Audio Skipping

[jvplap@charter.net]

After converting my slide presenation to an exe file the audio skips at different times during the presentation. The audio is in an MP3 format. Is this a common problem? How can I fix it?

Thanks, Jason

[alrobin]

Hi, Jason,

Welcome to the Forum!

Yes, it's a common problem, usually caused by not allowing enough time for certain slides to implement their transitions.

Are you synchronizing the show, and if so, are you using the timeline to customize the timing? If so, look on the timeline for tight transition/delay times (indicated by the grey horizontal bars along the timeline), and adjust the times for those slides which are showing when the music skips.

Another possible problem might be image files which are too large, and take too long to load, thereby interfering with the playing of the music. You should keep the images to no larger than around 1024 x 768, compressed to jpeg at about 50% quality level.

There could be other problems related to the music player you are using, but the transition interference is usually the cause. If so, Igor is redesigning the internal player, and this might help in this case.

This common problem will only really be resolved when Igor changes the program to have it over-ride transition incompatibility, and move on to the next transition when a problem occurs.

Hope this helps.

[jvplap@charter.net]

alrobin,

I am using the music synchronizing feature, but I'm un-familiar with the timeline transition feature. I will have to do some playing around with this. If I un-synchronize the music will this disable the timeline feature. I will also check to see what size my photographs are.

thanks for your help, Jason

[alrobin]

Jason,

If you click on "Project Options", check "Synchronize slideshow ...", and then select "Customize Synchronization", you will see the timeline, with two options, "Automatic synch ... " and "Customize synch ... ".

You should also see small shaded numbered rectangles along the bottom of the timeline, just below the grey horizontal lines.

Each rectangle indicates the starting point for the transition to the slide of that number. The grey line indicates the length of the transition. If the transition line runs into the next slide, you should either back it off, advance the following slide, or change the transition length by going out of this dialog box and clicking on "Customize Slide ..." for the slide in question. (someday Igor is going to give us the ability to change this parameter without having to exit the timeline. )

Good luck.

[Igor]

We're closely working now on the new mp3 player which should solve known problem with music playing. And it provides high quality of playing. By the way, it's available smooth sound stopping (which takes 30 or 100 ms.) when you close presentation. And no glitches more, - partially they were caused because of DMA mode is not turned on by default in Win9x/Me. Anyway, as we've tested, this problem will not appears more.

[alrobin]

Igor,

That sounds really promising! We're all looking forward to these improvements.

Jason, I realize I didn't answer your question completely. Yes, if you disable the synchronization, the program will ignore the timeline, and use the default times. To bring the timeline back, simply check the "Synchronize slideshow to music duration" radio button again, under "Project Options".

[jvplap@charter.net]

alrobin,

I finally got back to my project. I first had to figure out how to create an action and droplet in Adobe Photoshop to resize all my pictures. That was the problem, my presentation is smoooooooooth. Thanks for all your help, it looks GREAT!!!!

Jason

[chaiken]

What is the simpliest method of resizing photographs?

[dilemmania]

Hello chaiken,

Easy Thumbnails is a popular freeware utility for creating accurate thumbnail images and scaled-down/up copies from a wide range of popular picture formats. An elegant interface makes it a snap to find your images and select them for processing individually, in groups, or in whole folders, using a simple file selector and built-in image viewer. You can adjust the whole folder of pictures at one time. Use slider controls to rotate images and adjust their contrast, brightness, sharpness and quality, and check out the results with a convenient built-in viewer.

EasyThumbnails Website

enjoy

[think(box)]

Chaiken, also take a look at Irfanview! It's top-quality and it is freeware unless used for profit:

Click here for Irfan's website, then click on "Download"

Irfanview gives you a very handy thumbnail view of collections, double-click to open and resizing options. Best of all, Irfanview also handles batch processing of any number of pictures without "Windozy" clickety-clicking on each and every picture and operation. This is how:

• In File menu click "Batch Conversion/Rename"
  
• Click the checkbox "Use advanced options" in lower right of Batch conversion screen
  
• "Set advanced options" button will light up; now click it
  
• Check the box "Resize", and leave the units button set to "Pixels"
  
• Click in "Width" box and type in 800
  
• Click in "Height" box and enter 600
  
• That size, 800x600, is usually best for shows; use other sizes as required, like 1024x768
  
• OK that screen and in Batch conversion screen select files to process, where to output them, rename etc.
  
