mandarinfish

<note>Hmmm, the Warbirds post on this thread from appeasegen looks like a lame attempt at SPAM.</note> But for Henri or anyone else reading this thread - the problem I was having was an audio problem, not a video or graphics problem, and is solved (for me, but not for PTE). PTE apparently could not handle some of my MP3 files when playing on Snow Leopard. I reconverted all the files to MP3 again, rebuilt my slideshows, and was able to work around the problem. Linda

Looks like they've added more control with the custom option since I tried this long ago. When I first started converting AAC to MP3 for use in PTE some eight years ago, iTunes didn't have conversion capability, so I have always used other converters. But a few years ago when I switched to Macs I did try using iTunes briefly for conversion and found issues and limitations. These may all have been fixed by now, but I don't have any reason or desire to use it at this point. I have other, better software for that task that gives me more capability with less hassle. You totally missed my point. I wasn't saying I shouldn't have to convert from AAC to MP3. I said "reconvert", not "convert". And yes, the problem could be anywhere from the converter to any point in the audio playback stack. The fact that I don't have any problem playing these audio files with other players on the same system would make me want to find the root cause for the bug if it were my software. But I am leaving that up to Igor. Anyway, it's done; all my slideshows have been rebuilt now, so I hope I won't be spending further time on this issue. Linda

I don't use iTunes to convert, because there is no control over audio parameters with iTunes and I have found it to truncate some of my files in the past when converting as well. I already own other converters and editors (soundbooth, audition), so I have a workaround, though it really shouldn't have been necessary for me to reconvert all these old clips and regenerate the slideshows. I mentioned the data about the converters and LAME since it might provide a clue as to the root of the problem if Igor chooses to investigate it. Linda

Hi Peter, I saw that report yesterday, but it doesn't appear to be related to the problem I'm having, since this is happening with a single stereo clip. The problem all appears to be with clips that I had converted from AAC in MP4 (m4a) to MP3 using the Xilisoft audio converter, an older 2.1 version, which uses the LAME codec. If I reconvert from AAC using their latest version (which I don't own but can use a trial copy), or if I reconvert using another application (such as MusicMan for Mac OSX, which also uses LAME), I don't see this problem. I still think there may be an issue with PTE in the setup parameters it is using for playback of these clips on Snow Leopard, or it could be an issue with the audio driver itself. I think it would be a good thing for Igor to take a look in case it's something that needs to be fixed in PTE, but I can also reconvert all my clips as a workaround for now. Thanks to all for the suggestions. Linda

Great suggestion, Lin. It does appear to be related to the audio files in the problem slideshows. I eliminated the audio from one of the shows that was exiting immediately, and it played (without audio, of course). I then added a known working audio track from one of my other shows, and it played with audio. I then took the problem audio track and put it in another show that had been playing fine, and it exited immediately. I haven't yet found the issue with the four audio files that seem to be problems. They have the same parameters (128kbps, 44.1khz, 2 channel, cbr) as the working ones. These audio files do play on my Snow Leopard system if I use another player (quicktime, VLC). I'll dig further, though. At least now I have a clue! thanks, Linda

I recently upgraded my Macbook Pro to one of the new models that came out in April: 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, Snow Leopard 10.6.4, Intel High Definition Audio, Intel HD Graphics + NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M (512 MB) I also have a Mac Pro running Leopard. I have about 10 slideshows in OSX app form that I've created from PicturesToExe 6.0. They all run fine on the Leopard machine. On my Snow Leopard machine, I'm having issues with 4 of the 6 shows. Two of them exit immediately. Two others play, but with no audio. The six other shows play fine. I've tried rebuilding the four problem shows with the latest 6.5 beta, and there is no difference. The problematic shows are similar to the ones that work, in that they all use MP3 audio files, similar screen size, etc. Any clue as to what could be going on here or what I can try? Where do I log an official bug? I'm willing to do some experiments to capture logging, etc, to get more info. thanks, Linda

Just wanted to add to this thread that I regularly create AVCHD disks using PTE and Nero. Similar to what Lin described, but I skip a transcoding step. From PTE, I create an AVI file (using PTE video codec and PCM audio) in the 1080p resolution. Then I use Nero to directly import this AVI file and create an AVCHD disk (with menus) and burn using a standard DVD disk in my DVD writer. I've tried the route of creating an HD MP4 file, but most of the software I've tried is not smart enough to avoid transcoding the video again (uncompress/recompress instead of passing through the video stream) which degrades the quality. So when I have Nero take in the AVI rather than the MP4, I avoid the initial compression. Maybe Pinnacle is better at passing through the video and just remuxing it, but I haven't tried that one. And they looked beautiful on my HD TVs! Note that just as Lin says, while you don't need a blu-ray writer to do this, you do need a blu-ray/AVCHD player (and not all blu-ray players can play AVCHD). I have a Playstation 3 that I use and I've taken my slideshow disks to friends' homes where they played on Samsung players. (yes, I bore my friends with my vacation slideshows!) Linda

Whoohooo, it works!!!!! Thank you!!!!

