potwnc

Igor, How easy/difficult would it be to have a DVD-like menu for a slideshow created as .exe? I'd really like to be able to either "play all" or go to "chapter selection" where I can then jump straight into the slideshow at one of a number of starting points the author has chosen. The resaon this is important is that I'm working on a show that will be about 90 minutes long! I will break it down into about 6 projects so I can easily produce a DVD with chapters. I know PTE can launch one .exe after another to simulate "play all" but I don't think there's an easy way for my audience who receives the show as .exe files to go straight to any one of the 6 .exe files. Ray

Stratus, The problem is because you are missing a step. Roxio Easy CD Creator (I think you mean Roxio Easy DVD Creator?) cannot take the avi output of PTE and produce a DVD. You need software to convert the avi file to MPEG-2 format. There are many such programs - do a Google search for DVD encoders or DVD transcoders and you'll find many of them. I personally use Tsunami-MPEG DVD Author. It's basic but it's easy and it works! Ray

I took the DVD to the electronics store and the quality this time looks very good. A little pixelated on the stills, but that's to be expected on a 50 inch HDTV from a 1MB JPEG! We also played it through one of the DVD players that claims to up-convert DVD resoution to HDTV resolution. It looked even better! The conclusion is that if your audience will be viewing on a large, good quality TV, keep stills to a minimum and overall transition time to a maximum. Now I want to see pan and zoom on a HD-DVD player hooked up to the 60 inch plasma HDTV they had (which costs $11,500 by the way!). Ray

That seems to have fixed all my problems!!! I now get a 16:9 DVD that plays fine and looks good on various software DVD players and on my TV. All done with Tsunami Mpeg DVD Author! For those of you following the other thread, their tech support had told me this can't be done and that I'd need to buy their other encoder. Turns out they're wrong about that! As before, I'll take the DVD to an electronics store and report back here on what the quality looks like on a large HDTV. Thanks for posting the fix so fast! Ray

This is the continuation of a thread I started on the other forum. I'm having difficulty producting video output with a 16:9 (anamorphic widescreen) aspect ratio. Although my images are in 16:9 (1920x1080 pixels), when I say I want a custom video with 1920x1080 pixels, the avi that PTE produces is stretched horizontally. Does anyone know how to achieve the desired output? Thanks, Ray

As promised, here are the results of taking my burned DVD to my local electronics store... On a 42 inch, HDTV (priced at $2,500 (US)), the image quality was much, much worse than it is on both my ($70) computer monitor and my ($250) TV. The image was stretched (distorted) horizontally and had thick, black horizontal and vertical borders. The salesman said this was probably the fault of the DVD player, not the TV. (The DVD player had been playing a commercial, pressed Hollywood DVD and the quality was outstanding, which is why I asked to play my DVD on that TV/DVD combination.) We moved the DVD to a more expensive player, hooked up to a 50 inch HDTV. This time the image was not stretched (i.e., it maintained its true 16:9 ratio), and it occupied the full screen, with no black borders. The quality of the images it displayed was disgusting! I wouldn't dream of offering what I saw to anyone as an example of my photography! As a test, I put the same commercial DVD from before into this TV/DVD combination and the quality was stunning! So, where to go from here? I did some "googling" when I got home and found this web site. I'm beginning to realize just how complicated and non-standard all this DVD standard stuff really is! One observation, though... when I output a customized avi from PTE and set the resolution to 1920x1080 (remember, this is the scanned resolution of my source images), PTE does indeed produce an avi with exactly that resolution (as reported by Windows Media Player). But when I play the avi in Windows Media Player the images are horizontally stretched/distorted and so unwatchable. Now, when I take an old PTE show, with source images at 800x600 and tell it to output a customized avi at 800x600, the resulting avi is 800x600 (as reported by Windows Media Player), and not stretched/distorted at all! So here's what I've decided... first, let's take this discussion to the "How to create video" forum, as it's gotten way off-tipic from my original post, which is not even applicable after May 31st. Second, Igor, can you comment on why PTE stretches/distorts avi output from 1920x1080 images? Is this a bug, or does PTE simply not support 16:9 format video output? I mean, ignoring DVDs completely for a moment, what if I just wanted to deliver avi movies to my friends from 1920x1080 source images? Unless I'm missing something, PTE won't allow me to do that. With 16:9 format computer monitors rapidly replacing 4:3 monitors, surely PTE needs to support the 16:9 format. Once we know what PTE does or does not support, I'll do some more research and tests and probably keep posting my experiences here, but if anyone else has tried to produce 16:9 DVDs, please, please, please join the discussion!!! Ray

