Barry Beckham

Well, why add something to a post that is obscure, which you must know will go over most peoples heads? How does that help a discussion?

Xaver I wasn't complaining, just starting a discussion point. I am not sure there is an answer because most established members are good folk who are genuinely trying to help. I am just not sure we always do that as well as we would like. Al forums are the same from what I can see. I think the experienced members should make a bit more effort trying to stay on topic and if we all remain concious of the potential to drift, perhaps it won't happen quite so often. Me included

Have you noticed how difficult it is to stay on topic on forums. I wonder how that effects a newer user of PTE who asks a question on the forum and needs help. Swamped by good natured people all trying to lend a hand? Then sorting through all the off topic stuff, that their inexperience may not tell them is off topic? I wonder how many people have asked a reasonably simple question and within days have been tearing their hair out in frustration?

Dom I hadn't seen that information, but even that size is not out of the question to make as a standard show, but probably a bit premature for 7,680 x 4,320. Take a camera recording 6 Megapixels it would fit the bill quite nicely for what I suggest, using the files at full size from the camera. A Canon 5D Mk1 about 60% of full size and a 1Ds Mk3 at 50% size. Its just that it would be nice if I could bring some of my older shows right up to date with regard to size. I wish I had thought of this a while ago. I have attached a little flow chart here as I may not have described the thoughts I had as clearly as I thought.

Thanks for all the replies, but doesn't the topic drift easily. I think I am reading one thing when its something completely different. I shall have to learn to keep up better Xaver, sorry I don't understand your post. JRR I remember getting hooked on Kia Power Show in the early days before I tried PTE, I don't know if any of you discovered that, but I am sure some did. I was turned off a little by the 800*600 size limit, but I think I will make my shows differently in future, more like I described earlier. I suppose the only problem may be some of my shows where every image and fade is created individually starting with image 1. Montages maybe somewhat different to produce at high resolution to scale down later, but I suppose the only way to see is to try it.

Yaughtsman Your missing the point a bit, this has nothing to do with RAW whatsoever.

Thanks for all the replies, but perhaps I didn't make things as clear as I thought. I am only interested in image/slide show sizes and what the general consensus is among the more knowledgeable user of PTE. If we all had a crystal ball, then I suppose this question would be an easy answer, but from what I read there is quite a variation in what you all choose. The question, "What size images should I use in my slide show" Has never been an easy one to answer, too many if's and but's. However 5.6 has put right some of those and I am coming around to this line of thought. Create everything at high resolution. I am now working on a 27in Dell 1920*1200 monitor. It will be a while till I exhaust that, (I hope) and even then I doubt we will go much bigger as the desk size starts to become a factor. The monitor does have a great deal of WOW value when a slide show created at 1920*1200 is displayed on it. If you followed one of those shows with an older 1024*768 show it does tend to look a little small. Now a larger size doesn't mean much if the show isn't good, but on the assumption that the show is a good one, a larger slide show does look pretty good and also has the edge on the smaller one, when all else is equal. As you have all said it also looks pretty good on smaller monitors too, although we have to accept the black bar top and bottom. So, for the future my thoughts are make my slide shows at full resolution. Here's my thought. Make the shows at full resolution from the images as they come from your camera. (Obviously this will depend on the camera and pixel count) The image sizes from my current camera are 5616*3744 and that is a very large file, but I could cut that in half and still have 2808*1872. If I made my slide shows at half size (2808*1872) I would still have enough resolution to cover my monitor resolution and a fair bit to spare for future eventualities. Now, I know what you’re thinking here, that many PC's will not handle the file sizes and they probably would not, but those of us who know PTE well could make the show at these sizes and on completion we could save all the components of that show. (Save to Zip perhaps) Now it is a simple matter to make a copy of the entire show and reduce the resolution of the images to whatever you want at the time. Even changing the format wouldn't be out of the question or a long drawn out process. Its just that I would love to have all the shows I have even made saved in this way now, but of course I haven’t because I didn't think to do so at the time. They would be saved OK, but at the resolution they were created at. Does anyone else see some merits here or not?

