Lin Evans

Hi Al, The "Duration" is how long you want the video to run. If you set the offset to 30 seconds this tells the video to wait 30 seconds after the beginning of the slideshow to begin, then with the duration of 2 seconds it "should" begin to play at 30 seconds and play for 2 seconds. Of course this could also depend on the "load time" of the individual video. Unlike a single slide, video has some buffering so timing of start is not always instantaneous depending on individual video type, size and hardware being used to play it.. I would have to look at your PTE file, but I'll bet we can make it work perfectly. Best regards, Lin

Hi Al, Click on the video in the Objects List then go to the "Properties" tab. In the "offset" place the length of time you want before the video clip begins. Contrary to normal intuitive thought, the "Start Time" indicates how far into the video run time you want it to begin while the "Offset" is how far from the beginning of the slide time you want the video to start. If you don't want the video to show a "black rectangle" while waiting for the offset time, use the opacity and keframes to make it invisible until the offset time. Use one keyframe with zero opacity followed by a second with zero opacity until just before you want it to appear - then one with 100% opacity at the offset time. Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, Someone really wants to get rid of this one!! LOL. Check the Amazon prices.... Unreal. Best regards, Lin

Hi Janet, The road is long, with many a winding turn. That leads us to where? Who knows where? But, your artistic journey and the many and varied paths and changes have allowed you to produce the beautiful end result. Most of us will never understand the myriad changes and directions taken, but we can all appreciated the fine artistic end product! Welcome to the PTE forum and congratulations on a very fine presentation! Best regards, Lin

Hi Al, I think that's a great choice in a versatile little camera. I have a 1V myself which I use with the 10-30, 30-110 and with the FT1 adapter with the 55-300. It's quite a wonderful little camera. My big DSLR's hardly get any attention any more. My D7000 is getting jealous!. I especially love the 400 fps video mode for getting slow motion video. I just wish Nikon had chosen a 640x480 mode for it like Casio did. Interesting side note: I almost bought a Casio EX-F1 (six megapixel) when they came out. I now wish I had bought 10 of them! The original price was $995 and if you can find a used one today for $2500 it's a bargain. On Amazon, the prices run from about $2500 to as much a $4200.. They have become a "cult" item. LOL. The ability to snap a still and use it with the video for dramatic effect is really a great feature in the Nikon 1J and 1V. The video thing actually grows on one, doesn't it? I"m finding that there are lots of uses for video which can add to the total AV experience. It definitely adds a dimension which is missing in totally still images. I'm looking forward to seeing some of your work with the new Nikon! Best regards, Lin

Hi sg, The results are rather "excellent" aren't they? I loved the production and the play on words "brush with" - LOL. Nice sattire! Best regards, Lin

Hey Al, Welcome back!!! We've missed you here. I agree - it's an amazing accomplishment and the possibilities are limitless with PTE today. We will always nit pick and complain about little things which could be tweaked to suit our individual preferences and work flow, but Igor and the development team have produced an amazing product which is unlike anything else I'm aware of on the international market. It lets the user to be as creative as their individual talents allow and provides a way for us all to grow and refine our AV productions. Best regards, Lin

Hi SG, About the best graphics card which doesn't require power from the power supply separately (you probably can't use one which does with you current power supply) is the Radeon HD 7750. This card is many times more powerful than the one you have and ranks about 67 from the top with a G3D rating of 1734. Although the manufacturer "recommends" a 400 watt power supply for this card, thousands of users have had perfect results with a 300 watt power supply. The vast majority of powerful video cards require separate power from the power supply. When I installed my 8800 GT card (not nearly as powerful as the HD7750) I had to shoehorn a 750 watt power supply into my Dell Inspiron 530 case. Had the HD7750 been available at that time, that's the card I would have chosen. The G3D rating on my card is less than 1000 so not nearly as powerful as the HD7750. The average cost for this card is about $110.00 U.S.D. Best regards, Lin

http://www.lin-evans.org/demo/norwegianwood.zip (about 7 meg) Windows zipped exe http://www.lin-evans.org/demo/norwegianwoodmac (about 7 meg) Native Mac Exe Thanks to Marcel for creating the effects and Tom for asking for clarification - carried a little further for fun.... Lin

Hi Marcel, Thank you so much for the great idea and explanation! It's a wonderful effect! Best regards, Lin