Ron, I don't really understand your post. If your images are 1024x768 pixels then I would imagine you want your movie to be 4:3, as 1024:768 is the same as 4:3. My post is only relevant to those who want a movie in 16:9 format. Since my images are 16:9 I would expect PTE to create an avi from them which Windows Media Player (or any other player) would accurately report as being in 16:9 format. Pixels (the actual phosphorescent dots on the monitor screen) are circular. The encoder is reporting the aspect ratio as Pixel 1:1 (square pixel). I don't think this means that the encoder believes that phosphorescent dots are square, but that it believes the dimensions of the frames in the movie are in a 1:1 ratio (e.g., 768:768). Unfortunately the help that comes with the encoder gives no detail at all as to what these choices mean or how to set them! I'm no expert when it comes to all the technical ins and outs of DVDs etc., but the procedure I posted, which works for me, is very counter intuitive! Ray

OK the following is my experience to date. Please don't take this as a tutorial, because it's not intended to be that... it's only a step-by-step of what worked for me! Start with images that are already in a 16:9 aspect ratio. Mine are 1920x1080 pixels (for eventual HDTV output). Produce your PTE slideshow as normal. When outputting the .avi, I choose DVD-Video disc and NTSC (for USA, Canada). I haven't tested PAL yet, but I see no reason why it shouldn't work much the same. Create the .avi file - e.g., "myshow.avi." (I then play this with Windows Media Player, which reports that it is size 720x540, and aspect ratio 4:3.) Fire up Tsunami Mpeg Video Encoder Xpress. Set the .avi file you just created as the source. The encoder reports that the aspect ratio of the source .avi file is Pixel 1:1 (square pixel). Of course it isn't! It's 16:9, which is how we scanned our images. I have no idea why Windows Media Player would think it is 4:3 and the encoder would think it is 1:1 when it's really 16:9! Maybe Igor or someone else who understands these things can comment on that? Anyway, tempted as you may be, DON'T change that setting! The next step is to set the output. Again, you may be tempted to tell the encoder that you want your output to be 16:9. Resist this temptation also! Instead, tell it your output is 4:3. Now encode the video to, e.g., "myshow.mpg." Fire up Tsunami Mpeg DVD Author and use "myshow.mpg" as the input. This program now recognizes the 16:9 format we're trying to achieve! Output and then burn your DVD. Following this procedure, the resulting DVD plays fine and looks good in my DVD player (Sony DVP-NS315). I have a "standard" 4:3 television, and the playback looks the same as with any commercial, pressed 16:9 DVD I rent - horizontal black bars at the top and bottom. I haven't hooked up the DVD player to a 16:9 TV because I don't have one! But that would be the acid test and if I can get my local electronics store to cooperate I'll post the result of that test here eventually. Of course, your mileage may vary! Part of what makes this so difficult is that the trial version of Tsunami Mpeg Video Encoder Xpress does not allow you to save anything! With so many options, you have to make notes as you go along and then do everything the same except 1 variation on your next test. I suspect the above is probably not the only way to get a 16:9 DVD working, and if tech support ever get back to me I'll update this post. Bottom line: Know your requirements, do the research and play with the trial download before you buy! Ray

I played around with the new encoder some more and finally got it to produce a version that plays in proper 16:9 format. If anyone's interested, I'll post a "how-to" on here.

I may have spoken too soon.... If anyone intends to produce DVDs in 16:9 format, this may not be the product you want.... After struggling to produce a DVD in 16:9, tmpg-inc tech support today confirmed that this product cannnot do that! They suggested I encode with Tsunami Video Encoder XPress, but I can't find a vendor who sells it yet! It's back ordered. So I downloaded the trial and I still can't get it to encode to 16:9 - the resulting DVD is horizontally stretched on my software DVD player and on my set top DVD player. If anyone has managed to get Tsunami Video Encoder XPress to encode succesfully to 16:9 I'd appreciate some direction on how to do it! I've e-mailed tech support again so... watch this thread!!! Ray

Igor, Can you give us any idea of an approximate time frame for releasing pan and zoom - even a beta? The reason I ask is that I'm preparing a show right now with a deadline and I'd like to know whether I should wait because I'd really, really like pan and zoom in it! Thanks!!!!

If anyone's looking for reasonable DVD authoring software for Windows, this product is available (I believe in North America only) for $29.88 (after rebate) from here. The offer runs out on May 31. There's a 30-day trial download here. I've been playing with it for a few days and bought it today. What it does is pretty basic (e.g., no subtitles, no multi-angle movies), but the results look slick and the price is right!

