goddi

Lin, Ok...what's the magic??? Igor said it could not be done in Frame. There are only S, X and Y values. Can you show what is up your sleves? I'd like to be able to do that so I can straighten images in Frame without having to crop them in Photoshop. Gary

Dave, Great demo. Now, if we can get 'Rotate' within the Frame, Bingo!!! Igor has said 'not yet' but fingers crossed. Gary

JT..l. Well put. Agreed, especially for borders. Gary

Greetings JT, I, the original poster, marked it 'Solved'. I did this because I found a way around the problem I had. However, I agree with you that it would be a good thing to have the borders not become blurred or disappear when the image is blurred. I created a Style that served my purpose. But maybe Igor will look into it to solve this problem. Gary

Mur...Thanks. Yes, that bird is stunning. I found it is called the 'Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock'. Would love to see it in person! Gary

Greetings Craig, Oh...I see. It has been a long time since I used PP, so it was not clear to me what you were asking. Since it does not take much time to have published an exe of the show, that is where I'd go to take a quick look at a show. But perhaps, you have a different purpose of just going to the .pte and doing a preview from it. Gary

Craig, Would the 'Fullscreen preview from current position' do what you are asking? Garuy

Igor, I would not worry about it much. The error messages started when I was trying out Dave's Style (in his post above-GOddi Border.ptestyle). Being a demo, it is supposed to be applied to a blank slide. At first, I applied it to an image. It creates the error message. Now, after that, I was attempting to follow Lin's instructions to create my own Style where had the 3 images (see above screenshot of my post). When I was changing the 'Main object' numbers of the two background images, I got similar error messages. Perhaps, they were holdovers from incorrectly using Dave's demo style. I have tried to reproduce what I was doing to create that error message but I can not. But it had to do with creating my Style. I have attached what I came up with. It needs a little tweaking but that is what I was trying to get. It all started because when I blurred a background image with a border, the border would get blurred too. Gary GOddi Inner Border with Blurred Bkgd-Portrait.ptestyle

Greetings MUR, Thanks... Wow...never saw one like that. Super cool!! We did get this one of a Quetzal in Costa Rica. Gary

Lin, Ok...thanks for the first instructions. Yes, I can see how to replace the images now. However, I think you meant "Main object", instead of "Master images". And I found that if all three images have the "Main object" marked as '1', then it works. Took me a while to figure this out but it works great. Thanks... Gary

Dave... I get a bunch of 'exception errors' when I tried the Style. But, I really don't want to get it so complicated with Masks, Stencils, etc. You guys are more into doing them and modifying them to work. I keep going back to my 'easy' workaround. And Lin, thanks for the demo. Super. I see how to make them now. But, the problem is getting that border to match the '.5 percent' border that I have added to all the other images, for example. Doing a manual adjustment for the size just does not work well. The aspect ratio does not even come out evenly when trying to do the adjustment. And having to make 'templates' of borders of each size and color, etc....too much. Thanks all for the lessons. I just want to keep it simple. Gary ADDED LATER: Oh...I just had a lightbulb moment. I actually created a Style from my slide. Works great, fully adjustable, EXCEPT: 1- How can I change out the two background images that were created in the original Style after I have applied the Style to another image? 2- I get an 'Unhandled Exception' error when I use it (similar to using Dave's demo) Gary.

Lin...I don't see how you made the white border in your previous post. Thanks for the latest posting with the red border. Did you have to make the red PNG border in Photoshop? I tried using it but it is just not flexible. If I use the 'Aspect Crop 16x9', it cuts off the top/bottom of the red border. Sure, I can use the 'Shift/drag' to adjust its aspect ratio, but not precise enough to match other slides. I think I will have to stick with my workaround. Easy to do and adjustable. Thanks for trying. Gary

Lin... I don't think I follow you. If you place a video on top of an image with a border ("precisely the same size as the video"), it will not show the border of the image behind it. The border of the image behind the video is placed inside the image, not the outside, so the border gets hidden. My point is to be able to put a blurred image behind the video as a background and have the border show around the blurred background image. When you blur an image with a border, the border gets blurred too. In other words, I am looking for a bordered image within a bordered blurred image. See attached screenprint.... Gary

