Will Slideshow produced on WinXP run on imac

[mightec]

I am producing a slideshow using PTE 5.1 on a Windows XP based machine, will someone be able to run the .exe file on an imac machine?

[Carol Steele]

Only if they have Windows emulation software on their Mac.

[mightec]

Hi Carol

Thanks for your reply. Silly question really, and I knew the answer, what I want to do is produce a DVD slideshow in PTE from my windows based computer. I assume the DVD will play in an Apple computer?

[Ken Cox]

Mike

when you rent a dvd it does not say whether it can be played in a computor, so unless you have some unique authoring program it should play fine

that is as long as the MAC has a dvd playing software installed

i took a dvd to a business one day and even tho' they had WMP installed they did not have the required codecs installed

ken

[LumenLux]

Mike, I have experienced no problems with XP-produced DVD's playing on Apple machines. However I prefer not having to mail a DVD to distant viewers. Recently I made a presentation I wanted to make available on our family blog site. To accommodate family members using the Mac's, I decided to use WnSoft Video Builder to make an .avi file and post it along with the .exe version. I was newly impressed how good the .avi version is now. However, the .exe file is 37 megs, vs. 217 for the .avi.

[Henri.R]

As far as I can see exe files can run on a iMac with a Intel processor. You don't need an emulation because you can start up with Apple's free Boot Camp program so the Mac will be a Windows machine. You even don't have to start up again by using the commercial program Parallels(aprox. 70 euro); in that case you can switch from Mac OS10 Tiger or the new Leopard to Windows XP or Vista without restarting the machine.

And yes, of course you need the codecs for your exe files, as always (and the authorisation for your XP or Vista).

gr.

Henri.

[mandarinfish]

Just a couple of notes to add.. Bootcamp now only comes with Leopard, and Windows is not included. If you want to go that route, you'll need to install Bootcamp and then purchase a Windows license and install that. That said, it works very well for exe slideshows and is my preferred method of running them. Bootcamp will no longer work with Tiger now that the beta has expired. Also, even if you install Leopard, you must have an Intel processor based Mac for Bootcamp/Windows to work.

I have also used PicturesToExe slideshows with Parallels. This option does not work very well for PicturesToExe 5.0 and later. The transitions are really not smooth; they look as though the framerate is about 7 frames per second, if that. When built with 4.48, they run and look fine. I tried this with a beta of VMWare Fusion and found the same thing. 5.0 and later don't play anywhere near as smoothly as 4.48.

DVDs created with Videobuilder work fine on my Mac.

One exciting option I found recently was to use my DVI out connector on my Macbook Pro with an HDMI adapter, and connect to a High Def TV. I booted Windows using Bootcamp, and played my slideshow to friends on New Years Eve (yes, I bored them silly! ) on a 56" plasma screen. It really looked gorgeous. I can't wait until Videobuilder has support for blu-ray, or even AVCHD. I can use Nero to create an AVCHD disk from my PicturesToExe avi file, but have not tried that in a blu-ray player yet.

Linda

Edit to correct: I meant to say that Bootcamp will no longer install with Tiger since the beta expired. It will continue to work, and that's how I'm running it now.

Also, the beta of Fusion that I used supported DirectX 8. It may be that the current version of Fusion with support for DirectX 9 will run better. I'll try it when I get my new Mac Pro.