davegee

XP SP2 (Media Centre Edition) In Explorer - Rt click - Properties - Summary. I think that two things are possibly relevent: Compression ratio??????? and Lack of PCM anywhere. Try altering File format to WAV (Microsoft 16Bit PCM) Something else appears to be at work here - Audacity says "UNCOMPRESSED EXPORT FORMAT" DaveG

Ed, See edited PS above. DaveG

Hi Peter, I see what you mean but it is not likely that Ed would have changed the default.....or is it? In Audition all variants are selectable in the dropdown which appears when you Save As which makes it easier to pick the "wrong" one. DaveG P.S. I looked at the details of the WAV file that worked for me (in Explorer) and they are as follows: Bit Rate 1411 kbps Sample Size 16 Bit Channels 2 Sample Rate 44Khz Audio Format PCM

Hi Ed, FWIW I have just imported a music file into Audacity and exported it as a WAV file which I then put into PTE firstly under the MUSIC tab and then under the Customize Slide option. In both cases the file played OK. I noticed that in AUDACITY there is no alternative WAV file other than the default. Therefore my post above refers specifically to AUDITION. The "User Error" I mentioned was choosing the wrong WAV type in the dropdown menu in AUDITION when Saving. Do you have a main music file playing as well as the comments? DaveG

So, rather than convert to greyscale it has DESATURATED and not done a very good job. DaveG

Ed, This is just a stab in the dark - I remember having a similar problem and the answer was, as usual, User Error!! There is more than one kind of WAV file and the correct one for most apps is WINDOWS PCM (*.WAV). Check that it is the right kind of WAV file? DaveG

Eric, If you open one of the converted images up in Elements and look at its MODE - what does it say? Is it converting to greyscale or desaturating (badly). DaveG

Hi Peter, Not "full", and I had to open it up to find out just how much support there was. I use CS3 on a day-to-day basis and saw something about actions in Elements 7 thinking that it was "full" implementation. It seems that it has an Action Player and around 15 ready made actions. It also will play Photoshop Actions (.atn) which can be loaded into Elements 7 (restrictions apply). There are literally hundreds of actions available on the web for download and there are people who will create actions for you as indeed anyone with a full version of Photoshop could. So, Eric, don't buy Elements 7 - it might be a big leap forward in some respects but for actions - no. Reading the fine print is always a good thing!!

Perhaps Igor could tell us if anything is proposed for the next version? DaveG

Like Peter said. It might be the right time to upgrade to Elements 7 - You could benefit a lot from it. Actions are a central part of the way I work. Pressing one key, for instance, can change Mode from 16 bit to 8 bit, flatten an image and convert from RGB to sRGB instantly. DaveG

Eric, Leave out the "dot" after zip? .... and paste in exactly as given. DaveG

It's a similar situation to the PTE file and the EXE file. The PTE file is very small compared to the EXE file it creates. It is just a set of instructions. DaveG

I think that we are all in agreement on this - it causes a lot of unnecessary posts from very frustrated would be users who cannot load a key. The situation is made worse by the apparently different systems that have been used to deliver keys over the last few years. DaveG

Try changing the name from "Reg.txt" to "reg.reg" in Windows Explorer. Alternatively you can type reg.reg into the file name when you "save as". You appear to have both the basic PTE reg key and the VideoBuilder reg key in one file. DaveG

Hi Peter, I copy that behaviour. I have never used the "Change Image File" Icon and doubt that I ever will - there is obviously something not quite right there. The other thing that threw me was that I was "experimenting" with a slide that did not have a "Main Image" - a blank slide to which an image had been added in a "Parent/Child" setup - and here, although clicking on the icon offers you the opportunity to change the image shown, it actually does NOTHING. If your setup is a "Cale" with an added image, the slide list shows the added image but it is not possible to change that image using the "Change Image File", even though it appears to be doing it, because there there is no main Image File to change. The image does not change and, obviously, nothing changes in O&A. So, summing up, I find that the situation would possibly be helped by renaming the Common "Name" to "Label" (after Igor has sorted out the "Change Image File" icon). DaveG

I have come to this thread a little late but, because it is relevant to something I am doing in a current project, I have checked it out. The current behaviour seems perfectly normal. There are two scenarios: Firstly if the Common "Name" is not changed and the Image is changed using the Properties Tab then then changes are reflected in the O&A Window Objects List. However, if the Common Name is changed to the users preference (say Object 1 etc) then changing the image in the Properties Tab has no effect on the O&A Window Objects List. "Object 1" will always be Object 1 even if the Image related to it has been changed. It seems to me that if the Common "Name" is changed to, perhaps, "Label" it would make more sense? DaveG

I'm not sure exactly what you mean but if you want the same pan and zoom on each slide you could set the first the way you want it and then copy and paste it as many times as necessary. By changing the image in each of the copied slides in O&A / Properties / Picture from original to your next image you will have saved youself a certain amount of repetitive work. There are probably other ways - I'm sure someone will jump in. DaveG

Well, I'll be................................... Thanks both, DaveG

Peter, An interesting point arising out of your post. I have often wondered if it would be better if PTE opened up as a blank screen similar to PS / Elements etc. rather than opening the last saved project? I think that the recently opened files option would provide all that is required. Maybe a menu item which would give either option would be useful. DaveG

Hi all, The way I have been using it is as follows: Let's say that I am doing around an hour's work per day on a particularly long project. With Auto Save set at 10 - 15 minutes, the first day's work is saved as Version one. When starting work on day two I open Version one and immediately save as Version Two. Auto Save will do its own thing and then when I finish I will save as Version Two. On day three open Version Two and immediately save as Version Three etc. The end result is a series of Versions any which could be returned to if necessary. This should result in an insurance against all manner of possible catastrophes and each version takes up very little space. I don't consider that any possible changes in Auto Save would be worth the time spent on it (by Igor) at this stage so I am quite happy to continue this way. If anyone could suggest an improvement in what I have described I would certainly consider it. Thanks all, for taking the time to contribute . DaveG

Eric, Do you mean that you want to be asked regularly or when you exit? Auto save is a deterent against loss of work due to a crash etc DaveG

Daniel, I had the same problem earlier today. I have sort of come to the conclusion that PTE likes Compuserve GIFs (Save As) and does not like some of the variants offered by Save for the Web. DaveG

Auto Save project file has been with us for a while. What, in your opinion, is the best way to make use of it? Do you just let it overwrite your original pte file; do you save a different version from time to time? I am thinking that, on a long project, it might be a good idea to save a new version on a daily basis and only Auto Save over the current day's work. Any opinions? DaveG

Davy / Mark, The show plays OK on my desktop machine but consider this: The show is "Fullscreen" and I'm viewing on a 1920x1200 monitor so the images, for the most part, are zoomed and panned beyond the limits of their 2048x1360 resolution (on my monitor). Getting the resolution of each image down to 1400x1050, as Mark suggests would make the situation even worse in terms of image quality unless the "window" of the show is limited to 1400x1050 and no pans or zooms were applied, which was not the object of Davy's excercise. I'm beginning to think that the image resolution means very little unless the resolution of the monitor on which the show was created is given? Any thoughts, anyone? DaveG

Tony, Something to consider for the future: A 3:2 aspect ratio image will fit to the height of a 1920x1080 output projector wheras it will only fit to the width of a 1400x1050 leaving you with black bands top and bottom. The difference in image sizes then becomes 1620x1080 as opposed to 1400x933.333333 (a physical impossibility). The difference in image quality is immediately obvious and the 16:9 aspect ratio has the advantage even if you don't use the full width - black bands at the sides are far less obtrusive than black bands top and bottom. DaveG