Help with new tech process and equipment?

[Snowbound]

In the process of converting about 30 old slideshows to digital(lots of work)from my travels around the world.

Still have all the old tech equipment...two slide projectors mounted on a rack, Sharp RD6888AV recorder/playboack tape deck, dissolve unit, etc. I have discovered after converting one slideshow that the new technology does not offer the same brilliance as showing on the big screen with two projectors. Two light sources. Of course I viewed the show after conversion to DVD and played back on an HDTV. Do folks now days in fact do two projector slide shows to music using two digital projectors? As you can tell I am just getting back into this after being out of the loop for a LONG time. Could you share with me what type of equipment/software folks are using if this two projector method is being used? The one slideshow I have converted was put together with the 3rd image as the main concept. 3rd image being the combination of an image from projector one and projector two as they blend and dissolve on and off the big screen. Without two powerful light sources the same effect is not achieved doing the slideshow on your computer screen with only one light source. Appreciate any help/guidance anyone might offer...thanks so much.

[Davidh12]

old timer

Welcome to the world of digital slide shows. Just started to go through the same process myself last year. I have been to a number of A/V events and have never seen a show with two video projectors. All the dissolves are done with the software (PTE) In fact you will discovery it does change the way you make a show (for the better I think) especially if you use the animation, pan, zoom effects of PTE 5. The third image is still there, what is a bit trickier I found was where you have faded up projector B and faded it straight out again. However this can be done now within 'Objects and Animation'. The other way creative third images are made is within software called photoshop (or the cheaper version Photoshop Elements) where maybe 3 or 4 slides are created and faded one after the other in PTE. I don't have a projector of my own but I know not all projectors have the same light output that is important to check. My experience has been that those projectors I have seen are better at putting an image on the screen than a slide projector especially if the room is not dark. Enjoy the process I can assure you you will not go back to the old method once you get into the new. The biggest problem is taking the time to scan in the slides and I have been disappointed at some of the results or perhaps I have, or the process is, less forgiving of the image.

David

[Johnwnjr]

I am surprised no one has responded to you. There are a lot of old timers on this Forum! I am one of them but have gone digital for sometime. A Third Image can be produced especially well using PTE 5.1 and it sounds as though you need to process each slide before you put it into a digital/video show. By processing each slide, I am refering partly to the brightness query that you mention. Presumably you scan your slides into a computer, then you need to remove any dust. Next go to 'levels' in whatever software you are using and if necessary adjust these by moving the sliders to each edge of the graph. This may brighten your slide in itself but you can then adjust in various ways, through the software, - eg: contrast/brightness, etc., These controls will only need a touch, and if you go too far, noticeable on the preview, you can reset back again. Finally go to Filter - Unsharp Mask and by using from about 50 to 100 and 1.5 pixels just 'see' the image sharpen very slightly. I am sure with this you will see your image brighter. Always keep your original slide in a separate folder so you can go back to it and use a copy to play about with. At this stage of examining each slide it is a good time to resize to 1024 x 768 or whatever your projector works at. Hope this helps a little. Others may have more to add, I hope!

John

[fh1805]

Hi Old Timer,

Like David, I have gone through the process of converting slide-tape sequences to digital. I used a Nikon Coolscan to do the slide scans and configured the Digital ICE software that came with it to do the scratch and dust removal. I then took each image through Photoshop Elements and found that using Enhance...Auto Contrast followed by Enhance...Auto Sharpen produced a result that was perfectly acceptable in about 95% of cases. The remaining 5% had to be given special treatment to deal with their failings. The resize operation mentioned by John, I then did using File...Process Multiple Files... in Photoshop Elements. Modern digital projectors are designed to give good illumination in an undarkened room. If you use them in a well-blacked-out room then the brightness of the projected images is quite outstanding.

Bear in mind that conversion of your digital sequence to DVD for playback via a TV system will always produce lower quality of image when compared to direct playback or preview on the computer screen. This is because of the different levels of image resolutions and the fact that PTE v5 uses the capabilities of the computers graphics card or chipset to maximise the detail in the computer screen images. I don't fully understand the technicalities of this aspect of PTE because I have no interest in the DVD medium. There have been several threads that have discussed this point.

