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I don't think that there is any compression in the game, it's computer-generated imagery. Regards, Xaver

In my experience (since v5), PTE has always used an internal clipboard for copying in the slide list view (not shared by two instances of PTE), while it has used the MS Windows clipboard for copying objects in PTE's O&A window. This seems to be the reason for the different behavior. Regards, Xaver

I do not agree! Regards, Xaver

It still works! Regards, Xaver

Perhaps not a good idea to quote the said e-mail address Regards, Xaver

In this place, I would regard this message as mistakable I believe that Peter is right, this case looks like a scareware attack ( see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scareware ) Regards, Xaver

If I got it correctly, then PTE does not care for the font size, but rather for the font height (font size + internal leading, see http://www.emdpi.com/fontsize.html ) . This height seems to be described (via the zoom parameter) relative to the height of the screen, i.e. a height of 100 just fills the height of the screen. This is not a bad concept in my eyes. Regards, Xaver

Having posts no. 7, 9, 10, and 11 in http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11802&st=0 in mind, I would like to say that I am amused to read this one Regards, Xaver

I guess that Peter has a lot of a posteriori knowledge regarding this kind of problems. Thus, he now can decide a priori Regards, Xaver

Gary, When I produced my first MP4 videos, the given settings produced quite good results. I think that two or more passes are (at least in principle) the better choice, as the encoder first looks at the whole video, take some notes, and then runs the final encoding process. I had the impression that a bitrate of 8000 or smaller did not produce as fine panorama pans as 10000; and I have read some recommendation of that kind in another slide show forum. I think that your results will depend on the animation used inside the show. If you get good results with other setting, please use them. I cannot claim to be an expert in this subject, and I am just happy that my videos are o.k. for me. I have no idea about your problems with the WD player. I use the internal player in my TV which is optimized for playing HD videos at 24p (I think the same holds for the WD player, so try 24p). What do you mean by "the show was played on a thumb drive in the Samsung's USB port". Does your TV have an internal player for HD videos, as well? Regards, Xaver

As Ron has already pointed out: When using 1280x800, you actually waste resources (as I think that your TV supports FullHD (1920x1080)). So, if you want to keep the aspect ratio of 16:10, you may generate your video using 1728x1080. Perhaps you may also choose 1920x1080, and PTE (hopefully) will automatically add black stripes on both sides. Take care that the images in your PTE project have an appropriate size, and have not been not resized to 1280x800. Regards, Xaver

Keith, I think that you cannot compare two different types of applications: the slide show program (PTE) and the video editor (Vegas). I agree that the single track model of PTE has some limitations, but in my experience I have never noticed any problem. Whenever I used PTE I was able to simulate parallel image tracks in the way described above. You should not forget that PTE offers a scene graph model (here called parent/child concept) that provides a lot of advantages which are not provided by competitors. There may arise problems in the future (version 7) when PTE will allow video object. I guess that these objects will have to run in a single slide. Regards, Xaver

An additional remark: All solutions considered here do not work well if the png-object has a significant semi-transparent border Regards, Xaver

Peter, My main intention was to point out the use of the parent/child concept. In case of an arbitrarily shaped png-object you surely have to use the original image as parent and child. BTW: Thanks for the information on PTE v7! Regards, Xaver

I would recommend the use of the parent/child concept: Insert a rectangle (or any image) with the same aspect ratio as the image that you want to show, and give it a drop shadow. Highlight the object and insert the image that you want to see as a child, and it will exactly cover the rectangle. The shadow and all kinds of animation can now be configured via key points for the rectangle. Regards, Xaver

Keith, You have discovered a major disadvantage of PTE compared with other tools (Wings Platinum, m.objects) which use the concept of parallel image tracks. PTE is based on a single sequence of containers (called "slides"). Each image object lives inside a container , and it will have vanished when the container's transition to the next container has finished. Therefore, the object has to be reinserted into the next container if it is to go on living. The works well, as long as the object is static (no animation) during the transition, while animations typically are kept inside a single container. So (as an example), it is a hard job to program a show with a background that is constantly zooming, provided that you do not want to keep the whole show inside a single container. Regards, Xaver

