The oldie

Ed, My photo club have a PLUS U2 1200 Digital projector, which produces really good results from PTE etc. and handles still single images very well. The spec is XGA (1024 x 768) , 2000 ansi lumens, and 1500:1 Contrast ratio. This machine was about £2000 18 months ago, but I am sure the prices are much lower now. I think the main difference with the older projectors was the poor contrast ratio and in some cases brightness. I noticed that Dell are offering a highly rated projector, the 2300MP, with 2300 lumens, 2100:1 contrast XGA with sync to UXGA (1600 x 1200)at about £1100. This machine has had some very good reviews. Although there are some people that still compare unfavourably digital images with projected slides. I think we were very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the images from the PLUS. Hope this is of some help, Alan in UK

I suggested this at the end of a thread for an earlier beta. Ronwil answered my query/suggestion then, but I think it has now been overtaken by the later beta. This is the suggestion:- At the moment if you have the timeline open and wish to go to another view, say the light table view, you have to come out of the timeline altogether. On your return to the timeline the cursor has started back at the beginning of the sequence. In a long sequence this can be a nuisance. The suggestion for the next beta would be then, Could the programme remember where you were on the timeline when you return ? Otherwise could you switch to the other views from the timeline and retain it's position. Ronwil suggested that there may be some technical reason why this cannot be done. I think he may have otherwise liked the idea. Do others think this would be an improvement and could Igor consider adding the feature? I find I would use it a lot. The improvements to the timeline are terrific so far, this would be a further step foward? Regards to all on the forum, Alal in UK

Ron, Thanks for the comments. I thought that seemed to be the case. I would therefore like to suggest to Igor that to be able to get back to where you were working on the timeline would be very useful, particularly if you were working towards the end of a sequence As you say, there may be some cross action problems if you were to minimise the timeline window and return. Alan in UK

Ron, To try to clarify, If you leave the timeline to go into, say, the light table view, and then return to the timeline, the cursor is back at the beginning of the timeline. You then have to plough through the sequence to return to where you were working? I am quite happy with the working of the light table, which is excellent, As I said before, I may have missed something to avoid this. Alan in UK

Let me add my congratulations and hearty thanks to Igor and his team for a splendid new v4.4. I took the excellent advice on the forum before getting a super new laptop. , 3.2 gig processor, 1gig Ram and 80 HDD. XP Home with SP1 and everything runs perfectly. Can I support most strongly the proposals of ADB, Maureen and Alrobin about the timeline. The ability to anchor points and add or subtract slides and points without disturbing the rest is so important. Another point which I think would be a help. If one leaves the timeline, say to go into the light table view, when you return you are back at the beginning of the sequence. With a long sequence this can be a nuisance. (I am assuming I haven't missed something here to cover that?) By the time we get to 4.5 there will surely be very little left to improve! Regards to all the good prople on the forum. Alan in UK

Thank you all very much indeed for your very helpful advice. I have wighed it all up and I think decided on a suitable affordable spec for the new laptop. You know PTE is a remarkable programme... not only the workings of pte for our av's, but look at all the friendly people round the globe giving their time to help the aged !! I think 2005 is going to produce some remarkable new features in PTE. Very best for the New Year to you all !! Alan in UK

I am considering upgrading my ageing laptop to run PTE with a good quality up to date digital projector. As these bits of kit are expensive and I only want to have to buy once, any guidance please from the experts on a good specification would be really welcome. At the same time can I offer my very best wishes to everyone on the forum and at Wnsoft, for Christmas and 2005. Alan in NE UK

Ron, thanks for your info. Makes and specs that work well with others are always worth noting!. Maureen, Interesting that you mention the Aldi offers. My chum Roger Mallison has acquired a very nice laptop via that route. I will certainly watch their site. Unfortunately I bought my laptop somewhat earlier. I would have done better by waiting! Thats always the case? Thanks very much for all your interest. I read about all you av experts in the "AV World". I am astonished at your capacity to produce masses of top notch av's, run conferences etc. etc. and still manage to find time to take some pictures ! Marvellous. Best regards, Alan

