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I find 'blips' and 'squeaks' when playing my (and others's) pte exe's on Win7 64 bit. Anyone else?

Some time ago I was using ProShow and someone told me about PTE. So I did a simple, non scientific experiment and did two AV's; one with ProShow and one with PTE. I was aware that Proshow would often default to medium quality so I changed all the settings to high quality. The result was enough, for me, and many others at my camera club to change to PTE. We liked the sharpness and saturation , and the fade details produced - above that what ProShow could do. So my early stuff was done in ProShow but my later stuff has all been done in PTE. However; we must all consider our audience. While I post my AV's here and on Beechbrook, the intended audience is me, my family, and my camera club - who are more interested in the photography than any fancy effects. Clearly; all products must evolve and try and get one step above and beyond the nearest competitor. If PTE V6 is trying to compete with other similar programs, that is fair enough. The purpose of selling a product is to make money. So; perhaps the owners of PTE should consider their audience. Maybe conduct a survey to discover why people use PTE over other products and what effects they regularly use? I agree with Barry, just look at the recent submitted PTE AV's to this forum and consider how many are using the effects above and beyond V4.8? More cats and more pigeons :-)

I like the way it fills my full HD monitors at 1920x1080 on my main pc (26" monitor) and laptop (18" screen) - without any interpolation or stretching. I also like the wide screen ratio of 16:9 which works particularly well with landscapes. However I noticed the biggest difference when it was projected, using a full HD projector.

Thanks guys, I showed this last night at my camera club. We are lucky to have a wizz bang computer and a HD projector. Seeing the show fill the screen was great. Everyone agree it was a big improvement on the smaller version. I agree Barry, HD is the way to go.

Paulo, well done, good photography and an AV that the family will be proud of.

Colhill, most impressive for your first AV. You start with scenes from early morning and end with sunsets. I also notice that you have been playing with the fades in the way you have trees and bushes framing the images at times. However I agree with Barry, it is too long for me and many of the photos are too similar. Some have badly burnt highlights. I was tempted to hit the Esc key a few times, not because I didn't want to see what the islands looked like, but because I was tiring of what you were showing me. You have to keep the viewers interest, making it shorter would help. But do not be disheartened, it was a great Av for your first attempt, well done.

New Version in HD 1920x1080 Click here to download No borders this time, 48MB

I agree, the length is most important. I usually go for 3 to 4 minutes. I would rarely go over 5. Clearly every AV will be created with a specific audience in mind. The audience may be wide, (eg anyone interested in PTE) or narrow (eg a special interest club, hill walkers, family members, or folk that attended a wedding.) However IMHO all AV's must capture the viewers interest. With the attention span of a goldfish I often hit the 'Esc' button after just 30 secs. However, (albeit rarely) I have also viewed and enjoyed AV's of 15 mins - simply because I was interested.

Thanks Barry, I think I will re do this in 16:9 OR 16:10 format. New Zealand is a wonderful place, I certainly intend to return some day.

Thanks for the feedback

I showed this AV at my local AV workshop. New Zealand Almost all the feedback was about the white border. This generated much debate, and the consensus was that borders do not work for AV's. I thought it did work, but clearly there is no point seeking feedback and then ignore it. So what do you think? Border or no border? All feedback is most welcome. New Zealand

Hi Lin, worked fine on my laptop. But as a 'fade in - fade out' guy - I will not be using these features. Or perhaps not yet! It reminds me of why I switched from ProShow to PTE, I simply did not need all the extras. Indeed PTE 4.8 still does all I need. I use PTE in the old fashioned way of 'showing off' my photography. Good pics and good music. AV's are becoming movies, and if I want a produce a movie I will use a video camera. However; I am sure that many people will want to use these new features.

