RudiRe

I'm using a Hewlett Packard Omnibook with a Celeron CPU (Pentium 2) 266 MHz, 256 MB RAM. My experience with all transitions in any presentation: When a transition comes along, the music gets jerky and/or there's a slight flicker in the transition, but I see the reason for that in my four year "old" slow CPU and don't blame it on PTE.

In the Jukebox, for example, there was no use for Auto Sync. Everything had to be timed manually. Otherwise, the whole darn thing wouldn't have worked. I'm glad, that both possibilities exist within PTE. One just has to understand, when to use the Auto Sync, and when the manual timing.

Signorinetto guru, it takes the green out of my face.

It's still there. Look under project options.

Marlun, you are absolutely right. Everything you described is in coincidence with my own experience.

Raydene, I'm not quite sure what you mean.

Guido, what do you mean by bad? Badly photographed, bad mannered or a bad person in general?

Thank you, Andrew.

Michel, check your music file outside of PTE. Does it have silence at the end? Which format is your music file? As long as its wav, you can chop off the silence at the end with the windows audio recorder. If its mp3, first transform it to wav, do the above, and then convert it back to mp3. Another possibility: If your last slide has a long transition effect, it might be added at the end, where you don't want to have it anymore.

Mike, if you want a slide to fill your whole monitor screen, then you have to give it the same resolution as you are using at your monitor. Find out, which screen resolution you are using. "My file sizes are HUGE!" What do you mean by HUGE? Tell us more. Which resolution do your slides have so far and how large are your picture files? Or maybe, send me ONE of your images and I have a look at resolution, file size and conversion possibilities for the utmost compromise in resolution vs. compression ratio. 800x600 is a good resolution for a PTE presentation, when you want others to be able, to see your images. The reason for that is the following: Let's say, you have a screen resolution of 1280x1024, and you made a PTE presentation to fill your whole monitor resolution, meaning, you sized all slides also to 1280x1024. I for example do have a screen resolution of 800x600 (as 60% of all computer users are still having). Your 1280x1024 presentation would appear on my monitor squeezed. It would not look the way as you intended. So to be on the safe side, when you want to use a PTE presentation on another monitor than just your own, always use 800x600 (in windowed mode without frame), to be on the safe side. Otherwise, your PTE objects also end up in positions, you never wanted them to have (having them in the ungrouped mode). Therefore, after you made your first PTE presentation, it is a good idea to check it first on another computer with another resolution, before loading it up the net. This way, you still can get rid of some beginners faults, before others see them. Another possibility of how to cut down on your presentations file size is by not using all 250 images, but rather selecting the really great ones. Sometimes, less is more. "Does XATSHOW have as good a music synchronization as does pictures2exe?" The music synchronization of PTE so far is the best, and in 3.90, which will be released very soon, it will even be better. "Is it possible to have a cd disk that will play on BOTH comptuers and DVDS?" I can't answer your disc question, for I don't have DVD. "And finally, I looked at media show...that saves it as mpegs, correct? wouldn't the file sizes be enormous? And is the picture quality as good when you play full screen?" Yes, the mpeg file size would be tremendous. The full screen quality depends upon the resolution quality of your original material and therefore cannot be answered in general. Always keep the following in mind: As long, as you make a PTE presentation just for yourself, the file size doesn't really matter, as long as you run it always and only from your harddrive or CDrom. But as soon, as you want to put it on the net for others to be accessible, file size does matter very much. So it's always a good idea, figuring your needs out in advance, for they will have quite some influence upon your work with PTE. I hope, I could answer your questions.

Hi Rod, most time, I spent on the midis and the graphics, which I would have had prepared for any program. The time consuming factor was not PTE, but constantly having new ideas, revising old ones and preparing the midis and the images to built the Jukebox functionality. If I subtract the time spent for building these elements, the leftover for PTE was rather small, not even 5 percent of the total time spent. But thank you for the recommendation of Multimedia Builder, which I didn't know yet. I will have a closer look at it.

