Lin Evans

Hi Robert, PTE's "toolbox" is just getting better and better. It's a challenge to try to simulate reality. Of course after going to the movies a week ago and seeing The Life of Pi in 3D, it's back to the drawing board! LOL. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, LOL - Thanks! Arthur probably would be scratching his head. I one heard Jerry Reed describe his picking as "clawing." Yep, that would be "relaxing" HA! I think there is a video floating around on Youbube with Jerry playing with Chet. It's one of the few times I've actually hear Jerry tone it down a bit. He was a super talented guy for sure. It seems like we're losing lots of the great pickers lately. Best regards, Lin

HI, Thanks! I wish I really had a real cabin like this one - It would be fun to watch the snow falling out that wonderful window. Actually it's snowing right now outside my own window - I just returned from four days in New Mexico and got in just ahead of the storm. One of the few good things about living in snow country is that you get lots of chances to observe it and try to make it realistic on PTE to match one's observations. Best regards, Lin

Hi Robert, Thanks! It's always fun playing around with the possibilities in PTE. Tommy is some picker, for sure. I did use a combination of masking and 3D transform to get the video perspective correct on the television. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gayland, Thanks! Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Sorry to be so late answering - I've been in New Mexico the last four days... I don't know how that got into the "comedy category" - I'll have to check it out... Thanks, Lin

Hi Eric, The sound volume is set lower than normal because I use a tiny ceramic microphone (about a $4 type) which has good audio quality, but doesn't give me a great deal of amplification. My tutorials are recorded with a screen recording program called "Screen Recorder Gold" in AVI format which also records the sound from my microphone. These tutorials are all individually available from this tutorials section of the PTE forum or from: Link This Youtube show consists of a little introductory text and ending text with two of the tutorials which are closely related... Best regards, Lin

Hi Folks, I've placed a couple of my tutorials on creating and manipulating a three dimensional cube into a single show on Youtube. The tutorial shows you first how to use my template to quickly and easily replace the sides with your own images, animated gifs or even videos. Then it demonstrates how to manipulate the rotation and size of the cube via the controlling rectangle. I suggest choosing the high quality and full screen options... Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, Glad to see that you got it all sorted out! Nice job - I liked the mixture of old and new photos and the "tango" was indeed done very well. I appears that both you and Antonio Banderas were thoroughly enjoying this and that's what it's all about! Congratulations on a job well done! Best regards, Lin

Hey Tom, Looks like the "slices" are working well for transitions... Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, I downloaded the MP4 and just converted it with 7.5. Why don't you just use 7.5 to convert it - just because it is converted in 7.5 doesn't mean there will be any reason why you can't just drop it in 7.01 and play it?. It's incredibly easy to do this... Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, Just use 7.5 to convert the clip, then load the clip in 7.1. Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, O.K., now it is making sense ... There had to be a logical explanation because it's not possible to have the frame rate doubled and the length of the video remain constant (in such a case the video action would be sped up) unless frames were being duplicated and if this were the case there would be no speed up of the visual - it would look almost identical to the slower frame rate. So what is happening is that the 7.01 converter is doubling the frame rate and, of course, the video stops at half the expected display time while the audio is unaffected. My suggestion would be to send a link to the video to Igor and let him determine the problem with the conversion. If you just want to get your project done, use 7.5 because it appears to work perfectly with this download. I did notice, however, that the original download has a bit of what appears to be vertical stretching which "may" indicate that there is a problem with the original video which "might" be somehow connected with the issue you are experiencing. Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, What is the frame rate on the downloaded Tango - Roxanne? I downloaded it and the frame rate is 29.917 fps. I converted it with PTE 7.5 and the converted AVI frame rate was 29.917 fps as well. Both played normally on my system (Win XP). Are you saying that if you "convert" the original, which has a 29.917 fps frame rate with the PTE conversion feature in pure default mode without changing anything, the frame rate on the AVI becomes 59.75 fps ? What I still can't understand is how it's possible for the action to be sped up with no change in the overall time and no periods of zero activity. If you walk a mile in 15 minutes (the 15 minutes being the length of your video) then you double your speed for that distance you will cover the mile in 7.5 minutes (the length of your video) unless you stop somewhere either one time for 7.5 minutes or after each step or after 10 steps or 100 steps, etc., but you have to stop or you will cover the mile in 7.5 minutes. Having the action sped up without changing the length of the video and no stops defies the laws of physics. There "must" be something else going on that you are not yet seeing. Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, I'm not understanding how it's possible to "speed the action" without reducing the run time?? I can't visualize this. Normally, a faster frame rate conversion from a slower frame rate without affecting run time would only be possible by simply doubling each frame. If one doubled the frame rate without reducing run time then it would seem that the last frame would simply be displayed for approximately half the total time of the video. Are you certain that it hasn't just gone from an interlaced to a progressive format? Could you explain in a little more detail the actual effect of the video when played back? How does the appearance differ? Best regards, Lin

