Igor

Maybe this info can be useful. Today I've experimented with PocketPC on Windows Mobile 2003. It can smoothly play 320x240 video with 30 frames per second. 1) I've choosed "DVD-Video disc" option then clicked "Create custom AVI file" and modified size to 320 for width and 240 for height and 30 frames. 2) "Create AVI" button. 3) There is Movie Maker program in Windows XP (or Windows Me, too) . It allows to import AVI file and then add it to the project. Then "Save video" button. 4) And in 10 seconds I've received 530 Kb of .wmv video file. It contains my "Per aspera ad astra" slide-show (1-minute, 320x240, 15 frames, Medium quality of video compression). It played fine on PocketPC (especially in landscape layout). 1 minute video 320x240 with 30 frames and high quality will take 1,5 Mb. So it's a very quickly and simple to make and play slide-shows on PocketPC with Windows Mobile 2003 (and maybe on previous PocketPC 2002). 30 frames give smooth playback of transition effects. By the way, virtual AVI video output in PicturesToExe allows to produce video with any size and FPS. For any future video formats.

I thought about this moment many times, but personally I don't love message which will ask about necessary monitor. Almost always probably it better to run slide-show on the main monitor, but when it's necessary to show it on a LCD projector it can be enough to assign second video output output (projector) as main monitor, or use special utility (thanks to your advice, Shooter!).

Please suggest your 3-5 the most expected features in v4.40 of PicturesToExe. We've started work on this version. I'll add all suggestions to my todo list. Thanks.

Hello! Please don't worry! I just sent you email and we'll solve this problem.

Please explain me in more details. You can show next or previous slides using arrows keys. Home key to show first slide, Pause/Break key to Pause show.

There is a small technical problem to realize it in Preview mode. Curent work of Preview gives maximally possible fast work of Preview exactly as in EXE file. By the way, you can press Ctrl+F9. It creates an EXE file (as "Create" button) and then automatically runs it. It should helps in this case!

Yes, I plan to add this feature with improved Navigation bar in v4.40!

I know that almost all DVD players in Russia (I consider that absolutely all) can play DVD discs in NTSC standart, because there are many films in the 1st zone which are NTSC only. But there is another problem - for NTSC format TV should show 30(60 Hz) frames, PAL requires 25 (50 Hz) frames. At my home I could play DVD discs on TV only when I've connected DVD player to TV via SCART connection and choosed "sRGB" format of video signal in the menu of DVD player. However all modern DVD player (at least, made during last years) can transcode (and do it by default) NTSC video and show it in PAL format. But as I've seen on my DVD player, it works bad - motions look are twitched (because it seems that DVD just skips 5 frames to adapt 30-frames of NTSC to 25 of PAL). Because of this, I use another above described way. As I know almost all European countries also use PAL standart. NTSC is mainly used in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, etc. If it possible, use usual EXE files which plays fine in any country Or at least, prepare DVD with two variants: for NTSC and for PAL.

Brian, interesting info! I also read the long list of programs which don't work partially or at all with SP2. Microsoft also added some important and necessary changes to this SP2. I hope no problems with PicturesToExe under SP2. We have tested slide-shows and they work fine and don't require any reworking. The main program of PicturesToExe also works now even on Athlon 64-bit with new NX protection technology.

I just uploaded updated build of v4.30 (23.08.2004) which fixes the problem with running of PicturesToExe under PCs with AMD Athlon 64-bit CPU on Windows XP with installed Service Pack 2. This problem happened only with PicturesToExe (main program), not with .exe files of slide-shows. We've updated only registration mechanism which protects PicturesToExe, no another changes. Please download this updated v4.30: http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/apr.zip p.s. owners of PCs with Athlon 64 with Windows XP, please leave here your responses, I'd grateful to you for testing of the updated version.

It's possible not officially right now: Open apr.ini file, find string: GfxEditorPath= and specify path to any graphical editor. p.s. I'll reply some later on next messages.

Much more easy solution than I can expect! Thanks that you've found it. I'll note this moment for possible future cases when sound doesn't work.

