jkb

Igor, Thank you for the demo pte. I have amended this to include some animation & sound effects at the start & end of the show. Note the first sound effect starts at 1.5secs exactly when slide 2 starts to appear. The end sound effect is exactly with the last slide (blank). Slide 1 is also a blank (normal procedure in an AV). This starting point pte is made with 'keep full slide..' unticked so follows v6.5 timings. Try moving the 3 middle slides around. All effects remain in their correct place with the slide/video. Slide 2 always starts with the first sound & the last sound is always with the last slide. Keep looking at the Timeline to check. Now reopen this starting pte but tick the 'keep full slide...' box. Timings now work as v7.0.1 First run & all is as it should be. But now try moving the 3 middle slides around. You will see (& hear) that the position of slide 2 moves & so does the end blank slide. The sound effects no longet coincide with the correct point in the show. Check the Timeline to see what has happened. Yes the individual animations on the slides/video still work correctly, but slide2 & the last slide move their physical start points. Note that the duration of slide 1 does not always change when slide 2 changes, following the logic of the new timings it should. Also try adding extra slides in both versions, again you will see that in v7.0.1 the timings do not follow the expected logic. Altering the position of the middle slides within a show should not affect the overall timing or the relationship with the start/end sounds. I hope that this demonstrates that there is still a problem with the new timing system, but the old system works perfectly. Regards Jill Testv7.0.1-StartingPoint.zip

Igor, I can see the effect you describe, but this does NOT happen with the old timings on my pc but DOES happen using the new timings. The old system works perfectly no matter where you move the video/animations. Also you can change the following effect durations without altering the ending of the video or animation. Could you possibly post the PTE file so we can try out the effects ourselves. Using a small video or animation. Thanks Jill

Dave, the whole point of altering the slide effect duration is to give a longer (or shorter) transition. The overall time of the slide is not altered. When timing slides to music the start & end of each slide is crucial. The transition time is set to give the best effect on screen & to flow with the music. Amending the transition (effect) duration should NOT alter the actual physical position of a slide on the Timeline. Jill

See also my reply under 'Changes in Slide Duration' page 8 The old sytem works, the new does not Jill

Igor, I am sorry but I have to disagree. 1. Adding video with the old timings works perfectly, the video runs to the end & is not cropped. Moving it to another position has no effect. A 20sec video stays at 20sec no matter where it is placed. However with the new timings the end of the video is cropped by the next incoming transition. 2. With a slide having complex animation (& I have made several AV's with some very complex animation in v6.5) The old timings work perfectly, you can move the slide & the timings stay as expected, even when an animation overlaps onto the next slide. So a keypoint is on the grey part for the next slide. However again with the new system, moving a slide with animation & the timings are not preserved. So the old system works the new does not. Jill

I agree there are still BUGS. It does appear a lot better, but with 'keep full....' ticked amending the effect duration moves the start position of the slide. So add 3 slides of 7/2, overall duration 17 secs. Slide 3 starts at 10 secs. Increase the effect duration to 2.5 secs & it moves the start position from 10secs back to 9.5 secs. Jill

Peter, glad that it is not just me!!! Jill

On both my Vista Laptop & XP desktop it does hold the value between closing & reopening PTE. Maybe Win7 is working differently for some reason Jill

Having sorted out the AVG problems I had hoped (just maybe) that this may have been causing the problems in PTE. I have just uninstalled v7 & re downloaded & installed on my Vista Laptop. However the faults are still there. Added 3 slides with default times of 7/2 & 'keep full slide..' is unticked - so would expect an overall time of 21secs. Switiching to timeline using the button, overall time is 17 secs!! So it is working as v7.0.1 Both View & F6 alternate the 'keep full...' between ticked & unticked Amending the last slide duration as in my previous posts, it is again moving the start position of the slide instead of increasing the duration. Closing PTE & Starting a new Project, this time ticking the 'keep full slide...' box. Add 3 slides with default 7/2 & this time I get a duration of 21secs. So it appears to be working in reverse, which is what happened the very first time I downloaded this beta. However with the 'keep full slide...' box ticked amending the last slide effect duration works as expected & just increases the length without moving the start position of the slide. I don't use Templates and closing & reopening PTE several times & even rebooting the Laptop the problems still persist. It appears to be working in reverse - unticked is v7.0.1 & ticked is v6.5 Jill

Peter, in the main window, each slide now has a little box above it with the effect duration & a box on the bottom right of each slide with the duration. Click in these boxes & you can amend the time by scrolling the mouse wheel. It changes in increments of 1/2 sec. You can also use the Customise Slide window & again clicking in the duration (main tab) or effect duration (effect tab) the mouse wheel changes the times by 1/2 sec. Or you can just type directly into the boxes.

