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Hi Peter, I agree with most what you are saying however where it comes to audio I am not completely in line. I know you can do it using Audacity but you realy have to start measuring slide-sequence duration if you want "adapt" music to the content of a slide. It is much easier if you can modify the length of a music clip more easily to adapt music and slides. But as said: yo can use audacty. Regards, Bart

Thanks Brian, I did not (yet) re-install XP. I would like to finish this project first but there are some strange things on my system: - itunes no longer starts - DVD architect reports a problem with QuickTime.qts (but works, so that's ok) - I can't remove Quicktime to re-install it (there is an error during the uninstall). I used a 'remover' from the microsoft side but even this one reported a problem. I will try your suggestion to scan the PC for possible errors first. Regards, Bart

Thanks Igor, I have removed the codec pack in the mean time. I am currently using the PTE video codec and TMPGenc to save to a stand-alone AVI file. I don't know which one is the best. I now tried a few (via googling) but it seems that this combination is the best I can find. Any other experiences are welcome. My congratulations for this great program! I recommend it to people looking for slideshow programs. Best regards, Bart

Thanks Nobeefstu, PTE is indeed running fine when the ACE codec pack is removed (I had tried that already, I also removed the files flagged by the system as not being used any more - naybe that was not such a good idea...). On the "workflow": in fact I am only using TMPGenc to permanently save the slide sequence to an AVI file, I am not encoding (at least this is what I assume that no MPEG encoder is being used when an AVI file is written). I just want to combine AVIs "produced" this way with AVIs from the video camera in Vegas and then have Vegas render the complete project (in fact a video on a journey to Cub). It is about 50 minutes in total and has about 20 PTE AVI sequences and about 10 true video sequences. Music and titles are added using Vegas. I thought that this way of working would be a good way. I was aware that good quality still can only be achieved using HD-TV and the quality that I currently get is the maximum achievable in PAL and "normal" TV. I read in numerous posts that it is not possible to match the quality of the exe file. Best regards, Bart

Bryan, I know: I already did that but to no avail. I think making a mistake afterwards by trying to "restore" XP using the install disk. I think that I will re-install the system since I only installed this PC a month or 2 ago and there is not that much on the system. Installing takes some time but I think I will be better off after that. Is there a specific reason for your suggestion on PixBuilder? How does it compare to Photoshop (or Gimp)? Regards, Bart

Brian, Thanks for the reponse... but no good: changed the language to English (from Dutch) but it is exactly the same: PTE gets an access violation. Must be something else wrong with the system installation in that case? Regards, Bart

John, Ray, I tried your suggestion but I do not see any noticeable difference. Here is what I do: - Select AVI - Select DVD-videodisc or Selecting PTE encoder as a pick in the Video Codec list - Import the AVI file from the Vegas' explorer window. - Put both fragments after each other (the one via TMPGenc and the Vegas import) - Render - Burn onto DVD When played no noticeable difference is visible. Trying to use other codecs (e.g. a MS MPEG4 from the ACE pack makes PTE crash) I also need a way to have these AVI files permanent as I am combining Video and slide sequences. Closing the PTE make AVI removes the temp file. Regards, Bart

Hi, When trying to produce a stand-alone AVI using Make AVI I'm getting PTE crashes. I installed Ace Mega codec pack (professional option). In Make AVI I selected a microsoft mpeg4 (but i happens with others too): - privileged instruction - crash in ptevideo - pte crash when leaving the program. Opening the list of Codecs seems to have corrupted something since after that I need to exit the program and start it again. I've taken some snapshots: MakeAVI.png SelectAVI.png after selecting the codec (I did not get the privileged instruction error at that time) aprErr.png I do have to say that "someting" happened to my PC since installing updates from the Windows site no longer works either (I get access denied error although I have admin rights). The only thing that was installed lately was Ace mega codec pack and Netbeans (by my son). I hope that I'm not ending up by having to completely re-install my system.

