Cover screen vs Fit to screen

[alrobin]

I have uploaded a zipped FILE with some tests I ran for two aspect ratios of the new "cover screen" options in Project Options and Objects & Animation. The results are quite revealing - there could be some serious problems if these options are used incorrectly.

These tests were partly an outcome of Texas Ken's queries on image aspect ratios vs monitor sizes, and some tests I was doing on linearity. (by the way, my tests on linearity proved that PTE is linear in all respects, even speed of PZR).

I have included an Excel spreadsheet summarizing the results as well as all source images and a text file summarizing the conclusions.

Please let me know if you would like further clarification, or discuss any of the results in more detail.

[nickles]

Hello Al,

Thanks for your very good post and files. I will definitely study them this evening....as I'm unfortunately working on non-PTE related things today...just taking a break at the moment. Your grid lines are excellent...I suspect you must be an engineer. As you could probably tell in my last post in the Aspect Ratio thread...I got frustrated trying to sort it out. Hope you don't get a headache studying it. One question...and I'm sure I will have more...are the red fonts you used in your spreadsheet indicative of "something ain't right". I don't know if you have access to a 5:4, i.e., 1280x1024, monitor...but there are lot's of them out in the world now...LCD flat panels.

Keep up your good work and scientific approach. I really think this all needs to be sorted through so that we have an idea of what the end user of our shows may expect to see...with varying aspect ratios of monitors.

Very sincerely,

Ken from Texas

[alrobin]

...are the red fonts you used in your spreadsheet indicative of "something ain't right". I don't know if you have access to a 5:4, i.e., 1280x1024, monitor...but there are lot's of them out in the world now...LCD flat panels.

Thanks, Ken, for your kind comments.

Yes, the notes in red indicate a potential conflict with other monitor aspect ratios. Just something to be aware of if the author is planning on distributing his or her show. If only shown on one's own personal system, then nothing to worry about.

I can set other aspect ratios on my monitors, but the images will be distorted somewhat. It's sufficient to test for two "extreme" conditions, however, to get a sense of what is happening. No need to make things more complicated than they are already!

And, you're right, I'm a retired telecommunications engineer - no where nearly as efficient at this stuff as I used to be!

[thedom]

Thanks Al, very interesting file definitely !

I realized with it that I totally misunderstood the "cover screen/fit to screen" options in the Project Options : actually, this option defines how the slideshow will be displayed on the end user screen (=monitor).

Until now, I thought it defined the default display mode of each object in the O/A window (properties tab).

I understand too that there is no way (for instance ?) to set a default "cover screen" mode for each object, the default being "fit to screen".

I (finally !) agree with you : I don't see any use (at least for me) of "cover screen" in project options.

Btw, I'm wondering what will be the purpose of the option "fit to screen (enlarge images to fit screen)" in the same screen tab ?

Or will it simply disappear ?

May be the answer in the future beta #3...