sanewcomb

The problem isn't with P2E. Adobe has a long history of messing up headers in the JPEG file format. In addition, the names of the fields are often confused by developers and given different names. So what you think the JPEG Exif Comment field is in Adobe Products is often a different field all together. I don't have your product so I can't give you specific instructions. You can check to see if your Adobe product is filling in the actual field with the program Exifer. http://www.exifer.friedemann.info/ Select the thumbnail, press Ctrl-E, and select the EXIF data tab. The text string should appear in the Comment box at the bottom. I will guess it will not be there. You can look through the other data fields and formats to see if you can find it. This program can be used to edit the Exif data fields of image files and does it correctly. Adobe is probably filling in a field of it's own header specification, or a related spec such as IPTC. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

The machine below with 8MB video memory will play accelerated PZR slideshows and can actually do a good job if the screen size is kept small enough. I created a 640x480 windowed version of the slideshow mentioned in previous post and it played smoothly throughout (pretty jerky at 1024x768 full screen). Also, it pays to rescale the images outside of P2E. The 640x480 show looked much better when each image was rescaled to 640x480 using Irfanview. So it seems the limitation is more a factor of slideshow screen size than video memory, which is a big improvement over seeing nothing happen after clicking on a slideshow file. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA Win98 (4.10, Build 1998) DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) Matrox Marvel G200 AGP 8MB Video Driver 6.28.017 Pentium III @ 600Mhz 256MB

Complete Requirements The requirements listed in the FAQ don't agree with my findings. Mainly, that either type of slide show requires a recent version of DirectX and the VideoRAM requirements are much lower. I'm not sure what version of DirectX is required. I thought from previous messages it was 9.0c I tried playing a 14MB slideshow with 1024x768 images on the following computer Win98 (4.10, Build 1998) DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) Matrox Marvel G200 AGP 8MB Video Driver 6.28.017 Pentium III @ 600Mhz 256MB and all I got was a non-responding instance which I killed with a ctrl-alt-del sequence. I tried with the Hardware acceleration (D3D) option checked and unchecked. It is an older computer but does all it's needed to do. So I reinstalled the video drivers and noticed it either didn't have DirectX installed or it was a very old version. So I reinstalled DirectX 9.0c (it had been installed on this machine before, not sure what happened to it) and both versions (accelerated and unaccelerated) ran. You could see a difference, with the unaccelerated version being more choppy and fewer FPS. But both ran. So the question is, the unaccelerated version should have run (albeit slowly) on this computer before the DirectX upgrade because DirectX isn't a requirement for unaccelerated shows, right? A second question is I thought the program was suppose to seemlessly switch between the advanced engine and older graphics engine when the computer didn't support the advanced engine. Instead, what I saw was a frozen app instance with no indication of what was going on (no error messages) before the DirectX 9.0c upgrade, and running both accelerated and unaccelerated versions with the upgrade. It appears a video card with as little as 8MB Video RAM will run PZR slideshows as long as DirectX 9.0c (maybe other versions?) is installed. What is the purpose of the Hardware acceleration (D3D) option checkbox if the program is suppose to pick the best graphics engine for the hardware present? Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA FROM THE P2E FAQ: Question: What are the system requirements for slide shows? Answer: For slide shows with Pan/Zoom effects: PC with 1.4 GHz CPU, 256 MB of system memory, video card with 128 MB of video memory. Windows XP, Vista, 2000, 2003, Me, 98 or 95. DirectX 8.1 or later. For slide shows created with simple effects: PC with 500 Mhz CPU, 64 Mb of system memory, any video card. Any version of Windows.

