Igor

Xaver, Yes, if I understood rightly your question. There is a conception of a video track. You create a special "video track" which goes across all slides. Then you put video object(s) on one or several slides and link them with this video track. Audio of video track plays non-stop through all slides. To reveal video picture you need to put video object(s) linked with video track on one or several slides. When video object is linked with video track it works like a "window" to show video picture. You can re-order slides, remove and add slides. It something similar to chroma key. Video object is a chroma key here to reveal global video track. This allows to show video across all slides. Of course, there is a simple mode when you just add a single video object on a slide.

Sorry, we need some time to finish Beta 1.

One more short video demo (10 seconds) from version 7.0: http://www.wnsoft.com/test/Waterfall.exe Video and audio files were not optimized. Just to show capability render video object and it's reflection with 3D transformations. There is a special option to link several video objects which use same source video file to save CPU and video card resources. It allows to show reflection at no cost. Also a creative usage of common source video + crop tool.

Thanks, Dominique! You've raised interesting topic. We had a long discussion in WnSoft on this question today. I didn't reply yet, but I was thinking on this problem for two weeks. The problem in fact that we should carefully think how this change will affect to all combination of related parameters. Also we have plans to add some improvements for this system (curve of path as a spline) in future versions. Please give me more time to think and discuss this question. I'll reply soon.

Done. French language is available in the forum settings. Gerard has helped me to find and install the language pack.

Jan, I just sent you the license key. Please let me know when you receive it. I'm sorry about this delay!

By the way, do you know about the next trick. To remove slide(s) from the Slide list you can drag the slide(s) and then drop back to File list. And slide will disappear. I forget to write about this way during last 5 years.

Thanks, Ralph! Dan, Regrettably it impossible to show video on old Intel video card 845G with 64 MB of video memory with good quality. I'll think what we can do. You might ask why Media Player works fine? The problem in fact that usual player just plays video through special output system - overlay. In PicturesToExe we use Direct 3D mode to show pictures with effects and we have to use another mechnism to process video and integrate video clip onto slide. Many old video cards have some hardware acceleration for simple video playback and suggest nothing for video playback through Direct 3D. Even if write special alternate code (complex) we get poor performance. Another problem in a fact that Intel always developed graphical cards with extremely low performance and old technologies. These cards are always strong headache for me.

Thanks, Dominique! We'll try fix it.

Dan, That video slideshow was created with very earlier version 7.0 of PicturesToExe. We already fixed similar issues on some video cards and improved performance. Please let me know what video card installed in your PC? Try the updated version of this demo show: http://www.wnsoft.com/test/Videoand_and_Pictures_L8.zip

Tom, It's very interesting idea! We'll discuss in WnSoft your suggestion. Please also see my reply here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12892&view=findpost&p=83321

Today I performed two actions to improve a spam protection for the forum. 1. Installed the latest version of the forum engine. 2. Added so called "Challenge Question" for new members to confirm registration. For example, a question like this: Of course, the forum will recognize all variants (as a digit, as word) I will glad to accept new good and simple challenge questions.

Raymond, We apologize for this delay. I just sent again the license key. Please let me know when you receive it.

Raymond, Please place an order and if you didn't receive a license key within one hour, please write here or submit support ticket through our website.

I bring my apologies for this problem. We're solving this situation right now. Peter is right that there are many points where a failure may occurs during delivery. 1) We're exploring every case now to understand where a problem occurs. 2) In two weeks we plan to run a second duplicating registration server to send a copy of license key from our different email address. 3) We will use short product keys since version 7.0 or 7.5 4) When we run new short product keys we will move main key server to RegNow for instant delivery of a license key by email.

Hello Henri, Video output for video clips in progress yet. But we're almost finished. Hello Dominique, Still at least two weeks, sorry.

I know that you're impatiently waiting Mac version of PicturesToExe. I'm sorry that we can't release it in time. My mistake in too early announcement of PicturesToExe for Mac. The work in progress but I really don't know how much time it will take. Maybe one or two years. If you need to switch to Mac, please use Bootcamp to load Windows or install PC emulator on MacOSX to use PicturesToExe. Or please choose another AV software. It will be honest to say that.

