Barry Beckham

Of course don't trust the drive after one failure, but what a great way to possibly redeem stuff that may be lost. You know how some are lack about backing up and only regret it after the horse has bolted

When we set up our computers after emmigrating to Australia I found one of our external drives refused to work. The lights came on, but there was no-one at home. None of my externals have unrepeatable stuff on them and this one was only a misc drive so I just used it as a backup of a backup for the trip. I tried a few things to get it going including different PC's, but nothing worked. I was about to call it a day and throw it out when something came up at the camera club here in Australia. Someone said they had heard about a tip pros use to get external drives working. It was to put them in the freezer for a while. Now when you hear that you look around for people chuckling, but no-one was. I tried it and it worked. I was able to gain full access to the drive and just double check that their wasn't anything on that I needed. The funny thing it has kept going even after it became warmed up. I am a bit nervous about using it for anything of worth, but as a back up of a backup, why not. So there is a solution that could be well worth putting into the gray matter for the time when we may need it.

Dom Super smooth this time and a great lesson in matching images to music too Great to see

I would be very nervous about PTE going down this particular road and I am glad that there do not seem to be any plans to do so. These effects should not be thrown into our slide shows on an ad hoc basis and if that is what is wanted there is another product that will do that for you. PTE stands apart from other similer products for all the right reasons and I hope it can remain that way.

Barry, I prefer to present my slideshows in full screen mode and not limit its resolution, even if I agree with you that people will not see it as it should be. I have not made the test but I wonder what happens if you fix size of slide to 1920 x 1200 by example and the user has a lower resolution ? The trouble with that is image quality as you know. If your going to set your images up at 1024*768 it doesn't make any sense at all to allow them to be stretched to a much higher resolution. 1. It could be what it putting more strain on my PC to run the demo, though I doubt it. 2. The images lose their quality. Something I see quite a lot in slide shows I watch, but how would those authors know that this is happening unless they see their show played back on a higher res monitor. I picked up this issue a long time ago, because I have a PC running 1024*768 for video recording and I also have my standard PC running a resolution of 1920*1200. I test my slide shows on both PC's and make sure they run correctly. I now make my shows and slide show demos at 1920*1200 and fix the size of the slides. They run perfectly on my machine running the same resolution and also the other one running 1024*768. Yes there is a black band top and bottom, but I have to live with that. The main issue as you know is that PTE can reduce size far better then increase size. I can't produce demos to show people what PTE can do if the demo that runs on their machine is poor. I have to know that they will see much the same as I see and this method appears to work very well. So, larger shows will project great on smaller monitors, I know that because I test everything I make at 1920*1200 on a 1024*768 res monitor The conclusion is that this slideshow requires a recent graphic card. But it's not a suprise. But as you already said it Barry, I don't understand why some people reports jerkiness with high specs computers and other with lesser computers have a very smooth animation I am sure your right about the card, but it's not as though the graphics card that I and others are using is ancient and it does everything else I ask of it. My original reply to you was because I know you make templates for sale and the issue then is they have to work on all machines, or the vast majority. I think your expertise with animation is a little ahead of the game and like I said before this last one is probably your most ambitious and its showing the weaknesses of some machines it's played on. I have long since given up trying to fathom PC's. I have experienced so many of these odd things where one PC will do something and another of a similar or identical spec will not, that now, I accept these problems as par for the course Either we need speedier machines or some way to slow you down a bit

Dom Your slide show made at 1024*768 is automatically stretched to fit my larger screen of 1920*1200. The height touches the top/bottom edges first, so your right, there are black bars left and right. However, when the three images finally becomes one, it shouldn't be stretched so that it touches the top and bottom of my screen should it? If you made it at 1024*768 it should show at that size on any monitor running a higher resolution. You need to tick the box in the Project Options > Screen Tab > Fixed size of slide (in Pixels) Then I will see it as you presented it and then it might run right. At the moment I am seeing your 768 high images shown at 1200

