eborpeter

I have had this problem and got round it - it may work for you. Open Windows Live Movie Maker. Open the basic video file (may be a 'mts' if it's an AVCHD from a still camera). Save the file as High Definition (which is 1440x1080), giving it a suitable name. It will appear as a wmv file in the folder it goes to. This can be inserted into a pte project and edited like any other file. It seems to run well when you watch the resulting exe file.

I had a think. PTE displays 'on the fly' using the images and often complex instructions stored in the exe file. Therefore one should minimise the work to be done, to give the best displays. I realised that the photo background I was using (one of my own) was itself over 2 MB making each final image over 6MB. When I replaced it with a plain colour background, the sequence ran quite smoothly. When I reduced the photo background to about 280KB and replaced the plain colour background in the sequence, it still ran well. It still does not explain how PTE 6.5 managed the job originally, but then PTE 7.54 is capable of doing a lot more! Thanks for all your comments. P.S. My PC 'Performance Information and Tools' tells me my NVIDIA Card is a GeForce 210, but I will check for any new drivers again as suggested. I do have a much higher spec laptop which I use for presenting my shows,

Thanks all for your offers of help. I am sorry if my query caused any upsets. I will endeavour to offer helpful hints to others in the furure from my own successful experiences. My PC is an HP s5653uk using Windows 7 (64bit) Processor Intel i5 CPU 650 @ 3.2 BHz Memory (RAM) 3 GB Graphics NVIDIA GeForce G210 (512 MB Dedicated) Hard Disk 700 GB (93 GB unused) I update the PC Systems automatically. The PTE file I am having problems with is a straightforward sequence with simple dissolves. The slides are set on a self designed background using shadows - both of which only show with vertical slides. I may have set something silly in one of the menus, but I haven't found it yet. It's annoying that it seems to work with PTE 6.5. How do I send a short example? The reply form says I am permitted a max of 3.13 MB. Even a zip of a short extract comes to over 20 MB! (Incidentally, I have downloaded PTE 7.54 and created a smooth running exe file from an old sequence. The 1 minute fun sequence consists of 10 slides , nearly all with several obects being panned, zoomed, rotated or involved in 3D motion at the same time.) Eborpeter

There are a lot of interesting changes with version 7.5, but this is no use if I cannot produce a satisfactory sequence. I have produced many sequences (including some quite complex ones from v4.0 onwards) and shown them at camera clubs and other venues. It will be a shame if I have to give up v7.5 because it cannot produce the basics right. When I started again using v6.5 with the same image files, the same music files, the same simple treatments of the images, the sequence was incomparably smoother. Why?