Lin Evans

Hi Vince, could you explain what a "jotplus" file is? Since the main PicturesToExe is free upgrades for life, the old key is good for version 5.0 as well a 4.48. Only if you need the Video Builder upgrade (internal DVD authoring) do you need to buy anything else. So the immediate solution seems to be whether your 4.xx version is "registered". If so the same key works for 5.0. So if you can help by explaining a "jotplus" (sorry it's a term I'm not familiar with) file is then perhaps we can figure out how to make it work for you. The issue with Regnow must be something between your ISP and the site because it seems to be working for the majority. There will be a solution, we just need more information. Best regards, Lin

Thanks Giel, The NVidia geforce 7600 is a decent video card - about mid-ways in terms of absolute performance among notebook computer GPU's so apparently capable of handling most any PTE presentation. In the U.S. we probably have an equivalent to the ASUS A6T but not under that brand name. The important thing is that the geforce 7600 can handle the 1400x1050 resolution output. What is the native LCD output? I'm assuming you don't run them simultaneously (LCE and Projector). Best regards, Lin

Hi Colin, Here are links to two seemingly identical, or nearly identical 32 piece puzzles. One will play on almost all systems, even 32 meg video cards. The other presents a challenge to even the best video cards. If the laptop can play it smoothly, it can play about any PTE show smoothly. The difference is that in one case the PNG files which make up the individual puzzle pieces are relatively tiny with almost all the excess invisible background cropped out. In the other case each puzzle piece consists of an entire rather large PNG file most of which is invisible. When compressed into an executable format, the sizes are very close to each other and only about 4.3 meg. In fact they are nearly identical. But one is "actually" 4.3 meg while the other expands in memory to fill a 128 meg video card's capacity. The first is the very large RAM model: http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/puzzle.zip The second is the small RAM model which will run on nearly any computer: http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/puzzlesmallRAM.zip You can distinguish them from one another while playing in two ways. The small ram version ends with a "spinning goat" and the words "TA DA" on the center of the image. The large RAM version ends with the words "TA DAH" (an "h" in 'DAH') at the bottom of the screen. Both have midi music (very annoying - LOL) and there is an extended delay of about 7 seconds before the large RAM version begins to run. Put them on a USB flash memory card and run the executables on the test computers. Laptop's with the better Video cards will run both. There may be a slight "stutter" with the one puzzle piece which "circles" in the front on the large RAM version even with a decent video card. A machine with no "stutter" at all on this puzzle piece indeed has an exceptional video GPU. Lin

Hi Bill, Just a "quickie" on this - there are a number of elementary "tutorials" written by a few of us until we get a unified user's guide finished. I'll link you to another thread where you can link to the PDF's. Essentially you go to the Objects and Animations screen. Change the display time for the display of the individual image first by clicking on the "Customize Slide" then the "Main Tab". Once you have the time set to more than the four second default, go to the timeline (blue at the bottom) and put your mouse cursor just under the horizontal line which divides the blue portion and right click. From the resulting menu choose "add keypoint". Click on the added keypoint and drag it to the right or left to reach the actual time where you want the pan or zoom or rotate to end. Next click on the black arrow in the small blue box at the top of the screen between "Paste" and "Close" and change the percentage to something like 25% so you can see fully the bounding green rectangle surrounding your image. Click on one of the little "boxes" such as the one at the center, hold down the left mouse cursor and "drag" the image to make it the approximate size you wish. Click inside this and drag the image into the position you want for either a zoom or a zoom and pan. Be sure you have clicked on (highlighted) the second keypoint before doing this. Wherever you leave the image is where it will zoom or pan to. You can enter as many keypoints and changes as you wish. The closer the keypoints the faster things happen. Experiment.... Click on the link below and scroll down to get links to some elementary PDF explanations. http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6959 Best regards, Lin

Hi DAB, Try verying the thickness of the smoothing line and see if that has an effect. Lin

Hi Jan, The DVI connect is primarily important for running large dual monitor LCD systems such as the 30 inch Apple, etc. I don't think you need this but best to check with the projector people to see what their requirements are before making a decision. Try this link to see which NVIDIA cards are in which computers: http://www.nvidia.com/object/wtb_notebooks.html Lin

