Barry Beckham

In the menus for PTE 7, there is a reference to "Allow modification of slide show exe file" Can anyone tell me what can be modified.

Igor Now that PTE can record sound comments, I was wondering if this idea might appeal to you. I would like to create a hotspot on an image, that when clicked will play a sound comment. This would be very good for when PTE is used for instructional or tutorial projects. I can create a hot spot now using a PNG file, but I would have to link that to an mp3 (via Run Application or open a file). The Mp3 would then open in WMP. I wonder what it would take to add a sound comment from the actions on mouse click. Then, as you select that option, a browse window would open so that the relavent sound comment could be selected.

Igor Today I right clicked a Canon 5D video from within the file list and used the Video Convertor to convert the video. The convertor took a 127MB file and reduced that to about 27MB. I then selected that (converted) video from within the Objects and Animation Screen and was surprised to get the optimisation of video clips window pop up. Isn't that what I already did in the convertor, or is converting a video and optimising a video different things. They both seem tomuse the same program. I now have my original video called MVI_5407 at 127MB I have the converted Video called MVI_5407.converted at 27MB Now I have a third video called MVI_5407. converted.converted at 24.5MB I find myself a little confused by this, can you explain it please. Why do I need the process twice

Igor This isn't really a PTE7 beta problem, but something I have noticed for some time. I create a slide show and at the end of the process, I use the publish button to create the exe file, then again to create the Mac file. Lets assume the project file and exe's are called tutorial 1. I then make changes to that slide show, as I need two versions of it and I save the next project file as Tutorial 2. I then use the publish button again to create the PC exe and it it pics up the new name of Tutorial 2. When I create the Mac file, it pics up the original file name of Tutorial 1. Unless you have your wits about you, you can easily overwrite a wanted file. Is that something your aware of and something that can be addressed?

Igor No worries as they say here in Australia, you can't do everything in one go. I notice that my 5D Mk2 videos now work well in PTE, straight from the camera without that keystone cop look of before. When I use your video convertor the video file size is greatly reduced, but the quality difference is hardly noticable, if at all. Not sure what you did, but it works.

I ran both too and found that test715 was unacceptable. It had a slight shimmy every second or so just as you described. I am running a W7 64 bit machine, quad core 8 Gig of ram and a NVidia graphics card

Igor I welcome the ability to record voice in PTE, but when I tried it, I found a problem. The location the sound comment will be saved to is set to the same place as the Project file. That is probably the most logical place for most users. However, I, and I believe other users of PTE like to save our sound to a dedicated sound folder. So, using the browse options , I located my PTE sound folder and saved the comment there. The browse location then showed me the correct location and the sound I saved as “001.mp3” So far, so good. When you start the next recording a message appears saying the sound comment has not been saved, when I thought I had already saved it. I am then given the option to delete that file and start again, or save an exit. I have no option but to save and exit. So, to make the next sound take, I have to open the recording window again (tedious) and then PTE defaults back to the project options folder and not where I want the sound comments to be saved. I also noted that the Mp3 file would not play on my Vista machine in WMP saying it didn't have the right codec. It will open in Audacity. ( I haven't looked at why WMP will not open the sound file yet) It did open OK in WMP on my W7 machine. If I am to use PTE for recorded commentary, I want to set the location where the files are to be saved to and I want to remain until I say different. I also want to make individual takes for most of the commentary I use, so I want to be able to save that comment and go straight into recording the next. A few small tweaks are needed to make it a bit easier to use.