I have just updated AVG to database 2090/4548 & the problem now seems resolved. Having just installed this version late last night I would have thought it would have had the latest version of the database. 4548 was just released at 07:39 this morning. Had hoped that this may have cured some of the other problems I have been having with PTE but sadly it does not appear to be the case. Jill

I have just upgraded to AVG 2012 FREE & it has not cured the problem. I just tried to Publish & it flagged up 2 of my existing sequences as being infected. Both of these were created (I think) with v6.5. Just going to the folder in Windows Explorer which contains these exe's brings up the AVG virus threat warning. Yet all the others in the same folder are ignored. Running on laptop with Vista. Jill

Ken, you can easily have it so you can see the whole video without any overlapping transitions. Just specify an offset of the length of the slide, say 2secs which is the default & make sure that the slide duration is long enough for the video to play. So for a 10sec video, if the effect duration is 2secs then make sure the slide duration is 12secs & give the video a 2sec offset (in the O&A window) I agree with you, keep it simple! If I am correct in remembering, the early versions of PTE did not include the effect in the slide duration. They were seperate as you are suggesting. Jill

As there is only one download link, I assume you have used the same download & as I have installed 3 times, once on desktop & twice on laptop, the chances of getting the same corruption each time are very slim. Even closing & restarting PTE & starting new projects these problems occur on both machines. They are just unpredictable as to when they occur. I have also tried on a different user on my laptop & they still occur. I have one user setup for giving talks, basic system, with internet & as much else as possible switched off. And a user that I use for normal purposes. Both have Administrator access. Having been a Programmer & Systems tester in my working life I am used to following through problems & checking carefully what happens. Jill

I have already tried re-installing, but didn't un-install first. Just let the new version overwrite the first. I would agree that it may be a corrupt version, EXCEPT that the problems occur on both my desktop & laptop & were installed on different days. The reason I need to switch between the two options is when I am giving a talk & need to demonstrate to people what the options do. I always do live demos as it is much easier for people to understand if they can actually see it happening. When working on my own sequences I will always stick to the v6.5 timings & will use the Timeline view to amend effect times. Jill

Don't know as I am not actually working on anything at the moment. But do have a new sequence to start very soon, so hope these issues can be sorted. I am simply trying things out as I need to be able to demonstrate each option when I give talks.

Dave, see my new post under the Bug report(not sure how to add a link to that!) so if can do so then please add it. Trying to explain these new timings in words is so complicated. I suggest if users want to understand then they try them out with a few slides & simple numbers. But I also suggest that people stick with 6.5 until Igor has sorted out the problems that we have found. Jill

I have tried this again and have had to open & close PTE several times before the faults occurred. Once the problem arises then pressing F6 or the view menu both cause 'keep full..' to alternate between ticked & unticked. Once this bug happens then other strange things happen also. The first time I opened PTE with 'keep full..' unticked, the default timings were 5/2 & it all worked as v6.5 - no problems. Ticking the box & the timings stayed at 5/2....I would have expected the default to change to 7? However closing & restarting then the default is set to 7/2 Starting a new project & unticking the box the default remains at 7, but closing & reopening & it goes back to 5. This is when other problems arise. 1. add 3 slides, doesn't seem to matter if 'keep full...' unticked or ticked. 2. look at the timeline (by using the buttons NOT F6) & note the starting points of the slides, in this case 0,5 & 10 secs. 3. Amend the effect time of slide 3 by clicking in the box above the slide & using the mouse wheel (or customise Slide) to increase the time to 2.5 secs. 4. look at the Timeline, the effect duration should have increased to 2.5 secs, BUT instead of adding the 1/2 sec at the end so it goes from 10secs to 12.5secs It has added it to the beginning!!! So the slide now starts at 9.5 secs. 5. Go back to slide view & increase the time by another 1/2 sec to 3. 6. Look at the Timeline again, the start time has now moved back to 10secs & the duration is 3secs as expected. 7. Repeat again, increasing the effect to 3.5 secs. Again the extra time is added at the front not the end & so the slide starts at 9.5secs. 8. Increasing the effect duration again to 4secs, the slide has now moved back to start at 8secs!! It appears that each time the effect duration is changed it is not being added in the correct place. This is how I ended up with overlapping slides in my previous examples. Once these problems start to happen it then seems to be using a mixture of v6.5 & v7.0.1 methods of timing & nothing works as expected. What causes it to go wrong in the first place I do not know. As sometimes it initially seems to work as expected then suddenly changes & the problems occur. Maybe if I just leave it with 'keep full...' unticked & do not change it things may work. This happens on both my desktop XP & vista Laptop. Personally I will always use the standard v6.5 timings as they are logical, make sense & work for all objects & video. I am simply trying these situations to help sort out this bug. Hopefully Igor will reply soon to let us know if he can replicate these problems. Jill

