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I have just had a similar problem, and the reason in your case is that your images are not in the same size ratio as your intended output. You need to resize your images to the same ratio as your output, i.e. 16:9, which means cropping all your images to that shape - 1024:576. You're going to lose some off the top and bottom of your images, which can't be helped. Then, in O&A, click on 'tools' and check 'Show safe TV zone', whch will put a bluish frame around the image. If the overscan is too much, Project Options/Screen at the bottom of the panel - scroll down - allows you to set a percentage reduction so your image just overscans a little when you look in O&A. Remember to click 'Set for existing slides' so the resize happens to all your images. Colin

Ok, panic's off, problem solved. I rechecked the Project Options box, and found that the aspect ratio was set for 16:10 and not 4:3 - I hadn't even noticed the aspect ratio selector before! Then, I played with the % size and found that 93% was about right when using the safe area in O&A. The last problem was that the position of the comment line did not move when resizing to 93%, so the comment line was outside the safe area. Then I discovered by accident that clicking on the comment showed the text box and allowed me to move the text upwards into the picture area. Further, like Photoshop and other programs, holding Shift when moving the text forces the line to move vertically without any side movement, thereby maintaining accurate centering. Marvellous. Colin

Ok, thanks for the reply, NBS. All my images for PTE are sized to 1024x768 (unless I intend to zoom), which is the screen res on my main machine monitor, fits the XVGA projector we use, and also is a reasonable fit to my wide-screen laptop at 1280x800. 1024:768 is the same ratio as 720:576 which is the PAL 4:3 standard, as you say. I would have thought that VB would scale the images exactly to 720x576, which in turn would fit a TV as does a broadcast program, or a commercial DVD. I tried altering the % main screen size in Project Options, but all that would do is to make the images in preview and exe files smaller. It doesn't go past 100%, so no option exists there for making an image bigger. I don't think that adjustment is relevant to DVDs anyway. I just had an idea. I went to PTE and made an iso file of a short show, and then ran it in Windows Media Player. Right-clicking on several of the images as they appeared onscreen and checking 'Properties' showed that all images were exactly 720x576, so that rules out any problems with VB. So, why do two separate DVD/TV combinations show black edges round the images? Beats me at this stage. Colin.

Thanks for the reply Ken, to answer your queries: NZ is PAL, and I used to be a TV tech in a past life, so no problems there. VB states that PAL is 720x576, and it appears to be fixed in VB, as I could not seem alter it. I notice that the intro screen before you click or press 'play' is full screen on the TV - actually the intro title is a bit wide, and the last character is cut in half, but as soon as the show starts, the slides are smaller than the screen, and this is so on two different DVD players and TVs. Has anyone else seen this, and what was the answer? Colin

Just burned my first DVD, and very pleased with result, except that the screen image is smaller than the TV screen, with about a 2-inch black border all round the image. I looked at whether I could increase the image size, but it seems to be fixed at 576x400-something pixels, and I can't see a way to increase the size. The show was saved to an ISO file and then burned to disk with ImgBurn. Any help would be appreciated. Colin

Bingo!!! Thank you Harvey! So obvious too, I must be losing it. Colin

Wow, thanks for the quick answers. Ken, yes, I can change the colors in O&A, but doing a short text at the bottom of the image is much faster using Comments than O&A. but maybe I'll have to go that way. Also, O&A text is not the same as Comments text, one does not affect the other as far as I can see. Limey, thanks for that info, I'll try it before I go the O&A way. Colin

I am putting the finishing touches to a show that requires text comments, but my problem is that some slides have a light-colored foreground where I want to put the text, and others are darker. I want to use dark or black text on the lighter slides, and white text on the darker ones. I can change the text color in Project Options/Comments, but it doesn't 'take' unless I make it 'Set for existing slides', which sets all comments to the same color, and rules out setting colors for individual slides. What am I missing? Thanks for any insight. Colin

I'm not familiar with Audition, as I use Goldwave, a professional sound editor according to the website, but free for limited use. It has the capability to capture sound as it is being played on the computer, so I just play the music, whether from Itunes or CD, and capture it as it is playing. This removes all the problems with trying to load protected recordings directly into an editor. Possibly Audition or Audacity can do this as well, but if not, download Goldwave and give it a try. For MP3 capability Goldwave uses Lamewin as a plug-in, available from the Goldwave website. Colin

