Picsel

Hi Lin, very interesting comparison indeed. I can guess the result is depending on the transmission speed for downloading. On YouTube the quality of the picture is quite fine. However I do not succeed to view the first part of your video correctly, several stops during zooming part on the eagle, but no noticeable problem after, bullets and sounds are synchronised, etc... With Vimeo it seems very strange because after desabling the "upscaling" function which deteriorates the picture quality a lot, your video looks like a 480 x 360 original mp4 video which has nothing to see with your 1600 x 1200 original one. Is it a Vimeo problem for encoding such a video format? abstract of Vimeo recommendation for upload video settings : " Size = 640x480 for standard definition 4:3 video, 872x480 for widescreen DV, or 1280x720 for high definition. It is also best to export 1920x1080 or 1440x1080 video as 1280x720 too." There is no mention of 1600 x 1200 is that the reason of your problem? I have already tried Vimeo with 1280x 720 and the result was not perfect but better than yours. However another bad point I had already experienced with Vimeo : there are a lot of visible artefacts on the pictures at the boundary between clear and dark parts (for example at the top of eagle's head) which does not exist on YouTube video even with a full screen format. Those artefacts are more likely due to video mp4 to flv encoding process. Daniel

Hello Ed When you use your projector, is your video card manager set for "laptop + projector" or "projector alone"? If the projector resolution is larger than laptop one you should choose "projector alone" and set the resolution for the projector, otherwise you may encountered some video problem. Example if my laptop is 1024x768 and projector is 1280x720 I must choose "projector alone" and set the resolution display to 1280x720. The same happens with 1440x900 laptop and 1920x1080 LCD HDTV, etc, etc..And in any case you must set the resolution display for the projector and not for the laptop. But I am sure you already knew that, just in case of... Daniel.

Hello Josh Thanks for all your information. Is your Transparentplayer based on Akamaï Open Video Player Initiative or not? Daniel.

Yes Dave, that does not work if your project file was initialy created with v5.5; neither if you open it with v5.5, neither if you open it with v5.6RC. But if you create a new project file with v5.6RC, you can rename a slide (used in the timeline) in the slide list panel and you will see that v5.6RC has renamed the file everywhere in the timeline and in O&A properties as well except in the objects list but I guess that there is no problem with that. Even if you save your project in a zip file you will see that renaming has worked perfectly but only for project initialy created with v5.6RC and none for those created with v5.5. Do you understand what I mean? Daniel.

Hi Dave, yes you are right, that was the case with v5.5 no longer (as far as Iknow) with v5.6RC with v5.6 when you rename a slide in the slide list the renaming is acheieved where the slide was used in your project, this is much better, saving time and avoiding a lot of mistakes. Daniel.

It seems that PTEv5.6RC does not rename correctly slides for project files prepared with V5.5. I wanted to rework a project which had been prepared with V5.5. I opened this project with V5.6RC. If I rename slides in the slide list, modification are not taken into account for those slides included within the Timeline and a window pops up with "errors found" list. And so PTE v5.6 renaming function does not work for project files prepared with v5.5. Nota : there is no problem for new projects prepared with V5.6 as far I as know (I have not yet tested everything!). Can this probblem be fixed with final v5.6 version? Daniel

Hi Lin Sorry for that, I really appreciate your search and all information you provided to us to find an efficient way to solve this issue and many thanks for your work and time. I agree with you, that could be the best solution for professionnal webmaster people. For those people, spending more than 100$ just for a video player is still a bargain. But I just wanted to point out that for a lot of people it is very very expensive by comparison with other software fonctionnalities. To come back on my previous post, I have made some test on my side. I created a short run with PTEv5.6RC that I converted in mp4 file (hd 1920x1080 medium quality) and I tried to view it after on my computer. I was very surprised neither WMP, neither VLC_MP read it properly. At the moment I thought my PC was not powerful enough. I remember there was a notice in PTE which recommended to use Media Player Classic_ Home Cinema. I downloaded and installed MPC_HC and everything was working perfectly well. I can guess that in fact my PC was perhaps not powerful enough but it seems that MPC_HC requires less CPU resources and works better than other players. If I understood well, this player is an open source software as for VLC . And I can guess that sooner or later, the linux world will release such streaming player for free. As I already mentionned it seems, but I am not expert in video, that streaming possibility already exists with VLC using VideoLan Manager. VLC and VLM are both open source softwares. Daniel.