The answer to this question, that the 4:3 setting still ends up cropping on your NON widescreen TV, has to do with how P2E handles the conversion. It comes down to this. 1. Your photo is 1024 x 768 which is 4:3 (sometimes represented as the ratio 1.3333) 2. P2E scales your photo to 640 x 480 which is also 4:3 2. The DVD standard is 720x480 which is 3:2 (sometimes represented as the ratio 1.5) 3. P2E has to do one of two things to make this work A. Stretch the image along the horizontal direction or B. Add black boxes (40 pixels wide) on both the left and right of the image For some reason the developers have chosen the first option (A) so that the image fills the entire space of the 720x480 DVD frame. They may not stretch it directly, but by setting the DAR (Display Aspect Ratio) to 4:3 and different from the SAR (Sample or source Aspect Ratio) of 3:2 does the same thing. You can check this using the utility GSPot. Since all analog or standard TVs overscan, the image gets cropped both on the left and right as well as somewhat distorted. However, if you choose the Create AVI file AND use the Create custom AVI video file using 720 x 480 for the width and height, P2E will use option ( and produce a 720x480 video file with 40 pixel borders on either side. I prefer this option because it preserves the aspect ratio of the image and results in being able to see almost all of the image on most analog TVs (I think a great use of the differences in aspect ratios between 4:3 digital cameras and the DVD format). However, you will have to use a 3rd party DVD authoring program to make the DVD. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ

All the viewer would do is rename the MP3 files they wanted to hear (to 1.mp3, 2.mp3, etc) and place them in the same directory of the slideshow EXE file. The EXE file would have MP3s in it (the ones the creator put in), but would look to see if replacements existed and use those if so. The fading ability (while creating the slideshow) is actually a pretty important part of this request, though it isn't necessary for it to be user defined (It could be a set value, similar to how Winamp cross fades music when that option is selected). This would eliminate abrupt transitions that would take away from the viewing experience. It would be necessary for the creator to define the times in which the music files are changed, something P2E does not currently do but a feature that has been requested many times in the past. If it were to simply play the music files in their entire length, one after another, this is actually already available to the watcher as you have stated. Also, they could turn off the computer speakers and play whatever music they want on a portable MP3 player. Giving them the pte file isn't an option because I would also have to include all of the files, captions, etc for them to create an EXE file (often in the 100s of megabytes), as well as they would have to own P2E. I could just ask them for their music files and make custom EXE files for them, but this would add considerable effort and time. I think this feature, though not necessary, would be useful for people who share slideshows this way because it would make it easy for the watcher to select a soundtrack they like, but still be relevant to the slideshow timing. I often set different moods for different parts of a slideshow by the music. They would have to follow this with similar mood selections, but I think that is not difficult to understand. I find music adds a lot of emotion to a slideshow, particularly one in which someone has lived through, and people have many different tastes and favorites. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

Watcher Defined Music Files I create a lot of slideshows of outdoor trips to share with friends who were on the trip. I do my best to put appropriate music to the slides, but my friends have a wide range of music tastes. The idea here is the slideshow creator would pick transition time points (ability to define fade characteristics would be nice too) while making the show and the watcher or end user would be able to substitute their MP3 files for the ones included in the EXE. I would think this could be accomplished in several different ways, but it seems the easiest would be using a standard naming convention (1.mp3, 2.mp3, etc) and have the program look in the directory it is executed from to see if they are there. This function is specific to sharing slideshows with friends and would not be useful for slideshows created for artistic A/V purposes. If people were worried about others changing their work, an option could be added to disable the feature. However, it might be useful for those wishing to stay clear of copyright issues for professional shoots like weddings. Create the show with the customer's desired songs, then provide the show without them with instructions to include their own music files. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

I'll pass for now. If I'm the only one reporting this kind of problem, then clearly it has something to do with this particular system. I'll wait to see if anyone else reports the problem. Thanks for the help and good luck on the final release. I'm off to the lake for 11 days Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

Hi Fred, I do have other software and can take the route you mention. I does work without errors. My comments on this forum are mainly to make P2E a better software program and I assume others will face similar problems I've seen. I would think the ISO file route would make identical quality, but I'm interested in being able to put other files on the DVD at the same time. To do this I would have to go the MPEG route. I'm still not sure if Nero will accept these MPEG files as is, and just copy them straight to the DVD file structure, or whether it re-transcodes (decompresses and recompresses) the files, which would result in some quality loss as well as a lot of extra time. Are you able to see all the files on the DVD on your PC? Have you tried adding extra files, in addition to the PTE shows? The discs I've burned seem to work fine in the stand alone DVD player, but have errors when trying to read or use them with the PC. This is true whether or not the Video Builder reports an error. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