If you haven't already done so, I would recommend that you download and study the PTE v5 User Guide. It will speed you along the PTE learning curve. You'll find the relevant forum thread here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7202

[jfa]

Welcome to the world of PTE A-Vs and the user forum old timer, you will find lots of friendly help and advice here.

This forum is a great source for advice, guidance and ideas. The sense of community helps make working with PTE more creative and pleasurable.

In the process of converting about 30 old slideshows to digital(lots of work)from my travels around the world.

I have been down this long and sleepless path and the one life-saving tip I used was to get my slides commercially scanned. The result was close to what I could achieve in quality, (the odd one I then did myself if I wasn't happy with the commercial scan), and saved me literally weeks in time.

Still have all the old tech equipment...two slide projectors mounted on a rack, Sharp RD6888AV recorder/playboack tape deck, dissolve unit, etc.

Me too, nobody wants to buy it these days.

I have discovered after converting one slideshow that the new technology does not offer the same brilliance as showing on the big screen with two projectors. Two light sources. Of course I viewed the show after conversion to DVD and played back on an HDTV.

Even with a HDTV the computer screen and a .exe file will look better than a DVD.

Our Camera Club compared a PTE created .exe file run from the PC through a BENQ SP830 digital projector with the same show on our old Kodak carousel 1050 projectors on the same screen. The general opinion was the digital show was brighter, better saturated colour and a little sharper, all in all everyone was happy with the digital result.

Have a look at this discussion re- converting analogue 2/3 projector shows to digital.

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....842&hl=scan

[Barry Beckham]

Old Timer

You can do all you will ever need with PicturesToExe 5 and an image editor like Elements or Photoshop if you can run to it. You can create third images miles better than a twin projector setup, I have done both for years and would not go back to film and projectors even if you bought them for me.

However, with the greatest respect to other forum members who offer great advice, you are taking on quite a job here. Scanning images from 30 traditional slide shows and getting them up to a reasonable standard is going to take you some considerable time. How many images per show 40-50 perhaps. Thats 1500 images and that will take you:-

1. A heap of time, to scan, adjust, clone, colour balance, but I appreciate some images cannot easily be recreated and that will be the only alternative.

2. You will experience a very steep learning curve to master all you need to get your head around. Image editing, scanning and PTE5

The problem is that these days that scans of 35mm slides generally don't stand up (quality wise) very well to modern digital images unless you have a very good film scanner. The acceptability of the scanning results are going to be in the eye of the beholder, but if it were me and I wanted to keep using those old slide shows I would stay with the old kit while slowly switching over to digital output using new images.

If not, then your first priority is to master what FH says and adjust your scaned images to bring back the quality you want. Dust is going to be a big issue and applying the auto tools for this is likely to soften your images. Even with those tools you will have a lot of spotting to do, but that will depend on how fussy you are. Most AV workers are very fussy about their images.

I suppose you need to try one sequence as you suggest and see if that produces results that you are happy to live with, but don't underestimate the task your taking on.

Good luck

[Snowbound]

Thanks for all the input. Yes, I am well aware of the time consuming nature of the beast. Just spent about 40 hours scanning for one show...and still have to do all the programming. Fortunately I am retired but even then I still have a life.

Perhaps I did not explain myself adequately on some of my questions...let me try again. Noted some of you said that the pics2exe show was "much" better than the old two projector, audio, dissolve unit set up. I guess I can not grasp that in my minds eye yet. I can understand that if you had two digital projectors doing the show it would be comparable. But..without two projectors it seems to me it could not be as good. Reason: Slide A and slide B in two projectors. slide A does a 10sec dissolve onto the screen, after 5 secs slide B starts a 10 sec dissolve onto the screen, at 15secs both are full power on screen and after 5 sec on screen full slide A starts a 10sec dissolve off the screen. My point is that from 15 secs to 20 secs slide A and B are both 100% power on the screen at the same time from two 1500 watt projectors(example) you are really throwing 3000 watts of light at the screen. Doing this on your PC screen is "not" the same since there is only one light source and lets assume it is 1500 watts. You can never give each slide individually the same amount of light as the individual projectors...am I getting wrapped around the axle here...anyone see what I am saying??

