Barry Beckham

Igor This sounds a great idea and I can guess why you chose the label Synchronization. It is more desriptive of the option being chosen, but I favour labelling the button, "Time Line" Its what we all call it and while a small point I think its better. It always seemed odd to me that we click the time line button and open up Customize Synchronization. I think Time Line is a better label.

I just created the PBG file through photoshop, but the problem you have experienced may just be down to a computer glitch, one of those things you may never get to the bottom of. Sometimes we can create hundreds of images and when we open them back up again a couple may say there is a problem or a corruption that has never happened before and doesn't happen again.

Try this to see if the problem is PTE5 or Elements 5. Download a png file I have made from the link below and try that in your PTE5. Right click the link and choose save target as. See if this file shows up corrupt on PTE5. If it does the issue does appear to be with PTE5, if it doesn't the issue appears to be Elements 5 http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/test.png

Veronica That could be good news for PTE. Editors seem afraid to go with any book on AV when they don't run on Macs Please keep us posted

Sdkikikins No 2, Yes, you would need more size for pan and zoom, but often not as much as you would think. Have you seen some of those stitched pans that go on so long you think your life might end before the pan does Better to keep animation minimal in my view, its better on the eye and easier to produce. No3. Your right there, but even now I couldn't actually bring myslf to make a slide just for DVD size. Make it PC sized and let PTE take care of the resizing, it does a good job.

sdkikikins Despite making many slide shows and tutorials, I don't do very much for DVD due the reasons already discussed here, therefore I would not claim to have all the answers and perhaps forum members can add more to what I am about to say or even confirm the logic for my thought. Isn't the issue when we create a DVD that the format of the DVD doesn't match our PC format. (not the resolution issue) If the output of a slide show is destined to be used solely for DVD, then wouldn't it be best to create that show at 720*576. At least we would then be able to make sure the images where as good as we can get them at that size. Sharpness, cropping etc. The slide show software would then have little to do with the size of the images, so perhaps the process would speed up too? If a PC version slideshow is also needed, why not create the images in DVD format. A bit of maths with a calculator soon has us at 1260*1008, which would look OK on a 1280*1024 PC screen and retains the 720*576 format. There is also an article by Pavel (Surely not Chekov) right here on the wnsoft web site http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/aspect-ratio.htm

Here is a solution for Elements 5 Create a new blank file at 1024 by 768, make the new file white for this excersize. Then create a second blank file in black, this time create the size you want your images to be within the 1024*768 page. Select the move tool from the toolbox and while holding the shift key drag the black (smaller square) into the white one (1024*768) The Shift key option will ensure that the black square will drop dead centre onto the white. If you need to shunt it up a bit, just use the up arrows on the key board with the move tool selected to nudge it a pixel at a time. Try 800*600 for the second image, but if that doesn't look right or meet your needs, create another at a different size. I think 875*600 looks best in a 1024*768 page. You can now select the black square with the magic wand, switch to the white square and cut out the center part. Then you can drop the black layer in the bin and with the white frame/mask locked in the layers palette, you can flood it with colour, add texture or whatever you want to create the mask In essence make a template and use that to create your mask. BB www.beckhamdigital.co.uk

Well, I have had 3 PC's built by http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/ and they have all been fine. One I use as a demo machine for lectures and two were for my son and daughter-in-law. They both use Photoshop and do video editing and know their way around PC's. They are happy with their machines. A friend also recently bought another from them (only a couple of weeks ago) and is happy with that and I will get my next one there too. They do give a great level of choice and you can contact them too. You can select a high end machine for say video editing and then select different componants, drves etc etc. Then click and get the price and that looks pretty good to me. I would never buy an off the peg PC, not for this sort of work BB

Thanks Igor and all That is extremely useful information. I will ask for the heat pipe technoligy Regards Barry

Igor and Andy Thanks for the info. I assume from your recommendations that the Nvidia 8600GT graphics card does have this heat pipe technoligy ? I have had a graphics card fail already due to the fan and it wasn't that old and what you say makes sense. Been having proplems with my main desktop for a while now and wanted to make it last another year, but thats not going to happen. I am OK with all the other componants of a PC, but want to be sure it will handle the premire slide show software without a hitch (PTE5) Barry

