Lin Evans

Hi John, I believe what is meant is that you can take any AVI file found on your media and load it into Video Builder to include in your DVD or MPEG II file. So if you have already created AVI files they can appear along with PTE files and be included in the DVD you create. Best regards, Lin

Hi Xaver, I can't say I agree that the discussion is run on an emotional level, just not filled with statistics which would be boring to most. Barry is expressing his experience in a satire and I'm relating my experiences with a link to a well-respected PC Magazine Editor's experience and a lengthy forum discussion from users of both operating systems. Brian is relating his experience and opinions based on what he does professionally. The readers are free to form their own views based on their personal experiences and the shared experiences of people whom they trust to provide them with relatively unbiased information. Obviously, we all formulate our opinions based on our experiences. To confine our statements to rather dry statistics might be much less interesting. No one is "restricting" the aspects of the discussion so feel free to provide your own input. The important thing, as I see it, is that people are presented with both sides of a discussion so they can make informed decisions about something which "may" affect the way PTE or the tools on which they run PTE performs for them - nothing more. Best regards, Lin

Hi Xaver, Propaganda or not aside, if "Auto-update" is left at the as-shipped defaults, people won't have a chance to wait and see how SP3 will be analyzed in the press. We owe it to the forum readers to make them aware of the possible implications of not turning off auto-update or at least setting it to one of the "option" modes because there really is no going back for most without a complete system reload from an non-OEM XP disc and extensive reloads of SP2, etc., if it's then even still available. Best regards, Lin

Hi Barry, LOL - the important thing is that it works for you. Many others have had nightmares with Vista ranging from loosing work when Vista's defaults set by an administrator stop the user in the middle of an operation to perform an "update" to sluggish boot and shut down with almost double the time of XP, incompatibilities with software (have you tried to install Photoshop CS on your Vista computer?), incompatibilities with hardware, certain printer drivers (HP) causing the need to totally reload the operating system multiple times because they totally take down Vista which returns a "missing file" error and "requires" a total reload of the OS, the behind the scenes "phone home" which is part of the slowness of boot, the nanny DRM issues, etc., etc. If you only use Vista "compatible" software, don't use a lot of different software and don't have incompatible drivers, hardware, etc., then Vista may be great for you. On the other hand if you are one of the thousands and thousands who have been plagued by these issues you will understand the reluctance to change from something which "works" with the majority of the kinks ironed out to what amounts to a beta software which you as the uncompensated beta tester who actually pays for the priviledge of doing this for Microsoft. Read this link for more in-depth analysis from one of the Editors of PC Magazine. Also following read the forum comments: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2286065,00.asp Best regards, Lin

Hi David, Probably not. That is if you don't install SP3 you will likely have no access to "any" new patches. But consider this: there are people all over the world still using Windows 98, ME, etc., who have no access to "security patches" and have not had for an extended period. Like most they rely on third party security such as AVG, NOD32, Pareto Logic, etc., etc., which have proven to be "far" more effective than anything Microsoft has produced in terms of "security". Microsoft has proven to be "reactive" while companies who specialize in security are "proactive". Of course there are a variety of opinions on this but my positions is that Microsoft's motives for this upgrade are highly suspicious. My SP2 of Windows XP works just fine and I'm protected both by hardware firewall via my router and Microsoft's own software firewall. I have sufficient third party virus and threat protection software to insure reasonable protection and see absolutely no reason to allow a major change to my operating system to make it more like the operating system I try to avoid like the plague. My positions is that for my purposes I see Vista not as an "upgrade" as Microsoft views it, but for me a "downgrade" causing slower operation, slower boot up and shut-down, intrusive "phone home" privacy invasion - unwanted "nanny" features, a resource hog and generally offering me no value but causing me lots of "headaches". I'll gladly trade whatever "security" risks I might be protected from with this new controversial SP3 for the lack of intrusion and bloat provided by leaving things status quo. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Yes, minus the amount used for housekeeping (operating system).... but that's a "lot" of memory. Most applications won't even use 3 gig of memory but rather use virtual memory by addressing a hard disk where there is nearly unlimited virtual memory available. Only programs like Photoshop where one might have multiple layers of a huge file really need large amounts of RAM and even then 3 gigabytes is a huge amount. Think of a typical large digital 16 bit tiff image of say 30 megabytes. This could be duplicated over 90 times with three gigabytes! Only if you were trying to stitch a couple hundred full size 30 megabyte images to make perhaps a gigapixel picture would you need huge amounts of RAM. That type thing has been done but it's not something most of us would spend a lot of time trying. Even those such as Max Lyons who does routinely make gigapixel stitches generally don't do it with 16 bit files. I really think that the "need" for huge amounts of RAM is greatly exaggerated by many. I've been a professional photographer for over 40 years and have used Photoshop since it was introduced and I've gotten along really well with my largest medium format digital files using only one gigabyte of RAM. I've really never run into a situation where I needed much more that that regardless of what I was doing in Photoshop. Perhaps business people who have absolutely huge spreadsheets running along with multiple other applications and files open simultaneously and Photoshop open at the same time could actually need over 3 gigabytes of RAM but that seems odd to me. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jeff, There won't "be" any future updates for SP2 because this SP3 supercedes, overwrites and essentially "replaces" SP2. Microsoft is essentially "killing" XP because they wan't people to buy Vista. They are doing everything possible to make XP "into" Vista - LOL. Unfortunately the real world for the most part want's nothing to do with Vista. You should read the comments following this link per the article written by PC Mag Editor John Dvorak http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2286065,00.asp Lin

