JEB

Folks, Some guidance please regarding the choice of a monitor screen size for a desk top PC to be used by my camera club principally for projecting demonstrations of Photoshop (HDR in mind) and running PTE shows. Recently a number of you kind and knowledgeable folks provided much appreciated assistance in enabling us to specify and select the PC we are almost certainly going to have built by “pcspecialist.co.uk”. For your information the basic spec. is as follows :- Intel® Core™2 Duo E6550 (2 X 2.33GHz) 1333MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache 2GB CORSAIR DOMINATOR DDR2 1066MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY ASUS® P5K SE: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 2 PCI, 3 x PCI-e x1 WINDOWS® XP Home (inc. Genuine CD & License) 160GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm) 20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM 320MB GEFORCE 8800GTS PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT 500W (Peak) Quiet Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan ASUS SILENT KNIGHT II PURE COPPER ULTRA COOLER Comments on any major flaws would be appreciated. However as I have said my principal concern is with the choice of monitor, bearing in mind our requirement being for using it in conjunction with a projector, which has a native resolution of 1024x768. To date we have been producing PTE shows at 1024x768 though with the advance of wide screen TV and most of our members wanting to burn to DVD I feel we have to try to cater for present and future needs. We also have a space storage problem so the smallest physical size is also important. The monitors available from our supplier are as follows:- 19 INCH TFT Silver/Black 1280 x1024 8MS D-Sub, DVI, Audio Wide 17 inch TFT 1440 x 900 8ms D-Sub I understand from the supplier that the 19” can be set to display 1024x768 but that the wide 17” can’t. Bearing in mind present and likely future needs which way would you go? There is perhaps another option, to source a monitor elsewhere but we would be reluctant to go down this route unless for a very good reason. I look forward to your comments. We hope to take a decision and place an order this week if possible. Thanks in anticipation, John

Peter, Firstly may I thank you for a beautiful and emotional production, particularly at this time of year with Armistice Day approaching. As someone who lost a father at Anzio during WW2 I know these cemeteries well. To other matters. Having, in the not too distant past, been responsible with others, for putting together a 25 minute documentary on the history surrounding our local river – from its source to its outflow - I can appreciate the need for as much detailed planning as possible. To a degree we did plan ahead, however the script was drafted and re-drafted during the period we were gathering images and knowledge – a period of about six months! I used Adobe Audition as I found its layout very easy to use. We used a lot of voice-over some sound effects and music in the background. No way would I have wanted to do all that in a version of PTE. I did as I suggested earlier run them side by side on two separate machines till I was happy that I was close enough to the desired level of synchronization. However, for small shows I still think that a slightly improved degree of music control within PTE would be helpful. Thanks again for your show – perhaps you should post it on the Show section of the Forum for others to see at this time of year. Regards John

Hi Peter, I agree with much of what you say. HOWEVER, though I use PTE 95% of the time for its main purpose - making AV’s, I find I am increasingly using it to make lecture presentations. PowerPoint I hear you say – what was that? In both cases I use my laptop for the audio and my desktop for the show, running them in tandem till I am reasonably happy that they are pretty well synchronised and only then bringing them together in PTE for final tweaking. I have to say though if it were possible for PTE to enable sound located in a slide to merge with sound located within the project I would find that a very useful tool. Certainly I would want to have control of the volume of each source but this said I would be more than happy to continue the way I do at present rather than run the risk of compromising a wonderful product. Regards John

Mike, Thanks for that. Very impressive! Now I know what can be done I'll keep it in mind for the future. Regards John

Neil, Would it be possible for you to let us see the sort of results one can get with this process? I have heard it mentioned before on the forum but don't recall seeing any examples. Regards John

Thanks again Brian, What people like me would do without people like you is frightening! I don't pretend to fully understand all of what you are saying but appreciate that any good build company will understand. I intend to submit a written spec to one or two companies based on your recent e-mails and see what they come up with. Incidentally, I thought I was the only one who kept odd hours ( I see your post was 3:21 AM and from the same time zone), perhaps your a rugby man and are suffering from nerves over the prospects for Ireland this afternoon! That's a smug comment from a Scot whose side only made it by the skin of their teeth last night! Thanks again John

