goddi

Yes... some things can be used for evil...and some for good. It was a heartbreaker when I lost my images only to be locked up in PTE. But now I can free them and redo the slideshows with the new version with more creativity. Too bad we still have to worry about the evil part. Gary

I have been intrigued with the possibilities of this program. When my PC crashed some time ago and my backup failed (long story), I lost a lot of my original images that I used to create many of my PTE shows. And when I created each PTE show, I reduced the resolution of each image to make the PTE file smaller. I lost all of those too. So all I have is the final PTE show. Now, I would like to extract all the images from the old shows and re-do them in the new PTE version. If I use this program to 'extract' the reduced resolution images from my old PTE shows, and re-do the slideshow, will I get the same quality of the images that I had in the old PTE slideshow? Thanks... Gary

Thanks, Lin. This will have to due until/if PTE makes it more flexible. It would be sooooo nice. Gary

Lin... Thanks for the detailed explanation. I've got a better understanding. Gary

Lin... Is it a technical problem that does not allow the ability to just include 'Add Text' or 'Add Image' capabilities as there is in the O&A? I am not sure what you mean by 'adding a couple tiny avi files.' I don't understand how you would do this in the DVD title creation page. There isn't any menu to add anything that I can see. Thanks... Gary =========================

I'd like to be able to add additional and separate "Title" lines (and be able to change each line's font) when you first start creating the Title page in the Video setup. It would be nice to be able to get more flexible in creating text in the Title page. Thanks... Gary

I see what you are saying in the ability to do multiple lines. But I would like to insert, say, 3 lines that are independent of each other so I can resize each one separately (and move them around), so I can have line 1 a larger font; line 2 a smaller/different font; etc. I'd like just more control over the formating of the title page. You can even copy/paste line 1 and make changes to it like you do within most Windows applications. It would just be nice to have more flexibilty. Gary

I made a PTE slideshow. I then created a DVD Video. In the process of creating the DVD, I saved the template that I had created for the DVD. Now I want to add some additional separate text lines to the saved PTV file. However, after I open it up, there does not seem to be a way to add text except to start all over again. Is there some way of adding text to the already saved PTV file without having to redo the entire template? And I now notice that I can not add a second separate "Title" line when you first start creating the Title page. Is there a way to get more flexible in creating text in the Title page? Thanks... Gary

Cool...thanks much. I didn't realize it was already discussed and in the "To Do List". Super! Gary

Since someone recently mentioned something about 'Safe TV Zone', I went about trying to find it. Since it was not where I expected it to be, it took me some time to locate it, even with the User Guides. My mind was looking for where I thought it should be, so that did not help me absorb what the User Guide was saying. So after I found it, I thought, "Why the heck is it here?". It is located in the O/A Tools tab. When it is selected, it acts as a global command but you have to look at each individual slide in O/A to see the effect. However, why not make it so you can view the Safe TV Zone as it plays in Preview and in the little Preview Player? Would this not be more useful so you can view how the Safe TV Zone shows up in real time and in the O/A. Then you can make a better decision on where you have to make any adjustments? If I am missing something here, please let me know. But I thought, if I am not mistaken, in previous version, I could actually do this...turn on the Safe TV Zone and do a Preview of the actual slideshow. I would like to see a button right next to the Preview Player so I could toggle it on and off. Wouldn't this be a useful change?? Thanks, Gary Added later: P.S. Ahhhhh... I just discovered the little left/right arrows in the O/A screen that let me run manually through the slides with the Safe TV Zone showing. Cool. I spoke a little too quickly. But maybe it would be useful to see the Safe TV Zone displayed in real time in Preview???

Thanks, Peter and Dave... I was using Smooth with my Zoom so I did not pick up the difference when I added the Perspective Correction for Zoom. After reading the thread and playing with it, I now see what you all are talking about. It is a nice touch to play with the custom settings too. Thanks all for your help... Gary

To put a frame around my slideshow, I use the Project Options/Screen tab and change the '% of the slide to show main image' ti 95%. Then I choose Background/Gradiant filling and select a color for the top and one for the bottom (anc then Set for existing slides). Yea...more pleasant than black and can give some 'emotion' to the show, I think. Thanks... Gary

I am getting a great education here. Any takers on Perspective correction for Zoom? Gary

What threw me was that the ending milliseconds for one slide was not the beginning milliseconds for the next slide. The difference I see now is the 1500 milliseconds of fade in/out time. So I sort of see what is going on here but I don't think I will touch these settings until someone can shed more light on why I would want to make a change in these settings in the Time Range menu. Thanks. I do see it more clearly now... Gary

DaveG... I think the reason I had difficulty seeing what was going on is that I always set my Screen to be about 95% so that I always get a boarder around the slides and the images were mostly landscape. I usually do not like the full screen effect. I tried changing the Mode settings with the Screen set to 100% and I now see what you are talking about. And I see that Cover has a bigger effect with portraits. Thanks for the help... Gary

Peter, I have run across this problem of selection and I did not know of an easy way of dealing with it. Thanks so much for the explanation. Gary

