RonH

Thank you for this, it's been a big help - all these years later!

Thanks Peter I'll check tomorrow but this does seem very likely now that you mention it. A couple of times while he was using PTE the little 'working' icon came on and I've never seen that happen before on any of my machines. I know that some manufacturers put lots of ‘free’ programmes on their computers. Appreciate your quick response. Ron

A friend asked me if I could tell him how to rectify a problem he is experiencing in PTE 6 and 6.5 since he has bought a new HP PC (Windows 7). I’ve never seen this problem before and can’t prevent it. Has any Forum members experienced this and if they have, how did they stop it happening? When in play mode, the blue progress arrow on the timeline stops at the beginning of a transition, the show continues without a glitch and when the transition is complete the progress arrow jumps to the end of the grey transition box continuing its progress along the timeline until it encounters the next transition when the same stop, jump and go action happens again. I can’t replicate this action on my Windows 7 and neither can he on his old PC running XP. I’m no expert on the inner workings of PTE; thankfully it just seems to work for me. Can any of our forum boffins help? I would like to think that this is a computer problem but is this likely? Having read Barry's piece about 6.5 picking up the preferences from 6, I think my friend's only option is to uninstall both PTE 6 and 6.5 then try again.

I have also had a message this one from from mignulikz which I am vety suspicious of. Is this a new scam? RonH

Thanks Peter/John On checking I only see this phenomenon when AutoScroll 1 is selected but perhaps John is right – perhaps it is a hang-over from the 5.5 beta that he mentions because following Peter’s timeline problem I downloaded Igor’s fix in 5.51 beta and the problem is very much reduced. Appreciate the time you spent on this guys, the problem is almost solved but in any case it’s nice to know that it was not something I have missed. Regards RonH

First of all let me belatedly congratulate Igor and the team on v 5.5 which I think is a huge advancement in PTE. But I do agree with Peter that there needs to be consistency in the actions. I came across the problem during the compilation of a 200 slide programme and it took some time to work out where everything had gone by which time Ctrl Z was of no use. I thought that checking ‘Hold time points’ should lock the slides at their prescribed timed points or is this for anther purpose? All of Peter’s comments seem to apply even if this is checked. That aside, I have another timeline misbehaviour. In normal view, when I take my cursor to the extreme left or right of the timeline, the position ‘jumps’ (or travels rapidly) to the extreme end or beginning of the programme. As this is a twenty minute programme that is a fair distance to drag it all back and needs careful attention so as not to alter the wrong slide. It is almost impossible to select a slide which is almost at the beginning or end of the view. I have to move the timeline so that that slide is centre screen then select it. Has anyone else found this – or is it me?

Wow what a can of worms this has turned out to be. My main interest since 1969 has been audio visual or slide tape as we used to say; I even earned a good living from conference production for many years. I know that sound in AVs should be equal in quality to pictures but I do think that including your own SFX of good (as opposed to studio) quality is better than not at all. Even my little Zoom H4 with an external mic and good Beyer DT100 headphones is more weight or at least bulk to carry in addition to my camera gear. Then of course there’s the problem of recording a one-off action at the same time as photographing it, the camera mirror noise interferes. If it gets anymore complicated than this, why not download SFX from the internet? That’s studio quality. I’ve just recorded an audio track (no pictures) for a talk about using Auditions for AV soundtracks. It’s crammed with effects for demonstration purposes and I had great fun making it - from whoopee cushions to letterboxes – all on the Zoom H4 and the sound is, in my opinion, good enough to enjoy even without pictures. I have lots of your CDs Barry so I’ll send you one of mine! Come on guys, for most of us this is a hobby, encourage people to use their own recording and don’t put them off with talk of studio quality field recordings. The reason you don’t see (sorry hear) recorded effects in AVs is because most people think there is a mystique about it. It’s no more difficult that getting great pictures like some of the ones in your AVs Barry. Regards RonH

