goddi

===================== Brian... Thanks for the reply but I don't have a problem with playing any mp4 or DVD or any video file. My problem is much less serious. It only has to do with setting up the HomeCinema program to automatically play any file, specifically the mp4s that PTE creates. The problem is getting Windows XP (SP2) to let me associate the mp4 extension with the HomeCinema program that Igor recommended to play the PTE's mp4 files. I wanted to be able to click on any mp4 file in MyComputer so Windows would automatically play it with HomeCinema. HomeCinema will play the mp4 but I have to open the program first, then browse to the mp4 to play it. I now find that I can associate mp4s with the VLC Media Player that Peter recommended. So I am just not going to use HomeCinema for now. Thanks... Gary Added later: Well, I thought I had it all under control. I now see that even the VLC Media Player bites the dust, too. I played an mp4 with it, though its file association to mp4s. Then I tried it again and got a Windows error message: "VLC media player has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." I re-installed it and now it won't even open the mp4 file in MyComputer. The mp4 will open/play if I open the VLC, then browse to the mp4 file...just like HomeCinema makes me do. Oh...boy. I guess I am back to using QuickTime. Back to square-one.

========================= I kinda see what you are saying but I have only one 'mplayerc.exe' and that is for HomeCinema 1.2908.0. I did a Search. No matter what I do, the file association will play whatever program I had the cursor sitting on when I did a Browse to "Always use the selected program...". Must just be a Windows thing... Gary

========= Brian... I looked at each of my players and none of them have the "Always on Top" ticked. So, at least in my case, that does not seem to have any effect on the problem of file association with the "HomeCinema" program. Gary

============== Peter and DaveG, I finally gave up. I dumped both Quicktime and Winamp, and I still could not get the HomeCinema to associate with the mp4 extension. I reinstalled both. Then I installed the VLC media player and it works just find and associates with the mp4. The VLC seems to be the trick. Thanks. I think it is just the way HomeCinema was programmed. Gary

======================= Nobeefstu... Yes, Windows does have the .mp4 extension in its File Types. I tried re-setting the file association as you mentioned. No luck. I even deleted the MP4 association it had and made a new one but it wants to associate it with Quicktime. No matter what I do, I can not get the MP4 to be associated with HomeCinema. I do see that the Program list does show the icon for HomeCinema, but Windows will not let me do a file association with it. Gary

======================== Peter, Yes, I tried that but it does not help. But I did just notice something. After I did the Browse to the location of the HomeCinema's exe file, Windows is not pulling it into the list of Recommended Programs. I noticed this because if I just happened to have my cursor on a non-video program, like Acrobat, then click on "Always use...", the Acrobat program will try to play the MP4, even though I had finished the process and selected the HomeCinema program. Windows is ignoring my selection and defaulting back to whatever I happened to have had the cursor on before I selected the HomeCinema program. Must be just a Windows bug. As soon as I click into the "Always use..." block, the highlighted program, like Acrobat, would go grey, so you'd think it would not be selected as the program to use...but it does. It is ignoring my choice for HomeCinema and reverting back to whatever I apparently had the cursor on when I started the process. Strange. I just wonder if others have this same problem setting up the MP4 file association with HomeCinema. Gary Added later: I dumped the program and reinstalled it and I still have the same problem. I think that it is just not registering in Windows properly. Not sure why, though.

QUOTE (admin1 @ Oct 24 2008, 06:26 PM) * The best result with software player is using of free Media Player Classic HomeCinema: http://www.wnsoft.com/soft/other/setup_mpc.exe It already includes all necessary decoders to play created video files with slideshows. ================= Greetings, Now that I am using PTE to create some MP4's, I want Igor's recommended HomeCinema program to play the files. However, my problem is I can not get the file associations to work. I want to be able to just click on the MP4 file in MyComputer so the HomeCinema program will automatically open it, as Windows does with other programs. Each time I click on an MP4, either Winamps or Quicktime opens the file. Winamps gives me only audio and I don't like how Quicktime operates. I have gone into both of these programs and manually taken off their association with MP4 files. I have also tried the 'Open With' in Windows and browsed to the HomeCinema's exe and clicked on the "Always use...". Even when this is done, it reverts to the Winamp or Quicktime program to play the MP4, not HomeCinema. The only way to play the MP4 in HomeCinema is to actually open the HomeCinema program first and open the MP4 directly there. Kind of a pain. Is there any way to make the MP4 file association work with this HomeCinema??? I am using Windows XP. Thanks.... Gary

=============== Lin... Thanks for the nice words. But 'mastered'?,....not. I just discovered how to do something that most of you do with your hands tied behind your backs. But thanks to all of you on the Forum, I pick up hints on things that I don't really understand and make an attempt. I marvel at many of the really intricate shows you and others have done. It keeps my brain working...PTE is a great program. Gary

Greetings, If the user has ticked Auto spread slides along music and then either adds or removes slides, the show will not play properly in the mini-player. PTE should, ideally, re-spread the slides along the music automatically, or at the very least, give the user a pop-up reminder that the slides need to be re-spread. Otherwise, the show will not play properly in the mini-player. While the slides and music will play properly (slides evenly spread along the music) in Preview and as Created, it will not play properly in the mini-player. As it works now, to get the mini-player to play the show properly, the slides must be re-spread along the length of the music by going into the Timeline and select Timed Points and then Arrange all points. Thanks... Gary

