Severn Bore

I have just watched a Postcard from Norway and would like to say how much I enjoyed the clever and innovative introduction and closure. The slides in between were also of good quality although by the very nature of the type of transport, were a little limited in variety. Nevertheless, I thought it was a great show and has left me with some excellent ideas to plagiarise. Thanks. Andrew

Hi Igor That is very impressive. At this rate we shall not need Photoshop! Andrew

Hi Having read the fresh contributions since my comment and referring to the link mentioned by Xaver, I still do not understand why my slide show was watermarked. Any upgrading of PtoE was done during the life of my valid key.

Hi I have only just discovered this thread. Today I tried to create a disc using videobuilder, having purchased a further licence for PtoE de Luxe at the beginning of 2009. However, I received a message saying that my videobuilder key had expired, but I could continue using the my existing copy of the program (presumably videobuilder)on a continuing basis. I chose to continue, but nevertheless, while burning the show I noticed that a watermark was imprinted across the picture indicating that a trial version of the program had been used. This is not what I had expected. As I need to create a disc I went to the Digital River website and proceeded to purchase a new licence and, as usual, I got stung for VAT after having committed myself to a cost for the program which looked reasonable. I would now like to clarify precisely what is meant by the message that videobuilder could still be used without paying for a new key. In other words have I wasted my money in buying a new key when I could somehow have carried on using my existing program without having the final product watermarked in the way already described? Incidentally, why should it take up to 48 hours to receive a new key when with many (all?) other downloaded programs one can expect the licence key to be sent immediately. As an enthusiastic user of PtoE for many years I do not begrudge paying for the program, but would prefer it if the conditions of use were made much clearer. Andrew

Thanks Peter, will give it a go. Andrew

Hi Apologies in advance, but I fear my brain cells are atrophied! I have just used videobuilder and it says mt PtoE de luxe key has expired. Having read previous posts and threads it appears I had overlooked the fact that video builder came free with PtoE de luxe for only 2 years. However, I have just clicked on the "prolongation" option which opened up a web window for upgrading or extending PtoE? Does this actually cover upgrading of Video builder as well?

Just a bit more info. I found it necessary to download and install Windows Virtual PC and now have virtual XP on my PC. I then installed PtoE6 into virtual XP as this is quite separate from the Win 7 version. Unfortunately it will not run on XP either as a warning appears saying PtoE requires hardware accelleration of the video card, requiring DirectX 9 or higher and recommending install or reinstall of the latest video drivers. These are already installed so it suggests to me that the problem points to a defective video driver, but how I resolve this I have no idea.

Hi Goddi Thanks for your contining interest, but please see my latest posting to Igor in this thread. In fact, although I am running Win 7 Ultimate, my All Programs menu strangely does not list the virtual PC option. I will investigate further.

Hi Igor Trust you had a good holiday. I followed nobeefstu's advice to uncheck the show original slides under the View > Advanced options menu. PtoE seems to work OK with those settings without having to resort to a change in the compatbility mode. This is workable as I can see little difference in using PtoE this way apart from the fact that when I play animations under objects and animations movement is a bit hesitant whereas that was not the case under Vista. I have not tried Goddi's suggestion in his last post on this thread as I do not want to risk undoing where I am now. As you will have read, I tried all sorts of ways to get PtoE working, icluding disabling my security settings (which had not changed from Vista). I also have the latest vido card drivers and DirectX 11 which came with them. It has all been very frustrating, but will be worth it if I can get your wonderful program working as it used to. Please let me know if you need any more information. Kind regards Andrew

Hi Gary I have in fact tried that (see earlier postings)but with no success. I am now running PtoE with the restricted settings suggested by nobeefstu and that seems to have worked. Thanks for your interest in my problem. Andrew

Hi again nobeefstu Once again, many thanks for your help. I checked that both the shortcut and the exe shared the same compatabilty settings and when I opened the program evrything seemd OK for the first few processes. I was able to add slides to the list and move their sequence. I then opened the slide list view, but the trouble reappeared. PtoE was then restarted after having to be closed via task manager and everything froze when I tried to move a slide. After again reopening, I tried your suggestion of deselecting the various advanced options and, hey presto, evrything is working at present. I have tried a selection of processes and all seems OK, but in view of what previously happened, am holding my breath. I also did a DirectX diag (although I had previously tried this) and no problems were found under any of the tabs.The same applies to Device Manager - no problems flagged. However, I could make little sense of the events log! I have not tried running PtoE under Win 7 with the deselections already mentioned - mainly because I do not know how to undo the simulated XP OS under which it is currently running. Nevertheless I am content with the current situation (if it continues) until Igor has found a fix and many thanks again for the time and effort you have devoted to my problem. It is sincerely much appreciated and is typical of this excellent forum As a matter of interest, just in case I was reluctantly forced to give up on PtoE I downloaded trial copies of ProShow Professional and the Magix equivalent. Both of them run on my PC without any glitches. HOWEVER, I did not find either of them to be a patch on PtoE and would only switch to them under duress! Also, am I losing anything of note by deselcting the original slides options as I cannot see a difference?

