What video card in your PC?

[Igor]

Please vote what video card installed in your main PC where you work with PicturesToExe.

For ideally smooth Pan/Zoom/Rotate motion effects in 1280x1024 PicturesToExe will require something like NVIDIA Geforce 3/4 or ATI Radeon 8500/9000/9200 with 64 MB of video memory. CPU doesn't matter at all. Only good video card for fine Pan/Zoom/Rotate.

If you create usual slide-show without Pan/Zoom/Rotate effects, it should works fine even on Geforce 1 or 2 or ATI Radeon with 32 MB video memory and with any CPU, as I today tested. Additionally we plan to write special code for old video cards, so we think that PTE slide-shows without motion effect will work fine on any PC as earlier.

Brian,

in another topic you suggested to keep v4.43 on the site as alternate version. Yes, we will keep it on the web site. But we also will try to make v5.00 suitable for wide range of PCs. (Maybe only except of Pentium II/III 400-500 MHz and earlier.)

We're trying to keep PTE as simple and reliable product. v5.00 will look exactly as earlier, same 1,5 MB, very small EXE slide-show engine (even smaller than earlier) and fast work.

It's very important for us to hear your opinion concerning any changes in PicturesToExe and we open and ready for discussion (and add some changes, if it necessary).

p.s. when we added Fade effect 4,5 year ago, it worked ideally only on top-end PCs (Pentium III 1000-1500 Hz). Now almost every slide-show uses this effect and it works fine.

[Maureen]

Please vote what video card installed in your main PC where you work with PicturesToExe.

Maybe some people may be asking " How do I find out what kind of video card I have installed on my machine?"

There are a couple ways of doing this. The first way is to right click my computer, then click on properties then click on the Device Manager tab. Once in the Device Manager section, expand the link by Display Adapters, here you will find out the brand video card you have installed on your machine. The second way to find out what kind of video card is installed on your system, is to click on the start button, click on run, once in run type DXDIAG. You will then need to click on the DISPLAY tab and the name and manufacturer of your video card will be displayed.

I hope this may help anyone who is confused about their video card.

BW

Maureen

[ronwil]

Thanks Maureen that saved a lot of time.

Regards

Ron [uK]

[Conflow]

Igor and Team,

Igor many thanks for your reply. I am delighted to hear that PTE 4.43 will still be available and shall be supported. Also I wish you very 'Good Luck' with PTE 5.0 with Pan & Zoom, I do know that many hundred's of people are going to enjoy this New Program.

However like Ronnie and Roger and myself and others, we really appreciate the stability and functionallity of PTE 4.43. To us it's a very stable Commercial Tool and could be compared to a 'Mercedes' just for those stability properties which we depend on.

We also know that 'Pan & Zoom' has been tried on PC's which are totally unsuitable for the job ~ that is what I am trying to say to you..."you can not stop people trying to use PTE 5.0 on unsuitable Computers"...and this is going to give your Team headaches with the real risk of giving PTE some bad press which it does not deserve.

That's the reason I suggested 2 products...the "Basic PTE 4.43" and the "De-Lux PTE 5.0"...however that distinction and decision would be up to you and your Team.

Some Considerations

1)

In regards to Pentium II and III (400~500.MHz) and being an Applications Engineer, I would advise that there are thousands and thousands of these PC in current use through out Europe and globally through out the World and of course PTE 4.43 is ideal for these. On the other hand XP-2 is ideal for PTE 5.0

2)

Also you may not be aware that 'Windows 2000' is used by virtually every Business~Commercial~Industrial and Municipal Authority.

These organisations generally use 'Unix Mainframes' with Win.2000 PC's scattered around the Offices. The senior people who work in these Offices usually have a Win.2000 at Home (compliments of the Company) on account of its NT compatibility.

Microsoft tried to 'scrap' 2000 in favour of XP ~ the Business Community rejected this move on account of the massive billion Dollar investments made in Win.2000 by these people, this because XP-1 was so unreliable when it was first launched. At this stage they are not going to 'trade-in' Win.2000 just because Bill Gates wants them to. So you will also have to consider Win.2000 as a Commercial Workhorse with PTE 5.0.

