Will v5.00 ever be released?

[jgayman]

I volunteer my time to shoot sports photos for a local high school and I also put together slide shows for the various banquets throughout the year. I have always used PTE. Two years ago I really needed to incorporate some panning and zooming features so despite my love of PTE I was forced to use another application for my shows. I figured it would only be temporary as these types of features were **coming** in a new PTE version. I anxiously kept tabs on the v5.00 development and unfortunately it still was not ready to use for my shows last year. Here I am in season three and a new season of banquets is upon me. Still no released v5.00. Even worse, I fear it has become the 800 pound gorilla and is becoming so complex as to require excessive system resources to run. I typically distribute 300-400 copies of my shows every year to students, parents and coaches and very few people have issues running them. I have a feeling the same will not be true for v5.00.

I don't want to minimize the huge effort required to release a product like v5.00 and I certainly appreciate the developers efforts. But as I enter my third season of waiting and my third season of using other applications I can't help but wonder if when delivered, v5.00 will be too little too late.

[Guest Techman1]

Like you many of us have been waiting for the production release for some time, but I decided to jump in and use the beta version and couldn't be happier. Have you tried to use v5 to create a DVD yet? I presume that is the media you are producing for the students. I've created numerous projects using the beta version and my clients have been extremely happy with the results. The DVD's play on all of their players without issue.

Although v5 is still in a beta mode, it truly is a very usable product. The latest with DVD Builder added in, just makes the product even easier to use to produce a DVD. If you don't want to use that, you can still use PTE to create an AVI file and add that to your DVD software of choice.

I'm sure Igor would have liked to have v5 out into production by now, but there were many issues in writing such a high quality program. V5 may be a little late into the game, but the quality of PTE is exceptional when compared to many others. Igor has indicated that the next beta v5b9 will have nearly everything that previous versions (4.48) have, plus the added features of v5. It must be getting very close to final release.

Good luck with this season's videos!

Regards,

Fred

[Lin Evans]

I volunteer my time to shoot sports photos for a local high school and I also put together slide shows for the various banquets throughout the year. I have always used PTE. Two years ago I really needed to incorporate some panning and zooming features so despite my love of PTE I was forced to use another application for my shows. I figured it would only be temporary as these types of features were **coming** in a new PTE version. I anxiously kept tabs on the v5.00 development and unfortunately it still was not ready to use for my shows last year. Here I am in season three and a new season of banquets is upon me. Still no released v5.00. Even worse, I fear it has become the 800 pound gorilla and is becoming so complex as to require excessive system resources to run. I typically distribute 300-400 copies of my shows every year to students, parents and coaches and very few people have issues running them. I have a feeling the same will not be true for v5.00.

I don't want to minimize the huge effort required to release a product like v5.00 and I certainly appreciate the developers efforts. But as I enter my third season of waiting and my third season of using other applications I can't help but wonder if when delivered, v5.00 will be too little too late.

Very few people have issues running version five betas - we have seen thousands of systems throughout the U.S. on which any version five beta produced show plays perfectly. The "complexity" of the program has absolutely nothing to do with issues which have been discussed. Resources on some systems, especially those in parts of Europe have required that shows be built with careful attention to not stressing the capabilities of 32 meg video cards. In the U.S., the vast majority of computers have been able to run all shows which were created with absolutely no issues and the soon to become a staple operating system, Windows Vista, absolutely requires hardware which is more than capable of running the most demanding PTE slideshows.

Once a show has been converted to DVD, it doesn't matter about these limited resources on some systems because the shows play on any commercial DVD player as well as on computers. The release version, as you are undoubtedly aware, will have both the old and new graphics engine and on systems which have less than desirable graphics environments the show will still play as PTE shows have always played.

There is no other presentation slideshow program available (I have every major presentation slideshow program myself) which I have ever used which offers the high quality, high resolution image capability of PTE. The development has progressed at a very reasonable pace and the developers have been kind enough to let hundreds if not thousands of users use and test the beta products which produce a much more bug-free product than the competition.