=============== Peter....Yaaahoooo!!! That's 2 of us. I am going to put your succinct rephrasing of the problem in the Idea forum. Thanks... Gary

Peter, Ok...I just did a test and, yes, I see your point that the mini-player will show the 'autospread' effect only initially. And, then, if images are added to the slidelist, for example, the music will not automatically be re-spread over the new longer number of images in the slidelist. The music will stop right where it stopped originally and the remaining slides will have no music played as the slides are displayed. From what I read, it seems that this is OK and normal, and this is the way it should be. However, this, to me, is a bug or major defect in the program. Why shouldn't the program automatically re-spread the music over the new number of images when you have the Auto spread slides along music selected? If PTE re-spreads the music for Preview, I think it should do this for the mini-player too. This would remove the requirement to have to go into the Timeline to do the Timed Points/Arrange All Points steps. I think the way it is only causes confusion to, especially, new users who have no idea how to use the Timeline, (like I had been). It if can't be made to do it automatically, I would suggest that, if b]Auto spread slides along music is selected, anytime an image is added or removed, a button should pop up to allow the user to 're-spread' the slides along the music without having to get into the Timeline menu to go through the Timed Points/Arrange All Points to do this. Thoughts??? Gary Added later: And also, if you have music that lasts, say 2 minutes, and all the slides are spread over that time, and then you dump many slides leaving the slides that played up to the, say, 30 seconds point, the mini-player will just stop playing the music at the 30 second mark and the user will just wonder what happened. Does not make sense to me.

Greetings... I finally figured out how to use the Timeline, at least to a limited point. All of my past slideshows have use the 'Autospread' technique, which has worked out well. I needed a new challenge. I found some music and some old images that would lend itself to working in the Timeline. After reading many of the Forum postings, I figured out how to position the images so the transitions can be made to the beat of the music. Here is my first attempt using the Timeline, called Wild Thing, posted at Beechbrook: http://www.beechbrook.com/pte/ Gary

===================== Peter... We have been through this discussion before so if I have forgotten something, let me know. But, I don't understand your last statement, "The effect of "Auto-spread" cannot be viewed in the mini-player area of the main window. It can only be viewed during full-screen Preview or in a Created file." Are you sure? I don't think I have seen that the mini-player does not show the 'Auto-spread' effect. However, I always go into the Timeline/Timed Points and click on Arrange All Points which will actually re-do the 'Auto-spread' effect and reposition all the slides if you have added/deleted slides in the process of making the show. This, I think, will then show the correct 'Auto-spread' effect in the mini-player (and maybe Preview and Create???). I think that when someone uses the Auto spread slides along music, they MUST do the Timeline/Timed Points/Arrange All Points dance to insure all the slides have been spaced evenly across the music. Please correct me if I am wrong... Gary

=============== Just to let you know, I tried my recently created Beta9 15-minute show in Beta10 and I did not have any problems. I opened the show in Beta10, saved and made exe and played in Preview and no problems. No help for you, but just to let you know I did not run into such problems. Gary

============= Brian... Great. Glad to see you are working on this strange thing. It only happened to me once but it wasn't logical on how I got rid of it and I just can't remember what really got it to disappear. Keep us posted on what your results are. Thanks... Gary

============== Patrick, The first thing I would do is download the latest Beta 5.61 and see what happens. Bring the show into this new version and save it as a different named file. See what happens. Maybe Igor addresses this problem in one of the versions since 5.22. You can, of course, install it in its own folder and keep both versions for testing. Let us know if the latest Beta has any effect on solving this problem. Gary

======================== Patrick, I took a look at the first couple of slides you posted and I had the same problem some time ago. Take a look at the first posting I made here back in Sept. 2008: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....99&hl=goddi The bad thing is I don't know how I fixed it. I think I did a Set Defaults in the Comment tab. Somehow, it went away. I think I was fiddling around with the text size or something and just could not figure out what was going on. But I got the same blurry Comments as you have. Which version are you using? I had the problem with whichever was the latest version back in Sept. 2008. If you do a Set Defaults, it will reset all of your settings back to every Default setting for the entire slideshow. Sorry I don't know exactly what I did to fix it but it seems it can be rectified. See if the Set Defaults button works. Gary

============================= I think I just found the answer to my question about the effect of having the "Auto Spread..." box checked when using the Timeline: "But I am wondering if having the "Auto Spread Slides Along Music" check makes any difference when using these steps. I practiced your steps with a slideshow that was already "Auto Spread...". I assume it is better if it is unchecked but your steps seem to work whether it is checked or not...only dimmed when checked. Though it might not be logical to have it checked, what is the effect of keeping it checked?" I just put together a slideshow trying to transition the images based on the beat of the music. Using the Timeline, everything went well. When I played it in the miniplayer, the transitions were spot-on. However, when I used Preview, the timing was off. After much fiddling, I found that when I unchecked the "Auto Spread...", the timing in Preview was then correct. I think there should be something that would warn the user that if you are using the Timeline to set the images to the music, the "Auto Spread..." box MUST be unchecked in order for the mini-player AND Preview to play as you expect. It has only taken me a few years to figure this out, so a new user might get as frustrated as I have been until he gets this figured out. I am not sure how PTE should be modified to avoid this problem but I think it should be addressed. Am I correct in my thinking here??? Thanks... Gary