Hi Igor, My posts here aren't to complain. They are just feedback for you to improve P2E. Absolutely no refund necessary. It could be hardware, but since many other programs don't produce these errors I don't think it is. Plus, there are errors (disk shows no files on PC) even when it reports a successful burn. The firmware on my computer is 1.06. There are two additional updates. 1.07 concerns DVD- media (almost all of the current media I have is +). 1.08 deals with setup issues. Therefore, these updates will likely make no difference in writing + media with a chance the drive will be inoperable. Do whatever you want with this information. I suspect not that many users are burning DVDs while it is in beta status. And perhaps few care if it can be read on a PC. I personally would find it useful to include the original images, plus MPG files to show on a computer. As I understand it, if we create DVD files and burn them with another program it will result in the same quality as a DVD made with VB? Thanks for you help and good job on P2E. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

No, it has happened every time for the last month or so (several beta versions). My basic understanding is that certain media work with certain drives. This is the first time I've heard that certain media only works with certain software. If the media works fine with the drive and other programs, shouldn't it work fine with P2E? Since my post I have tried a number of media with the drive. All of the media works fine with other programs, except once in awhile the generic media will produce a coaster. It doesn't crash the software or create errors. Just it fails the validation process and the software notes this. COMPUSA Generic 4x DVD-R Some burns gave error. One burn VB shows checkmark, no error, and could read on PC Memerex DVD+RW ? Always gives error and cannot read on PC Imation DVD+RW ? Burned with error, but could read on PC at least 1 time Verbatim DVD-RW 2X Burned without error, but cannot read on PC To summarize, almost all burns produce the error message. All of these have played in stand alone DVD Player. Almost none of them can be read by PC. There has been only one burn that produced no errors and could be read by PC and that was the low quality generic disc. To nobeefstu, I incorrectly listed the drive. It is actually a Pioneer DVR-106D drive. I've had no problems with it with many other programs over several years, and connected by firewire at that. It uses the default Win XP driver for this brand as the Pioneer site states. The drive can be rendered useless if there is a problem while updating firmware, so I am not likely to try this since it has performed perfectly until P2E. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

Burn.exe Exception Error I get this error when burning a DVD Operation failed Command - Unknown Status - Check Condition, Sense Key - MEDIUM REMOVAL PREVEN (can't read rest of error message) This is the same error I've been seeing for several months, EXCEPT this time I installed the DVD Drive into the machine. Before this was blamed on the Firewire Connection. This has been removed and the error is the same. P2E Beta 18 WinXP SP1 Pioneer A09 DVD drive - NOT ATTACHED by firewire UPDATE: Drive is listed as a DVR-106D by firmware checking program. Memorex DVD+RW 2.4x (only speed provided) Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

This can be done now by selecting the transition point, then pressing SHIFT-END key combination. This is a standard keyboard shortcut in Windows. SHIFT-HOME will highlight from the cursor or selection to the beginning. It is always hit or miss whether shortcuts are enabled in a program, but usually worth trying. A list of shortcuts for MS products is available http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/keyboard.aspx although oddly the above shortcuts are not included and the explanation of the HOME and END keys not too helpful. I would say they move the cursor to the beginning or end of the text, list or document. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

Thank you Patrick. Your answer was very useful, although it may not help me much ! I should not have been surprised that a moving AV show comes from an organic or natural process. You let your hearing guide you, what sounds right. It's a talent. I'm much more visual oriented, so I'll have to work on that side of my brain somehow to make progress. I don't think I'll be able to visualize a piece of music ahead of time, but some of your other steps are a starting point for me, such as I've never used Timeline so I'll have to take a look at that. Like you, after the show is put together the first time I'll watch it several times and make changes based on what I feel. One of the things I do struggle with is finding music to fit the experience. Most of my vacations are outdoor recreation and the best music often has to do with songs we were either listening to during a trip or make me think of it. To me it's a chore to listen to any number of songs before finding one that works. Thanks for the help. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