I have a Samsung LE40B650 TV which has an internal media player for HD videos (AVI, MKV, MP4, ...). Here is my experience: Videos should not exceed the size of 1920x1080 MP4-Videos generated with the PTE video builder show clipping, e.g. the three dark fields (values 0, 8, and 15) in the attached image are all shown equally in deep black. As it is said: PTE creates videos for PCs and MACs rather than for video players which typically expect a reduced luminance range (16 is used for black and 235 for white in the 8 Bit representation). So, I use an external encoder in order to generate the videos of my PTE shows. When creating full HD videos with my H.264 encoder (the open source encoder x264 that PTE uses, as well), I use the two pass option and a bitrate of about 10000; the frame rate is 24p, the Samsung media player is said to like 24p. I normally do not have fast animations in my shows. I also tried 50p without much success. Regards, Xaver

Freeplaymusic is by no means free! Check FPM's "terms of use" and the "Rate Card on Production Music"! Regards, Xaver

For those who have some knowledge of the German language: This video is taken from the series "Plusminus" produced by the German Television (ARD / 1st Program). It describes the practices of the provider of "Marions Kochbuch" (Marion's Cooking Book). At first glance this is a site for reading recipes. It is perfectly linked in order to have high ranks in the Google search for images. The main reason for the existence of this site seems to be the making of money with any kind of users who downloaded the images (tomatoes, carrots, ...). The provider cooperates with a lawyer and applies the particular legal situation in Germany: Download some vegetable images from this site, put them on your private home page and be ready to pay several thousand Euros Regards, Xaver

Did he really change his mind, he only said: "You will able (to) mix many music files". This does not mean that the exe-file will contain a single mixed track. If this were the case, PTE had to contain an mp3 encoder of something else to generate this track. This does not sound very reasonable. Regards, Xaver

I have just created a project with 9 tracks, but the music window is small and may not show all tracks at the same time. Did you use the scroll bar? I had another problem: When playing with multiple tracks (creating and deleting), I got an error message "Access violation at address 004057CC in module 'PicturesToExe.exe'. Read of address 3A373331." Regards, Xaver

Gary, I do not begrudge anybody a particular feature that he/she likes. What I do not know is, how many programming effort your feature will require, and I do not know how many people will use it on and off. Overloading the user interface with features will not raise its stability. On the other hand, if WnSoft will provide your feature, then I will be glad to see you happy . I only wanted to show that there already exists a reasonable workaround. Best regards, Xaver

Gary, This is not a question of eyeballing, but only of reading numbers and doing a calculation. Instead of your marker, place the cursor at the position you like. In the mini-player you can read its exact position in minutes, seconds, milliseconds; write it on a paper. Then highlight the transition point of first slide of the group you want to shift to the marked position. The white field near to the Timed Points button shows the exact position of the transition point; write it down, as well. The shift time now can be calculated easily. Regards, Xaver

Did you try the function "Shift Points" (Timed Points menu)? First, determine the exact time you want to shift your 100 slides in seconds and milliseconds. Highlight your 100 slides. Open the Shift Points window, choose the shift direction and enter your shift time. Regards, Xaver

This thread is to be seen as an addendum to the pinned thread of ADB and deskjet1uk on comments on slide shows. From my side, any kind of substantial commentary on my show is welcome. What is the result, so far: The show has been downloaded about 70 times. A few comments have been given, and I wish to thank those who provided a contribution. The comments mainly concentrated on the images of the show. Again we may ask (as in some other thread): Is the A in AV not important for the majority of the forum members? This may not be the case, but I think that for most members the interaction of A and V isn't a subject at all!? Some people in this forum have expressed their interest to learn AV from the commentaries given in the forum, but regarding the comments that are typically given here, this seems to be difficult, in my opinion. Members who want to improve their AV skills may search the web for other sources, such as the Ron Davies method on producing AV sequences ( http://www.theiac.org.uk/training/ron-davies/ron-davies-on-av1.html ), Doreen Pollock's notes on narration ( http://www.ibateman.co.uk/wcc/av-group/av-scripts.htm ), Achim Maier's Gestaltungs-Tipps ( in German, http://www.media-maier.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=95 ), and others. Best regards, Xaver