Thanks Brian, That's a great help. I see light at the end of the tunnel! John

Wideangle, Thanks for that. Please see "Laptop for PTE" thread above. John

Hi, In light of two recent experiences at our club I feel I aught to update you good people who have been contributing to this thread. The first, where we ran a couple of test PTE shows on two different club laptops, convinced the members that a high spec graphics card was essential. The second event was when one member tried to demonstrate HDR, using six High-resolution RAW files on one of our laptops. Need I spell it out! Needless to say we are changing tack and looking to a desktop machine – more bulky certainly but it will give us more options in selecting a specification that meets our needs, particularly if we go down the built to order route. We also see a significant degree of future proofing by going for a desktop rather than a laptop. i.e. we will almost certainly stay with XP until (if ever) convinced to move to Vista. I will keep you informed of developments! Watch this space!!! Regards and thanks for your input, it has helped us enormously. John

Hi, Can I direct the attention of those reading this thread to another very similar thread "Laptop for PTE" in which I have added a request for advice. Thanks John

Folks, I hope you do not mind my asking for opinions from you Guru’s out there. I have been following the discussion on this thread and on the similar thread started by Barry recently, with great interest. I have been impressed by the strong recommendation given by Barry of “pcspecialisi.co.uk”. I also appreciate the feelings expressed by other contributors regarding the benefits of not buying off the shelf. Presently I am researching on behalf of my camera club with a view to purchasing a new laptop for four principal purposes. 1) To display digital images via our projector (1024*768) submitted for competitions. 2) To occasionally run and project live Photoshop demonstrations as an element of club night lectures. 3) To run and project training videos. 4) To project PTE A.V.’s I have obtained a detailed quote (£869) from pcspecialists the main elements of which are :- 15.4 (1280*800) Display Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 (2*2.00GHz) 800MHz FSB/2MB L2 Cache 2048 RAM Windows Vista Home Premium 256MB GEFORCE 8600GT + D-SUB + TV-OUT I would appreciate your views on this spec. My main concerns are with the Graphics card and Vista. They do not offer any other card or screen at this time though we could go for different flavours of Vista or indeed XP there are however options regarding processors, RAM etc. Your opinions and guidance would be much appreciated. Regards John

Mike, What I do is set the time for all slides to something much longer than you need (max 5000 seconds) and the use the arrow keys to navigate forward or back at my pace. John

I hope this may be of interest to others. Basically I followed Ralph’s demo as attached to his post above with a few minor changes. From Project Options I set all slides in the menu to 5000 sec (83 mins! – a bit OTT but safety in numbers). Ticked “Permit control of show using keyboard to enable me to use the arrow keys to move forward and back. My first slide was a blank white. My second was the club logo and one button (Audio off), which was set under the Common tab to go to slide 3. Also under Customize Slide/Music I loaded my music file – a fairly long piece, as I wanted this to play for an undetermined time. From Customize Slide unlike Project Options you can’t instruct audio to repeat. On reflection I suppose I could have loaded a number of tracks or loaded the same piece several times. Slide Three – also the club logo had three buttons. The first, (Audio on) was located in precisely the same location as the Audio off on Slide 2 and that obviously returned to Slide 2 – not entirely necessary but a comfort to know it was available. The second button was a large button located at the top of the slide and was labelled and served as the title of the lecture. This was set under the Common tab to “Run application or open file”. That was my main presentation which was of course another PTE slide show set up in much the same way as the menu (white background, keyboard control, 5000 seconds). At the end of that show I had it also set under the Common tab to “Run application or open file” which in this case was Photoshop to enable me to demonstrate some processes. When I exited PS I was automatically returned to Slide 3. The third button on this slide was labelled A.V. and it was programmed (if I may use that term) to go to Slide 4. Slide Four – also the club logo but with one large button serving as a title (Audio Visual Presentations) to the second part of the lecture and programmed to go to Slide 5. Slide Five - also the club logo but with five small buttons each labelled with titles of A.V. shows and programmed with “Run application or open file” to the appropriate show. Obviously one can do a great deal more with this but this simple structure served me well on the night. Sorry I have not included copies of the files, principally because I could not improve on Ralph’s demo which I would strongly recommend anybody interested to get hold of while it is still available. All the best and thanks to all who contributed. John

