JEB

Folks, For my sins I am about to take a lead roll in a photographic club AV. From what I can see there is not a great deal of experience (including myself) so we will all be on a long learning curve. I have been looking on this site and on the Internet for some source of guidance perhaps along the lines of basic Do’s and Dont's but have as yet not found any single source. Plenty of tips exist, as I’m sure we are all aware, tucked away in many different places but as yet I don’t recall seeing one central resource. Can anyone point me in any particular direction? John

I just thought it would do no harm to publicly record another “happy customer experience”. However, firstly, as a relatively recent newcomer to the world of AV and in particular P2E, it may be of interest to any person considering “joining the club” that they should have no fears but rather take the bull by the horns and go for it! I was extremely sceptical a few months ago when I started. I could not see how something so inexpensive could provide so much value. How wrong I was. Not having had the benefit of membership of an AV club from which I could glean information and reassurance I posted an enquiry on this forum (in my usual diplomatic manner!) which generated a mixed reaction ranging from, basically, “suck it and see” to genuine encouragement. I have now made several different enquiries on this forum all of which have been answered swiftly and accurately to my total satisfaction and amazement. The Forum search facility has proven invaluable, as have the various members’ sites. The time and effort that some people put into this subject is phenomenal. OK, some may initially appear to be “anoraks” but who cares – living where I do I seldom have one (anorak) off my back for nine months of the year! The more perceptive will have guessed by now that I am a graduate of a somewhat unsuccessful school of diplomacy. I have been dabbling with all sorts of software for many years and have invested in many glossy instruction tomes but this is the first product where the manual has been and is continually being written by the users – and all the better it is for that. I almost forgot in my enthusiasm to relate my most recent “happy customer experience”. It was quite simply that, because of my own stupidity and carelessness I had lost my Registration Key. I needed this so that I could run a second copy of P2E on my laptop for use while away from my desktop. Now, I thought that I (a tight fisted Scotsman) would have to purchase a second licence and was prepared to do so. However a posting to the Forum and an e-mail to WinSoft and low and behold a new Registration Key arrives by return. What is more this entitles me to all future updates of a truly remarkable programme. Thanks to everyone wherever you are. John Barnett

Folks, Firstly I must start by stating that I am a total novice but I am keen to learn. Secondly I should state that I have only watched this show once so far but know I will watch it many times more in the future. I thought that it would be of value to me and hopefully to others if I were to give some instant feedback that may induce debate. I have been watching the discussion during the past few months with some trepidation. I feared that this show could turn out to be a bit “corny” and OTT. How wrong I was! The music and techniques used were excellent in my view and I am now impatient to have a second look to try to figure out how some of the transitions were achieved. However I would make one criticism and that is that I would have liked to have seen many of the images on the screen for longer than they were. I have found this to be the case in many if not most of the shows I have watched since taking up this obsessive hobby. I have noticed myself that I always face the dilemma of not making the show too long but trying to include as many images as possible. What are the views of others? Thanks to everybody who contributed. John Barnett

It’s made it! After all my trials and tribulations concerning zipping and uploading and with the help of you good folks out there my first attempt with P2E has been kindly posted by Bill at Beechbrook.com. The title is “Treescapes”. I would greatly appreciate your comments, as I am keen to develop my interest and skill in AV and photography both of which are relatively new to me. Though like many I have owned cameras for many years it is only over the past two or three that I have begun to take photography seriously. A certain Mr Barry Beckham may recognise at least one of his techniques that I have flagrantly plagiarized! Thanks John

Bill and others, Thanks you all for your replies. I fully recognise and appreciate the generosity of Beechbrook.com in providing this resource. I had in fact started out to e-mail you Bill directly but changed my mind thinking it better to put my situation to the general host rather than bother you. Not having uploaded or indeed zipped anything before I thought the forum would be the best approach. I will have another go over the weekend. I hope this is not now going to be a big let down, this being my first attempt at going public! In for a penny, in for a pound! John p.s. It seems, in referring to my previous post, that I have demonstrated quite publicly how clueless I am in more ways than one, when I don’t even know what day of the weak it is – I now know that today is Saturday and last night was Friday night!