Once again many thanks to Maureen and Ken. All your advice will be incorporated when I revamp my folders etc. Ken, I reinstalled PTE from disc and made sure of the folders and "hey presto" help file now OK. Maureen, I like the idea of your external hard drive. I think I have read some of your comments about it before. I have certainly found that keeping the minimum running on the Photo PC, help with the speed of operation and in particular in Photoshop. Trouble is I have just forked out for an excellent Image Tank III travelling hard disc (40gig) which is also a card reader and allows downloading and clearing of camera cards on the move ( carrying a laptop, without the car, can be a bind). More expense! but then you can't take it with you !! I would be very interested in the make and spec of your model. I do know they get smaller and with bigger capacity all the time. Best wishes, Alan

Chuck ( and Al), Many thanks for the help. I will look into the template system when I sort out the current projects. Currently all the elements of the project are in the same hard disc, but are in different directories. The pics are in one, the sound and project files are in subs of another directory. Incidentally, probably a simplistic question. As I explained, I have a small capacity PC which I use for e-mail, internet etc. and keep a bigger capacity machine for photography. This means that the current version of PTE is transferred from one PC to the other. I copy to disc and transfer. Is this ok with PTE? The reason I ask is that I notice that the transferred version will not show the help info. It occurred to me that the programme, for it's own protection, may not allow this transfer? The programme seems to work otherwise ok. Isn't the forum splendid. And you are such a helpful lot! Best regards, Alan in UK

Firstly - what a super improvement with the new betas and the light table etc. ! Many congratulations to Igor! Now to my problem. I have had to reinstall everyhting after my photo PC wouldn't boot up. Everything was tried but to no avail, and the reinstall was needed. This sorted it out except for my current PTE projects. Everything was reinstalled in the same place on the hard discs etc. I transferred PTE4.2#1 ( I have a small machine for e-mail, internet etc. and my photo machine is not connected to the internet - no viruses- transferred stuff is all scanned with Norton antivirus before transferrring to the photo machine). When starting PTE and opening a current project the programme first says it can't find pictures. when the file list is opened at the correct folder the programme recognises the pics but they show in the slide list in the right order with the name but showing 1kb size for each slide. They also will not show as a thumbnail in the right hand window. Obviously the project is lost, and I have to reinstall all the pics again. Fortunately the larger sequences are already exe files and run fine. I have however two or three shorter pieces which were being worked on which have been lost. I still have all the pictures both in their original form and as jpegs in av folders. So all can be reconstructed. A lot of unneccesary work ! My concern is for the future. What has gone wrong, and what can I do to eliminate the risk again ? Has anyone else experienced the same thing. Incidentally the main PC which would not boot up is running on XP, while the small internet PC is on 98. Alan in UK

I fully support dagrace and the suggestions from denwell. Finding a good "home" for these discussions would be v. helpful. I find you often have to search quite a bit to find a thread you remember and want to reread. More sections might help here. The forum is such a splendid place to learn. As has been mentioned, you often find great tips in among other discussions. The expertise allround is fantastic and the willingness to share knowledge with other makes the forum quite unique. Alan (in UK)

I've been a fan of Alrobin since I first looked at the forum...... At the risk of you being bored with all the adulation Al ! Many Many Thanks for all your splendid offerings. Alan in UK

Can I please add my support for the three ideas from Ed Overstreet. Making an excellent programme even better !!! Alan in UK

Igor, Many thanks for all the splendid amendments and improvements. You are on beta 9, will you be adding anything more before a new release? Is it worth waiting a little time more? Alan in UK

Oleg, I confess it isn'y easy to lose project! Once or twice I have accidentally moved files in sorting out directories etc. and that way PTE loses track of the simage files. I also had a chum lost part of his hard file in a disaster so I save projects to another drive etc. to avoid. Your point however is taken. If I ever have its my own fault! Thanks for the interest. Alan