Have you actually "tried" the beta versions yourself? Have you looked at the extremely detailed and wonderfully animated creations which Jean-Pierre has demonstrated which run perfectly on "any" computer, even Jean-Pierre's own very video challenged 32 meg RAM system? Your fears are unfounded - version five will be the finest presentation slideshow software available at any price for those who want superior performance. None of the "jerky" movement of the competition in pans - bereft of the multiple bugs and issues which plague some of the most popular slideshow programs. Version 5 of PTE will not be "released" as a finished product while it's obviously still a beta product as some of the competition have done with their latest versions. Calling a product a "release" while the developers are still furiously trying to work out bugs and issues and thus releasing numerous "patches" in a very short period after the release announcement is nothing more than a marketing ploy which is not making a number of users very happy right now. Take heart that version five is very nearly a finished product and take confidence that when it's released it will qualify as a "release" product, not a late beta masquerading as a release product.

Best regards,

Lin

[alrobin]

Two years ago I really needed to incorporate some panning and zooming features so despite my love of PTE I was forced to use another application for my shows.

I would just like to support the comments made by Fred and Lin. From my own experience, v.5 PZR features already work just fine.

I don't mean to belittle your concerns, but I challenge you to find another application which will run on as many pc's in the world as PTE v.4 And, if you really need pan & zoom features, I would hazard a guess that the current v.5 will work just as well (or even better) on the same pc's, for the same type of show, as shows from your "other application" do.

So, if your presentations containing simple pan and zoom are already acceptable to your clients, I wouldn't hesitate to go ahead and provide them with PTE versions of the same shows. (you could always provide a backup alternative on the same CD in another application in the meantime, if you are really concerned - probably not a bad idea, for commercial purposes, anyway, and that way you would have the best of both worlds. )

One last point: v.5 is really more like a 1000 lb gorilla, but creating a few pans and zooms with it is really quite simple - probably just as simple or maybe even more simple than with the software from the competition.

[fuzzy]

My particular problem with version 5 is that I make slide shows that are manually advanced for clients to view their images. V5 beta doesn't permit that, nor will it place the forward/backward/print icons. I also use those.

OK, no problem... just use an old 4.x version, right? OK, the problem with that is that my show is 1200 slides long, and I didn't save any old version of the pte file. And a V5 pte isn't backward compatible to 4.x

So I'm stuck until the new one is out. My faluth for not saving an old pte version, but it's never been an issue until now.

I really like PTE. I also have ProShow Producer and PTE is SO much easier. But let's just say I'm ANXIOULSY awaiting V5 with all features enabled.

[Igor]

We're working so long on v5.00 because it's really difficult task and we want to create high quality software.

Using of DirectX and Pan/Zoom effects in real time required to carefully develop core of the slide show engine.

[ronwil]

Fuzzy, couldn't you in the meantime re-install version 4.48. I am still using it for some of my sequences.

Ron [uK]

[potwnc]

Back in the summer of 05 (yes 2005) I publicly announced the availabilty of a full-length documentary to be available in 06. I thought that was not overly optimistic given what Igor was saying at that time. I hired a narrator, a sound engineer and a graphic design artist - even had them sign transfer-of-copyright agreements!

I'm now also in year 3 of waiting and, like you, I switched to other software... boy was I sorry. I write software for a living and, as Lin says, could not believe the sheer garbage that one company in particular was putting out... I mean people were using all kind of profanities, personal insults and threatening law suits on their support forum! If I wrote software that bad I'd expect to lose my job!

Now I'm back here and waiting again because I have confidence in Igor and his team as well as based on the 5.0 betas I've used. My point is that the technology landscaoe changes and I'm not willing to put out a substandard product and nor should Winsoft be. My customers/audience and collaborators will have to wait with me because, like you, pan/zoom/rotate is essential to what I'm doing.

[alrobin]

Back in the summer of 05 (yes 2005) I publicly announced the availabilty of a full-length documentary to be available in 06. I thought that was not overly optimistic given what Igor was saying at that time. I hired a narrator, a sound engineer and a graphic design artist - even had them sign transfer-of-copyright agreements!

I'm now also in year 3 of waiting and, like you, I switched to other software... boy was I sorry. ..............................

Ray,

Good to have you back here! Sorry that it's partly because of such disappointing circumstances.

By the way, from summer 05 to now is only 1 1/2 years, so the delay isn't quite as long as you indicated!

