Barry Beckham

Brian I doubt this will be in the same league as the doms templates, but worth a look maybe 16:10 format for 24 - 36 and 48 images 16:9 format for 24 - 36 and 48 images There are samples on the pages so you can check what is does

Dave I know where your coming from here, but I think many people would rather stay with something they know. I have always assumed it is a confidence thing and it's why Travel Inns and McDonalds are popular. People know exactly what they are gonna get, even if it isn't perfect. We are more comfortable using what we know, rather than spend time learning something new. As we have discussed before, there are benefits to staying with what you know, because you get to be an expert. The downside is the possiblity that you get left behind when you should have took notice, but didn't. :lol:/> Story of my life Back to PTE sound, I don't think an external editor adds anything to what PTE can do and it is convenienet for everything to be in one spot. If you use an external editor you still need PTE timeline to give you the timings, so it may as well be done within the program. The only downside is that if you use a 10MB sound file and only use 20 seconds the whole 10 MB is still locked into the final exe. Other than that I am sold, but I still want to see it a bit more visual.

Rudi Is this what you mean LINK

Gogs These issues get reported from time to time and the answer often lies in how the Mp3 file was aquired. For reasons unknown to man or beast the music will not play in the exe file as you describe. Re-creating the music often gets things working. Importing the sound files into an external sound editor like Audacity and then exporting them out again have been known to cure the problem. I assume you have placed the music into your project via Project Options Audio, or dragged it onto the time line and not attached it to an individual slide

Colin These things are annoying arn't they. I am far from a technical wizard, but something to try. A long shot perhaps. In the Project options of VideoBuilder, look at the program settings and try a DVD with Temp folder set to another location other than whats attached. I don't do many DVD's but in the past when ever I had a hic up it always seemed to be in this location

Dawn I was thinking you may have a neighbour who wouldn't mind popping the disk in their DVD player for you. If it did work OK, then at least you would know where to look

Try the disk you made on another DVD player to make sure its not the player itself

Gary Maybe it would be nice in PTE But I feel for Igor at times. Some users want PTE to also be an image editor, some want a menu maker, others want a sophisticated animation tool. I don't know about you, but I would rather it concentrate on what it's designed for. We need the sound editing finished first :lol:/>

Yes, you end up with the line on blanks when you don't want it. What we really want in the objects and Animation screen is a paste to this image, and a paste to all images. Then it would be cracked

Gary There are a number of advantages to the stroke PNG line that Dave mentioned. Firstly, if it's applied as the top object in the Object and Animation Screen, then it will provide your edge effect irrespective of how much animation is going on beneath it. Secondly, if you get the line too thick or too white, you only have to remake one Png and overwrite the original and PTE will pick it up on all images. Its the best way I have found, but the only disadvantage is that you have to apply it to every image, but there is a quick way. Add the Png to image one, then hit Ctrl+C and copy it from the objects box, skip to the next image and Ctrl+V will paste it, then skip to the next and so on.

My advice re slide show format is 16:9, but I respect those who are not so keen on that shape, I wasn't myself once, but I have grown into it and seen the inevitablity of it. :rolleyes:/> On the rare occasion when I have an image framed in such a way that a 16:9 crop will not work well. (cutting off bits of the top/bottom) I distort the image a little and so far not one person has ever noticed. :lol:/>

I hope I understand your question correctly. Assuming I do, I would say No. Because it will mean the flag operates in two ways, one for a single object and another for multiple objects. That wouldn't affect most of us, but these thing confuse the hell out of newer users

Its just that I bought a new Dell 27inch and it was that resolution, so it sort of jogged my memory. I recall when we struggled to create 800*600 shows and now look what PTE can handle. Anyone remember Kai Power Show?

Well, personally the last two slide shows I made. Hot in the City and Schools our Surfs Up were made at 2560*1440, but I appreciate that some are not keen on the 16:9 format and as AV is all about presentation we all have to like what we do ourselves.

