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Jose, see also posts 10, 15, 17, 18, 22, 26, 32, and 33 of http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12658&view=findpost&p=81689 . Regards, Xaver

That's fine! Regards, Xaver

I made a short test: No clipping of shadows, and no clipping of highlights, as well. The test video created with the new version seems to be standard compliant, now. Regards, Xaver

Was lange währt, wird endlich gut. (German phrase - Good things come to those who wait.) Regards, Xaver

Peter, Did you try to install the software using an account with administrator rights? Regards, Xaver

The time you see in the mini-player always is the overall display time of all slides, not the time of the music. For the preview and exe-files you may choose the show setting "When show ends, keep last slide on screen". Regards, Xaver

Dave, I'm trying to do my very best Best regards, Xaver

Dave, The problem under discussion is not a question of settings and calibration. If I use MeGUI to create my MP4 video (using the said image) with the option ConvertToYV12(matrix="Rec601") or ConvertToYV12(matrix="Rec709") (a video which complies with the video standards, having restricted range), then I can distinguish the different dark fields when playing the video using the internal media player of my Samsung TV, i.e. the settings of the TV are ok. If I then create my MP4 video with the option ConvertToYV12(matrix="PC.601") or ConvertToYV12(matrix="PC.709") (a video which does not comply with the video standards, but having full luminance range), then I cannot distinguish the different dark fields on the TV (while still using the media player of the TV); I surely can do it on my PC using VLC. It seems that Gary has made a similar experience using the external Western Digital Media Player, and in cases where the external player has cut the shadows, you will not be able to repair it inside your TV! I guess that my TV would behave in a nice manner, if I would connect it with my PC. But this is not the question, here. All I am asking for is an option for the PTE VideoBuilder to create MP4 videos which comply with the standards, and not only videos with full range (good for PC and Mac, but not for standard compliant media players). Regards, Xaver

This may be true. My Windows Media Player shows a different behaviour, but I am running Windows XP, and my Media Player does not have its own codec for MP4 videos but uses ffdshow (installed with the K-Lite codec pack). Did you watch the video with VLC (VideoLAN)? Regards, Xaver

This should not happen. On a PC you should be able to distinguish the dark squares (0, 8, 16, 24, 32), if your display setting are correct. Regards, Xaver

Gary, I don't know if it it is a good decision to follow my way of creating MP4-videos using MeGUI. First, you must install MeGUI, and AviSynth, as well. MeGUI uses AviSynth for converting video frames from RGB to YV12. You can open a PTE project and create a virtual AVI (an AVI with the Video-Codec option "PictureToExe Video Codec"). This video has the quality of an uncompressed video without filling heaps of disk space, but it only lives while the PTE program is running. You can use MeGUI in order to transcode this AVI to an MP4/H.264 video. MeGUI is a user interface for the H.264 encoder x.264, an open source encoder which is also used by PTE. On the way to go it is helpful to have some rudimentary knowledge of the AviSynth script language, and of course you must learn how to configure x.264. Although I do not consider myself as totally unskilled it took me hours to work through this task. This method obviously provides a way around the VideoBuilder, but surely it is not to everyone's taste. On the other hand, MeGUI offers the possibility to create videos for the PC, as well as videos with restricted luminance range for media players. I have made appropriate proposals for the PTE VideoBuilder, not only in this forum. I'm still waiting for an answer from the VideoBuilder's programmer at WnSoft. Best regards, Xaver

Peter, Dave, What I did is creating squares in my image with RGB-values (0, 0, 0), (8, 8, 8), (16, 16, 16), etc. If you look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rec._601 , you will read: In each 8 bit luminance sample, the value 16 is used for black and 235 for white, to allow for overshoot and undershoot. The values 0 and 255 are used for sync encoding. The Cb and Cr samples use the value 128 to encode a zero value, as used when encoding a white, grey or black area. Remember that videos normally do not have RGB color spaces, but chroma-luminance spaces, where the luminance part of 8-bit-videos has a restricted range, as said above. You can see that, when running a WMV-video in the Windows media player: Total black shows up as dark grey. When encoding MP4/H.264 videos using MeGUI/x.264 you can choose (via the matrix parameter in the ConvertToYV12 command of AviSynth) either to have a video according to the normal video standards (with 220 steps for luminance), or a PC version having full range (256 steps) what PTE seems to produce. My Samsung TV seems to like standard videos (with 220 luminance steps) rather than videos having the PC range. This is the reason why I create my MP4-videos using MeGUI via the virtual AVI of PTE. Regards, Xaver

Peter, Congratulations to you new TV. I have a Samsung LE40B650, and I must say that I am not that happy with MP4-videos created with the PTE VideoBuilder. My problem has been described here. Would it be possible for you to run a test: Create a short MP4-video using the image attached to my former post and see if you can notice any shadow clipping, as I did. Regards, Xaver

I do not think that this would be a general solution, it might be one in places where "everybody" uses PTE, but not in countries where people speak Dutch or German. In these countries, PTE is used by a minority, and if you want to combine slide shows of several people of a Photo-/AV-Club there will be shows created with tools like Wings or m.objects, as well. Perhaps it may be possible to restrict the software engine to a minimum of features (fade in/out of images and text objects, running external applications, ...) Regards, Xaver

André, If I would take only my own personal preferences into account, I had to agree with your position. On the other hand, I often try to convince people in Germany to use PTE, but this always turns out to be a very hard job. Lin is right, saying that the market demands the video integration, and this is a crucial point which does not allow any delay. When I looked at the list of new features ( http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12402&view=findpost&p=79874 ) for the first time, I got the impression that it presented a very optimistic view: Video Integration and a new User Interface, both at the same time! Therefore I am not that disappointed, now. Regards, Xaver

André, I have some doubts that this would be a good strategy. Presently, I have some discussions with a group of AV-newcomers on purchasing AV software. All serious competitors offer video integration. So, from the marketing point of view, the video feature seems to be a very important one. Regards, Xaver

Igor, I guess that André's remark refers to the discussion in the thread on PicturesToExe Deluxe 6.5 Beta, July 2010, ( http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11802&view=findpost&p=76157 ), see in particular posts 7, 10, and 11. Regards, Xaver

Asessor, Gary, I guess that the thin blue line has vanished when PTE obtained audio tracks. The waveform we see in the timeline now is the mixed result of audio clips from various tracks, and no longer strict sequence of songs. I must admit that presently the audio tracks cannot be regarded as very helpful, but an improved timeline is announced for v7 ( http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12402&view=findpost&p=79874 ). By the way (as far as I remember) there have been particular reasons for the vanishing of the transition to desktop when v5 was resleased ( http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6569&view=findpost&p=40995 ). Regards, Xaver

Malcolm, You have shown us a very, very impressive, wonderful collection of images. I hope that you will manage to get rid of the template and present us a real audio-visual production which tells us the story of your trip. Best regards, Xaver

Record a video and wait for version 7 of PTE. It has been said that v7 will support video objects Regards, Xaver

This works well for re-sizing in many cases, but it fails, if the centres of the (text) objects to be re-sized shall keep their position Regards, Xaver

Peter, I think that this limitation has its merits. On the other hand, the search for quoted phrases should work, but it doesn't. Regards, Xaver

If your video and your monitor have the same aspect ratio, enabling Pan and Scan will not show any effect, as there will not be any black bars to be eliminated. Regards, Xaver

There is the following tip in the search form: Search for a specific phrase by "enclosing it in quotes". So I made a search for the phrase "Pan and Scan", but it did not work This should be changed!!! Regards, Xaver

The date of installation is not important, it is the date of the version's release that matters. Regards, Xaver