Lin Evans

Nice job Noel! Barry will recognize some of his music too! You did an excellent job both with the presentation and with the photography. It's difficult to get good lighting without lots of shadows in the gallery and you captured the subject very well indeed. Keep up the good work! Best regards, Lin

Hi Jerry, Actually there is no "intermediate" file created, only an MP4 which is then automatically selected and uploaded to Youtube (or Vimeo). If your new MP4 created manually is considerably larger than the other, it's most likely because of the file size or because of a different option in terms of file dimension chosen for the creation. The MP4 which is uploaded to Youtube or Vimeo is stored on your hard disk as well as uploaded to one of these two sites where it is converted by their software to Flash FLV format. I'm not certain why your system isn't creating the MP4 file - I'm sure technical support will be able to help with that, but I suggested doing it manually as a work-around in order to get the job done. Again, the sise of the MP4 created will depend on these factors: 1. Whether you choose Standard or HD high quality 2. The number of slides in your show and their respective pixel dimensions. 3. The dimensions you choose (if you create custom) for the MP4 Best regards, Lin

Hi Aleana, Nice to have you aboard and posting to the forums!! We hope to hear more from you on technical issues! Welcome aboard!! Lin

Hi Jose, I'm not familiar with DAP so am looking into it. I'm not certain about how it works - how it's possible to really accelerate the downloads beyond the limits of the connection and the server. I'll get back on this as soon as I know more about it. My gut feeling is that these "accelerator" type programs don't really work but I could be very wrong about this because I really don't know exactly how they do what they claim to do. I was able to find this mini-review and partial explanation. Nothing I have seen leads me to believe that there is anything "illegal" or "forbidden" about using it, it appears to just split large files into smaller pieces and seek out multiple sources and the best "connection" speeds - at least that's what I gather from first read..... http://www.download.com/Download-Accelerat...4-10037157.html Best regards, Lin

Hi Jerry, Try uploading manually and see if you get the same issue. Also, can you find and play the MP4 locally on your hard disk? I've uploaded a number of Youtube files from 5.6 without problems so the first thing is to determine if the MP4 was created at all. If you've not done this before, just log on to Youtube, click the "Upload" then navigate to the MP4 file on your hard disk and select it and click "open." Lin

Apparently there is an issue with Classic Home Cinema player and 1200x1600 MP4 h.264 files. The player cuts off the bottom inch or so. It also shows a "wrinkle" (distortion) in the bottom of 1024xi768 pixel MP4's. These problems are not seen with my Kantaris Player (based on VLC Media Player code) so my assumption is that at least my Classic Home Cinema 1.2.908.0 is not playing these larger files correctly.... Lin

Hi Igor, 1600x1200 MP4 not working right in Classic Home Cinema - It appears 5.6 is creating the file correctly because it runs properly on Kantaris Media Player, but Classic Home Cinema 1.2.908.0 cuts off the bottom of the file and distorts the bottom at 1024x768. Lin

Hi Stu, A quote from that page: Looks like this card may not have sufficient power to handle the 1600x1200 video smoothly. Best regards, Lin ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 is part of the lower middle class. The performance can be compared with an elder X600, but technically it is a X1300, which is scarcely 100 Mhz higher clocked. For not very demanding DirectX 9 games the card is sufficient. Because of the AVIVO video technology the card can help the CPU decode MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9 and VC-1 video formats.

Hi Ralph, Yes, light is the "secret" to many of the aspects of photography. Early morning light has its distinct charms. When light is still beneath the horizon there are almost no shadows which gives a totally different "feel" from the long shadows of evening light or the harsh shadows of mid-day. The sky can act as a huge "soft box" to flatten and disperse light. On the pano you will notice that the only significant shadows are high on the rocks where direct morning light has reached by virtue of the height. On the down side, early morning just before sunrise calls for higher ISO or longer exposures so rock steady tripod is significant in getting decent results. Best regards, Lin

