DaveG

Hi Ken, I would like to join in with the others in congratulating you on a fine show displaying good photographic technique and nice use of PTE. But, (you knew there was going to be a but didn't you?) I feel that I have to remark about the music used. The comments I am about to make apply to most shows and not only to yours. We are continually told that using copyrighted music is a no-no and yet most a/v enthusiasts use such music. I would be the first to agree that most copyright free music available is, at best, bordering on dull, uninspiring and difficult to match up with the subject of the photographs being displayed. I would prefer, in most cases, to hear music appropriate to the subject that does not send me to sleep. But the law is the law and most a/v people tend to ignore it. Is there some unspoken rule that I am not aware of? I have often wondered how much of the responsibility Beechbrook would have to bear for hosting all of this "illegal" material? Once again Ken, a fine show for all that. DaveG

Here's an alternative. Download and install "AUDACITY" - it is free. Then you can save your MP3 directly from there with all of the effects, fades etc that you need. The time-line in Audacity will also allow accurate sync with the PTE time-line. BTW, MPEG refers to movies or video. You can either have an AUDIO CD or an MP3 Disc. DaveG

Hi Ken, There seems little point in that. I have asked numerous "experts" before going into this and was assured that there would be no problem! There was, of course and I now know what I have to do. I take each case and learn from my experiences. There is not enough time to put everything in the world right. I take it one step at a time. If Larry's client has access to a DVD player such as the one I have (a Philips) which is capable of reading ALL regions, and outputting PAL and NTSC he will find a way. Best wishes, DaveG

Hi Larry, Sorry for the delay. What I meant was that if you are compiling an NTSC DVD you will need an NTSC MPEG2. If your original is a PAL MPEG2 you will need to use file converter such as Digital Media Converter to produce the NTSC MPEG2 from the PAL source. I disagree with the Future Shop comment in Ken's post in "NTSC vs PAL" with regard to playing DVDs on Computers. In practice, I have sent region free PAL DVDs to the USA and no one has so far been able to cope either on DVD Player or Computer. Hence the necessity for Digital Media Converter. When sending region free NTSC DVDs to the USA - no problem on Computer. Best wishes, DaveG

Hi Shelley, Firstly add music file(s) (MP3) in the MUSIC section (also check Play Background) Music box Then, in MAIN check the Sync Slideshow to Music Duration box Then click on Customize Sync Button Select CUSTOM SYNC Click on TIMED POINTS and select ADD TIMED POINTS You can now alter the duration of each slide and transition to suit the music. DaveG

For what it is worth I can confirm that in the UK, DVD players and also VHS player which are capable of NTSC playback or quite commonplace. These are playback only and will not record NTSC. (No one has yet, successfully, explained why the same machines are not available in the USA). The setup of the DVD players allow for outputting as NTSC or PAL formats (or auto sensing - multi). When making DVDs for USA use I have to employ the use of a file converter which will produce an NTSC DVD file from a PAL MPEG2 or AVI or similar. When compiling the DVD I can only produce a PAL DVD frpm a PAL source and similarly an NTSC DVD from an NTSC source. This is fairly obvious. Since most home-made DVDs are region free (Region 0) this does not appear to be a problem. I have not tried making NTSC PTE shows yet but I am pretty sure that the same problems would arise and the same solutions apply. DaveG.

Not sure exactly what you mean by "mask mode" but I just clicked on mask and then TEXT and all was normal - i.e. lower case. Re Schnell: I have just returned from Neustift and he was due to give a show on the evening of the day I got back. Very disappointed - it promised to be very good! DaveG

Hi Red, Re: Starting music at x slide: It is also possible (in Audacity) to create an MP3 containing silence of any fixed length. You only have to do this once for lengths of silence of 2, 5, 10 etc seconds and insert them as required into your list of background music - beginning, middle, end, anywhere. Works for me. Shortening the gap between two songs is also easy - merge the two songs into one in Audacity and select the gap that you wish to eliminate - then cut. DaveG

OK - I was one of the 200 but in my defence I hadn't got round to viewing until now. I found the transitions a little long for my taste and some a little too abstract for my taste. I liked the colouring (or lack of it). However, was your real point that we are not giving enough feedback? Sometimes I feel that all of the comments that have been made about a particular posting have said it all and I have nothing to add. (Not in this case because no comments had been made). I sometimes feel that I, as someone who has yet to post at Beechbrook, don't feel qualified to comment. I wonder if there's a case for just giving marks out of ten for Technical and Artistic content instead of writing a dissertation every time? Would that encourage more people to participate in the feedback? Either way if the people who are posting don't get any feedback perhaps they will stop posting and there would then be no need for this forum. We don't want that, do we? DaveG

There is a lot of merit in what Alan is proposing - it would allow for the precise positioning of a slide or set of slides with a prticular portion of the music. Dave G

I agree with both of the above. My thinking was that, if it were possible, to be able to evenly spread all transitions that were not customized via the "customize slide" option would be a tremendous advantage. Introductions and endings would then become much simplified. DaveG

To get back to the dimensions theme, if you use Photoshop, select the crop tool and you are offered the option of inserting the required dimensions for width and height. If you enter 1024 px and 768 px respectively and then draw your selection your cropped picture will automatically resize to 1024 by 768 pixels and automatically preserve that aspect ratio. You can do this before or after most operations but it might be wise to leave any sharpening until AFTER the crop. Same goes for 880 by 600 (or 600 by 800 in portrait format). DaveG

Just point it at the folder containg the key.txt file which wnsoft sent to you. DaveG

I think I am missing something here. I just did a test using 800x600 images with 1, 2, 3 and 4 pixel borders (inside the 800x600) image and not only do the 1 pixel borders show clearly and consistently but the difference between the 1, 2,3 and 4 pixel borders is apparent on my 1024x768 background screen. Anyone else? DaveG.

Would it not be easier to create the border WITHIN the 800x600 or 1024x768 image? Select all/Edit/Stroke/x Pixels/Tick Inside. That's for PS of course. Dave

Hi Alan, In this case the "delivery system" would be my monitor. If it doesn't look good there it won't look good when projected. When I get to projecting it that presents a new and different situation and possible problem to solve. Does that make sense? Many thanks for your input, DG.

Hi, Thanks for the discussion, advice, comments all of which appear to bear out what I said. I have tried all of the various compression ratios within Photoshop and also the Save For The Web - they all give adequate results but only when the final product is a JPEG of around 250Kb - 350Kb. When the picture being compressed does not include large areas of, for instance, clear blue sky I could probably get away with a smaller file size but not the 80 - 150KB file size mentioned regularly. I have settled on using something called ProJPEG (BoxTop).. ProJPEG ..which allows you to dial in the final file size required and this gives results equal to if not a little better than anything that Photoshop offers. It also allows smoothing of the final image but with a loss of fine detail. I leave that set to zero. MikeL117's comments make a lot of sense and I will look out for that!! Perhaps the answer is selective sharpening? Guido's findings again indicate that the optimum file size for a full screen image is in excess of this magical 150Kb which I have failed to achieve at a quality which satisfies my standards. Ron - we are near neighbours - we must talk. Thanks to all, DG.

Hi, I see a lot of members talking about file sizes of 80kb to 150kb. I find that, no matter what compression method I use, and I have tried them all, I cannot get artefact free 1024x768 jpeg images at less than about 350kb. Any comments? DG.

I found the content of the show remarkable - good photography and an interesting subject. I also found the Mermaid, Anchor and Title of each pic to be unnecessarily distracting taking away from an otherwise excellent show.