Conflow

Hi igor, In my opinion this latest "Apple-Ruse" is an attempt to undermine the "Worldwide DVD-Market" purely to gain sales of Apple-Mobile-Devices. It seems as if "Apple" want to compete with:- Microsoft, Sony, BMG, and all the World-Manufacturers of DVD products & discs including most large Industries which use DVD-Conferencing-Utilities.......May I ask the question? ~ With what do they intend to replace the DVD with ?? Surely not another (Non-universal) Apple-System. 'Solid-State-Memory' will replace the DVD in time ~ but it wont be on Apples-Terms ~ because the 'device' will have to be truly Universal to suit the Computer & Television Industry and Manufacturers (standards) and their Worldwide Audience's. Concering DVD quality ~ this has vastly improved over the past 4 years with the introduction of (digital-circuitry) TV-Sets and 16:9 Displays even more so with (Lo-end) HD-TV's running 1280x720 pixel/Images now in Universal-usage compared to the old 4:3 Analog-system. Its now reached the stage where its nearly impossible to discern the differences between the PTE-Exe Slideshow and an Mp4-H264 Video provided the latter is properly produced. Brian (Conflow).

Hi Lin, Nice correction job there above ~ I dont use Photoshop myself ~ I use some German-utiities which best suits my work but in essence selective-desaturation and contrast enhancement would be the way for Dan to go with his work.... Colin wrote that there was a vast amount of 'Flare' but no light to cause same ~ In my experience Autumn morning & noon shots in a 'decidious' Forest always cause this type of 'Flare' due the autumnal transparency of the foliage which diffuses all light and in particular UV-light which can be clearly identified....this does not happen in an 'evergreen' Forest. Just a thought... Brian.

Dan, Prior to you going on your 'Trip' I had sent you a P.M as agreed ~ but you never replied nor acknowledged that ! However having looked at your (sample) Photographs posted above, I'm afraid you have into fallen into a trap into which most new users of Digital-Cameras succumb.... In your case it seems that the Photos were taken somewhere around mid-day or shortly afterwards and you were facing South ~ thats the 1st. mistake. Secondly if you are photographing in Rainfall or in a Forest or shooting Snow-scene's you have to be aware of the following.... Digital-Camera's can see a much wider Colour-spectrum than what your eye's can see and in particular it's highly sensitive to (defracted) Ultra-violet radiation. In your case this diffusion is caused by UV-light impacting into Mist or Evaporation or Water-droplets which can sometimes be seen as a 'milky-cloud' but in fact its mostly invisable being in the upper Blue-spectrum which you cant see ~but~ the Camera will see it, particularily in a damp Forest. There are 2 remedies for this anomaly:- (1) Use a Circular-Polarised Lens Filter ~ (2) Post-processing with a Kodak or Cokin-001 Filter set at 5% (no luminosity correction)....This is available as "Opanda-Filter download". I attach 3 (corrected) Images viz:- Image-01-c The 'White-balance' of this was way-off and was corrected and Gamma was dropped to 0.8 then 'auto-levelled' Image-02-c Your original shot ~ again 'White-balance' corrected but now showed up the 'Blue-UV-tinge' (originally milky). Image-03-c Corrected with Cokin-001 Filter set to 5% ~ Now UV-filtered and showing the water-droplets on the tree-trunk on its North side ~ I could have gone to 10% with this but it would have been a little OTT. Hope this is of some help to you when dealing with outside Forestry- terrains and Snow-scene's. Brian.(Conflow)

Hi Tom, Yes ~ What you are proposing is a massive job not for the faint hearted as Eric has confirmed. Here in our Workshop we use "FireWire-Transfer" to our "LaCie" external HD-Backups. For truly massive data-transfers the "Firewire-System" can do the job in 40% of the USB-transfer time, furthermore the bigger the Files the faster that becomes. If you have a modern PC like Xp to Win.7..... it should have a "Firewire-Port" preinstalled on the rear Panel ~ then all you want is a new FireWire configured external HD. See attached PDF for more data. Brian (Conflow) Comparison of USB & FireWire.pdf