I have used a Sony HD recorder the quality of which was really good but it was so fiddly to use and, of course it has a separate hand-held microphone; this combined with the headphones which were vital to ensure that the wind noise was avoided, meant that I was forever tangled in wires. Good old Sony made it as difficult as possible to convert the sound into .WAV files for use in sound editing software. I now have a Zoon H4 which records WAV files directly onto an SD card. It has excellent built in stereo microphones as well as professional XLR connectors if you fancy connecting a rifle mic etc. It’s not dirt cheap but a lot less than some small hand-held recording devices. Regards Ron

I can also vouch for these speakers. The base is rather larger than you might expect but not as big or as heavy as some powered speakers. One of the problems I have with powered speakers is that it is difficult to adjust the sound without going around the back of the speakers or bringing up the volume control on the screen so you have to be sure that you are set correctly before you start. This is sometimes difficult to do before the audience is in the hall as a large audience ‘absorbs’ the sound. I also have a pair of Yamaha 300 for larger venues, these have a detachable mixing desk attached to the back of one of the speakers (the cables are in the other speaker) into which you can plug microphones etc and, of course adjust the volume, tone etc. from your computer desk. Both are really good for ‘touring’ with AV programmes. Good speakers are well worth the money! Regards

Hi Sammy – Another welcome to the forum. Don’t treat Pictures to EXE like any other software! I have been using this programme for quite sometime now and the amazing thing about it is the help and support you get from other members of this forum all for free. There has been many new users asking about a printed manual but believe me, the tutorials available both as downloads and on CDs are much more up to date and intuitive than any manual whilst the programme itself is very simple to use at its basic level and the more advanced operations just come naturally as you progress. Try it and see for yourself. Expert help is only a few keystrokes away and having spent many hundreds of pounds on training DVDs, Classrooms in books and tutorials for several upgrades of our favourite image manipulation software, I know which I prefer. This forum is like the best digital AV club you have ever been in. Best wishes

Hi Lin – Sorry to read about your problem – I know exactly what it’s like but my symptoms only last about 20 minutes and are very infrequent. You must be very frustrated but you must take it easy, even when you are back to normal. I have reason to be very grateful to you for your tutorials and especially the ‘snow effect’ although even in the far north of England we seldom see snow on the ground these days. We travelled to Canada and even failed to find snow in Churchill last year, the Polar Bears don’t look the same mooching around on the brown sludgy tundra but the occasional smattering of snow was greatly enhanced by your show storm technique! Get well soon – we need your input

Leonard You now have the solution. Maureen and Robert are AV Royalty and have been hugely helpful to me, not just with the mechanics of PTE but, and as importantly, with the aesthetics of AV. You are in good hands ~ enjoy! RonH

Igor This test works smooth and clear on Audigy2 ZS. Keep up the good work!

Leonard I know what you mean. I have two friends in my Photographic Club who would really appreciate a manual because they are not even on the internet! One of them says he has managed for 93 years without the ‘net’ and at his age would find it confusing. I downloaded P2E, bought its ‘key’ for him and with the help of Alrobin’s tutorial on CD he produced his first programme within a few weeks. I understand why P2E doesn’t have a manual but, from my point of view, I find the Forum and its friendly ‘club’ advice much more helpful. I have no problem electronically searching for information which has previously been posted and once I find the answer it really is lodged in my memory. The only slight stumbling block to me has been terminology; once I know what I’m looking for and what the ‘experts’ call that operation (i.e. to daisy-chain or to piggy-back another programme) It’s easy to find. Wideangle is right about the Help which often is no help at all but if my experience with Adobe Auditions is anything to go by, Adobe’s extensive help file is only of limited value and I would love to have a friendly Forum to ask what is meant by… Several of my friends have downloaded tutorials from Wnsoft (which also had an accompanying script), printed them out and from the information, have produced programmes which have been ‘spring boards’ (alongside experience) towards excellent AV programmes. And let’s face it; I have seen hundreds of beautiful AVs produced on P2E so it must be possible. I appreciate how you might feel that some of the contributors have been rather negative towards what is a reasonable request but I hope you can see the difficulties. I can’t think of another ’strand’ which has caused this much controversy. Stick with it Leonard – it really is worthwhile!