cjdnzl
-
Posts
588 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by cjdnzl
-
-
Bruno,
Perhaps this diagram will make it clearer for you.
Colin
-
My camera club is trying to select a laptop to use for digital training and slide show presentations via a projector. We have a budget of around £600 and want to continue using XP. the question is, which laptop. If we use a separate graphics card, will the projected picture be any different to that from the laptops internal card, if we have a separate sound card will the sound quality show any marked difference.
Yachtsman1.
There aren't many laptops that allow you to swap graphics and sound cards around; generally you can't change what the machine comes with. They're not like a desktop where you have four or five slots to play with. The internals of laptops are so tight that fitting a different card is generally not possible; and the cards do not have edge connectors like desktop models, they have wired plugs that mate with sockets on the card.
Your best bet is to aim towards a laptop with a dedicated graphics card, like a mid-range gaming machine, built to handle considerable graphics-intensive programs. Programs like PicturesToExe version 5.n make extensive use of the graphics chip (GPU), using the hardware rendering capabilites of such chips to give the outstanding quality typical of PTE, particularly PZR effects, but this demands a good graphics chip, preferably an Nvidia 8600M GT or better. The Nvidia software puts an icon on the taskbar which allows you to quickly select any of the available screen pixel sizes, essential when driving a data projector with dimensions different from the laptop
The GPU running graphics-intensive programs can run quite hot, so you need to avoid laptops that have potential overheating problems.
As you want to stay with XP - good choice there - you may need to go to a brand like Dell which allows you to specify what you want in your computer, including the OS. I think you'd have a hard time trying to buy an off-the-shelf machine with XP; they all come with Vista nowadays.
I went through this process for my own club last year, and settled on a Dell 1520 with 1.8 GHz duo processor, and Nvidia 8600M GT GPU, and XP SP2. This machine performs very well with PTE programs, and the sound from the Sigmatel High-Definition codec and the sound card is very good indeed. You could do worse than visiting the Dell UK website, and perusing what they have to offer. I have found their support outstanding; each machine they sell has a unique ID number, and when you log onto their Support Centre they know immediately all about your computer and can offer you the right upgrades and fixes necessary on-line. IMHO this beats hands-down taking the machine back to a retailer who then sends it out to a repair outfit somewhere.
Best of luck with your choice,
Colin
-
Laura,
Use the Windows clipboard to extract the reg key from the email, open Notepad and copy the key into that program, then save it in a folder of your choice as [filename].reg (be sure to use .reg as the filename extension). Then double-click on that file, which will cause it to be inserted into the registry, from where any version of PTE will find it.
Alternatively, you can name the file [filename].key, and put it in the PTE folder under c:\program files\wnsoft pictures to exe\5.5, where PTE will look for it and automatically insert it into the registry.
Make sure you get all of and only the key string from the email.
Colin
-
Thanks to Igor and Brian for comments and suggestions about this little problem.
Following Brian's advice, I tried a different (LCD) monitor but the problem still existed - but that let out my wife's monitor from suspicion.
So I tried Igor's advice and logged on to Windows update, and it offered me Directx 9 which I installed, and thereby fixed the problem.
Although a low-end card, the 9250 worked reasonably well, a small amount of jerkiness with scrolling page turns, but otherwise acceptable.
My wife is pleased, and I'm pleased (I don't have to buy her a new graphics card
) That's not being 'tight', it's just that she seldom plays AVs, and she is happy with the level of performance from the 9250.Colin.
-
I had occasion to run a PTE show on my wife's computer, an Asus P4P-800 deluxe board, Prescott P4 CPU at 3.00 GHz, 512 MB memory, and an ATI A9250 graphics card. The CRT monitor is set at 1024x768 and 85 Hz refresh.
I know the 9250 is a low-end card, but there is little animation in the show, and it appears to run normally, except that each image appears on the screen in triplicate, each one squashed to 1/3rd of the screen width, but normal height.
I downloaded and installed the latest drivers I could find, but the triple images persist.
Has anybody struck this before, before I junk the card and go buy an Nvidia?
Colin
-
I have had Vista Service Pack1 installed on my Laptop for, must be a month at least, with no problems. In fact it could be my imagination but I am sure downloading from the net and copying files and a few other things are working much faster. What I would be interested in hearing is if anyone has installed the new XP Service Pack. Since the warning on this forum I have turned my updates off in my desktop which has XP. Any updates from those in the know?