Guess what I was asking was...in order to accomplish the above..assuming it is correct? one needs to get two digital projectors?

Thanks again...appreciate your help...thoughts.

[Barry Beckham]

Old Timer

No, you are completely off track here. Have you not seen any slide shows made with PTE yet. You do not need two projectors and you can't dim PC projectors anyway. They are not like a film projector.

We create all the effects you used to get with two projectors with our image editing software.

Download and run some of the slide shows that you will find on this site. There are plently of links in the other forum from various members.

[Davidh12]

For example take a Look at bbdigital's show top of the list at the moment ('new slide show') on the show section of this forum for a good use of third image creativity and various degrees of brightness of image. The effects including brightness are done as has been said in the image software. If what your saying is that you want an image to appear on screen as 3000 watts (don't think it's measured liked that but using your example) then the image changing brightness as projector A fades,

you need a 3000 watt video projector and dull the other image down to comparable brightness of 1500 watts in the software.

That's not really the way you would think digitally but hope it helps you to make the paradigm shift (which I have found is a different way of thinking AV) from slide projector AV to digital.

Or maybe, sorry I still haven't understood what you mean.

David

[Johnwnjr]

Quite right! I too can recommend seeing the New Slide Show "Another Age" by bbdigital. I believe that it will answer some of your queries. It is easy to download from Barry's entry under New Slide Show. Digital projectors tend to be brighter than slide projectors and are not necessarily related to watts of output. Some are in fact too bright, as are the ones intended for daylight viewing. With regard to scanning in dozens of slides, it does take time, and I agree that it is probably best to do one or two short shows to begin with and see how you get on, and consider still using your two projectors etc., for others. I scan my old ones in as people ask me to show them, as long as they give me enough notice! But once you have used digital, you appreaciate many advantages, including less equipment to carry to shows.

John

[Snowbound]

Thanks all...unfortunately..right now, well really for awhile now I have been unable to download "some" things. I tried to download some of the slideshows from dbdigital site and NOPE...also tried to download a trial version of PTE..NOPE... I had this problem awhile back while trying to download a bios update from ASUS tried5 different sites available worldwide..NOPE.

Think my IE6 is crapped up somehow, have been trying to figure it out for days now. Anyone ever have a problem like this??

I get the, "The page cannot be displayed" with notes at the bottom saying, "Cannot find server or DNS Error, Internet Explorer." Running W2K.

[fh1805]

Old Timer,

How long is it since you cleared out your Internet cache? It is just possible that these error conditions are held in cache and that your system is using those copies rather than going back to the actual websites. I would recommend clearing your cache at least once a week. I cannot remember exactly how to do it in IE6 but it will be something like Options...Intenet Options...Delete Temporary Files.

[JPD]

I viewed the show after conversion to DVD and played back on an HDTV.

A good method to have a better result is to have a graphic card with a HDMI output and connect it directly at your HDTV, so there will not have any default between the files and the result, only those of the scan.

[Snowbound]

For bbdigital ....I finally have my computer problem fixed and downloaded and watched your show "Another Age."

Holy cow and WOW....I am in awe at just how powerful and magnificent that show is. Haven't checked out any others but believe me I get the picture(pun intended). You said steep learning curve...OH YEAH...can see that now. May not live long enough to accomplish the task I have set out for myself. Have to start somewhere so plan to comletely digest anything and everything available on your site, tutorials etc. You are the man. I can see now that two projectors banging out "straight" slides cannot in any way shape of form compare to all the digital manipulations possible once images are in digital form. Hope there's enough room left inside my brain to let enough in to master this new process.

Again, thanks for your comments, slideshows, contributions to photography, etc etc..