Thanks Mick, This one definitely is easier when "seen" than when described verbally... Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, It was really nice of Marcel to figure this out. I'm thinking now how it might look if I did something similar using 3D transforms. Or what about a "cube" as the main object then apply the same plus derivatives in 3D? Hmmmm...... could get interesting.... Here - this will ring bells from the past - mess with your mind - LOL: http://www.lin-evans...perimentmac.zip Native Mac (about 7 meg) http://www.lin-evans...lexperiment.zip (about 7 meg) Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, There "is" another way to approach the "sound in video clip" issue especially if the sound doesn't have to be precisely synchronized to the video. There is great audio versatility for PTE's audio tracks including fade-in, fade-out, total envelope control, stop, start, delay, offset, etc., but these fine audio controls are not yet part of the video clip audio track. So, how can we use these great features for our video clip audio? If we "mute" the audio track in the video (that can easily be done in PTE) then if we extract the audio track from the video as an MP3 (very easy to do with freeware) then we can insert the mp3 as an audio track and perform all the above functions on it. There are tutorials on how to do this in my tutorial set. The bottom line is that unless you have a vocalist singing with a closeup of their mouth moving, most video clip audio will run perfectly well after being extracted from the video clip and inserted in the sound track of PTE as an MP3 audio. Once there, all the powerful audio features of PTE can easily be applied. For example, you can stop the audio for the video clip, lower the volume, fade it in or out, start it precisely where you stopped it, etc. I use Xmedia Recode to extract audio tracks from many of my videos and then reinsert the audio as an mp3. Xaver told me about Xmedia Recode and I've found that I can even extract audio from a video clip and reinsert it as an MP3 without affecting the synchronization at all in many cases. Just another thing to think about if you need greater versatility without having to alter the audio in your favorite video editor. Best regards, Lin

I will take this notice down in a few days.... A new tutorial in AVI and PC and Mac executable formats available to do the spiral rotate, zoom effect developed by Marcel from the French PTE forum. Some additional method of easy coding for zooming back in is described.... See thread here: http://www.picturest...ing-pte-effect/ Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, I don't think I explained my concern very well..... It's the problem of accidentally mixing up data files of the same names with their executable drivers. Keeping a single exe file of a particular name in a folder is insured by Windows, it won't let you have duplicates in a folder, but it would be very easy to "delete" a file name such as abc.dat and then say - "I accidentally deleted that file." Then search for it and find another file called abc.dat in another folder then copy it to the folder it was deleted from. But what if the one which was "found" was a duplicate "name" for a data file which "belongs" with a different executable driver. So it then wouldn't work and the user would have no idea why….. Maybe this will explain my concern better... Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, One question comes to mind. What about duplicate names for the digitally signed exe portion? If the user, for example, creates a slideshow called ABC.exe the digitally signed exe driver looks for a data file called abc. But what if there are multiple data files called "abc" on the hard disk in different folders and the exe driver is loaded into these other folders. Will it then try to run these alternative data files or is there something which ties the exe file to only a single data file with the name "abc"? If the digitally signed exe driver file is tied somehow to a "specific" data file, how will the user know which "abc.exe" driver file goes with which abc data file? It seems this "might" become confusing. As it is, it's not possible to have the duplicate named exe files in a single folder, but how to keep track of this when it might be possible to have multiple files with identical names but requiring different data files to work? If they were accidentally separated then would that not create difficulties? Best regards, Lin