Tom, Whether you can recover Files partially or not at all depends on the type of 'ReFormat' which was executed,viz:- 1) Partial 'Reformat' is executed when the 'Operating-System' becomes defective and in this circumstance the original OP/System is simply 'over-written' with a new copy of itself. There are problems however because you have to install all the "Microsoft Priority-Updates" including .Net-Framework 1,2,3, and 4 so as to bring the last known functionalities up to date prior to the date of the 'reformat'. This is called Microsoft-OP/System-repair and usually your M/S Programs are left mostly intact, but you will have to selectively re-load others. 2) Full-Reformat ~ Directly from your "PC-System-Operation-Disc" ~ In this circumstance you will not be able to recover anything except residual 'junk' because major-sections of your HD are wiped completely after 'Scan-Disc' has checked your HD for bad sectors. Having done that it firstly rewrites the System-Bias-Files and then loads the 'basic-version' of your Operating-System and after this you have to download all the "Microsoft Priority-Updates" including .Net-Framework as in (1) above plus all Programs not incorporated within the OP/System-Disc. 3) There is another Hardware-Alternative whereby you purchase a "HD-Disc Reader" approx $60. You remove your HD from your PC and insert it into the Disc-Reader. The 'Reader' will fire up your HD and you will be able to copy up to 90% of your Files to another PC or Laptop ~ however some Files will not be 'copied-across' due to permanent damage to these. Hope this helps... Brian.(Conflow) Edited 10-10-12 Item (3) above will not work once you have performed a 'Full-Reformat'.

Hi Ray, Works perfectly on XP-Sp3 both from your direct 'Link' and from the 'Vimeo-Link' ~ just slightly out of focus on (Full-Screen) playback but thats to be expected with HTML. Browser "Pale-Moon" a Firefox based development of IE.8 ~ IE.9 without the IE limitations and very fast. Brian.(Conflow)

Dan, Your last Post really concerns me because I know for a fact that VLC-Player and Home-Cinema definitely play those files !! There is not much point considering a New-Camera if there is a problem with your PC which needs to be sorted first. My point being ~ if I or other Members wish to send you Demo-Videos from XXX-Camera you may get the wrong result to that intended by the contributor ~ lets have a look at the PC first. What Computer are you using ??....Make & Model and Operating-System would be of real help. QUESTION: When you downloaded the 2 New-Players did you "Set" their working Formats & Parameters ?? If not here below will show you how to do it with "Home-Classic-Media-Player" you will also have to do it with VLC. Edited at 15:00 Hours Brian (Conflow) P.S Dan, I just read your Post below and I will get back to you about it......XP-We use ourselves......But 1st. the Players.

Hi Dan, Just to get back to you on this issue of "Sound-pulsing" ~ I have found what your problem really is,viz:- The F72-Camera (2010) was Fuji's first adventure into the "Home-video Market" ~ they were playing it safe. ***...It only provides 2 Image-sizes 320x240 pixel and 640x480.pixel at 24.Frames/Sec. ***...The Images are in the format "MJpeg" (Motion-JPeg) ~ an absolute basic entry level. ***...The Sound-file is in "PCM-Format" ~ again an absolute basic entry level. 1) These are all wrapped into an AVI-Container (Audio/Video Interleaved)......Thats naughty as commercial AVI has moved on and is more or less standardised to various Mpeg-Formats (Video&Sound) although others still use it as a "Wrapper" for their particular products such as the examples above....(more below) 2) Although AVI was originally developed by Microsoft way back in the 1990's it was never designed to handle "PCM-sound" and even to this day it doesn't ~ that is unless you download a suite of Codecs called "Windows-Player Codecs" and they can give problems. The same goes for "WinAmp" an open.org variation of the Windws-Media Player. As they are now both players will attempt to render the Sound-track but because its in (contineous) PCM it literally 'chokes' the rendering system of the players giving rise to 'system-hunting' which causes your "wow-wow" effect. As your Camera stands now ~ Its only useful for making Flash and Swf Video for "You-Tube" etc. I have examples of both but I'm not allowed to download Adobe-Flash products here ~ I can send these privately if you wish. Note I would highly recommend that you downnlaod "Media-Player Classic (Home-Cinema)" ~ see links below and/or download VLC-Player a more "Universal" Multi-Media Player. You are going to need these Players one way or another and they play the above Flash-formats as well as everything else....(Attachments). Hope this is useful with your New-Camera considerations. Brian (Conflow) Media-Player-Classic (Link) http://www.snapfiles.../get/mpchc.html VLC-Player (Link) http://www.snapfiles...t/videolan.html

