Peter S

Hi Brian, You say in your post "The Line Input ~ This was designed to accept Hi-level Signals (nominal) 750.millevolt into 600.Ohm load but usually set about +1000.ohm load. The 'Hum & Noise' levels here are very low and in modern PCs is about -60.db or lower. In plain English thats about or less than, one/thousand of the Input Signal expected." Are you advocating using the Line Input rather than the mic input? I have been unable to detect any signal from the mic through the Line Input - and yes I did change the input source in Windows Volume Control but ... have I missed something else?? I have been using the mic input on the front panel of my PC with the signal boosted by the amp and the volume control set as low as possible to minimise the noise level in the recording. Kind regards Peter

Hi Brian, Thanks for the response. I would be interested in trying the Griffin iMic with reservations! My first mic was a Samson USB version and I could never get anywhere with it and exchanged it for the AKG. Does that indicate that the iMic would cause similar problems? I am not sure if this may have had something to do with not being able to get an input to Audition but it was a while back and having found a solution I had almost forgotten the original problem. Kind regards Peter

I am puzzled as to the seemingly outright rejection of the use of a microphone input to the PC. Following discussions with one or two people at one of the 123 AV rounds at Aldbourne a couple of years ago I purchased an input amplifier from Howard Gregory. I use this with an AKG C1000 S microphone that is held in a proper stand on the desktop. I record using Adobe Audition and that allows me to monitor the recording level very accurately. The recordings may not be perfect but hiss or hum is really quite difficult to detect unless the volume is turned up to an excessive level. There is of course some noise from the PC if the volume is turned up and there is no sound input! I am not advocating this as being better than the Zoom and the combination of mic and amplifier worked out at about £160 so it wasn't that cheap. I don't think however that this approach should be rejected out of hand. I should perhaps also mention that my PC was almost deafening until I replaced the original fans with some much quieter ones. This was however more for my sanity than for recording purposes! Kind regards Peter

The Canon EOS 5D MK2 has some stunning video capabilities see http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?ac...;articleID=2127. Will this provide some new opportunities for AVs as we will be able to "extract" much higher quality images from video than was perviously possible? Any thoughts from those who understand these things would be most interesting. The concept of mixed AV/Video must surely gain more attention? Kind regards Peter

Lin, Thanks. I never thought about that . Peter

Sorry to be a bit negative on this but the page curls do not look much like curls to me. They look like very rigid cardboard pages being turned apart that is from the one from the corner. I don't think this looks very realistic. I can however see some great potentila in the mask. Kind regards Peter

I tried to follow this thread but not very successfully. I downloaded JPD's example and ran a preview. What I see is two images with a wide black stripe down the middle. Have I missed something? This is not what I expected! Does it only show properly if projected? I have had a deeper look at the O & A in this short example and would have to say it looks anything but straight forward! There are vertical wedges and horizontal wedges, small strips of images, parents and children. It all looks very clever but certainly not for the average user. I think there must be a much more simple example of the wedge being used on a series of single images. If you have such an example Jean-Pierre could you please post that too? Kind regards Peter

Isn't this a case of horses for courses and doing what you're good at? Igor could expand the functionality of PTE to cover everything we do if he had endless resources. We could import our RAW images to PTE, convert them, edit them, add music, add commentary etc. etc. until we had no need of any other software. Wnsoft would become bigger than Adobe and Igor would never need to listen to any of us anymore. Nirvana? I think not. Kind regards Peter

I guess members are not impressed with fractals then. It's the summer (just) and time for outdoor things I thought the fractals were fascinating but I found the show a little tedious after a while. Never the less Barry I think it is a great concept and thanks for introducing us to another innovation. I downloaded the program and although it obviously has a lot of potential I found it very hard to get to grips with. I searched around and found a programme called Fractal Science Kit and found that very much better. There is an excellent online tutorial, that is easy to follow and is just the sort of thing I need to get me started. The downside is that after trying the programme you have to pay $29 if you want to keep on using it. I thought however that this was excellent value. You can check it out at: http://www.fractalsciencekit.com/ I have only had a very short play with it but the variations look endless. It would take me a very long time to produce a show based on the fractals so don't hold your breath. Kind regards Peter

Barry, You're a bit better balanced than I am! A few years ago, when I still had to work for a living, I was developing a training programme with a colleague who had a similar profile (leaning towards the innovator end). On discovering our profiles an external advisor immediately said "now I know why it's so difficult to get you guys to concentrate on the details and settle on a final solution". We just enjoyed trying new things too much. Peter

Barry, Some like to put people in boxes and one version says there are innovators and adaptors. They are different and find it hard to get along because they are polar opposites. Have al ook at this little table and see where you think you might be and where your "critic" might be. If anyone finds this of particular interest there are questionnaires that you can answer and find out where you stand. There are of course many people towards the middle of the spectrum but for those of us at the extremes it is sometimes hard to see where the opposite extreme is coming from. Kind regards Peter