Greetings... I have been creeping along learning some of the more advanced things we can do in the new PTE. I am pretty happy with some of the progress I have made. But now I have come to a brick wall with some of the menu items. I have looked them up in the User Guide but it does not say 'why' I what to use then and what they actually do. I have also searched the Forum but I've not been successful. I have played around with them but it is not intuitive enough for me to see why/when I should use them and what they do. Here is a list of the ones that currently have me baffled. I'd appreciate it if someone would clue me in on why/when I should use the following menu items and what they do: -Perspective correction for Zoom -Transparent to Selection -Time Range -Mode/Fit to Slide -Mode/Cover Slide -Mode/Original Thanks... Gary

This is what Lin stated too. I missread what he said and what you just wrote. It just became clear to me. I thought you both were saying the 'slideshow' started from the beginning as opposed to the 'music'. I see now that with the unticking of the "Synchronize..." makes the music start, as you say, from its beginning, no matter which slide you "Start Preview" from. Thanks for setting me straight on this. The "Synchronize music and slides" should be changed to "Synchronize the beginning of the soundtrack to the beginning of the slideshow". Thanks... Gary

Lin... I have a question concerning the "Auto Spread..." and the "Syn. Music and Slides". While I searched the Forum to see what others have talked about this, I came across your post below. Is your statement that the "Auto Spread..." does no longer work any more still correct? I never noticed that it did not work as you stated. And today it seems to work as expected and does Preview from the current slide. Am I missing something here??? Along with that, I am still confused as to what the "Sync. Music and Slides" choice does. I understand that when the "Auto Spread..." selection is chosen, the 'Time Line' goes grey. However, what is the function of the "Sync. Music..." choice? It does not seem to me to really do anything or prevent anything that I can see. It seems to me that there are 3 ways to create the show: 1-'Sync' (meaning that the 1st slide will be shown as the music starts the slideshow and the last slide will be shown as the music ends the slideshow. Is this the way I should look at it??? 2-'Unsyncd' (meaning that the slides are not tied to any position in the show and each slide will be positioned manually). Why is there not a "Unsyncd" choice? 3-'Auto Spread' (meaning that this will spread all slides evenly from the beginning to the end of the selected music). And now does clicking on the "timed points tab," then clicking on "arrange all points," now accomplish what the "Auto Spread Slides Along Music" feature does. Also, with the 'Auto Spread..' selected, the 'Time Line' goes grey. Makes sense. However, you can still move slides around in the 'Time Line' and you can also affect the spread of the slides by changing the 'Time interval for new slides.' But when you Preview, it follows what you set for the "Auto Spread", not what you did in the Time Line, which makes sense. But, from a practical point of view, why would one want to change the 'Time Line' while in 'Auto Spread'? Is this a useful 'feature' to you? I just ask since you are way ahead of me in using the program. Is this helpful for those who want to toggle between Sync'd and Auto Spread? Thanks...Gary PS Yes, I read the Users Manual and I am still not clear on these issues... =============================

Brian... I accept what you are saying that "You can't use 2 Codecs to do the same job simultaneously, that was your problem". Ok. But here is what does not make sense to me...just trying to understand the situation. I had a bunch of codecs already listed in the PTE's Video codec list. I installed the Essential Codec pak. When I went back to the PTE's Video codec list, there were no duplicates...just the same list. So I did not see that there would be a problem with apparently 2 codecs conflicting with each other...since there were no duplicates listed. So it is not obvious that, lurking somewhere in the PC, there are 2 codecs trying to do the same job simultaneously. It would seem to me that the Essential Codec installation would overwrite the old one and just install the ones you did not have...at least that is what I thought would happen. So it seems that if you put in one codec pak, you would have to eliminate it if you want to try another one??? This seems pretty strange to me. When I had previously installed the Ace Mega Codec pak, I did not have this conflict. Thanks for the explanation. At least I got it back to working again... Gary

Ken... I got the idea of dumping the Essential Codec pak exactly from where you had pointed me to. But I still don't understand what good the Essential Codec pak does if it creates a problem. Brian... Some time ago, I had installed another codec pak--can't remember which one. What good is the Essential Codec pak if it gives me the AVI Chunk problem? I dumped the Essential Codec pak. Should I just live without it? Is there a way around this problem so that it is useful?? Thanks...Gary =========================

I made an AVI of a PTE slideshow using 5.5. I tried several different codecs. But each time, after the AVI is made, I try to play it and I get this screen that says it is an " AVI Chunk Viewer" and it has some sort of a graph in it. I can't do anything after that to get the AVI to play. Never got this before. I closed this screen and I just get backed-out of everything. Can someone tell me what is going on here??? Thanks... Gary ================ I just found out what was going on. I had recently installed the "Essential Codec" package. I uninstalled it and the AVI Chunck Viewer screen went away and the AVI played just fine. Not sure what really caused the problem but now the AVI I created in PTE plays. Gary

Thanks...Gary

Brian... I already had a bunch of codecs, about 25 video & 19 audio codecs. I just installed the Essentials-Codec pack. However, I still have the same number of codecs that I had before when I look in the PTE Video or Audio's list of codecs available. What do I need to do to be sure they are recognized in PTE's drop down list? Also, after getting this long list of codecs, which one of the video codecs is the best...if there is one...for creating a stand-alone AVI in PTE? Thanks... Gary