PicturesToExe v4.20 beta #4

[Igor]

PicturesToExe v4.20 beta #4 is released

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/apr_beta.zip (1,4 Mb)

What's new in beta #4:

* Improved AVI video output feature.

Added support for Ulead products (DVD MovieFactory, MediaStudio Pro) to be able produce DVD/SCVD discs with absolutely correct interlaced video. It gives excellent and smooth playback on all DVD-players (even HDTV systems). Because of this we highly recommend to use Ulead DVD MovieFactory2 now.

p.s. currently we're solving problem with encoding MPEG2 in Pinnacle Studio.

p.p.s. since previous beta #3 you also can use 32-bit alpha bitmaps in objects: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...t=ST&f=2&t=1382

[MikeL117]

Hi Igor

A point of interest. Photoshop 7 can generate 32 bit BMP files with alpha channel. Produce your image with alpha channel (layer mask will not do), save as BMP, select 32 bit and Windows format, click "Advanced Modes" and select 32 bit A8 R8 G8 B8.

This seems to work with Beta 4.

Thank you Igor this will be a wonderful time saver. (I am also guessing that this is a test for greater things to come )

I have also found a little bug associated with this feature. When I first tried this I was hoping the layer mask would generate the correct alpha channel so the correct option was not available I selected the X8 R8 G8 B8 option. When PTE looked at the file in the drive panel and tried to show a thumbnail it crashed. One of those I've gone with no goodbyes type. I am running on a Win 2000 with twin PIII processors.

Thanks

MikeL

[Adda]

It seems, that Ulead DVD MovieFactory2 German Trial dont recognize ptev-Files.

Andreas

[MikeL117]

An update on the 'crash with BMP' bugette. PTE also crashes occasionally when looking in the drive panel at the BMP from PhotoShop that does work. I haven't managed to crash PTE with you supplied files although they do not display a correct thumbnail.

Hope this is of use.

Just had another play and I think I may have messed-up my working BMP file. Now I have regenerated it PTE is happy with it.

Thanks

MikeL

[DennisG]

Hi:

Is there a free program available that I can use to test this new beta 4 PTE AVI file? That will convert it to mpg2, so that I can write to DVD?

Dennis

[bfreas]

Few thoughts about the latest beta.....

The quality of the video with P2E codec does appear to be much better than beta3. Details in the pictures come out much better and diagonal lines don't appear quite as pixelized. Nice job Igor!

I'm having trouble getting codecs other than the P2E codec to encode the video. Tried DivX, Xvid and Pegasus MJPEG with no luck. I got outright errors before encoding could begin with DivX and Xvid, and MJPEG produced sort of a double image. Has anyone else tried any other codecs?

I'm also having trouble with fade transitions in the AVI shows. Looks like the next image's opacity comes up very quickly at first then levels off while the first image fades away normally. Not nearly as smooth of a transition as the EXE version. Really shows up when going from a landscape to portrait orientation and vise versa. Even tried upping the transition to 4000ms with similar result.

Encoding to MPEG-2 has been flawless with TMPGEnc Plus 2.58.

[Tom K]

I just tried using beta #4 to create a DVD with the two slideshows that I've been using (a wedding with all fades, and the Reno Air Races with all quick cuts.) Clicking the box "For ULead DVD Movie Factory" produces a .ptev file (Pictures toEXE video for Ulead) which ULead does not recognize. Windows Media Player won't play a preview either. I went ahead and tried making a DVD with just the ULead box unchecked and "Interlace for TV" checked, which gave the same interlacing problems I had before on quick cuts.

I'm not sure how the .ptev files are supposed to work - am I doing something wrong? Is there something in ULead that I need to change to recognize the file?

Frankly I'm not all that happy with trying to use ULead anyway, since it took an hour to render and burn seven minutes worth of slideshows (is this typical?) But if it will eventually give the best results I might be able to live with it.

[Igor]

Tom and Andreas,

I just sent you special test which should help to find installed copy of Ulead DVD MovieFactory. Please try this test and send me resulting log file.

To bfreas:

That's strange, because I successfully tried MPEG2, MJPEG and DIVX with PTE. What's is your version of Windows? And what audio codec you've choosed? But I don't recommend to encode using these codecs because they vastly decrease quality of image and requires more time. Please use our codec (DVD/SVCD presets) to prepare video for encoding of DVD disc.

Also concerning Fade effect. Probably you've tried how effects look in AVI Preview mode or produced .avi file? It happens because PTE renders effects on the fly when you play AVI file. Please ignore this moment, because all effects will play perfectly after encoding into DVD/SVCD video disc. I've produced several DVD disc and they play very smooth.

To Mike,

OK, I'll check up for bitmaps.

[Guest Techman1]

Igor,

Thank you for adding the support of Ulead's MediaStudio Pro. I have been using this program for many years and really didn't want to purchase anything further to import AVI files. Does this work on most current versions or only the most current version of MediaStudio Pro?

I'll give it a try in the meantime and see.

Thanks in advance for your response and continued superior support of PTE!!!!

Fred

[bfreas]

Fades do look better in MPEG-2 file. It was the PTE AVI where I noticed the strange fade effect.

I'm using Windows XP SP1 with all of the updates and hotfixes. Also using DivX Pro 5.1 for encoding. I selected MPEG-3 48bit 22khz stereo for audio. I was trying to get a small file size AVI that I could email to a Mac user.....this is why I was trying the other codecs. I will experiment some more to see if I can come up with a combination that will work. What settings were you using in DivX and what audio codec were you using when it worked for you Igor?

[potwnc]

Beta #4 also doesn't solve the size problem - all AVI files are the same size (in MB) and it doesn't matter what you set the frame size to in the custom AVI option.

Igor, can you say if you intend to look at this (I've posted this feedback 4 times now!), so that I can stop

wasting everyone's time? Maybe it's not important to others, but I'd like to post AVIs to my web site so

that non-Windows users can see my slideshows, but with the huge file sizes produced, I can't afford to

pay for the bandwidth I would suffer from the downloads.

Alternatively, does anyone know of any software that would reduce the AVI file size by actually taking the

frame size into account?

Thanks,

Ray