Hi All, Brian posted a "caveat" about Microsoft's plans to "update" Windows XP to a new and controversial service pack 3. The new "update" will add a couple hundred megabytes more bloat to the size of XP and supposedly make it more like "Vista" - something not all of us are the least bit interested in doing. For a company who was ready to shut-off Windows XP in a month it's rather strange. Backlash from large companies like Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc., have forced them to "rethink" their strategy. Dell, for example, will continue to offer XP until Microsoft's next greatest "new and improved" operating system Windows 7 is available perhaps in 2010. This should tell you something about users acceptance of Vista. So for those who don't want Microsoft's sp3 automatically installed on their system - something which could take up to two hours to do and may well start right in the middle of what you are doing causing you to loose edits or worse.... Here's how you shut it off: Click on Start, Control Panel then on the "System" Icon. You will then see something like this: Click on the "Automatic Updates" tab and you will see the above. The probability is that automatic updates are set to "Automatic (recommended)" Click in "Turn off Automatic Updates" so it looks like above then click on "Apply" then on O.K. Thats all there is to it! Lin

Hi Tom, The "primary" reason Vista detects more RAM is that the operating system "needs" more RAM to run itself! Vista is a huge resource hog.... The XP Home addition on my Dell Inspiron 530 detects 3.2 Gig of my 4 Gig of RAM. I wouldn't trade if for "any" version of Vista regardless of RAM... Best regards, Lin

Hi Maureen, That's truly sad news - Ron was an amazing person who contributed greatly to not only the PTE forum and AV but to society in general. He will be deeply missed by all.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Brian, I think that's one I'll opt out of. The question is whether they will try to bypass the "auto updates off" switch. Best regards, Lin

Hi Barry, Point taken, however note that 1. & 2. are sometimes options, but not always depending on what the desired effect is. There are quite workable alternatives which allow one to both animate and eliminate the moire effect. Between Igor's blur feature and the MipLevels=1 a very nice solution is made for "most" cases. In the cases where extreme zoom is necessary and sparkling or moire effects are seen it's quite feasible to clone the object or image, apply a proper degree of gaussian blur, make that image a child of the original and opacity blend them over time so that at the end of the zoom no appreciable sparkle or moire effect is seen. I showed combinations of these effects in my samples in my above post. Admittedly, unless the user is sophisticated enough with photo editing tools and with PTE this may not be a super-easy task, but for those who really want the ultimate in usability while still enjoying the or needing the superior zoom effect it's certainly achieveable with a little work. Best regards, Lin