Hi folks, I made a short AV to try and highlight that not all AV's have to be in colour, and that black and white are colours too. Sadly it didn't really work. While I knew what I was trying to convey, the message was not clear. I had converted the first three images using the blue, green and red channels. For some reason I thought that some eagle eyed observers might have picked it up, but I was wrong. No one did. Clearly a serious case of me thinking too much! So; after some discussion at my local AV workshop, John suggested that I add colour to these images, and others suggested I should add some text 'triggers' to link the emotion of the colour and what I was thinking about. I was recently reminded that I had said I would update the AV, but had failed to do so! Therefore, I have had another go. Of course my computer has had numerous re-installs and so on, but I was able to get it it sorted. I also received feedback, at the AV workshop, about using white borders. Some folk thought it 'framed' the image well (as it does for a single image or print), but many others thought that borders should not be used in AV's as it was a distraction. So I welcome your feedback on this. On an aside, I have used this AV to illustrate the concept of 'lines from the corners' as just one aspect of good composition. I welcome your feedback on this as well, if you have time! Click here to Download

Updated again, as discussed various probs fixed. Download here

Feedback by email mentioned some crackling in the sound track. Cleaned with Audio Cleaning Lab, I think it sounds better now, no pops or cracks, but i am rather deaf ;-) Also fades slightly longer, and music doesn't cut off at the end. i have also noticed a couple of probs with the photos that i will fix later. Download updated, now 10MB

Robert, Thank you for your feedback.

Thanks for the feedback Dave, I blame the wife! She was complaining that my AV's were far too short, didn't show all my photos and i had left out all the (most important) ones on her and my daughter 'in front of'. So I made her an AV for a 'girlies' night with my hq full size jpgs and it was 222MB. The travelouge version was one with the 'in front of' taken out and the size of the jpgs reduced - but i agree it was far too long and I can't blame you for bailing out early! You may have noticed but I normally never create an AV longer than 5 mins. So after some feedback, and also, i must admit finding that music, i knew i had to cut down the images to the ones that would work best.

Thanks Barry, my monitor is 1920x1080, so I will stick to that in future.

Thanks Davy, I spent some time getting the right 'blends' with this one.

Thanks Barry, I will fix that straight away. Just on 'Full HD' what res do you recommend; 1920x1080 or 1920x1200? I was thinking of making a HD version of this one.

As a result of feedback I have taken some of my landscape photos of New Zealand and created this short AV. Just over 4 mins, and i am sure you will enjoy the music. BTW the music was recently featured in the last episode of 'Top Gear' - when Jeremy Clarkson took a V12 version of the Aston Martin Vantage out for a spin. He mentioned 'an ending' and many viewers thought that this was a sign that 'Top Gear' was also ending. I suspect he was just having fun, the music is entitled 'the ending' - by Brian Eno. New Version in HD 1920x1080 Click here to download No borders this time, 48MB

Just landscapes of NZ here

Thank you. I had problems with provider, who I (as a web designer) thought I had good business relationships with. Every year i would outline which sites were to be renewed and which were to be stopped (i.e. the client didn't what it anymore or had refused to pay me). You can imagine my horror when at the 3rd year they ignored the ones that i asked to be stopped and billed me anyway. i told them that if they didn't fix it straight away i would walk away with all my sites. You may find this hard to believe, but I actually got an email back telling me to go and "donald duck" myself, and I could stick my sites up my ... - well you can imagine... I had to go to court to get it sorted out. I produced the 'Donald Duck' email in the small claims court and got all my money back. But it was a stressful time i must tell you. In many respects I was lucky. A friend of mine, another 'one man web design outfit', had a similar situation and in response to his threat to walk away with all his sites, the hosting company disabled all his sites (including all the fully paid up ones) and asked him if he would like to reconsider! He reported them to the police - as a case of blackmail - the police said it was a civil matter, so he got all the web site owners to make a formal complaint of blackmail to the police and he also made an official complaint to the police ombudsman. It took months to get it sorted and while they did win in the end, my friend decided to leave the web design business. SO, just as it is good to know about those that provide poor service it is also good to know those that provide excellent service, ones that can be strongly recommended. Of course, everyone has their favourite hosting company for various reasons. I have about 30 sites with Weycrest. I moved to them after I received the poor service mentioned above. Since then everything has worked out really well. For example, some time ago my Norway AV (links posted here and at Beechbrook) received so any hits that i went well over my bandwidth quota. I got a automatic warning email from weycrest to let me know about it, so I contacted them and said i know what is causing this, how much more do i owe you to keep it alive? The admin guy, came back and said; "no need, most of your sites never get anywhere near their limit, so if you have the odd peak on one site it is not a problem." Clearly he could have charged me. But this is just one example of their superb customer service.

Beechbrook seems to be down at the moment. i will try again later Beechbrook

Great show Davy