harbrimar

My apologies if you read this under 'Speakers for projection' but I now realise that tagging a question on the end of a 2 year old thread is probably not a good idea! Our photo club had our speakers and stands stolen over the Christmas period and we are looking to replace as soon as possible. Our venue is in a church hall (size about 6m x 15m) and we can at a push sit up to 60 people but generally it is about half that. The sound equipment needs to be portable as other clubs use the venue. I now know from reading some of the posts on the forum that the speakers we had; a pair of Alto iPA 200/400w speakers were vastly oversized/powered for our needs. We had complaints about their weight too as they were about 12 kilos each. We use a sound system as a PA for Judges and of course for showing AV sequences. Our old speakers were connected to a laptop (Dell XPS L702X) via an Alto ZMX 862 Input mixer. We have a Canon SX80 MarkII projector. Visiting Judges generally use our radio mic but we have a plug in mic too. At our last meeting, we borrowed a club member’s Bose Compact L1 system which worked very well and did not need more than half volume. Suggestions for replacement so far are M-Audio BX5, M-Audio BX8, Alto TX10. Some members have suggested going down the passive speaker route but that means we would have to buy an amp. Not sure whether there is any advantage. Can anyone please suggest other speakers or indeed continue to recommend those on mentioned on this thread. Need to bear in mind we have to be able to connect a mic into the system and not too heavy. The speakers would need to be placed on stands and we have a budget of around £300. Regards Brian

I originally thought this was the best place for my query but now realise that it will probably be overlooked so I have created a new thread. Sorry!

Thanks Dave, that works. I also tried removing the slide and then dragged it back in again using the original file name and that also worked; filename now in bold and shown in Slides view. Just some sort of glitch I suppose. One other question, I notice that when animating a slide only the master image is highlighted in bold and none of the filenames of other images used in the animation are highlighted. Is this normal? If it is, personally I would have thought is useful to have all of the filenames of images you have used to be highlighted in bold. Thanks for your help Brian

As I understand it, slides used in your project are indicated by the file name highlighted in bold text. Two of my slides do not have this. Neither are their file names displayed in the Timeline or Slides view? In the table view of the slide list the two files without names also do not have file size shown. Both are shown as 0 B. See slides 5 & 17 in the attached screenshot. slide list.doc

Thanks again Lin, I now see how the frames and mask containers work and the problems is solved. No point in using GIF's at the moment as the animation is quite smooth. I do like your earth image though, particularly the cloud layer. A bit cheeky but do you mind if I use your image as I clearly need more practice in the £D construction process? Regards Brian

Thanks Lin, getting rid of the GIF's from the folder seems to have done the trick. I now have a MOV version at 50.6MB and an MP4 at 4.29MB and I am amazed at the difference in file size. Are MOV files uncompressed? Would appreciate some help with the mask if you have the time? Just seen your message re PTE file. Many thanks, I will see how I get on Regards Brian

Thanks Lin & Yachtsman Not sure why PTE has increased the file size from 700x525 to over 12000x13000, is this because the original GIF at 16.9MB was too big? I like the idea of the mask but my intention was to have the globe moving from 'deep space' towards you and slowly increasing in size. Is that possible with a mask? Anyway, at the moment it is somewhat irrelevant as PTE won't work at all. Please see my second message and attachment. Regards Brian

Gone from bad to worse, thinking there might be a problem with PTE reinstalled it. Rebooted system and now just get a continuous series of error messages as soon as I click on an image to add to timeline from within PTE. Please see attached Regards Brian PTE error codes.pdf

Interestingly I am experiencing the same problem that Landsberger had with Xara back in March this year when his machine crashed trying to import an animated GIF. I am using Windows 7 64bit, 16GB RAM, Intel i5-2500K CPU, NVidia Geforce GTX 650Ti (DXDIAG shows 4043 MB approx. total memory), I created an animated (revolving) earth globe using Photoshop CC 3D. The globe has a transparent background as I want to insert it in a slide that has a star galaxy background. I saved it as a .MOV file and placed it in the slide and it works perfectly but with a little judder at the start which I thought may be due to the large file size (63.9mb). Thinking that a GIF might be smaller in size I reduced the image size by half (700x525) and used the Photoshop File/Export/Save for Web to create a GIF. The file size reduced to 16.9MB. Clicked on the GIF icon and it works perfectly. But when I try to import it into my slide using ‘Objects & Animation’ add image file, PTE crashes and goes into an eternal loop with an error message repeating ad infinitum ‘Out of memory’. The only way to stop it is by using Windows task manager. I have just tried re-importing the same GIF and this time nothing happens at all and I cannot see the GIF image. Looking at file properties the image has increased from 700x525 to 12085x13104 What am I doing wrong? Regards Brian screenshot.pdf

Thank you Lin & DG for your help. I have reduced the image by 50% so it is now 5400 x 5400 (8.84GB) and created a 500% zoom over 5 seconds and that plays on project screen and also in O&E but the 10800 size will only play in the project screen and nothing to be seen in O&A. I suspect it is my computer. All rather strange. I have Win7, 64bit, Nvidia Geforce GTX 650 ti card. Unable to attach zip files as they are too big. Regards Brian

Is there a file size limit for Jpegs imported into a sequence? I am experimenting with an image of the earth downloaded from the NASA site. The file size is 23.8mb and 10800x10800. The reason why I have left it so large is that I want to zoom in over 1000%. But when I open Objects & Animation all I have is the green frame and no image. Can anyone help?

