Barry Beckham

Paul We visited Beamish back in April after being a fan of the other living museums, Black Country and Blists Hill. We had fine rain and bitter cold and never found the variety of image you managed to capture. These living museums do make great photographic subjects and are perfect for AV. I didn't think your show was too long, just about right really and the choice of music style is one I considered myself. I listened to some brass band music, but didn't have enough variety to choose from. What I did have was all up beat and it didn't seem to fit somehow. I know what you mean about watching the show a lot of times and then thinking it needs a change. If your thinking that, then you ought to explore some variations or you will never be entirely happy with it. I thought your show ended a little too ubruptly with the final blank slide only being fully on screen for the briefest times. Then the screen flashed and I was whisked back to Explorer from where I launched your show. Its a very minor point, but try adding 2-4 seconds of silence at the end of your music track. That allows the fade down to the last blank slide to be held in silence for a couple seconds, which seems to make a lot of difference. Great show, but what music can I use for my Beamish images, you beat me to it.

Peggy The code that Xaver refers to would have been sent to you on an email when you first purchased PicturesToExe 4. If you have managed to retain all your emails over those years then you may still have it and the cose may not be lost. You are going to need that original product key code to be able to firstly intall PTE4 on your new computer. PTE4 will need to be installed first with your old product key, before you can updrade to PTE5, so finding your key is quite important. If you don't have it, you could make a request of PTE to see if they have records going back that far, but I would not hold a lot of hope if it has been some years. Your easiest way may be to re-purchase a fully up to date copy and product key. That is not what you wanted to hear perhaps, but it is worth every penny.

Arendsoog It is always difficult to help solve a problem like yours from a distance as we almost always need more information. From what you say it does appear that you may have made a mistake somewhere along the way and your slide show is still using high resolution images. The fact that it is still 140 megabyte is evidence of that. Have another look at the folder of images being used for your show. Look at them via windows explorer and the images should be something like 200-300kb in size. Make sure the folder you are looking at is the actual one which PTE is using for the images. I made a daft mistake once with two folders of images where I thought I was saving images to the right folder when I wasn't. It baffled the hell out of until the penny dropped and then I had to smile at how easy it is to get tied up in a knot.

Lin Well that makes the world of difference !

John That's good news, I expected those types of holidays to be priced at the once in a lifetime level, but what a place to visit. Nothing else like it on earth I expect. Gary AV in the context we produce it here is designed as a whole piece of work. The whole point of it is to take the individual images and put them together to make something with much more impact than the images on their own would individually create. During the 4-5 minute experience we try to make our show flow smoothly and capture a mood if possible. We try to capture our audience too if we can, so they have no thought of stopping the show or hitting the escape key. Now that takes lots of dedication and effort, yet despite all that we don't always succeed, but that's life, you win some and you lose some. We rarely get rewarded for effort in any photographic project, just the end result. Controlling a show is great when its right to do so, but in the context we produce them here it is not. People on this forum, being enthusiasts, will understand that all the author asks is that you sit down for 5 minutes and just watch their show. I don't want you to stop my show or study the individual images, I want you to watch what I have presented to you. Otherwise all I have worked to produce is destroyed. Look at slide shows that do work well and capture the audience and think about what it is that is doing that. It's not an individual image, it's the whole thing. Being extreme for a minute, it's like presenting you with my prints along with a pair of scissors to adjust the composition.

I have always assumed that the improvements are in the engine room much like many PTE ones are. I guess that any time a vague threat to the security of the system becomes apparent, the MS boffins fix it. I personaly don't expect to go for a MS upgrade and notice a physical speed increase. I am happy that they are keeping me up to date and secure. The trouble with this type of debate is that most people don't have the first clue about the writing of software and quite rightly so. That is why we buy it ready written.

Peter I don't disagree at all and you have described my experiences which are identical to yours. I too have never had a major problem that hasn't been caused by a sudden hardware failure. Never had a virus and never had any problems with Microsoft and don't know anyone personally who has. Yet, if I was the nervous type I could be frightened to death by the hyisteria that is created around MS in general. A more balanced view would have far more respect and clout.

Peter If you are that worried, take Windows off your PC and use something else.

If it ain't broke don't fix it. Thats great advice and one I would sign up to. (when it suits me). We all break it when we want to. How many of you are still using Photohop 3,4,5 or 6. There was nothing wrong with that software, it wasn't broke? I guess your all driving 1960's cars too, with a bit of maintenance they would still be servicable. No, we generally keep up to date, some quicker than others because we want to take account of new technology. Its the same with cars to kitchens and everything in between. I have no issues with being careful, but I believe there is an unhealthy hysteria around this issue and Microsoft Vista and this upgrade. Oops sorry I should say Bill (Boogey Man) Gates. Any company that has built a solid reputation providing products and services in a competitive environment to major corporations cannot afford to get any bad publicity. Trust them and their offerings until you have reason to change your mind. Except Bill Gates it seems !!

