Lin Evans

Hey Colin, For you! The white dwarf seen near Saturn in the field of view vaporizes and sends a pulse across the universe which forces the flaming comet into the Earth (this happens out of sight). Other celestial bodies explode and one huge explosion takes out the moon and sends pieces of moon and other debris flying toward Earth.... Of course complete with sound effects even though there would be no sound for an observer in space (he/she wouldn't last long without warp speed and Kirk at the helm to escape the destruction),,,, http://www.lin-evans.org/colin/forcolin.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Colin, Let me think about how that might work - maybe I'll come up with something later today.... LOL Lin

Fiery comet - it's been close to the sun - hey it can in my imagination - LOL. About two comets a month collide with the sun. As they approach, they "melt" and if large enough, the explosion is quite a spectacular event.... http://www.lin-evans...comet/comet.zip (PC about 7 meg) http://www.lin-evans...et/cometmac.zip (MacIntosh Native Executable - about 7 meg) http://www.lin-evans...comet/comet.htm (video for 1024x768 resolution display) http://www.lin-evans...t1280/comet.htm (video for 1280x720 resolution display) EXPANDED 11/14/11 Here's the story - the white dwarf seen left and above Saturn implodes (vaporizes) and the pulse which resulted takes out neighboring celestial bodies and forces the flaming comet into Earth (all off screen). Explosions result destroying the moon and sending projectile pieces of asteroid size hurtling toward Earth... end of story - HA! Colin wanted an explosion at the end, so I expanded the original show and the updated version can be seen here: http://www.lin-evans...er/disaster.htm (Video for 1280x720 resolution monitor or greater) http://www.lin-evans...24/disaster.htm (video for 1024x768 resolution display http://www.lin-evans...in/forcolin.zip (Windows zipped exe version - about 17 meg) Lin

I was definitely wrong about the availability of software to convert EXE to video. That error message makes me think that the converter I linked to is designed to convert SWF EXE to AVI. Unfortunately, there are several "EXE" formats floating around. There are converters which convert Flash SWF and perhaps Flash FLV files into an executable format so that users don't have to have a Flash player in order to see them. From the error message it would appear that this converter is one designed to extract the contained AVI stream from the EXE file rather than convert a pure executable format into a video file. Sorry for pointing you to an incorrect product. I'll see if I can find anything suitable but you might do an extensive Google search but be sure to read carefully because it appears that most of these EXE to Video converters are simply reversing an SWF to EXE conversion. Later.... After a pretty extensive search, I can't find anything suitable either. It seems you may be back to your original idea of screen capture. I can help a little here because I have used "most" of the popular screen capture tools. Unfortunately, most of these are not designed to capture really good quality with fast frame rate, but designed for tasks such as education - teaching software and capturing cursor motion and static screens, etc. Here's a link to one which "might" offer some promise. You can download a free trial and try it.... http://www.solveigmm...CFZIDQAodxkqdIg Best regards, Lin

You definitely do not want to use a screen capture program, the quality will be terrible. There are numerous software tools that can do this - some of them are free. Here's one link - Google for others.... This will convert to an AVI which you can then load into PTE and export as an MP4.... http://www.freewr.co...to-avi&lid=2767 Best regards, Lin

Beautiful work and beautiful photos Andrew - First class in every way. Best regards, Lin

Thanks Ray - Had to have a little "Frosty The Snowman" on TV in case kids are watching - LOL. I still have a few Christmas decorations to put on maybe the wall above the fireplace and the hearth, but it's the essence of a Christmas Card... Good to hear that it worked well on the Mac. I sent a different show to a friend who has the latest Lion OS and he seemed to have some problems getting it to run the first time he tried, but maybe it was his understanding - he's a new Mac user. Best regards, Lin