John, Ray, Thanks for your suggestion. I will try this tonight and see what this gives. In any case maybe some explanation is needed on this as I do not know what goes on behind the scene. What is the difference between using TMPGenc reading in the temp AVI file produced by PTE and having Vegas reading this in. As far as I can see the only difference is that I use TMPgenc to save as a full AVI file while when imported in Vegas using Vegas' explorer I have to render the project (unless there is a way to import this file and store it as AVI too. Auiting PTE will result in the temporary AVI file to be gone. Maybe I am missing some pieces but I like to know more on this. Nobeefstu, I installed the ACE Megapack codecs and try to use a Microsoft MPEG4. PTE ends with an access violation in ptevideo.dll at address 03B41073. Read of address 6364697A. After that I basically need to restart PTE to make it functioning again. I tried that before and it seems that I can't use any of these without having an access violation. Thanks and best regards, Bart

Hi, Thanks for the reply. Here's what I tried to do already. I have loaded the ACE Mega Codecs pack and when selecting the codecs from the Make AVI option in PTE I do see more codecs then I had before. Whenever I pick one out of the list PTE returns that this is a priviledged instruction and I finaly have to exit PTE and restart again as this option seems to destroy something in PTE. I basically do not encode with TmpGenc but merely save the project as an AVI that I then import in Vegas together with sequences taken from the video camera. So the settings in PTE are: - PAL/SECAM - I ticked anti-flicker - I generate a DVD-dideodisc In TMPGenc (this is the free version so MPEG-2 coding has expired - but I want to save as AVI): - DVD for PAL 4:3 - CBR Linear PCM Audio - Clip frame option (using default setting) - Noise reduction + High quality mode - Output to file -> AVI The version is TMPGenc Plus 2.5 Maybe this is the best quality I can get... Regards, Bart

Hi, I would like to combine PTE slideshows and video captures taken with a DV cam. I currently tried PTE and generate an AVI: - I use the default settings in PTE. Type is PAL and non-HD (I do not own a HD or HD-ready TV-set) - I use TmpGenc to generate an AVI file. The quality is "acceptable" but I was wondering whether it is possible to produce better results. I've read some posts and some suggest to download ACE Mega codecs pack. Is there information available on this forum describing how to generate AVI variants of the PTE slideshows and have them as crips as possible? I do have plenty of HD space on my system. Thanks, Bart

Al, Thanks for the feedback but in the mean time I found it. The problem was caused by 2 action point at the same moment in the animation part. I only noticed when I opened O&A again and selected the main slide where I spotted a red 00:00.000. Removing one was enough to start the preview. Regards, Bart

Hello forum, I'm trying out PTE5 now that all these nice features have been introduced. However when trying to preview the show I only get a black screen. I thought I read something on the forum about that but I don't seem to find it. I reduced the show to only 2 animated objects but still the same. When generating an AVI file, all ik OK. I first thought it was due to the dual-screen system I'm using now but when switchingto only 1 screen the result was just the same. Has anyone encountered such a "problem"? Regards, Bart