For those who would like to see a sample of the (MipLevels=1) compared to alternatives, I have prepared an example. Using a very sharp image of the moon - in the first zoom out the sharp image is left and "smooth" is used to exacerbate the "shimmer" effect when the zoom out ends. Normal MipLevels=0 In the second example, the MipLevels =0 has been changed to MipLevels=1 and it actually works pretty well until near the end of the zoom where fairly strong "shimmer" is still seen. In the third example a half percent (.5) gaussian blur has been applied to the sharp moon. The shimmer is less evident at the mid point of the zoom but still quite apparent at the end. In the fourth example a one percent gaussian blure has been applied to the sharp moon. The shimmer is nearly all gone, but the moon blur is quite evident at the start with only minor shimmer at the end of the zoom. In the fifth example, the sharp moon has a one percent gaussian blur "child" moon attached. The zoom out begins with the full sharpened moon but mid-way through the sharp moon is faded to zero while the child moon which has a one percent gaussian blur applied plus MipLevels=1 is faded in to 100%. Perhaps this represents the best overall solution. A combination of the new feature plus a child object identical to the parent except for sharpness diminished by a one percent gaussian blur and the new MiipLevels=1 feature enabled. This way the viewer sees a very sharp object to begin but when zoom out is sufficient the blurred object is phased in so that the "shimmer" is reduced only where necessary. Another way of doing this would be to apply the gaussian blur only to the edges of the child object where "most" of the shimmer occurs. Here's the link: http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/shimmer.zip Lin

Hi Igor, Did you decide to hold off on the grid until later beta? Best regards, Lin Beta 6: http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/apr-deluxe_beta.zip (5 MB)

Hi Ken, Thanks for the links. I actually downloaded the batch files and attempted to run them with this AVI but they won't work on it, perhaps because it's a later DIV-X version than the ones the batch files were designed for in 2004 or so when those threads were new. I'm not going to worry too much about it but have added a zipped version so if anyone can't run the AVI via the link they can download the zipped version and run it from their own computer. Strange thing is that when I click on the link with Foxfire it opens the image to my screen but seems to hang up there and locks up my computer. When I click the link with Internet Explorer (IE) it works perfectly - go figure! If too many people have problems with the live link to the AVI I'll delete it and just leave the zipped download link. Best regards, Lin

Thanks Ken, I should have put the link in the original message. I duplicated it there now! Best regards, Lin

Hi Jeff, Thanks for bringing this to my attention. That's a new one on me - LOL. I suspect what it means is that the AVI doesn't "stream" but must be fully downloaded before it will begin to play. Perhaps there is some newer technology which allows streaming for AVI which I'm not aware of - quite possibly a Windows thing. Actually, I'm beginning to suspect that I should zip these AVI's rather than just post them. That way people could download them rather than have to click the link each time they want to see them. I think I'll do that and post as a "download zipped link" because others are likely to also experience this. Best regards, Lin

A recent post alerted me to a feature which I don't recall covering in the User Guide but which has been added to PTE 5.1, etc. After an email to Igor I now understand how it works and thought an explanation may help others who might have questions. In the older 4.x versions of PTE when a button was created one could, if they wished, choose a color for the button text, a different color for the "hover" condition when the mouse cursor was over the button and yet a third color for the button text which appeared when the button was "pressed" by mouse click. That same feature exists now in PTE 5.1 and later. Perhaps this is not news to most but it was something I hadn't noticed. To make it work, one must first choose an "action" for the button then return to the Properties Tab in Objects and Animations. When one returns to the Properties tab, instead of seeing a single color bar next to (to the right of) the Bold, Italics Underscore feature there will be three choices. The first choice is for normal button text color, the second for the hover condition and the third to indicate that the button has been pressed. I made a brief AVI tutorial and posted it in the Tutorials and Articles section in the PTE Made Easy section at the top for anyone interested. It's a little thing, but worth mentioning I think.... Here's the Link: Thanks Ken! http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....amp;#entry49109 Best regards, Lin

