Bubba

I have a small but annoying problem: there is a very short (about 1 second) gap between my swish file and the P2E file. When the flash/swish file stops, I can see my computer desktop for a second then the P2E slideshow starts. This happens whether it is run from my computer's hard drive or if I burn it to a CD. I have a reasonably new computer: 1800 AMD, 512 MB ram and Windows XP. Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks in advance, Bubba

Catlem, Welcome to the forum. There are many experts on this forum and I'm not one of them. However, check out the "How to Create Video" category for tons of info.

Greetings from Omaha, Nebraska, approximately the middle of America. Bubba

Marcovelo & Boxig, Thank you very much. I got it! This really adds some easy special effects. Bubba

Marchovelo, Thank you for your help! I got it to work correctly now. I incorrectly named the html file "flashFullScreen" instead of just "flash." Now I wonder if there is an easy way to change the "start" button the utility produces. Ideally I would like the "start the show" button to appear at the end of the flash intro movie. I'd also like to customize the start button so it looks different. Thanks again, Bubba

Boxig, Thank you very much for all the work you have been doing on various utilities. I'm pretty excited about making flash start animations. I made a nice flash intro (simple text effects). My problem is with getting it to work in full screen on a P2E slideshow. I got your flash.exe to work. I'd like to have the black background though. I couldn't get the 'flashfullscreen' utility to work. It opens your start window but doesn't show my flash file, just the "Page cannot be displayed" internet explorer message. When I click on the start button it opens my PTE slideshow normally. By the way, I made the configuration file with your 'Flashme' utility and this works great. But I wasn't sure how to proceed so I'm using your "FlashIntroUtility". Any ideas on how to get it to work full screen (black on perimeter of screen) would be greatly appreciated.

I wonder what the shows look like on the new flat screen high definition TVs? The prices are slowly going down. Anyone who has one please let us know.

DustyDeserts, My knowledge in this area is weak. What method do you use to get the high resolution jpeg without compression and the low resolution (100 to 200 kb) jpeg photo scans? When I scan with the program included with Window XP, it just offers the option of jpeg or tiff. The jpegs scan at a nice 100 to 200 kb for the slideshows. The tiff images are in the 4.5 Mb range. I may have to reinstall the software that came with my Epson Perfection scanner to get more options with Twain (I had problems with it being slow to start up and new drivers didn't help). Bubba

I scan people's old photos (including vacation photos, etc) for two purposes: archiving and printing and for slideshows. My question involves the best scanning resolutions. Currently I scan at 300 dpi and save in the TIFF format for archive and printing. I then convert copies into 100 to 200 kb JPEG's for the slideshows. I put a folder of the TIFF images on the same CD as the slideshow. This way the customer has both versions of the photos available. Does this seem like the best method? For average size photos, is 300 dpi a high enough resolution for archive and printing (assuming I don't plan to increase the print size by more than double)? Would scanning at 1200 dpi produce a better quality print at the same size? I wonder if taking the time to scan the photos twice would make sense. One scan in a very high dpi resolution (say 1200 dpi) saved in TIFF for archiving and print purposes. The second scan in the low resolution JPEG's used for the slideshows. This would avoid having to compress the JPEG image a lot. I realize this is quite a few questions for one posting. I want to thank everyone in advance for there great imput to my current and past posts. Bubba

I have a reasonably good speaker system on my pc with a good sound card. I haven't tested voice yet. I generally will be making slideshows for relatives and friends personal use so big sound isn't much of a factor. Occassionally a slideshow I make may be played for a group in a big room with a projector. For someone's personal use I wonder if a 96 bitrate (approx. FM stereo radio quality) is about right. I'm curious what others use for most of their shows?

When I convert a music file from WAV to MP3, I noticed the file size is considerably bigger the higher the bitrate. Any suggestions on the best bitrate/quality setting? I assume the larger music file sizes cause slower computers to have problems processing the slideshows. I did a quick test and didn't hear any difference when converting at a lower quality setting, even as low as 32. I understand 128 is 'CD' quality.

Boxig's utility is available. However, it seems not many people know you can add a banner across all your pictures from inside the P2E program. I copied the below info how from a earlier posting on how I did it: First make a copy (ie. File-save as) in the original folder of one of your pictures but name it "copyrighted" or whatever you want to appear on the slides. Now add it to your slideshow next to the same photo but use "fade" so they appear as one photo. Or just rename one of the photos to "Copyrighted". Select it in PTE(click/highlight) and at the top menu bar click on "Slide" then choose "Set Comments on all Slides=Current One." In "Project Options" you can change the font size and position in the "Comments" tab. I think you could use the "Customize Slide" option to change the font size and position too. To remove just go back to Project Options and click on "Clear all comments" button. Also, in the Project Options - "Comments" tab - Customize Comments - choose "Picture Name." This is what "set comments on all slides=current one" needs before it will work.

