Lin Evans

Hi Steve, Thanks for the warning! Though I have been looking at them, I don't plan to buy one any time soon because I don't have a big screen 1080p television (not even digital yet) and right now can't even pay my mortgage payments, so not likely for the near future. We just took advantage of the "coupons" and picked up a couple Zenith analog/digital converters and installed them. For our non-US forum members, the US is about to go all digital on broadcast TV next month which leaves millions of people who have analog televisions and who don't have cable service hanging in the wind unless they use converter boxes to convert to digital tuners. The government has provided each household that need them two coupons each worth $40 toward the purchase of the analog/converter box. A good converter like the Zenith costs about $60 so this means it costs about $20 to continue to receive broadcast television on each older TV. Anyway, I will hopefully find someone who has a current Sony BluRay player to test user burned BluRay discs before I buy one, but by that time probably many of the forum members will already have tried it. Best regards, Lin

Abdol, Do not panic. Unless this virus writes over each and every jpg and bmp with some other code (highly unlikely) they are not gone forever, simply "erased" without going through the Windows recycle process. They can then be recovered if you do not write anything else to your drive. Files "erased" just have the first character of the file name changed and the space the file occupies allocated for writing. The actual code creating the bmp or jpg is still there. Even a format with today's Windows operating system is non-destructive. The first thing you must do is find and remove the virus code, then any good data recovery software should be able to find and recover all your jpg and bmp images. It is "very" important that you do not write to the infected drive other than to remove the infection. Best regards, Lin

Hi Abdol, I haven't a clue what is happening with your computer, but it's not coming from Wnsoft or from PTE. Nothing in the Wnsoft code has any virus and nothing in the PTE code will remove your photos or affect the operation of your registery. Run a good virus detector and see what it finds. Whatever it is, it didn't come from PicturesToExe or from Wnsoft. Best regards and good luck recovering your photos, Lin

Hi Jeff, It's a shame that your Pioneer didn't provide an input other than DV-in. I hadn't checked the specs on your particular unit when I responded. As Dave pointed out, the newer Pioneer unit (DVR-560HX-K) does have an USB connect and would allow you to use it as the burning device (as far as I can determine). I don't believe there are any available DV-in to USB adapters though it "should" be possible to make one since there are I-EEE1394 (firewire) to USB adapters available and the DV-in is a firewire device. So the bottom line is that indeed you would have to use your in-computer burner to burn a hi-def MP4 to a standard DVD blank formatted to BluRay or HD via Pinnacle or other suitable software. However, you still would not be able to play it on your Pioneer since it really isn't a HD or BluRay player. I've been looking at Blu-Ray players and so far the Sony seems to have the best price/feature set. It's available here in the states for around $200-$250 USD. I'm sure in a few months the prices will probably be down to around $150 or so and make it worth while. Best regards, Lin

Hi Kelly, Yes, there are numerous ways to do this with "any" video output which is converted to Flash, etc. There are essentially two types of "streaming". The first, which is used with commercial programming is called "server side" streaming. In this case the file remains on the server and is spooled out to the viewer via very expensive software. The second is commonly referred to as "pseudo streaming" and in this case the actual file is downloaded in the background to the client computer into a temporary folder and spooled from there to the Flash player. The user is not aware of any differences. In the case of Flash, this is called Flash FLV as opposed to Flash SWF. The primary differences between FLV and SWF are that SWF has the limitation of only allowing a maximum of about 16,000 frames per show and doesn't sync reliably with background music beyond about two minutes and doesn't allow what is known as "preload". Preload is what you referred to as buffering and this consists of a percentage of the file being downloaded before playback begins. Preload is possible with Flash FLV and the code which either shows the percentage of the file remaining before playback begins or the percentage downloaded depends on the html program by either yourself or by the specific Flash producer. The quality of Flash in terms of a still image is excellent. You will notice that in your linked example there is little or no animation except in text and almost everything is simple fade-in, fade-out. Once motion or animation is used Flash output quality drops quite a bit compared to MP4 or MPEG II played locally. PTE 5.6 allows output directly to Vimeo or to Youtube where the MP4 which is output by PTE is converted to Flash FLV. Both these support high resolution (HD) output. Your slideshows are uploaded to either Vimeo or Youtube and the code to enbed the show in your own website is provided free as a service. This is perhaps the "best" way to "easily" have the quality your saw as well as allowing the user to see the "buffering" via a "gas gage" type visual. Otherwise, you can use any of a number of commercially available Flash converters to convert PTE's output to Flash FLV. These range in cost from about $39 to upwards of $250 depending on features, etc. The one I used for several years was On2 Technologies Flix Pro. Right now I find it easier, quicker and just as convenient to use Vimeo or Youtube, but if you want to experiment, the best way is to download and install a number of different Flash converter trial software. Just which one was used for the sample you linked is difficult to say. Also whether it was server side or pseudo streaming is difficult to ascertain without searching your system for a recently downloaded temp file. If you want to see a sample of a PTE show done with Flash FLV (actually a really large PTE show with a running time of 27 minutes) here's a link to one I did a couple years ago. This one has a very simple percentage of file downloaded with 15% preload. When the percentage says 15% the show will begin. http://www.lin-evans.net/ctml/ctml.html Best regards, Lin