Thanks Ken, I will try that (CD/floppy) again. I say again because I did actually try to do that some time ago but all I managed to transfer was the Trial version. I will have another look at it and see where I get to this time. Regarding networking I'm not too happy with that though in theory it sounds good. I did have an old laptop networked (by a techie) at one time but I kept getting into a dreaful mess so disconnected it. This may be the time to have another go. Thanks John

Thanks for those replies folks. I now know I'm not trying to do something totally daft. I will try later but not tonight as it's Saturday night here and I'm off to the pub! Cheers!! John

I have been trying to upload my first slide show to Beechbrook but find that it is taking ages. After two attempts of approx. 30 mins I have given up. Is this to be expected? I am using 1 MB broadband. I have used a trial version of WinZip (never zipped before only unzipped). The show comprises of 50 slides (average size 400 kb) and an mp3 music file of 63,544 kb. When I zip the “MyFile”.exe” file which is 27.8 MB it only packs to 25.3 MB as the “MyFile”.zip file. Should I be zipping the “MyFile”.pte (only 17kb – I can’t believe that this is big enough!) file rather than the .exe file? The PTE Upload Guidelines at Beechbrook do refer to PTE files but not specifically as extensions. Any help or guidance would be much appreciated. John

Thanks Ken, I didn't know it was so easy! Yes I do keep hard records but felt sure I must be missing something. " Oh ye of little faith"! Do you, or anyone else out there, have any thoughts on my other enquiry about using P2E on my laptop, in particular without putting it on the Internet? Regards John

Sorry if I am sending this to the wrong location. I am presently using Version 4.43, which I downloaded initially as a trial. I have not updated it as I tend to work on the principal “that if it aint broke, don’t fix it”. However in preparation for the big day (version 5 would you believe) I think it prudent to do a dummy run by upgrading to the latest version now. My problem is that I don’t think I have the “Key” file still on my PC. What should I be looking for? What I do have is a print of an e-mail received at the time of registration with a sequence of approx. 64 characters following “Key”=. Is this all I require? I have two further questions. Presently I have P2E installed on my desktop PC, do I need to purchase a second licence to also have it on my laptop? For working with while away from home. This is not a problem financially as it would still be good value, even for a tight fisted Scotsman like me! My next problem is that I have vowed not to let this laptop anywhere near the Internet. How therefore can I load it? Regards John

Thank you all for your swift replies. I am always amazed at the help and assistance I receive from this community not forgetting the speed at which it arrives. Regards John PS Sorry this should have been added to above. Fingers!

I have two questions coming out of this thread, the first I think is for Igor and the other for any other guru who is prepared to take the time. I have recently purchased a new HP Compaq (1400x1050) laptop to go with my projector (SX50) which has I understand an ATI Radion XPRESS 200M graphics card fitted. I don't see this listed on your post Igor, can you comment please. I have had no problems so far but should I expect some? My second question concerning audio is perhaps a bit of a diversion. For some time I have been aware that perhaps in the future I may wish to enhance the sound I presently get from a couple of small PC speakers I plug into the side of the laptop. Other than being aware that a USB bit of magic or card can be used to connect to an external amplifier and speakers I am totally ignorant. Can anybody point me at a web site that would explain in layman terms what would be a reasonable option? Any indication of cost would be useful in case I get too excited! John

Mike, As someone who has not yet had the courage to publish anything and a lover of Venice may I say that I thought your Venice show (not yet looked at Yorkshire) was superb. I for one enjoyed the effects you created. The only comment I would make, and this appears to be a common trend, is that I would prefer to have the images stay on the screen for a longer time after the transition. Having said that many shows for me keep the image too long on the screen! There must be a happy medium – but what?? Well done. John