Thanks Peter But what size do you create a show? Lets say you have shot the high res images what next? Create them to fit your monitor, retaining format 1024*680 ? What if you have different sized monitors in your home, which one do you choose, the largest perhaps? Do you consider that in a couple of years time you may have a monitor twice, three times the size of the one you have now, do you take that into account while making a show now. In time we are all likely to be using widescreen monitors, so do you take that fact into account when making a show now. Do you ever consider making all your sequences at 1920*1080 the HD resolution. ??

I would be interested to hear what experienced PTE users on this forum would say if asked the following question by a new user of PTE and someone new to slide shows and AV. What size slide show should I make? And then Why ? Now I already understand most of the discussion that this topic could generate, but perhaps we can steer clear of that. So, for this poll I am interested in you as an individual, your personal thought process and why you choose the slide show size you do. As a secondary point, do you like to fill your screen with the slide show, irrespective of the resolution of that screen?

Thanks for the good wishes guys and gals We are settled now, that is all the big stuff is done, but we now need to turn the new house into a home, but I guess that will come naturally in the next couple of years. More from Australia soon I hope

Some of you may know may know that we recently emigrated from the UK to Australia and to keep our family and friends up to date we have created 3 slide shows. They are best watched in order. For those who know us and are interested they can be found at the link below http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/freestuffdigslidesw3.htm All three slide shows were created to fit my new Dell 1920*1200 monitor, but the shows should work fine on smaller screens. However, those who do have large flat screens will see the full Monty, so to speak. There are no fancy techniques, just simple slide shows.

Pwear Not sure where you got that Redlands link from, because I took it down a few weeks ago. Redlands CC had some problem or other and the demo was cancelled. _______________________________________________________________ However we do have a growing list of lecture dates now:- I am doing a dedicated 1 hour PTE demo at Noosa Camera Club on 11th May. This is an intro to the software and making a show. I have a 4 person Seminar here in Budermin on on the 22nd April dedicated to PTE and all the creative stuff and three places are still available here http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/smallgroup_list.htm I am also at Ipswitch CC in Brisbane on 28th April where PTE will feature. I have a 2 hour lecture at Bribie Island on Sunday 3rd May where PTE will feature I have an evening lecture at Wynham Bayside CC in Brisbane on the 12th May I have another at Mt Gravatt CC, an evening talk on the 13th May I have a Photoshop 4 person Workshop in Buderim on the 24th May http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/smallgroup_list.htm We are also at Caboolture on Monday 8th June for a morning lecture on the 8th June Those interested in Australia will know where to find links to venues etc.

I did some work with Cinescore for a little while, but I have never heard a piece of music automatically generated that can come close to something produced by a musician and when we start to talk AV, I doubt I would ever use such music. Generally speaking, computer generated music lacks the charm and appeal that we need in Audio Visual and if every other avenue of music was shut off to me apart from computer generated, I would give up AV altogether. In my view we only have two main componants in AV and quite often the image side of that partnership is not that great. The last thing we should do is start to put lack lustre music to those images. A recipe for disaster............... Anyone who does not want to pay £2.50 to use a good bit of music royalty free can buy a license to use music for non profit (If they are PAGB affiliated). That is the way to go, not computer generated. Before anyone jumps to the defence of computer generated music remember I said " Generally speaking" and if great music of this type is out there I am willing and ready to be corrected.

Phil You have a great way with words, you should have been a poet

Its OK guys I now feel better after that little rant You see I used to work in the thick of all this nonsense in the transport industry and here is an interesting story. We employed specialist roofers to fix the roof of one of our bus garages and their own safety representative never fitted his safety harness and fell injuring himself. We were charged by the H&S police for not providing a safe place of work. Now how does that work when you emply experts in the field? It follows that if you employ an electrician and he does not turn off the power and electicutes himself, you could be charged? Why do you think the transport system is so bad in the UK, because, left to the H&S they will gring it to a stop with so many rules and regs that in the end you just can't operate. Put a sticker on yourself and its done.

