Lin Evans

Hi Steven, I think I see the problem from looking at your captures. The first song has a length of 4:40 but you have set the duration to 3:18.347 - or, the program has because that's the length of the slides. So to get the second song to start at six seconds after the first one, you would need to set the offset for song two to 3:24.347. On the other hand, I assumed that you had 4:40 in slide length so told you to set the second track to 4:46. The question is why you have a different value in the duration for audio one than the 4:40. If you really only need 3:18.347 then just set the offset for slide two to 3:24.347 and it should begin playing six seconds after the end of the first audio. As it is now programmed, there would be a delay from 3:18:347 to 4:46:00 before song two begins because you have terminated song one at 3:18:347. It's a bit difficult to sort it out without actually seeing the show. If this doesn't work for you, make a zip file of the PTE project using "File" Create Backup in Zip and post it and I'll sort it out for you. Best regards, Lin

Hi Steven, Let's take it one step at a time. Click in the circle beside "offset" for slide two and change the 0:00:000 value to 4:46:000. Mute the sound for the third selection for now. (or just remove it from the track for simplicity).... Now run it and see if audio selection two doesn't start where it should... Once you get it right, they the next step is to put in the proper offset for selection three and uncheck the "mute" - Or, if you removed track three, put it back in and set the offset for it for the time you want it to start. The fades are not important - they have nothing to do with the issue. Best regards, Lin

Hi Steven, To simplify this for your application, put the three songs on separate tracks. This isn't necessary, but it will make my explanation easier. For now, just forget the envelope waveform and do it like this: Determine the length of song A and set the "offset" for song B to six seconds longer than the duration of song A. For example, if the duration of song A is 3:43, then set the offset value for song B to 3:49. The "offset" determines where, along the entire timeline, that an audio selection begins. The "start time" determines how far into the full length of run time for a song you wish to begin hearing the sound. The fade-in and fade-out times for each selection are determined from the start and from the end of the song respectively. I think this will sort out your issue... Best regards, Lin

Hi Ray, Excellent images on those huge higher resolution screens. It's coming - it will take some time because the industry will try to squeeze all they can from the 4K market first, so the 8K displays will probably be a niche product for some time. I just wish that the developers would stop using the term "resolution" improperly. The 8K displays are decidedly "not" 16 times the "resolution" of the 2 megapixel HD (1920x1080). I actually got into a rather heated discussion via email with a tech magazine editor who parroted this marketing language in an article about this technology some months ago. He simply bought the manufacturer's message and couldn't understand how simple math is used to calculate the requirements for optical resolution with all other factors being equal. By simple math, it takes four times the pixel count to "double" the theoretical optical resolution. That's double the horizontal and double the vertical pixel count. So to double the actual optical resolution of an HD display which has the equivalent of two million pixels would take an eight million pixel display. It follows then that to have sixteen times the optical resolution of a two megapixel (HD) display with the identical sized display would take far more pixels than the approximately thirty two million pixel display design. And this is not even taking into consideration the pixel density differences of the much larger displays used for this technology which decidedly dilutes optical resolution from what it would be with identical pixel density of the HD display. To be exact, the 7680x4320 matrix of pixels can't theoretically out resolve the lesser of the two dimensions which, in this case is 4320 pixels. This equates to exactly four times the theoretical resolution of the 1920x1080 matrix of the HD system. So to be honest, the manufacturer would have to say that their new 8K display is four times the resolution of the HD system on a same size display. So they have inflated the true resolution by around 400 percent - LOL. It's too bad that marketing people have made the mistake of "equating" resolution with pixel count. The new display certainly has sixteen times the pixel count, but not even in the universe of sixteen times the "resolution" of an HD system.... Why they can't just say it has sixteen times the pixel count is beyond me. Resolution is complex enough without further confusing the buying public with distorted claims. Best regards, Lin

Premiere Elements outputs a format with the extension .f4v After looking into this format I discovered that it is more or less a mp4 h.264 compatible format so I took one of my videos and rendered it with Adobe Premiere Elements as a f4v Then, noting that PTE does not "see" this file in the file list, I changed the extension to MP4, imported it into PTE and used the internal converter to output the compatible AVI which played perfectly by PTE 7.5 beta 6. The question is: Could PTE not be made .f4v aware so that it would not be necessary to rename the file with a compatible extension to allow the user to load it and convert it? It appears that it's just an Adobe name for an MP4 h.264 file... I also found this interesting tidbit about it which explains a minor difference: http://www.leebrimelow.com/?p=748 Thanks, Lin

