orizaba

Can someone "translate" the meaning of attached icon which shows on some topics? No legend available. Thanks.

Hi Mickp, May be I can give a small help having in mind another point of view. I don't know if it is your case, but some of my "movie-friends" used to have their computers under a true "high-mess state" in terms of lots of trash, disk fragmentation and registry confusion, which facts raise a big lot of "unexplained" errors, difficulties and slow running, sometimes hangs and crashes. I try to have my computer as clean and "organized" as possible and I can say that it is very, very rare to have such kind of problems. Almost every day I perform the following tasks: 1. "Disk cleanup" (Windows) 2. "Delete Temp Files" (files named @.tmp, @.chk) which exist in Page File and can not be deleted using "Disk cleanup". It's a search instrument which finds such temp files and when found we can delete them, so cleaning the Page File of each hard drive. 3. "RegCure 3.0.2" which cleans Windows registry. 4. "O&O Defrag 10.0" which defrags hard drives' files and put them occupying a minimum and continuous space (nothing to do with any kind of compactation!), leaving the maximum continuous space available for new files and tasks. Performing such operations guarantees a smooth and fast operation of the computer and lots of problems can be avoid. If you never made this, you will be trully surprised with the terrific mess of your hard drives, you will see thousands (yes, thousands!) of wrong registries, and lots of thousands of file fragments allover the hard drives, turning quite impossible to work in such conditions. The above softwares are actually my first choice since more than 2 years, after trying several others for same purposes. Hope this was usefull. Best regards, Jose

Just now I downloaded it again and run it 100% ok. XP SP3, ATI RADEON HD5770 (made in China...) Regards, Jose

Hi Ken, Exactly!!! (I'm still counting on yours... about my "main one"; the "fly joke" was just... a joke!) Concerning "zooming/panning/rotation" (to Hubert... sorry, may be I am the 4th to reply, I'm safe now!): I only want to help saying that I usually "dissolve" such moves in fade-ins/fade-outs (like Mick said), mainly when they do not start/end in a smooth way. I find "unacceptable" not to do so. And PTE offers all possibilities to manage this. By the way (to Ken): why 3D parameters do not have these same variable options? I mean, an image to which we apply "smooth" to its zoom or pan, or rotation, and also 3D, these 3D will start/stop suddenly. Bad result, in my opinion, something to be part of some future update, don't you think? Regards, Jose

Hi Roger, Why not? My pleasure! Please, do show! However... Beeing it a club's AV group, please ask your fellow members to drop a comment, ok? Did you already saw the full version? Regards, Jose

Hi John, Try "BPM_CHECKER_3" (beats per minute). http://download.cnet.com/BpmChecker/3000-2169_4-10071678.html I used it before, it's a kind of help, but I prefer to follow waveform picks on timeline (not on PTE but in AVID LIQUID 7.2 PRO instead, much more evident and precise). Regards, Jose

Hi Dan, That fly... was it? Me too! What about the "main" one? Did you watch it? (a little bit more "serious"...) Regards, Jose

Hi Ken, Rolleyes...? Did you watch the "main" one? Thanks and regards, Jose

Hi Lin, (You've got a message...! Sorry) Please have a look at my last post to "Wideangle" concerning success of "Elements 9". Thanks again for your help on this. Best regards, Jose