Nobeefstu, Please provide a little more detail on how to do this. I'm not even sure how to make a bitmap. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Bubba

NoBeeStu, Thanks and I agree. It's a murky legal area that credit/disclaimers in the show and a signed verification by the owner should help avoid possible litigation over music copyrights.

If I produce a slideshow for someone and they add music that they brought on MP3.com, it seems this would be for their personal use. I'm not trying to be coy. I'd like to work out a way for people to enjoy royality paid music for their slideshows that they have me produce for them. I don't plan to keep a copy of their music, etc.

I forgot to add this regarding adding a copyright banner: In Project Options - "Comments" tab - Customize Comments - choose "Picture Name." This is what "set comments on all slides=current one" needs before it will work.

Concerning noel.photo's question about adding a "copyright" banner: Yes you can add a "Copyrighted" banner or anything else on you slideshow pictures. First make a copy (ie. save as) in the original folder of one of the pictures but name it "copyrighted" or whatever. Now put it in the slideshow next to the same photo but use "fade" so they appear as one photo. Or just rename one of the photos to "Copyrighted". Select it in PTE(click/highlight) and at the top menu bar click on "Slide" then choose "Set Comments on all Slides=Current One." In "Project Options" you can change the font size and position in the "Comments" tab. I think you could use the "Customize Slide" option to change the font size and position too. To remove just go back to Project Options and click on "Clear all comments" button. Concerning Evan's question about not allowing the user to use "Print Screen": PTE has an option to disable a user's print screen option. It works great. Find it in Project Option, Advanced Tab, then just put a check mark in "Don't Allow Print Screen."

Regarding copyright issues, the MP3.Com site has the following: "Unlike many other subscription offerings that restrict how you can use your music, it easy for you to transfer your music to portable devices, burn CDs and make multiple copies for your personal use. It's up to you, because once you download the tracks you own the music. SIGN UP NOW! »" Seems to me if the client is buying the music for his/her slideshow that you are making for them, it would be legal. Then again, I suppose an attroney could be hired to argue it is not legal but this seems unlikely for the hobbiest or very small business owner making slideshows for others. I welcome your thoughts on this.

Please check out the slideshow called "Colours" at: http://www.beechbrook.com/pte/index.asp I e-mailed the creator "cici" and he gave me permission to post his reply to my "how'd you do that questions." I think he provides some good ideas and the slideshow is one of my favorites. I couldn't get the ending to work however. It stopped just before the ending. Below is "cici's" reply to my e-mail. Your comments are welcome. Bubba (I changed my forum name from 'Jerry S') I too am new to PTE (but not new at all to slideshows) and this is my 3rd PTE show and I've just finished my 4th one. It will be uploaded to my website in a few days. > > > > > > The show consists of 240 images : 64 picture + 176 images for the animations; synchronized in time line. R-The animations images were synched at the rate of 5 images per sec. , no transition ("quick") . The rate of 5 images per sec , I think is the maximum you can require from PTE (and it is very good): with a bigger rate you can experience problems. As far as transitions are concerned you can use the "fade in" at 20 msec. > > > > > > My animations images are 3D drawings and have been prepared with the software "Strata 3D 3.0.2" (http://strata.com/) . This program was a "freeware" when they started, but now (3D 8..v) it's a very expensive one. Anyway it's a beautiful program: you can handle your drawings as you like. You can reduce them to a line or a point, hide it somewhere and then open it like magic. But you need a lot of work. As you are obliged to save drawings as "mpeg" files it does it by saving the image upset down and with the axes x, y, z in a corner. So you need a good graphic editor, time, and patience to erase these axes. > > > > > > Anyway it's not necessary to have a sophisticated program to do nice and interesting things! > > > > > > The most important thing to apply is: the bigger the number of images your animation is broken up, the cooler your animation will be. > > > > > > I don't know if these details will help you, but , please, be free to ask me for help anytime you need it for a special realization. > > > > > > If you don't know yet, PTE has a very interesting and wonderful FORUM where your can ask for help about any PTE problem: experts will give you answers. Cici > > >