David
You can safely download and install XP SP2, which has been out for some time now. But I would be cautious about SP3 until the FUD clears a bit.
I always make an image backup of my C: drive before any major update is applied; that way I can reinstall the system if necessary.
Colin.
-
Hello Brian,
At this point I don't know the detailed answers to most of those questions; those I can answer are interleaved below. I decided to answer publicly because others may be interested as well. You can access the PSNZ website for more information on
http://www.photography.org.nz/index.htm
Colin,Thanks for that News about PSNZ and this might be an oppurtunity to 'garner' some Research Data ?
May I ask the following questions:-
A)
How many Categories of Photographs will be exibited ?
I think two; Natural History and Open
How many Photographs per Owner are envisaged ?
Maximum two per topic I think
C)
Can an Owner's enter their Photographs in multiple Categories ?
Yes, but a given image can only be on one category
D)
How many 'Owner Age Categories' are there ? (Eg:- Children, Youths, Seniors) ignore gender.
One. There is no age discrimination
E)
Will the Presentation Formats be in Landscape or Portrait or a mixture of both and Odd Sizes ?
For prints, 16x20 maximum, matted or mounted. Projected images maximum dimension 1024 pixels - but if it's a vertical image they don't specify 768 maximum, which means potential resizing may happen. I am currently in dialogue with PSNZ about this.
F)
What 'Viewing Format' will be adopted:- 4:3 or 16:10 or a mixture of both ?
Any format within the bounds of 1024x768, a projector limitation. We would like a higher end projector, but data projectors are pricy here and we are a smallish club, about 40 members.
I would really appreciate your assistance in trying to tie up these parameters, and indeed if anyone else is
reading this, their input would also be appreciated.
No need to tie up this Forum Thread, just copy the above and send your answers via the Forum Messenger
EMail which can be accessed by clicking on My Profile.
Brian.Conflow.
-
I am watching this thread with considerable interest. Early next year our club will be host to the National Exhibition held in conjunction with the National Convention of the Photographic Society of New Zealand - PSNZ for short.
PSNZ tell me to expect about 2,000 images and photographs for this competition, and we have to find the software to not only present the images for the judges with on-the-fly culling of the rejects, but also to keep track of the owners and the entry fees.
This is a great forum
Colin.
-
I had a great feedback line following a full days demo, where 2-3 of my latest slide shows were played. It was a written comment, sent on later, but I thought it summed up pretty well some of the riduculous things people say. Now what do you suppose he/she meant by this?
"Don't pass off pictures and music as AV"
I would love to meet that person and ask to see what they have created. Stupidity alive and well.
They probably have a pocket-sized video camera they hosepipe all over the place with ambient sound and think that is AV.
AV shows of the calibre of yours are like classical music played at railway stations and shopping malls to drive away the vandals. The author of the comment above is clearly a vandal.
Colin
-
Dear Igor, I was unable to use the help page as I could not read the security code block at the bottom of the page. Anyhow I am using Windows XP with a brand new graphics card ATI Radeon X1650 Pro. On initiation of a preview or a completed PTE show, my screen looses it's colour "Spyder" calibration & displays a strong blue cast, then after 6 or seven slides have been shown, the pictures either freeze or the graphics card crashes putting my LCD monitor on standby. The only way to get back is to reboot my PC. There are no problems with the early version of PTE 4.48.
As your card is brand new, could you return it to the store and get an Nvidia card instead, maybe a GeForce 7600 GT or better? The reason is that some ATI cards cause loss of the ICC profile attached to your monitor when running a 5.n PTE show. Nvidia cards do not exhibit this behavior.
The bug is in the ATI driver software and is well known, and a search of posts in this forum will find numerous references to this problem.
There are some work-arounds which might or might not work; personally I would change the card.
Colin
-
My programme suddenly does not support making DVDs.
I downloaded and paid for the new programme, I suppose it would be about 12 months ago, when it first came out. Since then I have made DVD programmes from time to time.
I have recently downloaded the Beta versions of PTE 5.
Then all of a sudden when I need to make a few DVDs I am informed that "DVDs not supported". Does this mean I have to buy the programme again?
What do I do please? I need this within the next day or two.
