Peter S

Hi Dom, Thanks for your suggestion. I created a Yahoo briefcase account and uploaded a file to try to show what I was atempting. It seems I need other peoples Yahoo IDs to enable them to download the file so I am not sure if this was a worthwhile exercise. Can you please tell me what I need to do to get this file so you can see it? Peter

I took the time to look at Patricks web site and found some great pictures there. I couldn't help but smile when I noticed that his D67 pictures are all about helicopters. but not a single rotating blade. Some of the more complex sequences may not be very aesthetically pleasing or artistic but they point the way to the huge number of possibilities with PTE. I have enjoyed watching the experts stretch the boundaries and I have learned a great deal from their shows, tutorials and postings on the forum. I have enjoyed producing "straight forward" AV sequences with earlier versions but v5 opens up completely new opportunities. Some of the things I want to do with it do not even involve photographs at all! I shall however continue to get out in the countryside, add far to many images to my hard drive and make more AVs with very few effects as well as having fun with PZR. Those who do not wish to use the additional features of v5 do not have to, but that does not stop them from asking Igor to add to v5 the features that they would have liked to see included in an update of 4.8. So everyone ends up a winner. Peter

Hi Lin, That was fun and I like the see saw too. I am afraid I didn't explain myself very well in the first place. I was trying to represent the situation if someone was looking down onto a lawn and seeing a ball move. The ball would only be about 4 inches in diameter and it would travel upto around 40 yards. It's obviously easy to create a diagramatic representation but I thought there must be a way of making something a bit more realistic . The 3D transform gave me a less flat looking ball but I probably need to add some sort of moving curve effect over the balls surface. I am sorry I was not more explicit in the first place. I will in fact have an opportunity to apply your thinking sometime later in this project so thanks for your reply. Peter

I have been trying to make a ball look as if it is rolling across a surface and have not had much success. I followed Lin's tutorial from Aug/Sep last year on the 3D cube and used Photoshop's transformation to make a sphere but I am struggling to make any motion look realistic. I would be grateful for any suggestions as to how I might go about getting a decent result. Peter

Igor, I would be interested to know if the results of the tests I did on your burning utility have helped to identify the problem. If not is there any other testing that I can do to help further? Peter

Lin, Al and JPD, Thanks for the discussion following my question on the spread sheets. Your replies opened up a whole new world to me. I never realised that you could open a PTE file in a text editor. Simple if you know about programming I suppose - but I don't! I tried it and was amazed to see it text that all looks reasonably logical. I had a look at Al's "Adjustor" and having seen the PTE text file helped to explain what its purpose is. It would be very nice to see (eventually) something similar for v5. Tom95521's web page looks like a very handy alternative but I guess it would be hard to beat the flexibility of the spread sheet. I was trying to produce a diagram showing directions around a series of obstacles. This involved some numbers, text and arrows coming on and off the screen at about 3 second intervals, synchronised and in a strict sequence. I found entering all the key points and then keying in the precise time positions etc to get everything synchronised and sized correctly a little tedious. It would have saved me lots of time if I could have set out the times in a spread sheet, or even a document, and just entered them into the text file. I can certainly see why JPD works as he does but I am sure the maths involved in his shows is not for the average AV producer. Also thanks to TomUK for starting what has turned out to be a most rewarding topic. He only wanted a helicopter rotor to turn Peter

Lin, Many thanks from another English speaker. It may not be super glossy but it's polished enough to clearly explain what's going on. It has certainly helped me. Is there any chance that you can explain what it is that is done with the output from the excel calculations? I guessed that J-P is not entering them manually but what does he do? Is Tom's web page also feeding lots of calculations to some "hidden place" in PTE? Jean-Pierre's work makes me wish I had paid more attention to my French lessons. Peter

Lin, I'm really looking forward to your demo. I have been experimenting to see how PTE can be used to produce a video to teach beginners to play croquet. This may be a dangerous admission! But did you know there are Test matches involving USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand? Tom, If you are still interested in surround sound I put another reply on your earlier question but I found it hard to find! So I will repeat here that Nero also has 5.1 capabilities shipped with recent versions under SoundTrax2. I can also confirm Audition version 1.0 has it. Peter

Tom, I have the same problems. As soon as I understand one thing I realise there is something else waiting to test me round the corner. I have just got the hang of PZR and using vertical and horizontal elements separately and am now strugling with all this parent child stuff. It is great to see how much can be done and it looks as if there is no end to either the possibilities or peoples inventiveness. Congratulations to them all. I have just been trying some effects with lots of key points and found it difficult to keep track. I know from earlier reading that some of the most advanced users calculate positions with spread sheets but I would like to know what they do with the results. I cannot imagine that JPD puts all the points in by hand so what does he do with them? I once read "The Lord put me on this earth to achieve a certain number of things. At the present rate I think I'll live forever." If understanding all the intricacies of PTE is one of my "things" I can agree with this sentiment. Peter

Al, Many thanks. I could not find any reference in Photoshop help files other than those relating to saving PNGs for the web. I did want to use several in a show that I eventually want to put on a DVD and started to wonder if I was doing the right thing by not interlacing. If it works for you that's good enough for me so you have given me the confidence to continue. Thanks again. Peter

When I select save as PNG in PHotoshop I am given the option of Interlace or none. Please can anybody advise me which option is best. Peter

I think you badly underestimate PTE if you think it is just for amateur slide shows. There are quite a few professionals who use this excellent product. I doubt if there is any other forum anywhere where you can get more people willing to help with almost any question you might raise including the developers where necessary. In terms of value for money it is unbeatable. Peter

