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Your experience so far may not have been good (for whatever reason) but you will soon find that the Wnsoft team are without equal when it comes to listening to their customers and providing support. They are certainly the best that I have come across. Eddie.

I know that I have mentioned it before but ... can we have the waveform visible in the Objects and Animation window? Eddie

Thank you for yet another version with its developments/improvements on what is already very fine software. I see that work is still being done on the Objects and Animations window. Is there any chance that this will include the waveform? Eddie.

There seems to be a problem with the new beta versions (1 & 2) when using Video Builder to create a DVD. When I get to the point of starting to create the DVD the program crashes. This happens whether I am using a menu or not. I am including just one slideshow and everything is left at its default settings. It works fine in 5.0. Please let me know if there is any other information that you would like me to let you have. Eddie.

When you think of all the work that has gone into producing this new version - numerous betas, problems rectified, users suggestions absorbed, adapting output to different PC setups, and so on - I find it absolutely amazing that these prices are so low. I have no idea how many users there are of P2E worldwide but I hope that many, many more will discover this great software so that Igor and his team get the financial reward that they deserve for all their hard work. Eddie.

I have not been using P2E much over recent months as time synchronization is important to me - and I am therefore delighted that it is now back in beta 9. I am not very familiar with P2E's version of animation and although it seems to be very intuitive and straightforward one thing does seem to be missing. It would be very helpful to be able to view the timeline waveform for a particular slide within the animation window. The way round is to note at what point in the music a particular animation should start or end and then enter the appropriate time in the animations window - but it would be so much more straightforward if the waveform could be seen while making the animation. Do please let me know if this is already possible. If it is not then perhaps it is something which might be considered in the future.

I agree with all that has been said above - but in spite of that I am using another program at the moment. As soon as we get music synchronization back in the new version then I may well be persuaded to return to P2E. Until then I am afraid that I must use a program which provides this extremely important feature.

It seems to me that one of the delights of photography is its blend between science and art. The 'wizards' at Nikon, Canon, Sony etc produce ever more wonderful cameras for us to use but then it is over to us to get creative - to use light and colour not just to record an event, but to evoke a feeling. If this marriage between science and art is true of capturing images it is becoming more and more true of presenting them as well. Up till now we have had the challenge of selecting appropriate music in our slideshows and then deciding upon when and how we will move from slide to slide. We can, of course, just space them out equally but one of the delights of PTE is that it enables us to synchronize to precise moments in the music which seem to us to be particularly appropriate. It does not matter whether we call this 'taste' or an empathy with both music and images - it is an art form. And now with v5 'the wizard Igor' and his colleagues are opening up for us even more possibilities. As pictures move and zoom we have to decide where from and where to. When should we use motion, when cut, when fade? How can we use the new flexibility of this great software to enhance the experience of looking at our images? How can we help others not just to see the pictures of a summer's day but to feel the warmth of the sun? It seems to me that this art form is the 'home choreography' for the digital age. We love doing it, but I am not sure that we have a word to sum it up. It is not just 'arranging the pictures'. It is far more - but what do we call it? Any ideas? Eddie.

No - you are not alone. I am using 4 regularly and, although I have had a brief look at 5 I must admit that I am looking forward to its arrival with some trepidation. I can get version 4 to do all that I want it to now but suspect that there will be a steep learning curve in order to 'master' the new version. At the moment I am at the stage of looking at what people produce and marvelling at the results but will I be able to do that? Eventually, perhaps, but for the moment I am very happy using version 4. Eddie.

I am sure that there will be a flurry of posts asking for advice when P2E 5 public beta becomes available, so I hope that I may forgiven for getting in first. My question concerns image size when using Pan and Zoom. At the moment I reduce the size of photos to 1152 x 864 pixels (my screen resolution) as this seems to provide high quality without synchronization problems. Am I right in thinking that with Pan and Zoom a much larger image is ideal? I wonder whether those who have experience of this feature might give some advice on the best image size for Pan and Zoom - presumably there must be some relation between the amount of zoom required and the number of pixels. In anticipation - thank you. Eddie.

I agree absolutely. As I understand Geoff's original post he is suggesting the P2E should continue to develop as the best software in the world for producing PC slideshows and that there should be a 'sister' DVD slideshow program which would be able to handle the output from P2E - but which would be distinct. Without presuming to tell Igor and team what they should do, this is a suggestion with which I completely agree. My experience of other software is that it can become so complex that it frightens people off. It would also mean that Igor could (and should) charge for the 'sister' program. As a fairly long term P2E user I feel slightly uneasy about the fact that we pay nothing at all for major upgrades. And we could, of course, have a new forum for the sister program Eddie.

Just a comment about where this discussion should take place: I am not interested (yet) in producing DVD slideshows - largely because DVD players seem to be 'picky' about what they will and what they will not play - but I am very interested in, and excited about, the direction that P2E is going (and in this thread). Consequently, I do not tend to visit the 'How to create a video' forum. I must admit that I had assumed that it was a forum designed to assist users who wanted to turn out DVDs and for problems and advice to be shared. I own a relatively ancient DVD player which steadfastly refuses to have anything to do with any DVDs that I record on my PC. Although it might be suggested that I should catch up on my technology, I am concerned that people to whom I give my slideshows might also be living in the Dark(er) Ages. I want to be sure that when I hand over a slideshow it will work on the hardware owned by the recipient. The time may come when I am interested in DVDing, but for the moment I want to enjoy using the features of P2E to turn out better and better slideshows - and I am confident that the much anticipated Version 5 will make a major contribution in helping me to do this. Eddie.

Hi Pbar, Yes, I think that you are right. The 'Hide cursor at startup' check box seems to make the cursor invisible for a moment but then it comes back again - and stays there even if the 'hide cursor after ... seconds' option is also selected. It is easy to get round by leaving the box empty and choosing to 'hide cursor after one second' instead but I think that it is not working as it should and as it did in previous versions. Eddie.

The good thing for us here in the UK is that the price of Broadband is dropping enormously. I was paying £14.99 for my dial-up account and have just changed to Broadband at £17.99 (It stays at £14.99 for three months). I had previously been told that my line would not support Broadband but some BT engineers came along and everything is working. One of the first things that I did last week when I was connected was to download some of the larger PTE slideshows that people have made available. It is embarrassing! I thought that mine were quite good until I saw the amazing results that other people produce. Perhaps dial-up is not so bad after all! Eddie

It seems to me that the crucial question concerns how the slideshows produced on the new version of P2E will run on other computers. Although I may have an 'all singing and dancing' PC on which the new features will run perfectly, I do not know the specifications of the computers where the slideshows which I produce will end up. Does this mean that I should use 4.43 (or the CPU version of 5) to be on the safe side? Or perhaps my fears will prove to be completely unfounded when we give version 5 a try! Eddie