Lin, If I understand the first way, I'd blur an image in Photoshop and add the border to it in PTE. Then add in the reduced sized video clip to be in front of it. I think the other two ways would not work for me. Making a separate PNG border image does not seem flexible to me. And making a slightly larger color image behind the video would not solve the problem of a border around the blurred background image--if I understand what you are saying. Anyway, I tried the 'Blurring' an image in Photoshop and I don't like the results, as compared to using the PTE blur. It is not that difficult to do my 'workaround' to get the same results. I think I will stick with it. So much easier to do all within PTE, more flexible, and all within PTE. Thanks... Gary

Greetings, I was just experimenting with blurring a background image (behind a reduced sized video clip) but keep the background image's border in the Frame. When I select a border of the background image, I get the border. But, when I blur this background image, the border gets blurred too. Is there a way of blurring a background image but keeping its border not blurred? Gary Later...I found a workaround. I added the same image with the border. Sent it to the back. Reduced the front blurred image by a few percents to show the border of the image behind it. The reduced sized video clip now plays in front of the blurred image that is front of the rear image with its border. Can do, but is there a better way???

Greetings Claudio, Just uploaded a show of our trip to Jardin, Colombia, in the Slideshowclub site. I have wanted to upload it for some time now but the max size of uploads has been reduced so I finally just removed one video clip and reduced the quality of the other video clip. But I hope it is still enjoyable. Gary

Posted in the Slideshowclub site: This show is about our road trip from Medellin to Jardin, Colombia, to see if we could find the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock. Though it is the national bird of Peru, you can find them in Colombia, if you know where to look. My good friend, who lives in Medellin and is an excellent birder, knew where to find them. So here is a look at the town of Jardin and the beautiful Cock-of-the-Rock. There is also a few shots I took of an Olinguito, a newly discovered (in 2013) carnivore. To get under the upload size limitation, I had to remove one video clip and reduce the quality of the other. Critiques welcomed. Come take a trip….Gary (96Mbs; 16:9; 5m 7s)

Greetings Nobeefstu.... All good points. You have refreshed my memory about such things. Thanks, especially about to just use the filename...no filepath. Gary

Greetings.... All of a sudden, it is working. Don't know what I did differently. But it works with the full path if the second show is in another folder. And it works if the second show is in the same folder as the first show, and must be in quotes. With no quotes, it does not work. I really don't know what the difference was. I thought I had saved both shows in V9.0.8. Maybe....the second show was in V9.0.7. I kept resaving the second show in V9.0.8, but maybe I screwed it up. But now it is working. Thanks all for the help. Gary

Greetings, I don't know what is going wrong. I tried it again, no luck. I now get '...Version Mismatch...' again. I know both are saved as V9.0.8. If both are in the same folder, I can understand you don't need a full path, only the filename. But it should work with a path if the second show is in some other folder. If not, Igor need to change it. If you 'browse' to a location, it would automatically put in the full path, right? Also I see you have the second show in quotes. I tried with the second show in the same folder with and without the quotes. No luck. Why do you need the quotes if the second show is in the same folder? Can't get it to work... Gary

Dave, I changed the link to exclude the path and just entered the 'File.exe'. That did not work. Got 'File not found'. I copied the second show into the folder of the first show (with path excluded). That did not work. Got 'File not found'. Bug??? Gary

Greetings, I am having to split a larger sized slideshow into two parts so it can be uploaded to the Slideshowclub site. So I have been experimenting on using the 'Run Slideshow' to see if I can Run two of my slideshows back-to-back that I have already created. Both shows were created in 9.0.8. I selected the 'Run slideshow' in the first slideshow and browsed to the location of the second exe show and selected it. However, when it gets to the end of the first slideshow, I get '...Version Mismatch...'. Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong? Second question: If this does eventually works, do I just upload both exe slideshow parts to the Slideshowclub? Gary

