Manual Menu Construction

[Guest Yachtsman1]

This is my fourth crack at getting some response about the problem with constructing a manual menu. The last successful menu I made was in 7.07, however that had a workaround to make it work the way I wanted. Unfortunately, in 8 I haven't been able to do what I want, it's very close but not perfect, which is what is expected especially when giving a public performance.

I will run through the construction stages in detail in case someone can either confirm it should work or there is still a bug causing the problem. Briefly the manual menu consists of 9 slides, 2 of which are PTE generated blank slides at the start & finish of the show, see M1. The picture slides are just normal JPEGS with 1 silent video clip muted in O&A.

In detail, the synchronize music & slides box is un-ticked, the opening track is added to blank slide in the audio comment box in slide options, & the closing track to slide 5 in the audio comment box in slide options. (observation both tracks now appear in project options although they were added in slide options).

What I would now expect to happen is, on starting the menu, the opening track to play for its 38 seconds duration during the blank & picture slides as I advance them manually. I co-ordinate the appearance of the actual menu slide with the end of the first track by manually pressing the r/h arrow key.

With the menu page on screen & silent, I click on each show title, the show runs to its natural ending, the menu screen re-appears & the process is repeated until all the shows have run. When the last show finishes & the menu screen appears for the last time, previously pressing the R/H arrow key brings on the closing music track & the next slide, and the final slides appear as the arrow key is pressed.

Now what happens & has happened consistently since I started using 8, after pressing the r/h arrow key from the menu page, the slide appears, but the closing track doesn't play.

Other observations, when running the mini player, it doesn't mirror how the main show is set (manual) it runs through the whole sequence without stopping, however, in this instance both music tracks play as and when they should?

In early betas I'm almost sure I could change the colour of the wave form, although I've changed the timeline colour the waveform remains green.

When adding tracks to individual slides, they also appear in project options, previously in “customise slide” the tracks were added to the selected slide & did not appear in project options. The previous set up allowed the adding of a false track to the menu slide, which fooled the programme into thinking there was music when there wasn't.

Finally, totally unconnected but needed, when co-ordinating slides to peaks in the wave form, the inability of expanding the waveform above a certain level leads to inaccuracy, particularly on small monitors. What I would like to see in this case is, where there is only one waveform, to be able to stretch it vertically ad infinitum as I could previously.

Please!

Yachtsman1.

[davegee]

??

[jt49]

A major difference between v7 and v8: In the old version we have a soundtrack, and additional sound comments. The soundtrack can run synchronized or not, while comments always run synchronized, and they start with a particular slide. In the new version we have just one common soundtrack that either plays synchronous or not. Linking is just a process to define the position of an audio clip relative to the start of a particular slide, but the clip is a normal part of the soundtrack. So the audio system is different now.

jt

[Guest Yachtsman1]

A major difference between v7 and v8: In the old version we have a soundtrack, and additional sound comments. The soundtrack can run synchronized or not, while comments always run synchronized, and they start with a particular slide. In the new version we have just one common soundtrack that either plays synchronous or not. Linking is just a process to define the position of an audio clip relative to the start of a particular slide, but the clip is a normal part of the soundtrack. So the audio system is different now.

jt

I hear what you are saying, but that doesn't address why the menu doesn't operate as it should, maybe RC3 will solve the problem? :unsure:/>/>

Yachtsman1.

[jt49]

I hear what you are saying, but that doesn't address why the menu doesn't operate as it should, maybe RC3 will solve the problem? :unsure:/>/>

Yachtsman1.

I think that it does. If my observation will hold in the end (the soundtrack is unified, and it will either run completely synchronized, or completely un-synchonized) then you will have trouble. In the start section you want to run the sequence in an un-synchronized mode, while in the end section you want to have a synchronized start of a slide and a corresponding audio clip. I fear that this will not work. You seem to have a similar problem as the one that has been addressed here, and you could use the workaround that I have proposed in this topic (post #10), using 2 concatenated shows.

jt

[Guest Yachtsman1]

I think that it does. If my observation will hold in the end (the soundtrack is unified, and it will either run completely synchronized, or completely un-synchonized) then you will have trouble. In the start section you want to run the sequence in an un-synchronized mode, while in the end section you want to have a synchronized start of a slide and a corresponding audio clip. I fear that this will not work. You seem to have a similar problem as the one that has been addressed here, and you could use the workaround that I have proposed in this topic (post #10), using 2 concatenated shows.

jt

Sorry JT I am not prepared to use such a workaround, it worked in previous versions it should be made to work it this version without going to extreme measures as you are suggesting. If necessary I would go back to the version it did work before resorting to your suggestion. I am not in a rush to get this to work as it should in 8, I have until Autumn 2014 before I need to use it, in the meantime I will use 7.07 for the menu while continuing to use 8 for my slideshows, hopefully Wnsoft will come up with a solution before then.

