length of sound track in 5.5

[JRR]

I just downloaded 5.5 and started exploring it a little (A very little)

I opened an existing show (done in 4.48) but noticed the music was 2 seconds shorter on the TIMELINE in 5.5, but 5.5 shows the duration correctly on PROJECT OPTIONS>MUSIC

So I opened the same show in 5.1 and the music length was still OK

Music track is an mp3 file.

Anyone else hit this ?

Thx

(I normally use 4.48 as it meets my needs but Hawk suggested I try 5.5 with the hardware accelerator turned off PROJECT OPTIONS>SCREEN to be bale to use all the great new features)

[fh1805]

Jim,

I've not noticed this on any of my older sequences but I'll check some out.

What I have seen is that the time given on Project Options...Music tab and the time shown below the mini-player image can be very different. I get the impression that the time below the mini-player image is the total time of the slide durations. If the soundtrack is longer, the two don't agree until you use the "Timed Points" option to set the end of the last slide to the end of the music.

Is it worth while you posting the offending mp3 so that others can check it out on their systems and with their releases of PTE?

[Lin Evans]

Look in Projects Options Main Tab and be certain that you don't have Auto Spread Slides along Music checked. When that is checked, the timeline and actual play time will not coincide. Auto Spread Slides along Music "will" give you coordinated last slide and music end on your executable but not on the the mini-player on the timeline nor will the waveform line up properly. Instead click on the "Timed Points" tab on the timeline then on Arrange All Points and each slide will then be alloted equal time along the time line and the music "should" show the proper time.

This may or may not be the issue, but it's something I only learned about a couple days ago. It was quite perplexing to see the waveform and music not properly represented but as Igor explained, it's not possible to do this for technical reasons and the "Auto Spread Slides along Music" feature may be removed in future versions because it's functionally obsolete now having been replaced with "Arrange All Points."

Best regards,

Lin

I just downloaded 5.5 and started exploring it a little (A very little)

I opened an existing show (done in 4.48) but noticed the music was 2 seconds shorter on the TIMELINE in 5.5, but 5.5 shows the duration correctly on PROJECT OPTIONS>MUSIC

So I opened the same show in 5.1 and the music length was still OK

Music track is an mp3 file.

Anyone else hit this ?

Thx

(I normally use 4.48 as it meets my needs but Hawk suggested I try 5.5 with the hardware accelerator turned off PROJECT OPTIONS>SCREEN to be bale to use all the great new features)

[JRR]

Hi Lin

Don't think that is the case here

see attached screen print

[fh1805]

Jim,

I think we are seeing a minor bug in v5.5. I've just loaded a couple of my "v4.47-build" sequences into v5.5 and noted the following:

On the Project Options...Music tab the music duration showed as 09:59 and 07:08 respectively. However the duration as shown by the total time at the right-hand side of the mini-player slider showed as 09:56 and 07:06 respectively.

When I checked the duration assigned to the last slide it showed as 0 seconds and 0 milliseconds in each case.

When I opened the same pte project files under v4.47 the durations of the last slides are: 2s-907ms and 2s-568ms respectively.

I think this behaviour must have come in when Igor added the Timed Points function of "Set End of Last Slide to End of Music". It seems as though v5.5 isn't picking up the actual duration of the last image when the project file was previously built under v4.4x.

Jim, provided that you never want to take the pte project back into v4.4x, you can circumvent this particular problem yourself by opening the project in v5.5, going into the Timeline, clicking on "Timed Points" and selecting "Set End of Last Slide at End of Music". After you have saved the project under v5.5 you will not be able to open that project in v4.4x ever again. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

[JRR]

Jim,

provided that you never want to take the pte project back into v4.4x, you can circumvent this particular problem yourself by opening the project in v5.5, going into the Timeline, clicking on "Timed Points" and selecting "Set End of Last Slide at End of Music". After you have saved the project under v5.5 you will not be able to open that project in v4.4x ever again. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

Thanks Peter

Not sure I want to that with existing shows. For one thing that would throw off the synchronization at the end of the show. It seems the synching is fine up until that last two seconds.

When (if ) I switch to 5.5, I'll have to add two seconds to my sound track I guess ???

Maybe Igor will find a solution for it

[fh1805]

Jim,

You're missing the point. The solution has already been provided in v5.5 via the "Set End of Last Slide at End of Music" feature of the "Timed Points" button in the Timeline view. If you take one of your "problem" v4 sequences into v5.5 and then go into the Timeline, click on "Timed Points" and then select "Set End of Last Slide at End of Music" this will adjust the duration of the last slide (and only of the last slide) so that it ends when the soundtrack ends. No other synch points will be altered in any way.

You can check this out without damaging your v4 sequence provided you take one precaution. PTE v5.5 now has a feature to do "auto-save". To fully protect your v4 sequence while it is open in v5.5 I strongly recommend you turn off the auto-save. To turn off auto-save do "View"..."Advanced Options"..."Auto Save Project" and untick the box. All you have to do is NOT save the project under v5.5 - just play with it and then close without saving.

Remember to turn it back on once you have opened a "real" v5 sequence - if you want to have the auto-save feature working for you.

The "bug" is that, when a v4 project file is opened in v5.5, PTE doesn't seem to assign a duration to the final image: and so the user sees what appears to be a difference between the total duration of all the images and the duration of the soundtrack file.

[JRR]

Thanks Peter:

Thanks for the tip re the auto-save (The default seems to be set to "off" so I was OK)

I understand now what you are saying. I had expected from what you were saying that the last slide to move back to 5:48 time point, but the end of the music marker moved to the (proper) 5:50.

So yes, doing that extra little step and all appears OK.

I will have to experiment more as time permits

Thanks again