Hello "Wideangle", First of all, thanks so much for your comments. I'm glad you enjoyed the show and appreciated the so-called animations. I agree 100% with the idea that animation must be used with moderation, that's for sure, and I would add that must be used with a purpose... Discussion on which purpose... that's what would lead us very far! I would say instead, that I can not find any purpose at all "deciding" that "zero animation" is the "ideal" and generally accepted solution. This subject has already been discussed before and I think it will take its time to start watching some more dynamic slideshows. As I already asked before, what is Igor working for? What for so many (and excellent) PTE options? I'm affraid that coming version 7 (with video) will bring some other "kind of animations" to PTE slideshows... Let us hope not! Still concerning "my animations" I would profit to let know that a big "kind of problem" is present on all situations where an object "pass through" another object, like the train passing by the windows of the other train. It was "Davy C" who noticed it the same day the project was uploaded, and was kind enough to let me know. Well, it's "only" a kind of problem because I detected it and tried by all means to correct it, but I had no more instruments available in my Picture software (ArcSoft PhotoStudio 5.5.0). One of these days I asked Lin for help and, as expected, he gave me the solution. It's all about this kind of animations which involve "home-made masks", and the problem is their razor-cut edges which turn the final image not nice, I would say, artificial, not natural. My software has nothing to change this, I mean, to create a "black and white dégradé" on the edges of the mask. Lin suggested Photoshop, and I installed "Elements 9 Trial". Done! By means of "Select Feather", it's possible to create such dégradé, the size we want, all over the edges, and result is amazing! By the way... I already corrected all my project (10 masks), and I'm glad I've done it. In case other members decide to create such type of "home-made masks", I think this suggestion is worthwhile. I even attached 7 images showing all the process, including a zoomed detail of such "feathering", in this case it is the upper left corner of the central window, and feathering used is 3%. (Difference between 5 and 6 is... no people talking to a "moving" train!) Sorry to use "your post" to deal with this technical problem. Thanks again and my best regards, Jose

Hello Igor, Almost finished, your 7.0 Beta? Please, just tell me that you are including an "old" request of mine and some other members', which is that so-called "inverted mask possibility"! This point was put before, http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12467&view=findpost&p=80349 and you can not imagine how we miss it! Unless it is not so easy to introduce such "negative button"...! Best regards, and my sincere congratulations for this unique PicturesToExe software! Jose

Hi Luc, Please, try now. Links have never been desactivated, but sometimes there are problems with MediaFire, I think. I hope you can enjoy the show and I wait for your comments. Regards, Jose

Greetings! Just to say that a kind of "trailer" was now uploaded (including that very sad fly's death...) Trailers really use to come first, and I'm sorry it's not the case this time. Anyhow, it's just for fun...! Regards, Jose

File size ........................ 19 MB Running time ................ 01:24 Aspect ratio .................. 16:9 Resolution .................... 1920x1080 Intended audience ....... Who knows? (I only can say that... a fly dies at the very end of the show, not a nice view...) Just for fun, I said, and this it is indeed. However, I'm sorry, trailers use to come prior to the show itself. Well, not in this particular case. As I said before, my slideshows are intended to be seen on TV at home, with family and friends. This time, I decided to invite them using a real PTE project, a kind of "trailer" supporting the invitation message. I am glad it is beeing well accepted! That's why I decided to upload it: just for fun! It doesn't hurt too much... only 19 MB to download, less than 2 minutes' show. Please, do have in mind that english texts used are only intended to "smash" my friends!!! We are always competing each other on everything! And this time, they really got "smashed"...! Best regards, Jose Windows zip: http://www.mediafire.com/?46j5itgjll92l3v Mac zip: http://www.mediafire.com/?1fz3ser1r0m2uea

Hello, One more comment like this one of yours... and I think I will explode! Thanks for taking your time with such a detailed and nice report, having in mind that you, "thedom", are really a professional in this PTE world, so I think. You know, I never thought that this "One day... in August" would cause such an impact among my PTE fellows. Well, in fact, I had the idea that it is different from the usual, but I was even "affraid" of people's reactions, mainly from those "photo purists" for whom each photo is some kind of Gioconda which "must" be contemplated "as it is", for some half an hour, even without its golden frame... (attention, Louvre, think about it!) May be they are right, with only a big difference: here we are in the slideshow world (not in a museum), it's an AV production (not a museum's catalogue) and "rules" are obviously not the same, don't you agree? Some fellow commented "... a presentation which I suspect owes a lot to a movie background..." He is right, but aren't movies the top of AV? Why "must" a slideshow be static, only because it is not 24 fps? Another fellow wrote "... I see in this show pointers to where slideshow is going in the future..." I think he is right too, I would wish such future comes fast! Best regards, Jose

Hi Lin, Can you let me know if such feature called "feathering" is something included under "Selection and mask refinement tools", which such tools are NEW in PhotoShop CS5, and are not available in CS4 or CS3? I just saw PhotoShop site and all products are too much expensive! I wonder if such "feathering" could be available in some cheaper PhotoShop version, can you inform? Thanks in advance. Best regards, Jose