Hello Lin some other consideration (to date 16/01/2009) - PTE Deluxe 75€ - (*) Pinnacle Studio Plus V12 around 73€ - (*) Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinium around 72€ - (*) Magix Video deluxe 15 Plus around 100€ (*) all supporting AVCHD and transparentplayer 119USD (only video player !) Where is the mistake????? Best regards Daniel

Thanks Igor for your reply, so now I understand where is your problem and the answers given by Peter. In the time between, may I suggest that an explanation be added in the user's guide in order to avoid users misleading. Waiting for the future version 5.6. Thanks for your work. Daniel

Hello Jean_Pierre, quite funny to discuss the point in english with you! Please note that, as I said to Peter in my previous post the synchronization was disabled in main tab of Project Options. If I understand well, Peter and you are suggesting to use the add the music to slide button rather than music tab /Customize slide why not. But I would like to understand what is the purpose of Music Tab in this case? ..and what is the difference in PTE action using the add the music to slide button or the slide's music tab? In any case if I use the customize music tab as it is specified in the official PTE user's guide p28, the music should be played by miniplayer or P&A editor otherwise PTE does not work correctly. Have a good year Daniel. Here is the abstract of OFFICIAL user's guide for PTEv5.5 page 28. "Music Tab If you want to add music to the slide, you should use Music Tab. Note, that the sound file you choose, will be added only to an individual slide. If you want to add music to the whole slide show, you should use Project Options, Music Tab, where you adjust not a single slide, but all the slides in the slide show. You should remember, that if you add music file in this way, the music will be stopped after the slide is shown. Here you can also Add several music files, choose among them, Remove them and Clear the playlist." In side the window : "

Peter, once again, the slideshow works perfectly well, which confirms that I used the right way to do that. You can check by creating the exe file and you will see. So I maintain there is a bug inside PTEv5.6 which should be corrected otherwise nobody, except PTE experts as you are, will be able to work with. But I must thank you for giving me some craftiness to solve the problem, I will try to explain that to other PTE users in my club that will not be easy to do at all. Please refer to "PicturesToExe Deluxe Version 5.5 The User`s Guide by Wnsoft" page 28

Hello Xaver, I agree partially with you, yes your right saying that could be better to use Audacity or other sound editor, I know all of that but it is not my purpose here. The possibility to use and to start music slide by slide exists in PTEv5.6 even in PTEv5.5 and I used this facility for several reasons. With PTEv5.5, the music was not played at all neither by the miniplayer neither by the O&A editor. There were a lot of posts on this subject on the forum. With v5.6 the miniplayer and O&A editor do not play the music specified in Customize slide/music tab that is anormal and I would say : nothing is better than something wrong! Daniel.

Peter, 1) The result in exe file works perfectly well, so the bug comes with miniplayer and O&A editor and not with the way I build this slideshow test. 2) I followed exactly the Wnsoft user guide and Lin Evans tutos on this matter, I checked everything before. I do not see where I could be wrong. I think that I used the right way to do that but.. However I tried what you suggested to do and it is worst : the background music continue to be played back mixed up with the music of the ending title slide N°3. It is not that I wanted to do. What I wanted to do is as follows : the background music plays until slide n°3 and stop, then the music specified in Customize slide N°3 is played (as usual it is not a new PTE possibility). Daniel

Here attached a file test 1,84Mo (test_son_Jan14-2009_11-25-19.zip) describing the problem. 4 slides : 1-waves 15s, 2-ships 15s, 3- ending text 31s, 4- stop music. In Project Option/ Music tab, I have added music "a piece of heaven" 30s mp3 with "replay..." selected In Customize slide N°3, I have added music "pantarei" 21 s mp3 with "Play new background music" selected In the main window whatever the slide selected, the mini player will play the Project Option music even if the slide N°3 where selected and O&A editor will do the same. It seems that the music specified in Customize slide is ignored either by miniplayer, either by O&A editor. PTE developpers should correct this bug before releasing final v5.6. (The EXE file is OK and the slideshow runs with all music effects OK) I personnaly regret that the waveform of music added in Customize slide is still not displayed on the timeline bar. That could be just a bar in order to indicate the presence of a sound in order to help. Daniel. test_son_Jan14_2009_11_25_19.zip

Hi Yachtsman1 You can use 3072x768 with PTE and you will get a panorama panning through the 1024x768 window. I have experienced this PTE facility. I have built a panorama starting with 10 pictures 2560 x 1920pixels each, The resulting panorama picture was 16932 x 1839 pixels, then I reduced the size to 9944 x1080 pixels in order to use it with PTE which works perfectly well using "fit to slide" in o&a window. The only problem was : as the panorama is a bit long I had to make two pauses during Pan in order to avoid viewer head spin. Daniel.