Hi Bwat, I have discussed in email with Igor and I now understand how it works also. You do not need to "Preview" before the three color choices for the attributes of normal, hover, pressed appear, but you do need to assign some "action" to the button. Once an action is assigned the three choices become available in the Properties tab. Actually, because this may be confusing to others I'm preparing an AVI tutorial which will be added to my "PTE Made Easy" link on the Tutorials and Articles forum link. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ian, I can't say with certainty but I would hazzard a guess that you may be using the wrong cable to connect. The best way is to discuss it with your television salesman. Take a CD made with 16:9 to the store where you boutht your widescreen (or to any store which has the same TV receiver) and let them show you the proper hookup. I had an engineer friend who bought a 50" Panasonic 1080P who had the same problem. I told him it was a cable issue but it took him about two weeks to reach the same conclusions - LOL. One correct cable and proper settings on the TV and all was well. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, I wish I had an easy answer for you but nearly everyone today is using Video Builder, the $20 upgrade which makes creating DVD's as easy as pie. I would really suggest you upgrade and use it to burn your DVD's but of course that doesn't solve your problem with Ulead. You need to contact Ulead and find out why your program isn't working. Once you get it working correctly you just open the program from the main icon. After you have created your PTE file you leave the program open and point ULEAD to the temporary AVI file template created by PTE. The rest varies depending on the individual version of Ulead Movie Factory used, but even if you get it working you will be miles ahead by spending the $20 and upgrading to PTE Deluxe with Video Builder. It's really "much" easier than doing it the other way. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ron, Thought I haven't had any personal experience with this "paticular" nVidia graphics card, I purchased a Dell Inspiron 530 which came with an on-board Intel grapics with 128 meg RAM which did a decent job on all but the most difficult of my animations. The vast majority ran smoothly so I suspect that the nVidia card on your T7400 will be quite suitable. If not, you can always buy an Invidia 8600 GT or GT OC card and plug it right in to the PCI EXpress 16 slot. The specifications state: --------------------------------- The graphics offerings on the Dell Precision T7400 can handle the demands of 2D and Open GL 3D operations for engineering, architecture or design applications with ease. The Dell Precision T7400 offers a wide range of high-performance options, including dual Native PCIe Gen 2 x16 slot support and up to 225 watts graphics card. Use the Dell Precision T7400 for MCAD, visualization, and digital content creation, configured with multiple monitors for ultimate efficiency. -------------------------------- The above specs means that the included power supply will support up to an nVidia 8600 GT/OC (overclocked) graphics card. This card is more than capable of handling the most demanding graphics from any PTE show. So even in the unlikely case that the included nVidia graphics card doesn't measure up, you can always replace it with the nVidia 8600 GT card. To go to the very top-of-line (for the money) graphics card like the nVidia 8800 GT you would quite likely have to also replace the Dell power supply that comes in the T7400. The 8800 GT requires a minimum of a 400w power supply and the power supply needs to have 8 pin connectors or at least two four pin Molex connectors which Dell seems not to use unless you buy their tower. My power supply was a 300w model and only had two 15 pin SATA connectors free so when I upgraded to the nVidia 8800GT card I replaced the included 300w power supply with a very nice 750w power supply which had plenty of connectors of the right type in reserve. This cost me an additional $130 U.S. Since you live in the U.K., I suspect the nVidia 8800 GT card is pretty much out of reach because at last check they were priced around the U.S. equivalent of $900. Here in the states I found one for $239 but typically they are more like $279 here. The Nvidia 8600 is much less in the U.K. and Europe as I have been told and I put one of these in my wife's system and it will run "any" PTE show smoothly and without a burp. So again, even if the included nVidia FX570 proves to be insufficient (highly unlikely) you can always go with the 8600 GT without further modification. Best regards, Lin

Hi John, The bottom line is that one of two possibilities must happen. 1. Do the entire slideshow without music setting the length of each slide as just as you wish them to appear. Look at the length of the show then choose or "construct" music by adding two or more music selections together using a sound editor like Audacity (not difficult at all to do) and fade the last five seconds or so of the sound. Add the sound to the slides. 2. Choose or "construct" music which is plenty long for the slideshow - sync the slides to the music as desired and when you get to the end see how long the slideshow is. Take the music into Audacity and trim the excess away and fade the last five seconds or so. Delete then reload the music. Best regards, Lin

Hi Bwat, If you create a new button in the Objects and Animations screen, change the color of the text, set whatever attribute (action for the button) then do "Preview" click on the button then go back to Objects and Animations you will have all three attributes available. I don't know if this is a "bug" or just the way it works but this will give you all three options just like the imported (converted from 4.8) buttons have. I have emailed Igor samples to see if it's indeed a "bug" or if that's just the way it is supposed to work...... Best regards, Lin

Hi Cynthia, Normally the key is sent automatically and almost immediately so the problem may be that the email was either bounced or ended up intercepted by your spam filter possibly at your ISP. The first thing I would do is to check your email at your provider by webmail and check to see if it possibly ended up in Spam. If this isn't the case, the key will be sent again. We will pass this information along to Admin 1 for further processing so hang in there for a bit.... Best regards, Lin