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Barry Beckham

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Everything posted by Barry Beckham

  1. Igor I notice that when a video is dragged into the slide list and the optimisation of that video is requested, the optimisation window has always opened up behind the PTE main screen on my computer. I have got used to this now, but until you realise what has happened, you would think that the option hasn't worked. Most of the time when a person does this, they will be waiting for it to finish so they can proceed, so why doesn't the screen open on top where all can see it.?
  2. I helped a guy sort a problem with his slide show in PTE8 yesterday and was surprised with what the ultimate cause was and what I experienced may help others perhaps. The show was quite lengthy at 15 minutes long and it had a music track added at that length. Symptoms : Slide show played perfectly within PTE via the mini player, but the executable file played with no music. Actions: 1. Imported the sound file to Audacity and exported it back out and into PTE - No change to the fault 2. Imported the sound file to Audacity and exported it back out and into PTE and made some changes to the quality settings - No change to the fault 3. Tried a new piece of music of roughly the same length as the original - No change to the fault. 4. Tried another much shorter track in the slide show - The Show played OK and the music could be heard. 5. I doubled up the track of music that worked to make it extend to around 15 minutes - The Slide show played OK, but not sound again. 6. I opened the folder of images in Photoshop and used the image processor to make a copy, save each one again as a jpg, with a compression of 8. The Slide Show then played perfectly, even using the original track created by the author. It appears that some unknown fault with a Jpeg image, prevented the music from playing. It then appeared obvious that the problem image must have been quite a way into the slide show because a shorter track that didn't quite reach the offending image played OK. As soon as a second music track was added to reach the end of the show. NO music would play. I think most people faced with a music fault like this would spend their time looking at the music as my friend did until he ran out of ideas. So a dodgy Jpeg image can cause music not to play outside of PTE. (as far as I am aware from the original author, the offending image, visually played ok in the slide show)
  3. That doesn't seem to do it for me once the slide show has been uploaded.
  4. Bill Is there a way for the user to remove a slide show that they have posted. I can't find anything? Or is that something you can do upon request
  5. Just tried the two slide shows we made for the last camera club meeting, created ISO's and burnt them to DVD, no problems
  6. Bill I understand that with this type of software we have to work with what we have, not always what we would like. I have found in life that what makes me stumble, usually makes others stumble too. In fact someone on my forum thought he had published a show to slide show club, but clearly something went wrong with his submission too. User error I am sure like me.. It is just that it is unusual for tags to be a must have field and that is what threw me. I hardly looked at the feint guidance and when I did, that was the point when the penny dropped. Perhaps there is a need for something in the guidelines and info.
  7. If you do a screen grab of the largest thumbnail size you can find on the Slide Show Club site and measure it. The size appears to 120 pixels square, so to my mind it makes no sense to put up a large picture. Use the crop tool in your image editor to pre-crop a size of 120-150 pixels square. At least that way you get to decide what part of the image the thumbnail displays.
  8. Am I the only one who seems to have so much trouble uploading a slide show to this new site. The time I have spent on this over a number of days is now seriously giving me the hump. I am not exactly inexperienced in these types of uploads as it is much the same as my web site, but I have more failures than successes right now. I uploaded a couple of demos yesterday, but not without incident or a whole heap of time spent doing so. This morning I tried again using Windows Explorer and step 1 appeared to go according to plan. Next I added a 150*150 pixel thumbnail and that appeared on the upload page too. I added the required text and then selected Add Submission and was taken back to the disclaimer page and I had to start all over again. I did the same thing again using Google Chrome and exactly the same thing has happened. Something is wrong somewhere, either me or the system being used, but it's just too frustrating to continue Solution Found: It is essential that you add at least one tag and while it does say that on the page, it does not indicate that it is an essential part of the upload procedure. Even if the tag is missed, it's a bit of a pain that the whole thing aborts rather that the field highlighting to allow the omission to be put right. . So up-loaders be warned, don't forget to add AT LEAST ONE TAG
  9. Well it makes a lot more sense to spend your time in Camtasia finding out, rather some convoluted way that is likely to take you considerably longer.
  10. All you require, to produce quality videos is there in Camtasia as I have already said. Trying to make videos with a combination of Camtasia, Audacity and PTE doesn't make any sense. Camtasia was designed and created specifically for what you want to do, PTE wasn't.
  11. 40-50MB will get you at least 25 minutes of video with a screen size of 1600*900 and great quality, straight from Camtasia. What you're faffing with all these conversions for is beyond me. You have the Roll Royce of screen capture, use it.
