mhwarner

I guess to each his own, but it is totally unnecessary to copy the dvd if I already have the ISO file stored on a backup drive. With my method, it is a one step process. (1) Locate the ISO file (2) Burn it to DVD For a 35 minute slideshow takes about 7 minutes to burn the ISO to DVD. I'm guessing it would take at least that much time to copy the contents of a "Master DVD" to temporary storage on my hard drive first before the new copies can be burned. If I want to burn 6 copies, I can use Roxio or InfraRecord or some other "authoring" program to specify the number of copies and it will keep spitting them out as long as I feed in blank disks. I am aware of all that. I just personally prefer to keep all my backups in one place rather than having to sort through a box/file/whatever of DVDs to find the master. I have all of my backup drives cataloged and it's very easy to find an ISO file. I also keep all my DVD "labels" which I have created in the Epson CD program so when I have completed burning the DVDs, I can then print my labels directly on the DVDs and away I go.

I don't have time to experiment at the moment, but I can't imagine that it isn't significantly faster (for me at least) to simply burn the ISO file to a DVD. Since I have a single DVD drive, if I want to make a copy of a DVD, I assume that the process would be to insert my "Master DVD" into the DVD drive, copy the contents of the DVD onto my computer, remove the master and then insert a new DVD and then burn the files onto the new DVD. To make an additional copy from the ISO, now that I know the easy way to do it, I simply insert the new DVD, load PTE, select File\Burn ISO to DVD (now that I know how to easily do it), locate the xxx.ISO file on my hard drives or one of my backup drives, and burn to DVD. What could be easier?

Duh! Because I never had found that menu option. I had always thought it might be easier to just burn the ISO from Video Builder but I never thought of looking in the dropdown menu. Thanks for that tip, Limey! You have saved me some time and steps! Dave: I save only an .ISO file on my backup drive. Now, thanks to Limey, I have an even easier way to burn that ISO to an actual DVD if I need to in the future. Perhaps I am missing something as I don't know what you mean by a "DVD Master Copy".

I typically use PTE Video Builder to create only an ISO file. Then I use this free, open-source software to actually burn the DVDs. http://infrarecorder.org/ I do have Roxio Easy Media 8 software and have previously used it, but the free InfraRecorder program seems to be a lot easier to use and is more trouble-free. I then store the ISO file on a backup disk and can burn additional DVDs anytime I need to.

Hi Tony, When you are creating a DVD with Video Builder, after you have specified the .pte file to be used and clicked the "Next" button, there is a the second screen which allows you to specify the Project Name and types of files (MPEG2, ISO, etc.)you want. On that screen there is a checkbox next to "Include Additional folders and files to disk". You could check the box and specify your previously created .EXE to be added there. You might have to instruct the user how to manually run the .EXE by selecting it in the Windows Explorer listing as I think that the DVD would be the thing that actually "autoruns" when the disk is loaded on the computer.

Maureen, Nicely done! The photography is beautiful and you've really captured some fantastic light. The music fits nicely as well. Thank you for sharing this slideshow.

Assuming you have a "PC input" connector on your TV, you can do it with a regular video cable (typically called a 15-Pin HD D-Sub Cable (HD15) ) that looks like this: I hooked my laptop to my TV (I just used the cable that goes between my PC and my 24" Samsung SyncMaster 245BW monitor) and had 1920 x 1080 resolution. It looked just as good as my monitor (only bigger). Beats the heck out of having to deal with the time and trouble of burning disks. Although I purchased a WD TV appliance about a year ago to use with my old TV, I also have discovered that I can connect a USB drive (my WD Passport for instance) directly to the TV and do "straight" photo slideshows and listen to MP3 music from it as well. The TV is Samsung Series 5 540 (which Costco has had on sale recently for about $700 if you're in the US).

Postings have been a little slow around here so I have been looking at some of the French PTE sites I'd visited before and sort of forgotten about. I don't speak, read or understand French, but it's pretty easy to figure out the subject of the slideshows anyway. I obviously do not have any slideshows out there myself or any connection with the site (JPD does, of course). There are some really well done shows posted that I thought others might enjoy watching as much as I have. Here's the link (no password or joining is required to download): http://diapositif.net/

Thanks. I knew I could do that as well, but it just seemed easier to edit the registry directly. Not for the faint of heart, of course, but I'm used to doing it.

As always, Lin, thanks for sharing your wonderful imagination with us! Clever animation and lovely pictures. Makes me want to go into the living room and sit by the fire. I look forward to your tutorial. Thanks again for the time you put in here!

Just a heads up to Igor and the team that there still seems to be problems with the registration / upgrade process. The other day I realized that my license to the Deluxe version of PTE had expired. I re-registered and shortly received the confirmation email from WnSoft. However, the email mentioned that the key was contained in an attached file and it went on to give instructions for saving the file and using the "Load a Key" button within PTE to update the registration. There was no attached file. Instead, the information which presumably should have been included in the file appeared at the bottom of the email. I recognized it as information to update the Windows registry, and since I am comfortable editing the registry manually, I did so and all is well with my license now updated. However, I'm sure that there are many users who would not have a clue what the information was or how to update their license. Perhaps a bit of work is needed. This may be what happened to another poster here recently. I chose to start a new topic because I thought his title was a bit rude for this forum.

