klintott

GIMP 2.6.11 http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html Definitely not a K.I.S.S. program. Similar to Photoshop but free, with a steep learning curve. Does all adjustments,uses layers and imports and exports Photoshop PDF files. Huge number of filters, brushes etc. I don't find it as intuitive as Photoshop but I first learned Photoshop and sometimes it's difficult to think in a different way. Ken

While Igor is hopefully resting, perhaps another member could answer the following: Using version 7.0, Beta 6, I created a small demo sequence with and without a small video (avi) which is 347KB in size (on disk). The executable (exe)is 8.7MB without the avi and becomes 11.2MB with the avi (10.9 MB when "Don't include file to EXE" is checked. The ZIP package of all components is 6.2MB. Is it necessary for the EXE file to contain the avi in uncompressed form? (I presume that is the reason for the much larger EXE compared to the ZIP package) Ken

Your email program is attempting to protect you from viruses and will not let you open certain types of attachments. I use Windows Mail (Vista)but Outlook Express has a similar option to allow opening these files. In "Tools" "Options" "Security" uncheck the item "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus". Of course you should have an updated antivirus program running. Ken

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback. Usually a particularly satisfying photo shoot is the impetus for my making a slide show. In this case it came from the music. I heard Melissa Venema, a fourteen year old girl, play her trumpet rendition of Taps, "Il Silenzio" on utube and knew immediately that I needed to create a story around the music. I was familiar with the Geronimo story from a movie I watched before going to visit the Chiricahua mountains in Arizona and it was a "no brainer" to amalgamate the story, the music and the photographs into the slide show. The historical photos are of public record and found on the website: "Native American Prisoners of War: Chiricahua Apaches 1886-1914" http://www.chiricahua-apache.com/ a worthwhile site to visit to learn more about the Chiricahua. Ken

Ken, It must be a Canadian thing, eh? ;)Ken

After visiting the Chiricahua National Monument and other areas of southeastern Arizona in 2010 I created a scenic slide show including a brief history of Geronimo's life. The show is 58M in size and about seven minutes in duration. It is ideally viewed on a wide screen monitor or HD television. I use an HDMI cable to connect my computer to my Sanmsung 1080i television. Comments and criticism's are welcome, particularly relating to how the show is viewed on different monitors and computers. The show is available at Beechbrook.com with many thanks to Bill http://www.beechbrook.com/ Ken Lintott

Perhaps so Barry, but I prefer to use Photoshop to resize an image. With Photoshop I can do an unsharp mask prior to saving (changing image size will have some affect on sharpness) - also Photoshop may have a better algorithm when re-sizing than the PTE software. Therefor prior to creating a DVD I re-size all the images first. I haven't attempted to test the difference in quality. Ken

Maureen, thanks for sharing. The photography and slide production is excellent. This show will remain for sometime on my desktop for future inspiration. Modesty may prevail, but I would like to see a closing slide showing who produced the show, took the photos, where and when etc.------but then I'm somewhat compulsive that way. Ken

Dave, my point is that you complete synchronizing the music watching the waveform in the timeline. Once the music is synced you then add the black slides at the beginning and end and turn off "Synchronize Music and Slides" and the use the "Customize Slides" option to place the music on the second slide. You needn't see the waveform at this stage since the music is now synched. Ken

Couldn't you compose your entire show and music and then add a black slide at the beginning and end. Then use the "Customize slide" function to start the music at the second slide? Or am I missing something. Regards Ken

Thanks for the reply, Carol. I've been using a quality, but one of the original, DVD players and with prices so low for upconverting DVD's I thought I might purchase one while I wait for the Blue Ray machines to come down in price. Ken

Has anyone compared the quality of a PicturesToExe show burned to a DVD and viewed on a high definition television (1080i) using both a regular DVD player and an upconverting DVD player? Is there any obvious difference in quality? Ken

I had already lowered the DVD disc burn speed to the minimum with no success. I also only had the "Burn DVD Disc" and "Include additional folders and files to disc" checked. I have now tested with a shorter show (327 MB) and a smaller "Included" folder (49 MB). And it worked!! Now I will experiment with different sized shows and "Included" folders to see if I can find a limit. Thanks, Ken

The problem has been solved - sort of. I removed "Include additional folders and files to disc" and then I was able to burn the DVD show. Is there no way to add the exe file and photo files to the same disc that the DVD show is on so that the owner has a choice on how to view the show as well as have access to the original photos? Ken

When attempting to burn a DVD or create an ISO image and after the VOB files multiplexing is complete, I get the following error: Burn.exe has stopped working Problem signature: Problem Event Name: APPCRASH Application Name: burn.exe Application Version: 0.0.0.0 Application Timestamp: 472af187 Fault Module Name: StackHash_1703 Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0 Fault Module Timestamp: 00000000 Exception Code: c0000005 Exception Offset: 676e6568 OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.3 Locale ID: 4105 Additional Information 1: 1703 Additional Information 2: 2264db07e74365624c50317d7b856ae9 Additional Information 3: 1344 Additional Information 4: 875fa2ef9d2bdca96466e8af55d1ae6e Then, "Failed connection with Burn.exe" and then all temporary files are deleted. The show is estimated at 2.12 GB + 552 MB of additional photo files plus the exe file. It takes approximately 45 minutes to create the MPEG2 and VOB files. I am running Windows Vista Home Premium on a Dell Inspiron 530 dual core processor with 4 GB Ram (3.4GB available to Windows). There are over 200 GB of space available on the hardrive. Video card is an NVidia 8600 GT with 256 MB memory. This has happened with Version 5.0 and 5.1 Beta 4 and 9 and the latest 5.1Release-Candidate (December 13, 2007) I have burned shorter shows without a problem. Any suggestions? Ken