alrobin

I second Brian's suggestion - it's definitely worth the small amount of money involved. It's what I turned to when I was having trouble with my Win XP system recognizing the CD's as "autorun" with just the "inf" script installed. However, lately, both of my pc's seem to behave OK when I insert a disk with the "autorun.inf" instruction included.

Chickie, When you add a music selection, you can click on "Music Duration" on the same menu to see how long the entire selection of music is. You can then compare that to the timeline, which shows the placement of the transitions between the different slides, and make adjustments accordingly. On the timeline, you can also select "Timed pointe / Arrange all points" to spread the slides evenly over the music used. Or, alternatively, once you know the total time for the music, and the total number of slides, you can calculate the time per slide, and then click on the Main Tab of Project Options, and enter this value into "Time Interval for new slides" at the bottom of the menu. Then click "Set for exsting slides". This will rearrange the slides so that they are spread evenly over the music. Finally, check the timeline to make sure there are no overlaps in the transition times, and that there are no slides extending beyond the end of the music. If you want to change the music duration, you can import it into a sound editor such as "Audacity" (free download), and truncate it, "head-and-tail" it (fade the ends), or add periods of silence, etc. Hope this helps - good luck with your gift.

Steve, Sorry, but I have to disagree with you here. I have put many shows at 4:3 aspect ratio onto DVD's made for a widescreen application at the 16:9 ("anamorphic video") aspect ratio. There may be some cropping when viewed on a TV set, but that is due to the TV set leaving off some of the image. In the DVD production, however, that part of the image is still present. The 4:3 shows end up at 4:3 (un-cropped and un-distorted), but with the letter-box effect (black bands at either side), and the widescreen (15:9) shows appear with black bands on all 4 sides, but uncropped and un-distorted. In the latest PTE, if I don't have a 4:3 aspect ratio show on the "anamorphic video" DVD, the 15:9 show appears almost full-screen, but with slight letterbox on the sides due to the slight difference between 15:9 and 16:9. I'm not interested in all the fine-points about square pixels vs rectangular pixels, and the fact that the aspect ratio may end up as 15.1x9, etc, because when viewed on a TV set, or projected on the screen, everythng looks fine, and probably within the tolerances of my "keystone" correction, barrel distortion of the TV screen, etc. Everything in this business (even in jpegs being truly representative of a scene) is a compromise in some way. Even my images end up being distorted to some extent to start with.

Steve, Well, it depends on how you define "inherited". If you apply perspective zoom to the parent, any "child" objects will also zoom in that fashion. To me, that's "inherited". Other than that, though, I think we are talking the same language. I agree that if you give the "child" an additional independent zoom, then it will zoom at an amount equal to that of the parent (could be "perspective") plus whatever "kick" you give it on it's own, whether it be ordinary zoom or perspective zoom. And, I agree with you that even though the parent may have "perspective zoom", one would have to check the box for the child to have it's own additional zoom behave that way relative to the parent.

Henri, I, too, enjoyed watching your show - it is a very interesting treatment for what could have been quite boring - you made the paintings and sculptures come alive! I thought he music accompanying the show was very appropriate, too.

Paul, That was a stunning simulation of the movement one must observe from the "Eye" - very effective, and well done. Your photography (especially considering it was hand-held, from a moving base, and through plexiglass), was also very good. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Further to the discussion of perspective zoom, here is another example to illustrate in a real example, side-by-side, the difference between zooming with and without perspective zoom control. perspective-zoom-exe-2.zip (2 Mb) - best viewed in widescreen format.

Sorry, icon=xxxx.exe is legitimate - it tells the cd to take the icon from the exe file. I might point out, however, that this icon line is optional - it doesn't need to be used if one doesn't need to have the cd show up with a specific icon.

Michael, There is one other possible explanation. If your show is "synched to music", then in order to see the nav bar on preview you must check "permit control of show" opposite the synchronization button on the main tab of Project Options. I had forgotten about this application.

Michael, Sorry, I don't have many other ideas about this - it sounds very strange. Try it on a very simple show, with no objects, etc., to see if it is working there. You might also try a search of the Forum to see if this problem has surfaced before. I don't remember seeing it, myself. If you can, you might also test the show on another pc.

Hi, Michael, Welcome to the Forum! Try customizing the navigation bar so that it displays in the centre of the image, and see if you can see it then. Also, make sure you have "Display navigation bar" checked in the "Project options / Advanced" menu.

I presume you mean "autorun.inf" ?? I don't see any difference between the two versions you provided. I also presume you named the show you are burning, slideshow.exe". Also, don't forget to include your slideshow.exe on the cd with the other files. If your slideshow has a different name from the one you mentioned, make sure there are no spaces in the name. If there are, be sure to put quotation marks around it. Most of the burning programs available today are satisfactory in putting your files onto a cd.