Hi Patrick, I enjoyed watching and listening to your show. My use of P2E is mostly for putting together vacation photos with a soundtrack in a compelling way. For the most part I don't pay much attention to the transitions in the music. Pretty much a video with a background soundtrack. You have shown how much a difference in the emotional feel a show can have with a fully integrated Audio portion. An true AV show. I have a couple questions about workflow with regards to the transitions in the music. P2E is primarily a visual editor with basic audio controls. I know WnSoft has plans for improving this in future versions and perhaps some discussion about how one coordinates movements in the video portion with movements in the audio will help. How did you line up the transitions in audio and video? I can imagine using a sketchpad to assign pairs of photos to designated audio transitions. Once the display of these pairs is decided it would result in a known amount of time between them and one could then choose photos to fill in these sections. The difficult part I see is maintaining a consistent flow to the overall show when trying to fit the fill in slides between the transitions. And dealing with the effect of adding or subtracting (editing) the slides in one part of the show on the timing elsewhere. The workflow I usually use is picking out my favorite photos, adding captions to some of them, and starting out with equal display time. I then work on transitions and adjust display times to fit what is going on vusually (zooms usually require more time, panoramas even more). The music is the last to be added with the main consideration being the transition from one song to the next, figuring out if there is a preferable place in the image sequence and placing a cross fade at that point. I have a hard time visualizing how I would start off with the audio track and "fit" the photos into it without a LOT of trial and error. Maybe it is the only way. I wonder if it would be useful to be able to lock a keypoint to a particular time and allow the program to adjust other slide times to fill in the gaps. It would be like having a series of small P2E shows with the slide times spread between the transition points. It would probably limit the other slides to equal display times, but would help putting together a slideshow like this by not having to be focused on keeping the transitions synched to the audio track. I look forward to paying more attention to the music though I'm not sure how to go about it with P2E. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

When burning a disk it reports the error below and gives a generic message. I don't find the generic message very useful since it has no direct link to the error and the suggested "fixes" will just lead the user to more wasted time, discs and frustration. As has been pointed out, it doesn't appear the library offers much, if any, choice for burn speed. I also only get one burn speed. There is also misspellings and grammer problems. For reference, the message reads The error have apeear while DVD disc burning. To fix this error please try to burn another disc and decrease burning speed. Please use only high quality DVD media. If this error will reapeat you can create ISO image and burn this by using another software. I reported this error awhile back and you thought it was a limitation of the library code. Just reporting it is still there and wanted to add it appears to be related to the software requesting for the DVD Recorder to open its door, and not liking the response it gets. Command - Unknown, Status - Check Condition, Sense Key - MEDIUM REMOVAL PR(rest of message not visible) This is actually not a fatal error and if the user just ejects the disc manually it appears to run fine in the DVD player. Also, other software like Nero have no problems opening/closing the door on this DVD Recorder, so I don't think it is a hardware/driver problem. UPDATE: After some more tries, this error does result in the DVD not being closed or finished properly. It seems to work fine in the stand alone DVD player, but the computer doesn't see any files on it. It doesn't think it's blank or unwritten, but reports no files which would prevent any use from including additional files or playing the DVD movie on a computer. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

Include Additional Files doesn't increment the MB amount bar at the bottom of VB window. I would imagine this will cause errors when the additional files surpass the size of the disc. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

Text Comment - No Rasterize to PNG file I noticed the option to Rasterize to PNG file to preserve font integrity is not available for Text Comments. I think it should be since the quality of the slideshow shouldn't depend on whether or not one stores the comments in P2E or JPEG image files. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