I suspect that most of the bugs are out of the new PZR features, and any sequences developed now should be compatible with the final release (with only a few adjustments necessary), so if I were you I would go ahead and start preparing the images, sound and graphics now, and add in the features not yet available later on (e.g. comments, nav bar, object actions, sync fine-tuning etc.).

Of course, "once bitten, twice shy", so I can understand your reluctance to do any significant development work before the final release. Best of luck!

[fuzzy]

Fuzzy, couldn't you in the meantime re-install version 4.48. I am still using it for some of my sequences.

Ron [uK]

I think the last one I had was V4.46. Shows made (or updated) in Version 5 aren't backward compatible to earlier versions. I have 1200 slides that are not in numerical sequence, so it would take days to redo the slide show.

I'm stuck.

[LumenLux]

Fuzzy, I have not followed this topic close enough to know if this will help you, but let me tell you of a simple little maneuver I just tried in case it might help you. IF you have your .pte file created in V5 Beta, this might help.

Using PTE V 4.48, I made a show of 3 slides and then "saved as" the V4.48.pte

Using PTE V 5 Beta #8R I made a show of 5 slides and saved as V5Beta8fiveslides.pte

Using Notepad I opened V4.48.pte. Starting from the last of the text file I erased the info for each of the 3 slides listed in the .pte file. Saved this "shell" .pte file.

Using Notepad, I opened V5Beta8fiveslides.pte Starting at the end of the text file, I copied all the 5 slides info.

I again opened V4.48.pte in Notepad. And the end of the text file, I pasted the 5 slides copied from V5.

The last line of the "shell" (prior to pasting slides in) was opt_slidescount=3 I simply changed the 3 to 5. (For the number of slides coming from V5.)

Then using the PTE V4.48 program main window, I opened the V4.48.pte which now contained and ran all the slides which I had previously organized (ordered) in V5.

So at the simplest level, that works. Maybe you could use it as a partial solution so far as to not have to re-order some 1000+ slides.

Good luck.

[lathompson]

I volunteer my time to shoot sports photos for a local high school and I also put together slide shows for the various banquets throughout the year. I have always used PTE. Two years ago I really needed to incorporate some panning and zooming features so despite my love of PTE I was forced to use another application for my shows. I figured it would only be temporary as these types of features were **coming** in a new PTE version. I anxiously kept tabs on the v5.00 development and unfortunately it still was not ready to use for my shows last year. Here I am in season three and a new season of banquets is upon me. Still no released v5.00. Even worse, I fear it has become the 800 pound gorilla and is becoming so complex as to require excessive system resources to run. I typically distribute 300-400 copies of my shows every year to students, parents and coaches and very few people have issues running them. I have a feeling the same will not be true for v5.00.

I don't want to minimize the huge effort required to release a product like v5.00 and I certainly appreciate the developers efforts. But as I enter my third season of waiting and my third season of using other applications I can't help but wonder if when delivered, v5.00 will be too little too late.

I read your message and have to say, I could have written this myself since we seem to share many of the same problems with our production and clients... however, I didn't.

I didn't because it sends a message of disconcern for the author and team that is working hard to put this program out ASAP but with regard for quality and ease of use. I would reserve taking such a postition myself.

It's nice to have betas to work with and it's wonderful that the betas work so well. I appreciate getting acknowledgement when suggestions are made and when feedback is requested to and from the team.

The one thing that I would not have said, if I had been the author that message above, is that final sentence. It is never too little when it comes to effort to produce good software, and I would doubt that it is ever too late. Progress takes time and when it happens, we all find a way to prosper from it.

I am equally frustrated when people tell me to go to xyz software and laugh at me for sticking by PTE. I really don't like waiting either, however there are no other software producers out there that appear to have as much concern for their customers and for that, I can wait until a release is ready. Now if there's one software giant that really needs to get his act together and stop using tape, bailing wire and glue to hold his software together, lets all complain about Billy Boy up there in Redmond, WA. He still hasn't got it right!

larry

[RayC]

Hi Larry,

Very well said, we can understand people wanting thigs right away but that is not the best way to go as we find many pieces of software around like that nowadays.

As for V5 beta along with V4.8 there are many work arounds and V5 as it stands is far supperia

to any other slideshow software on the Market, People only need a little imagination to do whatever they want with it.

All the best Larry Ray