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Barry, This does not sound logical in my ears. If (many?) people go to some places, make pictures, open the camera and throw these images into PTE, add some music, and finally think that they have produced AV: Isn't that fine? They feel happy, and if someone comes up and says "Great, love it", they will even feel better. But this should not have a consequence on others for whom AV means a bigger investment - chacun à son goût! Happy knitting Xaver

Question: Isn't that the view of most members of this forum? Regards, Xaver

Mary, Daniel, Thank you for your remarks on the images of my slide show. A remark on my equipment: I use 2 EOS cameras with the typical crop factor of 1.6, and 3 zoom lenses (10-22, 17-70, 70-300), so there isn't a lack of a wide angle lens. I do not like to have people, cars, traffic signs etc. on my images, so I tend to choose my perspectives appropriately. Key stoning / Converging lines: I know that a lot of people think that vertical lines of buildings should be strictly vertical on images, as well. I normally make perspective corrections, but often not 100% in order to avoid the images to look top-heavy, which does not look natural in my eyes. HDR / Contrast masking: Mary mentions that she does not like the "HDR-like (sort of metallic) manner that seems to be so popular these days". This is not the first time that I hear this, in particular friends with a long experience in photography (often with less experience in Photoshop) do not like this manner, either. I am a friend of Barry Beckham's position, to use image manipulation techniques in order to bridge the gap between what the camera captures, and what the human eye is able to see (See Barry's recent show on "Exposure"). The attached images show 2 "originals" of images of my show (exposed while preserving the sky), and the corresponding manipulated versions using contrast masking in one case (based on 1 image), and HDR+PS in the other one (based on 3 images). It is surely a matter of taste which version you prefer. (The uploaded images have size 1200x800, and may not look sharp in the browser!) Again, many thanks for your remarks! Additional remark: The comments of Mary and Daniel mainly concentrate on the images which are only part of the show. AV should be regarded as more than a sequence of images with some music in the background. There are other aspects such as: The choice of the music; the synchronization of the transitions with respect to the music; the question if the show "tells us a story" instead of being more or less a random concatenation of images, and a lot more ... Comments in this forum often read like "Nice show", "Love it", "Wonderful images" etc. This is polite and friendly, but does it help the author? If there are some substantial remarks, they often concentrate on the images, and not on AV in general. An exception here is Peter's (fh1805) contribution to the recent Le Mans Show of Ralph (deskjet1uk). This is the way I would like to read comments. Best regards, Xaver

It is (to some extent) informative to read the recent posts in the thread "Comments on slide shows" by ABD/deskjet1uk. My question is: Wouldn't it be more helpful to leave the meta-level (the discussion on the discussion of slide shows) and study practical examples instead? I have uploaded my recent show (http://www.mediafire.com/?zhy2s9k3dc92clj) which may serve as an example. As Xaver does not really exist, there will no risk that someone will run into trouble with him, no matter what his/her comment may be. The pictures were taken on some hazy days (German: Trübe Tage) in (and around the) Vosges, France. I have to admit: The title and the narration are given in German. Best regards, Xaver

This sounds nice, but if someone comes up and tells me that he would do most things in a different way, then I will know that my work is not considered to be good, isn't it? Let us look at a practical example: The Le Mans Show of Ralph. The comments given in the forum are all very nice, but they cannot be considered as helpful, as the author will not learn anything on the improvement of his work (exception: The remark of DG on the resolution figures). Without going into details, when looking at this show, I could easily imagine the following subjects of discussion: 1. Image quality (a favorite subject of Barry Beckham, and of me, too), 2. Choice of the music (does the song's lyrics match the subject of the show), 3. Technical aspects of image placement and transitions, 4. Synchronization of transitions with respect to the rhythm of the music, 5. Dramatic composition. Perhaps the author himself may watch his work regarding these aspects. I doubt that it will be possible to give a deep and helpful analysis of a presentation without saying (directly or indirectly) what is wrong; but maybe that I am wrong!? Regards, Xaver

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12217&view=findpost&p=78702 ??? Regards, Xaver

