Jimbo

I've used quite a few video converters and I've found WinAvi to be the best, easy to use and it does the job properly. Jim.

I've just downloaded Beta4 and I'm wondering if there is a way to simply apply random Pan/Zoom effects to all the slides in a show? Occasionally I use a slideshow maker "Memories On TV" and it has an "apply random" button for the technically challenged (such as myself.) MS's Photo Story also offers this feature for we lazy boys. Is there such an option in PTE and am I just overlooking it? The manual method seems pretty daunting, at least at first glance..thanks, Jim.

Has anyone discovered a way to include a particular font set with their CD-burned PTE exe to enable the viewer on any computer (which may not have that font installed) to see the added text in the font type that the author had intended? As it is now if the viewer doesn't have the chosen font already installed on their system it will simply use the Windows default...and sometimes Arial or similar just doesn't do the trick. I recall seeing something about embedding fonts onto a CD along with an exe file...is there a way to do this in PTE? Jim.

You have to burn the downloaded Itunes MP4 songs to a CD as MP3s then rip them back to your harddrive, you then have MP3s which you can use in PTE or most other slide show makers. I'm not vouching for the legality of this operation but there are about 100 million others who do it daily so you can at least fall back on the "everyone does it" defense. If Apple and the other music re-sellers would get it together with an arrangement that allows you to use the already-purchased music in your personal slide show presentations then none of this would be necessary.

Arrghhh! Wish I'd known about your visit Al, you would have been welcome to a beer! I spend a fair bit of time out in the Mojave desert, camping/photographing etc..is that where you were? Should you find yourself in the neighborhood again..I was actually down in Australia in March, have 100s of photos from the trip and that's what I'm trying to get set up just as I want it in PTE...give me a holler if you're down in LA again. Jim. The best way to learn this stuff is to just dive in and experiment with it. It's too bad we didn't connect sooner - I was through LA in mid-March on holidays, and could have used a beer after a month in the desert in various points east of there!

Thanks Al, appreciate your answer...I've been using PTE since 1999, just making simple shows that are all timed to the music..no problems there. But after all this time and much effort I still don't understand the timeline and its related possiblilities---I think what I need is some hands-on tutoring to be able to grasp its inner workings. Would there be anyone living in the Los Angeles area who is familiar with it and who wouldn't mind showing me how it all works?? I just seem to have a mental block on any written instructions for how it functions and I really want to master it so I can move on up the scale a bit from my current kindergarten-level results..Thanks, Jim.

Thanks for the replies..where do I find the "arrange selected slides" option? Thanks.

Rather like the previous poster, Gary, I'm also a bit under the weather with the sync' music operations. Let's say I have 100 slides, the first 5 I want to run through very quickly, ditto the last 5...then the middle 90 I want to show for a "normal" viewing time (approx' 4 seconds a piece)..can I put the entire 100 slides under the "sync to music" command to suit a 400 second piece of music then set the above-mentioned first/last 5 slides to show for about a half second each WITHOUT disturbing the sync times of the overall show?? I have no trouble with doing the straight-forward all slide sync but I'd like to have a bit more control over some of the individual slides...is this possible? It seems that once I've chosen the Sync To Music option I've then given up any fine tuning possibilities...am I just missing some simple step? I hope I've explained this in a not-too confusing manner! Jim.

FASTSTONE also has a very good editor/viewer, freeware and seemingly without any spy/ad extras. Easy to use and it manages to do a lot of nifty tricks. http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm I've been using it for a few months now without problems Jim.

Here in Los Angeles it's predicted to be dropping down into the mid 70s today so I'll be getting out my thermal T-shirt and fleecy-lined board shorts for sure. Happily this blizzard-like cold front will move out by the weekend and we'll resume our steady 85 degrees. It's not easy living in California.

It all seems to be working for me now after a few stumbles..all the boards I visit seem to be updating their software and I don't think any of them has come out of the gate correctly at first, even the boards that deal in web-site design issues have some issues! Looks good now. Jim. EDIT..by the look of this posting, when it appears on the board, I should manually remove the "font' info myself before posting? I blithely assumed that it would be taken out automatically...assuming can be tricky. (Or is it in fact a small glitch?)

Pbase is indeed a good place to store photos and, as Ken said, there's no mugs and calendars etc to get in the way. I've used then for a couple of years now and I haven't had any down-time problems with the service or server. Definitely worth a look if you just want a photo buff site. Jim.

Ken, that's a great program, thanks. Jim.