Dear PTE Fellows, I must say that I will use this topic (of mine...!?) because I noticed that a lot of members are following it quite daily. It's a question of audience and I will profit it, sorry. I will use this topic to call your attention for... another topic, nothing more. I just made a post in "Video output" section, "HELP: Best video file out of PTE project", which is as follows: (That's it. Regards, Jose) Hello everybody, Did you already noticed that this topic is one of the most viewed? Started last 17 January, in only 3 weeks there are more than 1700 views on it! Amazing! We can conclude that our PTE fellows were really needing some help on this subject, and I think they got it. Good! Can you remember who gave such enormous help to all of us? Mainly, Frank and Ray. Ok. Sometime ago, one of our PTE fellows became very angry, I would say, very, very angry, because I noticed that there are Forum Sections to which nobody pays due attention. What did I say...! Well, here I go again (and it's no use at all to become angry again...!) Last 16 July 2010 (by the way, of this XXI century...) our Ray, yes, our same Ray who helped us all, posted a message under "Slideshows created with Pictures To Exe", which is: Many of you already know that I've been using PTE for quite some time now to create a feature-length documentary, Peoples of the World: Southeast Asia. I'm pleased to announce that it has been released. Further details and a link to the preview are available on our web site. I believe this is an important milestone for PTE, being probably the first feature-length film made using it - certainly the first one to be made generally available. I also hope my friends on this forum will support the important cause for which it was made - the education of indigenous people. Ray Do you know how many replies? I mean, PTE replies, because I can admit (thanks God...) that some of you may have replied directly to Ray's Foundation. PTE replies: ZERO !!! Beautiful! Ok, the message is passed. After all, is it so problematic to support Ray's Foundation for the education of indigenous people? Of course, this could mean to interrupt our great PTE projects for some 5 minutes and prejudice could be enormous, however, how many minutes, hours or days did Ray used to help us? Come on, let's be generous for a while, and mainly let's be solidary to one of our PTE Forum fellow members. As he posted I also hope my friends on this forum will support the important cause for which it was made - the education of indigenous people. Was I clear enough? ZERO replies... This is really a "shame" (not my border in my project...) Best regards, Jose PS: Ray's Foundation link can be found here http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12094&view=findpost&p=77844

Hello everybody, Did you already noticed that this topic is one of the most viewed? Started last 17 January, in only 3 weeks there are more than 1700 views on it! Amazing! We can conclude that our PTE fellows were really needing some help on this subject, and I think they got it. Good! Can you remember who gave such enormous help to all of us? Mainly, Frank and Ray. Ok. Sometime ago, one of our PTE fellows became very angry, I would say, very, very angry, because I noticed that there are Forum Sections to which nobody pays due attention. What did I say...! Well, here I go again (and it's no use at all to become angry again...!) Last 16 July 2010 (by the way, of this XXI century...) our Ray, yes, our same Ray who helped us all, posted a message under "Slideshows created with Pictures To Exe", which is: Many of you already know that I've been using PTE for quite some time now to create a feature-length documentary, Peoples of the World: Southeast Asia. I'm pleased to announce that it has been released. Further details and a link to the preview are available on our web site. I believe this is an important milestone for PTE, being probably the first feature-length film made using it - certainly the first one to be made generally available. I also hope my friends on this forum will support the important cause for which it was made - the education of indigenous people. Ray Do you know how many replies? I mean, PTE replies, because I can admit (thanks God...) that some of you may have replied directly to Ray's Foundation. PTE replies: ZERO !!! Beautiful! Ok, the message is passed. After all, is it so problematic to support Ray's Foundation for the education of indigenous people? Of course, this could mean to interrupt our great PTE projects for some 5 minutes and prejudice could be enormous, however, how many minutes, hours or days did Ray used to help us? Come on, let's be generous for a while, and mainly let's be solidary to one of our PTE Forum fellow members. As he posted I also hope my friends on this forum will support the important cause for which it was made - the education of indigenous people. Was I clear enough? ZERO replies... This is really a "shame" (not my border in my project...) Best regards, Jose PS: Ray's Foundation link can be found here http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12094&view=findpost&p=77844

