ADB

Here's an example of a frame of video (progressive no filters) the top image is from an image firstly resized to a width of 720 pixels the bottom image was 3504 pixels wide and resized by PTE The top image is smoother and looks good on a TV, the bottom image while apparantly sharper has actually broken up a bit, look particularly at the corners of the caravans where a wavy effect is apparant. The bottom image almost suffers from a similar effect seen in oversharpened images. If this was panning the bottom image looks even worse with flickering.

Igor I have been doing some tests on video output. My tests are showing that if you let Pictures2exe downsize your images to fit DVD format that the quality of the final video is not as good as if you resized the image in an image editor program first. For example if you had an image say 3000 x 2000 pixels you are better to resize first to a width of 720 pixels(PAL DVD width dimension) in an external image editor and then load into PTE. I have found that if I let PTE downsize the image to fit DVD format the video is not as sharp and almost lumpy when compared to using native dimensions in your source images. Is this correct?

I think you mean Autostitch? Here is the link:- http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html Its OK but the best I have found yet is PTGUI, its pretty much automatic now and does a great job especially when you use it with the free SMARTBLEND plugin. Hope this helps

Hi Al Thanks for posting the files, I ran on my system and concur with your results, I have established that the reason my show was out of sync on the Timeline Preview but in sync on the final created show was because I was loading a previous already constructed project file, when I tried to rebuild the show from scratch with the new beta my results were the same as yours. Interestingly I would have thought a previous project file shouldn't give a different sync result. Nevertheless hopefully this is all academic as synchronisation hasn't quite been completed by Igor and the team, maybe these experiments will help.

Hi Kevin 1. Go to this link http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/special-offer.htm to read the following:- Special offer Download and try PicturesToExe v5.00 Beta with high quality Pan/Zoom effects. Order PicturesToExe v4.48 right now and get the final version of PicturesToExe v5.00 for free. While version 5.00 is in beta, you can install and use both these versions together. New prices and licenses after the release of PicturesToExe v5.00 After the final release of PicturesToExe v5.00, WnSoft will increase prices and set new licenses with 2 years of free upgrades. All new customers who placed an order before the date of the final version of PicturesToExe v5.00 get this version by old price! All existing users get new version for free. 2. No one knows exactly when the final version 5 will be ready but it can't be too far away as most glitches seem to have been ironed out, my guess is by the end of September maybe sooner?

Hi Al This is how it used to be but in this latest beta I loaded a previous show and the final outputed show is synched exactly as per the timeline (without needing to push all points 1 sec out) I also noticed there isn't the delay at the start of the show like there used to be, however if you use the preview function from the timeline it goes back to being 1 sec out from what is shown on the timeline. So i'm saying the timeline without adjustment is in sync, the created show is in sync but the preview is out of sync when launched from the timeline, if you play from the beginning in the timeline it also is synched. This sort of lines up with Igor announcing that in this beta synchronisation to music is almost completed.

Thanks Al, this is great as it means you can build a perfectly synched show with this beta using the timeline as long as you aren't wanting to test with the preview function.

Can someone please confirm the following:- When viewing the preview window in Timeline mode (using synchronisation) if you play from the start, sync appears to be "spot on" but if you pause and relocate the cursor then play from that point sync appears to be out by about a secound? I appreciate the sync function hasn't yet been fully implemented but just wondering if others are finding the same on this latest beta?

Congratulations to Igor and the Wnsoft team, The AVI output is working perfectly on my system creating high quality video files through either ULead Movie Factory or Sorenson Squeeze (used for making web streaming content). Synchronisation is perfect on the outputted video though synchronisation is still out when viewed via the timeline (about 1 sec out) but this will be corrected in the final beta.

This is very clever, I again thought I had seen it all untill seeing this. A very exciting year in PTE presentations is looming.

Jason Good to see you lurking (well not so much lurking.. ) around the PTE forum. I think the competition between PSG & PTE is a healthy thing, they both possibly motivate the respective developers to continually enhance their product. I think its probably fair to say they are both developing their own niche markets and this also is a good thing. Hope we see a lot more of you over here as I know you have a wealth of experience and knowledge to share. I haven't watched a full frame show from PSG for a while but I will be very interested to see Lin's comparison between the two shows.