Hi Jan, You might want to go here: http://compreviews.about.com/od/video/a/NoteVidSpec.htm scroll down and read about the various video cards used for laptops and their respective performances. The X1300 isn't one of the better rated video cards for performance, so I would be cautious about choosing that one. They are rated approximately according to their top-to-bottom position in the list. LCD displays really are optimized for a particular resolution and don't display properly at other resolutions. It's pretty much the nature of laptop LCD displays so you will probably not be able to see the show properly on the LCD while using the projector unless their resolutions are matched. But most have a function switch to give you a choice of external or internal display or both. The list above should help you make a choice. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jan, You will want to check and be certain that the laptop will suport 1400x1050 resoution. The actual LCD doesn't have to support that resolution but the video card or chip used in the laptop does need to. Most laptop's have a mode which will allow either simultaneous viewing from the laptop and the accessory (projector in this case) or the lcd can be switched off and you see only the peripheral (other monitor or projector, etc.). Since the majority of new laptops are running Vista in one or another iteration, you probably don't need to worry too much about having sufficient video card power to run PTE's more demanding shows, but I've found it's still good to test them. Before you go shopping let me know and I'll give you a link to the couple test shows I created early on which test RAM requirements. They consist of a couple 32 piece "puzzle" shows. One will run on even 32 meg video cards and the other will quickly reveal problems because it taxes even a very good 128 meg card. If you are going to purchase through mail-order or the web I would suggest trying to find the model you will be buying in a retail store and trying the files on it first. The manufacturer or the sales people "should" be able to answer your question about supporting 1400x1050 resolution mode. As long as the card can handle it you should be able to switch to that mode for the projection. The LCD might look strange, but the important thing is that the projector be given the proper file match. Even though the projectors can usually handle transformation to their own resolution requirements, it's usually better to try and match it with output from the laptop for better performance. Lin

I'm a bit unclear on the first question. Could you possibly clarify what you want to do here? If you want to have the last slide remain on screen as with 4.48 that isn't possible with 5.0 yet. I haven't yet had my morning coffee so still a bit confused here. On the second question, there is no way to do that automatically. You could assign individual numbers via comments on the individual slides so that would enable skipping any you wish but the automatic numbering retrieves the number from the position in the slide list so not possible to actually "skip" slides. Best regards, Lin

Great ideas Judy! Thanks!! Best regards, Lin

Hi Dab, Go to Objects and Animations screen then to Properties tag and check the "low quality of resize" on a couple of the slides where you are having this problem and try it before saving. This may be the solution. Igor had some comments about this earlier, but I can't be certain that it dealt with this particular issue. The resize is normally "precise" in 5.0 and this would possibly create a slight division. But by checking "low quality of resize" (I hate the term but it is descriptive) it simply doesn't have sub-pixel accuracy and may be the solution. Worth trying. Lin

Hi Ray, Yes, I believe you are on track with this - looking forward to seeing the finished document. Lots of good info on frequencies, etc. You might expand a bit on the "delivery" system, i.e., the media itself. That is how you get the 1080p or 720p onto the media to be used. Answer questions such as "can 1080p be burned to standard DVD media (of course with limited storage capacity or do I need BluRay or HD burner?" By the way, I just tested both trailers (1080p and 720p) and both run perfectly and look great. Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, That's a strange one. Are you using 5.0 or 4.48? There is a provision for calling external files from within PTE so the first thing I would do is look to be certain that nothing is being called on a particular slide. Examine slide five and six by looking for an "action on mouse click". Frankly, I don't think this is the problem because you haven't said anything about using the mouse but it's worth a look. Is your default viewer active on startup? If so you might try closing it to see if it's somehow being called. Another possibility is to remove these two slides and see what happens. You can save the show under another name to experiment with then delete these two files and see if the problem persists. If not, introduce them one at a time and see what happens. It's really an unusual situation I've not experienced myself and really never heard of happening before but it will be interesting to find the cause and solution. Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, I'm not 100% clear on exactly what is happening. Do you mean that when the slideshow reaches a particular slide some other program (PhotoElements) opens and stops the show? Lin

Hi Keith, Actually, there was a good bit of discussion about this earlier on which prompted me to write a quick note in the "tips & tutorial's" section here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6604 Essentially the way PTE works is that it gives Exclusive access to hardware acceleration to a slide show to insure smooth animations. So when two slideshows are both running simultneously, one must have hardware acceleration unchecked or "off" to allow the other to run smoothly. For menus, etc., where we really don't necessarily "need" hardware acceleration because we "usually" don't use a lot of animation, we can just turn it off via the check then the slideshows it calls will run smoothly. The only present way around this is to create a menu which defacto "dies" or closes after calling the menu choice, then reopens via a call to run it from the last slide in the show being executed. Of course then the menu slide must have the "run this and exit" command. The easiest way is to simply turn off hardware acceleration in the calling menu slide and avoid the issues, but if you really need animation in the menu program you can set it up as per above. Best regards, Lin

Hi John, There are many solutions. The one I use is $29.95 U.S. and works perfectly. It's called CopyToDVD. Here's a link: http://www.vso-software.fr/products/copytodvd/copytodvd.php Lin

