Lin Evans
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Posts posted by Lin Evans
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have Pic2EXE 4.3. can I just upgrade to 4.4 or do I have to buy a whole new pgm???
Considering the fact that the latest version is 4.41, I'm wondering how you have version 4.43?
Assuming it's just an error of a "couple" typo's - upgrades are free.
Lin
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I don't recall any discussion on "adding" AVI, P2E already generates an AVI file if you need it. Just click on the "Video" tab then from the menu which follows click in the "Create Custom Video AVI file" circle. Choose the audio and video CODEC you want from the dropdown lists, set the frame rate and size you want then click on the "Create AVI" block.
If you don't understand which CODECS to use, just choose Windows Media Audio and 44kbs, 32KHz stereo from the audio and Microsoft MPEG-4 from the Video CODEC. If you don't know which frame rate and size to use just start with 30 frames per second interlaced at 640x480 pixel size......
Lin
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PTE creates a .exe file. Can this .exe file be played on basically every/any computer? Can PTE create MPEG files?
PTE can create AVI movies using a number of different CODECS and AVI can easily be converted to other formats so the answer is yes but not directly to an mpeg.
Lin
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One thing i'm wondering is why some people concern about have the ability to convert the slideshow to flash? Adobe Livemotion does a great job in that. Thing is, flash in a slideshow doesn't compare in quality to an exe or avi. It's great for the web, but thats it. It's like wanting to convert a movie to a gif animation.
You can't play an exe or avi over the web. For many being able to post a slideshow on the web is very important. When the Ken Burns effects are added to P2E a means of playing the slideshow over the web will be necessary to keep P2E competitive with other programs which have this ability such as ProShow Gold. Whichever format is eventually selected must be one which can provide a movie type presentation allowing pans, zooms, rotates, etc. The choices are ActiveX (only works for Windows machines and has vulnerability to worm infestation by hackers), Java (doesn't have great image quality), Flash (isn't as smooth as ActiveX but is much less expensive to implement than Java).
Adobe Livemotion only outputs Flash SWF files which have a 16,000 frame limitation per instance (per movie) and is unsuitable for converting large slideshows to Flash. SWF Flash output is primarily designed for short movie clips. To convert reasonably long slideshows from AVI or MPEG to Flash requires conversion to Flash FLV format. There are several ways to do this but the best I've found is the freeware product Riva encoder and the inexpensive Riva Producer Lite.......
That's why....
Lin
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See next post
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What has been implied, but not yet stated it that if the user can "see" the image they can "steal" the image they see. There is no present way to prevent screen capture utilities from capturing what is displayed in exactly the resolution it's displayed in. This is why the suggestions to not give the viewer a super high resolution screen shot of your images.
Of course another way to semi-protect them is to splash a huge copyright across the middle of a higher resolution image in such a way that even an expert in PhotoShop would have a difficult time using a clone tool to "fix" it so it was satisfactory.
This is about all you can really do. A computer expert will have absolutely no problem copying anything which can be displayed on the CRT.
Best regards,
Lin
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I totally agree with Igor. The movements in Flash are definitely too jerky.
But what then is a workable alternative for displaying slideshows on the web? QTVR isn't viable, Java is questionable for resolution and ActiveX is not compatible with MacIntosh browsers and has hacker risks. So what would you suggest as an alternative?
Best regards,
Lin
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Hi Al,
Yes the uncompressed AVI is pretty huge but when you consider what it's doing that's understandable. It's converting still images to 30 frames each per second of viewing time (or whatever frame rate you've selected). In high quality jpg mode that's a "load" !!
Actually, for best quality it might not be a bad idea to use uncompressed. The Riva encoder will compress the files in the Flash FLV format. I suspect the artifacts are the result of the frame rate, bitrate and such which you selected in Producer. Artifacts result from attempts to over compress for reasons of making the files available to dial-up bandwidths. Choose a higher frame rate like 30 fps, then the highest bitrate and you "should" get pretty artifact free results... It will probably take some hours of playing with this to find a suitable compromise to get optimal sound, image quality and ease of use, but once we get it all figured out the results should be satisfactory in most cases.