Lin I dare you to upload the shows and send a link to Jason Edwards

Igor Thanks for the reply, you don't need to apologize you are developing a world class peice of software and this must be very time consuming for you. Fully understand about your implementation strategy and think this is a very good idea. Great news that you are fixing the line problem, for your info I tested it on 1024 x 768 and 1600 x 1200 monitor resolution and managed to see the lines on my system also, using 1088 x 612, 1152 x 864 and 1280 x 1240 I couldn't see the lines. Also as Ron has pointed out changing the screen aspect ratio in PTE to something other than 1:1.5 also fixes the problem. Looking forward to Beta #3 :-)

Thanks all for your help on this, looks like a small bug for Igor to work on but at least the forum has managed to narrow it down. I'm not at my home PC at the moment but from memory my display is currently set on a resolution higher than 1024 x 768 so that would explain why I couldn't see it on my system. When I get home I'll play around with the screen ratio settings and maybe repackage as suggested by Lin. I think so far of all the Demo's I have seen for PTE 5.0 I am the only one using 1:1.5 Screen Ratio (because this matches the ratio of a 35mm slide) and this I imagine is behind the cause of the problem and probably why no others have had a similiar problem in their shows.

Hemjr Thanks, sounds like it works OK on your system so there may be a hardware issue to this problem. Guru (and others) Have now backed up project file, images and soundtrack to the following link:- http://www.imagescapes.co.nz/private/backup.zip Al I'm not using a blank Dark Slide for these images PTE is generating the "black" to fill in the screen. I hope someone is able to find the cause of these mystery lines, its hard for me to test solutions as I'm not seeing the problem on my system. Cheers

Ken - Your sense of humour is improving, maybe we should rename you "Fastest Wit" Ralph - Thanks for those screen shots it really does confirm something to me. Problem in PTE? The vertical shot with the hills in the background and the three trees is a simple stand alone image. The actual image area is only the "image" there is no black masking or border added by me in fact the image hasn't gone near photoshop. The images before and after this shot are just straight stand alone images as well with no animations and all images are simple quick fades from one to the other. This would suggest that something within PTE is causing this problem as the program in this case has to set the screen ratio to 1:1.5 as per the project settings, then it has to center my image on this screen ratio adding black all round. The other mystery is why the line doesn't show on my PC when the exe is played??

Thanks Ken I thought it looked like a lot of work but very effective. I was actually thinking "He couldn't possibly have manually lined up all those sections but you have! Wow! I think I will tuck that away for future reference, I'm sure it would make a great opening sequence for a particular type of presentation.

Hi Ken How did you do that

Ron Very puzzling, I even downloaded the show via the link I posted (to check that it isn't a corruption of the original upload) and it too plays fine on my PC. If any body else reading this has played the show without problems would be great to know as possibly certain hardware/software setups have a bearing on whether the effect occurs or not. Ron are you able to do a screen dump at the time effect occurs so I can see what it looks like?

Ken, Ron & Lumenlux: Very strange about the horizontal flash I have tested the exe here and no sign of the horizontal flash...hmmm I wonder what's causing that on your systems and not mine. Ron: Yes, I am now using the new card and and haven't seen jerkiness in any show since it was installed :-) Ken: Fingers crossed on the wine Lumenlux: About the ideal presentation software and what I have been dreaming of....well its quite straight forward as all I have ever wanted to be able to do is provide a cinematic experience similiar to watching a high quality visual movie/documenatry something along the lines of BARAKA. To be able to to do this you need to be able to do the following:- - Display a high quality, high resolution image - Be able to sync perfectly with a soundtrack to change images at precise changes in the music. (and do so easily) - Add additional sounds through the presentation - Achieve high quality smooth fades, cuts, pans and zooms - Be able to smoothly scroll text for credits & titles - Be able to incorporate some advance layering/animation/opacity to produce interesting titles etc These have never been available in any software that I have found to date EXCEPT PTE 5.0, many programs have a huge raft of glitzy transitions and gimmicky features which I will never use, I have always just wanted to do the basics really well and now PTE 5.0 lets you! :-)

Hi Al Thanks for checking it out, thats great news! I just played around with the duration of the last slide. I think it worked out at being a duration which finished at about 1.9 secs before the soundtrack ended, this seemed to keep in good sync for the following repeats of the presentation. So it didn't need much :-) Cheers

Thanks for sharing Ron Tell me though, is the first slide without any boats taken "without any boats" and then another one taken from the same position with the boat included or as Ken suggests have you been doing some masking in Photoshop??

Hi Lumenlux Sorry my fault I left my PC uploading a slightly modified version last night on checking it only uploaded 2.7Megs of a 20Meg exe file so you PC is probbaly complaining about a corrupted exe file which is in no way at all a fault with PTE, I am uploading again now should take 15 mins from time of this post to load, would still be interested to see how you go with it. I think its incredible that Igor has managed to pull off animations and synchronization (allbeit with a little tweaking). Its almost like everything I have ever wanted in a presentation software is about to be delivered :-)

This is very clever! Well done, I would never have thought of using this method to draw tracer lines, really is a case of thinking outside the box. I wonder what other novel techniques and methods PTE 5.0 will produce.

Al & Ron Thanks for the feedback, probably not what I wanted to hear as I have to conclude that the end result is not necessarily going to be the same on two different PC's and I won't be able to release this to my client. :-( Thanks for having a look for me. Roll on the next beta :-)