mhwarner

I am totally frustrated at this point! I have created a completely new test show. I trimmed all my images to 4:30 ratio then resized to 1024x768. I created a DVD (which works beautifully) and played it on my standard TV (NTSC). The images are chopped off, both bottom and sides (and I know this because I put a 2-pixel border around some of them just to see if I was getting the entire image--the border doesn't show)! So I recreated the images and resized to 640 x 480 which theoretically should show up in the "safe" region. Wrong! They are still chopped off. Is this a bug or what? I have selected 4:3 in the project options for burning the DVD. I throught perhaps I could change it from "fullscreen" to "windowed" in the Project Options\Screen tab, but unfortunately that option is still grayed out in this latest beta. I even added different versions of the same slide side by side in the project -- one sized to 1024x768 and one sized to 640x480. They both show up at exactly the same size in the DVD. So is this something that will work properly in the final version, am I missing something simple here, or do I need to go back to my "old" method of burning DVD's using Roxio. I would really appreciate any help or suggestions.

While I am pleased to say that I was able to burn a 450-slide, approximately 20 minute slideshow to DVD without a single hitch, I was a little disappointed to see that the show did not fit on my standard TV screen. It fit top to bottom (just barely), but the sides were cut off. I had the impression, possibly a misunderstanding, from what I have been reading, that the new video builder would fit it to the size/ratio selected. Some details: Under Project Options on the "Screen" tab, under "Aspect Ratio" of a slide I have "4:30 PC/DVD" selected. I also selected 4:3 for the menu under the DVD options. My slides are 1023x698 (I know maybe an odd size and definitely not 4:3, but a re-size from my 8mp camera with "maintain aspect ratio" plus some pixels added for a white border). In any case, the result I expected was that the slide would fit the screen horizontally/left to right and would have a black border at the top and bottom. Did I do something wrong or pick and incorrect setting, or do I have to be sure that my slides for a DVD to fit on a standard screen are no more than 720 pixels in width? I did check my DVD player setup and it was correctly set for a standard TV at 4:3. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

While Maureen's post isn't exactly a tutorial, there are some very good tips here. It would be nice if they were added to the Tutorials section at the top so that they can be easily found without searching. Maybe the section could be expanded to "Tutorials and Tips". Just a thought. And thanks for sharing these details, Maureen! It's always inspiring to see the workflow of others and pick up some great ideas along the way.

While I lurk here every day, I haven't had the time yet to play extensively with V5 beta myself. However, I thoroughly enjoy the demos, templates and tutorials of others that have been posted. Yes, the effects are amazing and it is interesting to see the subtle "one upmanship" (fun compettion more than anything) of the ever better and more amazing effects being developed and displayed by forum participants I really do not think that I am ever likely to be using rotating helicopter blades, bouncing cubes, etc. in any of the horseback riding "slideshows" which I sell. But I can definitely see that all this experimentation will lead to some top notch effects that I might use in my title slides or in more elegant transitions or in the so-called "picture in picture" effect that Barry Beckham and others have perfected in earlier versions of P2E. I will welcome the chance to use the occasional pan/zoom effect for emphasis on certain slides, and I am really looking forward to incorporating Dom's filmstrip templates and possibly JPD and Dom's versions of the photo album template into some of my own travel shows. The point I am trying to make, I guess, is that while many of us are unlikely to use all of these effects all the time, when we have a need or wish to use one of them in some part of a slideshow, it will be good to know that the effect will work well because all possibilities have been tested and debugged by knowledgeable users of this forum before the software is released in its final form. And I guess I might also wish to ask Patrick why, if he is already happy with the standard slideshow effects available in v 4.48, he is so concerned about the somewhat "delayed" release of version 5 (although we were never really promised a final date). I am curious as to what features you are expecting in version 5 -- not related to all of the animation stuff -- that will help you in making standard slideshows. Not being a smartass here, just trying to educate myself. I can think of things like the new objects editor (even without using animation), DVD creation functionality, perhaps the ability to use transparent .png files and maybe the ability to create a "template" as a zip file that will be wonderful additions. While I know there are other places in this forum that these bits and pieces of information can be found, maybe what I am asking for (and not necessarily from Patrick since he seems not to want to respond further) is a recap of the other new features we will be getting in v 5 when it is released.