Thanks for all you responses! I feel necessity to confirm that v4.30 became possible only with your help!

Thanks for interesting ideas! These very simple features can be added the next version.

Try again, please. The URL is absolutely correct.

Thank you! I just sent you email with request about additional testing.

Dear friends! I'm very glad to introduce PicturesToExe v4.30! Only with your help and support it became possible. Thank you very much! New version has new interface: thumbnails view of File panel and Slide list. Full-screen light table for easy organizing of slides in your slide-show (press F4 hotkey) or adding new slides (F3 key). Visual drag-n-drop and standard multi-select in Slide list and File panel. Waveform feature will help to synchronize show of slides to music. Vastly improved smoothness of Fade effect and Push/Slide effect especially on old PCs. Ability to rotate pictures (lossless method). Please read the full list of many new features below: How to download: http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/apr.zip (1.4 Mb) What's new in v4.30: + File panel and Slide list now can be displayed as thumbnails or in its classical view (table) (to switch between these views press Ctrl+1 and Ctrl+2 (for File panel or Slide list accordingly), or via small "V" buttons). + There are available second layout style (Slide list in full width of the window). And third layout when Slide list shown vertically in full height of the main window. Press Ctrl+F1 and Ctrl+F2 and Ctrl+F3 to switch between classical and two new layouts. Or visit Main menu | Options. + Main features of thumbnails view of File panel or Slide list: > Easily resizeable items in real-time by trackbar or Ctrl+mouse wheel; > Ability to display pictures without text captions (Shift+1, Shift+2); > Resize items by moving new splitter between Slide list and Preview area. + Light table (on full screen). This mode allows to concentrate on adding of new pictures or re-arranging of slides. Press "F" buttons or F3 key to see light table for File panel or F4 key for light table of Slide list. + Multi-select in file panel and Slide list. With mouse, or with Shift, or with Ctrl keys. Now it works as in Windows Explorer. + Visual drag-and-drop. Dragged items looks semi-transparent as in Windows XP. And it works in any Windows! + Actions with with several selected slides or files. You can easily delete, shift, re-arrange and copy any count of items at a time. + Improved transition effects: > Fade effect works in two times (i.e. on 100%) more fast and smooth. So now Fade effect shows smoothly even on old PC with Pentium 233-400 Mhz; > Vastly improved Push and Slide effects. It should works more smooth now. + Waveform feature in "Customize synchronization" window. Set the cursor to range of necessary music track on the time-line and then click "Waveform" button or press Ctrl+W. This feature may help you to exactly assign transition points to necessary moments in music. + Now you can rename files in the File panel or in the Slide list. PicturesToExe will automatically update path of added slide which use renamed picture. + You can rotate pictures (Ctrl+F). It's a lossless rotation and it provides exactly original quality. Open popup menu in the File panel or Slide list to rotate picture(s). + Also portrait JPEG pictures with EXIF (shooted by digital cameras which write orientation of a photography) will be shown rotated automatically. + It's possible now to choose folder where to store your templates. Open "Manage templates" window (Ctrl+E), set new folder and click "OK" button. + Added advanced popup menu for the File panel (by right mouse click) as in Windows Explorer. This advanced menu allows to perform standard actions: copy, paste, delete file(s) and etc. It also works for several selected files, too. + New style of work of the mouse wheel (so-called X Mouse) in the main window. (But you can turn this mode off. Visit the Main menu | Options | Advanced options) + Added "Show transition effect to desktop after last slide" option (see "Screen" tab). + It's possible to add your own copyright logo to all slides. The best visual results can be reached using of 32-bit .bmp images with alpha channel or with transparent GIF images. (See Project options | Advanced tab). + Improved music player: > Transition effect shown in the moment between two music tracks will not jerk more. > Really random playback when this mode is choosed. Always new track from playlist. > Preparing of slides with sounds works a little bit faster. + Another improvements in the "Customize synchronization" window: > Right mouse button click to show popup menu. > To start full-screen preview from first slide, click "Preview" button when there is no selected transition point. > The window can be resized; > Transition point to the last slide is shown in more gray color; > Mouse wheel works for scrolling of the time-line now; > To scale time-line you need to use mouse wheel with pressed Ctrl now. + You can go to a next or to a previous slide keeping Pause mode in the synchronized slide-shows. + You can see full screen preview of a picture by pressing of "Space" button. It especially can be useful in full screen mode of thumbnails view (light table). + It's possible to move selected slides to the end of the list (Ctrl+End) or to the top of the list (Ctrl+Home). Or see popup menu. + You can open for editing current picture by Ctrl+W hotkey. + PicturesToExe will automatically update thumbnails and preview of pictures which you modified in graphical editor. + Improved "Welcome screen" which appears after installation of PTE. It helps to choose necessary view of PicturesToExe. + Added "Disable F1 key" option (Project options | Advanced tab). * Various minor improvements. * Fixed several minor bugs. p.s. I've added two changes to the final release after beta #14. It shows file size of picture to the selected slide in the status bar. And using "Show transition effect to desktop after last slide" option in Preview mode may again blinks one time. I've returned previous variant to prevent slow work of effects in Preview mode with this option.

