davegee

Since it was Dave's idea originally, perhaps he could give some direction as to which way he thinks the project should go, given the ideas already suggested. Personally I would vote against the idea of everyone downloading the submitted pics and making their own shows. I have seen that idea elsewhere and have not been over-enthusiastic about the results. DaveG

Count me in! Once you have the logistics sorted out (where to upload etc) I will respond. DaveG

ALWAYS keep EVERYTHING in the same folder? Images, Sound, Project - EVERYTHING. DaveG

Rich, I use a Sony HDD/ DVD Recorder to do this and I have been quite successful. No copyright problems and the advantage is that you can fill a DVD with more than one show. If you use a DVD-RW to make the original you also save a little there and don't have the "problem" of having to keep more than one PTE show open at any time to make multi show DVDs. The down side is that Sony units will only DUB DVDs made on SONY DVD recorders (same thing goes for Panasonic etc). The result of this is that you need a second DVD player to record onto the HDD in real time. There appears to be no quality losses. Once onto the HDD a 60 minute DVD takes around 12 minutes to burn (and NO rejects!!). Sorry - read your post again - you cannot set copyright on these DVDs (at least not on the Sony that I have). DaveG

1. Make a Hue/Sat Layer above your Background Image. OK this without adjustment. 2. Make a second Hue/Sat Layer above the first and drag the Sat slider to the left to desaturate your image. OK this. 3. Change the Blend Mode of the first Hue/Sat Layer to Color and alter the Hue slider to produce a variety of B&W Variations. 4. Adding Levels and Curves to the stack provides further variations and adjustments. All of the above can be incorporated into a one click action - varying the Hue of layer two as a final adjustment. DaveG.

Dave, Regarding the "slicing up" of an image. Your original image will be twice the width of your screen res. i.e. 2048x768 or 2560x851 etc. Set your crop tool to 1024x768 (or 1280x851) and crop firstly from the top left corner. Save that as your left image. Undo the crop and crop again from the top right corner. Save that as your right image. You will find that to be accurate and will produce a seamless pan using the push transition. DaveG P.S. this is for a TWO segment pan - same principle applies to three or more segments except that Igor has promised that in version 5 we will be able to put transitions "back to back" thus eliminating the momentary pause necessary between transitions 2 and 3 etc at present.

Ron, Changing Colour Mode: In CS/CS2 go to Image/ Mode/ Convert to Profile. There are differences in JPEGs produced from RGB and sRGB files - I just wondered if you could see the same differences? John, High Pass sharpening: Duplicate Background layer Set Blend Mode of Duplicate Layer to Soft Light Desaturate Apply High Pass Filter at around 6 pixels (vary to taste) Set Opacity to 25% to 50% as required. Record all of that as an action and it is a one button sharpening procedure. DaveG

Hi Ron, Regarding sRGB. Try this: If like me you work in RGB try saving an RGB file as a JPEG at a suitable size for PTE. Then do the same thing (same file) except for changing to sRGB immediately before saving as a JPEG. See if you can tell the difference between the two versions? DaveG

Hi all, 16 bit and 300ppi all the way thro' until I convert to JPEG using Box Top Pro JPEG at around 400Kb (in Box Top you set the file size - not the quality). Sharpening set at "normal" in camera (D70). A little High Pass Sharpening if required after sizing to 1280 or 1024 pixels wide (at 300ppi). DaveG

Can I add to all of the above by saying that the best advice for best quality audio is to: Extract audio from (Royalty Free) Cds as WAV files. (This requires something like NERO EXPRESS or ROXIO EZCD 8). Then use AUDACITY or AUDITION to edit or join WAV tracks together, trim etc and add effects. Then EXPORT as MP3 tracks for use in PTE. WAV tracks are UNCOMPRESSED and comparable with TIF photographic files. MP3 tracks are COMPRESSED and comparable with JPEG photographic files. If you open an MP3 and work on it and then re-save it you apply further compression and therefore will eventually introduce artifacts and possible corruption to the file. Start with and work on the original WAV file(s) and export to MP3 only when you are sure that you have exactly what you want. DaveG