Continued..... Finally, the whole "The Sting" section consists out of 14 1x1 1 KB gif slides with alternating 11 image objects sitting on top of them with 5 different mp3 sound effects. If you use a slide within a presentation repeatedly or more than once, PTE will not add additional disc space - it counts as one slide, just shown in different order positions.

Jerry S., the pop-up titles within "The Sting" section (The Entertainer, Solace, Easy Winners, click a title, go back, Stop, the poster to the bottom right and the movie image to the top left) are very small gif images, added one by one to the same white background image. The titles then are associated with a mp3 sound effect and their respectice association to their next slide. The best way how to make these effects flickerless, is first to make the complete image with ALL titles and objects, then copy it a couple of times and taking away all objects, which are not needed in the first slides. It really gets complex with the linking. For example, when you click on the STOP object, you return to a completely new (identical) slide with a new sound effect.

Mike, make sure NOT to put bmp files in your PicturesToExe presentation, for they would really make your presentation big, bring you tons of MBs and it would be an ordeal to transport such a presentation via the internet. Your question regarding "shrinking" can mean two different things: 1.) Shrinking picture size (not file size), let's say from 1280x1024 to 800x600. 2.) Converting to a a smaller picture format like jpg or gif. Which one of the two did you mean? Anyway, for both methods, the austrian/yugoslawian program IrfanView is really a fine batch conversion tool. If you happen to have ACDsee (from 3.1 upward), you even might get some better results. Your mpeg videos so far can not be implemented in PTE. I guess that's why they call it PicturesToExe and not VideoToExe.

Jerry S., the more specific you ask your question, the more specific I can answer it. The way you asked here, however, I just can give you this vague advice: Use PicturesToExe and all of its possibilities until you run out of a two months supply in coffee, booze and cigarettes.

I just uploaded an updated version of the Ragtime Jukebox. The new version loads within 30 seconds, whereas the old version took two and a half minutes. Besides that, the two versions are identical. Bill from beechbrook will replace the old version with the new one, as he just mailed me. So the new version will have the same address, which is http://www.beechbrook.com/uploads/Jukebox.zip

What does that mean? I copied/pasted slides before. Or did I misunderstand your posting? Thank you for your advice. I reassembled the JUKEBOX now and yielded an exe, that loads now on my computer within 29 seconds, instead of 152 seconds before. I will try to replace the "slow" Jukebox with the new fast one. I did not count the lines within the pte file, but with its 592 KB, it is rather big for a text file. I assume, it's all the objects, that create a vast amount of data.

Truelieght, you are right. With mp3 instead of midi files, the JUKEBOX would have been approximately 185 MB in file size instead of 6,1 MB, as it is now. Remember, that those 57 midi files (including 1 mute midi, that was necessary) add up to a total playing time of 3 hours and 17 minutes. As a matter of fact, the 57 midis, which are contained in the JUKEBOX, occupy only 968 KB. Another reason, how I kept the JUKEBOX rather small, is due to the fact, that I only used images in a special gif Format (87a), which is even smaller than the regular gif format (89a). The great screencapture program PrintKey allows conversions into that smaller gif Format, which delivers gifs, that are about 25 percent smaller than those in the regular gif format. The JUKEBOX is completely made with gif (87a) images, containing 159 slides. But there are only eleven (!!!!!11!!!!!) 800x600 slides in it. The rest are very small pictorial elements for objects use. All 117 pictorial elements within the JUKEBOX add up to 3,86 MB. As I figured out by now, the tremendous amount of objects leads up to the long loading time. The first slide for example (The Ragtime Selector), is a 1 kb black gif, with 52 objects sitting on top of it. I never considered making the JUKEBOX with any marketing thought in mind. For me, it was rather the final "hands-on" test before starting to use PTE for my professional needs, which will mainly be the pitching of german movie/television projects, giving potential backers and producers a first idea of planned movies, which aren't produced yet. I hope, that PTE will help me in the future to foreshadow design, storyline and "special feeling" of upcoming productions. That's the main reason, why I stumbled about PTE, looking for a program, that had the potential to deliver that task. I can say by now, that PTE will fulfill my professional needs perfectly.