There is much to think about and I have taken up too much of your time ~ I do think that PTE 4.43 need's attention to maintain its 'Aspect Ratios' when changing between 800x600 and 1034x768 Screen sizes and

I do appreciate that many people are anxiously awaiting PTE 5.0 with Pan & Zoom ~ my heavens you really have your work cut out for you.

As always I hope my comments may be useful...

Brian.Conflow.

[Igor]

Brian,

I fully understand and agree with you! I thought thousand times about all these questions. Because of this we wrote 2 different graphical engines in v5,00 - one which uses power of video cards and second - CPU based as earlier. If you plan to create slide-shows without Pan/Zoom you will able to turn on second engine - it reliable as earlier, because it doesn't use video acceleration - only CPU.

After first beta, which will be ready soon, please say us about all moments.

However concerning reliability of new graphical engine which uses DirectX. We've used minimum of functions and spent a half of year to write, I believe reliable code.

Currently I can say that after past 4 months of testing of this new engine on various 9 PCs, it NEVER crashed or freezed up Windows. So even not ready earlier code with possible errors always worked fine everywhere.

p.s. thanks, Maureen. I missed to describe this moment

[Conflow]

Brian,

I fully understand and agree with you! I thought thousand times about all these questions. Because of this we wrote 2 different graphical engines in v5,00 - one which uses power of video cards and second - CPU based as earlier. If you plan to create slide-shows without Pan/Zoom you will able to turn on second engine - it reliable as earlier, because it doesn't use video acceleration - only CPU.

After first beta, which will be ready soon, please say us about all moments.

However concerning reliability of new graphical engine which uses DirectX. We've used minimum of functions and spent a half of year to write, I believe reliable code.

Currently I can say that after past 4 months of testing of this new engine on various 9 PCs, it NEVER crashed or freezed up Windows. So even not ready earlier code with possible errors always worked fine everywhere.

p.s. thanks, Maureen. I missed to describe this moment

[Conflow]

Igor,

Many thanks again ~ thats's excellent News about the 2 Graphic Engines ~ and a very clever idea it is, so in effect PTE 5.0 is really 2 products 1 one package, that's a classic solution.

I can also appreciate the "mind wrestling Hours" and the "what ifs" that you put into the new version of PTE. It reminds me of the Electronic problems we have in Irish Railways and the hundreds of hours spent in rectifying those problems and then to find that they 'pop-up' elsewhere in a different way, so the trick here is to isolate the problem pathways in the 1st instance, just exactly what you are doing with PTE.

I look forward to trying out the 'PTE Beta 5.0' version and I shall certainly report back my findings as far as Win.2000 Pro is concerned.

Good luck to you all...

Brian.Conflow.

[Bob]

Please vote what video card installed in your main PC where you work with PicturesToExe.

For ideally smooth Pan/Zoom/Rotate motion effects in 1280x1024 PicturesToExe will require something like NVIDIA Geforce 3/4 or ATI Radeon 8500/9000/9200 with 64 MB of video memory. CPU doesn't matter at all. Only good video card for fine Pan/Zoom/Rotate.

If you create usual slide-show without Pan/Zoom/Rotate effects, it should works fine even on Geforce 1 or 2 or ATI Radeon with 32 MB video memory and with any CPU, as I today tested. Additionally we plan to write special code for old video cards, so we think that PTE slide-shows without motion effect will work fine on any PC as earlier.

Brian,

in another topic you suggested to keep v4.43 on the site as alternate version. Yes, we will keep it on the web site. But we also will try to make v5.00 suitable for wide range of PCs. (Maybe only except of Pentium II/III 400-500 MHz and earlier.)

We're trying to keep PTE as simple and reliable product. v5.00 will look exactly as earlier, same 1,5 MB, very small EXE slide-show engine (even smaller than earlier) and fast work.

It's very important for us to hear your opinion concerning any changes in PicturesToExe and we open and ready for discussion (and add some changes, if it necessary).

p.s. when we added Fade effect 4,5 year ago, it worked ideally only on top-end PCs (Pentium III 1000-1500 Hz). Now almost every slide-show uses this effect and it works fine.

