Problem with audio file length

[HollowMan]

I'm trying to put together a presentation of a trip to Portugal which is quite long (207 slides, 40 minute narration mp3). But when I select the narration file, it shows up as only 20min, 27sec. I used CoolEdit to create it, and I've tried saving it as a .wav file, mp3pro, and an mp3 file. Every time, it shows up as the same length.

Has anyone got any idea as to whether PTE has an upper limit for audio file length? (my mp3pro file is only about 24megs).

I'm using version 3.75.

Thanks

[Guest guru]

Hi HollowMan! Welcome!

No, there is no known limit for audio files length. And anyhow several of us created shows much longer. Your issue is quite odd.

But first of all don't use PTE 3.75! 4.31 is much better, and many features are changed.

[HollowMan]

Thanks for responding.

I just downloaded version 4.31 and it does the same thing. As well, version 4.31 doesn't seem to like me skipping ahead in the presentation to check on later transitions. On version 3.75, if I hit 'play', then clicked somewhere later on the timeline, it would automatically jump to that location while continuing to play. With 4.31, if I click later on the timeline, it just outright stops playing and the cursor jumps to the last position (20:27). Weird.

(Edit: Further to this, clicking later on the timeline actually freezes the whole program and I have to use the task manager to close it)

I think I may try cutting the 40 minute narration into two smaller files to trick the program.

[JRR]

Hi Hollowman:

I realize that this is not going to help you any in real terms, but I have three PTE shows of over 200 slides and 25 minutes in length, they all work like a charm.

A few thoughts you might want to consider as the following are sometimes factors:

- I usually compress sound track to an an MP3 using 96kbps.

- image files are jpgs, no more than 200kb (the odd one might hit 275kb, but most are 100-150kb)

- I keep at least 0.5 seconds between transtions. I tend to use FADES, with transitions of 1500ms ±

I am sure you will solve it very soon.

[HollowMan]

You're right, I did solve it. After fighting with it for 2 or 3 hours and not getting anywhere I took a break. Then when I got back at it, I noticed that there were two locations in the program where you can identify which mp3 file to use as the audio track. It had been so long since the previous project, I was only using the main screen (lower right hand corner) and not even bothering to go into the project options menu and clicking on the music tab. So all those times I had been changing the audio file, switching from mp3pro to mp3, remixing in cooledit, switching to wav... it was all for not. I was never actually changing the audio file in the project, I was just changing what audio file was listed on the main screen (which, from what I gather, doesn't affect the project at all). Ah silly me! But they all pretty much sounded the same (22k versus 44.1k... 128kbps CBR versus 96kbps VBR etc) so it took me a while to figure it out.

But the problem stemmed from using a variable bit rate (VBR) mp3pro file instead of a straight ahead, constant bit rate (CBR) mp3. Much like WinAmp, I don't think PicturesToExe can determine the correct length for a VBR mp3 file right at the beginning. So this 40 minute narration file looked like it was 20:27 long at the start, and the project allocated that much length to the timeline instead of the real length.

So in summary, my suggestion to myself and anyone else is:

"Don't use variable bit rate mp3 files"

Thanks everyone for your help.

[Guest guru]

"Don't use variable bit rate mp3 files"

No HollowMan, this is not correct. PTE works perfectly with VBR Mp3. It doesn't work with Mp3 Pro, that is not fully compatible with mp3.