Dan, I played your 'Sound-Track' and recorded it into 'Audacity Sound-Editor' ~ firstly I had to raise its volume level by some 12.db to 'Normalise' it. At normal levels it replayed perfectly except for a tiny click at the end of the soundtrack ~ it sounded like a switch click. I then converted it into a WAV-Recording and also into an MP3-Recording ~ both replayed absolutely perfectly. As I have no idea what 'Equipment & Software' you are using to replay the track so any advice I might give is pure conjecture at this time ~ However I have experienced that "wow-wow effect" (only with contineous sound-level Tracks) like your's and that was caused by a loose intermittent 'Headphones-Jackplug' and on one occassion by an intermittent 'Speaker cable'......its definitely a System-fault not the Track. By any chance are you using a 'Sound-Player' with Echo & Reverb features ??.....If so turn-off these effects as they give "post-echo" with contineous sound-tracks. Here below are the 2 Tracks I recorded. Brian (Conflow) Mp3-Track.mp3 Wav-Track.wav

Hi Igor, Yes, the Canon-Powershot S-100 is an excellent (professional) 'Pocket-Camera' for those who can afford it. In the U.K its approx: £220 and in the U.S its about $ 340 and has now being replaced with the S-110 which costs about $.450 ~ and both of them do 1080 which also includes the Fuji-JX530 with AVCHD output (1080.out). We bought our 2.Fuji's from Argos a year ago at Eu.139 each now available from Amazon from as little as $.80....it certainly pays to wait !! Brian (Conflow)

Hi Dan, I very much appreciate your point of view concerning "Pocket-Cameras" ~ Yes, I carry a Fuji-JX.530 Pocket-camera with me virtually everywhere I go, simply for the convenience of it because I hate using my Panasonic-FZ48 while I am in transit from one place to another....That begs the question....Why a Fuji JX Series-camera ?? Because they take really good Photographs and they also provide superb AVCHD-Video (Licenced from Sony-Panasonic). The "downside" ~ Pocket-Cameras by virtue of their size and design can not provide decent Audio-recordings because they can not contain the sheer physical bulk of a Unidirectional-Cardoid Microphone (noise canellation type) and anyone who thinks they can is simply fooling themselves. The professional O/B Camera-Industry would be using that feature if possible !! The way around the problem is quite simple:- Purchase a small (pocket-sized) Digital Sound-Recorder together with a Cardoid Microphone and mount the Camera + Mic on to a "Camera Flash-Gun Bracket" with the ¼" inch Hand-screws provided and place the Recorder in your pocket ~ the whole set-up is hardly noticeble and the Sound-quality will be superb. Another bonus is that the 'Flash-Bracket' holds the Camera quite stable and you should get reasonable Hand-panning with it. (Suggest a Lab-Gear Dynamic-Cardoid Microphone 600-1000.ohms type ~ Reasonable and very robust with Wind-screen). Some shots from my Fuji-Pocket Setup as to the quality of that Camera-series. (Resized to 1280x720 for use here) Brian.(Conflow)

Hi Guys, I agree with Dave and Kens comments ~ its a matter of Machine-Mangement,for example:- a) Lost Files & Images used by PTE are quite easy to find. When you start a project in PTE it tells you whats missing (inc.Music). All you have to do is Copy the File-name from the "Missings-Window" then hit "Start"-->Search-->For Files &Folders, now when the Search-Widow opens simply "paste" the File-Name into the 'Search-Window' its 99% effective ~ it finds it. !! Alternatively a copy-shortcut of "My Search locations" can be placed within the Project-Folder ~ paste in the Title and Windows "Picture & Fax Viewer" or "Explorer" will find it.. c) Peters suggestion:....A shortcut to the "Windows-Search utility" could be Button operated from within PTE but thats quite tricky to impliment depending on the Operating-system in use, but the (aboves) could be alternatives. Other-Items Management (some suggestions) a) If Files need to be "Archived" they should be 'zipped-up' and transfered to an external Media ~ I personally use 16.Gb SD-Cards for downloaded 'Program-Resources' and for long term Library-archiving I use a remote HD-Drive or a CD-Disc. I never use the "Recycle-Bin" and as an alternative I always use a 16.Gb SD-Card permanently installed and all "Junk" goes in there, and from time to time the Card is "reformatted" ~ takes a few seconds and the PC stays clean and Disc-Defrag is faster. c) You might not know that the XP-Recycle Bin has an 8.Gb capacity-limit on any one "delete" operation and on Win.7 its 16.Gb. These capacities are easily exceeded when one is deleating a full Video-Folder ~ its the reason I use the 16.Gb SD-Card. Hope this info is of some use. Brian (Conflow)

