apepper

Thanks for the reply; I'm using 5.6, but when I went to check the previous suggestion (doing a Create As...), the .exe now had an Icon(!), so it looks like it takes some time before the Icon appears on the .exe file . That sort of solves my problem, although it does seem a little mysterious. -Andrew

Hi All, I'm trying to set a custom icon for my PTE exe; I've created an .ico file and in project properties set that as my icon, but after creating the .EXE I still only see the default PTE icon on the executable. I'm running PTE 5.6 under Vista (64bit). Is this a Vista thing or 64 bit thing?! TIA -Andrew

Hi, AFAIAA, the only way to get the show to appear on the projector is to define the projector as the primary monitor - the laptop screen will then become the secondary monitor - so you have to remember to switch it back to being primary before unplugging the projector. I believe this is because directX is the system used to drive the adaptor (at least pre version 5) and that only supports a single monitor (or at least it only supported a single monitor until the latest version of directX). My fingers are crossed that this may be remedied at version 5! -Andrew

I wouldn't necessarily trust the lead lined containers as I understand that the operators simply increase the dose of Xrays until they can see through them. I've never had a problem with memory cards - or slower slide film for that matter - but one advantage with memory cards is that I take a portable CD burner and burn CD copies of the cards during the holiday, so I have a back-up. -Andrew

Have you tried making the background screen of the PC the same your start/end slide? -Andrew

I can't give you an exact answer, but I can give you a naive calculation: 60Mbytes = 560Mbits, therefore it will take 560 seconds over a 1 Mbps (bits per second) link. However, this wrongly assumes that there is no protocol overhead in transferring the file and that you have effectively a 1 Mbps connection to the host, of course you're sharing your portion of the Internet with many others - so I'd pull a number out of the air and expect 20-40 minutes. -Andrew

We have a particular problem with mismatched resolution as the projector resolution is higher than the laptop screen, also - and this is very widespread now - the laptop has a "widescreen" aspect ration (16 x 9), whereas the projector is 4 x 3. I can set the projector as a clone of the laptop screen, as the laptop screen is smaller than the projector I only get a fraction of the desktop on the laptop, but it is useable that way. We did have a problem when we first got the laptop that the projector image was very noisy at high resolution and got worse with the laptop screen turned on; I returned the laptop for repair under warranty and its come back much better. If your laptop screen is 4 x 3 and the projector resolution matches it (eg 1024 x 768) then cloning should work fine. The problem with cloning the desktop is that the audience gets to watch you fiddling around on the desktop, looking for the presentations and seeing Explorer and the taskbar. The way I prefer to work is to Extend the desktop onto the projector; in fact for PTE, I set the projector to be the only screen - that forces it to be the primary monitor, and then extend the desktop onto the laptop. I then drag the taskbar at the base of the screen onto the laptop screen and hide all the screen icons (right click the desktop, select Arrange Icons By, then turn the tick off on Show Desktop Icons). That way the projected image is blank - or only showing the background image of the desktop. I have to remember to switch the laptop to be the primary screen after the meeting - otherwise I can't use the laptop without an external monitor. At the moment, Iview's MediaPro is the "best" software I've found to run a competition - it does support external monitors, although in a clunky way, but "holding back" images is easy and the colour management is much better than Powerpoint's. The fading between images isn't a patch on PTE though! I'm trying to pull as much information as possible about running slide shows and competitions using digital projectors for the website, so any reports you have would be very useful! -Andrew

I know I'm commenting on my own message But I've just thought that if (& I think it does) PTE uses DirectX to drive the screen, then a big problem is that DirectX doesn't yet support multiple monitors - or to be more accurate, only the primary monitor can be driven in full screen mode by DirectX, although it is rumoured that DirectX support for multiple monitors will improve Real Soon Now . -Andrew

I'm doing that right now, I'm running PTE on the external monitor; which I've configured to be my primary screen, and I'm replying your message on the laptop screen. As you only found the Powerpoint stuff on the website, it sounds like you clicked on the big "Using Powerpoint..." button, if you click the "digital" button on the top part of the website, you should get a more general description of my experiences with digital projection. If you only use a single projector, then most modern laptops seem suitable - I'm using a Packard bell R4650 which, ISTR, cost £500. We have a "next generation" projector with higher resolution than most (1400 x 1050) so I had to check that the laptop video driver could actually make full use of that. Having the projector as the primary monitor, is a pain - when you open explorer, for example, it always opens on the primary so it looks a bit amateurish for the audience to see you fiddling around starting the show going. Maybe version 6 of PTE will support multiple monitors! -Andrew

AFAIAA, pretty much every laptop has a video out port which can plug into a projector. If you plug a monitor into that port, then mostly you get a clone of the laptop screen, but you should be able to go into the display properties and "attach" the second monitor; that extends the desktop onto the second monitor. The problem with PTE is that it only runs the show to the primary monitor; in display settings you can make the projector the primary monitor either doing that, or having the external monitor as a clone of the laptop screen are the only two ways that PTE can drive the projector. As PTE generates an executable which, when run, gives the slideshow, I imagine the way to support multiple monitors is to add a controller to the start up window which, if a second monitor is detected, asks which display to use for the show. ISTR, its on the wishlist - but not in version 5 (AFAIK). I'm putting some notes about running digital slide shows using projectors onto our camera club website www.millcameragroup.org.uk. -Andrew

We'd like to use PTE for our camera group competitions, but we need two changes to make it ergonomic! First, we'd like support for multiple monitors - so we could use the program on the laptop screen but when we run the presentation, it comes out on the digital projector. I imagine the way this would be done is that when the presentation is run, it asks you which monitor on wihch to display the show. Second, we need to be able to "select" particular slides during the show to "hold back" - the judge sees all the slides and picks his favourites; these are held back and marked at the end. The only way I can think of this is to define an action for a mouse button of "save image", during a show you click say, the middle button, of the mouse and it makes a copy of the image to a predefined directory. I realise this last one may be impossible as you don't have the original image files to hand. -Andrew

If its the same, our camera group just bought the Canon Xeed SX50. We're very impressed with the sharpness and quality of the image. The only real drawback is that most laptops don't have a resolution that's as high as the projector, so it makes it awkward to "mirror" the laptop screen on the projector - which I imagine is how most people use PTE. We're still learning though! -Andrew