Catrick

I already own PTE and I am looking forward to version 5 (which seems to have a few people pretty giddy!). I do prefer the "fine-tuning - nuts & bolts" of PTE. I have another question. Our motorcycle club puts together slide show presentations (i.e. motorcycle safety) and I would like to know if animated gif's can be used in PTE presentations and how would I import them into a show I was building?

Thank you, just what I wanted to know. Sometimes one can get brain freeze and overload. I am very happy with PTE and a friend of a co-worker had an impressive slide show done with ProGrow

what the difference between PicturesToExe and PhotoDex ProShow Gold is other than price and a few more bells and whistles?

Finally!! Got my presentation burned onto DVD. SVCD's had problems with the pictures shimmering to the beat of the music in either Ulead Movie Factory 2.0 and Roxio Platinum 6.0 but they looked great on the computer as an "Exe". Burned a DVD with Ulead Movie Factory but the quality of the pictures sucked both on the 52" wide-screen and our normal (?) 36" TV. Burned a DVD with Roxio Platinum 6.0 and the quality of the pictures was really good on both TV's. So was the sound quality. Solved the issue of cutting off of pictures on the wide-screen TV by resizing them to 85% while still viewing them full screen and a black background. Everyone was quite impressed when I played it for them on Saturday. Now I just need to fine-tune the effects and I am ready for final copies for everyone. Thanks for everyone's help and advice.

Being a newbie to this program and trying to make workable videos without all the education some of the others have leaves me with only one suggestion. When I make a slide show presentation and it is set to multiple songs the only way I can make it work is to create a mini slide show to each song and string them together for the final video creation when I burn it. What I would like is the ability to "copy/paste" the mini slide shows together inorder to make the .exe file for the computer. I have tried to make the total file first and I could never get a handle on the synchronization of the multiple mps's.

Thanks Ken, I read over all the strings and I will try resizing my pictures: "Project Options, Fit to screen, 85% of screen size, windowed mode 720x480, and changed my background from black to grey." From what I have read so far the reason my pictures are cut off is the size, so I will retry with new sizing. The shimmering to the beat of the background mp3 is still a problem. I have used black as a background and the only mention is the contrast in colors so if I try gray maybe it will work. One other point, when I play it on our 52" wide screen the svcd plays great. When we try it on our 36" TV the transitions catch and hesitate. My hubbie says we have progressive scan on our DVD player and I was wondering if changing the format to VCD would be the difference? One note: I prefer the video made in Roxio 6.2 Platinum as the pictures are clearer and sharper that in Ulead Movie Factory 2.

Back to making videos again and back with the same problem. Everything in the slide show previews nicely - music in back ground, synchronization, the whole thing. Looks really good on the computer. Then comes the burning process. I create the *avi file and use Roxio 6.2 Platinum DVD builder. When the program finishes burning the cd and I play it in the DVD player, the music distorts the pictures in time to the beat. I ran across this problem before and I DO NOT have the sharpness filter checked this time. Last time that was the culpurate. What makes the music distort the pictures and how do I stop it?

Thanks Ken. I will give it a try when I can see straight. Too tired to think right now. I have copied/pasted all the answers so I will try them when I can.

Not sure if this is right, but I have been working on a slide show for quite awhile (between surgeries) about a motorcycle trip we took. I finally have the music down pat (thanks to WavePad and MP3Gain). In my project options I have selected "Fit to screen" and the background for all pictures is black. It looks great on the computer. The problem is viewing it on a wide screen TV. We change the settings on the TV for normal viewing (which I believe is 4:3) and some of the pictures are cut off. If I have comments on some of the pictures, the comment is cut off. I did a wedding video for friends and I scanned their formal wedding album into my computer and used these pictures in the slide show. But when we viewed it the pictures frames were cut off. How does one fix this problem?