Hi Igor, Earlier this year I ran numerous tests (with guidance from Fly) using DVD -R discs and in the end I gave up as I ran out of this type of disc! I was able to burn other types OK. Does your use of a new disc burning library mean that it would be worthwhile running a new set of tests using all the different version ie DVD + and - R and + and - RW? Kind regards Peter

Hi Jean-Pierre, I have just tried the grid in beta 8 and it behaves for me as it did in beta 7. No problem with vertical movement and I can change the sizes without problem - strange. Kind regards Peter

Hi Cor/Igor, This seems to work OK for me. It moves the text in the text box just as in earlier versions. You are not expecting it to center the text in the image are you? Kind regards Peter

Hi Brian, Thanks for this I think I am reasonably safe. I don't use any of the XP security but I do use a wired router plus Zone Alarm's firewall anti virus and spyware suite. Plus random scans with XoftSpy and AVG anti root kit. I am however always willing to add to my armory!! Kind regards Peter

Hi Xaver, Indeed it does. Many thanks. Peter

Can anyone please tell me if it is possible to switch off that annoying little red shield that pops up in the corner with a message telling me that my computer may be at risk because I have turned automatic updates off? Hopefully Peter

Hi Barry, Another excellent show and the image quality speaks volumes. I am not too sure about the opening sequence. It doesn't seem to me to flow into the main part of the show. There is almost a missing link. I can sense the idea of the rain giving the atmosphere of the cloudy hills but somehow the droplets on the branches just don't work for me as a lead in to the mountain scenes. Otherwise top notch. Kind regards Peter

Jean-Pierre, Don't be sorry. We need you. In fact we all need the help of people in the other parts. If we were all in the upper right quadrant we might be fantastically creative and innovative but quite incapable of ever finishing anything and none of the details would ever be attended to. There is no right or wrong - just how we are. Peter

Just for fun have a look at this: http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/psychology...n-dominance.htm It simply points out that we all have preferred areas of thinking and doing. Barry you say: "I always find it amusing that those who are the most technical rarely produce any work." I am not sure it is particularly amusing or surprising it's just that they don't think like you do. You don't like technical detail they do. I think it's a bit unfair to say they (whoever they may be) rarely produce any work. They may not produce many wonderfully visual AVs but they do produce technical improvements. I wonder how good PTE would be if nobody involved in its development wanted to get into technical detail? The best teams contain people from all of Hermann's quadrants but the trouble is the members never see eye to eye on anything. Live and let live and just accept that different people like immersing themselves in different aspects of PTE or anything else anyone likes to mention. Back on the subject of quality and wise old sayings here is an English one: "You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear." Peter

I suspect that image quality is similar to many other quality issues and obeys the Pareto or 80/20 rule. You can achieve an 80% perfect image (whatever that means!) with relatively little effort. Every extra % above the 80 costs more and more time and follows an exponential curve. As Lin's example from Ansel Adams shows the last % may even take years. Some people spend their whole lives investigating what to others are minute details and they become world leading experts in their chosen fields, perhaps image sharpening. We need people like this but all I want is a sharpening tool that works for my images. I guess I may have to think again if I started producing very large prints but Photoshop seems OK up to A3. When we produce an AV we all make many judgments about individual image quality, which images to include in which order, the music to select, the transitions the timing etc etc. We cannot normally afford to spend hours on one aspect. There is however no doubt in my mind that image quality is crucial. Xavier I wouldn't go as far as saying a single bad image makes a complete show rubbish but I would say the show would be better without that image. Peter

Hi John, I also enjoyed your show and thought it nicely captured the brooding mood of the Highlands. I loved the colour and texture in many of the images. There was one section where the music made me think I was watching a Western but I am perhaps the odd one out here! Kind regards Peter

Hi Lin, Thanks very much for your explanation. On a practical level I feel a bit like Barry. I use Photoshop to resize my images make any adjustments and then to get what I consider to be the "right" amount of sharpening. I can't imagine playing around with such a variety of algorithms. I would never be able to make up my mind which one was the best. I find it difficult enough coming to a decision when I have 3 or 4 different virtual copies in Lightroom! Kind regards Peter

Hi Colin, I have just had a look at your two images and for my money the Irfanview version is over sharpened with the typically bright white effect that this creates. The Photoshop version looks much better. Very similar to Ken's findings. The other thing that interested me was the way in which they appeared on my screen. The Irfanview image scanned from the top. The PS version appeared highly pixelated, the pixelation then decreased in two stages to produce the final result. I've not seen this before. Kind regards Peter

Igor, I have had a quick run through Beta 4 and it all seems to work well including the addition of transitions on the fly. One thing that may be confusing to new comers is the absence of a Play button as there used to be on the old time line screen. It's fine if you know from previous versions that the space bar starts and stops the play function but not obvious to a new user. Kind regards Peter