Franz, Following on from Dave's suggestions you might like to try Jack Pazera's "Zune-Converter" ~ it has many options and I have used it for the past 2 years with good success. File-size only 3.6.Mz. (available from Snapfiles gratis). Image and details below. Hope it helps you. Brian (Conflow) Link; http://www.snapfiles...t/zunevcon.html

Jeff, Many thanks for your reply ~ Yes indeed 7.0.7 does 'Lock-Up' in certain circumstances and I had to use "Move-On-Boot" to get out because Task-Manager was also locked !! But my "BIG-PROBLEM" is that I cant get out of the situation where it 'ALWAYS OPENS' the last working Project where in fact I want to start a "New Test-Project"... if you have some time try and start a New-Project and you may experience my difficulty. I would value your comment on that. Brian (Conflow)

Use Full Screen to Read. Jeff, Quite a few Pte-Users have experienced your problem and myself included, and the problem is partly due to a "Conflict of interests" and also due to the new Program-structures within the new Versions of 7xxx ~ and I have found out as follows:- 1) If you choose to start a Replay-sequence from XX-Image sometimes PTE "thinks" you are playing a new Pte-Exe from that point whilst another "instance" of Pte is open ~ thats an "illegal call" and you get a Warning-message ~ You wrote Quote: "When trying to run a sequence from a particular slide i sometimes get the following error:- The process cannot access the file because ..it is being used by another process"...Unquote.....Thats one answer. 2) If you had extracted an Image from your Show for Editing purposes and had "re-installed" it again but the Image-Editor is still open in the System-Tray ie:- Icon open in the Bottom-Screen Toolbar ~ Pte will tell you that the Image is being used by another Process because that process is still "open" ~ Make sure all Image-Editors are closed before proceeding with your Show.. 3) As you know V7+ has its own Preview-Player but you also have other Media-Players on your PC (inc) the Win-Media Player and these players have various 'File-Association Lists' and you can designate one Player as "de-facto" the 1st.choice System-Player with all its 'File-Associations' fully active and ticked as "On Top or Default-Player". 4) Finally, if you had been using the "Media-Player" prior to opening and running the PTE-Program ~ some of these Players are capable of showing 'Static-images' by virtue of their "File-Association-Listings" (3.above) which include Jpegs,Tiffs,Bmps etc; and these Players can sometimes try to open those Image (by default) and consequently interfere with the PTE-sequence and of course Pte will report....... "Used by another Process"..... 5) In my opinion the following is a serious problem:- Each and every time I open V7.5+... it "Automatically-opens the Last Work in Progress" whereas it should open a "New-Project Screen" giving me the choice of selecting what I want to do. But despite all the Control-Boxes and Setup-ticks removed ~ it absolutely refuses to give me any choice of action unless I call for a "New-Project" with no Images nor Music and then Save and then Delete it.~Where after it opens~ (as it should) with a new "Blank-Project Screen" giving me back my option to choose. This is one for Igor and the Team Rule of Thumb: "Make sure there are no Editors nor Players active in the bottom Toolbar" ~ If you have to use Task-Manager to shut it, do so. Hope this helps, Brian.(Conflow)

Hi Dave, Yours above #18 Post ~ Yep !! your're right its ASP ~ I was looking at 2 incoming EMails whilst replying to you. Brian.

Hi Dave, Yes, I understand exactly and completely what you are trying to do, viz....Trying to find out how a "PTE-DVD" performs on various Video-Reproducers and the interaction of these one to another...PTE-DVD on DVD-Player ~and~ PTE-DVD Player to HDTV Set ~and~ PTE-DVD on Hybrid/Dvd Televisions and Blu-Ray.. You wrote,quote..."C is the common denominator - a bog standard DVD made in PTE with default settings". Unfortunately that "bog standard" PTE-DVD is a 'hybrid-system' developed by WnSoft and has more the characteristics of a VCD compared to a "bog-standard" Commercial DVD which will always be "Authored" and always feature its intrinsic Vob-Files necessary for "Universal-reproduction" on DVD Players. This is a fact of life with all new "Digital-TV Systems" whether its a TV-Set or modern DVD-Player ~ they all have to agree with the CCIR-EU Video Specifications. I also tried out the new (single-file) "PTE Mp4-Asf Video Format" on my equipment and yes it will play on selected "Hybrid TV-Sets" with intergrated Player but I had problems with Effects & Transitions ~ but once removed (except fade only) the Video-file played perfectly where as it wouldn't play on older DVD-Players because it was not authored. Many other Slideshow-Programs have "Intergrated DVD-Authoring" and work perfectly ~Now~ In my opinion if WnSoft were to offer a "DVD-Authoring Program" which could be purchased seperately for (approx) $20 ~ $30 I would be 1st in the queue of hundreds ~ it would be a marvellous asset for PTE-7.5 Slideshows. Finally, I really think you need to look at these problems from the point of view of the DVD-Player and the HD-TV Set and their specifications requirements. If you want to try "Authoring" you could try 'DVD-Flick' (Free) or DVD-Styler. Link: http://www.dvdflick.net/ I will leave you to it, and the best of luck with your research... Brian (Conflow)

