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Good decision, I hope that this will make Jean-Pierre a little bit more happy!? Regards, Xaver

Thanks for the information! Regards, Xaver

Hi Lin, What's the advantage of "Kantaris" compared to VLC, if there is any? Regards, Xaver

You may try VLC media player (www.videolan.org/). Best regards, Xaver H. Munich

Do you mean that the creation process of all components has to to be done with the same running instance of PTE (within the same PTE session)? Regards, Xaver

Hi Colin, It is interesting to read your comment. My experience is that for animated slide shows (PTE and m.objects) the sync problems appeared on both inputs (analog and digital). So, there seems to be no hope for Ed. Regards, Xaver

Elke, It does not matter if you move the pte-file of a project, but if you move images or music to other locations, the program will no longer find them, when you open the pte-file again. If you put all media and the pte-file into the same folder, the program will again find what it needs. Best regards, Xaver H. Munich

Brian, Regarding the presentation of photgraphs, the SX50 really is first class. On the other hand: I tested two examples, the club projector, and another one belonging to a club member, both purchased in January 2006. Both behaved in the same way with respect to PTE and m-objects presentations. From a test at "www.projectorcentral.com": Canon Realis SX50, Evan Powell, April 15, 2005: ... Furthermore, with standard definition video material being fed through the DVI port we noticed what appeared to be an occasional loss of frame synchronization in the buffer, which manifested itself as a transient separation of the image along the horizontal plane (so for example, the upper half of a telephone pole would be momentarily shifted to the left of the bottom half). This artifact was limited to standard definition material on the DVI port; we did not see it occur on the VGA component input, nor did we see it with HD material on either port... Regards, Xaver

Brian, I got the impression, that the German software "Panorama Studio" is the better and cheaper solution (www.tshsoft.de/en/index.html, 35 Euro, 43 Dollars). The Photomerge function in Photoshop CS3 also does a good job if you use the option "cylindrical". Regarding the Canon SX50, you can leave all your theories aside. In my former photo-club, we tested this projector thoroughly. Any kind of pan (e.g. vertical pan of an upright image, horizontal pan of a stitched panorama, Lin Evans' Cliff Palace Show, ...) lasting 15-20 seconds or longer resulted in the said running line effect. The effect was independent of the movement's speed, at slow speeds it was less distracting but it was always there (at varying positions). During shorter animations, the effect appeared sporadically. Regards, Xaver

I do not kow, but you may ask Canon if there exists a firmware update??? Regards, Xaver

Hi Colin, I don't think that life is that easy. As long as the graphics card provides a constant frame rate (60 fps), everything will be ok, even with the Canon SX50. So it is very likely that the bad effects have their origin on the graphics card. The SX50 sometimes mixes frames (upper part newer, lower part older), with the effect of a line (wave) running to the bottom until synchronization is ok again. With this particular projector, the said effect (while running long panoramas programmed with PTE and m.objects) occurred with notebooks, with a WinXP PC with a weak card (Nvidia 8500), but in the same way with a gaming PC (Vista) having two linked cards of type 9800. I have a short show which behaves nicely after a reboot, showing the effects on the SX50 during the second round. The positions where the effects occur actually vary during a looped presentation, maybe they depend on the internal resource management of the graphics card. Montiors (and other projectors?) seem to show a different (better) behavior. When I use a big monitor with my PC (8500GT) everything remains smooth, but there are some sudden jerks, but no mixed images with running lines. So, what I would recommend: If you plan a presentation, test the exact configuration (computer, projector/monitor) you want to use during the presentation. Regards, Xaver

Hello Ed, Is it a REALiS SX50 projector? I made similar comments in this forum, some time ago, concerning the SX50. This projector seems to react (in the way as you describe it) on (small?) changes of the frame rate, while monitors do not behave in the same way. Best regards, Xaver Munich

Igor, Realtime decryption using AES might cause problems. So, why not decrypting the images in advance (into some temporary folder, to be deleted when the show ends). I made a test with TrueCrypt. It took about 75 sec to decrypt a folder of size 1.5 GB with 35 subfolders and 1200 files (Athlon X2 5000+). A typical PTE show would be decrypted within a few seconds. Regards, Xaver