  12. It happens in the Objects and Animation screen, because usually you're watching the preview at 75 or 50% and that will make the moire effect worse. You need to make any animated images that you want to place over the blurred background no bigger than they really need to be. Then the smoother/sharper option will have an effect. The real test is what shows when you view the slide show at full size
  13. Abbey Have a look below, sounds like you just need some help getting started Web Page Here PDF details Here
  14. Its very likely to be the Moire effect. Select your inset image and go to the Objects and Animations screen and select the properties tab. There you will find a slider caller sharper/smoother. Make the inset image smoother and it will probably smooth out the effect. An alternative is to make the inset image the actual size you intend to use it. If you start with a larger file and reduce the size in PTE, this can often trigger the Moire effect.
  15. OK, I never checked, but doesn't the Mp4 have lots of settings that might enable a smaller file size to be created.
  16. Make an Mp4 video and select any AR you want
  17. Eric I don't have any involvement with an English manual, all my tutorials are videos and they are coming on nicely thanks
  18. Eric I have suggested this before and I think you got upset at me for doing so, but it's obvious that using a menu is important to you and it's also obvious that it gives you a lot of headaches too. So. Why not think about a dedicated CD authoring program that is designed for the job. I have made hundreds of menus and I never have any of the issues you describe. The slide shows will run from a disk, CD or DVD or you can just run them from the desktop. Yes, there will be a cost in buying the software, but seeing as this is so important to you and you have been doing this for some time, why not give it some thought. I use Autorun Enterprise 2, but there are bound to be other less expensive packages available. It only needs to be basic to run slide shows.
  19. I think the point is being missed here and I have lost track of how many times I have said this. You all want to be first to come up with solutions and workarounds. It's almost like a contest on who knows the most, but that is not the issue at all. Some of the tiny buttons are not obvious to a newer user and that is something I do know about. I have a bit of software that prints labels onto CD's and there is no big button in the main screen that says print. The fact that you can do the same thing 6 other ways is irrelevant. Its a print program so a print button should be front and centre. We use Slide Show software so a big button, obvious to all makes life easier for people to find their way around. All those little tricks we know about they will learn in time. With the greatest respect to software writers they are often too close to the woods to see the trees. What is obvious to them and the regular user is not to the newer user. If relatively experienced users have problems finding a function they know must be there, what does that tell you. Either that or I am out of step with the rest of the world, but something tells me not.
  20. Robert I experienced that once and it was caused by old temp files left behind. Have a look at the address below and clear out any PTE stuff you find C:\Users\your computer name\AppData\Local\Temp\
  21. Really.......and its so obvious isn't it.:rolleyes:/>
  22. I wonder how helpful it is to give someone loads of different ways to do something that should be obvious from the start. A preview button should be up front and centre on both the main screen and the timeline so that any person opening the software for the first time should find it EASILY. It's not as though there isn't space. Robert is not inexperienced with PTE, yet he missed the setting as we all do from time to time if we are honest. I am a fan of PTE and Igor, but in my view some things just don't make sense and here we have a prime example. By default we have that dreadful Navigation bar turned on when hardly anyone uses it, but here we have an option that all of us use and it's hidden. If someone can explain the logic to that, take your best shot !!
  23. My experiences of late are telling me that within reason I can use images directly from my 21MP camera without cropping. (5616*3744) Both PTE and my PC handles what I do fine. I guess if you want images animated all over the screen, large files may affect a smooth playback. In my view if animation isn't silky smooth on playback it may as well be dumped because it's as good as useless. So the opportunity to do this has been there for some while now, both from a PTE software point of view and our computer power. I have often made slide shows much higher than 1920*1080 and will probably make my next one at 3840*2160
  24. I have also experienced something like you describe. Sometimes for no reason I can put my finger on, the Images would not always open in Photoshop after I hit Ctrl+W. despite the graphical editor being set correctly, I was pretty certain the issue was not a PTE one, but more on my PC, because it used to work fine. I never did find the cause and can't recall now how I resolved it. It probably resolved itself with a format and re-install which I do from time to time. One thing I have also noticed with software that has Ctrl+key shortcuts, is that one program can interfere with another's shortcuts. Not wonderfully helpful I guess, but just observations over the years.
  25. Robert For reasons that escape logic, it's turned off by default. You will find a tick box in the preferences, but Ctrl+R does it too
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