Hey Eric, So how the heck do you "sleep" in the FIAT (Fix it Again Ted) - LOL. Actually, a really nice looking ride but now you will have to pay the Bed and Breakfast fees when you travel. It looks like there is plenty of room for all the camera gear. Actually, you could probably put my "travel car" in there in the back seat - HA! Here's mine: Depending on whether I'm going alone or with company - either will fit in my trailer..... LOL. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, You could also use the very good and free Wnsoft product Pixbuilder Studio which works just like Photoshop for this... Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, The easiest way, I think, is to open Photoshop then open the file which you want transparency in. Get the file size by click on "Image" "Image size" then do a "select All" then "Edit, Copy" to copy it to the clipboard. Next close the file. Now click on "File" "New" and set the background content to "transparent" and the size to the identical dimensions of the file you have saved to the clipboard. Next click on "Edit" then "Paste" and you will then have your file which you want areas of to be made transparent "pasted" over a transparent background. Next use the eraser tool or selection tools to select and delete or "erase" the foreground image part you don't want. This will leave a "checkerboard" appearance which will be transparent when saved as a PNG file. The areas of the file which do not have the "checkerboard" appearance will be normally visible and the areas of the file which have the "checkerboard" appearance will be transparent revealing whatever lies on the layer beneath in PTE. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ed, PTE is a very sophisticated presentation software, but it is neither a video nor still image "editor." There are two schools of thought about slideshow presentation software and the developers of PTE as well as the majority of users of this fine product subscribe to the assumption that adjusting brightness, contrast, levels, gama and such are best done in dedicated video and still image editors rather than trying to make PTE into something it was not intended to be, which is the finest "presentation" product available. Though there are elementary adjustments possible for still images such as sharpness, opacity and the ability to change from color to monochrome, having video editing capabilities beyond manipulation of start and stop points, sound on or off, etc., are really tasks which should be done in dedicated editors rather than in presentation software. Perhaps there are some more sophisticated features planned in future versions of PTE, but the emphasis is decidedly on quality of presentation and the ability to manipulate images and video size, position, timings and mix rather than edit and "correct" errors in capture. To do sophisticated video editing is beyond the scope of presentation software just as sophisticated presentation is beyond the scope of editors. As an example, you can do myriad "editing" of still images with Photoshop, but beyond basic presentation is outside of the provenience of the Adobe product. You can also do incredible editing with a product such as Adobe Premiere, but presentation features such as possible with PTE are difficult and sometimes impossible with this fine Adobe product. Adobe expects you to purchase other dedicated product such as Aftereffects to achieve some of these goals. It's just not feasible to do "everything" in one product. My suggestion would be to use a reasonably good video editor such as Adobe Premiere Elements to get your video the way you want it, then use PTE to mix your video and stills and create your presentation. Think of PTE as you do your "camera." You don't expect to do sophisticated video editing in your capture device. You shouldn't expect to do sophisticated editing in your presentation device (PTE). You do expect to do sophisticated editing in your editor. As suggested, the freeware products can be perhaps sufficient, depending on your expectations and needs, but in reality, a good editor such as Premiere Elements will probably be in your future if video is going to be a large part of your creative direction. Best regards, Lin

Hi Charlie, Excellent mix of video, video slow motion, stills and masking!! A fine presentation demonstrating not only what can be done with PTE, but also how a show can be used to attract and keep the audience's interest - Bravo!! Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, I can answer the first part of your question... Just "uncheck" the default "create menu" and the DVD will be created without a menu. As for "looping" the thing which makes a DVD play automatically (on a computer) is the "autorun.inf" file and whether it works at all depends on the settings on the individual computer. Televisions have different provisions and I'm not certain whether or not it would be possible to "loop" a show. Some one with more experience in creating DVD's will have to address that for you. It seems to me, however, if it's a "slideshow" and it's not too long, you could just copy and paste all the slides multiple times to "repeat" it as many times as the 4.7 gig disc would hold? Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, Any editing capability for audio on video clips - such as fade-in, fade-out? Thanks, Lin

Hi Keith, Yes, that's very straight-forward to do. Give me about 10 minutes and I'll create and upload an example... Here ya go... http://www.lin-evans...nterexample.zip (zipped example) http://www.lin-evans...rexamplepte.zip (zipped pte project) O.K., this was done using the simple "text" character "E" in the "Wingdings 3" font. Just type the alphabet in lower and upper case to see the wide variety of arrows and other symbols available. No need to create your own PNG unless you just want to. The "text" arrow was originally white, but I chose "red" as the "font" color. The opacity is turned on and off by the keyframes using the "Animations" tab in the Objects and Animations screen. I just used the "sound comments" to quickly add the sound based on the timings for the flashing "arrow" and moved the arrow to the three sample places. Infinite variations are easily accomplished. Hope this is the type thing you are looking for... Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, That was my experience too - excellent playback with the XVID codec. When I was photographing that little guy, I had three of them climbing my shirt and sitting on variously my shoulder, head and nosing around in my pockets looking for treats of any kind. Two were Chipmunks and one was a Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel. Best regards, Lin