You should have two key files, one for PTE and another for the De Luxe activation. Rename the first key as 'pte.reg' and the second as 'dlux.reg' or similar. Then simply run each key by double-clicking on the file name. The 'reg' extension will automatically cause the key to be written to the registry (where they should reside). Now, when you run PTE 5, and click on Help/About, you should see it registered to your name, as De Luxe. Colin

Mightec, You can download it from the first post in the pinned topic 'Pictures to Exe De Luxe 5.0'. The version there is 5.02. Colin

Yes, but usually spelt 'coolly'

Well, my personal definition may not necessarily coincide with the author's ideas of copyright and unlawful use but I consider it ok to use purchased music in shows that I have control of. If I am showing an AV, whether it be at home, or a family gathering, or at my camera club - which incidentally I don't think is 'public' since only members and intending members can attend - as long as I am in control of the AV it's ok with me. What I don't do is sell AVs with copyright music. I do have a bit of a problem with the stranglehold the music industry has on its products. Imagine if you had to pay a royalty to the manufacturer every time you took a drive in your car with passengers, or used your microwave/dishwasher/TV to cook for other people than yourself. I'm not sure if this new idea here is worldwide, but artists are now talking about claiming a royalty every time one of their artworks is on-sold. It has been said in another forum that the music industry just ignores such use, as it is just impractical to go after everyone that makes an AV for private use. That sounds sensible to me. Colin

PTE 5 contains the 'de luxe' program coding within itself, so does not require a separate download. The de luxe part of PTE - which enables production of DVDs - is not activated until you purchase the key that unlocks it. That key is separate from the key that unlocks version 5, which is the same key that was used for 4.48. Colin

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking here. I understand that DRM protection refers to technologies used by publishers or copyright holders to control access to or usage of digital data or hardware, and is not to be confused with copyright protection. Changing the format of the music controlled by DRM to MP3 would be illegal, I should imagine, but the jury is out on whether DRM is interfering with your normal rights to enjoy the music to which you bought a license. In any event, if you play the tracks as the DRM permits on your computer, there is nothing to stop you using a capture program such as a sound editor like Goldwave or Audition to record the tracks as they are played. It is probably illegal according to the strict letter of the law, but for strictly private use I don't think anyone will complain, and of course using tracks from copyright CDs is done by almost all show makers. If you are selling your work to clients, you should look at buying a license from whatever performing arts body there is in your area or country, which will enable you to legally use commercial tracks. This is a thorny area, and considerable coverage is available on the ProShow forum about music copyrights, and also about websites that offer copyright-free music to use without worry. Colin

Lin, Thanks for the two test shows, both downloaded, and tried on my desk machine!! The hard one showed a couple of minor stutters most times the largish piece went past the bottom of the screen, otherwise not bad. That's on an Nvidia GO 6600GT. I'll be confounding a few laptop sale people now, with these. And you're right about the 'music' - a macerated 'flight of the bumble bee' - horrible!

Hello Lin, Just saw your offer of a test show, so forgive me for horning in here. Looks like I'm saddled with finding a new laptop for the camera club, and I would really like to run a demanding test on a machine before I sign for it - so I would appreciate a link to your 'tough' show there. Kind regards, Colin

If you press F4 you will get a full screen of your images, and the size can be changed with the slider at the bottom of the screen. You can drag and drop a slide anywhere you want in this screen. F4 to exit. Colin

Jeff, I too was enthralled with your 3-part '7 Days in May', as well as '1997 Spring' and 'El Camino Del Diablo', great photography and tremendous music choices in every show. Titling and music credits are very professional. There is nothing at all like that scenery here in New Zealand - we have our own landscapes of course, but not on such a scale as in your shows. They are utterly fascinating! I would like permission to show your PTE creations at my local camera club, particularly as there are a number of members using ProShow who are somewhat dissatisfied with results from that program. Several of them bought ProShow on my say-so, and I feel a bit responsible when they ask why their shows are not as sharp as they expected. I would very much like to swing them onto PTE5, and viewing your shows would do the trick, I think. I have re-done one or two of my own shows from ProShow into PTE, but they are absolutely mundane alongside yours. I think including the dog is a great touch, a lovely animal, - I guess there were two different dogs, since the 1997 show is ten years before the 7 Days in May sequences - and the inclusion of the dog gives scale to the scenery in a subtle and natural way, much better than having a human in every shot. Thank you for your shows, they are inspirational. Colin