Thank you both. As soon as I started to read yor reply Ed it started to come back to this senile brain of mine! John

Can someone please tell me how to open PS from PTE? There was a post recently on the subject but I can't now find it and stupidly didn't take a note of how to set it up. I have just been reorganising my PC drives and have moved both to a different drive and of course it wont now work. Sorry to be a bother. Incidently what I have done is put PS, PTE, Audition etc. on one of my two internal 160 GB drives and plan to also save any AV working resources (templates, working copies of images etc) on that drive. My other drive will be used for other applications and storage of original images. I also have an external HD on which I plan to back up valuable files. Apart from security and general housekeeping I understand that it is beneficial to give PS as much resourse as possible - any views? Regards John

Thank you all for your help. I can now get to work with a little more confidence. John

Jim, Al, Thank you both for your replies. I will take on board your comments about cropping to enable more sympathetic overlaps, Jim. I had not given that much thought which just shows how green I am. Also Al, thank you for confirming that there is merit in having the same resolution on the Laptop and Projector. Can I assume that my concern about preparing my shows on my desktop with its screen resolution set to 1280x 960 or 1280x1024 as explained in my initial post will have no impact on the final projected show provided the images are prepared at the laptop/projector resolution (a derivative still to be decided of 1400x1050 in my case)? What are your views on push and pull regarding vs.5? Have there been any suggestions that this may be achieved in a different way thus making this consideration redundant? I can see that you are very active on the Forum hence my asking. I am interested that you have gone down the wide screen route. My “mixed up” interpretation of what I have been reading recently suggested that there were fairly fixed standards so it is encouraging not to feel that I have to be too restricted. Thanks again John

I suppose I should say that I am sorry to raise this old nutmeg again - but it would be a lie. The truth is that I am petrified and also just a little desperate! The facts relating to my needs (sorry to be selfish) are as follows:- My prime purpose in producing shows is to project them through MY OWN Digital projector and laptop. Of secondary importance is that it would be nice if family and friends could view them via a CD on their own PC’s or laptops (no doubt a variety of screen resolutions) and perhaps in the longer term TV (DVD). With the development of wide screen TV (I don’t have one but will have to upgrade sometime) and perhaps with likely improvements in AVI and all that stuff (!?) I should perhaps keep this in mind. But this is not a high priority. Of lesser importance is that they could possibly, though unlikely, be viewed via other projectors and PC’s of lower resolution. I have recently purchased the Canon SX50, which has a resolution of 1400 x 1050 (1.33 aspect ratio) and a new laptop with the same native resolution of 1400 x 1050. My understanding is that a direct match is important to obtain the best possible results? The other resolution consideration is that I prepare my shows on a desktop PC with a maximum screen ratio of 1280x1024 but have been up till now using 1280x960 which I understand to be its “native resolution”. How important is the “native” resolution at this stage? Is this not more important at the laptop/projector stage? My camera also a Canon will capture (in its high res setting) a landscape at 3504x2336 which, as I calculate it, equates to 1400x 933 (1.5 aspect ratio). This assumes no cropping. The other option is to crop to 1400x1050 (1.3) in line with what I understand is the present conventional aspect ratio of 1280x960. I am very tempted to the 1400x933 option as being a tight fisted Scot I am reluctant to throw away hard earned pixels by cropping, and from what tests I have done I can, I think, live with the top and bottom border. My other reason for favouring this line is that I suspect that this aspect ratio more closely meets the ratio of modern TVs. I would very much appreciate the views of others out there who I am sure have a better understanding of this than I do. Clearly I am keen to maximise the potential of my kit and meet the criteria I have outlined above. Thanks in anticipation! John