Mac Users Could I ask Mac users to check the attached test slide show please. If you recall, some sound commentary only shows where not playing correctly on Macs. The fault was just showing the first blank image that could be advanced manually, but no sound could be heard. I have remade the test with beta 15, so I, and I expect Igor will appreciate some feedback that all is now good. Its only a very small slide show, under 3MB http://www.mediafire.com/file/te7ytohqkkuh37y/camtasia%20testbeta15.zip Many thanks

Eric My apologies, but the paragraph sounds OK to me, but let me put it another way. By default the navigation bar is turned ON, showing automatically in a slide show unless you switch it off. If all the slide shows we see posted have the navigation bar switched off, then doesn't it make more sense for the default situation to be navigation bar off. Like it used to be. If your going to assign a setting automatically, shouldn't it be what most people use. With regards to Camtasia, I am not blaming PTE for anything, but we are reporting back on a beta copy with the purpose of getting it as good as possible. Igor will need to know this information, because Camtasia seems to be widely used. Its in Igor's interests to make sure PTE does run OK for Macs using Camtasia. (if possible, of course) Can you please stop referring to my observations as complaints, its a BETA VERSION.

PTE can already do that for you and there are a few way to go about it. I generally create my smaller (inset) image (the one you want to see passed to the one beneath) in an image editing program like Photoshop or Elements. That way you can see both the base image and the one that you want on top. I find that helps me to size and orientate things to my liking. You can save it as a Jpeg, or if it has transparent areas around the smaller image, save it as a Png file Take that (inset) image into PTE and select your base image from the slide list. In the object and animation screen, use the option top left to insert an image. Select your inset image and away you go. It can be positioned or animated over the top of your base image. Others can be added if you wish Just watch the size of the inset image, as PTE will enlarge it to fill the screen height or width. If you go to the common tab in this same window, you can reset your smaller image to 100%, the size you made it..

Igor I have been doing a fair bit of work with beta 14 (sadly not added any video yet) and there are still some areas of the project options that I feel defy logic. I am mindful that you wanted to streamline the project options, presumably so that new users of PTE can understand things more quickly. Some of these have been raised before, but maybe its worth bringing them altogether. I have watched a number of slide shows from a varied set of people since this topic was raised before and the navigation bar is not being used in slide shows for 99% of the time. I would therefore suggest that switching it on as a default is not logical. It should be off as a default. I still believe that having the aspect ratio on the main tab isolated from slide size, is a waste of time. Forum members aside, most people do not relate to this at all. Unless it is intended to link this automatically to the screen resolution being used, it should be located in the Screen Tab alongside the size of slide. In the music tab, the option “Don't interrupt sound comment when next slide appears” should be ticked by default. When would any slide show maker, wish a sound comment to stop abruptly when the next slide appears. In the screen tab we have the Use Hardware acceleration and the one time I inadvertently turned that off. I had all sorts of troubles, even the transitions were bad. So, do we actually need it there, what purpose does it serve and can it be removed at least to the menus. When I edit an already selected sound comment in PTE, PTE hangs onto the old one, or at least the length of the old one. I edited a sound comment today in Audacity, then saved that sound over the original. The new sound comment was longer than the one over written, but cut off abruptly at the length of the previous one. I had to find a work around, before the new sound comment would work correctly. We also have similar problems when editing already selected images and then saving them back with the same name, so do we need a refresh button or can PTE be made to refresh automatically. The issue I reported recently with Mac slide shows stalling on the first image, does seem to be a PTE problem and not a Mp3 fault. If you recall, it was Mac slide shows made with just commentary only. Members who own Macs say that the Mp3s I posted (Audacity and Camtasia) both play OK on their Mac, but once they are used in a PTE show, the one recorded using Camtasia doesn't work and the one made with Audacity does. So the issue does seem to be with PTE.

The sound effects were OK, but I didn't care too much for the music.

Goddi Yes, your right, its one of my weaknesses, I usually give my text to my better half to proof read for me and she picks up on these things. On this occasion I must have got blinded by the project, but I have corrected it and also the coomas. It was originally written to be commentary, read by an Australian accent. Then I changed my mind, but I am not a great fan of scrolling text, but needs must sometimes. I don't agree with your views on the music though. I have been around AV for a very long time and when a piece of music inspires a sequence, that sequence usually works that bit better, so on this occasion, I think the choice of music is right. The music came first and inspired the choices of images, but I accept we cannot all like the same thing. I would like you to define what Rainforest music is, because I have found this topic the most difficult to find music for. Music that works OK for almost any other subject just doesn't for Rainforests.

