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Conflow

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Posts posted by Conflow

  1. Keyboard Selection of Slide(s)

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    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 ! :rolleyes:

    See you soon,

    Brian Kelly.Dublin.

  2. New Techniques Forum

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    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.

  3. Keyboard Selection of Slide(s)

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Brian,

    You could try preparing 12 slides, each with the same 12 buttons, and have only the appropriate button on each slide programmed to go to slide number "x", where x is the next digit in the sequence.      

    If someone were to press a wrong button, that button would be programmed to go to a "dummy" slide with the same 12 buttons, but going nowhere.     The person would not know he or she was at a dummy slide, as transitions to each slide would be imperceptible.    

    Then, the last digit in the sequence would take one to the slide with the "go" button activated to either start another show or go to yet another slide which would be the starting point for the show.    

    If this doesn't work, we can discuss it in more detail at Davey Byrnes next week.   :)

    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 (B) 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

  4. Keyboard Selection of Slide(s)

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    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

  5. I'm freezing people's computers

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I agree with Ronnie. But I wish to tell Brian "Conflow" that PTE is not "very demanding on User Ram".

    I can say this not only because I know how PTE works, but also on the basis of personal tests. I just checked on this by making a presentation with rather big images (500-700 KB each) and a Wav soundtrack. I chose (I'm at work) an old Pentium II 266 machine with 256 MB Ram, with the hard disk full of program files (near 100!) and very few system resources.

    Well, before I ran the presentation the computer was slow, but there were still 102 MB of free Ram. During the presentation the free Ram got down till 92, then 82, 80 and 92 again, but never below 80. In other words, my PTE presentation made with big images and sound files used no more than 22 MB of Ram.

    And it ran, with its fading transitions, on an old Pentium 266 machine!

    However, with uncompressed images or sounds, some problems can come out because of the (relative) slowness of CD in comparison with a Hdd.

    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.

  6. I'm freezing people's computers

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Thanks Alrobin and Ronniebootwest!

    Well, I now have the photos compressed (57 photos) and saved as jpg's. The music is mp3 and it stops playing half way through the CD (when playing off the CD)

    Any suggestions?

    Diana

    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

  7. Small Bug PTE 4.2

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    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

  8. Lockup 118

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I just created my first show with PTE and when I run it, it locks up on slide 118. I cannot get it to go past it. I can delete slides and add new ones but still stops at 118 no matter if there's 119 or 125 slides in the show.

    File size is 69.8mb and is playing with music, which keeps playing even though the slides have stopped.

    Any ideas anyone?

    -Dave

    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.

  9. The next most important features

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    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

  10. Flicker during fade

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Hi,

    I was very impressed when I saw how easy it was to create an AV display with PicturesToExe, I thought I'd try to create one of my own from bluebell pictures I took at Wakehurst Place last weekend.

    The AV file is at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/wawatson/Wake...kehurst0404.exe

    The only problem (apart from lack of innate artistic ability) I had was that the fade from one picture to another could flicker quite noticeably (especially towards the start of the show). I can't work out why ... Has anyone else noticed this, or is there a standard remedy for this problem?

    Cheers,

    William

    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

  11. PTE Custom Synchronisation

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    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

    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.

    B) 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

  13. PTE Custom Synchronisation

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Hi, Brian,

    Welcome to the Forum!

    You could have a look at my basic tutorial, PTE 101, available as a free download at Beechbrook Cottage , page 4.

    And, if you have any specific questions, don't hesitate to post them to the Forum.

    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

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