Thanks Al, I'll take the suggestion of the system RAM, I can go up to 1G without spending too much (I only have 2 banks and going to 2G is a rather costly step up...). Is it possible to quantify what a change in Graphics card will bring? The card indeed uses AGP as reported by PC wizard: > AGP Bus : Yes >> Bus Information Number of AGP connectors : 1 >> AGP Bus Device : 82845/E/MP/MZ Brookdale CPU to I/O Bridge Version : 2.0 AGP enabled : Yes Mode AGP3 : No 4GB : No FW Transfer : Yes - Disabled SideBand : Yes - Disabled Command Queue : 1 (max. 32) Transfert Rate supported : 4x Transfert Rate : 4x >> AGP Bus Device : GeForce3 Ti 200 [NV20.1] Version : 2.0 AGP enabled : Yes Mode AGP3 : No 4GB : No FW Transfer : No SideBand : No Command Queue : 32 (max. 32) Transfert Rate supported : 4x Transfert Rate : 4x >> Bus Information Device : GeForce3 Ti 200 [NV20.1] > Video Card : NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200 >> General Information Manufacturer : Nvidia Corp (Micro-Star International Co Ltd (MSI)) Model : GeForce3 Ti 200 [NV20.1] Bus Type : AGP Total Memory : 64 MB Texture Memory : 176 MB Processor : GeForce3 Ti 200 Converter : Integrated RAMDAC Refresh Rate (min/max) : 60/75 Hz >> GPU Information Number of GPU : 1 Codename : NV20 Revsion : A5 Bus : 128-bit Memory Type : DDR-SDRAM GPU Frequency : 175 MHz Memory Frequency GPU : 2 x 200.45 MHz Memory Bandwidth : 6414 MB/s Texels : 1600 MTexels/s DirectX Support : 8.0 >> GPU Configuration GPU Core : 174 MHz GPU Memory : 400 MHz >> Video Bios Information Date : 09/18/01 Version : Version 3.20.00.18.08 ID : Version 3.20.00.18.08 >> i2C Bus Information Number of Bus : 2 >> General Features Width : 337 mm Height : 270 mm Pixel per inch : 96x96 dpi bits per pixel : 32 Colour Bits/Planes : 1 Brushes : 4294967295 Pens : 4294967295 Markers : 0 Device Fonts : 0 Device Colours : 4294967295 Clip Output to Rectangle : Yes Hardware Acceleration : Yes >> Blend and Shade Capabilities GradientFill Rectangle : No GradientFill Traingle : No Per Pixel AlphaBlend : Yes Premultiplied Alpha : No >> Raster Capabilities Banding : No Transfer Bitmaps : Yes Bitmap >64 KB : Yes Fonts larger than 64 K : Yes DIBs : Yes DIBTODEV : Yes Flood Fills : Yes Scaling : No StretchBlt : Yes StretchDIB : Yes >> Curves Capabilities Chord Arcs : Yes Circles : Yes Elipses : Yes Interiors : Yes Pie Wedges : Yes Rounded Rectangles : Yes Styled Borders : Yes Wide Borders : Yes Wide, Styled Borders : Yes >> Lines Capabilities Interiors : Yes Markers : Yes Polylines : Yes Polymarkers : Yes Styled : Yes Wide : Yes Wide, Styled : Yes >> Polygonal Capabilities Interiors : Yes Alternate Fill Polygons : Yes Winding Fill Polygons : Yes Rectangles : Yes Scan Lines : Yes Styled Borders : Yes Wide Borders : Yes Wide, Styled Borders : Yes >> Text Capabilities Stroke Precision : Yes Stroke Clip Precision : Yes 90° Character Rotation : No Any Angle Character Rotation : No Independant X-Y Scaling : No Double Weighted Characters : No Italic : No Underline : Yes Strikeout : Yes Raster Fonts : Yes Vector Fonts : Yes >> Color Management Capabilities CMYK : No Gamma Ramp : Yes ICM Device : No Here's what I want to do: Use PTE to make smooth slideshows using P&Z and the other object animations (I was waiting for that and wnsoft has done a marvelous job on that - worth waiting for) Save these 'small' projects as AVI Include them with video fragments to combine them into one big project using Vegas SW and burn a holidays souvernir DVD that I can watch on TV. What I seem to notice is the time it takes for the transitions effects between 2 slides (the opacity change from 0 to 100 in the object animation seems to be fast however so I'm not too sure about this feeling. Resizing the pictures to a more decent resolution then how they came from the camera also makes a big difference. Regards, Bart

Well, I'm not on Vista yet but still on XP (and probably will stay a bit longer with it I think) and have a similar question. I probably know the answer but nevertheless I would like to solicite comments from other forum members. My PC is getting a bit older (dates from end 2001) but has had some extensions over time so now it looks like this (I can add the complete HW conf if needed): 1.8 P4 512 MB of memory Video Card: Nvidia Corp GeForce3 Ti 200 with 64MB 3 HD:a 200GB maxtor 80GB maxtor 80GB (Seagate I think) [*]DVD RW drive I was wondering whether it is worth to spend money on a new video card since PTE 5 is using this now when rendering so if an upgrade in Video card would speed up work it would be nice (while ease of work would also be better if 2 monitiors could be used). Of course, the CPU should also be capable of following: I guess it makes no sense to increase the performance of the Video card if the additional power can't be used because the CPU is not able to follow. Has someone had similar experiences (before going to the other end: a new PC...) Thanks in advance, Bart

Hi Lin, I've been visiting your site some times and have watched your realizations. I realize that your eyes are precious for what you achieve so it must more disturbing for yourself then for us. Take good care and I wish you a speedy and full recovery. Kind regards,