Beautiful in every respect - thanks! Lin

Hi Stu, Thanks! Excellent idea. As soon as we get enough responses I'll try to chart them and see where we are on this. Unfortunately, the chart doesn't include Mary's X14 but judging from the X13, X13 Pro and X15, series it's probably between 8 and 12.8 GB/s. This is decent for a notebook computer but considerably below even the old Radeon 9800 Pro 128 meg which has a transfer rate of 21.76. The transfer rate of the nVidia 8600GT is listed at 22.4 GB/s and the 8800GT at 57.6 GB/s. So "if" it's a transfer rate issue, or if this is a major component, since even my 8600 GT card has "some" minor stepping at times while my 8800GT is as smooth as silk, we can expect that Mary would experience the stepping issue with this size MP4 or Flash h.264. Best regards, Lin

Thanks Mary, That's another "slightly" jerky for 256 meg RAM video cards.... Hopefully we will soon have some definitive answers. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, O.K., yes I did get that one, I thought you were talking about a new file, sorry. No question is ever silly, only perhaps silly answers - LOL. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, There are so many factors which influence download speed possibilities that it's usually impossible to say with any certainty what you might get from a given server. First you might want to test your own system to see what optimal download speed is possible. If you follow the link below you "may" be able to find out but I can't be certain. There are many sites on the web which have download speed testing, but here in the states I get the highest readings from this one. Click on "Speed Test" and try all four of the servers to get a baseline. Because you are across the pond, you "may" not get as good a download and upload as you do from local servers, but you can establish some baseline for downloads AND uploads which might help determine if it's at all possible to achieve the speeds you want from any server. http://whatismyip.com/ On my own system I have seen download speeds as low as 50 kbps to as high as 6000 kbps so conditions over the web, the number of different systems involved and so on greatly influence the possibility of download or upload speeds. Upload speeds will always be considerably slower. I find that on my own server at "1 and 1" (my host) I get pretty consistently about 250 kbps on downloads with my radio broadband. It's rare for me to get super high speeds with any consistency, but I do better with Youtube, etc., than with most so they apparently have a pretty optimized system with fewer intermediate links. If you go to a command prompt and ping a URL you can see how many different locations the signal must travel to get to that URL. In case you haven't done this before, go to your system prompt then type (omit the quotations) "ping -a" followed by the URL (you can omit the http://www.) then press Enter. So to ping Youtube you would type (again omit quotations) ping -a youtube.com Doing this will show you the response from each intermediate destination and the time in milliseconds. Of course the longer (larger the number) the less optimal that link. You can get the actual route and times by: "tracert youtube.com" then press Enter. Omit the quotations and substitute your destination URL Just type "ping" followed by Enter to get various syntax... Frankly, I doubt if you will be able to find a host which could guarantee the high download speed you are looking for. The issue is that even if it is extremely fast for you, your viewers may not enjoy the same download speeds depending on their geographical location. Here's another link to get all information on "ping" and how it can help find number and types of intermediate circuits to get to location: http://www.ping127001.com/pingpage.htm Best regards, Lin

Hi Mary, Would you mind running dxdiag and reporting tha amount of video RAM it shows? I did a search on the ATI site and thought they have a comprehensive list of specifications for the X1400 they do not specify the amount of video RAM. What we need to discover is whether the difference in 250 meg and 500 meg may mean the difference in smooth fades and some animations and "stepped" appearance or whether it's due to some other factor. Best regards, Lin