Dom This version is much better, just a small flicker as the images appear. The fade out is fine, but that slight flutter as images appear would annoy me no end though. For me a faded transition has to be perfect and I guess you would want that too. This puts me in mind of my experiences with PSG some time ago. Even with 1024*768 images I could not get smooth animations using PSG on all three of the machines I had at home. All three had a good specification and all were perfectly OK for everything else. Some people reported no problems at all from lesser machines and in the end I could not find a reason why some PC's play a slide show fine and anothers don't. Over a period of a year or two many PSG users approached me at demos saying they experienced the same issues as me and they thought they were doing something wrong, but I couldn't help them because I just could not fathom why PSG worked OK on some machines and not others. I think your probably working on the limits and pushing the boundaries, where I expect these sorts of things will come up from time to time. One thing though, what resolution did you make this at as it fills my screen top and bottom, but not edge to edge. Its like a 1280*1024 image stretched to match a larger screen, is that what I am seeing?

You can do all you have decribed with PicturesToExe, but you will need to use a sound editor for some of what you ask. Joining musiv tracks and adding commentary for example. DVD quality is now very good and will meet the needs of most viewers. There are tutorials available on this forum and also video tutorials here http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/digitalav/pte5.htm If your going to need DVD's for TV viewing, why not make your basic slide show at HD resolutions 1920*1080. That file size will convert very well to modern flat screen TV's and you will have a slide show resolution that you could use in HD as and when the oppotunity arises. It will also play back OK on modern flat screen PC's too

I don't actually want to use the effect you have created, I just looked at it out of curiousity and thought I would let you know that I am unable to see it at its best. I think your animated work is very good, but it is not really my style of AV. I don't believe I have any issues with my PC and yesterday I was working on 16 bit multi layered image files approaching 500 meg and had no problems at all. The machine plays everything else and works fine. Don't worry about it, it was just a bit of info I thought you would want to know. In fact it is issues like this that makes me sympathetic to software manufacturers who have to battle the same issues.

Both these last demos react exactly the same here. Quite a bad flicker/pulse that would make the template unusable for me.

Yes, my resolution is 1920*1200

The stutter is on every image using Vista business I am running a large monitor 27in Dell

Dom This is good work, but the transition as each image appears flickers quite a lot on my PC. It's probably better described as a pulsed effect. It looks as though too much is going on for my PC to cope with the transition. A Quad Core 2.66Ghz 4 Gig of Ram Nvidia Gforce 8600GT graphics It runs everything else OK

This is a very clever slide show and extremely well done of it's type. I find I am impressed with the skills of the author, but not inspired by the work. Sadly I think I am a bit too old to appreciate it as I do find myself attracted to the more traditional AV approach. It great, but it doesn't inspire me to want to have a go and inspiration is vital. Just as I was about to close this thread when it came to me what this reminds me of. Graffiti, It attracts my attention, I do have some respect for the authors, but then nothing afterwards.

Yes, that sounds positive, it's a funny thing but I was talking to a few clubs here in Australia about trying to find a wall to project onto so we can get a much better sized picture. I recall doing a demo at the Maltings in Ely Cambridgeshire and using their cinema screen to project onto. It was an enormous image and one thing that impressed me at the time was the clarity and brightness of that image. HD does seem to be the way that was my original first thought, but some doubts crept in after talking to Epson. Your right Ken, we always assume we are talking to someone who understands our needs and our questions. Perhaps not

Thanks I am beginning to think that the person I spoke at Epson misunderstood my needs.

Nothing specific, but interested in results and a little confused by Epson saying they were not designed to be transported. I wonder if I was talking to someone who didn't really know and was simply passing on what they have been told and it is the size of the unit that they were on about and not that it is delicate

This thread seems to be loosing it's waya bit. Can I assume that no PTE experts are yet using a HD projector for their slide shows? I and others would be interested in any real projects that have been made and projected on HD projectors I am not entirely sure which way to jump and a discussion often opens up things you never thought of..............

I still have to buy a colour monkey calibration tool for my own monitors, but I don't think they are too far off the right colour. I have been looking again at the HD projectors and may try for one of those.

