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The main announcement for this is in the "Slideshows created in PicturesToExe" forum, but I'm announcing it here also as some don't go to that forum. I have produced a feature-length documentary using PTE. I believe this is a significant milestone for PTE. Ray

Many of you already know that I've been using PTE for quite some time now to create a feature-length documentary, Peoples of the World: Southeast Asia. I'm pleased to announce that it has been released. Further details and a link to the preview are available on our web site. I believe this is an important milestone for PTE, being probably the first feature-length film made using it - certainly the first one to be made generally available. I also hope my friends on this forum will support the important cause for which it was made - the education of indigenous people. Ray

It is possible but it is very, very expensive. Unless you are producing many (like hundreds of thousands) copies of the same DVD the cost is not worth it. To do it you would need software that can insert the copy protection information (e.g. http://www.rovicorp.com/products/content_producers/11239.htm) into the mpeg files a way that a DVD pressing company can produce the final product. Ray

"Read the Dom's answer again, he has it." I'm doing something that I think is similar and I'm using the approach of keeping the transparent pixels so all the .png files are the same size as the master .jpg file. I can post this if you like. Ray

The reason I wanted a 30fps version is because that is the refresh rate of my monitor (and for those in PAL countries their monitor refresh rate is 25fps). Playing a 24fps video on a monitor that doesn't refresh at 24fps (there are a few of these monitors but they're very expensive) can't really be compared with playing a PTE .exe because the PTE playback engine will automatically refresh at the monitor's refresh rate. Personally when I play the 30fps mp4 file I don't see that much inferior quality than when I play the .exe file. And to really compare apples with apples any mp4 at 1920x1080 should be rendered at the 25Mbps bitrate that the best current playback technology (i.e., Blu-ray) can support. That said I have a pretty powerful system so probably most people will not get the same quality on the mp4 playback that I do. I don't believe there's anything fundamental about h264 that would make it incapable of handling animations that are complex to set up in PTE (or any other software). At the encoding stage a lot depends on the exact configuration of the h264 parameters used (which are so complex a person could write 5 Ph.D. theses about it!). At the decoding stage a lot depends on the power of one's PC components. About 2 years from now many people will have PCs (or Macs) where 16 or more CPU cores are considered average, applications will be 64-bit, memory in a good video PC will be 16GB of RAM minimum, video cards will have 4GB of RAM and hard drives will be capable of delivering 12Gbps. When that time comes I think whatever the video encoding standard is (and I believe it will still be h264) we should see no improvement of .exe over the equivalent video. Of course if I'm wrong I can come back and edit this post :-) Ray

Maybe I should clarify what I meant - which can't be done today. 1) You can make a click on an object go to slide x, but it will always go to the beginning of that slide. Let's say I had 3 keypoints in that slide - x, y and z. I'd like to be able to program the click on the object to go straight to whichever of those keypoints I choose. 2) You can make a click on an object go to a random slide. What I'd like is, if the slide has 3 keypoints - x, y and z, to be able to say once you get to the random slide go, randomly, to one of its keypoints (in this case x, y or z).

Lin, I meant as an mp4 - which is what you posted (at least the 30fps version. That's the only one I've downloaded since I'm in the US). Strange thing, though, the 30fps version (which is actually NTSC, 29.97fps; in PTE as in many programs 30fps actually means 29.97 fps) is about 2.5 times the file size of the 24fps. Did you use a much higher bitrate for the 30fps version? I'll post here soon as to my reason for my request. Thanks! Ray

Lin, Can you upload versions of the mp4 at NTSC and PAL framerates?

