PicturesToExe wma, png & jp2 lossless file support

[Dimitri Papadopoulos]

What I would like to see in a future version of PicturesToExe is more native support for other image formats without recompression.

For example, presently, PicturesToExe when fed with either .JPG or .BMP, the resulting .exe slideshow won’t recompress these formats; it will just store them as-is and display them without further image loss.

I would like to see the same with other image formats such as .PNG and JP2 (lossy/lossless). And for users which want smaller files, allow for an option to recompress with a quality settings slider.

One other feature I would like to see in a future version would be to made the slide duration dependant on the audio clip duration. This is especially useful for educational/corporate slideshows. Should the first audio clip is 10 seconds, the second 3 sec, the thirds 5 sec, made the slideshow dependable according to audio duration.

And last, I would also like to see native support without recompression for more audio codecs, such as .wma (more efficient than mp3 and the voice codec which is especially designed for audio, provides crystal clear voice recordings with no audible artifacts at very low bitrates).

As far as I know, PicturesToExe is the only software which will allow lossless slideshows with BMP and without further loss with JPG. The competition will degrade the quality.

The above suggestion to provide native support of more formats (png, jp2, wma) would make PicturesToExe stand out even more from the competition. Thanks for this great product. Licensing is not a major obstacle since the decoder for both wma and JPEG2000 are generally free of charge to developers.

Best,

Dimitri P.

[JPD]

the resulting .exe slideshow won’t recompress these formats

Not sure for BMP, you can choice to compress them or not.

.wma (more efficient than mp3)

I never use WMA, too much problem with it, it's better to use ogg, but to day, only mp3 can be use, probably wma and ogg will be in the final product as it is in V4.xx.

[Igor]

Dimitri,

Thank you for your suggestions!

In v5.00 we use lossless re-compression of PNG and BMP because in our format re-packed PNG images load in two times faster that really necessary for slide show.

Please use PNG or BMP format if you need to have lossless quality of images.

Other lossless formats like Jpeg 2000 takes a lot of CPU time to load such image that not acceptable for slide show purpose. I did many test and found that better compression in Jpeg2000 required more CPU resources.

Previous v4.48 supports WMA format. Current v5.00 beta temporarily doesn't support but will do it in nearest beta versions.

[Dimitri Papadopoulos]

Thanks for the quick reply. I believe that the slide duration be automatically set by the slide's audio clip duration is an important feature. (be it for narration, educational slideshows, or whatever).

For example, I have the following to sound byte to sync with slides:

http://s135598769.onlinehome.us/clip.mp3

This is just a minute mp3 sample, but in reality, I have some 60 hours of audio that I want to synchronize.

In this clip, each time there's a "beep" (which later could would be replaced by a "beepless" version), it's the cue to change slide. The other option is to trim the audio between the beeps and create individual sound bytes to assign with each slide.

As of now, it's next to impossible to do it efficiently. So I'm stuck using the old carousel projector, a cassette player and a box of slides in the classroom, instead of a more compact computer projector setup with hundreds of self-executable slideshows in the Hard Drive!

One way I see it during editing with PicturesToExe is to be able to visually see the waveform/listen and on top be able to arrange/stretch the slide to match the desired duration. This would involve to paste the entire audio track at once. (which is faster - but that would be a major revision and programming).

The other, easier way (programming wise) would be to set the slide duration automatically according its audio clip duration. This would involve cutting the audio in little individual segments. Programming wise it's a minor revision, but more work for the user. - Which is fine as long as it works.

It's complicated to sync an audio track to create an educational slideshow. I haven't come across any slideshow software that will be able to efficiently (or visually) sync slides with audio at precise cue points and output an exe slideshow. (I tried many). This is why I think that it should be considered it for a future version. It's a simple feature that seems to be overlooked, yet useful.

Thanks,

Dimitri P.

[alrobin]

One way I see it during editing with PicturesToExe is to be able to visually see the waveform/listen and on top be able to arrange/stretch the slide to match the desired duration. This would involve to paste the entire audio track at once. (which is faster - but that would be a major revision and programming).

Dimitri,

Welcome to the Forum!

In the "Timeline" view, try clicking on "waveform" and you should be able to more accurately sync the transitions to the music. Just remember that not all of the synchronization features are activated yet in version 5. However, the waveform is, as well as the ability to "stretch" the times between transitions, and the lengths of the transitions themselves.

[Dimitri Papadopoulos]

In the "Timeline" view, try clicking on "waveform" and you should be able to more accurately sync the transitions to the music.

Thanks for the tip, I just downloaded v5b. Yes, indeed, it's a major facelift and there's a possibility to sync!

Observations for v5b:

1- Is there any way to sync in real time? As the audio plays double click on the desired slide to be inserted? Then use the sync window would be useful to fine tune.

2- I laid out a mono track (1 channel) and I got a stereo waveform representation in the sync window; minor cosmetic feature.

3- The sync window can't be maximized. One has to drag the window's corners to expand it; minor functionality feature.

4- The waveform can't be zoomed in or out for more precision or overall view; minor functionality feature.

The first being the most important the other 3 are minor features.

Other than these minor observations, there's no doubt that PictureToExe is an extremely mature software, especially with its lossless file support. Hats off. I'll give v5b a tougher test drive on the weekend from the perspective of someone that would use it to create educational slideshow prosentations.

D.

[alrobin]

Thanks for the tip, I just downloaded v5b. Yes, indeed, it's a major facelift and there's a possibility to sync!

Observations for v5b:

1- Is there any way to sync in real time? As the audio plays double click on the desired slide to be inserted? Then use the sync window would be useful to fine tune.

Hi, Dimitri,

Yes, v.5 is a major improvement - but the waveform feature has been in v.4 for over a year or two. To sync in real time, empty the timeline (or add the slides without adding the transitions), start the timeline "preview", and then press "New transition" every time you want a new slide.

To add slides to the slide list without adding transitions to the timeline, first select "Timeline / View" and uncheck "Auto adding of new transition points .... ". Igor has thought of everything!