Ralph, Certainly, but I going to be out most of today so will put something together Sunday. John

Roger, I don't have a Display Tab only Monitor. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that this machine is running on XP Home Edition (updated regularly). Thanks anyway it was worth a try. I will probably drop HP an e-mail - and get an answer for Xmas! Regards John Lin, I will have a look at that site and take on board your comments. Thank you John

Just to let you know Ken, I made it with time to spare and it was worth it. Thanks everybody John

Roger, Thanks for that - I thought I was on to something but can't find the "Expand while maintaining aspect ratio" option. All I have is Default or Plug and Play under the Monitor tab. Any ideas? Barry, Thanks I found that thread interesting. We will use your balloons as a test. Gordon, What can I say other than I hope you get your money back. John

Hi, I would appreciate any advice on specific laptops available in the UK that would be suitable for preparing and in particular projecting PTE shows utilizing PAZ. My camera club are looking to purchase one that would be used for this purpose. I appreciate the need for a good graphics card. Also from personal experience, I have a laptop that does have a good graphics card but also regrettably has a wide screen, which I find most irritating to work from as it displays a flattened image even though the display is set to 1024 x 768 (1.33 aspect ratio) yet the true aspect image is projected. Therefore, a screen with an aspect ratio of 1.33 seems to me to be a must have. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks John

Ralph, Thank you very much for putting that together for me. I am at present creating my menu along these lines. I think my audience (potential PTE users) will be impressed. Thanks to all who contributed. John

Peter or anyone else listening, I have managed to get a draft menu working as I wish. However I have one further embellishment I would like to add. I would like to have music playing when the main menu is visible but switching off when either PS or a PTE show is playing. I have tried all sorts of options but can't get it to stop. I have tried loading it at Project and Slide levels but it still continues when the other application loads. Any suggestions? John

Thanks Peter, Now that I know it can be done I will try to make time before tomorrow night to add these frills. As I said above I havn't yet tried to create a menu so even if I don't get the time now I certainly will be looking at it after the event Regads and thanks for your time. John

Help please, I am preparing a talk for my camera club and have created a slide show in PTE to support the talk. I have used the “run application after last slide” option to take me directly to Photoshop in order to demonstrate something – and it works great! However after I am finished with PS I would like to play a couple of PTE shows, ideally without returning to my desktop and opening up a folder containing them. I have not yet explored the menu option I hear much reference to and wondered if this would be applicable in this circumstance bearing in mind that the sequence of events would be as follows:- Menu (small PTE show) Talk presentation (PTE show) Photoshop demonstration Menu – select from number of PTE shows It’s getting seamlessly back to the Menu after exiting PS that concerns me. Before going into and learning how to create a menu (I’m a slow learner and time is of the essence at this stage) can somebody tell me if I’m barking up the wrong tree – or just barking mad!) Thanks John

Harvey. Thank you. This works a treat. Just what I wanted - no problems John P.S. Thanks also to others that have taken the trouble to respond.

Ken, Yes I have quicktime and it does play ok. I had thought about re-recording but thought that that may reduce quality. I'll give that a go. Thanks as always. John

This is a long shot but I wondered if any of the experts out there might have an answer to this. I often carry a compact when I don’t have my SLR with me. Like many of these cameras it has a movie option. I used this recently to record the sound of church bells which I thought would add authenticity to a short AV I had in mind - if I could strip out the audio from the video. That is the question. How do I do that? The camera is a Panasonic DMC-LX2 and the movie file created has a .MOV extension. I use Adobe Audition and have tried to import and open this file but all I get is a hissing sound. If it can’t be done it’s no great problem but if it can – great! Ideas? John