JRR

Thanks Stef: That does work well - so long as I remember to set the deafults to the 20ms when I set up a show with "cut" being the default (Not that I do that much as I usually use the FADE as default.) I can usually remember when doing individual slide customization I mentioned the "bug" to Igor when we spotted it just after the beta 4 came out, so maybe when the final version comes I won't need to worry about my "senior moments" when forgetting to set the cut to 20ms. Jim

Hi Welcome to the forum !!! I see you are not having much luck with getting answer to your question. I can't answer it either, but don't get discouraged, someone will pop in with the answer for you. I have not asked a question yet for which I did not get a helpful answer Jim

Thanks Granot Looks interesting, curently I use a autorun CD that starts with a single image show with OBJECT EDITORS linking to the various shows on the CD now. Click on the link and away it goes. (double click and away it goes twice !!! ) Yours sounds like a little more to set up, but might be more friendly to viewers. Jim

Welcome to the forum !!!! I only use FADE as well, I use PTE as it has the best FADE I could find for digital slide shows. I think you likely have a couple of "problems" The FADE is very taxing on CPU processing, you need a relatively new computer (minimum P3, 256 RAM, etc) for it to work well The file size of 300-500kb sounds a bit large, but to me just as crucial is the image size. 800x600 fades beautifully on my computer, if I take the same file size, but make it a 1200x900 image, the fade shutters badly.(depending on the transition time-see below) My files are 800x600 at 150-200kb (Quality 5 jpgs from PhotoShop) The transition time you are asking the FADE to run in is a factor as well. I can run a fade at any speed on a 800x600 file and it is OK, but others with less powerful computers find they need to extend the transition time to 3-5 seconds to get it smooth. It also sounds as though you might have some of the transitions too close to each other. You need to allow the transition to completely finsih and then give it a fraction of a second longer, before transtioning the next image in. If you are using PTE 4.0beta, there is a grey marking along the custom synch timeline that shows you the transition timing vis a vis the on-screen times. Alrobin's excel utility See (http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index.php?act=ST&f=2&t=201) on page two of the forum-look for the heart can also help you with the timing issues. Hope that all helps Jim

Jeff: (I told you there would be more knowledgeable people than I who would help !!) It didn't click that you had 4 separate MP3 files. Putting them together is easy, you'll see elsewhere on the forum that Acoustica MP3 Audio Mixer (inexpensive) or COOL EDIT with the STUDIO PLUG-IN (more expensive)are amongst the best softwares to do that. If you have used the timeline synchronization for the show, PTE v4.0 beta has grey markings on the timeline to show the transitions times (except a cut shows up with 1500ms). That may help to adjust the timings, or you could use alrobin's nifty excel routine. You can find a discussion on it at Page two of the forum (as of today) look for the heart) http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...ct=ST&f=2&t=201 Jim

Jeff: Welcome to PTE and the forum, I think you will find lots of good hints in here on all kinds of issues. As to this specific problem, I have not hit it (thank goodness - but I have had others ...) and there lots of others on the forum with more info on this particular issue than I. But what specs were using with the MP3 file ? Is it a problem on one computer only ? Or with others ? I doubt it very much, but if you are starting the show from a button made via the object editor and you click on it twice, by force of habit, the show plays twice at the sametime and the music can be "jumpy". If you don't know what I am talking about, then that is not the problem <grin> Object editors will come with course PTE 201. Jim

Re the copyright issue... Wasn't there a thread going a few days ago about trying to stop someone copying images from the PTEexe file ??? Didn't the discussion go on for some length as to how to stop it. Guess when it is someone else's copyright to be infringed on it is OK ?? ??

Igor Nice of you to continue spoiling us !!!! Thanks for all your great work ! Jim

Steve: It sounds as though you want a light table within PTE. Yes that would be nice. Right now, I use ThumbsPlus (http://www.cerious.com/) to do my sorting. I move the images into a gallery within ThumbsPlus, sort them, run their basic slide show to check my sorting, then re-name the images sequentially (all within ThumbsPlus) then pull them into PTE and away I go with creating my PTE show Jim

Michel: I am not sure I understand exactly what you are looking for, ( your anglais is still better than my français ) but I think you want the option to do minor customizations on a non-synchronized show. I am biased here as I only do fully customized shows (comments already went the rounds on that in an earlier post ) but you can make a customized show with very little customization now by only using a few features so I think you have what you want now. Except for a way to set time by %'s by which I assume you mean you want image 1 on screen for 15% of the show, image 2 for 10%, image 3 for 5% ? I am not sure how many people would use that function. Jim

Ken: I am one of the "old guys" (not one of the young guys either ) so I don't recall what you are saying. But I can tell you that if it were not for the fade and the cut, I would not be using PTE. For my type of AV shows, those are the key !!! That is what brought me to PTE, as PTE has the best fade that I can find anywhere. Yes, computers more than 2 years old sometimes struggle with the fade, but that is not enought to deter me. Take them out and I am gone from PTE (plus about 5 others that I can name off the top of my head) Jim