Yachtsman1.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Progress, of sorts. In this post I failed to mention with the set up I am using, the end music came on part way through the exe that was playing. I mentioned in a previous post about adding a silent track to the menu slide, so now I have generated 90 minutes of silence in Audacity, exported as an MP3 & added to to the audio comments in slide options for the menu slide. I've also increased the menu slide time to 90 minutes which should cover the 12 exes in the menu. So now the menu runs as it should with music up to the menu slide, then silence as the 38 second opening track ends. I have played a few exes all the way through & the end credit music track doesn't start, which is correct, then after the final exe finishes I actuate the next slide, but the end track doesn't play. I have also tried to add the end track to a separate track & allocated the track to the slide after the menu, but that doesn't work either. so some progress but not I fear as it should be. Incidentally I have replaced the menu slide in the attached screen shots with a video slide, in case you are wondering why it looks different.

Yachtsman1

[PGA]

Eric,

The attached zip below is a very rough and ready test project. It has 9 slides, the first and last of which are PTE generated blanks. It is manually controlled (i.e. "Wait for a key press..." is ON). The soundtrack is not synchronised (i.e. "Sync music..." is OFF.) There are two pieces of music: one plays at the beginning, the other plays during the last three slides.

There are no sequences launched off a menu but this isn't what you are stymied on, is it? It's getting the final music to play over the last three slides.

Download the zip and unzip everything into a folder then open the PTE project into v8 RC1 or higher. Manually advance the sequence at a steady pace. The first music fades out after about 15s. When you see the green slide, stop manually advancing and let the rest play through automatically.

Does this do what you are wanting?

regards,

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15623351/MenuTest-for-Eric_Dec4-2013_7-40-51.zip

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Went to bed last night with my mind in a whirl wondering why I couldn't get 8 to work as 7.07. JT's suggestion I didn't really understand, but the word sounded like connection which led me on to thinking what the suggestion was, to create a separate exe with just the end titles & music, add the link to the first menu section and at the end of the shows, click the word end to bring up the "end" exe. I've now done that & it is acceptable but a hell of a workaround. However, while writing this I noticed Peter had posted his suggestion to my quandry, so I'll close this post & have a look in detail at his suggestion. Below is wikipedia's deinition of concatenation

Concatenation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Concatenated)

Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the string operation of computer programming. For other uses, see Concatenation (disambiguation).

For concatenation of general lists, see Append.

Programming language comparisons.

In many programming languages, string concatenation is a binary infix operator. The "+" operator is often overloaded to denote concatenation for string arguments: "Hello, " + "World"; has the value "Hello, World".

Yachtsman1. :blink:

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Eric,

The attached zip below is a very rough and ready test project. It has 9 slides, the first and last of which are PTE generated blanks. It is manually controlled (i.e. "Wait for a key press..." is ON). The soundtrack is not synchronised (i.e. "Sync music..." is OFF.) There are two pieces of music: one plays at the beginning, the other plays during the last three slides.

There are no sequences launched off a menu but this isn't what you are stymied on, is it? It's getting the final music to play over the last three slides.

Download the zip and unzip everything into a folder then open the PTE project into v8 RC1 or higher. Manually advance the sequence at a steady pace. The first music fades out after about 15s. When you see the green slide, stop manually advancing and let the rest play through automatically.

Does this do what you are wanting?

regards,

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15623351/MenuTest-for-Eric_Dec4-2013_7-40-51.zip

Hi Peter

Thanks for that, will do later, still in my night attire, Tesco delivers the shopping later & we have a new freezer being delivered, but I'll get my priorities right & do it as soon as possible & report back.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[PGA]

Eric,

Don't bother testing it. It doesn't!

There is a fundamental weakness in PTE's design. In the Audio features the function "Link to slide" does not link the audio to the slide. It links it to the time offset of the slide as calculated within the project. If the project is manually controlled that time offset cannot be guaranteed to be achieved.

regards,

Peter

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Eric,

Don't bother testing it. It doesn't!

There is a fundamental weakness in PTE's design. In the Audio features the function "Link to slide" does not link the audio to the slide. It links it to the time offset of the slide as calculated within the project. If the project is manually controlled that time offset cannot be guaranteed to be achieved.

regards,

Peter

Thanks Peter, sorry it didn't work. I know I've been pratting around with it since 8.5. It's a shame Wnsoft doesn't give it more priority getting to the bottom of the problem. Igor hinted RC3 may cure it in another thread, we live in hope.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.