Youtube now supposedly supports HD, and I wanted to find out when the Youtube publish option on PicturesToExe might be supporting this change? Right now it looks like the resolution is limited to 480x360 in the publish option, but youtube recommends higher, especially for HD. I'm still using beta 15, so if this has changed since then, please disregard my question. thanks!

Yes, I have tried both those things. No difference. But thanks for the suggestion.

I have a slideshow that I have been trying to convert to Flash usng Adobe Media Encoder CS4. From PTE 5.6, I have output an AVI file using 1000x750 size, 15 fps, PTE video codec, and PCM audio at 44khz. Adobe Media Encoder is set to utilize input size and fps, and create H.264 F4V file with AAC audio at 96kbps, 44khz. I'm seeing ghost slides showing up as flashes during the transition between slides. The output, if you want to see it, is at: http://www.dancingfish.com/shows/PTEbug/ The ghost slide that shows up first is exactly halfway into the show in its correct spot. Any ideas as to what can be going wrong? Note that the ghost slide flashing is only happening during the transitions. The PTE AVI itself seems to be okay, as it will play in Media Player without the flashes. So this might be a bug in Adobe Media Encoder, which is a shame, as I need to create streaming flash video. If there are some tricks to creating an AVI file that the AME will digest better, I'd welcome hearing them. I've tried messing with the fps settings on both ends, to no avail. thanks...

Hmmm, it turns out it's not VMware, and it's not a problem with the size of the file. It's actually a few bytes larger than 4GB, as I noticed later. PTE is completing the output of this file, but there are problems with the output (again, this is uncompressed video and PCM audio in an AVI). My conversion software (Premiere Pro or Adobe Media Encoder) won't accept the file as input. Windows Media Player will try to play it, but the video is all wonky. It starts out showing 4 copies of a slide overlaid (and the slide is actually supposed to be about halfway through the show). I think this may be related to another problem I am seeing with Adobe Media Encoder and an AVI file using the PTE video codec. I'll post about that in a separate post. Linda

I'm trying to debug a problem I'm seeing with PicturesToExe, and thought I'd ask here in hopes of narrowing down the issue. I'm running PicturesToExe on XP within VMWare Fusion, using a bootcamp disk formatted to NTFS. The host is a Mac Pro. I'm asking PTE to output an AVI file with raw, uncompressed video (so that I can create compressed video on Max OSX). This is a fairly short slideshow, about 4.5 minutes long, at 1000x750. In watching the progress bar as PTE chunks along slowly, creating this file, it looks like it is about halfway done when suddenly it proclaims that it is 100% done. The file that it has created is exactly 4GB in size. It doesn't play properly in Media Player. Is there a limit to the size of the output file in PTE? To determine if this is a VMWare problem, I'm also planning to boot from bootcamp and try again, to take VMWare out of the scenario. But thought I would ask if anyone has successfully created output files larger than 4GB from PTE on an NTFS disk (FAT32 has its own 4GB limitation). thanks for any input... Linda

What I'd like to see to extend this feature further is, if the file (image, music, whichever) is found in a subdirectory of the current directory, retain that path in the zip file as well. I usually put all of my image files into a directory called "images" and that helps me to declutter the root directory of my project directory. I would like to see a way to maintain local structure in the backup zip files as well. If the file is found outside the current directory, then I like to have it copied to the root directory of the zip structure. Thanks!

Thom, The avi file that PTE creates will be deleted when you exit PTE. You need to do the conversion while the PTE dialog for creating the AVI is still up (e.g. you convert the video before you click the "Finish" button on the PTE dialog. If you do this, the avi file will be in the location where you specified. Linda

Igor, this will be a very welcome addition to PicturesToExe! Please keep us posted on progess with this. I can't wait to see this show up in a beta so that we can try it out! Thanks! Linda

Henri, I have created video for my ipod from my PtE slideshows, which you can certainly provide as a video podcast as well. I created an AVI from PtE, and then used Cucusoft Ipod converter to convert it to ipod friendly format and sizing. There is a free tool, Videora, that will do this as well. Linda

