PTE or Flash

[jeanie]

hello everyone

when I was discussing a future project for my college course I told my tutor I was going to use PTE. He does not Know much about it really. He suggeted however that the way forward, with the internet, and showing people what you were doing, or for them to download your work, was to work using Flash. He suggested this was the 'professional'way.

Before I start trying to find out all about this can anyone knowledgable here tell me whether this is an alternative route or whether we are at cross purposes.

thanks in advance

jeanie

[Kurt S]

I hate to sound rude, but it sounds like your tutor is a narrow minded little fool.

Flash is a good medium but it certainly isn't the only way to go. With flash ,you have to install a player, with a PTE show, you don't. PTE only costs $29, Macromedia Flash/Shockwave and all the add-ons can run well over $800 dollars. Tell him you will go with Flash if he buys the software for you.

Honestly, there are many media formats out there and none is better then the othre. It just depends what you want to do and what your budget permits.

[Ronniebootwest]

Hello Jeanie, welcome!

Just what is it that you are trying to do? There are many good folk on this forum who are very willing to help you but we must have more details about what you are going to do.

Ron West

[Steve S]

Well… I suppose it depends on what you are studying.

As far as the Internet is concerned Flash is one of those things that you either love or hate. Designers love it because it can do so much. Most website visitors hate it because it takes so long to load unless you have a very fast connection (which most of the world doesn’t), or the designers (wishing to show off their skills) use the latest version demonstrating cutting edge techniques. Which means that viewers need to download the latest version of the Flash player software to see it. Flash works best when it is used skilfully as part of a web presence.

The beauty of P2E is that it is self-containing and will run on (just about) any Windows based system (Pre Win 98 excepted). That means no worries for your victim, sorry, client.

Why not surprise your tutor by showing him what P2E can do!

Steve.

[Ken Cox]

Jeanie

drop a note to any of the following

ralvis

ADB

James O'Rear aka Slugman

Hawk

Ian Bateman

just to name a few of the members

they are quite proficient in flash

and i agree with comments by Kurt S re your tutor - -graphics is something in which an open mind is a prerequisite

Lin Evans

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...t=ST&f=2&t=2902

says

Best regards and congratulations on what I think is the best slideshow software available!

and if you went to his site and see the quality of his work i think you will believe his statement.

http://www.lin-evans.com/

ken

[elIvarz]

Maybe is possible use some tools (I think you can find freeware tools too) to convert avi to flash format. Maybe this is the way you can try to produce something for web. el

[Dusty]

I agree with the instructor partly because flash can be viewed across many platforms and most computers have flash now. When I was struggling with a PTE show to be available to Mac users, I came across a program called "SWF 'n Slide". The free trial I tested was junk in my opinion (poor fades), but the concept was good. Create your show, then save it as a .swf file (flash file). I wonder if Igor could incorporate that option into PTE? That would be the best of both worlds. I don't like flash websites, but if I'm downloading a show and know the file size, that's different.

[Ken Cox]

When I was struggling with a PTE show to be available to Mac users,

Cindy

would it not been simpler to make a mpg of the avi and send that to the mac people

or burn the avi with your dvd authoring program to a dvd and distribute the disk?

or

will MAC's not read a standard mpg or a dvd ?

ken

[ccmanz]

Igor said he might look into exporting to flash in this thread.

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...&f=2&t=2684&hl=

If a Mac is able to view these it would be an added bonus.

cc

[keffs]

Have a look at Riva FLV Encoder. This enable the creation of Flash video from video files, as produced by P2E. And it is freee.

Steve

[jeanie]

Well, hello all,

thanks for all your responses.

Ron,

to explain more what I'm wanting to do. As part of my photography degree course we have a module called professional practice. We have to make a business plan, part of which involves showing how you would market your product or services. Since I enjoy playing with PTE (made a few and watched alot) and loving the whole experince. , I thought my way forward might involve doing work involving creating slideshows. To demonstrate the marketing of ourselves we must produce a website. On the website one would like to show ones work. This is were the tutor's suggestion of using Flash comes in I know little about it,so to go that way would involve a big leaning curve.

Since I like the PTE software I am loath to change to something else, and I know some of the best work I've seen is done using it eg. Barry Beckham. I guess my question was raised to give me some good justification for not having to change.

The suggestion by Keffs of using an encoder which converts the exe. file to Flash sounds like a possible answer. Has anyone done this with their show and how did it turn out?

[jeanie]

thE LAST REPLY IS MINE FORGOT TO SIGN OFF

jeanie

[alrobin]

One possible suggestion would be to look into "Swish". I haven't used it myself as I have had some experience with "Flash". Swish will produce a ".swf" file, and apparently it is easy to learn and use. Also, it would come in handy to have this capability as you can use flash files as introductions to PTE in order to achieve fancy spiralling and scrolling titles.

There are other AV programs which will provide for streaming "video" from a web site, but so far, this is not possible with PTE. You could send Ian of the Wantage Camera Club an email for further information about this.

[Ronniebootwest]

Hello Jeanie,

My goodness, you really have your work cut out with this project of yours - business plans, building websites and on top of that learning about flash as well! I really do not envy you.

I am glad that you enjoy using the PTE software because it really is destined to become the major program for creating audio visual slide shows. I have dabbled with adding flash files (swf) as the opening titles and closing credits to a PTE show. I use software called 'Swishmax' and have had reasonable success. To actually add a swf file to a PTE slide show you will need a utility called 'FlashMe4' made by Granot.

You can download it HERE

Building webpages is well beyond my ability. I think that you are right to stay with PTE because the quality of the finished product is superb. As far as converting an exe to swf is concerned, I think that the degradation of the images makes this unsuitable.

Ron West

[keffs]

....I think that you are right to stay with PTE because the quality of the finished product is superb. As far as converting an exe to swf is concerned, I think that the degradation of the images makes this unsuitable.

Ron West

Whilst P2E is an excellent product, it does not directly enable the creation of online slideshows. If this is what is required, then obviously another solution is required. One is to create the slideshow from scratch, using Macromedia Flash, or Swish, or simmiliar. AFAIK, these are not on a par with P2E in actually putting the slide show together.

Another option is to use P2E to create the slideshow, and then convert to flash format. I don't know about converting the exe, but it is possible to convert the avi the P2E can create. It is possible to get a reasonable quality. The thing that has a big effect is transitions. Provided you don't have fancy transitions, it can be ok if converted to Flash.

Steve