JRR

You can donate when you go to the beechbrook page with all the PTE shows on it http://www.beechbrook.com/pte/ and click on "click here to support...." Bill is set up to accept PayPal payments

Mike: I ain't fussy what I am called so long as it is polite

Bill: I too thank you very much for providing space for the PTE shows. The internet and its ancillaries are not free despite what we all would like to think and hope. Personally I would have no problem if you were to levy a fee to have a show on your site. At the very least I think you should feel very comfortable to post on the PTE page the approximate cost you incur for the hosting of a typical show.

Object Editors are great for titles, but you have to remember that object editors "move around" depending on the screen resolution. (You can preview this on the OBJECT EDITOR page, top left corner) So if the show is going to be used on different computers, outside of your control, it might be better to use software such as PhotoShop and build the text into one of the images itself

Mike: Click on PROJECT OPTIONS > MAIN > Synch slide show to music > CUSTOM SYNCHRONIZATION Have fun with PTE, we all do !!!!!!

Shelton: The easiest way is to add silence to the front of your sound file. Figure out how much you need and mix it in using Audacity or Acoustica, or Cool Edit or.... (Those are the sound mixing softwares that are talked about most here)

Fujiboy: You are supposed to be working at PTE, not playing Tumble Bee. Although it is an excellent game What level are you at ???

Harold: PTE shows do much better than other software for consistency between computers. Another reason to cheer for PTE But I don't think you can expect synched shows to work the exactly the same on all computers. Depending on the size of the images (kb and pixel wise) and the size of the sound files you can run into some small differences with computers less than1-2 years old depending on their internal hardware. I have some simple shows that work consistently on all "recent" computers, but flicker badly on some "less recent" computers and one friend's ("old") computer freezes as soon as I put a pte.exe in it If you keep the shows with 150-200kb images, and maybe slightly longer fades than you might like, I think you will have general success with "recent" computers. The Bumble Bee show PUSHES the limits of the hardware in many computers (including mine which is about two years old) so it is not a good test to demo PTE's performance between computers.

Guido: Thanks, that solved it. I went back and triple checked the one that I did in 3.8 and the OBJECT EDITOR is definitely set to RUN APPLICATION AND EXIT and it works the way I want it to. Choosing the RUN APPLICATION option makes it behave the same way in 4.0. I agree that does sound more logical on thinking about it more. Thanks (again !! I owe you a very large dinner if I am in the neighbourhood or you in ours !!)

Larry: Welcome to the forum !!! The result of what I have done (when it works ) is to create a "Title" or "front" or "contents" page from which to run various pte shows (or any .exe files) On the one image in the show, I click on OBJECT EDITOR and then click on BUTTON at the top, drag it to wherever you want and right clicking on the button lets you set up the text etc, and action (under PROPERTIES) Just remember that OBJECT EDITORS do not stay in the same place if the show is played in various screen resolutions. There is a "preview" button as to where they will appear for different screen resolutions. I find this approach makes for a more professional looking presentation. (when it works ) Have fiun with PTE

I did a show several months ago that uses a one image show. The one image is set to STAY ON SCREEN AT END. There are object editors on the one image that are set to RUN APPLICATION and EXIT. It works beautifully as the selected show runs and comes back to the one image show, from which I can launch another show. I am doing the samething now for a second group of shows. Everything seems to be set the same as the earlier show, but when the selected show finishes, it returns to my desktop, not back to the one image show. The only difference I can see is that I am using ver 4.0 not 3.8. I can't believe that is really a problem, but I can't figure anything else. Any one have a hint ?? Thanks

Guido and others: Glad some of you got it to work. It is a synched show. I put a 1.5sec gap at the front of the sound file to give a load time factor plus to have the title come on just before the music starts. The music ends with a two small quiet beats. It is synched, not a custom synch - that would have taken a very long time - but it is synched to the music length with some attempt to place certain images at certain places with mixed results.