Yes, You can't get any "wider" than 360 degrees and I've built numerous one slide panorama's with PTE of 360 degrees.... Lin

Hi Paul, There are several ways to approach this. First, you obviously don't want to post a large HD video on your own website for several reasons. I think you already understand this, but for the other readers of this thread it probably is worthwhile to remind them that there are two issues with which we must contend when "streaming" video. The first issue is the speed of your own internet connect. As consumers with limited budgets we are not fortunate enough to be able to afford the incredibly powerful servers and huge bandwidth of YouTube, Vimeo, etc. A few lucky users have very high speed download, but there are still plenty of users who can't download data at much more than 400kbs or so. So these users would have continually interrupted play unless they stopped the play and waited for an extended period to begin the playback. Second issue is the capacity in terms of download bandwidth of your hosts server. Very few ISP's have super high speed servers and when they do, they are generally being used by large businesses and usually too costly for the average user. So we have two potential bottlenecks which impede download speed. The "safe" way around this is to limit the size of our own output to something around 800x600 pixels or roughly the equivalent of that in the desired aspect ratio. Next to that, the next best, in my opinion is the 1280x720 option. This can be formatted by several types of web creation software as I'll explain shortly. The next question is how do we output this from PTE? First, we generally do not want to use an AVI format because of the wide range of codecs necessary to support all possible video output. We don't want our viewers to not be able to see our shows. The "safest" way I've found is to output an MP4 h.264 which is the default for PTE. Generally, If our slideshow is in 16:9 format, then probably 1280x720 is the safest output size. On the other hand, if we want to be more certain that the show will play smoothly, 800x450 will maintain the aspect ratio at a greatly reduced file size. Using "custom" we should have no degradation in performance at all. Next, we need a way to load this on our own website or our own server. My own personal favorite tool for this is Xara Web Designer. Xara is fairly inexpensive and it takes only seconds to drop the MP4 into a Xara page output and format the size we expect our viewers to see and generate all the necessary code to simply upload to our web server. It's fast, very easy to use and works like a charm. It's easy to change the color and placement of the player and we simply provide the viewer with a link to the page or to the "folder" on our website where the "index.html" or equivalent is located to run the show. Anyone needing help with using Xara to do this is welcome to contact me. Other software which allows drop-in media (Dream Weaver, etc.) have similar capabilities. I like Xara because it's possible to take mp4 video output directly from PTE, drop it in and in about 30 seconds have the code generated to upload to my website. It's really easy and very fast. Best regards, Lin

Thanks Robert, Definitely video is becoming more prevalent and important in our photographic lives. It's fun trying to find new ways of creating realistic effects which can be used to tell a story. Anytime, If I can help - I'm available. Best regards, Lin

Hi Davy, Thanks! I guess the idea is to try to make the "process" as invisible as possible - LOL. Best regards, Lin

I made a little short video fun show for a friend who has been conspicuous by her absence for some time due to illness and personal issues. The show has meaning only to her, but I posted it because of the technique used which demonstrates some of the potential PTE has for doing some innovative things with video. Specifically, in part of the show I'm running two videos simultaneously, one inside a mask running over the other. Both videos are synchronized in terms of size and placement with special effects created in other software on each. The image which was chosen for the two videos is running in slide one and slide two (there are only two slides) is not one of my photos, but had the proper significance and meaning for the recipient. I "could" have manipulated it to improve the effect, but chose to leave it as the photographer had shot it. The rising vapor and rain are effects I added and are contained in separate videos. In all there are three videos running on a single slide plus a single still, some text, etc., and a single video on slide two. I though it might give some of our readers ideas to create other shows using some of the neat features of PTE's video. The "audio" track was treated as Igor explained by muting it then adding the video as an audio track. It syncs perfectly. The entire assembly was then output as a 1280x720 MP4. Interestingly, the video output by PTE using the MP4 defaults was only 53 meg while the executable was 81 meg. I only posted the video version because it's very clean and equal on all my systems to the executable version. http://www.lin-evans...yzeenhermp4.zip (zipped mp4 of about 53.5 meg download size) Lin

