davegee

The odds are in your favour. DG

Any musicians out there? PTE can be used as a aid to Teaching/Practise/Performance in a musical context. The linked EXE is an example which shows an aspect I have been exploring. If you play a "C" instrument you can use this EXE to have a little fun and put your reading skills to the test - nothing too difficult. If you play a Bb or Eb instrument and can transpose "on the fly" it will also be useful (and I take my hat off to you!). 5 minutes - 14Mb - 1920x1080. If you want to try it for yourself making an MPEG4 to play through your TV's Media Player is a good alternative to the EXE file. You can turn the volume up and entertain the family. Non-musicians might find this a little boring. Play it through to the end and then delete. DG http://dl.dropbox.com/u/70942558/Breaker.zip

Is there a Father Christmas????? DG

Hi Charlie, As Lin said, more ways............. Olympics Rings.zip DG P.S. The Shadows could do with a little more work - feel free.

Yes, of course! I should have known better. DG

Hi Charlie, The Green ring has 3 elements. One behind the Red ring, another between Red and Black and another in front of Black. These can be done as partial variations of the same Green ring in PS etc. Or they can be done using 3 copies of the same complete Green ring with masks. Overlay the partials so that they are correctly spaced in relation to the Red and Black rings and also "in register". I used partials rather than masks. DG

Hi Charlie, Unless I have missed something the rings are not interlocking? The Green Ring needs to go "through" the Red and Black Rings and the Yellow ring needs to go "through" the Black and Blue rings? Best wishes, DG

Barry, Whilst you suggestion is valid and I have no worries in endorsing it.... There is an easy way already available. Example: Add music to track. Set fade out at point B (at X seconds). Add another copy of same music. Offset at X plus 5 seconds and start point at X seconds and fade in. Project file size is still the same and if you do it a couple of times it is FAR quicker than leaving PTE to go to third party software. IMHO and all that - other opinions are available. With multi tracks and new layout in v7.5 Audacity is not required. DG

Lin, As promised I repeated my checks of the XVID Codec against some others and found that my results did not differ from last week. As far as the QUALITY of the images is concerned I cannot recommend the XVID Codec. The project which I used was a 1920x1200 project which obviously required to be resized during the process but PLEASE bear in mind that this resizing was applied in all versions and therefore what we are looking at is how the XVID Codec handled this in comparison with the others. In the case of the XVID and MPEG4-ASP Codecs the resizing was done to the height and produced 1728x1080 60fps Video Clips. Both were played in Windows Media Centre by Double Clicking and the results were as I described. The XVID Codec failed to handle some of the Wireframe elements satisfactorily and the MPEG4-ASP Codec had no problems with these at all. I also tried Media Player Classic with the same result. The Default H264 version was also (automatically) resized to 1728x1080 using "Fixed Size of Slide" and the quality of the images and Wireframes was markedly better than the other two versions. Maybe I'm missing something here and I'm willing to try any suggestions? DG P.S. the excercise has been useful in that I have realised that this project DEFINITELY needs to be 1920x1080 and not 1920x1200. I can "re-jig" without too much trouble before I get too far!! Tip - think about the intended use before deciding on an AR/Resolution!

ALT + S in Slide View=BLANK Slide - colour depends on setting in Options - Screen.<br>DG

We obviously were not trying hard enough. Well done Igor. DG

Once again Lin, it matters not what was done. the xvid codec produce a different (worse) result than the other Try again on Monday Dg

Lin, I fear that you misunderstand. To create the wireframe I use PNG made in PS at the intended final res. there is no interpolation involved. the final product is subjected to the same resizing when using xvid or mpeg4 h264 so how can that be an issue? DG

Hi Lin, As we are talking about PNG24 I am not sure where interpolation comes into it and since the XVID ans MPEG4-ASP versions were at completely defaultSettings for the same reolution they should produce the same effect with the same basic PNG files.We need 2 or more other testers and a more structured test.As for poor basic materials - you should know me better than that!! Best wishes, DG

Lin, I found that the XVID Codec is already installed on my new PC so....... I have been doing a little testing today on Video made three different ways: XVID Codec MPEG4-ASP MPEG4-H.264. Using the same project, which is the current project I am working on containing some wireframes which are admittedly not as taxing as the video that you described but nevertheless needing a good PC, my initial findings are as follows. Please bear in mind that my requirements are quality of picture above all else. With the XVID Codec some of the wireframes looked as though they were made from wire ropes? An aliasing type effect which was quite off-putting. No glitches - "smooth as butter" as Ken says. MPEG4-ASP - Wireframes were as smooth as they were expected to be when compared with the EXE file. No "rope-like" effect. MPEG4-H264 - Outshines the other two by a considerable margin. No comparison quality wise. Now, if I had constructed something as technically challenging as your example the "smooth as butter" result might be different, but on the face of it and judging by what I have seen I cannot say that the XVID Codec produces the same QUALITY of end result as the other two. I really would like someone else to chip in to this debate - it is of interest to all. DG

Everything appears to be normal here. DG

Gary, I realise that it is not a freebee but Premiere will do the fade in and out and trimming without having to resort to stripping out audio and all that it entails. If we want to use video we need to use the appropriate tools to do it (until we have it built in). The audio facilities in PTE are already more sophisticated than most people seem to realise but for some things we need to go elsewhere for the time being. But who knows what the next week or two might bring??? Uprights (portrait format): It has that jarring effect on me every time I see it. If it's done for effect then I suppose there is a place for it. To keep a project such as yours smooth flowing, I usually blur the previous (full frame) image and bring the upright in on top of it. Also, using a little 3D animation might help. DG

Making an MPEG4 file of the Project is as near to EXE quality as you are likely to get. It would have to be sent via DVD and copied to the computer (as per Ken's suggestion) but should not give any security problems. The MPEG4 has the added advantage of being useable on a suitable TV via a USB Memory Key. DG

Ron, Let's say that your project has 100 slides each of which is going to fade from B+W through Sepia to Colour and that each image is of the order of 1Mb. Doing it via PS (your way) the overall Project File Size (EXE) is going to be of the order of 300Mb. Doing it by using the "Ctrl+Shift+P" option (if you find the conversions acceptable) means that the Project File Size (EXE) is just of the order of 100Mb. Worth considering? DG

Peter, Please clarify? Are you sure that you do not need "TV Safe" when playing a 16:9 PTE show on a DVD into your LCD TV? DG

You do not need tv safe with mpeg4 but it is % of main image in the more tab (??). I have not used it for a while. DG

Thanks Stu, I was replying from my phone and could not remember what the "fixed size of slide" was called!! Steven, Put a border around your trial of a few pixels - can you see the border on the TV? If your TV has a USB input and Media Player you could avoid all of the "problems" associated with DVDs and increase the quality of the final product on the TV by making an MPEG4, transfering it to a USB key and playing it on the TVs Media Player. Obviously, if you need to send a copy to someone then the DVD is the easiest way to do that. DG

You need to untick the box below the resolution figures on the SCREEN tab of project options which might be causing a problem. You also need to set TV Safe Zone. DG

Agree Stu, My thoughts were to try this and also to compare KFSD and non-KFSD. It happens right across the board. Turning transitions off cures the problem. DG

Toggle Ctrl+Shift+P on an image in O+A. Put one version on top of the other and use Key-Frames to fade between Mono and Colour (or Vice Versa). DG