I'll email you later with some info... Best regards, Lin

A feature to link "Comments" to opacity fades, etc. You can easily fade out an image but "comments" remain on the screen which rather defeats the aesthetics. An option to also fade out or control the amount of time "comments" remain on the slide would be helpful. Best regards, Lin

Click on Timeline tab then check Synchronize Music and Slides and Auto Spread Slides Along Music. Lin

Hi Dave, In Project Options, Comments Tab, just move the "Offset" slider to the right to about 13, click on "set for all slides" and that should take care of the problem for you. Be sure you have the "safe area" revealed by clicking on the "Tools" in the Objects and Animation screen the check the "show safe TV zone" to see the border. Your actual text position will be revealed above the "border" which represents the boundaries of the TV screen. The "Offset" is designed just for this purpose. Best regards, Lin

The "clue" to the problem is that the executables run fine when you don't call them from the "video business card." Your problem is that you have hardware acceleration turned on for the "business card". Go to the "Project Options" in your menu (business card) then "screen tab". Uncheck the "hardware acceleration" and re-save the file and that should take care of your problem. You can't run hardware acceleration on two shows simultaneously which is what is actually happening because the business card is still runing in memory while the other is also playing. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jeff, Thanks! Actually, for an aesthetic show I wouldn't zoom much beyond 100% on each patch or from the original. If you read my latest post I explain how this can be avoided even with a large jump in focal length. http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6953 The difficulty comes in matching the "patch" for the closeup zooms to the original pano at 100% without a series of intermediate lenses. It's always easy to zoom down but not practical to zoom in beyond proprietary limits of much over 100% (that's 100% of the original pano's true size). By making intermediate small panoramas with a longer focal length lens rather than individual frames it's possible do downsize to match 100% pano zoom size without having black borders. This also makes it easier for longer zoom in's because you have fewer "stops" and photo changes. Best regards, Lin

Hey Ron, LOL - I know what you mean. It's amazing how time takes it toll on us all. I hope your ankle is healing well and that the summer is a great one. Keep those great AV presentations coming! Best regards, Lin

I just wanted to pass along some of the things I'm learning about panoramas and large zoom in's. As we all know, a good panorama with increased resolution can easily be made by stitching multiple frames into a seamless panorama with readily available software. The problem for those wanting to make deep zooms to show detail is how to exceed the proprietary boundaries of about 100% zoom and still stay within the RAM limitations of conventional video cards. Another issue has presented itself, and that is how can the average photographer who doesn't have a wide assortment of focal lengths to work with (intermediate lenses) manage this with only perhaps a medium focal length lens and a long focal length lens? It's easy enough to patch in individual frames for closeup's of of interest areas in the pano and zoom to the limits of propriety for your long zoom lenses if you have sufficient intermediary focal length captures, but if you don't have these intermediary lenses then how can you match the individual subject area sizes without having a black border around your frames? The answer is small intermediary panos. When you take your original frames for the pano, then change lenses and go back to interest areas with your longer focal length lens but instead of shooting an individual frame, shoot above and beside your "target" sufficiently to product intermediary small panos to use for the patch. You can always zoom a pano out - that is, make it smaller on screen without loosing apparent image quality, but you can't zoom in much beyond 100% without sacrifice of apparent resolution. So by making intermediate small "panos" you will not have the problem of overzoom on the original to match the minimal zoom without frame borders being exposed on the patch frames used for the in-depth zooms. Of course, as with any pano creation. Find the proper exposure via aperture and shutter speed and use these figures to effect capture in manual mode for each frame to facilitate color match and proper blend. Best regards, Lin

Thanks! I suspect that with the varied reports of some jerky movement in some places even with those having plenty of video RAM (such as your card) that I've found the "ragged" edge of what's usable in terms of image size. The initial pano consists of twelve full sized captures saved in jpg at Photoshop 12 which means minimal compression, but at about 33 meg compressed jpg this probably still expands to an uncompressed 110 meg size (tiff size for same file). So with 110 meg loading plus the additional individual frames (I'm not certain exactly how they are switched into and out of memory) that pretty well taxes a 128 meg card. It's even more surprising that people with a 64 meg card can even play it and is a testimony to the efficiency of modern engineering! Best regards, Lin --> QUOTE(Mr B @ Jun 23 2007, 10:06 AM) ←This worked well for me with the only slight jerk when panning down from the chimneys. Smooth, smooth, smooth. I did not disable Zonealarm or AVG and (at the start) had Spybot checking for problems.Use Nvidia GeForce FX5200, 128mb. Excellent test, thanks.