To create MP3 files you could use the excellent (and free) AUDACITY from: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows You will also need to download and install the LAME MP3 Encoder from the same page. If you are using ROXIO EZ CD Creator or similar you should be able to extract tracks from Copyright Free CDs as WAV files or record from LPs, Cassettes etc and then use AUDACITY to join them together and export as a single MP3 file for use in PTE. DaveG

Hi Gilbert, Basically, go to Project Options/Music and add your MP3 file there. MP3's are the prefered files but WAV's will work. You should have the music file in the same folder as the images for best results. Allow around 8 seconds for each image for example you will need a piece of music around 8 minutes long for 60 images. Tick "Play Background Music" and untick the "Random Order" and "Repeat" boxes. Click on the "Main" tab and then tick the "Synchronise Slideshow..." box Click on "Close Slideshow after last slide" Click OK and go to "Timeline" In the Timeline click on "Timed Points" In "Timed Points" click on "Arrange All Points" Provided that your music is long enough etc your images should now be equally spaced along the Time Line with gaps of more than 300ms between the grey bits. Click OK and then Click on Preview That should allow you to get started and then get back to us? DaveG

You have to leave all avi creation dialogues open until you have finished creating the DVD (or in my case the IMAGE FILE). DaveG

As a variation to what Ken described (and I'm using ROXIO) I find that making a hard disc image (ISO File) works better for me. Having made the ISO file I can then close down all PTE files and burn to DVD later. I don't know if Nero Express allows this but if it does, it is worth trying. DaveG

Hi Ron, There seems to be little point in getting another "player" if the one that you have does everything you need. Is there a particular reason why you do not want to connect it to your computer? By the way, how are you connecting it to your computer at present - USB or via the sound card? DaveG

Hi Ron, I have never come across a "reader" for a Mini-Disc. The "reader" is the Sony Mini-Disc Recorder/Player, surely? If you are looking for something which resembles a CF Card reader, I don't think such an animal exists. (I'm pretty sure that ten members of the forum will now prove me wrong). Interesting though, if there is such an animal. Did you check out the links? Their new recorder looks VERY interesting. DaveG

Hi Ron, As I have mentioned before on this forum, EDIROL (Roland) make a number of OPTICAL to USB Interfaces which will, if your SONY has an OPTICAL Output, do what you want. If you SONY does not have a digital out then amongst the range of products they also make one which will take an analogue output and convert that to USB. Either way the result is better than using a sound card. I have had one for about 3 years and use it regularly between my SONY MINI DISC (not a portable) and my Laptop. The USB input is recognised with no problems by ROXIO, Audacity, Audition etc. E-mail me direct if you require any specific details. Here are a couple of links: http://www.edirol.it/europe/details.asp?gi...&la=UK&code=409 http://www.edirol.it/europe/details.asp?gi...&la=UK&code=294 They also have a new gadget which, if I read it correctly would replace your SONY Mini-Disc with something much easier to use. It appears to be a hand held MP3/WAV recorder: http://www.edirol.it/europe/details.asp?gi...&la=UK&code=346 DaveG

Hi, What's an *alot*? Oh, and if anyone can enlighten me - what's a *lol*? I have been wondering about these things for some time now but could not pluck up the courage to ask. Thanks, DaveG

I guess that as well as visiting Bill's excellent facility on a daily basis I should subscribe to his "new shows mailing list". Best wishes and thanks, Bill. DaveG

Thanks Jim, I must have missed that. DaveG

Anyone know why Beechbrook is down again? I hope they have not had a repeat dose of the recent problem!! DaveG

Al, I did emphasise the assumption that aspect ratios were multiples of 1024x768 and either Landscape or Portrait. If you are talking of other aspect ratios being mixed in with these then it becomes a little more complicated. Personally, I stick to the one aspect ratio in any one show and don't mix. Ed, Thanks for pointing the "Fit Image" automation out - that's great! I'll experiment with that. It couldn't be more user friendly.

Original poster probably meant pixels anyway!! DaveG

Bill, When you resize in PS all you need do is change the HEIGHT to 768. You could set up a Batch Process to change the HEIGHT only to 768 for all images . That would then cater for both Landscape and Portrait formats. This assumes that you have all images in the original format and that the original format is a multiple of 1024x768. If you have a DSLR then the format is possibly 1024x681 in which case the height you set would be 681 and your images would display a black line top and bottom of your 1024x768 screen. DaveG

Well done, Igor!! DaveG