johnchap

I just tried again and reached the main site - but the support page is still down.

I have the same problem - have been trying to get a replacement key for several days. The site seems to have been 'down' for at least two days. Very frustrating!

Ken: As the original test file I uploaded runs OK on your computer, and on others, there doesn't seem much point in uploading further 'bad' sequences. I think I must accept that the phenomenon is peculiar to my set-up; and at least I now know how to avoid the problem! And I have learnt quite a lot about PTE in the process. Thanks for everyone's contributions.

Ken: I have run an extensive series of tests, along the lines you suggest, but also randomly varying the order of the slides and changing the custom transition on the one 'special' slide. What emerges is as follows: 1. The portcullis or gridiron defect always appears if the 'special' slide is set with a Curling Page, Push Effect or Slide Effect transition. It does not appear if any other transition is used. 2. The defect normally appears on the third slide after the 'special' one, and on alternate slides thereafter. If the special slide is No. 3, the defect appears on slides 6, 8 and 10. Certain settings of the page-curl - e.g unrolling from right - would alter this, with the defect appearing on the fourth slide after the special. 3. The issue seems to be independent of the order in which the slides run, or of which slide has the special transition applied. One further observation: I ran the same tests with pics from another folder - but taken also in 2008, with my current camera (a Canon EOS 450D). Exactly the same defect appears. However, the same test done with pics from 2007, taken with a Canon compact, show no defect at all. Could it be that this problem is in some way camera-related? Later: Taking a cue from Yachtsman, I have now resized all the images in the troublesome sequence to 1024x768, at 150dpi - and lo and behold! it runs without defect. So it looks as though the issue does indeed relate to a high megapixel camera such as my 450D. Problem solved?

Thanks, Ken and Eric. Your findings seem to confirm my feeling that there is something peculiar about my particular set-up - or some conflict with other software. I have just made another 40-image program - with files from a different folder - and, in spite of using several page-curls, there is no sign of a portcullis. I'm baffled!

Thanks Yachtsman. I guess I have been using a higher resolution than I need, hence the higher file-size. Ken - Thank you for your guidance. I did discover how to get the link (for my Gridiron test.exe file it is: http://www.mediafire.com/?fmi5hboymcd ) and have now sent this to Igor. He has promised to run the test tomorrow. John

Ken - if I had known how to publish it I would have done so - I just followed Igor's instructions. Yachtsman - I am intrigued. What is the average file size of each image in your show? Those in my sample clip are of between 400KB and 600KB each - and that was greatly reduced from their original ex-camera size. I am in need of guidance as to the smallest file-size one can use while maintaining quality.

Igor: I have made a small sequence of ten images and uploaded the 4.8Mb file to Mediafire with the name Gridiron test.exe. The third slide has the Curling Page transition; on my machine, the gridiron artefact appears on slides 6, 8 and 10. I will be very interested to learn whether it happens with your Sony. Andre: I am pretty certain I have updated to DirectX9, but I will have to find out how to check. Later: I have now checked and can confirm - I have DirectX 9.Oc, and it seems to be working OK.

Yachtsman: Thanks for your interest. All the pictures concerned have been taken by me, all on the same camera,and all are jpegs. The screenshot attached to my original post is a bitmap because that seems to be what you get when you use PrtScn. I suspect this visual effect is peculiar to my particular machine.I have tried re-making the show with PTE6; but as soon as I insert a page-curl, I get the gridiron a few slides later.

Eureka! I think I have found the source, if not the cause, of the problem. Lying in bed last night, it occurred to me that the defect only arose after a particular slide to which I had applied a customised effect - the Curling Page transition. When I change that to a simple dissolve, or one of the other simpler effects, the issue disappears! So it seems that my set-up cannot handle the more complicated 3D effects (though it runs the Marine Aquarium screen-saver suggested by Tom above without problem). It might be interesting to run a test with your Sony laptop again, Igor, with the Curling Page incorporated.

Further to my last: I returned home last night and ran my new, low file-size, version again, as a preview - and the fault appeared again on several slides. I created an exe file and ran this, and it was even worse. So reducing file size alone is not the answer. I have also tried closing all possible programs and processes before running PTE, and shutting down and re-booting. Still the 'portcullis' appears, apparently randomly, on some slides and not others - but always towards the end of the sequence. Is this a software conflict? Or do I need a new video card? Let me know if I can help with further information. PS I have just downloaded PTE 6 and run the same sequence with it. The defect is still there.

Have just run the check and it shows 256Mb of memory. A bit low, I guess!

Igor - I think you may have hit on the source of the problem. I was making the sequence with my original jpg files from the camera - which vary in size from 4 to nearly 8 Mb. I have just batch reduced all the files to 50% of their original size, which brings the file sizes down to around 500 kb, and remade the sequence, with all the same images. I have just run a preview, with music and transitions (but no captions) and there was no problem. Could it be that my large file sizes were overloading the video card memory?

Igor - I have now downloaded and installed the very latest driver for my card, an Nvidia Geforce 6200 with Turbocache. Sadly, it hasn't cured the problem. The 'portcullis' is still appearing in the last few images of the sequence. I will try creating a DVD from the project to see if the issue carries over.

Disappointment. I did as you suggest, Ken - made completely new sequence, but with same images. At the 'rough cut' stage, all seemed fine. So I went ahead and fine-tuned transitions, added captions etc - and ran preview. As I got to the last few images, the dreaded portcullis appeared again! Has such an artifact been seen before?