Jason Q

Ralph I am using a Push duration of 10000 (about 10 seconds) and a smoothing line of 60. I am not sure if the smoothing line does anything with the push effect? Most of my slides are a push from left to right using two images to make up the left hand half and right hand half. I have a number of panoramas which are 3 images wide, but because PTE needs to display each slide for a small amount of time the middle picture needs to pause for a short duration (I have it set to 2 ms) causing a slight 'jump' in the presentation. I also have a number of slides which push vertically. This is the area which I have seen most improvement by not checking the interlacing box. I am currently using version 4.43. Regards Jason

Readers might be interested in a recent experiment which I tried to reduce the 'shimmering' which I have been getting with video presentations. I have made several presentations which I have sucessfully converted to video format and then burned to DVD for playing back on the televison. Unfortunately I have always been disappointed with 'shimmering' which occasionally occurs with the DVD play back. This has been a particular problem with the most recent presentation where I have used the push effect transition to pan around a panoramic (extra wide) picture. Following the advice on the forum, I have always had the 'Interlaced Video' box selected before creating the video file. To see if I could improve things, I have just tried producing two back to back videos of the same presentation, one with the 'Interlaced Video' selected and the other without it selected. To my amazement the presentation without the 'Interlaced Video' was far better quality, with smooth transitions and absolutely no shimmering. The rendering time for the video file was also dramatically reduced. I have tried the DVD on two seperate DVD players and have so far not experienced any problems with play back. The software which I am using to burn the DVD is Intervideo WinDVD Creator 2.

A quick update for everybody to let you know how I have got on with this one - also thanks to Ralph for his help & suggestions. I searched on Google to find a suitable Codec which would create an AVI file which was compatible with the Epson 2000. I read through the following article http://www.engadget.com/entry/6324433776698522/ where I found a link to the Codecs on the DivX site Divx Codecs. I downloaded the DivX 5.2.1 codec and installed it and then created a custom AVI file using the video option in PTE. The Epson P2000 supports video at a resolution of 640 x 480 so I set this in the custion AVI dialog before rendering. Since then I have obtained better results by resizing the pictures before creating the AVI. Results so far seem to be very good on the P2000, with pictures and transition effects appearing very clear & smooth. There are a number of settings within the codec which I am still experimenting with to get the best results, and there is also an updated version of this codec on the DivX which I have not tried yet. Regards Jason

I have been using an Epson P2000 for some time to store photographs from cards whilst away from my PC and also as a means of easily showing my photographs whilst on the move. The Epson P2000 has an excellent screen for showing pictures and can also be pluged into a TV to display them. My question is can I create a presentation in PTE and then save it in a video file format so that I can show the presentation on the P2000? I am not too clued up on the various video formats - according to the instructions the P2000 can show AVI files using the MPEG-4 Codec (what ever that means?). I have been using the Video option in PTE to create an AVI file, but I am unsure how to convert this AVI file to the MPEG-4 format. Any help would be appreciated as a PTE presentation would be far superior to the built in slideshows which Epson provide. Regards Jason

Hi Has anybody tried creating a presentation for use on a Pocket PC? I tried creating a test presentation and saving the .EXE file to my iPAQ using ActiveSync, but Windows Pocket PC complained that it was not a valid program for a mobile device. I assume that I could use the Video feature to create an AVI file and then copy this to the iPAQ, but I am unsure if the AVI will run directly using Windows mobile media player or if it will need converting to a different video format first? Any help would be appreciated.

I produce a lot of panoramic photographs by taking individual pictures and then joining them together in Photoshop. I have been experimenting using Pictures to EXE to produce slide shows of the panoramic pictures by splitting them into sections (usually left half & right half) and then using the Push effect to pan the picture across the screen. I have to say that I have been quite sucessful using this method and have been using the video facility to burn them onto DVD. I recently tried using the same method to display a vertical panorama (top half & bottom half of a picture), but when burned to DVD and watched on the TV the results were very poor. The horizontal push looks great, but the vertical push has a lot of shimmering of the picture as it moves. I have been told that this could be due to the way in which a TV scans the lines onto the screen? Has anybody else experienced a similar problem and can you suggest a means of improving the display of a vertical push?