Igor:

My machine is a rather new lap top and card is an ATI Radeon 6000 wit 258 MG.. can't wait for v. 5

Bob..

[ecps]

It seems to me that the crucial question concerns how the slideshows produced on the new version of P2E will run on other computers. Although I may have an 'all singing and dancing' PC on which the new features will run perfectly, I do not know the specifications of the computers where the slideshows which I produce will end up. Does this mean that I should use 4.43 (or the CPU version of 5) to be on the safe side?

Or perhaps my fears will prove to be completely unfounded when we give version 5 a try!

Eddie

[Lin Evans]

It seems to me that the crucial question concerns how the slideshows produced on the new version of P2E will run on other computers. Although I may have an 'all singing and dancing' PC on which the new features will run perfectly, I do not know the specifications of the computers where the slideshows which I produce will end up. Does this mean that I should use 4.43 (or the CPU version of 5) to be on the safe side?

Or perhaps my fears will prove to be completely unfounded when we give version 5 a try!

Eddie

Hi Eddie,

First, it's better to wait and see before drawing conclusions. Second, all programs which use the Ken Burns effects (pan, zoom, rotate, etc.) have this common problem. It simply takes a decent hardware complement to allow smooth actions when dealing with the amount of data necessary to make these features happen.

I also use ProShow Gold as well as P2E and frequently my executable files are jerky - text scrolling is "iffy" and so on when played on different machines. One work-around is to convert to DVD but this has its own issues such as image quality and the inability to use manual features such as manual advance and back, print image from the slideshow, run external code, etc.

There is no "perfect" solution and probably won't be one until all the older PC's have been replaced with upgraded units which have reasonably large memory video cards made for action graphics.

The world is full of compromise, but P2E is and probably always will be one of the very best solutions for presentation slideshows.

Lin

[Jill]

Igor, I run on a Pentium III 450 with VooDoo 3000 video card, so PLEASE keep PTE running for that set up. The current version works fine as long as I leave at least 500ms between slides. Can't wait for new version!!

[Ken Cox]

Igor, I run on a Pentium III 450 with VooDoo 3000 video card, so PLEASE keep PTE running for that set up. The current version works fine as long as I leave at least 500ms between slides. Can't wait for new version!!

Jill

i believe Igor has this already covered

see

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....st=entry23570

[Maureen]

Out of 2,581 registered members only a tiny number (73) have voted and let Igor know their video card.

Come on, this is your chance to help Igor by giving him some useful information !

[Mr B]

Mine is a NVIDIA GeForce 5200

Looking forward to the new version.

Thanks Igor

[ContaxMan]

Out of 2,581 registered members only a tiny number (73) have voted and let Igor know their video card.

It was ever thus - why don't people seem to want to help, only to seek help?

[paul alford]

As it is with most forums, MOST people lurk in the shadows and just ask for help when needed... and usually dont "offer" much help when needed. Sad. Kinda like titheing at church... 20% of the people provide 80% of the total.

Maybe it would help if igor sent out a mass email to the whole group advising everyone of this needed info. I didnt know about it until tonight and only because I "happen" to visit... which is very rare. So, in all fairness, maybe many folks dont know about it.

And if I may add my grain of salf 2 cents, to you igor... You go boy !! Dont worry about trying to please 100% of the group - that will never happen. If the older hardware people get "left out" of the improvements, they have the option of still using the already great version 4 or simple upgrade the hardware. Its their choice, not yours. These same people must not own digital cameras !! We seem to buy a "new model" about every 6 months... sad really. These manufacturers are savy in getting all of our money. But again, its our choice. If you want to keep up with the big boys, you gotta run like the big boys. Otherwise, find your own pace and enjoy where you are and quit complaining.

Just my 2 cents.

Paul

[Tomuk]

Hi! All

Yes I have voted and my card is a Radeon x700 with 128meg on board, can anyone tell me if this card is ok for v5.0?.

Tom.

[Ken Cox]

Tom

see

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....lite=video+card

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsme...ntShowcase.aspx

my ati 9000 handled them ok

also was able to burn most of the clips to dvd

ken

[djay]

NVIDIA Geforce FX 5200

Looks like it won't be too long now.

What dedication and attention to detail!!

Thanks

djay