Use PTE VideoBuilder to make an ISO file (I can't remember the key sequence but you should be able to find it in the VB screens), and then download a program called 'ImgBurn', a free and very useful utility for burning ISO files to DVD.
Colin.
-
Just began using the videobuilder, with version 5.5 beta 8. I have done 4 discs for tests and attempted to play them on 6 different machines. 2 players, 4 recording decks/burners. 2 of the decks don't see a disc. the 2 player-only machines see them and play them fine, at least as long as I observed them. This is a higher percentage of problems than I normally get. I tested two of the discs with a customer, since they were their orders. The husband is a software engineer and could not get either disc to be recognized on any of his 2 computers and one player.
Any ideas as to why the discs made through PTE are giving me problems?
I have used default settings, NTSC and burned at half speed where I could. Of some 4000 discs I've made, I've only had playability problems on about 35-40 discs. These 4 discs just made are defying that fine record.
Have you changed disk brands? Not all DVD disks are created equal. Try another good brand of disk if you can. Perhaps after that number of disks written the laser lenses in your burner need cleaning, or maybe you need a new burner.
Colin
-
Lin,
Thats a right can of worms you have opened up there, so here goes ~
I can't accept the use of the word Animation here in the context of PTE....
Encylopedias' definition of 'Animation' and and in my Training days the word meant:-
To bring to life or to give pseudo-life & intelligence to inanimate and animate objects.
Examples:-
Cartoons:- Micky Mouse, Bugs-Bunny, Top-Cat and Sony Play Stations, and Films like:
Shrek, ET, and Robots like R2D2 & C3CPO ~ all are Animations.
By no stretch of the imagination would I consider Optical Zoom or Pan as Animations.
They are 70 year old Optical effects, even if they are now digitised as PZR.
I will stick with PZR ~ in a few months people will ask me what is PZR....What a Lark !
Best regards,
Brian.
Brian, with respect, I think your definition of 'animation' is rather outdated in this computer age. Wikipedia defines animation as movement of a whole image, as well as movement within an image, and they show a rotating Planet Earth as an example of animation.
Many older terms have been redefined to encompass newer concepts, as in photoshop and word processor programs, and the daddy of them all is Microsoft's use of the word 'font' to mean typeface, thoroughly upsetting professional printers and typesetters. To them, 'font' is plain wrong. From Wikipedia again, 'font' is "traditionally defined as a complete character set of a single size of a particular typeface. For example, all characters for 9 point Bulmer is a font, and the 10 point size would be another font. Since the introduction of personal computers, a broader definition has evolved. The term font is now often used as a metonym for a typeface".
I guess, since the introduction of scalable typefaces, the word 'font' in it's original meaning is outdated, so font has come to mean typeface at any point size. But the purists still shudder at these changes.
It's all part of everchanging English, I guess. 'Cool' in my day meant not quite cold, 'camp' was done with a tent, and a 'gay'person was one full of fun and laughter. Not so today. 'Animation' now includes whole-image movement.
Colin.
-
Our camera club is just getting together our own equipment for shows in medium sized halls (75 people max) We are looking for a pair of active speakers around 50 watts, with a budget of £120 (UK), Q has anyone a suggestion for make/model. They need to be suitable for voice and music, (not just p/a.)
Also does anyone know if there is a maximum size of active speaker that can be driven via a standard laptop?
Yachtsman1
My camera club has just done the same exercise, and ended up buying a medium-size stereo system from TradeMe, a New Zealand based internet auction site, sold by a person who was upgrading his system. A Panasonic 50w RMS per channel system, it easily fills our hall, and on shows like 'Atomium' the sound is fantastic. (Atomium is a fabulous showpiece for PTE, blows the audience away every time, all credit to the Belgian authors).
It seems a lot of the available second-hand equipment is from people who are upgrading to 5.1 or surround sound and home theatre systems, and disposing of perfectly good, powerful stereo systems when doing so.
Active speakers have individual amplifiers built in to the enclosures, and I don't know how controllable they are from a tonal and balance point of view, but we preferred a central amplifier with a remote control, which works well for our purposes.
Laptop sound ports generally put out a line-level signal ( about 1 volt RMS), which should match the input sensitivity of any amplifier with a line-in port, so there is no 'maximum' size of speaker from the laptop's perspective. Later, I intend to investigate using Bluetooth between the laptop and amplifier to eliminate the stereo cable, since the club computer and my own machine, both Dell 1520s, have built-in Bluetooth capability, and I need only to fit a Bluetooth receiver into the stereo unit.
