Barry Beckham

Well, there is a real problem, most Camera club committees can't shake themselves away from 1024*768 in case it brings on the end of their world as they know it, poor soles By the time they reach this level we will be in the middle of the next ice age Remember those on this forum not too far away kicking and screaming that they would never let go of 1024*768

Go to Help in the main screen of PicturesToExe and select Enter new license key

Yes, but experience is a great thing and I have never experienced any major problems that had me wishing I had some super software to protect me, so I take a different approach. Do I have more problems than others? no, do I spend ages learning software that adds zero to my hobby? No. Do I spend my time producing 50 times the images that most do? yes See where I going with this. Forgive me for being a little sceptical, but sometimes I think the attraction for many is the technicalities of the computer. The reason for having it takes a back seat perhaps

Still sounds complicated and stressful to me and the only time you know if it works is when the disaster has happened. I appreciate the explanation, but I just keep the C drive free of anything essential and if it is essential it would be on two drives at least. Then if the C drive dies I just put in a new drive and install a new version of windows and take the opportunity for a tidy up. I think most people would take their computer to the local repair man to be honest.

For anyone interested we have just posted our latest newsletter and video for May 2014

What about this SMART technology. Last time I had a drive fail, it told me it was about to fail before it did. I backed up everything and sure enough it did, but that wasn't a C drive With something like Acronis, if I recall correctly the mirror has to be extracted so how does that happen if your C drive has just failed. If the drive was right ready to use then my idea of making your own copies would work, but it doesn't. I assume Acronis includes all the boot software to take you through the repair

I have pretty good discipline when it comes to backing things up and these days I rely more and more on Mediafire desktop synchronization. Usually, but the time I start having OS issues I usually feel its time for a clean sweep and a fresh install of what I want anyway. Usually takes a couple of days to do it though, even if your organised I have never used any of those ways to protect the C drive. There is just too much to learn sometimes

Isn't it a shame you just can't copy and paste the whole C drive to another, then swap them over.

Thanks Igor I'm the type who will wait till you include it. Just trying to build a new forum and its like a secret society sometimes

Yes, I do now recall something about that and I have wanted to move a batch of Key - Frames myself at times, but I have managed without Oak so far. I will wait until this is a part of PTE because it's not something I need very often. I suppose I do take a ethnocentric view, but it works for me. There is another saying which says, Jack of all trades master of none. Amateur photographers often think they are missing something, so they have to dive into thousands of pre-sets, buy loads of filters and install many different programs and utilities on their computer, but here's the thing. They don't have the brain power, or the time to do justice to any of them so now they are Jack of all trades, but master of none. Rather than enhancing what they do, all the add on's and extras do the opposite. I take the other view and so far, its paying off Stay focused and produce something with quality and merit is my view. We see quite enough output from "experts" who have not even mastered the very basics of a slide show.

Lin Thanks, but the little in the screen grab tells me that I probably won't be interested in it. Sounds like it is something for those more into animation. One thought is that if it was that wonderful and relevant to most peoples needs, it would be all over the UK forum. I think I recall some reference to it a while back, but it certainly isn't top of the pops

What is Oak? Why is it so wonderful to PTE people? A short explanation would help for those who are not familiar with it, like me

David I am going to suggest that your images are too large, there is no way you should come close to 2Gig even with 290 images. If I use images straight from a 21 megapixel camera and save them at jpeg level 8, they are around 2mb each. That would give a file size before music of less than 600MB Reduce the images to 3000*2000 pixels, usually big enough for anyones needs and the images can be saved at only 500k, yet on screen there is no visual difference. Now your file size is down around 150MB. Most enthusiasts use an image editor to reduce the size of the images before using them in a slide show, particularly with a show containing nearly 300 images.