Geoff What was in my mind when I answerd were the thoughts I had when I moved from the old style monitor to a new large widescreen one. Suddenly all my old shows that looked so good at 1024 pixels now looked puny and I regretted staying with 1024 for so long. I am not saying 1728 pixels is quite in that same league as 1024, but if you have chosen 16:10, make the shows 1920*1200 because it will make little or no difference to you now, but if you ever move up to a higher resolution monitor and that is almost a certaintly at some stage, your shows will still fill the screen. Well, apart from the black bars if a 16:9 screen is used

Sorry Roger, this is not right. Rules are the enemy of creativity and this is one rule AV organisors have no business with at all. Show size is the creative decision of the author not rule makers. The pixel size of the show you make is NOT governed by the projector being used, that is completely false, but it is said over and over again to imply a rule is needed where none needs to be..Using 1024*768 in club circles these days is just plain daft, times have moved on and it's about time some club committees did too. Make three slide shows, one at 4:3 format, one at 3:2 and one at 16:9 All three will play back perfectly on a digital projector which runs a native resolution of 1024*768 or one running 1920*1080 I do it all the time and have done for ages.

Geoff If your preference is for a 16:10 format, I would respectfully suggest that you should be considering 1920*1200. Then put those values in the virtual size of the Slides and let the format take care of itself from those values.

Peter As Dave has said, a sample will help, but just to say I have found exactly the reverse of what you describe, so I am sure it's something simple that can be addressed. I am also a long time user of PTE and I find that it has become better at the core job or making slide shows. In the meantime, have a look at updating your graphics card drivers, that sometimes helps, but a sample for us to see how your show works at our end may show up the problem

Well, I don't think you can complain about my sarcasm, not you of all people. My original post to you, believe it or not, was sincere, I have been doing a web project myself recently where similar small frustrations grow into something annoying because it seems we don't have control of them, but they affect what we are doing badly. So my original suggestion wasn't made in a condescending way, implied or not. I was making a real suggestion and in some way commiserating with you. I was also making the point that most of us don't want our software to even try to be a master of everything. I am just happy if it does the core job and gets that right, which PTE does. The fact that you seem to find offense in EVERYTHING I say is a little baffling from my end. Lighten up and don't try so hard to be the stubborn old Yorkshireman that you are. Most of it comes naturally anyway. Now that was sarcasm :P/>

Well, that's a relief. I was worried there for a minute thinking you might miss Graham Norton. It's such a relief you know you didn't. Thanks for the post, I was able to sleep without worrying.

Eric I can't help having this thought, whenever I read your frustrations with PTE as a menu. I understand how little things can sometimes get under your skin, but with the amount of shows you do, perhaps you should consider a dedicated menu maker. Are we not expecting PTE to be what it really isn't. It allows us to create a few buttons and works reasonably well, but on a menu front its not in the same league as a dedicated product. The term Jack of all trades master of none has been used on this forum in similar circumstances and some menbers are nervous that it will spread its wings too wide. Collectively we want a top notch slide show maker, we want a top notch sound editor, you want it to be a full blown menu maker, others want their image editing done, others want detailed video editing, phew, its enough to have Igor selling to the highest bidder and taking off to the Bahamas, or somewhere even better like the Sunshine Coast of Australia :lol:/>

If I understand the point correctly, I made it years ago, but not in relation to animation. Not sure it even existed when I raised this. I was saying that it seemed wrong to me that every picture brought into PTE that was smaller than the main screen resolution set, will be expanded up to either: Reach the edges or the top/bottom of the screen depending on the format of the smaller image. The only option to put this right is to visit evey single image (that is smaller then the set show resolution) in the Objects and Animation screen, select the Common tab > Size position in Pixels > Original Mode and then reset the value to 100%. I said back then that there should be a glabal setting for this. It would make a nice preferences setting. It is annoying when you create a small inset image and PTE expands it up to try and fit it to the size of the screen.

Igor Your missing the point, it seems that I, and some other enthusiasts go straight to the setting and display the wave form in full. New users think something is wrong. There is something to be said for things that just "Look Right" and the half wave form doesn't

If you added borders using a percentage (as in Photoshop) and the images were different sizes, you would have different sized borders depending on the image size. PTE will add a set number of pixels as a border and if I understand your question right, you can add the same number of pixels to each image irrespective of size and meet your needs. That option is in the Objects and Animation screen and then the Properties tab. You will see the border button below.

That looks very good