I have added a charcoal background to the slide show, so that may help the frame stand out better for those viewing on older monitors, where the format difference shows the screen in black. I recently bought a new Dell Monitor after using their 27in 16:10 format ones for the past three years. The new resolution is 2560 by 1440, so I can see the outer edge of a slide show, even one made at 1920*1200. These are great monitors, for anyone interested. Greg Thanks, but it really is just pictures to music, what AV enthusiasts would say is not AV, but an image based slide show.

Just a few pictures from the past few weeks, but a couple of third images thrown in for interest. Top of the page for PC and Mac http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/slideshows_3.html

I had problems with those Rah zipped files some time ago, so I just didn't fancy installing a different program on my PC. Then I looked at Beechbrook and see you put your show up there as a standard zip, so I will view it later.

I was put off from downloading it, because of the rah compression.

I think it's a fine call, when it comes to animation. In my view it can either be a hinderance or an improvement. After all, the vast majority of slide shows we see here are Image based, not story based and then animation is often used, because the pictures are not strong enough on their own. I happen to think that moving images about does little for their appeal. So, I had to think long and hard before adding the animation myself. When you add animation, generally that means the image will be on screen longer than usual, so the question the author should be asking themselves is :- Is the image strong enough to be seen for that long. I am not sure there is a perfect answer or a black and white right or wrong. I have watched my own show dozens of times and when you do that, any weak areas generally show themselves to you. So far I am reasonably happy with what I view and the animation isn't getting on my nerves yet.

Thanks for the test. If both Mp3's play on a Mac then it does appear that its something that can be fixed in PTE Re Housekeeping I don't state that it is the only solution or even the best one, its just one that has worked for me for 10 years. Lightroom is not used by all and it would not suit me because many of the images I produce can't be done with lightroom. Well, not to the standard I want them. I assume Bridge is much the same as lightroom in relation to sorting and cataloging images. That doesn't suit me either, but if you like it, and it works for you, great.

I suppose I may as well add the last part. Here is the full Good Housekeeping show that originally was made with Camtasia, that would not play on Macs. This version is identical, but the sound created in Camtasia has been re-saved through Audacity as suggested. http://www.mediafire.com/file/80dc6j55k1lpat3/Good%20Housekeeping%20Audacity.zip

Well, thats easy enough. Both Mp3's are at the attached link http://www.mediafire.com/file/p50sw7ctuoxxu8s/Mp3%20only.zip Mac users please try playing these two Mp3 samples

Greg Yes a fair amount of effort went into getting the images perfectly right for the music that was playing, glad you noticed. Its often lost on some viewers.

Nobeefstu Your probably right, but I just get fed up with having to do work just to work around problems. I like using Camtasia and while the odd file could then be put through Audacity, if push comes to shove, I would rather switch back to using Audacity to get the files working. In an ideal world I would like PTE to work with Camtasia and Macs. Crossfade Thanks I have a batch of images taken over the past few days that I am rather pleased with. They are on my Flickr site here http://www.flickr.com/photos/14841378@N05/

I don't want to have to re record all that commentary on the Good Housekeeping sequence, so I have made two test shows for Mac users, both small with just a few pictures and commentary This one is via Camtasia 2.6MB http://www.mediafire.com/file/h5d9x00fjj8ydhz/camtasia%20test.zip This one via Audacity 2.3MB http://www.mediafire.com/file/vsbmub2db27q5bz/Audacity%20Test.zip I can also post the zipped breakdowns if required.

Thank you Sheila and Maureen I have always made sure I stayed away from obvious music for my AV's over the years, but I have always loved that soundtrack. On this occasion I made an exception because it really set the scene for the images, simple because it is such a well known peice. A lot of hours went into that sequence