Conflow

Hi Ron, Its nice to see that others are experimenting with Compact Flash Cards and various new Multi-Media Systems - its the way forward. Recently there has been a dramatic upsurge in 'New Presentation Technologies' particularily in the fields of Static Information Systems, Libraries, Museums, Instructional VDU's etc; The design criteria is very simple:- No moving parts, Vandal-proof, Child-easy and simple access to a bog standard Numeric Keypad. Ron, How is Copthorne these days ? - I spent many happy times wandering around Itchinore Harbour & Marina where we had a Boat, and of course Arundel Town and that fabulous Castle you have. For the benefit of readers this is a most magnificent part of England, very Tudor and very much hidden away - someday Ron you must get around to putting some photo-wallpaper on your very nice Webpage. Best wishes from Dublin, Brian Kelly.Conflow.

Hi Al, I owe you that 'pint' - Guinness or what ? I'm looking forward to a good "brain stormer" in Dublin,Sat 19th - Shuuush..... we might have to send the women shopping or risk getting 'shot' by them if we go too far with this topic in company. Well, you know how they are on Holidays, I can't blame them, I'd say there are a few wry grins on the faces of lady members of the Forum right now ? Lets pick it up on Sat 19th. - we hope ! See you soon, Brian Kelly.Dublin.

Technical Forum (Presentation Technology) I also agree with Al, Denwell, Alan, David, MikeL and others who concur on the idea of a Technical Forum. Taking up on Al's point of "such diversity of interest..." it would seem that the new Forum is already in existance judging by the caption on the top of this page:- New Techniques Forum - perhaps it should be called "Techno Forum" which would cover all aspects of:- * Audio/Visual Technology (Camera,Projector & Sound equipment Utilities) Group A * Production Technology (PTE Programming and the A/V Program assembly) Group B * PC Platform Mechanics (PC.Hardware & Software problems running PTE) Group C * Diverse PTE Applications (Diverse Technology Formats for presenting PTE) Group D When one surveys all the 'mail' in the Forums a definite pattern emerges and by popularity they pan out as follows:- Group B, Group C, Group A, and recently emerging is Group D. The emerging 'new' technologies Group D must not be ignored - AFTER ALL - who demands that I use CD-Rom or DVD or PC.Hard-drive ?? Currently I am experimenting with putting a PTE Show on 'Compact Flash Card' and on the new IDE Flash Module - Why ? - no moving parts and massive memory providing very good colour and excellent sound and virtually wear-out proof - and STABLE. Within a very short time the CD-Rom and the C-Drive and the PC as we know it will be things of the past. One only has to look at Industry to see this happening now in the form of Micro-Controllers, which use a form of 'Unix' dispensing with Windows platforms. No don't panic they are quite capable of handling Visual C++ (Window visual basic program) So PTE will still work, but so much better, and we all know how good it is now ! Excuse my ramblings, I thought I would throw a few ideas into the 'pool' and why not ? as we all enjoy the fruit's of the PTE Program and is it not a fact that we owe Igor & the Team more International support through a good healthy Co-operative 'Techno Forum'- An excellent idea and one I feel would be well supported - count me in. All the best, Brian Kelly. Conflow Dublin conflow@iol.ie.

Hi Al, Many thanks for the reply, - I have already tried out a 10 Button PTE (Object Editor) algorithm, which works great - but still requires "Mouse selection" or "Keyboard arrows" for activation. Also my proposer does not want the System to 'auto-run' nor 'auto-loop'. What I am trying to do:- (a) Dump the PC.Keyboard, and ( Dump the Mouse- The reason being to prevent un-authorised access to the PC or Dumb Terminal and make the Auto-Presenter 'childproof' and for that matter 'idiot & vandal-proof'. Providing a simple Numeric Keypad (IBM Code) connected in place of the standard PC. Keyboard and bolted on to a counter would provide very high security but with limited access to the System but sufficient enough to run any Slide as a "one-shot" then return to a Main Menu. Anyway, I'm looking forward to meeting you next week and we can trash the idea around. Thanks again Al, Brian Kelly.Conflow. conflow@iol.ie

