Igor

Gary, Thanks, I understood the problem! I think it can be solved easily in the nearest update 7.0.6. I planned this update for current month. The timeline will adjust scrollbar position to show selected slide visible on the screen.

Thanks, I reproduced this problem under Windows 7. However I think that this show is "heavy" for realtime playback. I checked several first slides - each slide contains 18..24 large images at 1920x1080! It is a serious challenge for the video card, memory and CPU. One 1920x1080 image takes 8.2 MB in system memory + same size for video memory + copy in system memory again for video card. 24 images x 8.2 MB x 2 = 384 MB for one slide. PicturesToExe keeps in memory 3 slides. So the program simply can't decode and load all images in time. I recommend optimize images. For example background images have soft blurred picture. I reduced it to 800x531 and then back to 1920x1275 and I almost don't see any difference, because the original image doesn't contain fine details. You can try reduce these images. And probably it possible divide animation to more slide that will greatly reduce video card loading. Under Windows 7 PicturesToExe shares a video card with a graphical user interface (Aero) which also uses DirectX 3D mode. Thus we have less available resources than under Windows XP. P.S. On our side, we will try optimize memory usage in PicturesToExe in future versions. Next version 7.5 is a first step in this direction.

Thanks for good remarks! I'll try improve it. You're right indeed. The final was the most difficult task in this AV.

Please can you post details. How you managed to solve this problem?

I think that I found the best compact camera - Canon Powershot S100. - This is the lightest (198 g.) and thinnest compact camera for professionals on the market. - It gives much sharper picture than other compact cameras. I was very impressed when I compared resulting picture with my existing compact camera Canon IXUS 100IS. - Built-in optical ND8 filter which can be turned on/off by a single click in the menu. - No visible chromatic aberrations. At all. Even Canon 550D with 18-55 has CA problem. - Large ring around lenses to adjust the optical zoom. Like on the DSLR. - RAW + JPEG mode. - HDR mode. - GPS tagging.

Thanks for your feedbacks! Paul, I wish you wonderful trip! Indeed the Lake District is only 25 x 25 miles area, but it much larger inside than it looks outside. For far trips I purchased the better compact camera now - Canon Powershot S100. I'll tell more in a separate topic in the "Equipment and Software" forum.

Journey to the Lake District (2:19) I visited the Lake District (England, Cumbria) in just before the international festival in Cirencester (England) in September of 2010. I spent 6 wonderful days in this amazing location together with my friends - Maureen and Robert Albright. They showed me the most beautiful places in the Lake District and I can say that we were lucky with the weather. I climbed the mountains several times with Robert and I got great pictures. I didn't expect that I can find such stunning beauty in England. Many thanks for Maureen Albright and Robert Albright for their hospitality! Please excuse quality of my camera, I used Canon IXUS 100IS (shame for me as the photographer!) because I can't carry heavy DSLR camera in mountains. Executable file (22 MB) 16:9 version: http://www.wnsoft.com/files/picturestoexe/slideshows/Journey-to-the-Lake-District.exe 4:3 version: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27544810/slideshows/Journey-to-the-Lake-District_4-3.zip YouTube version, 1080p: (But I recommend watch the executable file for the best quality)

Nice views, Eric! I love the Lake District which I visited in 2010.

splitter64, Please install this special version 7.0.6: http://www.wnsoft.com/files/test/log-706-picturestoexe-setup.exe During encoding you will see a Notepad window with test information. Please save this text file and send me (or attach file to your reply). Created MP4 file will have zero size. Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the details! It seems that the program can't mix video and audio streams into final MP4 file. We use Can we send you a special test application? It will help us find exact reason of the problem.

Xaver, You raised a good question. Jean-Cyprien suggested right solution for mask antiliasing. There couldn't not be a separate antialiasing option for a Mask object, because maska can have any shapes. Our edge antialiasing algorithm works only for a rectangular form.

splitter64, We apologize for this problem! Please let me the following information: 1. Free disk space on a system drive where Windows is installed. (Because PicturesToExe stores temp files during encoding in the system temp folder.) 2. Do you see a picture of preview during encoding? 3. What you see on the final screen when the program finishes encoding? Please attach the screenshot. I'll check up system messages in the log. 4. Try to encode a very short project (10 seconds for example). Thanks in advance.

Hello Gary, The main purpose of the video conversion is to optimize playback of video clips in slideshows. Especially for shows in executable files. Optimized video clips require lower CPU usage and provide faster rewinding. Optimized video clips can have larger or smaller file size than original video clip. It depends on a bitrate of source file. For example digital cameras use high values - about 40 mbit per second for 1080p video. Whereas video editors can suggest 15-25 mbit by default. Digital cameras have to record video stream in realtime, they have limited battery and slow hardware to compress video. High bitrate compensates these restrictions. In a software encoder we have much powerful CPU and more time to analyze video stream to more optimally compress video picture. Imagine that you're packing a suitcase for a travel. Quickly drop all items (goods) in a random order? Or put accurately all items according their sizes that take more time. Two ways - quick result but large bag (more bags) or more time and smaller bag. By the way, competing slideshow product also performs automatic optimization of video clips. But as I discovered with worst visual quality than PicturesToExe does. P.S. I'll fix the bug with displaying of file size larger than 2GB. Thanks!

I'm not sure that it's a bug. This may be the natural result of the selected curve (shown in the small preview rectangle).

Thanks, Lin!

Hello Jean-Charles, We have different shadow algorithm than Photoshop. Presets of forms also are different.

Hello Lin, I'm very grateful to you!

PicturesToExe Deluxe 7.0.5 is available now Download: http://www.wnsoft.com/files/picturestoexe/picturestoexe-setup.exe (12 MB) List of changes: * Fixed problem with playback of 8KHz audio track in some video clips. * Fixed bug with appearing of the error message after deleting of Rectangle objects in custom dialog windows (Startup window, Help window, and others).

The parameter EnableAspect=1 is intended for future versions. It works and uses other hidden parameters, but we will add it to the interface in later versions. Please remove this line or set to "0" (zero).

Xaver, Please try the updated version with the fix: http://www.wnsoft.com/files/picturestoexe/picturestoexe-setup.exe

Thanks! I reproduced this problem. We'll try fix it quickly and then I'll publish the updated version.

Xaver, Sorry for late response, I just replied.

Thanks! Please upload the source project files and give me the instruction to reproduce this problem. I'll check up tomorrow.

Hello Peter, Thanks for reporting about this problem! Regrettably I can't reproduce it without step by step instruction. P.S. In version 7.5 we rewrote some parts of code related with this function.

It's a very interesting idea. However we don't recommend use this utility for executable slideshows for the following reasons: 1. It's difficult to reach 2GB memory limit in a slideshow. PicturesToExe keeps in the memory only 3 slides and unload old used slides. 2. Small number of installed 64-bit Windows on PCs of users. If you plan to exceed 2Gb limit and patched EXE file works on your 64-bit PC with Windows 7 x64, it will not work correctly on 32-bit version of Windows. 3. Strange problem with antiviruses. Avira antivirus said that patched EXE file has a virus and but no problem with the original EXE file. Although the only difference is 4 bytes in the EXE file. Probably this utility is good for 3D games. Maybe even it can be used to patch the main program of PicturesToExe.exe because the editor can utilize more memory than a slideshow. But definitely it's only for personal use.