Barry Beckham

I am not too fussed what method is used to show what slides have been used and Nobeefstu's idea is fine with me, but why can't we have both. If we look at Photoshop, one of it's strengths is that is caters for lots of different ways of working. I suppose it could be argued that the more this is done, the more complex the learning curve is for new users, but that's life really. To gain functionallity it is a price worth paying and since when has anything worthwhile ever been easy. Even a key stroke would do me, Hit Ctrl+U and all images used disappear. Hit Ctrl+U again and they return. When I create 20 images all very similar as I have recently to show a map and places, an option like that would be great.

I think forum members should remember that not everyone works in the same way and a solution to a problem experienced is not always best served by sort of suggesting that person does things differently. The way we do things affects the final end result and I think my way of working is probably fairly typical. I don't select or pre number my images, because I build my slide shows, one slide at a time and I duck and dive all along the way as ideas occur or as I see my show gradually building up. If I want to use a slide twice a simple copy and past from the slide list is what I generally do. It shouldn't be a big thing, a button that says hide used images and one that changes to reveal used images when pressed. I can't see how that can be confusing

I have been doing some practical AV work using PTE 5.6 and during the actual process I sometimes have difficulty finding the image I have just created for the show from all the others in the File Panel. It ocurred to me that it would be a great advance to be able to hide all images that have already been selected for the slide show from that File panel. I could then just see the last 5 images I have created rather than having to find them from amongst 55 others . I am aware that if you switch to text mode the used images are a bit clearer to spot, but a button to hide/Reveal thumbnails used would be a good thing in my View.

The trouble is I have used these shortcuts for so many years I do them without thinking. Ctrl+del floods your background colour and Alt+del floods the foreground colour. They are very useful for slide shows, but here is a tip. Make sure you fill your black jpg's with black and not very dark grey or you get an ugly pulsing during the transition

AAaaaaarrrrgghhhhhhh Hangs his head in shame, I have found the problem !!!! . I thought I had created a blank black slide, but on checking again I found that it wasn't quite black. I must have done a Ctrl+del to flood the jpg with what looked black to me, but wasn't. I used that off black jpg for the white letters too. You would only notice it when compared to a black slide and that is what I saw when I opened up what I thought was black and flooded it again. OOOoops. That was enough to produce that pulse. Doesn't this hobby throw you some googlies at times?

Dave I create my images in photoshop, so it was a black jpg at the resoution mentioned and another with white letters created in Photoshop. A sandwhich of Black.jpg - black with white letters.jpg - black.jpg I tried PTE 5.5 too and that is the same. Tried the same test on my wifes system and the same flicker/pulse can be seen there too, but the two systems are identical so no great surprise there. I do not see the problem when I play the test on my 1024*768 monitor in another room and another PC B

I wonder sometimes if my life is destined to be spent solely sorting out computer problems rather than getting some interesting stuff done . I have a great new Dell 27in monitor and today started to put together a slide show. The opening titles are just a black screen, fade to white letters and fade down to black, simple enough you would think. As the title appears there is a sort of pulse around the edges of the monitor as though the transition is being carried out in stages. Totally unacceptable. It is the same on all images, but can be seen clearer on the titles. Graphic card is a Gforce 8600GT with up to date drivers Native resolution 1920*1200 Tried all the usual stuff graphics acceleration etc etc Ideas anyone B

LumenLux Sorry mate, I let my diplomatic mask slip a bit there didn't I. Its just that these sorts of things do nothing for me and I can't be the only one. I am trying hard not to be a traditionalist and turn away from anything new, but the tradition AV is very hard to improve on and you must know me a bit by now. From what I see there are far more important areas AV enthusiasts need to work on before flickering flames and on this occasion I could not help, but say what I thought. OOooops No offense meant at all.

If this is being used to help learn the capabilities of PTE, then great, but...................... No guys, its tacky and not something that is going to enhance your slide show, in fact it will do the opposite. IMHO of course.

Igor No matter what you do "You cannot please all of the people all of the time" However, I can see what your getting at and perhaps the create slide show button should just create an exe and then a second choice would just say. Other output options.

Rob. Yes it is and most enthusiasts turn to a sound editing program to create the commentary and to mix that with music at the right volume levels and in the right place along the music length. The sofware many turn to is a free download called Audacity. You will find loads of references to it on this forum. You can also add sound, ie commentary to any individual image in PTE so that the commentary plays when you get to that image, but the general concensus is that mixing your own commentary with music in a sound editor is best. A tip is to program your slide show with just your music and then use the time line as a reference point to where the commentary needs to be added. Audacity allows us to work with multiple tracks so adding commentary to music and getting the volume of them both is not that difficult. When we get that right, we can mix all the tracks together, not unlike flattening layers in Photoshop or Elements. You will find tutorials for Audacity on this forum and I also have some video tutorials on my site too