Hi Forum, This enquiry is probably best addressed to Advanced Members of the PTE Forum. Is it possible ? or has anybody any experience of the following Task I am attempting ? I shall keep it absolutely simple so the numerics below are for example purposes,viz:- 1) There is a Numeric Keyboard (Telephone Type) 0-9 plus * and # and additional Button. 2) There are 10 Slides with Sound Commentaries (each of different lenghts) 3) There is a Printed List of the 10 Slides with a Printed Numeric Code for each slide. The 'idea' being that a Student or Visitor see's the 'Printed List' and selects a 'Slide Topic' then enters the selection code on the Keypad, press go, and the Slide Plays automatically. On completion of the task the System returns to an 'On-Screen' Menu and parks itself. The "design requirement" is to provide a "dumb Terminal" WITHOUT A PC KEYBOARD and only provide a 'tamperproof' Numeric Keypad. Yes,I am familiar with Electronic Design, Ascii Codes, Keypad Encoders etc; - However I am not familiar enough with the PTE Program and therefore would not know if this is possible. It may be that some of our Software Members have already done this ? Thanks in anticipation, Regards, Brian Kelly.Conflow.Dublin conflow@iol.ie

Hi Guido, With respect, I think you may be missing the point I was trying to make - Quite simply where I come from (Ireland) most Computers sold to the domestic Irish Consumer over the past few years are sold with very little "User Ram Memory"- that is until the recent advent of Win XP on our Markets. Having said that, I was referring to the PC's I came across in my Survey,very few of them had anything in excess of 68mB of User Ram. Now as you know, at least 20-30mB of this is being used by the PC itself which leaves very little left to 'construct' a PTE.Exe Program - apart alltogether- from playing a CD copy of that Program. Your Pentium 266 started off with 256mB of Ram (4 times what I am talking about) and of course its very easy for the '266' to contineously refresh that amount of Ram, now if you only have 68mB of Ram its another story,viz:- 20-30 for the Pc, 22 for your Program and the rest to play off the CD, which means NO RESOURCES LEFT FOR for any other dependent programs listed in the Start Menu. In this case scenario Windows Explorer 'crashes or freezes' particularily with 95, 98, and 98se platforms. The point I was making is, "Small User Ram = Trouble" and its not readily apparent to non-technical PC users who mistakenly blame the Program for this anomoly. I hope this clears up any misunderstanding and I still advise my PTE users to purchase more that the "miserly' 68mB or Ram supplied with older versions of Windows. Best wishes from Ireland. Brian Kelly.Conflow.

Hi Forum, I have been reading the Post from Bill,Dave,Al and Diana about "Computers Freezing" and for what its worth I have found that a major cause of "Frozen PCs" is lack of User Memory or User RAM. I undertook a small survey of Neighbourhood PC's, the usual gambit of 98's - 98'Se, ME's and XP's and found - right across the board - unless you have a minimum of 128mB of User Ram (and thats small) you simply are "not at the races" PTE is very demanding on User Ram - its not the programs' fault - rather the problem is one of how you, the user, are deploying the User Ram (do not confuse with your Hard Disc) If you want the PC to be "all singing & dancing" you had better reach for your Checkbook and purchase at least 256mB if not 512mB of Ram, I will also add that the fastest PC is absolutely useless without adequate RAM. Its a shame that PC vendors don't tell people that hard fact, of course its all in their interest of keeping the prices low so they can SELL ! I agree with Al Robin, "KEEP IT SIMPLE", a PC is not a Multi-Tasking Computer it can only do one job at at time - although it appears to be doing much more. Another tip - don't mix Sound Formats, such as an Mp3 followed by a Wav file and so on. Better to keep your Soundtrack(s) as Mp3 and Voiceovers/Effects as short Wav's. Hope this is of some help. Brian Kelly. Conflow.Dublin

Hi Igor, I know that you are inundated with Post - but first things first - PTE 4.2 is a truly wonderful job, what can I say that hasn't already been said ?? thank you again. SMALL BUG - NAVIGATION BAR:- Normal industrial conventions state that this (arrow --->) is forward direction but your text states "previous slide" and conversely this (arrow<----) indicates last/reverse but your text states "next slide" - I know its a small bug, but it can be annoying once an EXE is made and you can't change that. HIDE NAVIGATION BAR:- This would be a great feature for Small Screen VDU's and Full-Screen Images and I think the facility is really important and a little used "radio button" is already provided for this job. Go to 'Project Options' - Advanced Tab - Disable Mouse Wheel - underneath this is display/ hide Mouse XXX seconds etc; Could the 'Disable Mouse Wheel' be changed to "Hide Navigation Bar" click/unclick and the timing factor be governed by the "Timing Buttons" for Hide/Unhide Mouse ? Like MGI Photosuite, any movement of the Mouse would restore the 'Navigation Bar' ? I am sure there are many Forum Members like myself, who would like that facility ? Best Wishes from Dublin. Brian Kelly.Conflow. conflow@iol.ie

Hi Dave, I had similar problems when I first started to use PTE. I found that PTE is rather sensitive to Background Music files that Start/Stop within 250mS of the start point of a Transition. The problem is common to Wav and Mp3 files and in particular with Mp3's "stitched together" on the same Time Line. In so much that the "stitching" must be seamless - without gaps - its very easy to overlook this when you are sound editing. In most cases the Pte Program "hangs" and goes no-where, and in the process it also hangs Explorer and nothing but a 'reset' will restore normality. In defence of this 'quirk' I must say that I have never lost a file after reset. Hope this is of help. Brian Kelly.Conflow.

