PTE menu with Proshow Producer sequences

[Cedric Dawnhawk]

I am creating a menu in PTE for an AV show which contains some sequences created by other people with Proshow Producer. I am using the Run Application or Open File... action to open the Producer exe file. When the Producer sequence starts, there is a brief 'flash' of the taskbar etc and then the Producer continues running behind the PTE menu ie it doesn't seem to take the focus. The only way round this that I have found so far is to quickly Alt Tab to the Producer sequence as soon as I see the 'flash'.

I am using PTE 7.0.4 (although it seems to do the same with an earlier version) and I have unchecked 'Use Hardware acceleration (DirectX)'.

Does anyone know a way round this? I don't have access to Proshow Producer so I don't know whether there may be some option that would sort it out.

[nobeefstu]

Cedric Dawnhawk,

This is always an unpredicable issue with launching some slide shows from a PTE menu using Run Application. Disabling Hardware Acceleration helps to minimize/resolve the desktop flashback but different OS/Video Drivers will exhibit different behaviour. Placing/keeping focus is another unpredicable issue even if you built all the slide shows.

May I suggest you try PlayView as an alternative way to launch your EXE slide shows from a ready made list menu. It also automatically stops the desktop flashback and maintains focus of each selected slide show.

Click the PlayView link in the bottom of my signature line where it says Utility Programs for PTE for the description and program download link.

You may also want to contact Snapcam ... as his post relates to your issue.

Clean Start

[xahu34]

...

May I suggest you try PlayView as an alternative way to launch your EXE slide shows from a ready made list menu. It also automatically stops the desktop flashback and maintains focus of each selected slide show....

I don't think that PlayView will be the solution, as Cedric also wants to start none-PTE shows. I made a test with PlayView and an m.objects show. PlayView does not seem to like it

Regards,

Xaver

[nobeefstu]

Xaver,

I made a test with PlayView and an m.objects show. PlayView does not seem to like it

Thank you for the feedback.

If you could please supply a download link to obtain some of these other maker EXE slide shows ... I will investigate to make them compatible for possible playback in PlayView.

Right now the utility contains several limitations and conditions in how it scans for EXE files so as to not list just any and all available EXE files. Since the utility was originally intended for PTE users and PTE executables, Im sure I can adapt the utility to include other makes slide shows in a future release once I explore the required changes.

Note to All Users :

Any available download links to obtain some of these other maker EXE slide shows for compatibility testing would be greatly appreciated.

[Cèlou]

good evening

It happens to me often enough to gala events, in which I present twenty fixtures.

To do this, mostly, I use Multimedia Builder and this program gives me complete satisfaction.

I never experienced any problems with.

The link: http://www.mediachance.com/mmb/

[Barry Beckham]

I can vouch for Multi Media Builder and used it for some time, but its now reached the end of its development and I found it would not work on a 64 bit machine. I reluctantly had to change to something else and chose Autorun Pro Enterprize 2. Once I got used to Autorun Pro, I found that I liked it just a bit better than MMB.

I use it constantly for every video tutorial I make and I have found that it meets all of my needs. If anyone wnats to see how it looks and works, shout

http://www.longtion.com/

[Lin Evans]

Hi Barry,

Isn't it 3x the price of MMB?

Best regards,

Lin

[Barry Beckham]

I never looked at the price to be honest.

When I got the 64 bit machine and found that MMB that I had been using for years would no longer work I had to move on. I seem to recall I struggled a little to find something that I could be certain would meet my needs and that one did.

MMB may be cheap, but they are not developing it any longer and with so many people turning to 64 bit, its as good as useless to many now.

However, it is a great bit of software for 32 bit users.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

£168 is way out of my league, surely this should be looked at by Wnsoft's developers as something to be incorporated into PTE

Yachtsman1.

[Barry Beckham]

Well, I suppose most users have a commercial use for the software and then £168 isn't a great deal of money.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Does anyone know if menus produced in Proshow? will open other files EG PTE without the desktop flashback???

Yachtsman1.

[Lin Evans]

Menus produced in Proshow???

Lin

Does anyone know if menus produced in Proshow? will open other files EG PTE without the desktop flashback???