Lin Evans made a tutorial on how to use Photoshop to create text with a transparent background and saved as a PNG file http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....amp;#entry32181 The PNG file can then be used in P2E as an object. Add it to your slide in the O&A window, Add Image (Ctrl + 1). Additional effects can be added, such as fade in, fade out, scrolling, by adding keypoints to the text image object. As Ronnie said, if you have many slides to add text to, it can become quite a chore. You can place a number of text comments in a single Photoshop file, each on their own layer and use a script to automate saving of each text layer into a separate PNG file for use in P2E. http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....amp;#entry32465 When the Comments feature is re-enabled, P2E will directly create the text object and place it in each slide's O&A section. I don't believe it will require the font to be on the viewer's computer, as was before with 4.x, although we won't know for sure until it is released. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

P2E is definitely not vaporware and the release is in sight. As others said, the current beta release is a complete program that can be used to make excellent computer and DVD slideshows right now. It has a long history and is an ongoing development. You were right I was talking about the release of ver 5.00, which is not the final release of 5.x or of P2E. It will not be years from now. It is a specific release which will include all the basic functions people expect of slideshow software and will be as bug free as the programmers can make it. WnSoft programmers are very good, and the issues with the current beta have more to do with re-enabling previous functions, albeit much improved, than removing bugs. This is only my opinion. There aren't many functions left to re-enable (see link below), but unfortunately a few of them are important to some of us, such as comments and music sync. http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....amp;#entry32593 or http://tinyurl.com/273xmz Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

Your system specs are more than enough for smooth playback at 1024x768, particularly since you had smooth playback on these shows on a lesser system. Reinstalling windows usually results in fewer programs and applets loaded at startup, but also results in different software being loaded for new hardware. So I would suspect the problem is with one of these programs or drivers. Check to see if you have the latest driver for your video card in particular. Even if you do, try reinstalling it. Video cards can be finicky to setup. Once I had poor performance with many artifacts after upgrading a video card. It turned out a setting in the motherboard BIOS, which worked fine for the previous card, were not good for the new card. After correcting that setting, all was fine. That is another area to look at and confirm that the settings in the motherboard BIOS agree with the features on your card (such as AGP, PCI, speed 4x,8x,etc). Lastly, identify if you can any new software, perhaps a new antivirus program, you have installed, disable it and see if that is the source of the problem. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

Hi LumenLux, The behavior you see is a consequence of placing the last keypoint outside of the slide's time duration. Actually, the full zoom out is 112% and would occur if the slide duration was set to the same as the last keypoint, 31584 msec. What you see is a zoom at 132% which occurs at a time of 25000 msec. In this case, the zoom at the slide's end is 182%. The reason is because the function used to interpolate the zoom from start value to end value is different for each case. So when you place a new keypoint (in this case it is the end of the slide, rather than an actual keypoint) in between the start and end the zoom% value will be different. So you see a different zoom% when the slide ends. Looking at this I discovered a potential problem, or rather something to be aware of when changing an object's zoom function and using more than two keypoints (start and end). You may not end up with a smooth zoom if you add a 3rd,4th, etc keypoints to an object AND change the Perspective Correction for Zoom checkbox back and forth while doing this. The reason is the interpolation for the zoom is only done between two existing keypoints when you add a 3rd keypoint. It can be avoided if you remember to add additional keypoints in a consistant way. For example, always add new keypoints with the Perspective checked off. Only if you place keypoints outside of the slide's duration. In general I would avoid doing this. Since you only see the slide and effects on it during its time duration, placing keypoints outside of this time creates the potential for unexpected or uninteded results. This applies to effects other than zoom as well. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

