Vista tries to determine if I am who I say I am, if I really want do what I want to do; and if I would like Administrator rights in order to do it. A right "pain in the a***"; but if I accept the pain then I get the benefits (e.g. installation of this wonderful software product that we call PTE). regards, Peter

I cannot confirm Lin's statement that PTE works fine on Vista Home Edition. But I can confirm that it works fine on Vista Home Premium. As I understand it, Home Edition and Home Premium are radically different animals. regards, Peter

Hi Ed, I've just downloaded your 1024x768 sample. I'll try it through my laptop/projector combination this weekend if I get time. Just a thought, though, arising from reading the "README.FIRST" document. You state that the problem seems to be connected with images that are subject to a pan that proceeds beyond the edge of the initially displayed image. What happens if you place a 1024x768 "windowed mount" (with, say, an 800x600 hole) as an extra object sitting above everything else in the panned image? Does that eliminate the wipe and jitters? By windowed mount I mean the digital equivalent of the card with a rectangle cut out of it that a print photographer would use to display their print image. If the problem is resolved then it does look like it is a consequence of panning an image that has extreme edge pixels and pixels from beyond the extreme edge participating in the pan. If the problem remains then I'm not sure what we will have proved (if anything). regards, Peter

Rod, I'm not aware of any facility to do what you ask. My solution to your problem would be to start again and: - create the new top level folder on the target drive - drag and drop each of the individual slide show folders across to sit under that new top level folder I regularly copy individual slide show folders to and fro between two different top-level folders with no problems. I also regularly copy them onto and off a USB memeory stick in order to move them from one PC to another. regards, Peter

Mike (mightec), Which one you use depends on what you want to do? Please amplify! regards, Peter