It's a very strange problem. So this time "16 Bit MS-DOS Subsystem" message doesn't appears when you run our test example of slide-show. If show stops, are you hear music? What is your CPU, sound card, and exact version of Windows (with SP1 or SP2). Did you install sounds drivers from CD disc to your sound card? How another software works with music on your PC? (Media Player, etc) Please try our another example of slide-show: http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/starwars.zip (1,2 MB) Please try to install newest v4.30 beta #14: www.wnsoft.com/apr/apr_beta.zip If problem still exists. Please make the next test: 1) Create new project. Add several JPEG pictures (150-500 KB). Try to run Preview, if OK then create and run .exe file. 2) If it works, please add MP3 music file. And then again try with Preview and after this with EXE file. 3) If all works, try with synchronized show.

Thank you, Al! I'll improve this thing in the next version.

1) When first slide appears and slide-show lock ups, is the music playing and can you press Esc button to quit? 2) Is you slide-show synchronized to music? 3) Have those PCs with Windows 98 sound cards? 4) What kind of music you've added to the slide-show: MP3 or WMA? 5) Please try our test examples of slide-shows: http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/show/Per_aspera_ad_astra.zip (1,5 MB) http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/starwars.zip (1,2 MB) And let me know how they will work.

I'm sorry about some cases with AVI video output when it doesn't work! We plan to vastly rework AVI video output function soon to prevent any potential problems. It will be done in a month or two. I still couldn't reproduce any bugs with Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2 and 3 on various PCs and this reason why it's not fixed yet. But we'll carefully check up all code and try fix these problems.

1) What is your PC and version of Windows? 2) Please check up PC with antivirus and hard discs with Scandisk to be sure that all is OK with these moments. 3) How another programs works on your PC? 4) Did you run EXE file of slide-show from Windows Explorer? Maybe you run it from some old console file manager? (As I can suppose from "16 Bit MS-DOS Subsystem" message.) 5) If Preview works OK, please try to open your project in PicturesToExe and then press Ctrl+F9. PTE will produce slide-show and run produced EXE file. If it works, then EXE files of slide-shows works without problem on your PC. 6) Please try our example of slide-show: http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/show/Per_aspera_ad_astra.zip (1,5 Mb)

Please let me know exacty version of PicturesToExe. (If v4.30 beta, please specify number of beta) I guess that you use mode of personalized music for slides. If music always stops on same slide, please check up his personal settings: open "Music tab" in this "Customize slide" window. If you have "Play new background music file" option turned on and playlist is empty the music will be stopped. If it possible please send me .pte project file of your slide-show. I've sent you my email address (in the message).

Thank you, Harold. I've added your suggestion to my todo list and it will be realized in the next version. I'll let you know about this.

Harold, I like this improvement, too, but it requires to add various code and test it. There are many moments (if same music file was modified, etc). I wouldn't add this function before final release.