First, these instructions will be eventually placed in the tutorials section in a more comprehensive manner, but a quick "How To" for those who want to try JPD's mask transitions. First download the zipped templates which are linked near the end of JPD's exe file. Use the right arrow to quick forward to get to the end of the exe demo then use the spacebar to pause while you click on the download link for the templates. Different templates are found in the two different exe files. 1. Create a folder and extract all zipped files in the template into this folder. Open PTE 5.6 and navigate to this folder and open the PTE file. 2. Choose a "Pair" - that is two adjacent images - you don't need the red image between. Hold down the CTRL key and left click the mouse on each of the adjacent two images which have the transition you wish between two slides. Right click on one after it has been selected and copy the two files to the clipboard. 3. Do not exit JPD's template but rather click on File, Open and either open a new file or open the one you wish to use JPD's mask transition on and "Paste" the two copied files into the slide list. 4. Click on the first of the two images to select it then go to Objects and Animations. You will see in the Objects and Animations list a Mask Container (called Conteneur de masque in French) and above this you will see four files each beginning with "Cadre." They are Cadre droit, Cadre gauche, etc. You may delete these unless you want to maintain the red background. These are four small files which provide the red masking for top and sides of the image. If you erase them you will have black above and beside your image. 5. Replace the slide inside the mask container (a number) with your first slide (the slide you want to use to make the transition to your second slide). Just delete JPD's numbered slide, click on the "Conteneur de masque" to select it and import your slide then move it down into the same position previously occupied by JPD's slide. 6. Replace the numbered slide below the mask container with your second slide - the one you want to transition to. 7. Go to slide two (the next slide). You can delete the "rectangle" unless you decided to keep the red background. Now delete the numbered slide and replace it with your own second slide. That's it. Now you will have JPD's mask transition between your own two slides. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, Thanks very much for your excellent report and explanations. I agree, it could well be that 512 meg GPU RAM may be necessary to play the 1600x1200 youtube video at HD. I'm not certain yet what role, if any, system memory may play in the issue. Hopefully, more forum members will try this file and report back on the results. Yes, Windows XP can only use 3326 meg of RAM as reported by dxdiag. Since it comes in even increments of one or gigabyte modules I chose four to get the most out of the system. I didn't get the slideshow you sent - could you send it again please? Best regards, Lin

Did you try different music? If so, you may try reinstalling PTE 5.6. If not try a different MP3 and see if you get the same results. Lin

Hi Ian, The first think I would do is check the music file itself with another player and see if it plays normally. Be sure it is in mp3 format. Normally, if the audio file is good, it will play with no problems by adding it as you have done. I would then suspect the file itself - maybe try another as a test. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Let me address only your first question - the sound recorder I can't comment on. It's not possible to alter a slideshow after it has already been saved as a new executable file. You need to make the changes using PicturesToExe to the PTE file then save your changes and export to an executable file. Best regards, Lin

Hi Mike, You must download JPD's "templates" to use the masks. As Ken and Dave said, you can then use Hawk's method of copy/paste to paste the particular effect in your own show. After pasting the effect with JPD's image you then substitute your own image which applies the effects to a different set of images. Hawk's method consists of opening the original file, which in this case would be JPD's template. You then copy from the slide list and without closing JPD's file, use "File Open" to open your own show. Then "Paste" the file which now resides on the clipboard into your show in the slide list. Next use the PTE 5.6 "change Image File" feature to substitute your own image for JPD's image. I haven't tested this with JPD's templates so you may then have to also substitute your own images in the objects list, or not. Perhaps someone who has tested the templates can comment here. Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, I think Pedro means he didn't care why it didn't show up. It didn't show up for me either after I posted it so I edited the original and reinserted the link. I can't understand why I couldn't find JPD's original post either, it doesn't show up in a web search so, I had to search for my replies and I found the link to his pano there. Sometimes the forum software does things which are confusing, but I've learned to accept that and work around it. Best regards, Lin

Hi Pedro, I see it, I can't understand why you don't. It's on the original reply. Best regards, Lin

Hi Pedro, I can't find the original post, but I did find my reply to JPD and a link to his pano. Click on the link below then scroll down three threads and click on the word "Here" in the quote. http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....amp;#entry60808 You don't want to make a conventional 360 pano but rather 360 degrees of straight line beginning to end with the last frame equivalent to the first frame. So you have an extremely wide pano composed of the individual frames beginning with some particular subject and after multiple overlapping stitched frames ending with the same subject. You then insert this very wide stitched straight pano in PTE and scroll from left to right. Best regards, Lin