• Finally click "Start"
  

Please try both dilemmania's EasyThumbnails suggestion and Irfanview if you have the time and interest, and share your findings in the forum. EasyThumbnails may be the best choice. If so many would like to know

[ccmanz]

And my pick is xnview also Freeware.

I use it for viewing and resizing my images.

It also does some editing. But not the quality of Photoshop.

Photoshop also has a Batch resize in it too.

So there are many programs to look at.

The best one, is the one you become most comfortable with.

cc

[think(box)]

OK chaiken, dilemmania and ccmanz I have tested Easy Thumbnails and xnview and have compared both to Irfanview.

I suggest to anyone making P2E shows that you strongly consider Easy Thumbnails as best choice for resizing photos prior to use in shows. Here is their link:

Click for freeware "Easy Thumbnails" site by Fookes Software, Inc.

I can say that for ease of use, Easy Thumbnails is the best I've ever seen. I would suggest Easy Thumbnails to others as the best tool for resizing one or many pictures. I should mention that Fookes Software, Inc., the manufacturer, gives away Easy Thumbnails and would like to have you buy Easy Imager once you've found out about their software quality. From my testing they do make top-notch software. Here are some highlights of Easy Thumbnails:

• Windows Explorer-like navigation to desired photos ("Files" tab)
  
• Click to see pic (only Easy Imager and Irfanview show ALL pic's as thumbs in a window)
  
• Very easy to use - click "Make" (one) or "Make all" and you're done
  
• Only two "folder tabs" involved - "Files" where you select photo(s) and "Settings" for how to process
  
• Settings tab has "Max Width" and "Max Height" with "Best fit" option - this is what we all need most
  
• JPEG compression quality/file size tradeoff is close to Photoshop quality, yet xnview is slightly closer
  
• Resized photos can be "thumbnail" size, but as we want for P2E they can be 800x600, or 1024x768 (e.g.)
  
• Renaming support is provided for resized pic's - very limited options - Photoshop is best on this
  

Easy Imager ($29.95) is a nice step up in that it not only does what Easy Thumbnails does, but it will also create clickable thumbnail web style albums in various formats, web-style (only) basic slideshows, thumbnail view windows and for the pros, "Contact Sheets" with EXIF image data.

Irfanview (free) and xnview (free) are both very similar to each other, although I prefer Irfanview for its thumbnail view window. Although not hard to use, both can't compare to Easy Thumbnails for photo resizing ease. I should note that although Easy Thumbnails makes thumbnails (if you want), it does not show you a thumbnail window view with all thumbs created.

My thanks go out to all who have contributed suggestions in this topic. I have lots of friends and family who need photo tools, and through the PTE forum I am finding the world's best freeware, shareware and payware to use with the world's best slideware, PTE

[ccmanz]

xnview also has a thumb-nail view.

it is called browser. You can pick the

size of you thumb-nails when you are

looking through your pictures. When you

click on one it will show it in the viewer area.

Dlb Click and it opens it for making changes.

But the main reason I am leaving this post is you said your

family and friends need photo tools. (maybe Freeware)

http://www.gimp.org/

and a little about it.

http://www.gimp.org/the_gimp_about.html

This is a Free Photo editing software.

I have not tried it myself. I have not had time yet.

I was reading about it and It has a lot to offer for Free.

It offers Layers and Cloning.

Something used a lot when working on Pictures.

Just thought you might like to take a look.

cc

[think(box)]

Thanks cc! I missed the "Browse" xnview feature because I thought it was an "Open files" command by its name....

Given the thumbnail browser it looks like xnview and Irfanview are more alike than ever. Have you or anyone else used both enough to believe that one is a better choice? If not, then quoting cc:

The best one, is the one you become most comfortable with.

Since I have both freewares installed now I'll use them and figure this out in time.

I checked out Gimp. Looks interesting, but I didn't try it out because they warn that it crashes systems with ATI Rage Pro. Bingo on my system. Thanks for the tip though.