Not sure if this is a bug or whether it has worked this way for a long time and I just never noticed (it did NOT always work this way as I recall). Anyway, I wanted to create a couple of templates in directories other than the one I normally store my templates in. So I went into "File\Templates\Manage Templates" and attempted to change the directory to a different directory than I normally use (which is not PTEs default). When I change the name, PTE immediately begins copying all of the templates I already have from the old directory to the new directory. WHY? If I wanted to move them, I would do so myself. And I would certainly expect at the very least the program to tell me that it is going to copy or move my existing templates. Actually it would be better if when I selected "Create Template from this Show" the program just asked me where I wanted the template in the first place, with the default being whatever directory I had previously set up. What I am actually trying to do here is create a PTE file with some relatively clean file paths inside so that I can edit the darn thing in my text file and do some easy find and replace work to substitute files. I finally ended up zipping the entire show, unzipping it into the new directory, then doing a "Save As" on the PTE file to get rid of all the extraneous file paths. That part wasn't that big a deal, but I found the issue of moving the files mentioned above was disconcerting and appeared to lock up PTE while it was trying to copy the templates. I finally just Ctrl-Alt-Deleted PTE to stop the activity. At the very least, it would be good to have a warning that the templates are going to be moved or copied or whatever and the ability to opt out.

So I'm assuming these are not your pictures? Are they public domain photos or photos you downloaded from somebody's website? It does seem like it would have been polite and correct to give credit to the original photographer(s), although I have to admit that I find it troubling that you would make a show like this without some sort of explicit disclaimer that the photos are not yours but you are using them with permission. I certainly would not want anybody downloading my pictures and using them in a show. If I have misunderstood and they are in fact your photos, then my apologies and my compliments on some absolutely fantastic pictures.

Maurizio, Thank you for the EXE file! The show is even better at almost full screen on a large monitor. I envy your trip to that amazing place!

Kieron, There are some amazing photos on your site, both in terms of technical quality and subject matter. Looking through the photos was very educational and it is good that you have documented these cultures as it is likely that as the world "shrinks" many of them will disappear completely. Photographically, I especially enjoyed the photos of the fishermen. Thank you for providing the link to your site.

Beautiful photography! The transitions were well done also, but I do agree with Dom about having some sort of background (even an out of focus shot of a landscape-oriented picture). I too would like to see the .EXE full-screen with a little more time between transitions. The photos are just gorgeous and you did a wonderful job on the people pictures as well. I let vimeo show download all the way and then saved the .mp4 file off so that I could watch it with less jerkiness from my internet connection. Thank you for sharing these pictures.

Dom, You are amazing. I am in awe of your ability to come up with these clever ideas. Thanks for sharing this. I have already purchased the template and can see many hours customizing it for some other uses. I have tons of dingbat fonts which will be great for different themes.

I assumed the original poster was referring to hot keys which function when you are viewing a slideshow and have checked "Permit Control of Show Using Keyboard". I sure didn't find any references other than this one in both Lin and John's PDF and the 6.0 version just posted on WnSoft: There are Hotkey reference tables in both PDFs, but as far as I can tell, those keys are the useable only while creating slideshows and not while running a completed EXE file. Perhaps I have missed something?

Hi Dave, Not sure where to find this list in writing, but the right arrow and Page Down keys will advance the show forward, while the left arrow keys and the Page Up will go backwards. Home goes all the way to the beginning of a show and End goes to the very end. Escape, of course, quits the show entirely. And as robertg mentioned, the spacebar will pause the show (and start it again as well). There may be other keys that do something, but I didn't find them.

I loved your little book demo! Beautiful photos and you've got the animation just right. I would definitely like to see a template. I have some software that creates a similar "flipping book", but it only creates a flash file. It's nice to know that PTE now has the ability to create something similar. Thanks for sharing this.

I agree with your last statement 100%. We all want to post shows directly on the web and it would make our lives so much easier if PTE could produce flash output. In addition, I just know that Igor and the team can come up with a better flash result than the conversion steps required to get there now.

Hi Jean-Charles, I actually found this show about a year ago via one of the French sites. Since then I have watched it numerous times and have been inspired every time to work harder on my own shows. The photos are stunning and the animations are superbly done. After finding this show, I went out and found every other show of yours (the second Iceland show mentioned above, as well as several about Algeria, Italy -- particularly Burano) that I could and downloaded them all. They are all at the top of the list in my "KEEP" folder. Now I will go directly to your website to be sure I haven't missed any. Thank you so much for sharing these. And please let us know when you create new ones. They are joy to watch and a great inspiration!

I moved my reflections template and my other one for video simulation under my name here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10658 Hopefully, this one is good. I can download from it so it seems to work from the above link. Let me know if it doesn't work for you and I'll re-post. Best regards, Lin

Excellent tutorial, Lin! As always, thanks for taking the time to put this together. A few minutes watching the avi saved me many hours of experimentation. FYI, the link for the template you so generously supplied is broken. Would love to download it as well. Thanks again!

Peter, Thanks for the reply! Indeed I did miss it. I was out of town for a week with no internet connection and I have been trying to catch up on all the important posts since then. Somehow I missed that one. Can't wait to try out the latest beta!