Incroyable Jean, je vous remercie pour cette réalisation d'inspiration et magistrale. Vous avez pris PTE vers de nouveaux sommets! Amazing Jean, thank you for this inspiring and masterful achievement. You've taken PTE to new heights! Best regards, Lin

Hi Dick, Thanks! I only wish it were not just mine in my imagination! LOL. I've watched bald eagles fly past the window when I was visiting in Homer, Alaska in the early 80's where there were unusually large flocks of them primarily due to feeding and conditioning by Jean Keene. I've heard that since Jean passed away, the town of Homer has passed a law against feeding eagles, and that the large flocks are not as common as they once were. We don't have nearly as many here in Colorado and they usually keep their distance from populated areas, however I have friends who lived on a lake where they congregate, and they have had them actually perch on their deck posts several times. I suppose habituation to humans happen when their normal timidity is overcome by easy fishing in a lake full of tasty and accessible fish. Best regards, Lin

Hi Steven, Thanks! The apparent synchronization of the flames with the music is serendipitous, but it does work out that way. Both the moonlight image of the wolf (actually it's a coyote) over the fireplace and the one from Monument Valley on the wall to the left of the fireplace are photos which I took last month. Best regards, Lin

LOL - the furniture and TV are real, so no opportunity to change their relative sizes... Best regards, Lin

http://www.lin-evans.org/tommy/tommyinsn.zip (about 44 meg) Windows http://www.lin-evans.org/tommy/tommyinsnmac.zip (about 44 meg) Native MacIntosh Lin

Hi Barry, I agree that it probably "should" be defaulted to appear rather than having to check the box. New users probably would not find all the parameters. Actually, I would turn about "everything" on which is optional and let the user "opt out" if they didn't want it or wanted to customize the appearance. I never use the default navigation bar myself except during creation of a show where I do find it very useful. Once I am ready to actually "publish," I turn it off. I do find it is very useful for some of my animations which are done on a single slide which might run for upwards of five minutes. I can simply move the slider to get to times where I want things to happen and fine tune visually with it. If it were not available by default, I probably would turn it on for many of my projects. It's definitely "less useful" if one is doing conventional slides where each slide might only appear for a few seconds. For truly manual shows, I always use the old navigation styles where I can choose the features needed. Best regards, Lin

Eric, Windows gives that message to almost any zipped exe file - it's "very common" and means absolutely nothing. I get the same message when I download most of my own shows from my own site. Best regards, Lin

Hi Barry, I'm confused - is this different on different operating systems? I'm using Win XP. Next to the "preview" button on the right - I see the icon to start show from selected image. Is this not the one you are referring to? Under Settings, Preferences, Toolbars, Bottom Left Toolbar, Preview From Current Position, check mark. Are you saying that this should not be "optional" but just be there as the default? Best regards, Lin

Hi Xaver, I noticed the same - my Samsung 40" LED Television plays animations much smoother with the Xvid encoder than with h.264. Best regards, Lin

Hi Guys, The problem is definitely caused by the sharpness of the images coupled with zoom or pan. Minimizing the sharpness "may" help, but sometimes this simply can't be ameliorated. The mipmapping was actually designed to minimize or eliminate this with zooms, especially of very small objects. An example would be a close up of a celestial object such as the moon followed by a zoom out to practically no image. The auto-mipmapping isn't as strong as the manual mode but there was probably a good reason for no longer having the manual control even though sometimes it seems it would be nice to choose. For my still images and text, I like maximum sharpness and sometimes even apply unsharp masking in addition, but when I zoom, I set the sharpness to minimum and if I want to end up with a very sharp image, I do it in two slides. End the zoom or pan then pause briefly on the identical second slide with "quick no transition" change. Best regards, LIn