Lin: Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Eyesight problems will be a severe blow to your photography business. I hope you are able to manage. And if any of us here can help with anything, be sure to let us know

Thanks for your wonderful site, DOM! I have downloaded many of your tutorials and templates and I thank you for sharing these. You may also want to include a link to this free cutout/extraction software which we discussed in the forum a while back: http://graphics.cs.msu.su/en/research/Segment/index.html (P2E thread here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....showtopic=5057)

Leonard: While extensive documentation and lots of tutorials supplied by the developer imight be preferable for a software product, please do consider that this wonderful piece of software costs about $24 US for a LIFETIME license. And also consider that the developer spends most of his time updating and expanding the features available --based largely on the input and feedback from the software's users here in this forum. There is a help file supplied with the product and many users in this forum have generously shared their experiences and developed tutorials for P2E. I personally would prefer to have the features constantly upgraded than have a large manual which I may never read. For the average user of the product, it has been fairly intuitive to use. With version 5, of course, there are many new things to learn. But most of the time, if there is something specific you want to do or create, you can search here and find the answer as to how someone else has already done it. Or, you can always post your question and within a few hours, someone here will post some helpful instructions or point you to a past thread or give you a link to a tutorial. I would personally much rather have that than to pay $300US for software with an extensive printed or on-line manual from a company that provides little or no technical support on the use of the product itself (for which there may be numerous third-party "manuals" written which cost even more $$). Just my 2 cents.

I, too, am puzzled about this. I downsize my images in shows that I sell for the size I want them displayed and I definitely do not want them upsized for viewing on larger monitors. Part of the reason for the downsizing is so that the show is viewable universally regardless of monitor size. But the other reason is NOT to give them an image large enough that they can use some method of screen capture and print at a reasonable size. If there is a reason for this new option, I would prefer that it NOT be the default so that I don't have to worry about checking it every time.

I know many of your are extracting parts of images to use in transparent .PNG files in P2E v 5. I just ran across this free tool (Photoshop plugin) today and thought some of you might be interested in trying it. There is a downloadable tutorial (.mov file) as well. Haven't had a chance to try it myself, but I did look at the tutorial and it seems like it might be easier than traditional methods on some images. I did look at a similar (not free) product a while back (the name escapes me), but it was about $60 US, so I passed on it. http://graphics.cs.msu.su/en/research/Segment/index.html

Hi Andy, What a marvelous idea. This will be great for promotions. I realize the quality isn't what you'd see on an original executable P2E slideshow, but it seems like a great idea to get photos out there without the likelihood that they will be stolen. I know one of the other members, Lee Evans, has been experimenting with flash slideshows on his website. And since this is free, seems like there would be nothing to lose and maybe a few customers to gain. Thanks for sharing.

I have used the Memorex printable 16x DVD+ media with no problem whatsoever. I sell them to folks with all kinds of players and have never experienced any problems with burning them (on both Dell laptop and desktop DVD burners). Haven't had any coasters yet. I print the "labels" directly onto the DVDs with my Epson 960. Of course, I would never print on or otherwise label any DVD which I am using for archival purposes. For them, I write with a TDK CD market in the clear center circle only.

Thanks for the clarification! Guess I will wait until the final product is released to see what I can do and have a few of my customers try it out. And yes, the new Deluxe version with DVD option sounds great! More and more of my customers are requesting DVDs rather than CDs. I definitely planning on purchasing it when it is available.