Ron..it's a new musical style, supposed to be the Next Big Thing. I have been using regular pop music CD tracks in my slide shows for the entire 6 years I've used PTE. I either own these CDs or I've downloaded--and paid for-- the individual songs via Itunes or similar. These shows are always for distribution to a few friends/family etc who may well be in the photos. For example we went out to Las Vegas earlier this week and I've put together a show using Elvis' "Viva Las Vegas" as the soundtrack...do I worry that the Presleys will come after me?? Or perhaps even The King himself?? Not at all. I don't think that the use of copyrighted music in this manner is what all the fuss is about as regards these copyright issues.. I wouldn't, however, use any music like this if I was trying to sell the PTE shows. ( though I can't imagine that anyone would actually pay money to sit through one of my creations.) Anyway that's my take on the situation for what it's worth, no doubt that artists should indeed be rewarded for their efforts but I don't think the issues revolve around using the songs you've already paid for as background music in personal slideshows. Even the most ardent supporter of copyright transgressions would probably cut you some slack when you use the music in this way. Or at least I hope they would. I'll let you know if I get sued after this posting! Jim.

I've been using version 3 of it for a while with PTE and it seems to work nicely. Jim

I downloaded it this morning and gave it a short trial....great stuff! It does a lot more than most of the smaller apps of this kind and it seems pretty easy to get the hang of. And this is only Beta 1!! Photoshop simply overwhelms my brain and my eyes glaze over when I look at all its tools...PixBuilder seems more proportioned to enthusiastic amateurs like me. Thanks Igor and gang. Jim.

You might have to increase your screen resolution settings. What are you set at now? If you're at 800x600 then go up to 1024x768. Give it a try.

Just to add to the numbers mix--I've been using DVD Movie Factory 3 very successfully for a while now, it plays very nicely with PTE..or at least it does on my computer. Haven't seen DVD MF4 in action yet. (It simply amazes me how quickly Igor responds to any mention a problem...now if we could only get a fraction of his dedication and support out of Roxio, MS and all the rest of the Big Guys.You are the king Igor! Jim. (the LA one.)

Photostory3 works well enough and it's fun to play with but it's not in the same class as PTE. You can control the panning/zooming actions on each individual slide or leave them off alltogether but if you let it add its own pan/zoom directional choices you might end up with some funny results---people's head cut off, panning someones shoes etc etc. You can add a background track of music and add a spoken comment and/or text to each slide. It doesn't produce EXE files but rather Microsoft's WMV video file which is not too bad in terms of quality (you can choose the output size from 320x240 up to 1024x768) and you can then use your own DVD software to convert it to MPEG and write it to a disc for TV play. Photostory is a free download from MS though you'll have to agree to be checked for non-pirated Windows before you can actually get it...not that this would be a problem for the honest boys and girls on this forum. If I remember correctly you also have to be updated to XP Service Pack 2. It's a fun little slideshow maker and worth a look at but Igor doesn't have to worry about it stealing any of his loyal followers...it's aimed at a different group. I think Sonic now offers a $20 plug-in for it which allows you to write a DVD directly from Photostory3. And don't get an old copy of Photostory2, it's a lesser animal. Jim

I tried recording some night-time critter noises while I was down in Australia last month...big waste of time really, I didn't have the right equipment-or knowledge for that matter. While I was there someone gave me a home-made CD of those very noises and it is great...they said someone they knew had done it and it was a royalty-free, no-cost recording. It sounds very good but I do think that there's more animal noises on this disc than you would actually hear at one time/location unless it was a really popular watering hole for nocturnal party animals!. It works really well as a background for outdoorsy PTE shows. It runs for about an hour, if you want to hear it I can email you a 60 second MP3 representative sample. Jim

I think that Granot (Boxig) has created a small program for just this. Can't recall off hand what it's called but someone else with a better memory will jump in here and tell you. (In fact I think that Granot has created a program for every possible PTE desire---and they're all good!) Jim ( The Jim in LA one.)

Ken, I see that Reflet does generate Ani GIFs so Peggy --original poster--would be able to use the "extract frames" method to re-create the wave movements for her PTE show. I also see that Reflet is from the folks who put out PHOTOFILTRE, an excellent graphics program in itself and definitely worth checking out...it's up there with Irfan for usability and it's also freeware. It has some great filters and is a kind of mini-mini PhotoShop, minus the learning curve. Jim.

I haven't actually seen Reflet but if it is a Java app then indeed, as said by Ian, the capture method of extracting individual frames won't work..you could try a program called GIF Construction Set by Alchemy, it's a very handy animated GIF maker and it has an action--"LAKE"--which produces a good looking water reflection/ripple effect on a still image. They have a trial version and I think it's about $25 to buy. http://www.mindworkshop.com/ Jim.

If you can extract all the still images from your "ripple' gif, place them in sequence as JPGs into your PTE show then run them there at a very fast rate with the "Enable Transition Effects" box UNchecked you will get an effect pretty similar to your original animated GIF...you'll probably have to play around with the timing of your JPEGs to get the water ripple effect right but it does work, I've done it quite a few times myself. In fact you don't even have to convert them to JPGs if you don't want, static GIFs will work but with lower color properties. If you don't have any luck doing it let me know and I'll send you details. Jim.