As a new member I don’t feel competent to provide any particular image but will give it some thought. However I am delighted to note that the use of National anthems is unlikely. As a patriotic Scot I don’t believe I just said that! One thought that has occurred to me is that perhaps the use of a quotation from perhaps the most International of all Scots, Robert Burns, may be considered suitable. I have in mind the last verse of “A Man’s A Man For A’ That”. “Then let us pray that come it may, (As come it will for a’ that,) That Sense and Worth, o’er a’ the earth, Shall bear the gree, an’ a’ that. For a’ that, an’ a’ that, It’s coming yet for a’ that, That Man to Man, the world o’er, Shall brothers be for a’ that. The use of the compete poem may even be possible with someone – preferably with a Scots accent (Nationalism creeping in!) reading the poem over appropriate images and even, where necessary, English/French/Spanish/American!!/Russian superimposed translation!!! – I’m now getting carried away (perhaps I should be carried away and be locked up too.) P.S. As Igor will confirm Burns is big in Russia. I think he is quite well known accross The Pond too! John

Sorry, I can’t provide any info on above other than that available on the web. However, I am also interested as I will soon be looking to purchase a projector and it seems to me that it may be worth bighting the bullet and going for this or some other 1400x1050 projector, particularly when I read the thread initiated by Igor “Maximum Quality Images for Slide Shows”. It would seem that 1280x960 is gaining support. Can someone please enlighten me or am I being naïve in assuming that preparing a show in PTE at 1280x960 and projecting it via a 1280x960 laptop with a 1400x1050 projector will give an improved quality over a show prepared at 1024x768 (or, 1280x960 – see above mentioned thread)) and projected with a 1024x768 projector?

Thank you all for your responses. Ron, if PTE is good enough for such illustrious bodies then it must be good enough for a novice like me! Jevans, your response is just what I was hoping for. I felt sure there must be someone out there who was coming from the same direction as myself. Your solution on the synchronising of audio tracks is encouraging. I’m not sure that I totally understand it at this point in time, but as Brian points out, I have hardly explored the package to date. In time, I will take you up on the resolution topic, as this is something that also interests me. I have actually raised a related issue concerning resolution and projection/DVD elsewhere in the forum. Thank you all. John, JEB

Dave I am new to this game so forgive me if I sound naive. I am beginning to think of purchasing a new digital projector to replace my existing Epson SVGA (800 x 600) in order to achieve the best possible results. The most obvious economic choice appears to be XGA (1024 x 768), however is this a short-term solution in that SXGA (1280 x 1024) looks like it could become more viable (if Canon are to be believed!) in the near future. Both my desktop and laptop can be set to SXGA. I am also interested in your comments regarding DVD as I currently see that as the way I would like to go given that my preferred methods of presenting my shows are by projection and TV. I have a small portable DVD player for both options but would the laptop be better? John

Ken, At this point in time I would be interested in users views as to what in their view makes PTE a better option than "all in" products such as Studio 9. I have one other particular issue regarding resolution/projection which I will take up on another thread that is prenently running. If I continue down the PTE route as I think is likely no doubt I will have other questions. Thanks for your interest. JEB

I have very recently downloaded the trial version of PTE having heard good reports and would like some reassurance before committing to this route. My interest is in producing slide shows primarily for digital projection but also TV both preferably via DVD. I have been dabbling in AV slide shows for some time having come from PowerPoint through Opus, Roxio and most recently Ulead VideoStudio 9 (acquired for a specific Video need but used latterly for slide shows). What concerns me at the moment is the separation of audio (music, voice, background effects) and titles from the main programme. What attracts me is this source of common interest and specialist help.

I have very recently downloaded the trial version of PTE having heard good reports and would like some reassurance before committing to this route. My interest is in producing slide shows primarily for digital projection but also TV both preferably via DVD. I have been dabbling in AV slide shows for some time having come from PowerPoint through Opus, Roxio and most recently Ulead VideoStudio 9 (acquired for a specific Video need but used latterly for slide shows). What concerns me at the moment is the separation of audio (music, voice, background effects) and titles from the main programme. What attracts me is this source of common interest and specialist help.