(Please read in full-screen) Guys, The answer to your "Safe-Area" problems is on Pages 2 and specifically Pages 8+9 of the PDF which I posted on my #4 Post above ~ obviously nobody read the PDF. The "Safe-Area System" is a Technical & mandatory requirement in all "PAL-HD Television Transmissions" using the "HD-1080i Line -Scanning-system" also many modern Commercial-Film DVD-Discs incorporate the safe-area standard as does Blu-Ray and more modern DVD-Players. (read the PDF). Also if you connect your DVD-Player (Blu-Ray or otherwise) to your Television-Set via a "Scart or Hdmi Connector" it's no longer a TV-set but in effect t it becomes a "VDU-Display" or monitor for the transmitting device ie:- Your DVD Player.... Forget about the TV-function, it no longer exists ~ but the VGA-standards within the TV-Set are still very much alive and that includes any 'safe-area rule' built into the Vga-electronics within the TV-set. The 'Safe-area standard' is solely concerned with (non-motion) Caption-screens which must fall within a prescribed-area so they are clearly visible on all TV-Screens. If you are using an (older) DVD-Player with a modern HDTV-Set it may decide to treat the Video as a 'caption-set' and invoke the 'safe-area' rule however if the Video File format is 1280x720 Pixel.images and is "fully-authored" it most likely will replay it on the full HD-Screen but downgraded to standard Wide-screen format. If you are still getting 'Safe area' boundaries with your 1920x1080 Slideshow on a HD-TV Set it's most likely that your production was not "Authored" and/or.. you are using Effects which fall outside the prescribed "Time-limits" of the HD-TV Pal-System. (Try making a small Show without effects). Hope this helps ~ Copy PDF below. Brian.(Conflow) Standards for BBC-Television (Pal).pdf

Hi Dave, I've just come across your Topic and your request in your #1 Post above and the following attachments might help you. There is a lot of confusion about a Pte-Video ~v~ Commercial-Video and also in making TV-compatible DVD's suitable for playing on (Stand-alone) DVD-Players and on BluRay-Players. From my point of view having spent nearly 30 years in Video-Electronics both domestic & commercial, I can quite understand the 'frustrations' of many when trying to make a "Universal-DVD Disc". No matter what the applications a (Universal) "DVD-Television Disc" must be "Authored" with a suitable program capable of making the necessary VOB-Files (as root-directories) on the DVD-Disc. (See Image below). In relation to 'Safe-Screen-Area' ~ the vast majority of "Wide-Screen TV-Sets" are actually 14:9 Format not 16:9 and with 'Switching-selectivity' they can reproduce 4:3 ~ 16:9 ~ Wide ~ Zoom ~ Auto ~ "Screen-sizes" and can also handle various Line+Picture formats such as 1920 ~ 1280 ~ 1080 ~ 720 ~ 576 (Pal-Line formats). HD is solely 1920 but some Systems are using HD-1080. The Fields are usually "Interlaced" to give 25.fps...(2.Fields= 1.Frame). Progressive -scanning is also used @ 25.fps but usually for Static-Ads and suchlike. (non-motion) This discussion could probably go on forever, so its probably best that I give the (official) BBC-Standard Pal specfications here below as a PDF ~and~ a 'Link' to many more Spec...Audio etc. Concerning PTE I must say that Igor and Team have done their very best in making available such a hi-quality Mp4-Asf (Avi) format which can be reconverted into many others formats but "Authoring" is another issue which can attract Licencing costs to WnSoft and its a "Minefield". Hope the data below is of help to you. Brian.(Conflow) Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk...-delivery.shtml Standards for BBC-Television (Pal).pdf