Yachtsman1.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Lin

I asked the question as the original query was about PTE menus having problems opening Proshow exe's, and wondered if the same thing happened with Proshow menus opening PTE exes. Nothing sinister.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[Ken Cox]

Eric

I think Ronnie might have a tutorial at his site to build a menu - pdf file +- 15 pages - for sale

see

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?/topic/12112-pdf-tutorials/page__view__findpost__p__77959

http://www.ronniewestdigital.co.uk/

http://www.ronniewestdigital.co.uk/pdfsales.html

ken

[Ken Cox]

flashback thread

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?/topic/4103-showvideopte/page__view__findpost__p__26343

ken

[Lin Evans]

Hi Erik,

Actually, the reason for my question marks is that unless you are referring to a DVD menu, Proshow, AFAIK, doesn't do "menus." Most Proshow users I know who need to run external code use PTE or MMB or Autorun to create "menus."

Best regards,

Lin

Hi Lin

I asked the question as the original query was about PTE menus having problems opening Proshow exe's, and wondered if the same thing happened with Proshow menus opening PTE exes. Nothing sinister.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Thanks Lin, so that's another tick for PTE

Yachtsman1.

[Cedric Dawnhawk]

Sorry for the delay in responding to your helpful comments. I was expecting an email notification when there had been replies. Must have forgotten to check an option!

Further investigation shows the problem is not even consistent. Sometimes the Producer show launches normally, sometimes there is a 'flash' and the sequence launches behind the menu and sometimes it just launches behind the menu with no flash. One other thing is that the Producer sequence does take the focus for keyboard input even if visually it is covered by the menu. Pressing Esc closes the Producer sequence not the menu.

I ran the show from the PTE menu but for the Producer sequences I clicked the link on the menu, then held the Alt key down with another finger poised over the Tab key, waited for the flash or the start of background music, then quickly tabbed to the Producer sequence, hoping the audience didn't notice. If you have to do this, make sure no applications other than the PTE menu are running, otherwise tabbing is more tricky.

I tried PlayView and it doesn't seem to have a problem with the Producer sequences as Nobeefstu suggested. However it does have limitations in terms of the audience being able to see the full programme. It would also be nice to rename the entries in the list from the name of the exe file to the correct title of the sequence, though I suppose it would be just as quick to rename the exe files themselves!

I had a quick look at the other suggested solutions, but they are a bit pricey for our camera club.

Anyway thanks for the response

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi CD

It may have been your post that prompted me to produce a meu production guide for beginners, I don't know if it will be of any help? for what it's worth look at

Yachtsman1.

[Maureen]

I have been running International AV comps for many years and also my own AV shows, AV days, demonstrations, and always made my menus using PTE.

We get AVs from all over the world using lots of different software and have always managed to make a PTE menu work to open them during the competitions or presentations.

Some years ago I found that I had a problem at times with some AVs opening and running behind the PTE menu so I always made the menus in windowed mode. @ resolution size of the AV projector.

Then if anything opens behind the menu I quickly click top right to drop the menu.

Must try a menu with latest PTE to double check it all works.

Have opened PTE, M-Ojects, ProShow Producer, Wings, etc plus software programs e.g Photoshop, Audition, PTE, all using a PTE menu for competitions or demonstration days with rarely a problem.

If I say never the next - the next menu I create will refuse to work (Sod's Law)

[Cedric Dawnhawk]

Maureen:

Thanks for your suggestion Maureen which I tried successfully in v7.0.4 so no need to double check! I can see it might be easier to minimise the window than to Alt Tab to the sequence. However having the title bar displayed does tend to spoil the appearance of the menu. Also if you have minimised the menu in order to reveal the sequence, then at the end of the sequence I presume the desktop is revealed briefly whilst you restore the menu window from the task bar.

One thing I did discover was that if I ran in windowed mode but without a border (so the title bar didn't spoil the menu) the offending Proshow Producer sequences started and appeared correctly over the PTE menu. I tried this a few times and it seemed to work consistently so maybe this is the answer!

Yachtsman1:

I downloaded your beginners guide to menu production and found it very interesting. I usually add the "Run application..." action directly to a text object that shows the title of the show, rather than using a button.

Andrew

[snapcam]

AH! I am not alone,

I didn't find a complete resolution to the problem and ran the festival with the bar flashing in any show not made on PTE ver7.

Sequences made in ver7 and opened using run slideshow opened clean. Any others HAD to be opened open file or application. The programme would not allow run slideshow to be used.

Proshow sequences opened flashing the bar but would open cleanly on earlier versions of PTE. this depended though on how the sequence had been produced in Proshow.

Snapcam