Steve, Thanks for your comments and observations. I think this is a wonderful addition to PTE effects, and congratulations for suggesting it. I'm not sure why you are objecting to selective application of this effect. You can still apply it to the entire scene as you suggest, merely by making the overall "background" image the "main image", and applying the perspective effect by checking the box for this "object". Any sub-objects (or "child" objects) of that image will also have the same perspective effect applied to them (as you can see in the demo I provided in my post). You could decide to leave it at that, or, as Igor has so skillfully designed into the new version, you could also combine this action with a similar effect on other objects (perhaps ones closer to the camera), and achieve something even more startling! The way Igor has set up v.5 provides a multitude of technical possibilities, and made it relatively simple to combine them in different ways to come up with spectacular transitions and effects. PTE is like a basic "building-block" set for digital AV artists, who are limited only by their imaginations. Other AV programs provide a multitude of different specific effects and transitions, (for which you usually have to pay more money) instead of providing, as PTE does, a basic high-quality "engine", a few basic transitions and effects, and the capability to combine and design new actions and effects from "scratch".

Gilbert, Can you give us a little more information about the pc system you are using (processor, speed, RAM, make of video card & memory installed, etc.)? What exactly happens when the program transitions from one slide to another? If it can do that at all, then by definition, that is a transition effect. Does it dissolve from one to another? If you like, send me just the project ".pte" file, and I will have a look to see if there is something amiss with your settings that is preventing proper operation of the slideshow. (alrobin @ alrobinson.com) Best of luck!

Hi, Rob, Welcome to the Forum. We have an interesting group of people here from all over the world, dedicated to PTE, and ready to share ideas about how to use this great program in a multitude of situations and applications, and more than willing to help solve members' technical problems and critique their AV productions. Hope to hear more from you and maybe see some examples of your particular applications. Interesting web site! Looks like you are having fun!

Thanks, Ken - I've added the dark slide into the zipped file, and it should now download properly from my site. Sorry for the inconvenience for those who took the time to download the file earlier.

Bruce, I had almost the same problem as you in an earlier beta, and exactly the same as described by "wideangle". I could render and burn on my laptop, but not on the desktop pc using a fairly modern LG burner. DVDBuilder would stick at 99%, and lock up if I tried to close it. (I don't have Vegas Video installed, but I do have several other video programs). The new beta including the new Video Builder resolves the issue completely, so don't give up hope. Igor and Sergey are miracle-workers so follow their instructions and let them guide you through to the solution!

Further to the perspective zoom issue, I have uploaded a demo to illustrate this effect (using Lin's ruler method). You can download the project files at http://www.alrobinson.com/perspective-zoom-demo.zip, and the .exe file at http://www.alrobinson.com/perspective-zoom-exe.zip . Each file is around 1.5 to 2 Mb in size. Note that the ".exe" file now behaves exactly the same as the project file. Please let me know if you have trouble running either one, and also any conclusions you come up with as a result of watching the demo. Bear in mind it is only a technical test for illustration purposes, and does not portray the visual or emotional impact of one versus the other.

Larry, further to my note above, this is what I see when I click on image files from my email manager. However there is an option to request that files of this type be allowed in future (see arrow in screenshot below).

I just confirmed Lin's findings (with his examples). However, I can't duplicate the problem that I am having with Dom's example. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that in Dom's example, the object is zooming out to almost zero (0.001).

I installed PTE b.8 again, and I still have the same problem with Dom's example. I removed one of the objects, and it plays OK in the main Preview, but in the O/A preview, the object completely disappears from the screen until the end of the action. If I re-establish the end keypoint, everything is fine until I close O/A, and reopen it, at which time the same problem reapears. When I click off "Perspective control", the problem disappears.

Dom, I get the same result as you with the example you provided. However, on a single-object example, the perspective effect does work properly. And, if I delete one of your objects, in order to make the other one behave properly, I find I have to delete the second key-point, and re-create it before the playback is smooth on the timeline. But after closing the O/A window, and opening it again, the problem is back.

Larry, One way you might get rid of this is to lower your security level from say "Medium" to "Medium-low" in the setup menu of your browser. You will have to decide, from the description given, (or read up on it on the web), just what level of security you feel you need.

Igor, I, too, would not miss this option, so I vote for leaving it out. But, does this mean that older shows created previously in v.4 will have a problem, too, under Vista, or will the old engine (and other older technologies) be supported well enough under Vista that it will not be affected?

Steve, These haven't been activated yet in v.5.