Hi Lin, I must say that such "strong" comments, coming from you, make me feel even happier! No doubt! Although... I think that they are too much strong! Is it true? Is this the one and most enjoyable? Not possible... Now, speaking seriously, that "shimmering" is really a problem! I can let you know that I did used the "anti-shimmer" all over the project in almost every moving image. Result? Zero! I have the notion that such anti-shimmer reduces picture sharpness (and when I apply I can note such loss), and this should be a good reason to reduce the shimmer, but result is not noticed. I think I read somewhere that it is only effective when applied on original size images, not on resized images (which is my case). This may be the explanation for such useless option. In fact, not considering the "old" photos, all my original photos were 4:3 (2592x1944) and I made my PTE project at 1920x1080 (16:9). Of course, I had to reframe the images and so I always had to zoom/resize. It's really a problem, but I can not imagine how it can be overpassed. By the way: do you know any method to "smooth" razor-cut edges? You certainly noticed in several "double or triple images" (train passing by the windows, electricity post passing by, etc.) where I used "home-made" masks, that such masks' edges are really razor-cut, which is not natural and not nice. It should exist a "method" to create a "black and white dégradé" all around the mask's edges in order to avoid such razor-cut aspect. I made several tests with my ArcSoft PhotoStudio 5.5.0 (not bad at all...) but I couldn't get any result at all. Thanks very much for your lines, and my best regards, Jose PS: Sorry for that mouse cursor, it's really my fault, I forgot that. May be I will replace the exe file at MediaFire, I don't know if it is worthwhile.

Hi Kieron, I've put... 5 months! However, not "work", only pure pleasure instead! You know, this PTE affair is really pure enjoyement for me, and each time I finish a project I become a little bit lost, like missing something, despite I feel that I will never again undertake a "so complex and difficult project" as the one I just finished. However, here I go again, next week, with another one, probably "even more complex" than before. Till now, 8 months was the maximum I dedicated to a sole project, some kind of a "family project", 27 minutes, which in my own opinion is very good, full of "action" and unusual picture-in-picture "invented" solutions, more than 400 slides, since 1947 to 1997, 50 years of a family story! I'm glad you enjoyed this "masterpiece, brilliant in every respect"!!! Please, not so "masterpiece", only better, or different, from what is available in this forum. In fact, I should like to watch "better" shows from our PTE fellows. No reason to use so limited resources of a so good software like PTE. No reason to use so little "imagination" when building a project. No reason not to "work" the soundtrack a little more. After all, no reason not to try to captivate PTE fellows' interest, which is not the samething as showing some photos on a laptop to some family member sitting next, while explaning how funny were those hollidays... Thanks for your comments, Kieron, and best regards, Jose

Hi Frank, As usual, your explanations were clear and complete, I understood every word. Thanks very much for all your time. Best regards, Jose

Hi Frank, Ok, I understood. Just 3 more detais (I am sorry to take your time for some more minutes...!) - In mine (and yours) plasma, are in fact "dots" rectangular, or horizontal pitch is bigger than vertical pitch, as I really think it is? - What is really "shimmering", or why it happens? What has this to do with "square" or "rectangular" pixels? (as I told, "square" and "rectangular" has only to do with H and V pitch, is it?) - What about my plasma's "50p", saying that SONY paper only "720/60p"? Thanks, Jose

Frank, You shouldn't thank me for these "extensive tests", on the contrary, I am the one to thank you for them because, in first place, it's my pleasure (I'm that kind who finds some beauty in complexity...!), and second, I (still) like to learn and take conclusions. Ok. I just finished this last test: PTE MP4, 1280x720, 50p, 1-pass, Quality 100 (everything as the last one - item 3 of last post - except, this time 50p). I didn't re-convert audio, so I had no audio in my plasma show. GSPOT said: bitrate 6502 kbps. You know what? Image 100% perfect and stable all over the project, no tembling and no vibration at all! Neither in those 3 problematic slides (how is this possible, that's what I ask myself!) Of course, shimmering is present (very big) just like with 60p, and this turns the solution quite impossible. Image quality (sharpness) is like with 60p as well, not so bad, but worse than 1920x1080, it's visible, but not an "impossible" quality, I must say. At last, my SONY plasma shows 720/50p, which agrees with PTE MP4 50p and PHILIPS 720p. Despite SONY paper saying that 50p is not accepted, only 60p is. This is rather curious, isn't it? What is going on? One more point: this actual file runs 100% well in computer, and here we hardly notice the loss of image sharpness and quality. This is amazing but it is true. As I said before,I must go to BD solution. But I'm now asking myself if it wouldn't be better to burn this actual last file (1280x720, 50p), having in mind possible problems of other people's BD Players? In this case, NERO BD processing (before burning) will change project to 1920x1080, 24p, so I don't know what will be final result, but at least it will be a "lighter" file to process/convert, so I think. This is one more test I will make (lucky me...!) and I will let you know. Regards, Jose