Have a look at Sony Cinescore, the attached link to a piece of music was created by me with that software. www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/beckham.zip I suppose that means I own the copyright

Forgive me guys, but this is hogwash. I would use some stronger descriptions, but I don't want to offend anyone. This is an English disease that has been caused by the Health and Safety Police and their tragic followers. Well, the Health and Safety Executive have to justify their existance some how. It is sad, but this affliction strikes down the dim witted, most inadequate and stupid people in society especially targeting those who do not have the ability to think for themselves. I think people with the same disease were around many years ago and said they were just following orders, but still went to prison from what I hear. The disease makes these people SO stupid that all you have to do to defeat them is put a white sticker on the underside of your kit saying " Tested 11/03/09 BB" Then they skip away happy as Larry.

The way I work, the renaming files is not necessary and in fact is not required. Renaming files and getting them in a sequential order is fine for beginners who need that disipline at the start, but I don't need it. I will be in and out of Photoshop and PTE all the time, creating images, using them, removing them from the PTE slide list. I will have so many examples in there that it is troublesome to find the image I want. Of course there are ways round it, but how much easier would that button be. Show/Don't Show

Oh yes, I forgot the information on there. Location now correct

I am not too fussed what method is used to show what slides have been used and Nobeefstu's idea is fine with me, but why can't we have both. If we look at Photoshop, one of it's strengths is that is caters for lots of different ways of working. I suppose it could be argued that the more this is done, the more complex the learning curve is for new users, but that's life really. To gain functionallity it is a price worth paying and since when has anything worthwhile ever been easy. Even a key stroke would do me, Hit Ctrl+U and all images used disappear. Hit Ctrl+U again and they return. When I create 20 images all very similar as I have recently to show a map and places, an option like that would be great.

I think forum members should remember that not everyone works in the same way and a solution to a problem experienced is not always best served by sort of suggesting that person does things differently. The way we do things affects the final end result and I think my way of working is probably fairly typical. I don't select or pre number my images, because I build my slide shows, one slide at a time and I duck and dive all along the way as ideas occur or as I see my show gradually building up. If I want to use a slide twice a simple copy and past from the slide list is what I generally do. It shouldn't be a big thing, a button that says hide used images and one that changes to reveal used images when pressed. I can't see how that can be confusing

I have been doing some practical AV work using PTE 5.6 and during the actual process I sometimes have difficulty finding the image I have just created for the show from all the others in the File Panel. It ocurred to me that it would be a great advance to be able to hide all images that have already been selected for the slide show from that File panel. I could then just see the last 5 images I have created rather than having to find them from amongst 55 others . I am aware that if you switch to text mode the used images are a bit clearer to spot, but a button to hide/Reveal thumbnails used would be a good thing in my View.

The trouble is I have used these shortcuts for so many years I do them without thinking. Ctrl+del floods your background colour and Alt+del floods the foreground colour. They are very useful for slide shows, but here is a tip. Make sure you fill your black jpg's with black and not very dark grey or you get an ugly pulsing during the transition

AAaaaaarrrrgghhhhhhh Hangs his head in shame, I have found the problem !!!! . I thought I had created a blank black slide, but on checking again I found that it wasn't quite black. I must have done a Ctrl+del to flood the jpg with what looked black to me, but wasn't. I used that off black jpg for the white letters too. You would only notice it when compared to a black slide and that is what I saw when I opened up what I thought was black and flooded it again. OOOoops. That was enough to produce that pulse. Doesn't this hobby throw you some googlies at times?

Dave I create my images in photoshop, so it was a black jpg at the resoution mentioned and another with white letters created in Photoshop. A sandwhich of Black.jpg - black with white letters.jpg - black.jpg I tried PTE 5.5 too and that is the same. Tried the same test on my wifes system and the same flicker/pulse can be seen there too, but the two systems are identical so no great surprise there. I do not see the problem when I play the test on my 1024*768 monitor in another room and another PC B