Another, possibly related bug? is that pressing F6 to switch between slide & timeline view also ticks & unticks the 'Keep Full Slide Duration' box each time you press it. Using the slide/Timeline buttons to switch does not change the status. This & the View Menu bug happen on both my XP desktop & Vista Laptop. XP I installed V7.0.1 as a seperate version. Vista I installed it to overwrite V7.0 Jill

Dave, Yes I have the most recent. As I said I downloaded it as a separate version. So I have V7.0, V7.0.1 first beta & V7.0.1 2nd beta all as separate versions. I will try it again on my laptop - Vista, later this evening. On that I allowed the betas to overwrite V7. So I just have the one version. As it 'appeared' to work on that last night, maybe it has something to do with the way it was loaded. Or maybe just a difference between XP & Vista - who knows!! Jill

Dave, I know exactly how the new system should work, I just don't know why anyone would want or need to use it! As to the unpredictability, that is the problem I cannot always reproduce it. Look at my screen grabs from my earlier post. You will see that PTE set the screen to 7 when it should have been 4secs if following v6.5 or 7.5secs if following v7.0.1 I am now getting the same inconsistencies where it seems to be following a mixture of both rules. Even though I have Closed & restarted PTE SEVERAL times. This is on my desktop XP PC where I have installed V7.0.1 as a separate version, I.E. not overwriting V7.0 I have just started a new project, the default screen time is set to 7secs with the effect set to 2secs 'keep full slide duration' is unticked so it should work as v6.5 Add 3 slides & they show 2/7, 2/7, 2/7 ..... this is what I would expect if following v6.5. BUT switching to the Timeline view you can see that it appears to be following V7.0.1 The overall time is only 17secs, with slides 1 & 2 having 5secs & slide 3 having 7secs. Now Amend the effect time of Slide 3 (last Slide) to be 5secs. 3 ways of doing this are: Customise Slide; Using mouse wheel to increase the number; or typing 5 directly into the box. Again the slide view looks correct, but when you look at the Timeline, the overall time has DECREASED to 14secs & Slide 3 overlaps Slide 2. Whichever rules it is following, amending the effect duration should NOT alter the overall time. However, amending the effect duration the 4th way (& the way I usually do things) is to go into the Timeline & drag the grey bar of slide 3 to give 5secs duration. The overall time remains the same as expected. BUT switching back to Slide view & it shows that the screen time of Slide 2 has now altered to 10secs!! Something is clearly going wrong & results are totally unpredictable. I don't have any more time to spend on this now, so will await Igor's findings. Jill

Dave, I have tried what you suggested & yes it is werid!! The first time PTE is opened, even if you don't do anything at all - every time you click on the view menu it changes 'Keep Full Slide Duration' from unticked to ticked to unticked again. Very strange. Closing PTE & restarting & things work as 6.5 if unticked. If ticked I still get unpredicatable results when moving slides or inserting new ones. I still cannot see any reason for having the new timing system as you can add video with the old system & move it around & it works perfectly. If the user has a need for the slide following the video to overlap it, then simply move it up the timeline by however much they want. Every situation will be different & it is not something that PTE should try to program for. Leave the timings as they were & always have been. They have worked for over ten years without problems. Why is video any different to anything else? I give a lot of talks to camera clubs & try to help beginers. If this new system is to remain I need to be able to demonstrate why it is needed & at the moment I have no idea why anyone would want or need to use it. So can someone please explain to me the need to include both transitions? Jill

Things do seem to be behaving strangely & it seems to do different things each time & it is not always possible to recreate a problem. I have just created a new project in 7.0.1, before adding any slides in project options I set screen time to 4 & effect to 3.5. I then add 3 slides & would expect the total duration to be 12secs. It is NOT & is only 11secs. This means that slides have no screen time. Also it is behaving as V7 with the slides showing a screen time of 7 not 4 as expected with V6.5 See screen grabs. Jill

Dave, Not sure what you mean by the two 'Timed Points'? This beta now has 'Keep Full Slide Duration' on the bottom of the main screen. When unticked it behaves exactly as version 7, slides include the outgoing transition & all the associated problems they had before. Nothing seems to have changed. When ticked it behaves as version 6.5, slides times are as expected. I have tried this on both my main pc - Windows XP & on my laptop - Vista & the problems do not seem to have been cured, only the switch is reversed. Jill

Hi Igor, I have just downloaded the new beta & done a very quick test. It appears that the switch 'Keep Full Slide Duration' now works the other way around! So ticked it follows the old rules & unticked it is the new, which sadly still isn't working. I will do some more tests, but initial results still appear to be the same in that slides overlap. Jill