Does anyone have anything to say about this graphics card that I am thinking of putting into a new desktop 512MB GEFORCE 8600GT PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT or maybe 640MB GEFORCE 8800GTS PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT Thanks

Lin I suppose it has gone a bit nuts, but I would still like a 1Ds Mk3, but if it is $8k where you are it will be £6k here. We are ripped off when it comes to cameras and we can never understand why we have to pay in pounds what you pay in dollars for the same bit of kit. The powers that be are quick to tell us we are in a global economy when things go badly, so why do we have to pay so much? I bought a Canon 100-400 I.S lens, a Canon 80-200 I.S 2.8 lens and a teleconvertor in Los Angeles for less than just the 80-200 in the UK. The quality of prints at 24 inches by 18 from my 1DS still amazes me and doubling the pixel count (1Ds Mk3)must be like carrying the quality of 5*4 camera or larger around in an SLR body. I wonder where it will all go from here. Anyway about that laptop..............................................

Lin I fully agree re the Nvidia card. For a while now I have come to the conclusion that for what we do the Nvidia cards have the edge. I already promised myself a Nvidia card in my next PC. All my current cards are Radeon and while they are OK, they don't seem to be as good as Nvidia to me. I do need loads of power in a laptop though. We can't reduce the size of raw files and demonstrating those at 16 bit on a laptop will make it groan a bit. Especially when you use smart objects and then add a couple of layers. I think your right that purely for PTE a lesser model would cope, but what about when you do want to get creative with layers in Photoshop for your PTE show. All the power you can get would then be a benefit. Money aside of course, I would go for the power so the darn thing is still usable in a couple of years time. The new Canon has 22 million pixels, thats double mine so 60 meg for a standard file, 120 for a 16 bit. Wow

There is an animated gif at the address below if anyone wants to use it feel free to copy it from there. http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk

I too are looking for a good laptop for Photoshop demos, but it must be able to handle Raw images in 16 bit and I want it to run PYE5 animations faultlessly. My experience when I did a bit of research at PC world may be of use. I still havn't taken the plunge yet. http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7255

Ken I tried the same thing with the setting you mentioned on and off and the same error occurs Later last night I copied into the file string another start.exe file from another project. It is almost identical to the one I have been trying to link to. Its a small PTE4 slide show that provides a menu for my DVD. The process worked perfectly. It seams the problem is with just this one file. Nobeefstu Brilliant, I just never thought of that especially after I got an almost identical start file from another project to fire up correctly last night. Your work around did the trick Well done mate and thanks

Ken Yes I tried that, but the problem is the same. I can't resave the original slide show in PTE5 either because it is a DVD menu structure with buttons made in PTE4. Converting it to PTE5 destroys the quality of the buttons. Can't use PTE5 buttons because they are not as good as PTE4 ones for what I use them for. Just tried it anyway and it does fire up fine, so it has to be a technical problem between 5 and 4. Barry

I am very familiar with this process, so I am reasonable confident this is not use error. I have made a generic intro slide show in PTE5 and and called it Logo.exe. I have tried to set up the Run Application after last slide option to open another slide show, but it will not run and throws up an error message. It works fine when I set it to open a web page, Photoshop or even another PTE5 slide show. It refuses to open a PTE4 slide show no matter what I do. The two files will be in the root of a DVD so the parameters to Run Application after last slide option are simply "start.exe" I tried to get around this by using a button on the last slide of the logo slide show, but the same error message appears. I have done this before, but both programs were PTE4 Any ideas guys and gals?