Just for referemce, the FLV files I've created are around 80 megabytes in size.....
Best regards,
Lin
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What settings do you use, both for PTE avi creation, and for Riva? Do you save the PTE avi and then open Riva?
Click the "video" in P2E then choose "custom AVI". Riva supports several of the Video CODECS but I like MicroSoft mpeg 4. Decide about the audio quality you need and choose the appropriate audio (I used 44,100 Khz stereo 8 bit). Also change the default display from the DVD standard to 640x480 or something less.
For Riva Producer I used a 30 frame per second encoding with the 44,100 Khz (click on the stereo sound box) and don't forget to click the box to allow detecting Flash. Producer will generate the code in the HTML file which looks for flash enabled browser and if it doesn't find it will send the viewer to the proper place on the web to install it.
I used the defaults (mouseover) for the player setup because with a 640x480 the player would be inside the frame and visible otherwise (if you displayed it all the time). I'm still experimenting with Producer and haven't tried all the various options yet. They have a website for help with the particulars and the developer is very "tuned in" so that he answers questions himself.
My suggestion is to first create two folders on your hard disk. One for holding the AVI file you generate with P2E and the other for holding the output from Producer and Encoder. The program will ask for the particulars to upload to your web (password, username, and URL). Don't include the "http://" in the link, just "WWW.whatever".
A folder called "work" will be created on your chosen folder on the web. This will contain the "filename.fvl" flash file. An html (which you name) will be uploaded along with an SWF file, a gif file, the Riva player, and a couple other files. After this is done you may want to modify the html file to use something other than simply a color for the backdrop. I placed a small snippet of code to use a cream colored canvas backdrop and to center the player in the display. You also have the ability with the Producer to generate text. I'm not certain yet about all the details because I'm still playing with Producer, but I did purchase it (Riva Lite) and will use it to upload most of my slideshows I want resident on the web.
It's an amazing little program. I searched long and hard to find something which could do what it does without purchasing DreamWeaver plus Flash extensions or FLASH MX 20004 - each of which are very expensive solutions. This one seems to me to be the best of those I was able to find.
Best regards,
Lin
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Not bad for a web-based application. As I mentioned before, the dissolves still leave something to be desired, but the other effects are quite impressive. Nice images, too.
Hi Al,
Thanks.. Yes actually Flash isn't nearly as "good" at a quality slideshow via the web as ActiveX, not is it nearly as "compact" . The ActiveX code to produce this show is about 1/4 the size of the Flash and the quality is definitely better, but ActiveX limits the viewing to Windows users and also to those who are willing to have ActiveX enabled.
The problems with ActiveX hackers has made what could be a great thing into less of an option. Flash just isn't quite as amenable to the very smooth dissolves which are possible with ActiveX but the choices of web output are severely constrained by the need or desire for movement (Ken Burns effect, etc.,). So it's a decision we must make about safety versus quality - not easy.....
Best regards,
Lin
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Hi Al,
Yes, this is actually larger and at higher resolution than one would normally want to code a Flash slideshow for the web. I pushed the envelope a little to see what kind of quality was possible and still keep it reasonably small in terms of storage overhead.
Here's a link to one of my samples using the Ken Burns effect which was encoded form a PSG mpeg output. It's about the same (30 fps and stereo sound) as the P2E show I linked, but you can get a feel for the Ken Burns effect as implemented with flash output. I also linked this in the post asking about the Ken Burns effect. Since these are progressive, if you go back an play them the second time I suspect the temp file still resides on you hard disk so they should play smoothly the second time around. If you move the mouse cursor (mouseover) into the slideshow the player controls should be revealed so you can pause, start and adjust volume, etc.