Igor, It has been a while since the Slideshowclub's upload limitation dropped from about 280 Mbs to 128 Mbs. You mentioned that you would get this fixed quite a while ago but it seems it has not been fixed yet. I have a bunch of shows that are larger than the current upload limitation so I am asking if it will be fixed. Even 280 Mbs will be a constraint with the use of video clips. Thanks, Gary

Greetings Dave, I really have tried not to ignore any advice. But, workflows can be different for all of us. Yes, I have 'converted' video clips from the File List. But the problem that PTE creates is that you have no control over the 'bit rate' for the conversion. The Conversion usually boosts the bit rate, creating a larger file. Yes, I understand it is to make the playing of the videos to be smoother. However, file size has become very critical when we start using videos. The Slideshowclub has reduced its max file size from about 280 to 128 Mbs. So that too is a limiting factor to be aware of. (Igor has said he will address this but it has not happened yet). So, I have tried several non-PTE video converter programs to trim and convert the MOV files to be as close to what PTE converts them to. And I try to keep the bit rate between 5 and 8 Mbps. The quality seems to still be acceptable and the file size is substantially less. My current project has about 135 slides, of which are 26 video clips. Therefore, size is a big concern. The program I am using now to convert my MOVs is Videomizer. A free program that gets the job done. Not the best but it works. I am choosing their output format of 'HD-MP4 (MPEG4)' that seems to be very close to what PTE puts out, but I have control over the bit rate, and other things of the video clip. When I drop one of these converted video clips into the Slides, PTE does not ask to convert it. So it seems that PTE is happy with this format. What has been confusing is that there is a difference between 'MPEG-4 Part 2' and 'MPEG-4 Part 10'. 'MPEG-4 Part 2' seems to be similar, or the same, as 'MPEG-4 Visual', which is what PTE converts video clips to. But when you try to see what the format is of a video clip, you might see only 'MPEG-4' but you don't know if it is Part 2 or Part 10. Part 2 seems to be good, and Part 10 bad for PTE. I found this: "MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-4 Visual (formally ISO/IEC 14496-2) is a video compression format developed by MPEG. It belongs to the MPEG-4 ISO/IEC standards. ... MPEG-4 Part 10 is commonly referred to as H.264 or AVC, and was jointly developed by ITU-T and MPEG." So, back to workflow. I understand that, to avoid bugs, if you use the PTE convert process, you should convert the video file from the File List, not in the Slides. But...Igor allows you to convert files that are already in the Slides (causing problems?). Perhaps this should be addressed. And, yes, sometimes you want to swap a video clip that is already in the Slides with one in the File List. I now drag down the video clip next to the old clip and then removing the old video clip (in the Slides view), not using the 'Change video file' to avoid problems. Perhaps the problem with the filename not changing was only the fact that the old video was 'H264'. It did swap correctly but it just did not show the correct filename. Was that just because it was an H264? Did not happen in the past, I think. I am attaching a MediaInfo screenprint of a PTE converted file to compare with a Videomizer file 'HD-MP4 (MPEG4)'. The formats look similar, with some differences. But it seems to work well in PTE. The bottom line is it would be much more useful for the PTE conversion process to allow for user input to select bit rates. Are the differences in the attached comparison of any concern? Gary

Dave.... Yes, I saw that but I did not think (understand) that the MP4 video clip was in 'H264' format. I have used it many times before with no problem. I am attaching the MediaInfo on this video clip. Can you tell me if it indicates it is in 'H264'? I don't know how to tell. Since I did not see 'H264' in the MediaInfo's 'format' description. Oh...I paused to Google 'what is 'AVC'. Now I understand. 'AVC' is 'H.264'. Found this: "H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10, Advanced Video Coding (MPEG-4 AVC) is a block-oriented motion-compensation-based video compression standard. As of 2014 it is one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of video content." It just threw me because I have used it many times before with no problems, and MediaInfo did not show 'H264'. Ok, good to know. Thanks, Gary