I tried the new startup window and I went in and customised the startup and the help screen no problem. However, when the show is previewed the startup window appears as you would expect, but the sound of my slide show continues while the startup remains on screen. Then, if I select play, the slide show plays from the start, but begins hidden behind the PTE main screen. You can hear it but not see it and it has to be revealed from the windows bottom bar If I hit the help button while the startup screen in displayed, the music of the slide show is then paused.

I suspect this is a recourse issue, but try slowing down your pan and you may find things then become far smoother. Although you say you don't wish to change the animation 20 seconds is a long time to be panning an image IMHO. So, slowing the movement may be a win win situation....Just a thought

DaveG I don't connect my monitors with HDMI because my PC's do not have a HDMI connection and I rarely use a laptop to demonstrate with. At some stage I suppose I will, but for now I don't. Downsizing an image doesn't seem to be such an issue as upsizing and I don't have a problem with what it shows on screen. My initial thought was that I wanted nothing less than 1920*1080, but I have been informed by Epson that the HD projectors are not as robust as others and are designed for home cimemas rather than for portable use.

Yaughtsman Yes, I agree with that. I am hoping that a new projector will be donated to me, so cost isn't an issue. What is an issue is quality and the 2000:1 contrast ratio of the newer projectors against my current 400:1 is what I hope will give increased quality of the projected image. From what I have seen so far in Australia, the quality of projectors used by clubs isn't good. As soon as I saw the Noosa Photo Club one in action I kept trying to sharpen the image, it was softer than I was used to. Another I saw was so bad I would submit any images to be projected by it. What about the widescreen format though?

Image Size I recently pondered the question of what size slide show do I make and why. I wasn’t asking the question because I didn’t know the answer, but because I was keen to hear the views of the more experienced PTE users. Many of the size/format/animation issues we used to have to grapple with have largely been sorted by Igor and his team, so the goal posts had moved quite a bit Over the past months I have been replacing some of my older PTE tutorial disks. This involves recording new video tutorials and making PTE demos to go with those videos. Before I started I had to settle on a size for the PTE demos I would make. I wanted them to display well on all monitors and have a good shelf life too. I.e. they were big enough not to be left behind very quickly. Its only when you see a slide show played on a 1920*1200 monitor and then one at 1024*768 played on the same monitor that the difference hits you. Size isn’t everything of course, but all else being equal the larger size look impressive. I eventually chose to make the demos at 1920*1200 to match my main Dell monitor running that same resolution. I have tested the demos on a PC that is approaching 2 years old, it is a Quad core 2.66 GHz with 4 gig of ram and a Nvidia Gforce 8600GT graphics card. These PTE demos have involved quite a bit of animation and I have been delighted with the results, smooth animations and faultless transitions. What I also like is that the shows play back very well on my very old single core PC running 1024*768 resolution. I have a black band top and bottom due to the format mismatch, but a thin line seems to hold that in nicely. The quality of the images in the demo slide shows remains great and the animations are nearly all handled well. There is a small stutter on an isolated few, but given the age and spec of the machine, not surprising. In summary I am finding that the 1920*1200 is a great size to work with, easily converted to HD format of 1920*1080 for DVD’s and all those issues I am fussy about are handled great. PC Projector Now I am in the market for a better projector, which I would be using to demonstrate both Photoshop and PTE, including the playing of the demos made at 16:10 format. I have settled on either the Epson 1725 or 1735. The 1725 remains with 4:3 format while the 1735 is capable of 16:10. Now, the 16:10 format would match my monitor and those of many of my audience. It will match nearly all laptops and screens now sold and better reflect the image format we get from our cameras. (I believe the 1735 will also handle 4:3 as well as 16:10) Who would like to bat around the pros and cons if my logic for a while?

Colin New Zealand is on our places to visit, probably 2010 now as we have plenty to do for the rest of this year. I would be delighted to do a few demos while over there and we will keep you in mind. I have an all day PTE demo at Redlands CC in Brisbane next week, that should be fun B