Helmut: I have not figured out "Timed Points" or "Auto Scrolling" but: "New Transition" when clicked adds a transition at the time the music was at when you clicked New Transition "Delete Point" is used to delete a transition, merely click on a transition triangle and click delete point "Start" starts the music and preview appears in the right hand box of Custom Synch "Stop" stops the music and returns the cursor to strating point When music is playing, "start" becomes "pause". Use "pause" to temporaily stop the music without the show going back to starting point. When the show is playing you can go to any point on the timeline, click, and the show will jump to there - great for previewing I am sorry but I don't understand the second question. Jim

Sharon: I downloaded it and let install over top of 3.8. Worked fine. Someone the other day did not want to lose 3.8 so they were advised to install 4.0 in a different folder within Program files. Jim

Jules: I am sure you checked this, but were the speakers on and functioning on the other computer ?? Did you check the speakers with a normal audio CD ? I had a similar but worse experience I posted a few days ago, my show started, displayed one image, continued with the sound for about 20 seconds and then died. That happened on only one computer (a new one) out of 5 or 8 I tried it on. The suggestions was that the problematic computer had a resources problem. Try it on a third computer perhaps, as new a one as you can find with as much processing power just to be sure it was not this one computer. Good Luck Jim

Igor: There seems to be a minor glitch with v4 beta. When I am starting a new show, I bring in the folder with the images in it on the left side of the screen. If I am not using them all, I click on the first one I want, then CTRL+click on the rest individually. But the first image I picked drops off the selected list. I have to click on it again (CNTRL+click) and then I add all the images. Not a big deal, just wanted to let you know. thx Jim

I decided I must be blind as I could not find the slice of bread, so I called Al Robin (he lives in the same city as I do). It seems my seeing eye dog must have eaten it It is not there on screen. I am using v4.00beta. Is there another version of beta 4 ?? Is anyone else missing Al's slice of bread ??? Jim

Clive: Yes it is can be done quite easily. I use an autorun.inf file and Shell.exe file BUt I think there is an autorun utility at Beechbrook cottage http://www.beechbrook.com/pte/ If that is not suitable for you, send me an email (click on "e-mail" below and I will send you a sample AUTORUN.inf and Shell.exe Jim

Bob: The ability to do that came with v3.8. I use it all the time for my synchronized shows I click on PROJECT OPTIONS - MAIN - CUSTOM SYNCRONIZATION and put in my transitions. When I want to preview them, I click on START in CUSTOM SYNCHRONIZIATION, the show starts (watch it in the small thumbnail to the right) and then click on the time line where you want to preview from. The images and music jump right to it. You can continue to click on the time line and the show jumps to that spot. If you hit PAUSE, the show stops but you can restart it wherever. If you hit STOP, the show goes back to image one, but just do the above again and you are OK Jim

RJM Look at AL Robin's post http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...ct=ST&f=2&t=201 re Automated EXCEL routine. (Page two of the forum (as of Jan 26 1:15pm EST)) I think you will find you can do what you want using it. You can e-mail Al if you are not sure. Jim

Very minor point, but the "Allow to restore prictures (Via "Print" button on the Navigation bar)" that you find on the Main screen in Project Options. mentioned by ccmanz is on the ADVANCED tab of PROJECT OPTIONS (I looked and looked for it on the MAIN tab) Now I know what I can use it for. thanks Jim

The question is more "what don't we like about it ?" Not much. Always room for improvement in anything, but for many people's needs it is almost all here, and the updates (v4.0 beta has some very nice helpful new features) along with utilites created by users are great. Everyone helps everyone. What more can you ask for ? Jim

Oaky: I don't think they are default "blocked". I use one or other as defaults frequently. I will never use the other transitions as defaults as they are too "cheesy" for my style of shows. But I do use one every now and then if it fits a particular image The fade in/out is the best of any that I have seen on other software. But it is suspectible to "shuddering" depending on the power of your computer. I have not found a computer less than 2 years or so old that could not handle the fade in/out on a 800x600 image VERY smoothly regardless of the transition time. I have a P3 probably 300-400 MHZ, 256 RAM and it will smoothly handle fades as short as 800ms. The more powerful the computer, the larger the image that will fade smoothly at faster speeds. The "cut" (hot blocks) works fine too. Jim

Oops!!!!!! I forgot to mention dBPowerAMP MUsic Converter, available as FREE download, also gives good flexibility in chossing the MP3 specs Jim

A user of PTE that I know has been making shows of 3-5minutes length in very small files. (less than 5mb) He has been using low quality MP3, but unless you are listening on high quality speakers, I can't tell the difference (but then I have a tin ear ) Cool Edit 2000, while not as inexpensive as Acoustica, gives you tremendous flexiblity in choosing the MP3 output quality. You need the Studio plug-in to mix music, but you can record, adjust volume, tone etc etc with the basic package Jim

Guido Thanks for the thoughts. I will try #1 next time I am there. The first image is black, so I guess I really meant the second image is what shows and then disappears. The second image starts with the music, after 3 seconds of silence to give everything a chance to load and set up. I had it starting after just over a second of lead in and the second image never made it to the screen as it was too busy loading everything. The second image has a 3400ms fade in and is on the screen, from the start of the fade in to the start of the next image, for 4 seconds Jim