Hi Yaz, Yes, images are downsampled for the mini-player so resource loading is much less. If you haven't already done so, try downsampling all your images to 1024x768 or the nearest equivalent depending on your aspect ratio. Remember that jpg files expand in memory to their full 8 bit size just as if they were an 8 bit tiff file. It's file dimensions which are much more important than indicated jpg memory size. A 64 meg memory card doesn't have a lot of room for mistakes in file sizing because you may have up to or greater than 60 images per second being produced when you use animations. A two meg compressed jpg file size may expand to five meg or larger in memory and if you multiply this by sixty frame per second you can see that it may greatly exceed the capability of your 64 meg card. If you downsample to a file dimension of about 1024 x 768 then the 64 meg card "may" be able to render smooth animations. If not try 800x600. Best regards, Lin

Hi Abdol, Easter is in March or April depending on where you live and your religious affiliation - a bit early for "Happy Easter," don't you think? Russian Federation celebrates New Years Vacation January 1-5 and Orthodox Christmas January 7 - January 19 (the 12 days of Christmas). Best regards, Lin

Hi David, Here's what information I could find about this unit: ================= Remote Control The 550HX has an integrated digital (DVB-T) tuner and a 160GB hard disk drive, which will give you up to 455 hours of recording time. You can play, record and store almost every kind of media format, including DVD-R (Dual Layer) and DVD+R (Double Layer), DVD+RW and DVD-RAM. If you frequently download film content from the web, it also meets the DivX Home Theater certification standard to provide high quality playback of compressed video. You can also copy and edit footage from your digital camcorder via the DV-In. The 550HX enables a scaling option up to 1080p via HDMI. So you're guaranteed the highest viewing resolution, regardless of the source. Time can also be come less of a challenge. If you miss parts of a program or are interrupted during viewing - the system allows Time Shifting. Pause live TV, or use Chase Play - which allows you to playback the program you're recording - while you're recording it. If you use pay TV, you can plug your smart card directly into the CI slot; the benefit is that you no longer require an additional decoder box. One-touch recording makes it easy to record - but the system also has an Electronic Program Guide, which allows you to browse through the multitude of TV channels on screen - making it even easier for timer setting and recording the specific program you're looking for. And you can control it all via a straightforward remote control, which has an easy-to-understand layout, so you have quick access to the functions you need. ======================================== Only Jeff can tell us whether this unit will burn DVD's from computer output....... note the part in italics above. Either way, I'm sure Jeff has a DVD burner for his computer because he makes DVD's to play on his TV. He will still need an HD or BluRay player in order to play standard DVD media formatted in HD or BluRay and burned via whichever unit he has which is suitable. Best regards, Lin

Hi Abdol, It's difficult to understand why you are so enthused with midi? Midi is not a good format for slideshows. Midi sounds different on different systems and the only way to standardize the way it sounds is to convert it to another format like MP3. If you create a slideshow using MIDI background sound and send it to 10 different people probably three won't be able to hear the sound at all, and of the remaining seven, four will hear it differently than the others. What may sound "great" on your system could easily sound terrible on other's systems. Add this to Ken's explanation that a computer is required to play MIDI (it can't be encoded and played in a video format) and you have an orphan sound file with very little utility outside of musicians using synthesizers. Yes, the file size is tiny, but this doesn't mean it's satisfactory for general distribution. By converting midi to MP3 the sound will be uniform, it can be encoded on video output and played by almost everyone. The "only" downside to this is that if you want to be able to directly encode and decode midi files you need to use an older version of PTE such as version 5.5. Best regards, Lin