Hi Paul, welcome to the forum. Edit and mix your sound effects in wav format. You can use any software, that fullfills this task. Most of this sound-effects editing and mixing can even be done in Microsofts audiorecorder, which already is part of your windows. Audacity is a fairly good sound program for editing and mixing more complex sequences, as is GoldWave. Before implementing your edited and mixed wavs into PTE, convert them into mp3, using a low bitrate like 64 for most soundeffects, which is not recommended for music. Most music requires 128 in order not to loose quality. This way, you cut down tremendously on your PTE file size.

Hi LumenLux, if I had known in advance, how difficult and time consuming the Jukebox finally would end up, I probably hadn't started it at all. So maybe it's quite good, that I didn't know about that in advance. The really interesting part in making it was the creative process. You have an additional idea, want to see it realized, and then, it's a matter of your own perfectionism, whether you want to see it completed or dump the whole idea, due to the burden you put upon yourself. This procedure can be painful at times, but also awarding, if accomplished. Now, that the Jukebox is finally finished, I don't regret having made it. Somehow, I now do have the feeling, that PTE is not controling me any longer, but I am controling PTE - the satisfying feeling of finally using PTE as a tool and not being its greenhorned victim any longer. So it ended up for me to be a great learning experience about this excellent piece of software. Having worked on the Jukebox for so many hours, I still like it, and that's a good sign for me. That tells me, that something must have gone right - otherwise I would despise it by now. So let's hope, the (Happy) New Year will spoil us with some other gooddies.

You guys are flattering my ego. Well, I'm glad, you like the JUKEBOX. As a matter of fact, I started out, wanting to create something very simple, which I thought, I could realize within five or six hours. But while working at the JUKEBOX, I constantly had new ideas, that I wanted to have implemented - to my own disadvantage. A lot of trial and error, I can tell you. So, one idea came to the other, making the whole darn thing more complex with any additional idea, way beyond of what I originally was willing to invest in time. Finally, I've spent 300-350 hours, to make it work the way it works now. What I'm still disappointed with, is the fact, that the "loading screen" just won't show up, although I've marked it. Well Igor, now it's your turn. A Happy New Year to you all.

Yes, that's what I thought I have to do, but not adding just another slide to a pre-show, but simply putting a "READ ME FIRST" txt file into the zip folder, before uploading it to beechbrook. I think, improving the loading screen feature is really one of the tasks, Igor should have a closer look on before releasing the next version, since it's such an important feature.

Here the detailed data: I'm using PTE 3.80 The presentation, I'm currently working on, so far contains 1.) 56 midi files, which have together a size of 998 KB (these midi files are not used as background music, but linked with individual slides) 2.) 15 noises in mp3 format, which total 479 KB (also linked to individual slides) 3.) about 4 MB in gif pictures, most of them used as objects 4.) PTE objects I did not use any sync mode nor any transition effects. I've tried everything, to make the loading screen work. No success so far. The presentation still takes two and a laf minutes to load, and that is a pain, especially if you're not being informed about that as a naive user. He might think, the presentation doesn't work, but it does work..........without loading screen after two and a half minutes. Please get your tiny grey cells into gear. Mine already are evaporated about this problem.

Thanks boxig, I tried that now, but the loading screen still won't show up. 1.) I deleted the first slide. 2.) I took another completely different slide. 3.) I took an empty slide........ Whatever I tried, the loading screen won't show up. Any idea?

I'm working on a new PTE presentation at the moment, which takes about two and a half minutes to load from the finished exe file, which lays on my desktop now. I have marked the field "show loading screen if presentation starts more than 2 sec" in the project options dialog field, yet the expected loading screen doesn't show up, when I start the presentation, neither in preview mode nor when started from the exe. What did I do wrong? Any advice or ideas, how I can let the loading screen appear? Thank you very much in advance