This gear was purchased for a few tens of dollars, far cheaper than buying new, and it is in near-new condition.
Colin
-
My computer has just informed me that the XP3 update is available for download, and is offering to instal it. Here is the accompanying message from the installer:
"Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) is an update to Windows XP that addresses key feedback from our customers and is a cumulative update that includes all previously released updates for Windows XP, including security updates. Windows XP SP3 contains a small number of new updates and should not significantly change the Windows XP experience. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.
More information for this update can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936929"
I have not installed it, and will not until more info becomes available.
Colin
-
Have you looked in your spam folder, and/or in the spam folder on your mail server?
My ISP here uses Yahoo to manage email, and their spam filters are erratic, so much so that every day I have to log on to the web version of my mailbox and peruse ther spam folder, where I frequently find genuine emails - and conversely, I get emails in my inbox that are clearly spam. Apparently my ISP has given up the fight and left it to the individual to manage his spam.
Colin
-
Thanks again to all of you who took the time to add a reply to this thread. This is a great forum, one of the best!
Yes, I accept that I made the mistake of not setting up a new filename in the required folder, and I did just open PTE and delete the show therein, replacing the images with the new ones, expecting a new show to be created.
However, I have learned the lesson. From now on I will always use the ' Create backup in ZIP' option ( I have done sometimes
), and I will use the Save As option as well. Funny though, I generally use Save As when in Photoshop, so why I didn't in PTE I can't say. I am about to start rebuilding the lost show, it's all good practice, and you can bet your last dollar I won't lose it again.
Kind regards to all,
Colin
-
My thanks to all who answered so promptly, and as I guessed in my post above, it was probably my fault.
However, usually with a Windows program, such as Word, Excel, Wordperfect, and numerous others, if one starts a new file that is un-named, hitting 'save' causes the program to ask for folder and filename before saving the file, they do not simply write to the last known filename, so I feel in this case that PTE perhaps should do the same. In this respect I feel that PTE is non-standard
It is a great program, and I do not like criticising.
Thanks again,
Colin
-
I have encountered a serious problem which hopefully might be my fault, but I fear it is not.
I have several shows stored in separate folders on my E: drive; the original images for each show are in their own folder together with the project1.pte file, and the finished exe file for the show.
A show I finished on Thursday last was in a folder called 'Middlemiss', a genealogical show for use at a reunion on the weekend. It went well, and several persons requested a copy which I undertook to deliver on a CD.
During the weekend, I was delegated to take the 'official' photographs, which I did, about fifty shots, placed into a new folder called, surprisingly enough, 'Reunion Images'. I called up PTE, changed folders to to the new folder, removed the images of the reunion slide show, and added the images I took that day, set the duration to 7 secs each, set PTE to loop until stopped, and hit 'Create', expecting an exe file to be placed in the current folder with the camera images.
The exe creation was instant, without offering a chance to say where I wanted it, or to name it. I was astonished, and then dismayed to find that the project and exe files had been written to the 'Middlemiss' folder instead of the current folder, and had wiped out both the exe file and the project file for that program. All the work done for that show was gone. Yes, I should have backed it up, but I finished that show at 3.00 am, and had to be on the road the next morning, so it didn't get backed up.
If it is my fault, what did I do wrong? and has anyone else encountered this problem?
Colin
-
Hello all,
Well, regardless of whether the posts above are technical. emotional, scare-mongering, satirical, whatever, the point for me is that we are alerted to the fact that XP3 is coming. What we do about it is up to our individual reaction, but we have been warned, and forewarned is forearmed.
This one of the absolute strengths of forums like this; the collective knowledge of the whole is greater than one could ever achieve singly.
Colin
-
As I understand it Moire effect in PTE animated shows can be caused by one or more of three circumstances. 1. The size of an individual or series of pictures being too large. 2. Over sharpening of a picture when editing. 3. Playing the show on a PC/Laptop with insufficient RAM. One of my colleagues has produced a show that has moire effect on a number of animated pictures. The pictures are quite large 1 to 4 mb, sharpening has been used, but I'm not sure of the RAM size of the computer the show was produced on. My question is when the show is shown on a PC/Laptop with more than adequate RAM will the effect be transferred to the other machine.