Hi Igor and team, This is feedback I received from my father. He is now over 70 years old and decided some years ago that working on PC was not just something for youngster only. He is also busy shooting photo's and using a video camera. He has seen the photoshow that I had made from journeys abroad and was amazed what all could be done (he made very beautiful diaporama's using the analogue devices such a slide projecters and music and commentary on tape). For long time remained rather reluctant on buying something via the internet till he used the trial version and after I showed him how he could work with it he gave in and bought a license. He has been playing with since then. Today he called me to say that he entered over 200 slides in the show and that there was no problem with the program whatsoever (I told him upfront that you could put in a lot: I made one of over 700 slides lasting about 40 minutes) but what struck him most of all was the ease of use: he is very happy. I wanted to share this feedback with the makers of this beautiful 'little thing' that is able to achieve such wonderfull results. Keep up the good work! Best regards, Bart

Hi Jean-Pierre, Lowering the screen resolution seems to help: I lowered from 1280x1024 to 1024x768 and then the demo show ran without any hamperings verything seemed fluid. I also ran the same show on my son's PC (which is more recent and hence a lot more powerful then mine) and there I did not see any issue, even with the high screen resolution settings. If I make a DVD ISO image and play that the show also runs smoothly, so at least this is a comforting idea that I will still be able to achieve great results with PTEv5 even if it is a little bit jerky on bigger screen resolutions (I think that for using beamers the resolution is best set to 1024x768 as higher resolutions are only possible on realy expensive equipment - I think) I also ran your test program (very nice 'little' thing) and I achieve 14.96 Mbps on my system (my video card is already an older one and is equipped with 64Mb only). Best whishes to everybody! Best regards, Bart

Hi, I finally found some time to play with PTE 5.0 and looking at several demo's and tutorials this version is realy impressive. I do note however if I try to run the shows some transitions are a little bit jerky, even the first one that is available from the opening screen: sometimes when the text scrolls there seems a little hesitation. Maybe this has to do with the fact that it is an 'older' video card (I read that the support for these will be back in Beta9)? Some details about my PC: - Intel Pentium 4, 1800 MHz - 512 MB (PC133 SDRAM) - NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200 (64 MB) - Drives: - Maxtor 6Y080L0 (80 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133): logical drive I (78M) - ST380020A (80 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100): logical drives C (45M), E (16M), F (11M) and G (3.5M - was configured to be a recovery drive) - Maxtor 6L200P0 (200 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133): logical drives D (windows system disk, old C-drive got corrupted) 150 M and H 50 M IDE config: CH1: Maxtor 6L200P0 master, ST380020A slave CH2: Maxtor 6Y080L0 master, DVD slave Best wishes for a splendid 2007 to the complete team!

Ron, Thanks for sending the tutorial. As expected: quality! Best regards, Bart

Thanks all, I will follow your advices. Best regards, Bart

How do you get the complete picture on the screen? It seems there is a kind of safe zone that gets cut off. I had nice borders round the pictures (and had the PTE screen settings for the EXE set to 100%). After having created the MPEG with Pinnacle I'm lucky that the titles are still on the screen, however the borders are gone. Any idea? Do I have to apply settings Pinnacle Studio (or should I try Ulead Moviefactory)? Thanks, Bart

Hi Ron, I block ALL pop-ups and only allow these I realy would like to see. In fact, I hate these pop-ups since they are a source of a lot of things you do not want to happen on your PC (e.g. they can be a source of ad-ware and other, sometimes less harmless 'things' since a lot of people do not realy read what is in these pop-ups and just hit the enter-key with all - sometimes - nasty effects). If somebody realy wants to tell me something: let him do that in a plain window. With these pop-ups your PC can get 'hi-jacked' and homepages taken to places where you don't want them to go. The next thing you're doing is cleaning up the mess... I guess that's the price we pay for an open internet where we 'can find it all', otheres do too... Best regards, Bart

Ken, You're right. Thanks for the info KR, Bart

Ok, I'll be a bit more specific. Reading this forum 1280x960 using 72 pix/inch seems to be recommended. Next it is adviced to save using a compression (e.g. between 6 and 8 using Photoshop). When comparing image sizes: an original image reduces from 922 Kb to 252 Kb which roughly 25% of the original. How does this look when using a beamer using a screen resolution of 1280x1024 on the PC connected to that beamer? The quality of the projector is very good (they're used to give presentations in our company - I don't have the exact specs but it's NEC)).