============= Peter... Yes...I gave it a try. Very interesting. There are lots of "quirks" in the program that are not so obvious. Thanks for the tip. Gary

==================== Peter... Yet another revelation revealed!!! I was just browsing around and found your posting. I've been using PTE for years and stayed away from the Timeline because I could not figure out what the heck to do with the options it has. Thanks much for shedding some light on this mystery. Now I might even try to do something more fancy with Timeline. And...in trying out your suggestions, I discovered that I could stop/start the miniplayer with the spacebar, which makes inputing the New Transitions much easier. Wow!!! But I am wondering if having the "Auto Spread Slides Along Music" check makes any difference when using these steps. I practiced your steps with a slideshow that was already "Auto Spread...". I assume it is better if it is unchecked but your steps seem to work whether it is checked or not...only dimmed when checked. Though it might not be logical to have it checked, what is the effect of keeping it checked? Sincerely, Gary

============ DaveG, Yes, I understand your point now. However, I try to make my slideshows so that they will play on both the computer and when played from a DVD. So I have the TV Safe Zone appear while I am making the show to be sure that the text does not have to be moved if I happened to burn the show to a DVD. Igor gave a response on how to untick the "Pan and scan" in Custom to avoid having the problem I had with the text being cut off, even though the text was within the TV Safe Zone. And also note that the text is cut off when playing the mp4 on the PC. So the text would be cut off whether you made the mp4 for the PC or for a DVD. Gary Added later... And the fact that I my project setting was 4:3 and I created the HD in 1280x720, probably is part of the problem. But I am 'unskilled' in what happens when you use these different settings. Perhaps if the original show was made in 1280x720, I would not have had this problem. My bad...

==================== Igor... Yes, thanks for clearing this up. I did tests in Custom, with and without the "Pan and scan" ticked. When the "Pan and scan" was unticked, the text in the slideshow came out as it did in the original exe. It was not cut off. So, I don't understand why you should have to go into Custom to make the slideshow come out as you would expect it to be (same as the original). Don't you think the 'default' preset should do this??? I think that when someone chooses a non-Custom preset, it should come out the way you might expect it to...same as the original exe. Maybe I am missing something here, but I think that the default for the non-Custom presets should have the "Pan and scan" unticked. If someone wants to make it different than the original look, then they should have to go into the Custom settings to make the change. (And I have no idea what "Pan and scan" means or why one would choose it.) Gary

==================== Igor... Yes, thanks for clearing this up. I did tests in Custom, with and without the "Pan and scan" ticked. When the "Pan and scan" was unticked, the text in the slideshow came out as it did in the original exe. It was not cut off. So, I don't understand why you should have to go into Custom to make the slideshow come out as you would expect it to be (same as the original). Don't you think the 'default' preset should do this??? I think that when someone chooses a non-Custom preset, it should come out the way you might expect it to...same as the original exe. Maybe I am missing something here, but I think that the default for the non-Custom presets should have the "Pan and scan" unticked. If someone wants to make it different than the original look, then they should have to go into the Custom settings to make the change. (And I have no idea what "Pan and scan" means or why one would choose it.) Gary

================== DaveG, I am not sure what you are asking. I only did a simple Create HD Video to produce the mp4's. The PTE show that I was using was produced making sure that the text that I included was within the TV Safe Zone. My point was that the text that was within the TV Safe Zone (in the exe version) was cut off when I made the 1280x720 version, as opposed to the 800x600 version where the text was not cut off. The text was just above the TV Safe Zone at the lower part of the image. As far as size goes, the final size of the 1280x720 was 116 mb and the 800x600 was 32 mb (the exe was 44 mb). So I don't see any problem burning them to a DVD, which I have done, and I have played them on my PC. They will not play on regular DVD player. Gary

=============== Igor, Good news. I was able to create, in Beta 5, an HD of the slideshow that I was having difficulties with in Beta 4. I made a 1280x720HQ and an 800x600LQ. Both looked just fine. One thing I noticed is that I have some text at bottom of one slide. In the 800x600, it showed correctly. However, in the 1280x720, this text was cut off. It was created in 4:3. It might just be the nature of the 1280x720 conversion. But I had the text within the 'safe TV zone' and the Screen was set to 94%. I figured that would be enough not to cut off any part of the slideshow. Is this what should be expected? Thanks... Gary P.S. I noticed also that the Grid features were not improved yet. Hopefully, next go-round, when the C is pressed the orange cross-hairs will automatically be placed in the center of the image window. And the outside orange lines are still not equi-distant from the edges of the image window when 'C' is hit. I do see that only when pixels are set to 102, the left, top and right orange lines do surround the image window. Maybe 102 should be the default?