I apologize for this problem! I just sent again the email with your license key. Please let me know about result. Thanks.

Lin, That's right. In version 7.0 unsharp mask is a global option for all slides of a project. This choice is related with performance issues. In version 7.5 we hope to add individual unsharp mask options for separate objects.

Lozz, I apologize for this delay! I just sent again the email with the license key and a copy in personal message via the forum. Please let me know about result.

stonemason, Yes. Dave, Please see my comment above: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12810&view=findpost&p=82764 And I'm afraid it will complicate the program. Jean-Cyprien Unsharp mask will be applied at any zoom value in the Objects and animation editor. Moreover you will see unsharp mask in MiniPlayer in the main window of PicturesToExe and even in the Slide list. It's a result of the fact that we can apply unsharp mask on the fly in real time. So it doesn't matter how we display a slide (in Slide list, in MiniPlayer, in the O&A editor, or in EXE file) everywhere we use same high quality rendering (Bicubic interpolation + Unsharp mask). Partially I've replied on this question above. In version 7.0 unsharp mask can be applied for entire screen of all slides. Same value for all project. For individual objects you can adjust Smoother/sharper parameter to reduce unsharp effect. In version 7.5 we will try implement individual unsharp mask for individual objects.

Dominique, It really "Unsharp Mask", not "sharpen" filter. Unsharp Mask in Photoshop CS3 does exactly same processing. For more details please see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsharp_masking Almost for free. We use hardware acceleration for this. However currently in version 7.0 we did only unsharp mask for entire screen. It allowed keep good performance not depending on a number of objects. But we have an idea how to implement individual unsharp masks for particular objects in future versions. Despite this version 7.0 has a control of sharpness/smoothness for separate objects.

Jean-Cyprien, It possible to apply unsharp mask for a AV show with a rich animation. Unsharp mask amount should has lower value than for static pictures to avoid shimmering. However we did much work to vastly reduce shimmering of pictures with Pan/Zoom effects. Image resampling algorithms were significantly reworked in version 7.0 even if you don't use unsharp mask. Currently I don't know other slideshow software who use such image resampling algorithms and unsharp mask in real time.

We've implemented Unsharp Mask to future PicturesToExe 7.0 This feature works with same quality like Adobe Photoshop. Unsharp Mask in PicturesToExe works in real time. This means that we apply this filter on the fly 60 frames per second for your AV show. Why it better to apply unsharp mask in PicturesToExe instead of Photoshop? If you use a graphical editor to apply unsharp mask, you have to resize image to particular size and then apply the sharpen filter. It works well if you display the picture in its original size at same screen resolution. But if your picture is 1920x1200 and display size is 1600x1200? Picture again will be downsampled and it loses its sharpness. In PicturesToExe you put high quality source image. For example 2300x1533. Then the program downsample picture using Bicubic like filter to screen resolution (new for version 7.0) and then it apply unsharp mask. And display this picture on the screen as is without additional distortions. Users of any screens will enjoy watching your picture with unsharp mask as it designed for their screens natively. Watch demo here: http://www.wnsoft.com/test/Unsharp-Mask-PTE-700.zip (20 MB) I've used unsharp mask with amount about 40% and radius 1 pixel. Images came from Canon 350D and reduced to 2300x1533. This ZIP file contains two executable shows - with unsharp mask and without to see difference. Also you can compare two pictures in PSD file which has two layers (one with unsharp and one without). UPDATE: I think this new feature will be a great replacement for so called Original mode used by some users. UPDATE 2: I've used moderate amount value for unsharp mask to keep natural view of picture. You can apply more easy unsharp mask or even much more stronger. Illustration from Wikipedia. Three pictures (Original, with slight unsharp mask and with strong unsharp mask). Unsharping Mask: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsharp_masking

Daniel, One correction - the first beta will arrive not earlier than in two weeks. There will be one or several optimal formats of video files for best performance in executable show (EXE). If video in other format, PicturesToExe can convert video on the fly to optimal format for executable file (EXE). But we will provide a direct support of wide range of different video formats.