Best regards,
Lin
Link below:
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Hi Steve,
Here's a link to one of my shows using these effects. Works best if you have broadband.....
Lin
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have 'dabbled' with flash with some success in the past but I think the whole process is a little cumbersome and time consuming. I would like to see your example of a PTE show exported to flash. (I assume this will be a SWF file)
Hi Ron,
Actually not (an SWF). An SWF format encodes the entire video in a single file which can't be streamed or played in progressive mode. This would make the file way too large. SWF also has a limitation of 16,000 frames per instance (movie) so at 30 frames per second that would greatly limit the length of a slideshow. In general, SWF files are limited to clips of 30 seconds or less for practical appllications.
On the other hand Flash FLV files have no such limitation either in length or number of frames. In this format they can be streaming or progressive. Unless one has huge finantial resources and owns their own server (think large companies), progressive is the way to go because it doesn't require expensive server software. Progressive mode downloads a temp file to the users computer and streams from that in real time.
It's really not difficult at all encode the output of a P2E slideshow in Flash FLV, you simply need the proper software. Riva Producer ($30) and Riva encoder (free) work together to both encode the AVI output (also mpeg output, etc.) from P2E (P2E outputs AVI and sound using a number of compatble CODEC's) and create the necessary html and other files which it also uploads to your site. All you need to know is enough to tell the program where you want the files placed on your web and what to name the html, etc. Then you simply call the html in your link and the person viewing sees a player complete with controls (pause, play, volume) which plays your "movie" (slideshow, etc.) for them when they click the link.
Best regards,
Lin
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Yes, once Igor has the Ken Burns effects programmed, then the next step is to determine how we might be able to play them over the web in a sort of universal format. Presently the major formats are QTVR (apple), Flash (MacroMedia/Adobe), Java (Sun - primarily) and ActiveX (Microsoft).
Of these, it makes sense to me to use Flash. ActiveX is not trusted and doesn't work for non-Windows systems, Java is a possibility, but not as easily implemented, QTVR is more limited as I understand but Flash is pretty universal.
The link below is to a Flash implementation of one of my P2E slideshows. In this case it will probably work better for those with broadband because of the display size and audio quality. This one was encoded from a P2E AVI output in Microsoft mpeg 4 with stereo audio. It has a 10 second buffer and is rendered in the progressive output mode.... This means it is spooled out to a temp file on your hard disk then played back in real-time. This is "similar" in process to "streaming" but doesn't require you to have expensive and specialized streaming software on a dedicated server. Streaming spools it from the server rather than from your own hard disk like "progressive". Streaming prevents theft while progressive is vulnerable to theft because of the creation of the temp file on the viewer's hard disk. But normally, for what most of us display on the web and in the resolution we would display a slideshow, theft is a non-issue. Obviously when we post a slideshow in executable form and let people download it this is a much more vulnerable practice than a much lower resolution flash show. There is no perfect solution, but I think this is a viable alternative.
Link below:
Lin
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Lately I've been testing a variety of ways to achieve the Ken Burns effects including competitive products like ProShow Gold and various Flash tools.
The way to "trump" the competition is to have usable features they don't have and it's perhaps easier to see their mistakes and not make them.
Presently, ProShow Gold has the best overall implementation of the Ken Burns effects of the many slideshow softwares which I've tested, but they have two issues which I hope Igor can greatly improve on.