Donald You probably don't need your original key right now, but it was originally sent to you on an email when you purchased PTE4. If you keep your old emails you will find it. If you do, save it off your PC, because at some stage your probably going to need it, but not for this upgrade. If you go to www.wnsoft.com hit the download trial button and download PTE5. Unzip and install the software. PTE5, when installed will not overwrite your earlier version, but will accept the product key. That upgrade will give you PTE5 standard. That is all the changes in the PTE engine room and the new animation screen. What is will not get you is the ability to create a DVD for playing on a TV through a domestic DVD player. For that, you will need the Video Builder key that will effectively give you PTE5 Deluxe. That can also be downloaded from www.wnsoft.com

This is not an easy subject to cover as art is always in the eye of the viewer, but the choice of music fitted the subject perfectly. You do have one image where the frame effect seems to have dropped off, but other than that everything is handled technically well. Its not easy to be creative with the subject and I suppose there will always be debate on whether you should be or not. A thought just went through my mind once or twice that you might have slipped one or two of your own masterpieces into some of those frames on the wall. The image could remain static, but the inserted pictures could change. As Lin says, keep up the good work.

Maureen Just about perfect and in my view. This show sums up for me what AV is all about, the photographic quality and most of all interesting dramatic images too, then matched with the right music. Presented beautifully too. Someone said when the pictures are great, the fancy stuff is unnecessary. When the pictures are NOT great all the fancy stuff in the world doesn't improve the show one bit. Great sequence that you should be proud of.

That is not the information I have picked up from the forum. It would hardly make sence for an improved product to be given a lower product number. Its like Photoshop 6 being a better vertion than Photoshop 9

You would expect the cables supplied by the PC projector manufacturer to be adequate for the job. Its probably one of those weird things we experience when we all do a similar thing (Digital AV) but with literally hundreds of different makes and models of kit. Sometimes for reasons we never fully discover, the equipment we hook up just doesn't go according to plan.

Peter Not very practical advice? The reason will come out in the wash one day when we least expect it

Peter If, your right, what are you suggesting gets changed on a desktop to avoid this problem? B

John I wonder how it would be outside with a half decent directional mic? I hope to be able to record live sounds and get the quality good enough too. Watch this space

Peter I don't think anyone was suggesting the that PTE was the fault was they? In addition the fault for me occurs with a desktop. which has more than adequatre spec for PTE I think it is something to do with the animation and the way Projectors work. You can't have a situation where a PC runs an animated slide show perfectly, but doesn't through a projector and point to the graphics card. If it can handle the monitor it should handle the projector.

Ed. I have not read all the replies to your original post as they have built up rather quickly, but I discovered what you have spoken about a couple of years ago and it does effect what PTE slide shows I project when doing a demo. I use the same desktop PC for both the creation of the slide show and then to demo those shows to camera clubs, Its a long story why I do this, but it suits the way I work and I find laptops inadequate unless you spend your entire whealth on one. The PC I use has respectible enough power to create slide shows and handle my Raw files through Photoshop. It will play any slide show including animated ones perfectly on the monitor I use. However, take that same PC to a demo and hook it up through a Digital Projector (without a monitor, I demo from the projector image) and now some, but not all of the animation can show a jerkyness that just destroys things for me. I always assumed it was the limitaions of projectors and in time they will improve. I can't really understand why a show displays perfectly on the monitor, but not so perfectly through a projector. I suspect the techno boffins will have some ideas, but to be honest I am not interested unless there is something I can do to get a perfect result through my projector. I am fairly experienced in putting together slide shows and what I do is keep my images to a minimum size, so its not anything like that which is causing the problem. I also notice this on both my projectors. One Epson and one Mitsubishi and I consider both these good projectors aside from this issue.

I have finally ordered a Samson H4 recorder and will be writing something on my web site, once I have some experience of it. I think AV workers would be interested if they could read an unbiased review and hear a good variety of recordings from the H4. Should be delivered this week, so I will post a link to any review I do, when I do it.

David There are two ways to add music to a PTE slide show. The one most used is via Project Options > Music tab If your slide show displays the correct music in Project Options > Music tab, but is playing something different, then look to see if any music has been added to an individual image. If that is what you have done, look at the first few slides in your slide show. High-light each one and look up to the top right of the screen. There is an area that will say "add sound" (if there is no sound already added) or it will give the name of the track applied to that image. It could be that you have the correct sound you want selected in Project Options > Music tab, but that is being overuled by music you have applied to an individual slide. Remove that music and you should then be fine

Noel What you request at the start of the thread (which as you now know is possible) is the way I have gone about creating slide shows with PTE for years. I use the project options rather like a global parameter setting and then I make adjustments to individual images as I see fit. It works rather well for me to work this way. Generally a show we are putting together with have either quickish transitions, medium or slow depending on the subject and mood, so setting that speed and transition as a global setting first, is a great way to work in my view.

Lin Yes, I know they are very popular which makes me wonder if I am out of step here, but they just don't do it for me. Always appear unatural like looking through a letter box at a picture. I accept they would have some commercial uses too, I was only really thinking from a photographic enthusiast and the pictorial nature of slide shows. I just wondered if I was alone or others felt the same, but were reluctant to say it. I like panorama prints and I hope to have a huge canvas one done for our new home in Australia, but in that scenario I can see the whole image.