kgoreilly

The PNGs originate from a very short blu-ray video clip. This was processed in Premiere Pro using Twixtor to create ultra slow motion video. I then used FFmpeg to extract all the frames. These were then processed using an 'action' in Photoshop to get the exact look I wanted. The resulting PNGs are pretty good quality. The trouble is when I tried compressing them there was really a big drop off in quality -visible banding and pixelation in the images. I know this workflow may seem odd, and if I had more than very little experience with Premiere Pro, I might be able to do everything directly in Premiere Pro. I just went with approaches I've used before. It doesn't help either that I'm only interested in art, rather than craft/technology as a thing in itself.

Just 30 minutes. A lot of it runs at 24 frames/sec like a video, hence the large number of PNGs.

Thanks for the replies. What threw me was the fact that it did create the 3.9GB *.exe, just with no sound. I have 8,000 PNG files which I've tried compressing but the quality loss was just too great.

Okay, so it's not safe over 2GB?

My version 7.0 user guide says..... "The resulting executable file can be up to 4 GB."

I have a show created with version 7.0. The *,exe file size is less than 4GB. There is sound in Preview and when I create HD video of show, but no sound when *,exe is created. I experimented with truncating the show. Once the file size gets down to about 2.2GB the sound works. This is not a question about how to get the file size down. I'm just puzzled about why there's no sound if I'm less than 4GB.

Yes, just as a very small point, I think it would be helpful if PTE could export a text file detailing the sequence of slides, timings, transitions, audio, zoom levels of video.....in fact the whole shebang. This would help in the rebuilding, and would be used in tandem with the zipped backup.

That's interesting I must check it out. Do you recommend creating an image of my machine from time to time? Or, should I just assume I would be able to get an image of a current machine in the future? It also occurred to me that I still use a CRT monitor, as the back lighting in flat screens ruins many of my very dark shows. The blacks just aren't black. I'm hoping OLED screens solve that particular problem.

I think you've stated it very well there. But, it still leaves me wondering about the precise nature of the risk with PTE files. Would it just take Wnsoft going out of business, and a new generation of video cards, to make life very difficult for us all?

Well that's my point. You would need an 8-Track machine to play it. So, just how hardware dependent are the PTE files? And if hardware built around Windows gives way to hardware built around something else, what then? You're joking......but, I'd be heart broken.

A few things. I'm not at all worried about the 'existence' of the files in the future. I think that can be covered by approaches like the 123 rule. And, I accept that video throws up the same issues, although I'd have more confidence in the long term viability of an AVI file than a PTE file, because Wnsoft is such a niche product. I am worried about the playability of the files. This is already an issue for me on my Macbook. It's an old one (I think OS X 10.5.8). The shows play but with the occasional glitches. I primarily work in a Windows environment, so it's no big deal. But this shows what could happen in the future. I know I could save a copy of Windows, and the PTE software, and there would be 'emulation' options available for sure, but could there be hardware differences which make it impossible to successfully play the PTE files in the future. Especially video card differences -if PTE accesses the video card directly is it not very dependent on the video card hardware specification (I'm probably showing my ignorance here). I'm not attempting here to exaggerate the risks, because I'd guess they're low enough, but I'm talking as someone who has spent very very considerable amounts of time over the past eight years making their work in this format. A small risk, but with huge (potentially catastrophic) consequences. I long ago concluded that PTE was much better to use than say Premiere Pro which I also use for certain jobs. And I've never managed to get better output than what I see from the PTE executable, so I need no persuading there. My point is solely about the long term playability of work.

I bought my first tablet before Christmas, and it occurred to me that it's just possible that one day Windows may not be around anymore. Then, I began to think of all the years work I've done using Picturestoexe. Holy S**t -will I even be able to play it at all? My sole motivation for using it in the first place was quality, so outputting everything to video is NOT an option. I know Mac output is now possible too, but let's think 50 years from now. I have made ZIP backups of all projects, and I suppose keeping a copy of the software would do no harm. And, I know the problem applies to all formats, but I think I might have been better off working in Video software from the start. I'd love to some reassurance.........

Thanks Aginum. Twixor might be just what I was looking for. I'm using Windows too, so Davegee's suggestion wouldn't work. It's intriguing really in terms of getting the best quality, but I wonder whether something very basic couldn't easily be implemented into PTE.

So, nobody has experience of using conversion software to change the speed of either their own video or film clips. I have been using VideoSpirit Pro to do this, but need a better quality conversion if possible. This is why I was thinking of something like Premiere Pro.

No, this is not my video, but film clips. Is Premiere a good way to make the speed conversion? AVS seems a bit daunting.