That really can't be done with PTE. There is no provision for directly altering that perspective via Objects and Animations. It is possible to alter the image in terms of distortion on the X or Y axis but not possible to hold "part" of the rectangle in the original perspective while altering the opposite which is what you must do for this effect. Perhaps in a later 3D version this will be possible. It is available as a "transition" but not as an object manipulation. Best regards, Liln

Happy Holidays Igor - enjoy the time off - PTE will be fine!!! Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, He can use his Pioneer burner/player to burn 1040P MP4's to standard DVD media via the Pinnacle authoring software. This software formats standard DVD media as if it were HD media or BluRay media (your choice via the Pinnacle software) then burns the Pinnacle converted MP4 to this HD or BluRay formatted low density media. Then to play these HD burned standard DVD's he needs a player capable of "reading" the HD or BluRay media. Even though it is burned via his Pioneer, the Pioneer can't read and "interpret" the BluRay or HD format to play it back on his 1080p television. A relatively inexpensive HD player "can" read the standard DVD media formatted as if it were an HD blank, the difference being capacity. I suggested BluRay because HD is essentially functionally obsolete. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, Actually, it's the same whether one considers the executable file or the HD 1080p video. If the user's system is compromised by lack of hardware versatility whether it be video RAM, video GPU or system RAM or CPU processor power there may be issues with both video creation/playback and executable playback. Yes, the executable file is preferred when it's possible to use it, absolutely, but the video file is more versatile and allows cross-platform compatibility as well as the ability to port to HDVD/DVD/BluRay and other formats so it's really an issue of when we can use executable and when video is sufficient or preferred. At the present state of software easily available to the public at reasonable prices, HD Video can't provide the same quality as executable code. Obviously there are systems like Red One which take high resolution videos at frame rates which can easily support fast animations, but systems to play these back are not readily available to consumers. So even if PTE were to be able to create ultra high resolution video (at 12 megapixel, etc.) it would not be available for playback to the general public. I think your point is well taken that the executable mode is superior right now to the HD Video mode, but it's much less "versatile" so the issue, if I understand Jeff correctly, is that he would like to be able to both create and play back HD video on his home system and also be able to distribute HD video to his friends, etc. My point is that this is possible using alternative software and standard DVD's. I assume that his DVD player will support the creation of standard DVD's so it would be amenable to using Pinnacle Studio 12 or other software which can format standard DVD's as either BluRay or HD and burn the PTE HD output to this standard media. He then would need to buy either a BluRay (preferred) or HD player to play the shows burned on his standard DVD Pioneer with his 1080p television. Best regards, Lin

Hi David, No, that's not correct. It's not a computing power issue at all. Some of the PZR effects being not smooth have nothing to do with computing power. Actually, even a marginal computer can make smooth videos because there is no "time" penalty in the construction of the video code, it takes "longer" on a less powerful computer, but the end results are identical assuming the computer has the ability to output 1080p resolution. The computer I use can easily output nine megapixel image complete with PZR and animations in real time. When videos are being created the computer is not working in real time but takes as long as necessary to create each image and transition for the eventual video display. The lack of smoothness in the videos created has much more to do with the "frame speed". PZR's in real time are rendered at up to and above 60 frames per second. The 1080p images are generally rendered at a much slower frame rate. Both the video card I use and the system are more than capable of rendering and displaying 1080P flawlessly provided it's "possible" to achieve the same quality in the rotates and pans. Unfortunately, it's not. The temporary solution then is not to put a stress on the video limitations. This means just don't do extreme animations which challenge the system. In fact, the vast majority of those who might want the quality of 1080p in video do not care about sailing saucer shaped pictures around the screen or fancy animations; they just want to output good smooth transitions and high quality images with minimal animations. For that, the current output is fantastic. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dan, There are several ways to approach this. One way is to create one or more blank background pages in other software such as Photoshop and save them to be used over and over. An example would be just a white low resolution jpg. You could make these backgrounds in any way you deem proper then simply use this as your first slide and add text as you see fit. Another way is to simply put in a slide you don't care about, even a tiny slide of a couple pixels. Then go to objects and animations and delete this slide which will leave you with a blank of the background. If you have not chosen a background it will just be a black screen. If you have selected a gradient or solid color background then you will have that color instead to work with and you can place your text directly on this background. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jeff, As good as MP4 is, it can't compete with a good executable especially if there are fast pans or rotates. Displaying your images by directly connecting to the TV is almost always superior to burning a DVD or HD DVD with the disadvantage being that you need both a compatible computer with proper video output and the high definition screen. So for your own use, direct display will be definitely superior. Of course the problem becomes how to share your shows with others and that's the advantage of being able to create a DVD or HD/BluRay DVD. Since high definition players are still rather new, standard DVD seems to be of more importance right now, but in a year or so HD will become much more commonplace and so it might be worthwhile to get software such as Pinnacle Studio 12 Ultimate. I just spoke with a Pinnacle representative (transcript in above post) and he assures me that we can indeed take our MP4 output from PicturesToExe and burn it in HD or BluRay format at 1080p resolution to a standard DVD media blank which will then play back at 1080p on an HD or BluRay player. BluRay players are coming down greatly in price so this is a distinct possibility for the future I think..... Best regards, Lin