I believe the limit is two gigabytes. Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, The lack of RAW in Canon's newer bridge cameras is an issue, but as you say the picture quality is excellent. There is a "fix" for your problems of not being able to see very well with the EVF viewfinder. I have a friend who makes an excellent little device called the Xtend-a-View which attaches via velcro (easiest way) to the back of your camera and allows you to use the LCD just as you would a regular viewfinder. That is you put your eye right up to the "viewfinder" and you see the LCD, in focus and magnified 2X. It works perfectly in any light whether bright sunlight behind you or in total darkness. Here's a link to his website. His name is Phil Williams and his company is "Photosolve". Look at the "Xtend-a-View" - it may be all you need to get lots better and easier use from the SX-30 IS. I've been using the Xtend-a-View (I have multiple models) for many years (over 10) now and even use it underwater with my little Olympus UW housing. http://www.photosolve.com Best regards, Lin

Hi David, Nice Job! You might want to add a bit and explain that "trimming" while converting results in a "real" trim with the resulting AVI actually different from the original input file. Best regards, Lin

Would appreciate if any Mac users could play this and let me know the results - smoothness, etc. http://www.lin-evans...xmascardmac.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Grüße I agree. Best regards, Lin

Hi Howard, Moving tribute - very well presented... As both a brother (I ride an FXDWG) and a veteran of two combat tours - I fully appreciate and understand.... Best regards, Lin

This might work for very elementary questions (obviously better than nothing), but the online translations are pretty "vanilla" at best and sometimes downright comical where technical questions are concerned. I suspect most internet users in all countries are pretty much aware of Google Translate, BabbleFish, etc. Best regards, Lin

As a convenience, it might be useful, but users would have to be informed up-front and in their own language that support would not be guaranteed and that translating into English and posting on the regular forum would be necessary to insure a response. There would be necessarily a translation of the caveat into a "Read Me First" pinned instruction. As long as users didn't get upset when and if their questions were not answered, it would be perhaps helpful. But we could not expect Igor to monitor the threads like he does the regular forum. This is always an issue for software sold internationally. PTE has been very good with interface translations and even with multi-language user guide publication - but the language barriers will always be problematic I think. Best regards, Lin

I had always assumed that once a PTE file was converted from EXE to "video" that a video frame was pretty much a video frame regardless of content. That is, I assumed that if a video card could smoothly play "video" such as from a DVD, that it would play any animations as easily as it would a simple slide because animations are, in video terms, simply the result of sequential different frames. So does it take more video clout to play frame a or frame b? Apparently there are differences depending on the frame content. Obviously there are difference depending on the number of pixels constituting the frame, but logic has always told me that as long as the pixel count is the same, one frame is just like another to video. It would seem that this is not so.... This turns out to apparently not be true. In a recent experiment "Dreams" published on the "Slideshows" forum, I discovered that adding a few masks each containing identical png animations greatly taxed both the executable presentation "AND" to a lesser degree, the video presentation. Surprisingly, at least to me, on my older system with an 8086GT nVidia card, the video portion of animations with the masks played smoothly, while the main HD (1280x720) video portion was compromised. In later testing with the compromised video card and web player, both the snow and flames were jerky. So a word to the wise - if you make a complex show mixing animated still frames "and" video, you might find that viewers with less than optimal video cards may have issues with smoothness.... I must do some more testing by playing the older version on my older system (same resolution different frame content) and see what happens. After more testing, it gets even more confusing.... I put both the "old" and "enhanced" versions on a thumb drive and played them on my old system with Kantaris Media Player. They were identical in smoothness, etc. I played the "web version" with both my development system (fairly powerful video card) and my old system (weaker video card) and even after allowing 100% buffering, the old system still stuttered on the flames animation with the enhanced video while the development system played it perfectly smoothly. This now brings the "player" into the equation. There is an approximately 20 meg difference in the MP4 file size. This leads me to video "compression" because the actual image sizes per frame in pixels are identical. So where the problem appears to lie is in the time it takes the "player" and system to decompress the individual files. Apparently this goes faster with the more powerful video card and hence the smoother play on the web player version. So the "player" can make a significant difference especially with a compromised video card! Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, Good to know. If you read my response to Colin, you will discover what I learned about the video card's functioning even with the show converted to video. Best regards, Lin