Hi nobeefstu etc. Firstly, it appears nobeefstu's suggestions regrettably have not resolved the problem after all . Immediately after changing the compatability (toXP) everything seemed fine. However, I had to leave the PC so switched off the program and when I returned the old problems had come back. I have reset compatability a number of times using different options and also uninstalled and reinstalled PtoE before repeating the process, but to no avail! So if you have any more ideas they would be very welcome.......... Turning to Peter's question, I have been asking myself the same question ever since upgrading at the weekend! My Vista system was working fine and I changed because of all of the reports saying how marvellous Win 7 was; how it speeded up systems; started and shut down quicker than Vista and was not so bloated.Also that it was a "doddle" to upgrade from Vista. I also fancied a change. If only I could turn the clock back, but unfortunately I did not copy my disc settings etc so am stuck with Win 7 unless I go through the lengthy and tedious rigmarole of reinstalling Vista or undertaking a clean install of Win 7, which might solve the problems. As a footnote, when running the compatabilty wizard Microsoft identifies PtoE as an incompaible program, but I suspect that is simply because the compatabilty process was initiated by me the user. PtoE was not identified as such when I ran the Win7 compatabilty check prior to upgrading. Andrew (Severn Bore)

Hi Goddi My PtoE does have a compatabilty tab as you can see from my previous post. nobeefstu's suggestion seems to have solved the problem You might be right about ubgrade v clean install, although all of the advice seemed to be that there should be no problem simply upgrading from a "good" version of Vista.

Hi nobeefstu, I am hopeful that your suggestion has resolved the problem. I have made the changes in your message and PtoE seems to be running OK! It is now being run as an XP program, but I cannot understand why I have experienced a problem that others on Win 7 have not encountered. I am most genuinely grateful for your advice, which seems to have saved me a lot of heartache and frustration. Thanks, thanks, thanks. Severn Bore

Hi I have installed Win 7 drivers for all that needed it, including Geforce 9 with DirectX11 support. Apart from an ongoing problem with my Orange Livebox connection (I have to unplug the ethernet cable when I shut down windows and only reonnect it after start up) everything apart from PtoE seems to be steaming along quite well, including DVD films, which put quite a strain on any videocard. I am reluctant to undertake a clean install just for PtoE, but on the other hand I cannot really enjoy my photography without PtoE! However, I have so much on my PC (But I am convinced that is not the cause of any problem) it would take too much time to reinstall everything. Hoping that Igor can suggest something.

Hi tom95521 I have tried that, but to no avail. Task manager shows low CPU activity and moderate memory usage when PtoE is having its "Not Responding" fit. I have tried opening up about 20 large JPEGs in Photoshop CS4 at the same time to see if that is adversely affected by memory issues, but I was able to undertake various procedures without any hint of trouble. I am currently at a loss as to what to try next, short of throwing the PC out of the window! A clean install of Win 7 is the last thing I want to do as it would take me days to reinstall everything I have on my hard drive. I wonder if admin has any ideas as he is usually right on the button. When PtoE throws a wobbly the tool bar and header flash quickly and erratically and the "Not responding" warning also flashes like morse code. It happens a soon as I try to move any slides into the slide bar or to move them within it. Haven't been able to find out if anything else is affected as I have neen unable to get any further.

fORGOT TO ADD THAT i HAVE KEPT THE SYSTEM TO 32 BIT

Hi Yachtsman, Shouldn't be a resource problem as I am running a quad core with 3gb of RAm and a half empty Terrabyte hard drive. I am beginning to wonder whether there is a problem with Direct X. I have a reasonable nVidia graphics card with 256 Mb of Ram.

Hi I upgraded from Vista to Win 7 at the weekend, having first read how easy it was and how stable and efficient the OS was. However, I have had a number of niggling problems including difficulty in running PtoE v 6. If I open an existing project or create a new one I can load slides into the project, but cannot move them about in the slide tray or in the full window. The program just freezes. If I try to provoke it into action the program starts to flicker and the icon on the task bar flashes and moves about the taskbar like a mad thing. Eventually I have to open Task Manager and close the program. I never had any problems with either Vista or XP beforehand. I tried using PtoE 5.6 which I still have on my PC, but with the same result. Any ideas please?

Hi Kalain Many thanks for the link. Kind regards Andrew

I am losing it................where is the beta 18 download please? Andrew

Eddie, Just to say, some nice shots from around the world, also providing some nice processing ideas! Let's see some more please. Andrew

Have you tried saving your slide as a PNG file in Photoshop? Is the slide intended to be used on its own or as an object on another slide (using Objects and animations)? I have used a trapezium slide for overlaying text onto a pictorial slide and then animate it to give the effect of the text receding into the distance.

Hi Isobel I, too, had the same problem this week - Pto E worked fine on my XP machine and had transferred to that machine from my previous Win 95 machine with no problem. Eventually I gave up trying to activate the program and, in case my file was corrupt, asked Winsoft to send me the key afresh. After three days I am still awaiting a response. However, in absence of hearing from WNSoft, I tried again by moving both of the text files containing my keys into the WNSoft Program folder. When I opened Pto E again and it asked for the key, I browsed to that folder and tried to highlight both text files. It would only allow mw to highlight one of them, but i just went ahead and clicked OK (load key) and Hey Presto, it worked. Don't know whether this helps. Incidentally. I have still heard nothing from WnSoft. Andrew

There is some stuning photography in this slide show, which has been well composed and backed by dramatic music. I have long wanted to visit Iceland and the photos have given me an extra urge to do so. Perhaps now is a good time to visit as Iceland really needs visitors at present due to its economical problems. Well done.