Snapcam, This is just a thought::...When you downloaded Pte.7.5 and then went about installing it ~ I wonder if it 'actually' installed in your 32.Bit Program-Folder ?...or has it accidentally installed it into the 64.Bit Program-Folder ??? If the latter is the case then it will flag-up "Incompatible-Applications" and believe me it is a very common error . Brian.(Conflow)

Picsel and Fred, (Use full-page view) Piscel ~ Yes you are correct about PTE and MPEG4-Asp and Igor had done some exhaustive Testing on that element in PTE-Development. (See extract Image from a previous Igor-Post below). Fred ~ The reason I posted the 'Tech-Specs' of the Galaxy-Android Phone was because quite recently I received some images from a friend in Germany and these were MPEG-4/H264 and yes they came from his Galaxy-Android and yes you guessed it....I had a damn hard job trying to get them to work on my XP-Pro ~ but that was my experience ~ yours could be different and thats the reason for the 'Tech-Spec' in the hope that someone would 'pick-up' on the data and offer a "Fix"...and for that you have to thank Piscel.. Finding a Converter to do this job is like trying to find 'Hens-Teeth' and a similar topic is all over Google ~ but the following Program may help !! Piscel if you are reading this you might like to give the Converter-Program a "try-out"......its called "MP4CamAVI" Brian.(Conflow) MP4Cam2AVI.zip

Davy and Fred, I have been following this thread and although I am no Mac-expert ~something was bugging me~ so I delved into the Samsung-Galaxy Specs. The output(s) from the Galaxy seem to be Windows compatible and not (natively) MacAir compatible. Some brief Galaxy details below.,viz:- 1920x1080.pixels in formats:- 3/Gpp ~ H263 ~ H264 ~ Mpeg4 ~ Wmv all at 30.Fps and in my opinion if these are imported into the MacAir it must change the formats into something compatible with the MacAir like Quicktime or Mov. Fred then tried to import these Mac-formats back into a Windows-PC and naturally enough they would not work (different format) and you Davy then suggested a Converter which did work perfectly ~ Now Fred is trying to import a Windows video-product back into the MacAir and again it wont work unless converted back into the MacAir-format. It seems Fred is using some form of Back-Converter but it not working properly and it seems he is not using Bootcamp nor Fusion nor Parallels ~ but without details thats purely a guess !! I attach the "Galaxy-Specification-Sheet" (Zip-File) which may be of help to both of you ~ best of luck with it. Brian.(Conflow) Samsung-Galaxy-8mP-Specs.zip P.S...Should this topic not be down in the Mac-Pte Forum ?

Hi Barry, My apology ~ Now I've "got-ya" ~ I see what your trying to do, its a good suggestion for 'pre-authored' Slideshows like yours. As I had said, in my situation I have to face a barrage of Technical-questions based on the Video-Report I am presenting thus the reason for 'Manual-control' of the Show if and when I want it ~ I thought it may have been useful to yourself . Brian.(Conflow).

Barry, With respects you wrote... "I could do with a couple of seconds of silence inserted into an already made soundtrack. For example, between a short pause in the speech, I need to add a further 2 second pause to allow the image to be viewed longer"...unquote. While you're waiting for PTE to incorporate your request into some future Pte-version ~ My technique works right now "Live" on the spot and does exactly what you said above ~ It allows you to stop the Show at a particular Slide ~ that Slide remains on view ~ until you right click the RH-Mouse again. In my case I use a Radio-Mouse because I am talking about the contents of that Slide which is 'statically' on view. In this circumstance you have control over the "pause-period" but if it was programme into the Show how are you supposed to control a 'fixed' period ?? That simply doesn't make sense to me because I am answering questions during that "pause-period" and I have no idea how long that's going to be ~ but at least I have control over it. I expect its different Horses for courses... Brian (Conflow).

Hi Barry, I do a lot of "Visual Technical Reports" using PTE and like you I had a similar problem ~ "variable" Pause duration..... Yes ~ Its already incorporated into the PTE-Software ~ I'm using Pte-6.0 and 6.5 with Windows Xp-Pro. See the "attached" Image below as to how its set-up ~ One Rh-Clk = Stop and once again = Resume. Ohh and by the way its action is instantaneous ~ no smear. Give it a try, Brian.(Conflow)