First: PSG gives a starting point and an ending point for any "single slide". You can zoom or pan or rotate for the beginning then set the ending to do likewise and the program "calculates" the vector positions, zooms, pans, rotates between these two positions and the action is smooth and works well. But this is short of what is "needed" for such an application. What is needed is rather than only two positions (start and end) for a particular slide is three choices. 1. A starting point with pan, zoom, rotate. 2. An intermediate point where this action terminates with proper vectors between to effect the desired result. 3. The ability to "continue" to display the "same" slide after the actions are completed so that further actions such as following transitions, text scrolling, etc., are possible without inserting a duplicate slide and matching the end result of the first slide with the beginning of the second or "duplicate" slide. When you must insert a duplicate slide there is "always" some slight "break" in the smoothness as the next slide loads no matter how carefully the position match or whether "decelerate, linear, or accelerate" are chosen as actions and no matter which type of fade or cross-fade is used at the transition point. These issues could all be avoided if the user were allowed to continue an action on the individual slide rather than having to load a duplicate. A situation where this might be applicable would be for scrolling a 360 pano then scrolling text on that same slide after returning to a mid position.
The second issue is to have "graphical" text effects in addition to "fonts" with bold, italics, and sizes, etc. A good program to see these in action is Media@Show which has some of the most fantastic text effects of any present slideshow.
Another major mistake, in my opinion, which ProShow Gold has made is to output their web shows using Microsoft's ActiveX. In surveys I conducted on multiple forums trying to get people to look at slideshow output using PhotoDex's implementation of ActiveX there was extreme push-back. Windows users are simply afraid of having ActiveX enabled because it serves as a portal for hackers to transmit worms to the user's system. It would be far better, in my opinion, to perhaps form a union or agreement with a company which provides Flash FLV encoding to perhaps use their engine (for royalties of course) to output Flash code which can be viewed by nearly anyone on the web. Think Riva Producer and Riva Encoder here - look at it and think about perhaps some cooperative venture which might be profitable for all.
I for one would be more than willing to pay for a new or additional license to Igor for the additional values of having the ability to output to flash built in to P2E. As it is, I can take P2E AVI output and convert using Riva Encoder to Flash FLV and then use Riva Producer to export simple HTML code and put this on the web, but wouldn't it be nice to have both in one product and perhaps be profitable for both developers if the products were welcomed by a broader audience?? Just something to think about....
If anyone is interested in seeing what a P2E slideshow looks like exported in Flash please let me know and I'll post one......
Best regards,
Lin
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What is "suck"?
Ron [uK]
Hi Ron,
It's slang "American" for "not worth a wank" :-)
Lin
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Thanks but I DO have LOTS of copyright fee music. Can we talk? It all sucks!
There's a reason real music sells to real people and royalty free music only sells to us.
I don't mean to sound flippant or nasty.
I'm just looking for a feature like Kai's used to have... where it directed the computer to go to CD for the music.
fuz
I'm really not talking about "copyright" free music which would be something in the public domain, I'm referring to "royalty free" music which is certainly not "copyright free." You "pay" for royalty free music and have rights to use it which are carefully defined. I can assure you that it doesn't all "suck" but there are thousands of seriously good selections, many of which are used by even major motion picture productions, etc., and performed by world class musicians. Perhaps you haven't found what you like but then perhaps you haven't really looked hard enough or in the right places.
I use royalty free music for many of my client's slideshow presentations and I've never had a complaint. Not only do they enjoy the music but it's carefully crafted with a variety of different lengths for specific applications so the user doesn't have to be an audio engineer to find a length which fits the application. A good royalty free distributor will carefully sort and classify the music according to instrumentation, mood, genre, etc., which takes much of the work out of getting a proper match for the images and purpose.
This may or may not be suitable for your own purposes, but to say it all "sucks" is way off base.....
Best regards,
Lin
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A suggestion for P2E users who wish to have their slideshows available on the web for everyone including MacIntosh users....
Inexpensive and very capable software exists by which you may convert mpeg, avi, etc., to Flash FLV code then upload to your website the entire show which only requires the viewer to have Flash enabled. The program even furnishes Flash detection code.
One suggestion for Igor would be an AVI retrieval mechanism so that when the AVI file is created from P2E it's not lost (erased) automatically when the user quits P2E. This could be done as an optional "switch" so that it would be possible to use this AVI file with products like Riva Producer Lite to make a Flash slideshow available for viewing by MacIntosh users, etc. It's certainly "possible" to do now by simpliy copying the AVI file somewhere else after its creation and before quitting P2E, but it would be very "convenient" if it could be preserved by choice.