Al, To be honest I have never tried to transfer the slide order album direct to PTE. All that I have used it for is to make a nice illustrated script to pull the pictures across to the pte slide list. You can also save the album as a fallback if the project goes wrong or is lost. I have it with my photo stuff on another PC I have (I keep this smaller older version for e-mails etc to try and avoid virus worms and other nasties!) which is currently down and being amended. I therefore can't actually try it. Another chum uses Photosuite for the same pupose so I'll contact him to see if he has had a go. Regards, Alan

Igor, Sorry I forgot to include that I have been using PTE 4.20 beta 4 for tha lst two the earlier two may have been a beta or two earlier, but all fairly up to date. Alan

Igor, I have made the sequences with images max size around 250/300kb each. I have an mp3 sound line and the screen set for all images is 1024 x 768. I have had no problems with transition smoothness on either laptop or PC using these sizes. The four sequences I used for the startup intro using buttons was 46 mb 55.5mb 21.3mb and 33mb. The intro itself was 474 kb. Thanks for the help and add my congratulations on a great program!! Alan

Hi dpd, I have a copy of MGI Photosuite v 8.1 ( there are much more up to date versions like Platimum 5 available - cost 29 dollars). This programme has an excellend albums feature which inserts any number of pics as thumbnails into a named album, which can then be sorted as a light box, with drag and drop, and saved as an album. This then can be printed out in the right order as a thumbnail script. Any number of albums can be made and saved and edited. Good luck, Alan

Very many thanks to both Al and Oleg for the help. Maybe when I am feeling rich I can update my laptop for a better graphics and sound card! All the same I have used it to show sequences using a splendid new digital projector acquired by my Photo Club, and they ran very well. Incidentally Al, I think I have already complimented you on your splendid PTE Tutorial some time ago on the forum. I used it as the basis of a workshop I did for the Club using the laptop. All went very well including showing a couple of sequences at the end. Once again many thanks, Regards and very best wishes for 2004, Alan in UK.

Hi everyone who might help. Made 4 sequences which run fine on PC and Laptop from exe file. Have just made intro with one pic and 4 object buttons to start each sequence. Then created exe file for this intro. On PC this works well. On Laptop there is a jerkiness to transitions which is not normally seen. If the same sequence is run from the Hard disc of the Laptop no problem. Spec of Laptop ;- 1500 Athlon 4 , 256 ram, 32MB Video S3 Twister K. Spec of PC :- Athlon 2400, 512 RAM, NVidea G Force Ti 4200. I find the difference very strange. As I use the laptop for showing sequences with a borrowed high spec digital projector, it would be good to start a show with the nice intro screen before starting each sequence, Any ideas. Alan in UK

A really happy and healthy New Year to Igor and all his splendid team. Very best to all you great forum folks, from a very appreciative older member. Having just finished a couple of nice little sequences with PTE, I feel I have started 2004 pretty well ! Alan (in windy Northumberland)

from the Oldie, I like others don't contribute to the forum (not enough brains or knowledge !) but read it with great interest reguloarly. Many thanks to all you splendid contributors worldwide!! I am from beautiful Northumberland in the very north of England. Cool wet and not nice at the present - had some snow a day or two ago but now gone. Add the very best greetings for Christmas and a super 2004. Alan.

Although I haven't put much on the forum, I read it with great admiration for all you experts. Thanks for all the help. Specially Alrobin for his super tutorial- absolutely great. Now to my possible problem. I am finishing a little sequence which requires a voice over, background music and some sound effects. As the story is a complicated one I needed to have the VO in PTE to try it and make accurate adjustments. I thought that it should be converted to mp3 to use it in PTE, to make is run ok. I then decided that to use the mix down facility in the multitrack part Cooledit, I should probably need to have all three tracks in mp3. I have started to mix it, and it seems to me to sound ok. However I am well aware that I am ancient with probably hearing to match! Do you experts in the sound field think that I cannot do this and get acceptable results. Best regards to all you good people. The Oldie, Alan, in UK.