Gary There is a key at the top left of your keyboard that will put an end to your 2 hour ordeal. Its called the Escape key I yield too

What do I think? Microsoft cannot produce a product that will work on millions of PC's with millions of different componants and millions of bits of software and have it work faultlessly for everyone. Anyone who thinks that are living in gar gar land. Much of that software installed on PC's has come by via dubious means anyway and that could be the cause of some problems. There are always bound to be some issues and no matter what you do in life and no matter how careful you are to plan, someone will have problems. MSN upgrades are designed to make a product better and I don't believe for a second that they don't have every intention to do the best they can for their customers and their product, but they are just people and with the best will in the world you cannot foresee everything. Take PTE, we often hear of people who have all sorts or problems with crashes and installation problems, but is that all Igors fault? Of course not. It is a quirk of that particular PC, the componants or the software installed. Or simple human error. I have never had any issues with Microsoft and their products and I probably spend as much time as any using it. My view is that if a major upgrade is available then accept it, it's not put out there for fun or to cause havoc. If an upgrade was to all goes pear shaped, so what? We can always re-install the software, they are only programs, not the end of life as we know it. To listen to some you would think the end of the world was upon us. If anyone loses work due to a software upgrade, then more fool them for allowing their work to be vulnerable. All it takes is a little common sense. Come on lets be honest, many people just don't like Microsft or any other large company because they make all those wicked profits.

Gary I will need a bit of time to consider the comparison between a 2 hour film and a 4 minute sequence. It could take some time

Gary What you need for that is a Browser, you don't need to complexities of PTE to look at pictures. You can study the pictures to your hearts content and play your own music or not as the case may be. It ain't AV as I know it and I am fairly confident that the majority among those PTE enthusiasts I come into contact with would agree with me. Perhaps my next AV could consist of just a folder of images only

some people would like to study the photos and are not really interested in the sound In the words of a famous tennis player, you cannot be serious Ken. There are millions of galleries for people to study images.

I know some don't want a viewer to have any controls but I think it is a big mistake. I would prefer to have the Navigation Bar appear when I move the mouse to be able to Pause, go Back or Forward. Maybe it is just me but that is what I hope more PTE users would put in their shows when the post them on Beechbrook, etc. Thanks... Gary Gary, well ask yourself why they don't. Maybe it is because it destroys the flow of the show which the author has worked hard to achieve. That is the point of Audio Visual unless we are creating a presentation that demands user control.

Well, I am terribly disappointed with Service pack 3. I fully expected the world to end when I installed it for the first time However, after trying it on two separate desktop PC's and a Laptop without incident I feel rather let down that I can't join the doom and gloom anti Microsoft debate. I will just have to continue as a loner I suppose

No, I meant the pause button, Pause a show? hit the pause button. It seems logical to me, but then I don't do technical very well.

That looks pretty good and appears to mask different sized images very well. That will be popular I am sure.

Goddi Just hit the pause button to pause a show and again to start it.

Download a copy of Audactity a free sound editor and add 10 seconds of silence to the beginning of the track. Make sure you also download a file called lame at the same time you download Audacity, which will be essential to enable you to export an Mp3 file from the software. Get Audacity here http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Get Lame from here http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s...p;item=lame-mp3 Install Audacity and when you export your first Mp3 file you will be asked for the lame_enc.dll file. locate it once and it will be installed for you.

David I enjoyed this slide show as it is a fascinating subject and one that I would like to photograph one day. We are moving to Australia soon, so perhaps a trip like yours will be possible into the Southern Ocean. I have no idea if that is feasible, but I will find out when we get there. I didn't find the music very inspiring in your AV and feel there are many more choices that would enhance your show greatly. The images carried it more for me than the music, which was OK, but not special. You also seem to have joined the music a number of times and I could hear an interruption in that sound, which doesn't help the flow of your show. I think this sequence is great, but feel you could elevate it significantly with better music. Please remember this is just one persons views and you can't please all of the people all of the time. Others will have a different view I am sure. If you could let us know a little more about a trip like that, I for one would be interested.

If you create a text layer in the Objects and Animation screen and then do a Ctrl+C from that text layer, but use what is in the objects list, I can then skip to another image and hit Ctrl+V and the text drops in at the same size, colour and parameters. I don't suppose it would drop in the same place with a vertical, but all else copies fine, or am I missiing the point

An idea I have been toying with for a while is a talking book. I realise how many people like to listen away from the PC, maybe on iPods and in other ways. Here I have a 50mg zipped file that consitutes the first few chapters of what I have in mind. It will run for around an hour, but there are 7 sections. Any comments would be greatfully received. I am thinking more about the popularity of something like this and if it would be something that others would like. Many people like to listen on the way to work and this may be a way to do that. http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/audiovisual/audiovisual.zip

Well, you must understand that not everyones prime output is a projector. Mine is my PC screen first, despite the fact that I show probably more on my shows via a projector than most. On my PC screen I get to see PTE shows at their absolute best. So, I create them to fill my 1280*1024 PC screen, well, within reason of course. I am not a great lover of making my images almost square and like to retain format. Whatever I create, I can show them on my 1024*768 projector. It doesn't take any extra work to create my show and as you know you can scale down a sequence much easier than scaling up.

Anthony yes I am turning into Victor Meldrew