Yachtsman1
Is it really a Moiré effect, or it is a shimmering effect when the image is zooming, but absent when the image is stationary? If the latter is the case, it isn't Moiré, but rather a consequence of a too-sharp image, and a slight softening with Gaussian blur will cure the problem.
Colin
-
Colin
A projector won't resize an image will it. If you show a 1280 show through a 1024 projector it won't be right and you will lose parts of the image. You have to increase the resolution of the PC powering the projector to 1280*1024, then all is well.
In a bit more detail, the computer was set to 1280*1024, and the image was fed to a 1024*768 projector. The projector resized the image to 768 high, but was short on the 1024 dimension because of the 1280*1024 ratio of 5:4, since the projector ratio is 4:3.
The actual image width was 768*1280/1024 pixels, = 960 pixels, short by 64 pixels, 32 each side.
Personally, I don't really like the 1280*1024 screens, the 5:4 aspect ratio is too square for my liking, and most desktop displays are stretched vertically to fill the screen. OTOH, my laptop wide screen at 1680*1050 gives a ratio of 16:10 which I find really good. To each his own, I guess.
Colin
-
Well, this is all as clear as mud.
I have read loads of threads here and still can't follow the discussion. It must be all the techno speak that makes my eyes glaze over. I am probably missing something simple along the way and the one thread I did not read probably has the key.
Colin
How would anyone be locked out of a competition because the rules stated shows must be 1024*768? Most of the club rules are arrived at in a democratic way and if I wanted to enter a competiton, I would make a show to fit the rules. I wouldn't have a problem with that.
You can show a 1280*1024 slide show on a 1024*768 PC projector, I do it all the time and you know how fussy I am about image quality. If my 1280 shows didn't come up to standard on my 1024 Epson 1710 I would soon kick them into touch.
Hello Barry,
Perhaps 'locked out' is a bit strong, and I guess there are different rules for different competitions, but here the Photographic Society of New Zealand (PSNZ) specifies 1024*768 for shows entered in its competitions.
I did run one of your shows on my Epson EMP 730 1024*768 projector, and it did resize the images, but left black lines on both sides of the screen, which I guess might count against it in a competition.
I have to say your shows are of a very high standard indeed.
Colin
-
Dave,
AAaaH ~ I see where you are coming from, its the eternal clash of the "Film Photographic World ~V~ Digital Photographic World"
You know, isn't it about time that these Societies & Judges damn well made up their minds as to what they want and stop this
"nanny" attitude of "We are the Law" ~ We have them here in Ireland also and none of them can agree.
Do they want to Judge "Film-Photographs" or "Digital-Images" made to a Universal Standards Format~ thats the root issue here.
Yes, of course you are right, I agree with you ~ there has to be a 'Standard Size' for Judging purposes ~ but here is the stupidity
of it all. Two Images of the same subject:- Image(A) could be 150Kb. and Image(
could be 2Mb and each 1024x768 in Size.So which is the better Image? that all depends on the Computer not the Image Size.
<snip>
Brian.Conflow.
Hello Brian et al,
Part of the problem mentioned in your first paragraph is caused by the exhibitors, who, particularly in competitions, will complain loudly if the computer/projector combo alters their slide show in any way at all. They expect the system will show their slides at the original pixel dimensions, hence the competiton rules attempt to circumnavigate this by specifying set dimensions, usually 1024*768, locking out those like barry bbdigital with his 1280*1024 images.
Also, I have to disagree with you regarding your second paragraph; an 8-bit 1024*768 image is always 2,359,296 bytes (1024*768*3). The file containing that image may vary depending on compression applied, but the displayed image does not vary.
Regards,
Colin
Single Image Competitions
in General Discussion
Posted
If an image at 1400*1050 pixels is shown full screen on a 1024*768 projector, then it is clear that the image has been resampled by either the presenting software or the projector.
I should think that the resampling should be done by the presenting software using a high-quality resampling algorithm, say Lanczos or one of the newer hybrid algorithms, in which case the loss of quality will be imperceptible.. Leaving it to the projector could be asking for trouble.
For simplicity, I think the rules for the competition should state the projector's native pixel size and the colour space that will be used, and no more. It is up to the entrant to make sure his image/s are optimised for those parameters, or accept the consequences.
Colin