Hi Colin, Thanks - I learned something today about the involvement of "video cards" in an animated video. On my development system which has a fairly powerful video card (nVidia 8088 GT) everything on exe and the video is smooth. On my older system with a somewhat limited video card (nVidia 8086GT) the exe plays with smooth animated snow, but with very jerky fire motion. On the video, the snow is smooth as well, but the fire is not. It's "better" than on the executable, but still not nearly as smooth as it "should" appear. The difference tells me that the video card must be optimal to mix video and still animations in the same frame even when everything is converted to video. The flames and general background are a 1280x720 video and the snow animations for both the snowglobe and snow through the windows is done as an overlay with animated stills via PNG and masking. So the less powerful video card is struggling to handle the HD video "and" still animations together. The 8086 card handles "normal" video such as DVD's quite well, but struggles with this video comprised of a combination of animated still and HD video. To get your video to run uninterrupted, start it then immediately hit the pause. Let the "gas gage" advance about a third of the way across then click on "play" and it "should" play through without interruption. Best regards, Lin

Hi Grüße, But PTE is not an audio or video "editor;" rather it's a presentation slideshow tool. You have now multiple tracks, an envelope for each to control volume at any keyframe point, the ability to offset, begin audio at any point and end audio at any point on any track. Where does one "stop" with audio visual tools? What if you have twelve simultaneous audio tracks - how would you see them all simultaneously with a display such as the one in your attachment? If the need is for sophisticated audio editing, free tools such as Audacity work very well. The phrase "jack of all trades, master of none" comes to mind. We can always have improvements in every aspect of a tool, but PTE does quite well as it is being the favored tool in the majority of the world of AV competition. Yes there will be improvements in both audio and video features in future versions, but the fact that PTE is used very successfully by award winning AV competitors means that it works quite well even now. Best regards, Lin

It's questionable, in my opinion, whether this could be done and be effective. First, who is going to monitor and translate? Igor has his hands full with development and translating to and from English. The French have solved this by having their own French speaking PTE forum which works quite well. If we have multiple languages, where do we stop? We have members who speak Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Farsi, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, French, etc. Isn't it more effective to have one language rather than the confusion which would most likely result from trying to understand the nuances of multiple languages? The strength of the forum and a major plus for PTE, in my opinion, is that forum members help each other with subtle issues which are difficult enough to explain in one language. Someone who speaks both English and one of the other languages would have to volunteer to translate. Do we have volunteers who are willing to attend to that every day 24/7?? It's unreasonable, I believe, to ask Igor to be the only one who answers questions and to try to translate to and from multiple languages. As it is now, when a member has difficulty with English, most of us try very hard to phrase the answers in terms which are not culturally or linguistically challenged. Only if we can elicit the full cooperation of multilingual members could this be done effectively, in my opinion. The international language of "business" has become English. That may change in years to come, but right now it's done to maximize efficiency. It's been found that having one language, whatever that language happens to be, greatly simplifies transactions. Just my thoughts..... Best regards, Lin

LOL - Put your glasses on! Actually, the snow is falling inside the snowglobe and the moon is rising, but because it's scaled proportional to reality, the snow is difficult to see inside the globe. Perhaps I should make giant snowflakes inside the globe - it's a thought..... Just for you, I've added snow outside the windows - download the exe again... So - I made the snowflakes a good deal larger inside the globe .... Let me know what you think... The modified video is uploading, but being over 100 meg, it's taking a while - LOL... Finally uploaded - the additional material makes it necessary to start then stop the video for a bit to allow some preload depending on the speed of the broadband. I need about an inch and a half of "gas gage" before starting to have uninterrupted play on my DSL. It's one of the problems with doing animation on video. The exe plays fine for me, but "could" be a bit jerky for some with marginal video cards.... Best regards, Lin \

Which version of PTE are you using? The processing of the audio tracks isn't bad in 7.0, actually it's quite versatile... Best regards, Lin

http://www.lin-evans.org/dreams/dreams.zip (21 meg) http://www.lin-evans.org/dreams/dreams.htm Lin

Probably 720x480, Mary, because you are in Arizona (NTSC) Best regards, Lin

Excellent Colin! Well done in every way! Best regards, Lin