Barry Beckham

Daniel I love from time to time to understand how it is done - Now that is a different thing and something I can more understand. Happy new year. Of course the new year reaches us all at different times doesn't it.

Ken I don't disagree with Maureen on anything she said in that thread. All the facts are well known, not just in AV circles, but if your going to send your show for a competition, you wouldn't use a thick white would you. I use a grey usually, but with the sequences I have put into competitions (twice) I make sure that thin line is not very bright, just enough to stop the black bleed off. Of course when I watch them myself, I don't see the border, because the sequence fills the screen. Its only there for others who will see black areas. Each to his own. I also find that because I produce my shows at 1920*1200, when they are viewed on a 1024*768 projecter, which is almost always the case, the line becomes thinner still, because the images are being seen smaller. I just don't like my images bleeding off into the background. I think that is a weakness when it happens. But my argument still stands. You cannot make a blanket decision that a line around a slide show automatically detracts from it, and then brain wash judges into thinking the same. I am quite happy to be judged, as long as it is fair and I don't much care for these so called photographic rules. Its like following the rule of thirds in every single case. The majority of the time, it is valid, but not in all cases. Maureen also says that you make your slide shows to please yourself. I don't have a problem with vieweing those shows, just havn't got around to it I suppose, but I don' t have any 3D glasses so I guess that one would not look so good to me. Can you provide a link to those two shows, and I'll take a look anyway. Eric one of your best slide shows.....It was short The rest of you stop moaning about the discussion. Or do you want them all to be. Oh yes Sir, I quite agree! A bit of passion in a debate is good, livens up the forum anyway. Look how many posts have kicked off on the strength of this one, even Eric found the enthusiasm to make me a nice little show. Lighten up and broaden your shoulders lads....and lassies I am typing with a smile on my face.

Ken when a show is entered into a competiton, do they not judge the composition of each slide? how can the images be judged if one cannot study it? No, they only see the show once, maybe twice and they may judge the image quality as an overal part of the AV sequence as a whole, but if I understand your question right.. They do not judge each slide and they would NEVER stop a slide show part way through. That would be interferring with an authors creative work, which has always been my point.. Some of the slide shows that win competitions, may not have greatest quality images. Its the overall effect/mood/emotion/idea, that the judges are looking for. If you can get both, then your really rocking. I have not seen the 3d show you refer to, but perhaps that is what I would call a slide show, rather than AV. I have never been totally happy to pigeon hole any form of photography, but I think I can be persuaded otherwise with this medium. My Apprenticeship slide show is an example. Its a batch of images put to music. No attempt was made to create a story, or an emotion, its just a way of presenting images. In AV, I would argue an attempt is made to create the start, middle and end. A show that is more than just a batch of images with. If the author is succesful, the result can be greater than the sum of the two parts. (images and sound) the judging people of the RPS continually say that the use of frames in an AV competition,is a no no as the frame detracts from the image yet you continually use them ! If that were to be true, the RPS would be talking out of their backsides. You cannot make a blanket decision that all frames detract and I doubt the RPS do, to be honest. If they did, then I would be speachless, because I would want to know who made that decision? Who suddenly decided that in AV a frame always detracts. What if a frame is applied that didn't detract, does that get marked down because someone has decided that its taboo to use a frame.You see its too daft for words really. And in any case, I make my slide shows for me first. I will listen to other peoples comments, but I reserve the right to disagree and I don't care what anyone else thinks about a frame, but it actually does have a purpose. If your making a slide show to fill a screen, then a thin border may not be necessary, but not all our shows will be seen on the resolution monitor they were made for. In some cases, viewers will see a black area on screen. Now, if the image being shown has dark edges, it looks awful where it is seen against the black. In the worst cases it looks like someone has taken a bite out of the image. In those cases a delicate line will hold the edge of the images, no matter what screen resolution the AV is played on. See my examples. Xaver Do you think that your work is free from technical flaws or design flaws? No, I certainly wouldn't be as arrogant as that, but that isn't the point of the debate. An AV should be viewed as one piece of work, if you feel the need to stop each image and judge each one from a technical point of view, then the AV must have failed miserably.

Xaver I can assure you that I do know how to watch an AV show. I am not saying that you don't know how to watch an AV, but I am suggesting your missing the point of Audio Visual completely. But in case where I want to throw an analytical eye on it, it is an advantage to have KB control, in order to watch particular sections repeatedly. Sorry mate, but that is crazy. Why would you want to watch particular section repeatedly. Your missing the point of AV completely. Think of an AV sequence as one image, because that is the best description I can give it. You wouldn't want an image in bits, would you. Of course not. What you don't see in one or two viewings of an audio visual sequence, your not meant to see. What your referring to is a slide show. A batch of images,with music. Audio Visual is different, its where we are trying to capture a mood, or spark an emotion. We may not always be sucessful perhaps, but some of us try. Watch the show as a flowing sequence, that is one piece of work. My goodness, if some of the slide shows posted here were analized in such detail, you would have a lot of dummies, flying from a lot of prams