Hi Ken, perhaps it is the easiest way for developpers to take into account time/date but when you use other softwares you have to save your work only if you made modifications, they are not requiring to save for nothing. That was just for PTE improvement..! Daniel.

It seems that neither PTE v5.5 neither PTE v5.6beta20 recognises if there were real modifications or not in my current project. Each time I want to close the project or to create a Video, PTE requires to save again even if there is no modification in the project since the last saving or even if I just saved the project before! That is not very important but a bit worrying and confusing. I must recognize it is better to save twice rather than to miss something!! Daniel.

Peter, If the third possibility could be added that would be perfect for me. On my side I ve never used "new time interval on ALL slides" except at the very beginning of the work but in this case I have not yet slides customized in the project. But more often you have to customize slides for adding effects, animations,etc.. and those customization should no longer be modified by other PTE commands without having to agree on slide by slide. Best regards Daniel.

I would appreciate to be able to modify the "Time interval betwween slides" within Project options without modifying all the timing of slides for those slides which have been customized via the "Customize Slide" pannel. With PTE v5.5 and even with PTE v5.6beta20 I tested recently, building a slide show with a lot of slides, if I want to modify the "Time interval between slide" within Project options, PTE applies the new parameter value to all slides included in the project and I have to rebuild each customize slide after. In my point of view, it will be easier if the parameters specified via Customize slide window were not modified by the modification of Project options. Daniel.

Hi Ray yes, I agree with you, except that I havent seen the possibility to make a mp4 video with 1440x1080 images with Videobuider . I can guess that, as 1080 pixels height images are compatible with hd format, that was the optimised choice. I can guess that coding the 2 vertical bands, if there are not too much colored details in it, will not grow the file size too much. Is that right? If there were other posibility, let me know. Best regrads Daniel.

Steve, you are perfectly right, although the button is big enough, I missed this point. Thanks for your relevant remark. With Pan and Scan disabled everything is OK Daniel.

Hi Dave Thanks for your reply, as I said in my previous post I full agree with your proposal which solves my problem even if "Virtual Size of Slide" remains a bit unclear for me, but if things were clear enough for others it is OK for me. Daniel.

Hi Ray, Hi Dave thanks for your reply. Ray I will try to MP to you the short file test (3.9Mo). I used 5.6beta20, The video format should be mp4 hd 1920x1080. However I agree with Dave suggestion : the easiest way to solve this issue with new slideshow is to specify a slideshow format 16/9 and not 4/3 But 1) I am a bit worried with the "Project options configuration window/screen tab" : if you specified 16/9 format, then the "virtual size view" comes 1280 x 720? even if all the views were 1440 x 1080. If you put fix size view 1440 x 1080 then format automaticaly changed for "customised". In fact you have to change the "virtual size view" value for 1920 x 1080 even if all the views were 1440 x 1080!! What is the reason for that? What would happen if I did not change the "1280 x 720 virtual size view". "Virtual size view" what does that mean? That is very confusing, mixing the words for view and video format. 2) If I want to convert an already made slideshow, I will have to modify the "Project options configuration window/screen tab" for selecting 16/9 format, but in this case I have experienced with PTEv5.5 that the view by view configuration parameters were modified to take into account the last "Project options configuration" parameters and so you have to rebuild all your project (I have not yet tested if this inconvenience remains with v5.6b20) 3) The article in reference should be modified in accordance with Dave suggestion. Best regards.

Hello Point 1 I know this article is a bit old but I recently made some test and the result was : Videobuilder does not works as it is explained in this article! My slideshow test : pictures sized to 1440x1080px, slideshow aspect format specified as 4/3. I created a mp4 file hd 1920x1080 medium quality. I was very surprised to see that all pictures were cropped in height in order that the whole remaining part of the pictures cover 1920x1080, very surprising!! The result is not in accordance with this article, the picture after aspect ratio conversion should have been the same in width (1440pixels) + two black lanes of 240pixels on each side What's going wrong? Point 2 Please update or delete the link for the french translation of the article it is misleading Daniel P.S. I can provide the test file zip and mp4 result but I think it is easy to check by anyone else.

Hi Lin a lot of information, thanks for your search. I have read all the document but I need some times to study it in details. I understand that the streaming of mp4 is not so easy and the quickest way could be to use the transparentplayer but ... Coming back on the difficulty to open your mp4 video test, I confirm that with my IE6.0 by clicking on the image I get a pop-up window "open" or "download" that's all (as you already said, in both cases the file is downloaded either in Temp file either in a selected one and the file can be read after downloading), with my Firefox 3.0.5 nothing happens why (?), I will check later on. Best regards Daniel. PS: do you use Haali Media Splitter + FFDShow, rather than dedicated codecs?