Hi Jeff, It will be HD "if" you use Pinnacle's software. Standard DVD resolution is only PAL or NTSC and using PTE to burn a DVD disc will only give you standard DVD resolution. To get HD you need special software. To my knowledge Pinnacle may be the only one which currently burns HD to standard media. It's possible that there are others which can do this that I'm not aware of, but in either case you must have a player capable of reading and playing back the HD format which is laid down by the burning software. In the case of Pinnacle 12, the software can read the 1080p MP4 output and then render it into the proper format to be burned by the Pinnacle burn engine on a standard DVD and played back via a compatible player (yours is ostensibly capable) at high definition. Apparently the Pinnacle software can output and burn "both" HD and BluRay. The standard DVD media is formatted and "recognized" as HD (in your case) or BluRay (providing someone has a BluRay player). The difference is that the standard DVD can only hold about 30 minutes or less of HD content because of the 4.7 gig (single sided) or 9.4 gig (dual layer) media. Obviously, this is quite enough for "most" PTE slideshows to be played at high definition. So your player "should" be able to read the Pinnacle burned disc and play the disc through your single just as if it were an HD disc burned with your Pioneer HD writer. Below is a transcript of my conversation with the Pinnacle representative: ============================================================================= Hi, my name is Norman Aquilato. How may I help you? [02:11:50 PM] Lin Evans: Hi Norman, [02:11:59 PM] Lin Evans: My Name is Lin Evans - I need to know if I can import a HD MP4 file at 1080p resolution and burn it to standard DVD media in HD using a standard DVD burner? [02:12:52 PM] Norman Aquilato: Mp4 from where? [02:13:14 PM] Lin Evans: The mp4 is output from PicturesToExe software [02:13:36 PM] Norman Aquilato: Not pure music? [02:13:52 PM] Lin Evans: Video and music [02:14:03 PM] Norman Aquilato: Okay. [02:14:29 PM] Lin Evans: If I understand you, the answer is yes? [02:14:50 PM] Norman Aquilato: It depends on your computer specs if it can handle that format. [02:15:45 PM] Lin Evans: I can create the MP4 and play it on my computer, I can send it to Vimeo for conversion to Flash or to Youtube for conversion. What specs do I need? [02:16:49 PM] Norman Aquilato: Okay you can. [02:17:30 PM] Lin Evans: I have several DVD burners - HP, Plextor, Sony, etc., and Pinnacle 12 will then let me take my High Definition MP4's in 1080P and burn them to standard DVD regular single sided density of course at greatly reduced storage capacity, then I can play them back using an HD player or BluRay player to a high definition television (1080p) at 1080p resolution? [02:20:09 PM] Norman Aquilato: Yes. [02:21:06 PM] Lin Evans: Thank you very much Norman, have a great holiday week end! [02:21:26 PM] Norman Aquilato: You're welcome. Again, my name is Norman Aquilato.Thank you for giving us an opportunity to serve you through Live Chat Support. For your records, a transcript of this chat session will be e-mailed to you. Feel free to contact us if you require further assistance. By the way there will be an out going survey that will be sent to you on how I have helped. Thank you for choosing Pinnacle and have a great day! Please answer the survey. Happy new year! [02:22:04 PM] Lin Evans: I will do so. Thanks Norman! [02:22:39 PM] 'Lin Evans' disconnected ('Concluded by End-user'). [02:22:44 PM] ============================================================================== Best regards, Lin