If you do it that way, you have to deactivate the background music, maybe not what you want to do! See Peter's contributions on this subject, see here. Regards, Xaver

Jandis, In the main window: Highlight the slide where you want to add a sound effect. Use the button in the top right corner (Add sound). Regards, Xaver H. Munich

Igor, would it be possible to offer AES encryption of images using a key which is derived from a user defined password? This password has to be entered before running the show; maybe not a very comfortable, but a rather secure solution. Regards, Xaver

Igor, the included slide originally had 2 keyframes: At start and at transition point (8 sec.). I put the cursor to 00:07.943 and created the 3rd keyframe which automatically jumped to 00:08.000. Regards, Xaver Project1_SimulatedFS_Nov10_2008_17_19_20.zip

Igor, just a question on your post given here? What has been changed regarding keyframe insertion. In 5.6.beta7, the transition point still has the magnetic effect, even if this point already has got a keyframe. Best regards, Xaver Munich

Hi, Let me summarize the observations from above: If you have trouble with the fullscreen mode because of an ATI card and Win XP, you can actually run your show in simulated fullscreen mode under 5.6.beta6, using D3D (with restricted performance, but hopefully better than avoiding D3D): - Set screen mode to “Windowed mode”, tick "Without border", see Peter’s post from above. - Choose window dimensions beyond those you ever intend to use: 2400x1600, 3000x2000, or 4500x3000 in case of an aspect ratio of 3/2 (something like 2400x1800, or 2800x2100 for aspect ratio 4/3). So, Peter’s suggestion provides the solution, if we “misuse” the entries for the window size. Many thanks to Jean-Pierre for giving the hint on the adjustment of oversized windows! Question: Are we happy with this procedure? Best regards, Xaver

Hello Jean-Pierre, on a 1280x1024 screen version 5.6beta6 still behaves as I said: A windowed show (without border) of size 1280x853 is presented while showing part of the desktop. Further observation on my 1280x1024 screen: As long as either the window height is smaller than 1024, or the window width is smaller that 1280 (or both), the window will be adjusted (if needed), still showing part of the desktop, and (depending on the taskbar configuration) the taskbar still is to be seen. I tested several window sizes, e.g. 1500x1000, 1500x1023, 1279x1080. Window sizes like 1536x1024, or 1800x1200 behave well! Best regards, Xaver

Peter, If you use the windowed mode, as it is given in 5.5 or 5.6, the window defines a kind of screen in which the show runs, e.g. 1280x853 for a show with aspect ratio 3/2. When you run the show on your 1280x1024 screen, you will see part of your desktop outside the window in which your show runs. Not very amusing! What I would like to see is a kind of window-based fullscreen mode, sometimes called simulated fullscreen: The window should automatically fill the whole screen including a rectangle (mask) of given size or aspect ratio in which the show runs. Igor does not seem to like it, as in this mode PTE has reduced performance (compared to the gaming mode). On the other hand, for ATI/WinXP users this mode would be better than turning off D3D, or using the windowed mode as it presently is offered. Regards, Xaver

Hello all, It is a sad story, reading again about problems of users with ATI cards on WinXP systems. Let me again make a suggestion concerning this topic. Why not introducing the Screen mode "Fixed size of slide" running inside a window without border which covers the screen. It is clear, as PTE has not been (like some highly priced products of competitors) optimized for windowed modes, that the performance would not be first class. But I'm still convinced that this particular mode would be of some help for ATI/WinXP users. This mode could be offered with a warning, to avoid it if possible. Best regards, Xaver Munich

Peter, another possible option: Place the keypoint at the cursor's position without any automatic shift, in cases where the transition point is already occupied. Regards, Xaver

Igor, this is good in cases where no keypoint exists at the transition point. If a keypoint has already been placed there, it does not make sense to put in a second one. Best regards, Xaver Munich

Version 5.6 has not yet been released. Use the link given here for the latest beta version! Beta 6 has been announced in post #67 of this thread. Best regards, Xaver H. Munich