Just a couple of notes to add.. Bootcamp now only comes with Leopard, and Windows is not included. If you want to go that route, you'll need to install Bootcamp and then purchase a Windows license and install that. That said, it works very well for exe slideshows and is my preferred method of running them. Bootcamp will no longer work with Tiger now that the beta has expired. Also, even if you install Leopard, you must have an Intel processor based Mac for Bootcamp/Windows to work. I have also used PicturesToExe slideshows with Parallels. This option does not work very well for PicturesToExe 5.0 and later. The transitions are really not smooth; they look as though the framerate is about 7 frames per second, if that. When built with 4.48, they run and look fine. I tried this with a beta of VMWare Fusion and found the same thing. 5.0 and later don't play anywhere near as smoothly as 4.48. DVDs created with Videobuilder work fine on my Mac. One exciting option I found recently was to use my DVI out connector on my Macbook Pro with an HDMI adapter, and connect to a High Def TV. I booted Windows using Bootcamp, and played my slideshow to friends on New Years Eve (yes, I bored them silly! ) on a 56" plasma screen. It really looked gorgeous. I can't wait until Videobuilder has support for blu-ray, or even AVCHD. I can use Nero to create an AVCHD disk from my PicturesToExe avi file, but have not tried that in a blu-ray player yet. Linda Edit to correct: I meant to say that Bootcamp will no longer install with Tiger since the beta expired. It will continue to work, and that's how I'm running it now. Also, the beta of Fusion that I used supported DirectX 8. It may be that the current version of Fusion with support for DirectX 9 will run better. I'll try it when I get my new Mac Pro.

Thanks, Igor; it will be very interesting to see what happens with their testing. As one more data point, I tried the newest VMWare beta, which also supports DirectX 8.1, and the performance for both slideshows is worse than on Parallels. With the 4.48 slideshow, there is visible decrease in frame rate (on Parallels, this one was smooth, but on VMWare it looks like the framerate is about 7 fps). With the 5.0 version of the slideshow, it looks like about 3 fps to my eye. The one I find the most acceptable of all these experiments is the 4.48 version of the slideshow on Parallels. Anyway, not sure if this info helps at all, but this was my experience.

I was using the new release of Parallels Desktop for Mac 3.0, and did have DirectX enabled in Parallels. I did not notice such a difference between the two slideshows on my old XP tower when I tried it later. I will try it in Bootcamp as well, but I expect that I'll see about the same thing as with XP tower. I am not sure why Parallels shows this difference.. I also tried the original "Flowers" slideshow that Igor put together when PTE 5 was in early beta, and the slideshow would not show at all (but at least it did not crash like it did in older Parallels!) - I only saw some strange flickering on the desktop. I am thinking that Parallels has not gotten the DirectX support quite right. But it is interesting that my 4.48 slideshow plays beautifully.. Linda

I just want to add a data point. I've already upgraded to v5.0 deluxe, and will continue to use it for the VideoBuilder. But I think I might start all my shows in 4.48, after this experiment... I had built a recent slideshow using 4.48, and I also created a version of it in 5.0 (no differences except for the version of PTE used to create the EXEs). My main platforms are Mac based, and so I use Parallels as well as Bootcamp to run slideshows. Parallels is my main method to use Windows to run the slideshows, so I compared them using Parallels. Anyway, I tried both my older 4.48 version of this slideshow, as well as a version built using 5.0 with hardware acceleration turned off. The 4.48 version plays very smoothly (I only use fade in and fade out transitions). But the 5.0 version is very jerky during the transitions. It looks as though the framerate is really low, or frames are being dropped in the 5.0 version. Any clue why this might be? Is there a new setting I need to be using (besides turning hardware acceleration off)? Thanks..

Please bring back the comment tab in the customize slide option. Otherwise there is no way to select a group of slides and apply a common comment attribute (e.g. position, font) to them. I miss this since it was removed. thanks..

Hi Peter, Thanks for your suggestion, but it really doesn't help in this situation. Each slide has a different text in the comment (in fact the ability to use IPTC/EXIF comment really helps automate this, and I had requested that many months ago, so it's great to see it). It's only the position that I need to set for the group of vertical slides. If I use a paste, I assume this will overwrite my comment text to the be the same. And I still have to edit each one just to do the paste. For me, either way is a step back.

Let me clarify the question I have above. Is there going to be a way to customize a set of slides (e.g. more than 1 at a time, but not all)? I have been depending on this functionality in 4.48 and previous and it's important to me. When I have a slideshow of 100 or more images, and need to customize 30-40 of them in the same way, it's quite a bit of work to consider doing this one by one. Objects and Animation editor is not available when I select more than one slide. And the Customize Slide comment option is now removed. Is there going to be a way to do this with Objects and Animation or otherwise? Thanks..

Is there still a way to customize comments for multiple slides at once? E.g. I use a different placement of comments for vertically oriented photos than for landscape oriented photos. The way I would do this in the past is to go into the lightbox view, select all of the vertical photos, and then use the customize slide to set the position of the comments. I no longer see this available. Is there a way to do this? thanks..