Why on earth would you complain to Camtasia because it's software doesn't do what It wasn't design to do in the first place. Are you for real

Paul Go to Settings > Preferences > Projects and un-tick the box :- Scale Key frames in Objects (on time change) That will work for a new project that you're just starting. If your already into your project and it sounds like you are, make the above change, but also, select the image you want to add the time to and go to Slide Options Main Tab and un-tick Scale Key frames in Objects (on time change)

My recommendations is to clear all the calibrations and use the projector as it is. I have been and done much the same as you describe, but the results are no closer than spending 30 minutes doing it manually. The problem is that if you start to change individual colours the projector may look really good until you get a picture with one prominent colour then I found that colour unacceptable. Fix that one and another drifts off. I am fairly patient, but in the end I gave up and all I would do now is maybe contrast and brightness and a little saturation, but that is probably best done in the club room one night when you can set up 30 minutes early and get all the lights out. Then you can put through a varied number of images from members and try to zero in the best you can. No matter how much effort you make you will always find one person who wants it darker or lighter to match his images :-) I am fairly fussy, but the vast majority of club projectors I use are OK. We just have to expect a little variation between the PC screen and the big screen. Perhaps the thing to do is to turn off the laptop screen so members are not continually comparing the two, or set it up where they can't see it. As you know, you get a different picture depending on the angle of the laptop screen. Our projector is a top of the range Epsom at 1920*1080 and its very forgiving. Meaning that it smooth's out pixels from over cropped images and deals with light skies great too, so all in all it helps far more than it hinders. Yet only this week one member wanted me to alter it because he didn't feel his images were seen the same as on his screen at home. Best of luck with the calibration and if members give you a hard time, call them in one night and hand it over to them to sort out. They won't be able to sort it out, but it shuts them up .....usually :-)

Yes, that appears to be fixed OK.

Clem No, Mp4 would not be better if your using a projector then the exe file is best. Personally if I am going to show a slide show on a flat screen TV I would still use an exe and use my laptop and a HDMI connection to run it, but your original question is about DVD. From an image quality point of view I think DVD is dead, but for some it still has a use, but those of us whose interest comes from high quality photography first and foremost, then DVD sucks. Who wants to spend all that money on a 20MP camera, sweat blood creating the images and the slide show and then destroy all the quality with a DVD. This is not a PicturesToExe issue, nothing else will be any better, it's a DVD issue. If the need is to show your slide show on a TV and quality is important to you, which your first post indicates it is, then an Mp4 is one route to take, but if you have a laptop and don't mind coupling that to the TV then use the exe file

Clem The DVD resolution is 720*576 pixels, so the software has to reduce the resolution of your show when you select the DVD option. That is likely to be the cause and your not the first to say much the same. If you view what you have made on a PC, it doesn't look so good at all. Playing the DVD via a TV is a little more forgiving and of course you generally view a TV from across a room, not as close as a PC screen. Try it on a TV first if you have not already done so, but this issue is why many enthusiasts prefer to play back an Mp4 video on their TV which they can make at the same resolution as the original slide show. Then the quality is extremely good.

I tried to rename an image in the expanded view of the File list the other day and received an error message on two different PC's. The error message does not appear if the rename option is done in the normal file list. Only the expanded screen (F3)

Two slide shows posted Discarded and Bushland Botanical Artistry

This year Noosa Photo Club is hosting this event and full details and entry forms can be found on their Web Site It's not an open competition and is reserved for a number of Photographic Clubs in the Brisbane metropolitan area and a little beyond. All clubs have been circulated details and a promotional slide show made too. Rules have been kept to a minimum and the closing date for entries is 18th July. The 2014 Interclub promo for PC The 2014 Interclub promo for Mac

Its fine now thank you

Eric For some time I have noticed that the information you have posted which appears under your avatar is too long and overspills that area. It clashes with the text of your threads. That area doesn't seem best suited for a long web addresses. Any chance you can tidy that up so it looks neat.

Our April newsletter is posted with a fair amount of information regarding PTE8 and Slide Show Club. The video included with the newsletter is also valid for users of PicturesToExe http://www.beckhamdigital.com.au/newsletter/2014/Apr_2014_Newsletter.pdf