In future versions, I would like to see added to the "Project Options" sychronize music duration the ability to use more than one song. Such as select the pictures to run with each song and let the program sort out the timing of each section. I have four songs in one of my presentations I am working on and it is really ugly trying to get the slides sychronized with each song. Cat

I am making a wedding video for friends and I have made it once and it runs okay except for one song that "jerks" the pictures around as it plays out. I have replaced the song and I have had no problem doing that since I split up the pictures into sections (ie: before wedding to one song, wedding itself to one song and after wedding to a third song). What I would like to include on the vcd's for everyone is the video for the TV and the .exe for the computer. Can I string the sections back together as one .exe? It is a nightmare to try to sychronize the three songs to each slide show section. In future versions, I would like to see added to the "Project Options" sychronize music duration the ability to use more than one song. Such as select the pictures to run with each song and let the program sort out the timing of each section. Cat

I found using a cd-rw that it would not play at all or if it did, it was so crappy. I just bought a bunch of real cheap cd-r and I use them knowing I will have a lot of coasters. Saving the used ones for data backup cd's.

YOU ARE AN ANGEL. It works!!! I have music in the video preview. I am too tired to function anymore tonight. I will try to burn another (coaster???) tomorrow. Thanks for all the help and I will let you know how this turns out.

I was going through the manual in the Help section and I came across this item. I do not have this at all anywhere in my program. 3. <Music> tab Background music for presentation. Supported formats: .WAV, .MP3, .WMA, .MID, .KAR, .RMI. 1. Use <Add> button to include music files to your presentation; 2. Click <Remove> button to remove selected music file from playlist; 3. Click <Clear> button to clear playlist; 4. <Random order of playing> option: if checked, music files will be played in random order; <Use internal mp3 player> option: We recommend to Disable this option, i.e. use external player.>

I appreciate all the help. I tried to burn one in Ulead last night. Video no sound. Wouldn't burn in Roxio at all. Got an error. Did as you asked and "previewed" in the same window as "create avi". Again video with no sound. Default player was Windows media player. I am running Win98 SE on this computer.

Okay, I open up PTE and find my .pte file. When I press "Preview" I get full screen viewing of the .pte with sound. All the music I am using are MP3's. When I create the .exe file, the slide show works just fine including the music. It is only when I create the .avi file and try to open the .avi file in either Roxio or Ulead and I press "Preview" in Roxio or Ulead that I have no music attached to the .avi.

What I have done is take pictures of a friend's wedding and added their wedding songs to the slides show. I created and .exe file and it runs okay. The music is timed with the pictures and presents just fine on the computer. I then take the .pte file and then I select the "video" button. A dialog box comes up and I chose "Svcd", "ntc.." (not at my computer but the selection is for Canada) and I select the Ulead box along with the recommended selection under it and it creates the .avi file with the dialog box left open. I open up the Ulead program, find the .avi file and preview it to make sure it is okay. There is no sound. If I burn a copy onto the cd and chose "Finish" in PTE and run the cd, there is no sound. I find the same thing when I use Roxio DVD Builder, there is no sound. My music is not there at all.

Been there and done that. I have the program open until I have burned the cd as per instructions, but like I said, I have no sound when I preview it. The music I have inserted into the avi file in Picture to exe is not there.

Thanks for the response, but I have done all of that numerous times. When I try to preview the video in Roxio DVD Builder and in Ulead Movie Factory, I can see the movie, but there is no sound. I thought maybe the sound would come through after I burned the cd, but when I run it off the cd, there is no sound either.

I have cxreated my .pte file and it is set to music. The timing is all set up and when I save it as an .exe it runs fine. The problem is creating a svcd. I have tried with Roxio DVD creator and Ulead Movie Factory. I can get the *avi file and it is recognized okay. I can preview the *avi file in both programs. The problem is no music in the background. What is going on?

When I try to make a video file to burn on a svcd, I press the preview button and I keep getting an error "You may experience problems playing a video track in 'Pte_vidtmp_1207914.avi' because the required compressor could not be found. Would you like to close the movie or continue?" Apparently the video clip preview can only be viewed in QuickTime. Is the problem with QT or PTExe?