Hi Everyone I am very impressed with the responses from Lin, Mur and Jean-Cyprien and thank you so much for tackling the problem for me. The 3D animation capabilities of PicToExe are truly amazing and I am grateful to you all for giving me your time. Having played around with your solutions I think I will use Mur’s first idea as I like its simplicity. The subtle movements of the images and the blur create an effect that is realistic enough for my purposes. Kind regards Brian

Hi everyone I am trying to create an effect of a spinning or flipped coin. I think I can create the movement using the 3D parameters in Animation but there are two things I am struggling with; firstly how do I create the 'heads and tails' effect, I gather that I will have to use two images (front & rear of the coin) but how do you get both sides to appear when the coin turns?. The second question is, how do I give the image of the coin some thickness as at the moment the image disappears when viewed side on? I am using the latest version of PicToExe Many thanks Brian

Hi Mur Thank you for responding. I really like that effect. Could you please enlighten me as to how you did it? Regards Harbrimar

I am trying to make an object disappear into itself. For example, an image of a house in which the house appears to collapse into itself leaving the landscape without the house. I presume that I will have to start with ‘house in landscape’ image then cut the house out of the image and save it as a ‘house’, use content aware fill to fill up the space where the house was and save that as ‘landscape’. Then with Pic2Exe open ‘landscape’ and using Objects & Animation overlay the ‘house’ image and make it zoom into nothing. Clearly, the house will disappear but ideally I would like the house to collapse into a pile of rubble or pixels as this would be more realistic. Is there an easier way of doing this or do you have any suggestions as to how it can be done? Your help will be much appreciated!!

A very interesting effect and now seen quite often on TV documentaries where archive still images are given a 3D like appearance. I believe Adobe Dreamweaver software is used to create it. I have used a very basic similar effect in my 'Ode to Welsh Quarrymen' sequence to achieve a similar view of peering into a workshop through an open door (much, much more basic than the Russian Weather video though!!). My effect was created using masks. IMO to create something like the skating sequence using Adobe PS or similar would be extremely time consuming but my PS skills are not that good. I suspect that there would have been a substantial number of people involved in animating the skaters. If there is another way of achieving the same without using Adobe DW or hours and hours on PS I would love to know.

Hi Peter Thank you so much for your advice which I am putting into practice. I've just noticed that I totally overlooked your post with the photo when I replied to your personal email, my apologies and it certainly makes things a lot clearer. Hi Yachtsman1 I did manage to borrow a pair of Logitech phones with mic but despite moving away from my computer I was still able to haer some clicks and fan noise in the background. I will endeavor to try and get the best out of my Zoom. Thank you for your input. Hi Morturn Thank you for your advice about using the H4n and I now realise that I was probably too far away from the mic's. In so far as the Rode Video mic is concerned, are you recording directly into your camera (as it appears to be a mic designed to be mounted on a camera) or do you plug it into the H4n? I have also purchased a pair of headphones but have not had the chance to try them out yet Regards to you all Brian

Hi Yachtsman1 Sorry but I am a little confused, are you using the Logitech headset connected directly to your computer for recording voice over and just using your Olympus LS10 for outside recording e.g. birds etc.? If this is the case I would have a problem as my computer has a fan running and the hard drive clicks and clunks from time to time which would be presumably be picked up by the mics?. I do not have a lap top so I would have to do the voice over from the room where I have my computer. Hi Peter I am recording into the H4n and then transferring the files via SD card into Audacity on my computer. I have set the H4n to record at 44.1khz/16 WAV but I have options to go to 44.1/24, 48/16, 48/24, 96/16 & 96/24. Not tried recording at the higher settings but presumably the file size would be huge? There is a setting for ‘Record level’ which allows you to set ‘Mic Level’ which I have generally set around 80. The ‘Input ‘options I have are ‘Lo Cut’ which defaults to Mic Off and Input Off. If I press to change the settings I am presented with lots of frequency settings and as I do not understand what they do I have left the setting on the defaults (Off). There is a ‘Comp/Limit’ setting for ‘Mic’ & ‘Input’ which defaults to off. You can set ‘Comp’ to General, Vocal or Drum and ‘Limit’ to General, Concert or Studio. Again, I have left this setting off. There is also a function to set Record level to Auto. There does not appear to be a ‘Mic gain’ setting. In so far as your ‘clock’ is concerned, forgive me for being a bit dense but using the LCD screen as an orientation point, does it face me with the mic’s facing out towards 10 or 2, or mic’s facing out towards 10 or 2 with LCD now facing up (or down) or are the mic’s are actually facing towards me i.e. the top of the device is closer to me and the bottom further away so that the H4n is at 90 degrees from the clock face. Thank you for your patience! Thank you both for responding Regards Brian

