Kurt S

I see one problem but I don't think that is why it isn't working. You said the line in the autorun file for the icon is icon=dabiero.exe Icons cannot be exe files, it should be dabiero.ico You also said that the icon file is called DaBiero.pte That is your project file, again it isn't an icon file. Try deleting the icon line completely from the autorun file, it isn't needed. Also, what is the exact name of the autorun file?

I think all the members of this forum need to get together and take Granot out for a beer. You never cease to amaze me at all the wonderful programs and utilities you create. Keep up the great work!

I have seen similar problems with sound cards. They will show up in device manager just fine but will either not produce any sound or the sound is very distorted. The way I fix the problem is go boot into the BIOS, select the option to do a BIOS reset, then save and exit. I'm not sure if this will help your problem but it's worth a try.

You might try deleting the "ShellIconCache" file found in the Windows folder, then rebooting. That might restore the correct icon to the drive but it won't help with the accessing problem.

Wouldn't the best option be to be able to save as an mpeg-1 and mpeg-2 file since those are the types of compression that VCD/SVCD/DVD use?

I had originaly posted that. If you would like a copy, post your e-mail addy and I'll send it to you if you can't get the other links to work.

I believe there were problems with MP3's encoded using the Xing encoding engine. Older versions of MusicMatch Jukebox used the Xing engine. Could this be the problem?

Anything by Andreas Vollenweider is good. I've used his music quite a lot in my slideshows. My favorite album is "Down To The Moon".

This one was fun to make. It comes from an old avi I got back around 1996. I'm not sure how the original was rendered but in contained about 97 frames. Many of the frames were duplicates (I beleive it was every third frame). Once I took out the extra frames, I was able to trim it down to 43 frames for the show. The landing was a bit tricky but I hear Boing is working on a solution. Anyway, I'm glad you all liked it, If anyone is interested in recieveng the original avi or the frames I used to create the presentation, let me know and I'll send them to you. Guru, I believe birds use tiny little jet-packs to fly but how they refuel them is a mystery to me.

ftp://209.162.200.253/uploads/fly.exe

Wow I didn't think anyone was still using that demo. I actaully had deleted the file but I made another one. If you tried to download it earlier but got a file not found message, try it again. I found it works great for very small videos or videos without audio. I tried doing a presentation using Monty Python's Llama sketch but it was just too much rendering for the CPU to keep up with and the audio was out of sync with the video.

It depends on which version of Photoshop you have. I will give instructions for versions 6 & 7. First create a new picture in Photoshop. Then turn on the view layers option. Click on the add new layer button, then paste your photo in that layer. Now reduce the size of that picture so you can see a border from the first layer. Now right click on the layer you pasted your image into and select "Blending Options". A new window will open up giving you all sorts of cool effects. Put a checkmark next to "drop shadow". Now click on the drop shadow option and you can select how you want the shadow to look.

JRB, are you talking about Pictures To Exe or Pictures To TV? There is no option in Picture To TV for that. My pictures all come up full screen. I wonder what size the original pictures are that you are creating the presentation from. Perhaps if they are too small, it won't expand them to the full size of the screen. I've created my PictureToTV presentation from pictures that were either 800x600 or 1280x960.

A-ha, now I see what you're saying. Yes, you're right, it would look more professional.

Well perhaps I'm missing something. Are you talking about full screen in the startup menu or the actual presentation.? In the presentation I don't have any background photo album displayed. Just the picture itself.

I've tried both PitureToTV and XAT and I must say that PictureToTV gets my vote hands down. If you want a blank background, just create a bitmap that is all black (or white or whatever color you prefere) and use that as the background. Could you explain what you mean by "full screen"? There really isn't any other option since it's playing on a TV.

But you don't get a window caption bar in full screen mode so what would be the point?

This is a very good question but it would be impossible to answer since no one knows how operating systems will work in the future. I suppose the best we could hope for would be an emulator to run the older shows if they don't work on newer OS's or perhaps PTE will have the ability to convert older shows in to the newer format needed to run on the newest OS's.

In TMPGEnc, I used the jpg compression set at 50. What that actually translates into I have no idea. There really is no best setting. I sacrificed quality for file size so they could be downloaded faster but If I were to build an actual video for viewing off a CD, I would have made the file with less compression and probably made the individual pictures larger as well.

Sorry, should have clarified a little. TMPGEnc does light video editing and has some other cool features. Launch TMPGEnc, and in the main window you will see an option to select a video source. Click the browse button next to it and select an AVI or MPG video file. Then go to the menu bar and go to File, Output to file, and select the Sequence BMP/PPM/TGA/JPG File option. It will bring up a window where you can select the directory for the individual pictures it will create. You can also select what type of picture files you want such as BMP, JPG, etc. Type in the file name and hit the Save button. You can use BMP files but JPG's will make a much smaller PTE presentation file. Now go back to File, Output to file, and select Wave File and select where you want to put the wave file. Now you can stay with the wave file or use a program that will convert the wave to an MP3 format if you want to keep the final PTE presentation file smaller. Now your ready to load the individual pictures and sound file into PTE. "What are the benefits of making a movie in PicToExe from images extracted from an original movie?" The three reasons I can think of are - You or the people you send it to don't need any special video codecs or viewers to see them. It's all nicely contained in one simple executable. They said it couldn't be done.

It's a little time consuming but very easy. First I used TMPGEnc to create individual jpg's and separate the audio from a video file. Then just load them all into PTE. Turn off transition effects. If you want to add audio, select the syncronize slideshow to music duration option. If you just want the video, select Display each slide for 33 milliseconds for 30 fps or 40 milliseconds for 25 fps. Here's another one I made - ftp://209.162.200.253/uploads/quelle.exe You can download TMPGEnc at http://www.tmpgenc.net/e_main.html

Who says you can't create movies with PicturesToExe ? ftp://209.162.200.253/uploads/jake.exe (a very short demo)