I did think about having light rain sounds all the way through, but discarded the idea because sound effects can be over done, perhaps I will take another look at that. The Tree, yes, I had doubts, but I guess you can see the sort of thing I had in mind, looking up and turning around, not quite the right effect, I agree. Music, well that is personal and the pianno allowed me to place the images in the perfect place, so I did have a start, middle and end. I spent so much time fiddling with it, that I didn't have the stamina for a change of music too, perhaps later Recording my own sound effects, tried it lots of times with a H4 recorder, but its a dismal failure I have to say. Its useless for sound effects unless your right on top of them. So a river or seashore is OK, birds are hopeless. This issue of Keyboard control: I swear some of you would not know an AV if it jumped up and bit you. (sorry, don't mean that to sound too aggressive) The idea of what I do is a sequence, its not made to be disected and stopped. How do you create a flow of images to music if you keep stopping the thing. What your talking about is a slide show. If all you want are a batch of images to look at, visit my galleries. You don't need a slide show for that at all. Of course when a show is made for a 1920*1200 minitor and is played back on a lower resolution one, then some moire effect may be seen. You can't have it all ways, unless to soften the images to an unacceptable level. As for animation, they all work fine for me, so little I can do if they are not smooth on your machine. They are on thePC that made it, and on my older demo PC too.

I have completed a new slide show, but I am not sure the show does the rainforest justice. Its not often I post something that I am not totally happy with, but perhaps I have been messing so long, I can't see the wood for the trees. I have pushed and pulled these images and ideas around for some weeks trying to complete something I was happy with, but perhaps the Rainforst needs that something extra. It needs the smells and ambience perhaps. To really appreciate it, you have to be there and hear the rain dripping from the trees. Anyway, its at the top of this page in PC and Mac format http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/freestuffdigslidesw4.htm Eric Its way above your 20mb limit, don't even bother Ken No you can't stop the show every few seconds to look at the pictures, its an Audio Visual Happy new year, one and all.

Eric. It won't be long now I can just tell your gearing up, to swap over to making widescreen slide shows. Would that be a New Years Resolution A wide screen resolution.

Well, I am no computer expert, but why would you want that. It works fine as it is. You have to remember that most slide shows are designed to be distributed and need to be able to play on a variety of machines.

John Are you aware that the current version of PicturesToExe will work perfectly OK on Windows 7 running 64 bit

No, I never do. Recently, if you recall, I turned it off by by accident. Not so difficult to do when you use a graphics tablet rather than a mouse. I could'nt understand why the slide shows were running so badly If your thinking of leaving it on permanently, do it.

Eric But a poll is of little use here Eric, because what they would reflect would have litle meaning We are all enthusiasts and despite what we may think, We are not typical users. PTE, has to appeal to wider audience than just us. The only gripe I have with animation, is there seems to be little sense used in applying it. In many cases, It seems to be applied in a vain attempt to improve the appeal of lack lustre images. You can move the picture all over the screen and it will not improve your image one bit. Anything used with skill and imagination, probably with a degree of moderation, will work in the right circumstances. Imagine a shot of a leafy glade, maybe an autumn scene, where a great still shot suddenly fades into an identical image, shot in video. ( HD of course). Now, that could look rather good. I can think of a few scenarios where a few seconds of video may be worth considering. However, if you try using stills to capture some natural movement scenes, it generally fails miserably, with just the odd exception.

LIn. Yes, I agree and well said. I find myself thinking of that old saying. The end line of which is, you can't please all of the people, all of the time. Welcome back, by the way. I doubt I will use video much in my slide shows, but once I see the HD video clips with HD images, I might change my mind. Video clips have to be introduced next. Eric Why is it always you I feel the need to reply to. What do you mean, that you waited months for audio manipulation to be introduced and then you were disappointed. No-one else was! In the middle of november you said I don't use PTE's sound adjustment feature I use Audacity which is simplicity itself once you are familiar with the programme, and enables me to use my artistic take. I am sure in another thread you also said you had not installed version 6.5. You said you wouldn't until it was fully signed off. Whatever that means. Are you confused or is it me?

A little bit of fine tuning and it could become the forum song To the tune of Bring Me Sunshine Bring me Slide shows, make them small put the screen up, on the wall, In this world where we live, there should be more AV Show, Its the best fun to have, in the dark and keep your clothes on Make me wide-screen, through the years, Never bring me, broadband fears, Let your band be as wide as the sun from up above, Bring me music, bring me pictures, bring me love. Bring me Jpegs, level 6 Animation of all the Pics Life's too short to be spent, waiting for that download bar, We can be so content, if we gather little slide shows, Join the forum, one and all Keep my slide shows, extra small, Let wnsoft guide you through, to make your slideshow run Bring me music, bring me pictures, bring me Sun.