Igor, I am a new member. and after years of purchases and hunting around for a functional Slide Show Program, I accidentally came across your PTE Program - an excellent product. It does exactly what I want it to do. You are looking for suggestions, I have 3 :- 1) Auto-Hide the Navigation Bar. The program MGI Photosuite 8.0 does this within 5 secs of Show Start and when you move the Mouse it pops up again - stays there as you use it - or vanishes again. 2) A Light/Dark or Colour Bar Appended to each Image (in the Image List) which has been entered into the main Program Window - or some colour method of indicating the images entered into the Main Window. 3) Thumb-Nail Preview Screen Organiser. The best I have worked with is definitely the Mgi Photosuite version and then Irfanview. With best wishes, Brian Kelly. Conflow. Dublin conflow@iol.ie

William, I had the same problem myself a short while ago when I installed a new Graphics Card:- (Amongst other things,its the gadget that makes your Monitor work) All Monitors have a 'Picture Refresh Rate' usually about 70 Frames per/second. (Fps) On larger Monitors set to 1024x768 display size you need to check the Refresh rate and make sure its at least 80 Fps or higher- otherwise noticeable flikker will ensue. Each Graphic Card is different in terms of set-up as are PC.Monitors, some Monitors can be damaged with higher Fps.rates. You need to check with your PC.Technician to assertain if the settings are correct for your Graphics Card and Monitor and more important can they support the high quality which is demanded by the PTE Program. Hope this is of help, Brian Kelly.Dublin. conflow@iol.ie

Hi Guys, Special thanks to AL, Ken, Alan - I finally got PTE up and running perfectly as I wanted it - AL,you were right, and at my age and experience I should never take things for granted !! Having loaded and activated PTE V.420 I was absolutely convinced I was running on that platform. I uploaded my CD-Show copied & pasted it into V.420, then ran it and Saved As the "Origional File Name"... Little did I know that the damn thing had evoked V.414 which I had set aside in a Double Folder just in case - It had simply over written itself as a V.414 File... @*##@%&<?... Thats how I felt... I found a much better way of importing V.414 Files into the V.420 Program, with Explorer:- a) Find the Folder where you saved your Show (*.pte) Exe File - open the Folder and then minimise it to the Taskbar. Find the PTE V.420 Folder and 'Open it' and leave it Open. c) Now maximise the Show Folder and "drag" the Show Exe File onto the PTE Exe Icon. d) A window will open, now Left Click on "Open with..." - The file will auto-load into V.420, now run it and Save it as a V.420 File - works perfectly for me every time. You can do this much faster on the Desktop by creating 2 File Shortcuts and dragging the Show (*.pte) straight across onto the PTE Exe Icon. NOW SAVE IT AS A V.420 File. Best Regards, Brian Kelly.Conflow.Dublin. conflow@iol.ie

Hi Al, I made a reply to your suggestion and posted it into the "Add Reply Section" - hope I am doing this correctly - Brian Kelly.Conflow.Dublin. conflow@iol.ie

Hi Al, Many thanks for the quik response,I downloaded PT101 Tutorial- an excellent presentation, terse,factual and to the point - wonderful job. After much burning of "midnight oil" I had the whole thing up and running perfectly by 3:00am and then the bombshell ? * Navigation Bar is not available in Auto-Synchro Mode ? * Navigation Bar is not available in Custom Synchro Mode ? * Navigation Bar only available in Free-Run Mode, which looses Soundtrack Sync etc;- I find this to be incredulous, seeing as the Nav Functions (Start,Stop,Pause,Drop-In) work so very well in the Customization Window - perhaps I am overlooking something ? Part of my job is to give Lectures, usually I run the Slide Show straight through then I scroll it and stop on various Slides to Lecture on various 'on-screen' topics. This is the reason I needed the Custom Synch features in the 1st.instance - so I would not loose background synchronization within the remaining content of the Show - all I want is Pause, Exit ? - Is this possible ? Again many thanks for your help - may I digress and thank Alan Lyons and Clive for their resposes, yep! you guys, I got the plug about Belfast - Brian Kelly.Conflow Dublin. conflow@iol.ie

Hello from Ireland - Is there anywhere on the Forum where I can find 'Instructions' to use the PTE facility "Customize Synchronisation" ? Each time I try to use the facility I seem to make an absolute mess of it !! Brian Kelly. Conflow.Dublin conflow@iol.ie