Hi John, If you know in advance which program(s) you wish to run, you can assign any to either a visible or invisible button or other object. Simply do all the programming on one slide then copy and paste the button(s) to each slide in a known position. You can assign an "action" on mouse click to these buttons or objects to run any program on your system. When that program is closed, PTE will return to the point in the slideshow where is was when you clicked on the area where the invisible button or object (rectangle, frame, etc.) is located. You "could," for example, assign an invisible button at all four corners of your images then say click the upper right to run Powerpoint, the lower right to run Word, the upper left to run Audacity, the lower left to run Media Player, etc. This is done by using the "Common Tab" in the Objects and Animations Screen "Action on Mouse Click." Choose "Run Application or Open File." Of course you can only do this from an executable slideshow and not from a video.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Violet, So, make a tiny PTE show with only a couple images which "desaturate" and post a link to the show AND to the images which desaturate in PTE as separate jpgs and maybe we can get to the bottom of the problem you are seeing... Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, Maybe here is where a verbal explanation can help. Since you have the ability with PTE to "start" and "stop" a video at any desired time (as David shows), you don't need to jump through hoops to do what you want to achieve. Just set the "stop time" for the video where you want to insert your first still image(s) then set the "start time" for the same video where you want to proceed, etc., such as the "stop" time for the first instance so it will continue as desired. No need to chop up your video in an editor.... You just drop the same video into the slidelist (multiple times) at the position you want it to begin and for that instance, use the "start time" of zero (assuming you want to start the video at its beginning). Then set the stop time where you want to "pause" the video and continue with your slides. Then drop the video in again where you want it to "resume" and use the "start time" identical to the "stop time" in the first instance. There is no overhead penalty for dropping the same video in multiple times and you can decide where in the video you want to start and stop by simply changing these times. You can "observe" the timing on the video in the mini-player and just write down the various "stop" times. In all, it's pretty straight-forward when you use the features available. Best regards, Lin

Hey Davy, "VERY" creative and I love it !!! Excellent animation and just the right amount in the right places! Best regards, Lin

Hi Bert, It's good to know the new graphical engine is working well on larger displays. I've got to get an HD sized monitor. My old CRT is limited to 1600x1200. I had to sell my super high nine megapixel monitor when we lost the ranch and I haven't bought a high res monitor since. The little stuffed fox is 2640 pixels tall by 1760 pixels wide. I suspect the "ripple" is from the very high sharpness which I probably should de-tune a bit for that image... Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, The new graphical engine seems to do a great job - most of the images were about 2640x1760 to allow for the zoom... Best regards, Lin

Excellent presentation Barry - lots of drama in those beautiful clouds... Fine photography and loved the blends on transitions... Best regards, Lin

A test of image quality with new graphical engine and of web safe executable function..... http://www.lin-evans.org/sevenfive/fineart4.zip (about 36 meg zipped file containing PTE exe and data file) Lin

Hi Igor, I already see a big improvement in the handling of text zoom. It's "much" smoother - I just compiled an older show which had text zoom in the beginning and the improvement is quite evident - thanks Igor !! Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, One thing you might add ... Since many videos, especially those downloaded from places like Youtube have long file names that may be difficult to remember, it is always possible to "see" a list of videos with a particular extension (.mov, .flv, .avi, etc.) by using the old "DOS" trick of "wild card" by typing a "star" or "asterisk" followed by a file extension. Example: To see all files with the extension .flv just type: *.flv into the file name then press the ENTER keyboard key. Doing this will result in seeing all the files in the folder with the extension .flv. Likewise, *.mov will result in all files with the extension .mov being displayed, etc. This way it's not necessary for the user to actually remember the exact file name, but they can choose it from the list. Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, PTE 7.x doesn't allow nested Mask Containers, but you may have multiple "Masks" within a single Mask Container, which I "think" is what Jose's question is about.... Best regards, Lin

Eric, It couldn't be easier. 1. You set the video in Objects and Animations screen Properties Tab to "mute audio." 2. Go to Project Option, Music Tab 3. Type in the file name of the video. If you can't remember the name, at least remember the extension. Navigate to the folder where your video resides. You can then type *.flv in the file name for example and see all the .flv files there You could type *.mov and see all the .mov files, etc. 4. Once you have the video name in the Music Track then click the waveform and do with it as you would with any music or sound track. You can also click the "Customize" tab and use any of the properties as you would with any music.... How could you possibly have issues with the above? How could it be any easier? Lin

Hi David, Perhaps there is lots of interest, but not a lot of "comment" because Igor explained it pretty succinctly. It indeed does provide a perfect "work-around" and perhaps in 7.5 can be "formalized" to auto mute, find the video without the user having to remember all the "specifics" of the name and bring up the waveform for audio control of video. Best regards, Lin

Hi Charlie, I made the zip backup with PTE so all images "should" be there - tell me which are reported missing and I'll try to be sure they are all included... I just extracted the file into a new folder and all the images are there. Red, Blue and Green circle - that's all in this sample. It's not an example of the complete "olympic" rings - just a sample to show you how to use masking to do the interlock.... Best regards, Lin