Charlie, Normally I do not send comments on slide shows presented in this forum. In most cases, there isn't much positive to say, and giving comments that are not all favorable often causes trouble. Regarding your show is another matter. This is AV at its best - the audio and the visual part go hand in hand, simply a masterpiece. Regards, Xaver

Peter, Stu, I cannot reproduce this behavior on my computer (PTE v6.5, Win XP), neither Peter's problem nor Stu's remark! Regards, Xaver

Mark, Just a remark on your project: 69 slides and 3:48 of music will lead to display times of about 3.3 seconds (including the transition times). In most cases, this will be too short. Gary's proposal to arrange the timed points is (in my opinion) only a first step, and I would recommend the manual positioning pointed out by Peter. In most cases, I position the starting points of the transitions in a way that they coincide with a first beat of a (musical) bar. Regards, Xaver

Sorry, no practical ideas from my side. I made the same experience as you did. Exporting your sequence as a virtual AVI did work, and I was able to generate (via the AVI) a correct MP4, using an external encoder (maybe not the way that you want to go). There seems to be a bug in v6.5. Regards, Xaver

In my opinion - a bit tedious to watch! Just returning from a trip to Ireland (including Derry), I would like to pose the question if this production can be considered as political propaganda. Regards, Xaver

Daniel, This is a very nice show, I really like it! Some remarks: The danza espaniola has been composed by Enrique Granados (which should be mentioned). I would prefer to hear the original on the piano (or a guitar transcription, but not the flute). In many cases the transitions have been synchronized to the first beat of the (musical) bar, but not in all cases, what I would prefer to do. The 3D effects/transitions are a matter taste; sorry, not my taste Best regards, Xaver

Hi Eric, Did you mean "Der dritte Mann"? Deutsche Sprache - schwere Sprache! Best regards Xaver

Powelly, PTE does not prefer any color profile, it behaves in a transparent way (see here). Regards, Xaver

Ralph, You may try the following: - Open the PTE-file with a text editor (Notepad, UltraEdit, ...), and save it under a new name. - For this new file you may use the Replace Function of the text editor: Replace M:\ by N:\, and save the changes. - Open the new file with PicturesToExe, and see what happens. Regards, Xaver

I actually do know the resolutions of my monitor, of my TV, and the one of the projector that I sometimes use. But I do not see the point why this should be of any public interest Regards, Xaver

This will lead to rather flat looking results. Instead of black or white layers, I would prefer to work with copies of the given image whose gamma values in the L-channel have been adjusted (while using a temporary Lab representation). Regards, Xaver

Jose, At least for older versions of PTE it should be possible (for WnSoft only?) to recover the .pte-file from the .exe-file; see here. Regards, Xaver

Would this mean that the program will ask me to save changes in case where I open a project and just change the view? Wouldn't that be confusing? Keep it simple!!! Regards, Xaver

Hi, If I remember it correctly, the ATI Gamma Problem has occurred under Windows XP only, not under Vista. Regards, Xaver

Ken, I played your sequnce with v6.04 on WinXP. The preview did not like the sound comment "AliceSprings01B-AliceSpringsLies.mp3", and it ran into an infinite loop. Then, I loaded both comments into Audacity and exported new versions using the lame mp3 encoder, with the result that everything worked well. By the way: v6.5b5 does not play the sound comments, at all. Regards, Xaver

Hi Umberto, For the 3D representation, the overall observation point lies sqrt(3) times the height of screen in front of it. Thus, the pan Z value of the observation point (relative to the screen) is approx. -346.41 (200 times sqrt(3)). Using the intercept theorem, you obtain the following result: Place an object at Z-position P , then the zoom factor you need is (346.41 + P)/(346.41); multiply by 100 in order to obtain the corresponding percent value. Regards, Xaver

Andrew, This is true for the effects: Swap, Flip, Curling, Slide, and Push. The others should do what you like! Regards, Xaver

Amanda, New versions of PTE (5.1, 5.5, 5.6. 6.0, beta versions, as well) typically install into new directories, i.e. the old versions remain on the computer. Have a look at your start menu! A typical installation changes the file association, i.e. a double-click on a pte-file opens the project with the new version. If this has happened: Open the program version of your choice via the start menu and open the project from there. Regards, Xaver

Let me refer to an old post by bbdigital, see here! Regards, Xaver