Also my congratulations to Igor and his team. As a former programmer, I know only too well the problems of ugrading and maintaining source code for ever increasing complexity of the program, without breaking what's already been done. An impressive effort. Now, I downloaded the PteShow.exe file, about 8 MB, but when running it the show stops abruptly during the zoom out of the close-up grass image, dropping straight back to the filename. I think earlier versions of this program were about 13 MB, so I am wondering if the file got truncated somewhere along the line. Also, the sound level in that show is very low compared with usual sound levels, so perhaps that could be looked at as well. Colin

Further to the infinite zoom attempts, I have seen another problem. The zoom speed in PTE looks to be linear with image area, i.e. as the image zooms in, the rate of linear zoom slows down. With large zoom ratios this effect causes noticeable 'jumps' in the apparent zoom rate. Perhaps the zoom ratio will have to be restricted, say to about 1.5:1 to minimize this effect. Maybe an increasingly cropped series of the same image in Photoshop would be called for, each with, say a zoom ratio of 1.414:1, so it would take two images to get a ratio of 2:1, and so on. If a total zoom ratio of, say, 128:1 was contemplated, then one would need 14 images to achieve it, each zoomed in 1.414 times and re-cropped to just fit the screen. (1.414^14 =128 approx.) Note to Igor: Is there any possibility that the linear zoom could be made to be a constant size increase rather than constant area? As it is now, the zoom slows as the image gets bigger, and when zooming out, the zoom speed increases as the image gets smaller. Colin

Hello Lin, An interesting concept. Going by your 14 MP reference to your image size, according to my math that's about a 3055 x 4582 pixel image, assuming a 1:1.5 aspect ratio. (what camera is that?) Now, if you are setting up your show image size to, say, 1024 x 768, then for your camera image at 3055 pixels high, you can afford a zoom of 3055/768, = 3.9779 times, and at that zoom ratio, your original image will be at 100% on the computer screen. The width is always going to get cropped, so it can be ignored, unless you are doing 16:9 ratio shows, when the width becomes the calculated parameter. If you step your focal length increments at 3.9779:1, theoretically the images should match when the first is at 397.79 in the PTE zoom 'counter', and the second is at 100.00 in PTE, i.e. un-zoomed. This result depends, of course, on how accurately one can set the focal length of the taking lens, and in practice that is probably impossible, so the problem devolves into finding the size ratio between two images taken with different focal length lenses. Therefore, this problem boils down to measuring two images and finding the size ratio, which is effectively what you are doing now with Irfanview. Importing both images into Photoshop will allow you to use the measuring tool, but whether this would be any closer than you are already getting would have to be experimented with. I think I'll have a play in PS. Colin

The quality of a DVD show is independent of the particular medium, -R or -RW, and of the make of DVD. A DVD either plays or it doesn't, i.e. some DVD players have trouble reading burnt discs. As far as the show quality goes, the end function of a DVD is to be displayed on a TV screen, and the definition of TVs is quite poor compared with a good computer monitor. For 625-line PAL, only about 550 lines are visible on the TV screen, the remainder taken up with teletext data etc, and the 'flyback time'. 550 lines is little better than 640 by 480 quality as on earlier monitors, far inferior to todays monitors, and the parameters used to produce a show for TV will give a much poorer picture than an exe show from the same set of images. HDTV is another story, yet to arrive here (NZ), but how DVDs will go on that is moot at this time. Colin

First, let me congratulate Igor on his absolute honesty! There aren't too many who would be this honest with their subscribers. In fact most programmers make it very difficult to get any sort of answer. I am impressed! Now, converting RGB images to black&white. I do this frequently, both for my camera club competitions, and also to make color transitions in my shows. I use a free (donation requested if you like) Photoshop plugin from: http://www.photo-plugins.com/ Their b/w converter is the most downloaded plug-in from that site, among many others. It gives the choice of emulation a number of different BW films, plus the ability to tailor any combination of RGB and CMY colors to produce almost any BW rendition you like. When loaded into PS, it appears under 'Filters' and is basically a 'one-click' operation. Colin