As a long-time P2E user, I have been following this forum and the progress of v5 avidly for the last several months. I understand that there will be 2 engines so that older graphics cards will still be supported. I understand that if I wish to create a slideshow which does not use the pan/zoom effects on slides, I can specifically designate or by default will be using the "old" engine. (For the record, I have an Nvidia Geforce FX Go5200 card in my laptop.) I create many shows for sale in my event photography and have no idea of the graphics capabilities of my customers. I have played with some of the new slideshows created by members and worked with a few of the tutorials as well, though not extensively as some of this stuff seems to screw up my display and makes me have to re-boot (I actually think there is a problem with the display adapter but have not had the time to send the machine back to Dell for repair). So, to get down to it, my questions are: (1) Assuming that they worked on my machine or that I purchased a new machine or graphics card and could create shows with pan/zoom, is it a requirement that others who would play these shows on their computers also have updated graphics cards? Or once a show is made into an .EXE, does it even matter? (2) While I know that the pan/zoom effects require higher-level/updated graphics cards, is the new object editor also dependent upon it? I guess what I am asking here is whether any of the new features in v 5 would be available for use in "universal" shows, or do I need to stick with only those capabilities which currently exist in v 4.45 (or whatever the latest version is). I would really like to get more indepth experience with the version 5 features, but if I can't use them for shows which I will be selling to customers, I need to spend my time on other things (like learning the intricasies of custom DVD menu creation, etc.) Thanks in advance to Igor or anyone who has the expertise to answer my questions.

David: Although, all of the excellent replies here have given you accurate information, perhaps if you could explain in a bit more detail exactly what you are trying to accomplish we could offer some additional suggestions. Are you trying to post training videos? Show travel photos? Display a portfolio? No matter what the authoring program, as everyone has said, you are limited to Macromedia Flash (SWF and FLV), AVI, WMV, QuickTime (MOV), RealMedia (RM) or animated GIF for display on the web directly from a browser. You can end up with many of those formats even if you have created your slideshow in PTE, but there are any number of ways (and tools) to get there. You can also put a slideshow into a PDF file using Photoshop, Acrobat, or various other inexpensive shareware programs, which users could either download or open directly in their browsers.

I like this text effect! I have been reading all postings about v5 and downloading the examples -- some of which amaze me that the testers come up with such clever uses of the technology. However, I would like to clarify something, Igor, if you have a minute to answer. Although it appears that my video card supports most of the effects I have tested, if I would not use the pan and zoom effects requiring the new engine, would I still be able to use the secondary (lesser requirements) engine for my shows and have the ability to use all of these wonderful object animations that I am seeing? (This would be for shows that I am selling and so I would have no control over which computer/graphics card combination the user might have). Thanks for your help, and most especially, thanks for giving us such a wonderful product!!

It really depends on your useage. If the shows are for your own personal entertainment (and to show friends and family, etc.), using music from CDs you have purchased or songs you have paid for and downloaded is probably not going to get you in trouble. However, if you are creating shows to sell, you should probably stick with royalty-free music. I have purchased from both of these (both are cheaper if you purchase more than one CD) http://www.pbtm.com/ http://www.music2hues.com/ Also, one of our forum members sells royalty free music on his site: http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/royaltyfreemusic.htm

I experienced some very minor jerks (more like a bit of dragging) at those same two spots on a Pentium M 1.4 GHz system with an NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 card. Otherwise the big show was smooth as silk and Flowers ran OK also. Can't wait to try the new beta. Thanks Igor!

Thanks Lin! I have downloaded the demo version, along with several other DVD authoring software packages and will test to see which one best meets my needs. In addition, I finally had a conversation with someone at Roxio and although she didn't quite say that others had apparently complained about the missing functionality, she said that the company was about to offer a $19.95 upgrade to a download of the piece necessary to upgrade the standard edition of Easy CD Creator to the same functionality as the Deluxe version. It is supposed to be available by the end of the month. Meanwhile, I'll be testing these other packages.

No, it was not part of a bundle. I paid $89 for a separate standalone package which on the box clearly states the ability to customize menus, among other things. Totally false advertising, as far as I am concerned. And there is apparently no upgrade path.