Hi Rick, Sorry for my delay to thank for your lines, which touched me a big lot! That starting "Just brilliant" is something I really enjoyed! Who wouldn't? Best regards, Jose PS: Would you care to add something more concerning that polemic point "static vs moving images" in PTE projects? It is really a point which I think should be more discussed... so I think, anyway.

Hi Frank, I almost knew that you should have some trick yo overpass this situation of my PHILIPS BD Player! And here it is, after a 2 days big battle... No, your post is not confusing, and your method not complicated at all... should MkvTools install to make last step. Ok, you already know the rest of the story. I installed MkvToolNix 4.4.0 and everything was smooth till the end. Results: 1. Original PTE MP4 file: 1920x1080, 2-pass, 24000 kbps, 60p fps. Converted (MkvToolNix) to another MP4 (same video, MP3 audio). Converted file copied to USB pen. PHILIPS: accepted file, runs file (clock is working), but no image and no sound. Plasma keeps blue color (PHILIPS menu). GSPOT says "File type Unknown" and everything is blank, no indications at all. I don't know what happened, but this file plays well (video and audio) in computer. 2. Original PTE MP4 file: 1920x1080, 2-pass, 24000 kbps, 60p fps (same file). Converted (XMedia Recode) to another MP4 (same video, MP3 audio). Converted file copied to USB pen. PHILIPS: accepted and plays well video and audio, but a big lot of trembling in almost zooms, pans and fades. GSPOT says audio "mp4a MPEG-1" 48Khz St (which is MP3, ok), bitrate 24257 kbps. Plays perfectly on computer (no shimmering/trembling at all) SONY plasma: trembling, shimmering and big "jumps" sometimes. Here I recalled what you said: PHILIPS reccomends no more than 20000 kbps! 3. Original PTE MP4 file: 1280x720, Quality 100, 60p fps (GSPOT shows Video bitrate 7500 kbps). Converted (XMedia Recode) to another MP4 (same video, MP3 audio) (GSPOT shows video bitrate 7757 kbps , a lot under those PHILIPS 20000 kbps) Copy to USB pen. PHILIPS: accepted and plays file, video and audio, but almost always "vibrating" and sometimes trembling. This is quite unacceptable, dispite the image quality is not so bad, but is clearly worse than 1920x1080, we can notice a difference (sharpness). Shimmering is big, as well. Please note that in my PTE project all moving slides have "anti-shimmering" from start. So, I think that "solution USB pen" must be abandoned: vibrating, trembling and shimmering image, quality not so good. Another surprising point: SONY plasma manual says "720/60p" is accepted (not "720/50p") (Please, check the SONY paper I sent you before). PHILIPS manual says "Component out 720p" is possible. Original MP4 file is 60p. Why playing this last 1280x720 file, SONY plasma shows 720/50p? Yes, 50p, not 60p! How is that? I would bat that you have an explanation...! In conclusion, all these tests and former BDs show that best solution is to make a PTE MP4 file 2-pass 24000 kbps 60p fps and burn a BD disc (with NERO at 25i fps) . Unless for my SONY Plasma and this particular project, this shows to be the best possible solution. In fact, only that problem with those 3 slides, which is already explained and justified. Problem may be: what will happen in other BD Players? Hwo knows...! And this is it, Frank. I never thought in my life to run such extensive tests with you and Ray, and learning so many things in the meantime. Thanks again! Best regards, Jose