Lin, It's great to see you are back again and that your sight is improving so quickly. I loved the images in your show but found it difficult peering through the snow at the start! It's so long since we have had such weather in this part of the world that I can hardly remember what it's really like. Here's hoping the improvement continues apace. Peter

Garic, This should probably be under the How to Create Video thread. You will see that several members have been experimenting with this for a long time going back to earlier non beta versions. They have provided a lot of useful information in this thread. I found that only one type of DVD worked for me. Igor has been helping and I have just run a series of tests using a burning utility he supplied. You can see the results under More DVD woes in the above mentioned thread. I now have three types working! You might also like to run some of your own tests with a much smaller show. Good luck. Peter

Henri et al. I did not take as much notice of this as I should have done when you first posted it as I don't have v5 and usually use CS2 but.... I checked and found this tool is also in Elements v4. I copied the plugin from Elements into the filters folder for CS2 and it works a treat. Peter

Gilbert, You could also look at Exact Audio Copy. Check the following sites for information on this audigrabber and associated files. http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ http://lame.sourceforge.net/index.php http://www.dors.de/razorlame/index.php Peter

Hi Sharon, I would second John's suggestion that you look at Barry Beckham's tutorials. It may, however, not be immediately obvious as to where to look. Go to the Tutorial section and look for Digital Audio Visual. The tutorials on the earlier (non Beta) version start with one called Digital Audio Visual and then carry on with a series called Tips & Tricks. You can review the contant on Barry's web site. You should also be aware that you get discounts if you buy more than one CD. There are some excellent free tutorials, several on The Dom's site but some searching is required. Peter

Ken, Al, Thanks again for your suggestions. I have learned a little about DVDs in the last week or so. If you glance at the thread on DVD woes you will see I have been running several tests. One of my initial confusions was that I did not appreciate that the VOB file was an mpeg2 file. I sometimes wonder if the people who invent all these names set out to deliberately confuse us. It's really good to see how those in the know are prepared to help others through this forum. I now have quite a collection of potential coasters but having followed some earlier advice a good number are reusable as they were done with RW discs. Thanks again Peter

Igor, Thanks for the burning utility. I have run several tests with the following results: DVD -RW 2x disc burned at 2x (no other options) successful DVD +R 1-4x disc burned at 4x (no other options) successful DVD +RW 1-4x burned at 4x (2x option available) successful DVD -R 16 x burned at 16x (12x and 8x available) ERROR Command - WRITE(10), Status - Check Condition, Sense Key -COMMAND SEQUENCE ERROR Command - WRITE(10), Status - Check Condition, Sense Key -C DVD -R 16 x burned at 8x Appeared to write DVD but not playable on DVD player or PC DVD -R 8 x burned at 8x ERROR DVD -R 8x burned at 4x ERROR In summary:- -RW, +RW and +R all burned OK at their default speed using the burning utility. The -R did not work under any of my settings. I tried 2 different makes of disc one a cheap supermarket brand (Tesco) this was the 8x disc, the other Verbatim which was the 16x disc. A couple of minor points I only tried the erase the erase feature on the DVD +RW out of curiosity. It worked fine although the message flow was a little strange. With the -RW disc the "Writing lead out. It could take 3-10 minutes please wait" message was immediately followed (only 1 second time change) by the message "Ejecting disc". The disc was not actually ejected for another ten minutes. BUT IT WORKED. I hope this helps. It seems there is a DVD jungle out there! How do you ever find your way? Peter

Igor, Same result when burning at "default speed" 2x 2770 Kb/sec. I do not see any facility to change this in video builder. How do I reduce the speed please? Peter

Igor, Some additional information that might help. Following some help from Ken and Al I identified the files produced by Video Builder. I burned the VOB files to a DVD -RW disc using Nero and the DVD ran perfectly. I guess this means that something in Video Builder is stopping the burning of all DVD formats for my particular burner apart from +RWs. If there is any more detailed info that could help please let me know I will try to provide whatever I can. I failed to answer one of your earlier questions. Yes I have been using the default burning speed. Peter

Ken, Thanks again. I burned the file VTS_01_1.VOB to a DVD (-RW) using Nero and it ran perfectly. The sound was intact. The file was produced using Video Builder but Video Builder cannot itself burn the show to a -RW DVD although it does so with a +RW disc! I hope the info that you have enabled me to provide will be of use to Igor. Peter

Igor, I have tried 3 other formats and have had one success using DVD +RW. -R gave me the same message as the -RW. +R gave me a slightly different message after Sense Key it said "CANNOT WRITE MEDIUM. INCOMPATIBLE FORMAT. My burner should be able to burn all these formats and this is confirmed using Nero to check it. As I mentioned before it wrote to DVD -RW using another slideshow program. I was using mp3Pro at 96kbs for my sound files - nice and small for my Zen player. I decided to try 192 kbs ordinary mp3 files for the shows and I have had no problems with them so far including 12 minutes of Beethoven. Peter

Ken, Al Thanks so much for your help with this. I have been having problems burning DVDs and I have now found that using Video Builder I can only burn to DVD using +RW discs. This is strange as I can burn with all the other formats using other burning programs. Igor is looking into this. In the meantime I am experimenting and have found all the files you kindly listed for me and Al you are spot on the audio folder is empty. Is there a way in which I can use these files to burn a DVD directly and will I have lost my audio? DVD players and recorders seem to be designed to be difficult! Thanks for the link Ken. There's a lot of info on DVDs but it may be some time before I am completely demistified. Peter

Here is another tool that may be of interest. It captures screen pictures or any selected part of the screen and enables the result to be saved in numerous formats including jpeg, tif and PNG. It is called Faststone capture and is free from http://www.faststone.org/ Peter