Al, Thanks for the tips. I was using windowed mode, but I see the same thing in full screen mode also. I experimented some more, and here's the latest. With a 2 second transition, the shortest interval between transitions I could get "working" when previewed was 50 msec. (This is with a Pentium 4, 3.0 GHz, Windows XP, SP2, Hyperthreading enabled and no other programs running - and, yes the show is custom synched to a music track.) I say working in "" because there is a noticable pause between transitions when I now try to push-transition 2 slides one after the other. So although each transition by itself is smooth, the net effect of a pan that I'm trying to achieve is lost as the pan hiccups half way. The produced AVI hiccups in the same way and the produced .exe still repeats the first slide twice. So it appears that even with the same settings on the same machine, the preview and the .exe behave differently and neither seems to produce a real pan. I sure hope Igor plans something quite different for pan (and zoom). Something along the lines of what Roxio toast-with-jam is capable of doing. (Why on earth they don't port that to Windows is beyond me, but that's not the point here.) Ray

After checking these out I'm having a little more luck, but still failing to understand some things that I hope others can shed some light on... The preview from the timeline always has the vertical lines I posted about before. With a duration of X + 1 millisecond (where X is the transition time), I can get the lines to disappear when I do a preview from the preview button, but then when I create a .exe the whole transition fails (it displays the slide before the "pushed" slide twice). Then when I produce an AVI the push transition is present again, but not very smooth at all. All the other transitions I've worked with before in PTE behave identically in these 4 modes, so what should be different about this one?

Al, I checked out the Push transition (the one labelled "Push effect"). Certainly the pushing is very smooth, but I had a problem as follows. For an 800x600 slideshow, I scanned a slide at 1600x600. I then chopped it in the centre to create 2 800x600 images. I set the transition for both images to be push (right-to-left). No matter how I arrange the transition in the timeline, I get a gap (a thin, white vertical line) when the slideshow is previewed. What am I doing wrong? Also, I searched in both forums going back 30 days using "push" as the keyword and couldn't find any of the discussion you referred to. Also, since Igor has written recently about his plans for pan and zoom, can we safely assume that this push effect is not his final solution to achieve a pan? Ray

Which version of PTE has this capability? I have 4.41, which I thought was the latest, and I don't see any pan effect. Am I missing something? Thanks in advance! Ray

I did try something like that recently and it looked terrible! Has anyone else experimented with this kind of effect?

If it's not too late... I'd really like a new effect that fades an image from in focus to out of focus - with the time configurable like it is for the other effects.

Pan and zoom would be wonderful! Something like what RostrumCamera can do, but with an easier interface! Thanks

There's a free product called Rostrum Camera that does quite well. A Google search should locate it. It does zoom and pan. Ray

What version of Windows are you using? It could be that you don't have permission to create files at all!

If you are trying to save the file as, e.g., mymovie.avi and that file already exists, PTE can't overwrite it. Delete that file first in Windows. Does that solve your problem? Ray

It depends.... If it will be played on a DVD player then yes, use PAL. If it will be played back on a DVD-ROM/RW on a computer it shouldn't matter. You also need to know whether the recipient can play DVD+ and/or DVD-. They may not know, so ask them for DVD player make and model and look it up at the reference site posted here previously. I'm sure some players in Europe these days are both PAL and NTSC compatible, but it's not that simple... even with an NTSC compatible player they'd need an NTSC compatible TV - safer to stick with PAL for them.

Roger, It also depends on the duration of the avi. My most recent show has 241 slides, also with a soundtrack (mp3, 16-bit, stereo), and lasts just over 15 minutes. Encoding and burning the show to DVD, also with Roxio 6, I found the time quite reasonable... but then I am using a 3GHz PC with 1GB of RAM! Roxio also performs better if you don't have any other programs running at the same time. How long is your avi and what kind of PC are you using? Ray

Maureen, http://www.maureenalbright.com/treneer/av/...news-gr2004.htm works, although some of the graphics don't appear on the page. But http://www.maureenalbright.com/treneer/av/...d-rules2004.htm is linked to http://www.maureenalbright.com/pages/fiche-gr2004.htm, which is still "404 not found". I'm not sure from the rules - do you have to be there in person on March 26/27 to enter? I would not be able to get there on those dates, but would still like to enter. As for PayPal, I have found their manuals/tutorials to be quite easy to follow. Ray