Carol, I'd be very interested to know at what bitrates you render when you produce (a) standard DVD; ( AVCHD on DVD and © BD. Thanks, Ray

Ron, I suppose everything is relative. Certainly my view of AVCHD on DVDs is that it is much better than standard DVD video when played back on a HDTV using the right equipment. But compared to what can be achieved with a higher bitrate than DVD discs can deliver there is no comparison. The technology of AVCHD on DVDs has not moved forward since I sent you that DVD. My point about bitrate is that it (8Mb/s) is the DVD standard and has been from day 1. It's not going to change. There were some experimental technologies, that I mention in my HD Appendix of the unofficial PTE guide, that tried to push the bitrate limit but they all died as non-starters once Blu-ray won the format war against HD-DVD. But you don't need to actually burn your shows to Blu-ray discs to see for yourself what the quality improvement is at higher bitrates. (I also don't have a Blu-ray burner yet.) Remember that Blu-ray discs are just a convenient way to deliver content. You can produce that same content on your hard drive and, once your PC is hooked up to your HDTV, see what it would look like if you were actually playing it from a Blu-ray disc via a Blu-ray player. If you want - and when I have time - I can post some example files that will show the difference that bitrate makes. Ray

Don, No problem. Just let me know if/when you need my help. I visit the forum at least a few times a week - daily if there's a thread I'm interested in. Ray

Don, If you create a zip backup of your project (from the File menu) is the .zip file small enough to upload to a web site like MediaFire (http://www.mediafire.com/)? If so contact me privately via the forum. I'm in the US and I'm willing to investigate what your problem might be. Ray

There's something we seem to overlook on this forum when we discuss this topic and that is the bitrate at which data can be delivered from the physical disk. This is equally as important as the other parameters. The DVD standard (and here I mean the physical disk itself, independent of what is burned onto it) guarantees at least 8 megabits per second from the disc and the player it is being played in (you cannot, legally, use the DVD logo if your disc/player doesn't meet this standard). That may sound like a lot and for DVD-quality video playback it is more than adequate. But for very good HD-quality playback it's just not enough. I say this from personal experience. I've burned lots of PTE shows onto DVD disc in AVCHD format at this same, 8Mb/s, bit rate. At 1080p and played back in a high-end Blu-ray player connected via HDMI cable to a high-end HDTV the quality is not very good in my opinion. Ron, you have one of these discs that I burned for you, so you be the judge. But the same PTE shows rendered at around 12-15Mb/s and played back from my hard drive using Media Player Classic look stunning. You could, of course, try burning content, that has been rendered at a higher bit rate than 8Mb/s, to AVCHD format on a standard DVD disc. In my experience even high-end Blu-ray players can't play them - your mileage may vary. There's a reason why the Blu-ray standard (and again I mean the physical disk itself, independent of what is burned onto it) guarantees at least 25 megabits per second playback: for the best quality 1080p video you need that kind of data delivery capability. And this is just as true whether your show is 30 seconds or 2 hours. My recommendation for anyone choosing the AVCHD-on-standard-DVD option would be to lower the resolution to 720p and render at no more than 8Mb/s. If you have a hard drive that can support faster bit rates do some experimenting first with files rendered to your computer's hard drive and play back the content using Media Player Classic, VLC Media Player etc.

Chris, The only explanation I can think of has to do with a post I made a long time ago. I use Sony Vegas Pro 8 (which must be based on the same underlying software as Sony Vegas Platinum 9 when it comes to burning Blu-ray format). When rendering HD Video for PC and Mac (H.264, mp4 file) PTE uses a high-compression format that uses I- and B- frames in a way that Sony Vegas Pro 8 cannot even read the output file. When I render the same PTE project instead as a .avi file (1920x1080, PTE codec), Sony Vegas Pro 8 reads it without a problem and can render it in Blu-ray format without a problem. You said earlier that you had already tried this, without success. Can you confirm that you leave PTE up and running when you open the output .avi file in Sony Vegas Platinum 9? Also, have you tried this same procedure with any of the free software in the link that I posted? Ray

Chris, Take a look at this list of free BD burning software: http://www.techmixer.com/free-blu-ray-burning-software-to-burn-blu-ray-disc/. If none of these works try a Google search on free blu ray burning software. Ray

Some software will still let you burn a CD in SVCD format, which is close to the quality of DVD. But with DVD media so cheap now and fewer players supporting VCD or SVCD format, why do you want to burn to CD?