Hi Jeff, Apparently you "can" record HD to standard DVD media with the right software. Here's a "dated" but relevant link to digest. Perhaps this can help answer your question. http://www.emedialive.com/Articles/ReadArt...ArticleID=12157 From the article, it seem like Pinnacle Studio would be the way to go. However, before buying it, I would write or call them and find out whether it can use MP4 input format rather than MPEG II which the article discusses. Otherwise you would need to convert from MP4 to MPEG II or output an AVI at HD resolution and convert to MPEG II. Later... I researched this a bit at the Pinnacle site and found this: Lin

Hi Gerard, Snow animation is easiest for me to do by creating PNG files which have random white flakes or blurred circles representing snow. These should be varied in size so that the ones closest to the "camera" view are larger and those on the back layer are smaller. I usually use about three layers. Sometimes it's the same PNG file which is either zoomed to make it larger or played at original size to make it smaller. These PNG files are loaded as PNG Objects in the Objects and animations layer and usually are animated by emulating snow fall in terms of direction and varying speed. Perhaps the easiest way for you to learn this is to go to the PanosFX site, register, then download the free PanosFX Snowglobe Photoshop/Elements action. The download my free template from the same site and create a Snowglobe. Study the PNG files I give you with the template and you can then experiment by using them with other images. After a while you will probably want to experiment in Photoshop and create your own, but this will get you started. Here's a link to the PanosFX site: http://www.panosfx.com/ Once you have registered (it's free) then click on the link below: http://www.panosfx.com/index.php?option=co...8&Itemid=56 You won't be able to reach the link above until you are registered. On the above link you can download my PTE "template" and instructions which will get you started. Best regards, Lin

Hi Guys, I'll try to get something out this weekend in the way of specifics about how you can use masking. Tonight I have to deal with the death of my old and last horse, Nicky. Nicky was 31 years old and has been in great shape and acting like a young colt lately but his old ticker finally gave out and I found him tonight outside his stall. Nicky - 1977 - Dec 26, 2008 Lin

Actually, the maximum resolution for monitors is much higher than you think. In newer displays four megapixels (2560 x 1600) is readily available and even 9.2 megapixel (3840x2400) such as my ViewSonic VP2290b which I recently sold. Many of my clients use the four megapixel models and I make many shows at this resolution. Best regards, Lin

Actually, having each keyframe on a separate line could get really confusing when you have multiple keyframes and multiple objects. For example, sometimes in a complex animation you might have hundreds of keyframes for each object. If each keyframe were on a separate line and the time duration for the slide were quite long, you would have to scroll down many, many screens to get to later keyframes and in doing so loose the visual reference to those above. By using the arrows you can easily navigate from one keyframe to the next on the same line and you can get a visual representation of their relationships over time by their respective positions over the timeline. With them on separate lines you would have no visual reference for those far along the timeline in relation to earlier keyframes. The "secret" to moving about the keyframes when you have multiples which are very close together is to use the arrows and not try to "click" on individual keyframes. When they accidentally occupy the same space (time) they turn from blue to red. Of course this could happen on separate lines but I would think this would get confusing if you had more than a few. By having a separate line for each keyframe you would waste a tremendous amout of horizontal space because each line would only occupy a minute part of the horizontal space alloted. I can see how this might be useful, but only if optional. Photoshop is limited to something like 100 layers, and rarely does any complex image actually use more than a couple dozen, but not PTE. As I recall, JPD once made a puzzle which had over 600 layers with one object per layer. This might be difficult to keep track of if one couldn't have some visual reference for keyframe sequencing along the same timeline. Just my thoughts.... Best regards, Lin

What if you have 600 objects?? Lin

Yes, Project Options, Screen Tab, click beside "Tiled Image" then click on the "file" folder to navigate to desired file to be used as tiled background. Lin

The problem isn't with PTE but with the anti-virus software. False positives are not that uncommon with anti-virus software and need to be handled by the anti-virus software developers not by Wnsoft. There is no problem with the Wnsoft code which needs to be changed to accommodate defects in anti-virus detection. Wnsoft notifies anti-virus software companies whenever a false positive is discovered, the rest is up to the software developers of the anti-virus software. There is no need to be alarmed - the problem is "definitely" with the anti-virus software. Best regards, Lin