While I have a reasonable understanding of photography I have to say that matters relating to sound and recording it is a totally new area for me. Most of what I have achieved so far in this area is by trial and error - lots of trials and even more errors! I now have a Zoom H4n and have used the internal mics to record voice overs but I do not think I am getting the best quality. There is some hiss in the background and I am sure the voice quality could be improved. I have done some research on the internet and it has been suggested that an external mic is better for voice overs and the internal mics are better for recording sound clips etc. I know that I can improve on the place where I do my recording i.e. where there are more curtains and carpets etc. Perhaps a pop filter too. I do not want to spend too much in buying more sound equipment but my budget would extend to a Shure SM58 mic if that would improve the voice recording which some people seem to think it will (or perhaps a cheaper alternative if there is one). Ideally I would just like to use the Zoom H4n without external mics and any advice as to placement and settings would be most appreciated.

I am trying to sign in to Slideshow.Com but it will not take my password. I have requested new password several times but I am not receiving the email from Admin. Hopefully someone there can help!

Hi everyone! In response to @PGA, my system is as follows: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1, Intel Core i5-2500K CPU @3.30GHz, 16GB Ram, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650Ti128GB Crucial M4 SSD where PicToExe and all other programsare stored (C:/). All of my files and images are stored on a separate internal3TB NTFS Hard Drive. (F:/).My PicToExe project files are saved to my internal F:/ drivePicToExe Deluxe 7.5.10Virus scan no threats foundI am using AVG Internet Security but have turned off theirfirewall and am using the Windows Firewall as I cannot use my scanner (part ofEpson XP750 three in one) through the AVG Firewall (another ongoing saga!). I have not set upmy anti-virus to do background scans and I do not use defrag as I have an SSD. Just thinking back to when the issue occurred, I had bothLightRoom 5 and PicToExe open and was exporting some images into the folder formy AV sequence. I then tried to rename the file name of one of the newlyimported images within PicToExe by right clicking on image, clicking on 'RenameFile' and it was then that I got an error message stating it was not permittedor something similar. From then on I could not save or play the sequence byclicking on the inverted triangle but I could move the slider on the timeline.What I don't know of course if the issue occurred before I tried to rename theimage. Regards Brian

Hi Lin Thanks for the response, I was editing my original message when you responded. In answer to your suggestions: I did not have any external devices attachedDid the wild card search and negative for any *.PTE files on any of my drives (apart from older sequences)Recycle bin was empty.Went down the file recovery route and found the files shown my attachment.All very strange and very similar to the OP experience (I too am using Win 7 64). I think I will save my files onto an external drive from now on but it would be useful to know what is happening . Regards Brian

Its just happened to me too!!! I have been working on a sequence for the past week (saved it many times) and went to play part of the sequence to check on slide transitions and nothing happened. I could manually move the slider and slides were visible in view screen as I moved it across. I decided to reboot computer and opened up PictoExe but to my horror the sequence was nowhere to be seen. Not visible in recent projects either. Just prior to the problem I tried to rename a slide but error message came up to say not permitted or something similar. I have searched for the title of the sequence on my computer and it cannot be found. Further to the above, I have used Recuva to search for any deleted files and found these files shown below. Unfortunately my last save was overwritten. What I don't understand is that I did not delete these files and why are they in the 'RecoveredProjects' folder despite me saving as I went along? I am also not sure why these should be shown a s recovered files as I had been saving them all the way through.

I have been away for a few days and very pleased with the response! I will start with what appears to be the easiest option first (last two posts) and work through the suggestions. many thanks to you all and I will let you know of the outcome. Regards Brian

I am working on a sequence which involves the history of a church destroyed in WW2. I have a photo which I recently took and also a photo taken just after the war. Unfortunately because I did not have the old photo in my possession at the time I captured the latest image they do not exactly line up (slightly different view point). I would like to show a ‘now and then’ effect. Slide 1 being ‘now’ and slide 2 being ‘then’. Quite simple so far, but when using a dissolve transition at the ‘in between’ stage I have two church towers which does not look particularly good. I have tried playing around with ‘Objects & Animation’ and superimposed ‘then’ on top of ‘now’ and set keyframes to adjust opacity which works as far as the tower is concerned but as the slides are offset the rest looks quite dreadful! Apart from taking another image which is not possible (in another country), does anyone have any suggestions to minimise the effect caused by offset slides or any other solutions? I have added a couple of screen shots to illustrate the problem.