Just to add to this, what Lin is describing is the procedure to create an AVCHD DVD. Check the specs for the Blu-ray player you bought to see if it supports the AVCHD format. If you don't want to purchase additional software like Pinnacle Studio monitor www.giveawayoftheday.com. They often have this type of software for free (for non-commercial use).

Peter, when you say "label" do you mean naming the slide (e.g., "the house slide") instead of numbering it? I believe that in the .pte file the slides are numbered and that PTE itself works by reference to these numbers. How would PTE be expected to behave if I later delete the slide named "the house slide"? Maybe I'm missing something but I don't see why it would be difficult for PTE to re-calculate re-numbered slides and to give a warning that deleted slides that are the target of "go to slide" have been deleted.

Thans for reporting the problem. I've updated the link.

Just adding my agreement to this as someone who's actually done it using an external photo editor.

A very useful new feature would be to allow clicks on objects not only to go to slide x but to go to keypoint y in slide x. Of course this would require the introduction of numbered keypoints. A second useful feature would be to go to a random keypoint in a random slide when the user clicks on an object.

I found the following which I believe is a defect in 6 - and probabbly earlier versions: if slides have been set up to go to slide number x when the user clicks an object and then a slide that is not the last slide of the slideshow is deleted, all references to target slides x should have the number of the traget slide automatically updated to x minus 1 if the number of the deleted slide is less than x, but that doesn't happen.

Here's a working version of the 2-D puzzle that you can download and solve (skill level = very easy). Not all possible movements are programmed. I may get around to finishing it one day but not in the near future. I know that PTE was not intended to allow us to make puzzles like this but I'm sure those who have been following my challenge realize, it's a great exercise to push PTE to its limits and learn how it works - and doesn't - at the same time. The most important thing I learned working on this is that a very useful new feature would be to allow clicks on objects not only to go to slide x but to go to keypoint y in slide x. Of course this would require the introduction of numbered keypoints. A second useful feature would be to go to a random keypoint in a random slide when the user clicks on an object. With these two features I believe I could produce the full, working solution of the 2-D puzzle in a fairly short amount of time. As for my Rubik's cube challenge, these same features would help PTE in being able to meet the version of the challenge that I originally had in mind. Here's a new version of my challenge that I know can be done in PTE 6. Maybe Peter would like to accept this version of the challenge: When the slideshow first starts the user can click in one of 3 (or 4 or 5) different places and each click leads to the Rubik's cube starting with a different, unsolved version of the cube. Then from that starting point, and without the user clicking anywhere, the moves to the solution from that starting point are animated as the user watches the cube solve itself. I also found the following which I believe is a defect in 6 - and probabbly earlier versions: if slides have been set up to go to slide number x when the user clicks an object and then a slide that is not the last slide is deleted, all references to target slides should have the number of the traget slide automatically updated but that doesn't happen. Have fun with my 2-D "cube" and post your feedback. Ray

I will post a new demo of the 2-dimensional version this weekend as well as some observations about what I learned when I worked on it. Stay tuned for more cube discussions and a new cube challenge!!! Ray

I am amazed that some people accepted my Rubik's cube challenge. And after I saw what Peter has achieved I stopped working on my own challenge! Peter, congratulations! When I set the challenge I did not think that it could be animated like it has been so well by Peter (and others). Instead what I had in my mind was a computer version of the actual Rubik's cube - a cube that would start with a random configuration and that the user could manipulate by mouse clicks to solve the puzzle. This is the path I took and, not surprisingly, I soon ran into problems! But the exercise was worth it because it showed me what features could be added to PTE in the future to make such a "slide show" much more simple. To demonstrate the kinds of problems I faced and to demonstrate how far I got I have posted a new, 2-dimensional demo of the "cube" because it is much simpler for everyone to understand (including me!) in two dimensions. It can be downloaded from here. It starts by showing the solution then, after a few seconds, it generates a "random" version of the puzzle that you must solve. In this demo you can only move numbers 14, 13 and 12 and you do that by clicking on the bottom of a number to move it down, on the right of a number to move it right and on the left of a number to move it left. Each move for these three numbers can be undone so that you end up where you started. Comments as always are appreciated. Ray