To be honest, the final release for ver 5.0 is likely to be several months from now, although it could be a few weeks away. A timeline: May 01, 2006 P2E v5.00 Beta #1 released May 06, 2006 P2E v5.00 Beta #2 released Jun 20, 2006 P2E v5.00 Beta #3 released Aug 03, 2006 P2E v5.00 Beta #4 released Aug 16, 2006 P2E v5.00 Beta #5 released Sep 26, 2006 P2E v5.00 Beta #6 released Oct 30, 2006 P2E Deluxe v5.00 Beta #7 with DVD Builder released Nov 24, 2006 Road to final release, estimate was 2-3 months Nov 30, 2006 P2E Deluxe v5.00 Beta #8a released, letter used to denote bug fixes for DVD portion Dec 13, 2006 special test version of new music player released Dec 29, 2006 music sync and modes finished for AVI and DVD, but not EXE or Preview ...... many versions #8b to #8t Jan 17, 2007 P2E Deluxe v5.00 Beta #8u released - last beta released ?? P2E Deluxe v5.00 Beta #9 Second graphics engine, sound and music sync and modes ?? P2E Deluxe v5.00 Beta #10 Navigation bar, buttons, text objects, textured backgrounds, adj PZR speeds ?? P2E Deluxe v5.00 Beta #11 same as above ?? P2E Deluxe v5.00 Final Release In my opinion the development of the successor to P2E v4.x got side tracked (delayed) in October when the decision was made to develop an add on DVD authoring program. It has little to do with high quality slideshows for computer presentations, but it is a highly desired feature for many users. Very few features related to the basic operation of P2E have been enabled since beta #6. Re-enabling these features soon was mentioned as far back as Aug 2006. It was also reported that the missing features were almost ready at the end of Oct 2006 and would be inserted into next betas. Then all the beta#8a..u were released without them and that was 5 months ago. It is not clear to me what is delaying betas #9-11, but it is probably related to the music sync/engine issue for Preview and EXE files. I do not mean to imply P2E v5.00 will never be finished. It certainly will be released and I fully support Wnsoft in its goal of high quality software. It is to counter the many positive postings over the last 6 months that features will soon be enabled and to be patient for the final version. The expectation of a soon to be completed v5.00 version was established late last summer, but complications with some features and the addition of the DVD authoring program has significantly delayed the final release of v5.00. No one knows when it will be released, but many hope the previous features will be enabled sooner rather than later and that additional, new features and refinements will be delayed until after the v5.00 release. Sincerely, Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

This mask of text sample was made by Photoshop CS2 starting with a transparent blank background, color of text is black, anti-alias set to None. I can see edge effects when placed against a black background in P2E. So it seems this alpha channel pixel problem exists with text PNGs made by Photoshop CS2 as well. Your solution of checking the Low Quality of Resizing will correct it when fully implemented, as well as your new solution if that ends up working. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA P.S. It is nice you are working on these small improvements to P2E, but I think it would be more useful to fully concentrate on fixing whatever major problems remain and release a next to final beta and save these minor improvements to future releases such as 5.x. I appreciate all the hard work and close attention WnSoft pays to its software, but I don't understand why it hasn't released a beta with functions that existed in its previous releases enabled yet.

Then perhaps the problem is the way the rectangle tool (the one I used to make the masks) works in Photoshop. I'll try different tools. This GIF file was made from the same Photoshop CS2 file as the above PNG mask and it does not show any artifacts at the edges. So that makes me think it has to do with how Photoshop saves PNG files. I don't know if the text PNG files invisible pixels are set correctly or not, but the mask file was made almost exactly the same way, starting with a blank layer totally transparent and then using rectangle tool to draw two black rectangles. Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA

Igor, It would seem Photoshop CS2 sets the transparent pixels to white (255,255,255) either 1) when creating transparent layers in the program or 2) (more likely) when saving as a PNG file. If it is 1) then there should be a way to match the color of the transparent (alpha 0%) pixels to that of the visible ones to minimize it. Anyone know how to do this? If it is 2), then probably no solution until Adobe gives more control in saving PNG files. This must also be going on with text saved as PNG files, but is not nearly as noticeable because it is part of a gradient when the shadow effect is used in Photoshop and the eye is much better at seeing linear differences than curves and broken bits. But there are also several work arounds to this "problem" in this thread. Thanks, Steve Newcomb Tucson, AZ USA