I create Flash animation from still photographs using several different software products, but once P2E has the Ken Burns Effect enabled using a product like Riva Producer Lite and the free Riva encoder will allow duplication of the P2E executable type show to be also viewed by anyone having flash enabled computers. Here's a link to see the Riva product which works very, very well and I find a great adjunct to P2E. I have created a PSG (I know - bad word here :-)) slideshow demonstrating its (Riva's) functionality and will shortly do likewise with a P2E show. Riva Producer Lite is very simple to use and costs $30 U.S.
My point is that we can already make our P2E slideshows into universally viewable Flash presentations so that even those who use MacIntosh can see what they are missing.
Here's a link to learn more:
http://www.sofotex.com/Riva-Producer-Lite-...oad_L23854.html
Best regards,
Lin
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Could someone explain to me what "recover exe file" consists of. I would really like a feature to recover the .pte information, i.e., be able to extract the images, sequences, timings, etc., so that changes could be made to the slide show at some later date without having to find a possibly deleted .pte.
Is this what is meant by "recover exe file" ? That is "restore" the components used to create the .exe??
Thanks,
Lin
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Some ISP's (mine, for example) won't host .exe files on their servers for security reasons. As long as your ISP allows you to store .exe file then it's up to the person who downloads to deal with the possibility of getting an exe through the various potential filters from anti-virus programs resident on their own PC.
One way of getting around this is to rename the .exe file to .ex and remind the person who downloads to change the file extension back to .exe. Most, but of course not all users have enough familiarity with their systems to rename a file - that is providing they actually read the note telling them to do so. I've tested this on major forums and about 10% respond with "I can't get the slideshow to run" and the reason is invariably that they failed to read the note to rename the file.
Best regards,
Lin
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making shows for DVD, that's where PSG shines. I --hate-- it when I have to use multiple programs to execute a task and unfortunately, PTE forces me to do this if what I'm after is a DVD-based show. PSG on the other hand is one-stop-shopping... I create the show there, add an effects I like (the text effects are unmatched), and then can output the show as an .exe, a DVD-show (or both on the same disc), or even such variants as VCD, SVCD, or .SCR screensavers.
Hi Rick,
If you think the text effects in ProShow Gold are "unmatched" then you haven't used Media@Show which has the best text effects of any slideshow by a considerable margin.
If you check out slideshow "contests" you will find more than an average amount of winners are using P2E rather than ProShow Gold. Mark's slideshows don't come close to some which have been done with P2E. Absolutely PSG is the present affordable king of DVD producing slideshows but you can do things with PicturesToExe which simply can't be done with ProShow Gold because of the object handling ability. You've been away too long from P2E - there are some amazing new capabilities.
Best regards,
Lin
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Has anyone used ProShow Gold to burn exe. files to DVD's? How does this work? Is it worth buying the program or can it be done through the pictures to exe. program?
Actually, you don't burn .exe files to a DVD unless you intend to play the DVD in a computer. The executable format doesn't work in DVD players. I suspect you mean an auto-running DVD slideshow which is essentially a "movie" format. If that's the case it works well with ProShow Gold but you can make the same type slideshow with P2E by using the output to AVI feature then using another program such as Ulead DVD Movie Factory to convert and burn the AVI to DVD format.
Lin
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That might work, but why not use "Royalty Free" music? There are hundreds of thousands of incredibly good royalty free selections available. All, of course have copyrights but you pay only once to use as many times and as often as you wish for any but broadcast purposes.
Lin
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Why not just get the original zip program written by Paul Katz (PKZip)? It's $29 and still the best there is in my experience:
Lin
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I think you're right! - definitely my error here :-)
Lin