I know some of you have spent time with DVD creation and would appreciate your insight and recommendations. I have Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 (which I just discovered is only the "Standard" version and not the top of the line "Deluxe version -- some misleading sales techniques on Roxio's part but that's another story). I have the need to create both CD .EXE slideshows as well as DVDs for some of my projects and I have done that successfully with no problem. However in my latest endeavor I needed to have three shows with a menu allowing the user to choose which to run. Again, I did this successfully in P2E for the CD version and did a poor attempt in Roxio's MyDVD using the same background as I used in P2E. But with my particular package, I cannot modify much on the menu system other than the background graphic and text color and font. I'm stuck with their automated buttons with a blue frame! Supposedly the "Deluxe" version allows more control, but I am guessing that it still would not be as elegant as I would like. I really don't care much about the actual slideshow/movie creation abilities because P2E suits me just fine. I am very proficient in Photoshop as well so I could create whatever graphics/buttons, fancy text in that. I just need something that I can use to put it all together. For the latest 3-show DVD I actually pulled the shows in directly from P2E to Roxio's Video Wave and saved as MPEG-2 on disk. Then I brought all the shows into MyDVD for burning (and creating an .iso file which I later used to burn multiple copies of the DVD). So, if anyone has any suggestions about what I could use (without going to something like Adobe Premier), I would be most appreciative in hearing them. (I did look at Adobe Premier Elements but read several online reviews which indicated that it didn't support many formats and really worked best with video directly from a camcorder, which interests me not at all). I found a few packages on the web specifically for creating DVD menus, but they seemed to be for import into some DVD packages that I've never heard of. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

The show starts immediately for me (cable connection) and runs very smoothly. Nicely job! I am very interested in your experiments as I need to re-do my photography site and would like to add some flash. I would also love to get my hands on that bear necklace. It's just gorgeous!

Igor, you are amazing! You must be terribly busy trying to get the long-awaited beta ready for us and you still take the time to quickly fix bugs. Thank you for taking such good care of us! I wonder if you ever sleep?

On the off chance that what you are actually asking is: "Can I put the shows on my website somewhere and allow people to view them directly from the website?" ... the answer to that would be no. You can make them available for download only. In order to make them "viewable" from your website, you would have to convert them to a different format such as flash or possibly .AVI. This would require another piece of software in addition to or instead of P2E.

Igor: As a follow on to this topic, I requested this before in the "Suggestions for New Versions" topic but never saw any responses. It would be nice to be able to include IPTC comments or at the very least, JPEG comments, as one of the options in the Project Options\Comments\Customize Comments dropdown list. Any chance of this happening in the next version. To get around it now, I end up putting borders on my pics and adding IPTC comments using another program first, then importing the photos into P2E.

Not sure what you mean by "security safe" disk. If they can see the picture on the screen, at the very least, they will be able to capture it -- whether by using the "Print Screen" key or by some other utility such as "Snagit". For what you are describing, it seems to me that you would be far better off creating a series of web pages with thumbnails which link to slightly larger images. That way they could browse through the thumbnails to view individual pictures, or if set up properly, go through a slideshow of all pictures manually. You would then load the web pages onto a CD. There are many programs, some of them free, which allow you to create web pages from your photos. Photoshop itself even has that capbility, though somewhat rudimentary. The one I use is Arles Image Web Page Creator: http://www.digitaldutch.com/arles/ which has a free evaluation download. Another is Image Walker, shareware which also has a free download: http://www.imagewalker.com/ And there is also JAlbum, which is completely free: http://jalbum.net/ The key would be to not make the larger files full size and to compress them enough so that if they decided to print them, they wouldn't get very large (or high-quality) prints. You might also put a watermark on the photos. Here's an example of what I'm talking about: http://www.mhwarner.com/albums/CaballosMar...ures/index.html I arrived at the size for the "large" pictures by doing test prints to determine that 3-1/2" x 2-1/2" was about the largest size that could be printed. I also created a javascript function that allows a click on the picture to make it larger without actually increasing the resolution. It's not great quality, but at least most of the details are apparent. You can, of course, do what you want in PtoE, but it would be a great deal of work (which is probably why you haven't found any really satisfactory solutions in this forum for the technique) and in the end, I'm not sure it is of benefit for your particular application. Perhaps you could come up with a combination -- a PtoE slideshow to browse and then a series of thumbnails and web pages on disk for closer inspection. But again, in either case, don't fool yourself into believing that the user will not be able to get copies of the pictures from the CD.