Guido: Sounds as though it is looping on your computer. It is supposed to STOP It does not loop on my computer, nor on a friend's, but it does loop on his (relatively) new laptop. With more than 275 images it was looping on my computer, that's why I reduced it to 275. My computer is a P3, 256 RAM, about 2 years old

I will add a second welcome to Guido's. I suspect you are looking for a PAUSE and RESTART when paying the .exe version. Is that what you are looking for ? I guess I can see some users might have a use for that, not sure where it would fit in priorities though Yes pls give us an easier name to call you by....

A number of people wanted to know if I would put the "animation" show on Beechbrook Cottage, they seemed confident that I would get it to work, I was not !!! Well I did finally, with the helpful advice of fellow forum users. Thanks ! I ended up going with 275 images in 59 seconds. (I started at about 400 images) The first working version was 49 individual images repeated randomly in small groupings for a total of 275 images. Each of the small groupings contained images carefully cropped to have the central flower in the same position. While that worked, I found the backgrounds jittering around slightly a little disconcerting. So the second version uses 4-5 backgrounds with up to 26 different images constructed by cloning bumble bees from other pictures shot at the same time. I ended up with 149 images that were again repeated randomly, but this time in larger groupings. Trying to make the bees blend well into the background was not the easiest, so don't look too hard. It is not a work of art, more a work of exhaustion. Just enjoy the show. It is a fun piece that I will use an introduction to another AV show currently in production: "Beekeeping". That one is 75% done but I can't finish it until we lose our snow and the flowers start blooming and I can fill in a few missing shots. Look for "The Flight of the Bumble Bee" on Beechbrook Cottage.

Thanks everyone I had much better luck today (except uploading, which I am discussing with Bill now over e-mail )

Welcome to PTE Clubmud !!!! Once you get the hang of things - which won't take long - you will see how great it is ! I am not exactly sure what you mean by a blank/title page with no photo. But to me that sound like you want a black page. I just make up a new page in PhotoShop 800x600 and fill it with 100% black. Then that is the first slide/image in my PTE show Is that you what you are after ? If not maybe if you could give us a few more details. Have a fun with PTE

Michel: I have not done anything that long, so I am guessing. I assume you were using a mp3 sound track. Have you tried redoing the track at a higher compression rate for the mp3? That would give you a smaller sound file. Hope it is that simple, even it means sacrificing a little on the sound quality (but that would not bother my tin ear )

Welcome aboard Chuck Sorry but I have to agree with Guido, your suggestions are neat, but I suspect of limited application to the PTE users. Unfortunately PTE can not do it all ! (Although sometimes it seems Igor sure as heck tries to keep us all overjoyed.)

Thanks everyone, I will keep on trying

I have tried for the past few days on and off again to get to Beechbrook Cottage. I have had no luck Is it down or am I just trying at busy times ?? Thx

Ernst: PTE does that well. It works for me. The one image show is "told" to stay on the screen, the other shows are "told" to close and they come back to the one image show. I really like this feature of PTE (took me a while to figure it out, but with Alrobin's help...

Been there done that Took me a while to figure what the heck was going on !!!! Even though I put large instructions on my shows and tell people click once Someone always clicks twice.... I think someone (Boxig ??) has a utility that prevents this

Truelight: I think you will find PTE does do some of what you want. If you do an auto synch, then click on TIMED POINTS above the TIMELINE (I think it is called - I am not at my own computer now) you will be provided with the auto timing and you can then customize it if you want. (I discovered this the other day) Alrobin's ADJUSTOR utility will also help out here as well. (BTW ProShow Gold - not that I use it as I prefer the nice features of PTE that they are missing - did not keep up with my bees show, it was about 10-15 images behind)

Strange one !! Possible issues: - are all images the same size pixel-wise (eg 800x600) and roughly the same kb-wise (eg 100-150kb) ? - are your transition times set to allow them to finish before the next image is called up ? (eg. a transition time of 4000ms with an image duration (on-screen time) of 3000ms is a no-go. Those are my suggestions, I am sure others will have better Good luck