Peter Mp3 release any day now, just as soon as I learn how to play a music instrument. Oh, and sing Someone did ask me the other day if I played the violin. I said I dunno, never tried:P

GLS48 It is something I think many PTE users would like and I for one have ask for it to be included. To be able to go into objects and animation and choose to add a border to oneimage or perhaps all of them together.

Bring me Sunshine, in your smile, Bring me Laughter, all the while, In this world where we live, there should be more happiness, So much joy you can give, to each brand new bright AV Show, Make me wide-screen, through the years, Never bring me, broadband fears, Let your band be as wide as the sun from up above, Bring me music, bring me pictures, bring me love. Bring me Jpegs, level 6 Animation of all the Pics Life's too short to be spent having anything but fun, We can be so content, if we gather little slide shows, Be light-hearted, one and all, Keep my slide shows very small, Let your exe be as warm as the sun from up above, Bring me music, bring me pictures, bring me love.

Well, I live in a rural area too and have a very slow broadband, especially compared to what we had in the UK and we thought that was slow, but the downloads here, while slow, will run happily in the background. I don't know what your bandwidth is, but I would guess you will have to download a lot of slide shows to bust it. Our Btinternet in the UK didn't have a bandwidth limit. I just looked at some of my latest slide shows and they all seem to tip over 20mb and I use a jpeg compression of 6, where many on this forum choose a higher setting I believe. Even if you have a bandwidth issue it has no relation at all to slide show duration, the number of slides in that show or the aspect aspect ratio, thats the authors creative choice. If you want to list all that, then go ahead and do so, but accept that I and probably others, choose not to. What's the point as its always going to be missed when new people sign up or non regular members post a show link. Its your choice to limit your downloads, but it must be pretty clear that as PTE continues to improve, pretty soon you will have precious little to download at all. A quick check of the Beachbrook site will show that of the last 30 shows posted only 11 fall under 20mb. Of that 11, 2 were 3 and 5mb, so perhaps they may be demos. Download a few more shows over 20mb for just one month and see how it affects your bandwidth. You may be pleasently surprised to find it doesn't cost you a penny. As for aspect ratio, like it or not, widescreen is here to stay, but you don't really need me to tell you that.

This picture show was made as an introduction to a Photographic Technique tutorial disk, but I know how some like to see picture shows and I believe you can even stop this one (Ken ) Download PC version from HERE Download Mac version HERE

Eric Why? The duration of the show is irrelavant to the viewer, if its too long they know where the escape key is. The number if images it contains is also irrelevant to the viewer. It tells you nothing about the size, length or quality of any show The aspect ratio is also irrelevant as I found a year or two back when I suggested we should change the resolution of our monitor to match the show we are playing so that we saw it at its best and many on this forum nearly had a seizure A 20mb limit is not a realistic limit to set. The march to larger wide screen displays is moving along swiftly and any half decent show will be over 20mb. Lastly, I have a great tip for you when downloading large files. Its quite technical but here goes:- Click to download the file Go and watch an hour of TV, have a cup of tea and a Digestive biscuit (the type of biscuit is not important, Rich Tea is OK too) When you come back the file is there on your desktop, it's almost like magic

Thanks Ken, but I did know that and have used the 449 fix a few times. I have it stored for when I may need it in the future

Jim I think you will have members queuing up to ask why you want to go back to that version when you can use a much better later version, but you will find the last version of PTE 4 below. Its actually PTE 4.49, but identical to 4.48 as I recall. Just a small issue fixed by Igor and it was renamed 4.49 It was definately the last version of PTE 4 released before 5 came out http://www.beckhamdi...o.uk/pte449.zip Let me know when you have it so I can remove it

Peter Combining the posts is not that helpful, because we are all largely preaching to the converted here. The people who have the most trouble do not visit the forum.

Eric Well, wnsoft are entitled to as much revenue as they can generate. There has to be a fair return for all the time and developments costs spent on PTE. However, its not easy for anyone buying PTE to understand the complicated upgrading or there wouldn't be so many questions and confusion around it. . No-one offers unlimited updates these days and perhaps PTE should consider consolidating VB into PTE at least for buyers from this point onwards with a free upgrade for a couple of years.

This is very confusing for customers and I get so many queries I have had to put some info up on my web site to prevent me having to write the same email reply over and over again. I wonder why it was felt not possible to put VB as a part of PTE.

When we were resident in the UK and had to become Vat registered we added VAT on after the price quoted in our shop. As I recall, we couldn't add it into the base price and remove it for those overseas who didn't pay VAT and chose to go that way. With an international web based business I don't really see how you can do much else. Having said that, people do like to see the price for the product and not find a surprise increase when they get to checkout, but thats life. They know they are in a country that adds VAT or GST and if we ever have to add GST in Australia is will go onto the product at checkout So add the tax at checkout, the customer can always stop before finally making a purchase.