I don't see a feature for changing the playback speed of video in PTE. (let me know if it's staring me in the face) I need slow motion video a lot, so I was thinking of using Adobe Premiere Pro to make the conversion. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks for your replies. I usually simply drag photos back and forth along the timeline (in slide view). I think your suggestions involve me replacing the slide from my folder of slides. I usually have a large number in that folder, but only the potentially interesting ones in the timeline. This approach is easiest for me because I usually start with ALL the photos in the timeline, and start removing ones that don't seem to work well. I think, especially when you work with music, it would surely make sense to be able to hold both the time point and the transition effect. Maybe that's something for a later version. Thanks again. Kevin

Hi, I understand how to fix the time points for a show, but what I really need is to be able to fix both the time position of the slide, AND the transition for that point. When you move around the slides, they carry their customised transition with them (or the default is used if not customised). My time points are usually chosen for a particular point in the music, but that point also requires a particular 'held' transition because of the nature of the music at that point. I would like to be able to set that fixed transition, and then try out different slides in that position without having to worry about customising the transition for the new slide I put in there. Is there a way of doing this?

Thanks Lin that was great.

Hi Lin, Thanks for such a comprehensive reply. I understand PTE a lot better now. I have a few questions about what you say. Since PTE uses hardware rendering, the ability of your video card GPU (graphical processing unit) and your associated computing power are highly important in the quality of the results. My monitor display properties indicate the highest resolution possible to be 1920*1440. My video adaptor is NVIDIA Quadro 2 MXR/EX. Does this mean that if I'm determined to get the best quality possible, I should use photos to that level of resolution, and that I should set the screen resolution to that level as well? I realise this has RAM implications, and that it only applies to viewing on my computer. JPG's expand in memory to their full size I don't understand what this means. The output of PTE is extremely good - the best in fact from any executable presentation slideshow because it uses full hardware rendering for animation in version 5 and uses original images in version 4.48. Are you saying that if a project has no animations (mine has none) that both version 4.48 and version 5.0 give the same image quality, but a show created in version 4.48 makes less demands on my computer's resources when playing? The best projected resolution is usually one which matches the native resolution of the projector. Does this mean that the best eventual setup is to have the same resolution for the image, the monitor display, and the projector? Do projectors simply project the screen resolution up to resolution capacity of the projector? Am I correct in thinking that most projectors only have 1 million pixel resolution, although some have 2 million? I hope I'm not being a pest with these questions. Kevin

Hi, I'm currently creating jpegs from master files using Photoshop. I'm wondering what is the right way to go about this? I've read that by creating them in 'save for web' the exif information is stripped from the file, giving a smaller size than if you simply 'save as' jpeg. I've found that the exif information is stripped, but I get a larger file size this way. (I've only tried it at maximum quality) I've also read here that jpeg quality 8 is probably good enough, but are there some 'tricks to the trade' for creating jpegs for PicturesToExe shows (especially from a Photoshop viewpoint)? Thanks in advance, Kevin

Thanks for the replies

Hi, I want to move my photos to a different folder. Is there a way to change the filepath for the photos? Thanks.

I am looking for advice on some things. I have an art project that involves 10 PicturesToExe shows with music. The original photos are 3072 * 2040 raw files. I created tiff files from these using the sRGB color space. I then created BMPs from the tiffs with a 'widescreen' size 1920 * 1080 where the 1080 was the resized height of the photo and the 1920 was the photo width plus some black margins. Naturally, when I play this on my computer screen (1024 * 768) there are black margins top and bottom as well. The show will be projected on a screen from a computer, and the 10 shows will run in sequence with no gaps. My thinking behind this approach was that some projectors have 2 million pixel resolution (hence 1920 * 1080) and I wanted control over the aspect ratio and also I did want a fairly large black border to frame the photos. The things I'm not sure about are the following; 1. I really would like to create a show that is simply the best possible quality, and also one that is future proof. In other words, I would really like to use the full six million pixel file because in the future there may be projectors that can cope with that resolution. If I put a six million pixel slide in the show, how exactly does the program deal with that? 2. I'm not sure that BMP is the best looking image format. My gut feeling is that JPEGS actually look better (punchier maybe?) I assume that the reason I read people saying that JPEG or PNG is preferred is simply because of file size. Is there more to it than that? 3. I've read a bit about 'invisible menus' but I'm worried that if played on another computer with poor specs it might start to 'fall apart' and show glimpses of the desktop between shows. By the way I have no object animations in any of the shows. 4. Are there other issues I should be thinking about if quality is my only goal like anti-aliasing? I suppose my basic issue here is that I've read the user manual and searched the site, but I cant find detailed discussions relating to image format (especially from a quality viewpoint) and I don't really understand how to get the best projected resolution. I know I've created these ten shows, but I'm actually a first time user of the software. It would be great if I could lean on your experience here. Kevin

Thanks for that. Yes, it probably is a monitor problem. I'll make an .exe file and try it out on other computers, and then report back. Thanks again.