Jonathon When I add commentary I do so by using the free program Audacity to record the commentary in short related clips. I save these as individual sound files. Doing it this way makes it easier to record and place into your music track. It also makes it easy to correct a mistake rather than having to record the whole commentary To locate the precise point along the music to add your commentary try this. Program your slide show using the PTE time line with just the music track. When you have it fully complete, use the time line to determine where every sound track needs to go. You can read off the minutes and seconds and make a paper note of them. You can open those commentary files up alongside the music (multi-tracking) and slide them into position. That way you can reduce the volume of the music when the commentary starts and increase it again when that bit of commentary ends. (unless the commentary is continuous). This reduction in music volume is almost essential if you want your commentary to be clearly heard. After you have two commentary sections done, save the whole this as a project in Audacity and then export what you have as an Mp3. You can test the resulting file in PTE to make sure the first two are right, then go back to audacity to do the third, fourth etc, then save and test that. Build up the soundtrack slowly as your bound to want to move a slide or two as well. As long as you save a project file in both PTE and Audacity you can always come back and add changes. Another tip, save/export your project file and Mp3 files in Audacity with different names. Mixdow 1, mixdown 2 etc. That way if you do get something wrong, you always have the opportuity to recover an earlier version. Hope that helps www.beckhamdigital.co.uk

RRoberts Have a look at the link below that may help you with your question. http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/audiovisual/dvd/dvd.htm There is also a lot more about AV here http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/audiovisual/audiovisual.htm

Sadly No Bob

For those interested I am running a workshop for 4 people on the 11th November 2007 covering PTE 5. The day will be limited to 4 people to ensure everyones needs are met. The four places can be booked by a group or individually. Details are here http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/smallgroupav.htm

Imagination is more important than knowledge Now there is a powerful statement, that sums it all up in my view. You can find out the technical bits easy enough when you need them, but imagination....I am not so sure about that. Is that something your either have or you don't? I know some really knowledgable and technically superb photographers, but imagination.. No

Mario, I never have been a wedding photographer, I have been a very keen amateur most of my life. Only in the past few years have I earned anything from my photography. Lin has really covered all the bases. As a photographer, DVD's for TV viewing don't appeal to me at all and its for the very quality reason you mentioned and what Lin explained. Our slide shows are made at low resolution compared with what we would want for a 20*16 print. However, 1280*1024/1024*768 or thereabouts gives us a superb image for viewing on a monitor or via a PC projector. You have to decide if the trade off in quality between DVD/TV use and PC is worth it. I tend to think it isn't for much of what professionals and amateurs produce. Most of the time when we are presenting our images we want them displayed at their absolute best, so why buy a camera capable of 11 million pixels and then present the image at less than half a million pixels on a TV. Most people have a PC in their home now or at least access to one and the numbers are growing all the time. I would only use th DVD/TV method if there was no other option. Providing DVD's to wedding parties is as Lin says is generally an added extra to the wedding packages, but a popular one. If I was presenting my work via a slide show to the brides aunt Matilda, a DVD would probably be OK, but if I were presenting work to a Magazine editor I would not even consider a DVD. HD TV will improve all this in time I guess.

I don't disagree with a word Lin has said, but what people know is right for a slide show is not what they appear to do. The result in my view is the exact opposite of what a slide show should do. It drives you away rather than inviting you to stay and I find myself reaching for the escape key more and more of late. I don’t think any rules were trying to be laid down and if nothing else, the opinions expressed prove one thing perfectly. You can please all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but not All of the people All of the time. One man’s meat etc Every effect should be appropriate to the circumstances, but we are all human and we will all stray a little at times. If we are not careful when we are in full creative slide show mode something very odd happens to our senses. An invisible mist descends upon us while we in this creative flow and it robs us of good taste and restraint. It prevents us from knowing when to stop a manipulation when working in Photoshop. It prevents us from seeing the obvious fact that the colour saturation is too high or the sharpness over done. Its not unique to digital or PTE as it used to happen in the darkroom too. This mist descends under safelight conditions and prevents you from seeing the most obvious mistakes on the image you have just sweated blood over. It’s the same mist that stops us seeing all the mistakes in that really creative letter or tutorial we have just written. However, there is a solution, TIME. Just come back to what you thought was a brilliant masterpiece a day or so later when the mist has lifted and then you can sometimes wince at what you have done. Once I complete a slide show I put it on my desktop and I will play it at least once a day while drinking a coffee. If you can sit through your slide show 10 times in a week and see no problems with it, you’re a better man (or woman) than me. It is horses for courses though with any transitions and animation, but the majority of slide shows are what I term pictorial. They are the ones that suffer the most when the mist descends.