Barry Beckham

Gary If you have Audacity on your computer, try taking one of those tracks into Audacity and re-saving it as a new Mp3, then slot it into that slide show. See if that clears the log jam. That may tell if it is a bug or one of those annoying sound issues we see from time to time caused by the Mp3 itself

Over the years I have done hundreds of demonstrations and I always include PicturesToExe, even if that is just breaking up a Photoshop session with a brief respite and a short slide show. One thing that became clear to me from an early point was that a destop and a laptop of so called equal power do not perform anywhere near the same. For years I used a desktop to do demos, because laptops were just not up to the high end photography and then the animation possibilities with PTE. I notice that we seem to be reaching a turning point and my latest laptop and our clubs laptop are capable of playing Hot in the City and the PTE promo smooth as silk, but there are still lots of laptops that will struggle, especially when we throw in video too.

I think that slide show says a lot about PTE because the majority of the images were created at 2560*1440 (16:9) and 4 or 5 were 3000*2000 and yet it plays well even on our club laptop. No delays at all, no hesitation in the animation despite the quick fire nature.

Roger Good Point I don't believe you can, but it would be useful to have that option.

Lin. Unless I am the only one who ever wants to see their slide show full screen from a selected image, then yes it should show as a default and in a convenient position. I am suggesting it is such a basic tool for slide show production it should be big, bold and convenient by default. We have an odd situation where the Navigation bar that is used by few is shown as a default, yet starting the slide show from a selected image, which is pretty basic slide show operation isn't.

Igor I would like to ask you to re-think your decision to hide the icon away that will easily start a slide show from any highlighted image. I have been making a couple of slide shows recently so I have been putting 7.5 to a good test. As usual I find myself wishing to do a full screen preview from a cetain image dozens, if not a hundred times during the production. Am I unique in doing this? I doubt it, but the button to allow that does not even show untill you access the options to display it. Yes, I appreciate Ctrl+R does the same thing, but I make this point for others, not me or the faithful. Although, having said that, when you work with a graphics tablet rather than a mouse. A button to tap is sometimes more convenient than Ctrl+R In my view, that button to start a slide show from a select image should be big and bold and up front where even the most innexperineced user will see it. Our main working area is along the bottom third of the screen and that is where it should be along with the main preview button. IMHO of course :rolleyes:/>/> PS. there still seesm to be a visual issue with the mouse pointer in the Objects and animation screen. There has been little mention of this so I am unsure if it is work in progress or it's been missed. I have recreated it on 3 separrate PC's and reported it in another thread.

PC and Mac at the top of this page http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/slideshows_3.html

Dave I thought about a custom transition as I was driving around yesterday thinking about my post. It would work quite well and you could make a few of them, holding at 30%, 50% and 70% so you cover most eventualities. I suppose the only thing an author would need to think about is how long to hold at those percentages, but that could vary too. Still far better done in an image editor, more creative too and simpler in PTE

While in the time line, you can select a slide and drag it to the right and all those after it go to. Not quite the same but I am using that method myself quite a bit.

It can be done now if you use PTE's ability to create layers in the Objects and animation screen Image 1 would be added in the usual way, but image 2 would be added via the Objects and Animation screen. Using keypoints you could then determine that slide 2 fades up to (lets say 50%) and holds there for a second or two. (Mid fade hold) Then fades up to full intensity. It would require 4 keypoints at least. From the first keypoint to the second you use the opacity in Objects and Animation to reduce opacitiy of the second image. Between Keypoint 2 and 3 you hold and do nothing for the time you want both images to be seen together. From Keypoint 3 to 4 you use the opacity control and bring the second image up to 100% The better news is we can do this far beter now with our image editors and actually create a third image, a derivitive of the the original two. The reason it can be much better is that in the old days we had no control over what part of the two images in mid fade showed up well. Now we do by creating a real third image. In addition we have all those blend modes in Photoshop and Elements that allow us creative control of our third image and if that wasn't enough we have masks too. way of creating a third image was a bit clumsy compared to what we have now. In fact t opens up a whole new slide show technique.

Maureen Matching images to music ??? Thats a bit radical on an AV forum don't you think :rolleyes:/>

Igor I suspect its difficult to pick up on all the threads when you come back from a holiday, but I have an issue here, that is affecting three different computers of mine, that you need to look at. No problem in v7, but is a problem in 7.5Working on a slide show yesterday, the issue became very annoying

Stephen I think you have touched on one of THE most common faults in slide shows even those made by the experts on this forum with regards to animation. Any animations we create must move at the same speed as the flow of our slide show and the music will determine that. (its why I can never understand those who say. Your images should have been on the screen longer so I can see them) THEY CAN'T BE ON SCREEN LONGER, because their duration is largely determinded by the chosen music. Its why its called AUDIO VISUAL !. Anyway, you very often see a smooth flowing slide show then a rapid pan appears that looks out of place, then the show returns to the smooth flowing static slide show with the next slide. Lin has already given the solution as have others. To slow down animation, you either need to allow more time for the animation to run its course, or you need less animation. In full screen animations like a zoom/pan sitting between two static slides, all you need is to move the static slide on the right along the timeline. Give the animation more time to run, therefore it will run slower. The alternative is not to animate the image quite so much. IMHO the tendency is to create more movement/animation than is necessary, so there is one place to start when slowing down animation. In more complex animations using smaller images and text in layers, rather than full screen images or as well as, the distance between Keypoints is what you need to control speed. To add complexity, we then have the animation speed controls via the Objects and Animation screen > Animation tab. If you set the option to slow down the animation it can also upset the speed balance between your animation and music. By adjusting that speed control, your animation must start off faster, if it is to slow down at the end. I have found many times that this faster take off of my animation is enough to affect the smooth running of the slide show. It just looks and sounds odd when being viewed. The simple answer is to do what has already been suggested. Give a little more time or take away a little of the animation. Move it less.

I am sure Steven will clear things up, but I think he maybe talking about adding images on the fly. If I am right he is working in the time line and you could click and drag to highlight the images you wanted and then cut the transitions. In 7.5 you now cannot do that as as already suggested you have to use the shift key and click technique. Am I right Steven, that your clearing the images from the timeline so you can add them on the fly?

Eric In certain circumstances, you may also find it a bit easier if you remove the auto selection from the Objects and Animation screen size. and set 75% or even less sometimes. Personally, I find I like to have space around the base image when animating and then it is easier to click into no man's land to remove the selection from your base video/image

I am away at present, but perhaps when home I will record a short video demonstrating the issue. Later : Downloaded PTE 7.5 to old laptop running Vista and recreated the same issue straight away. This machine is 32 bit, but when values are changed in the size window the pointer disapears until you move outside the image boundaries

Igor EVERY time I am working in the Objects and Animation screen with the attached window, my mouse pointer disappears (I am using a Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet) It seems to occur only when I make a change in this window. The pointer disappears and if I don't move the pen, the pointer remains invisible although it is still working while the pointer is invisible. If I move the pointer it comes back. I tried adjusting the size position and lost the pointer every time, then if I move slowly towards the edge of the screen, the pointer seems to re-appear once it has cleared the picture boundary. I tried this with a large image and reached the surrounding window before the pointer returned. With a small image the pointer returned as soon as I cleared the edge of the image. I have reproduced the problem on another PC running a different configeration, but with the same Windows 7 64 bit OS. The other machine also has a Wacom Graphics tablet attached, but a different model, but the same loss in pointer is evident on both PC's

Igor When you get back from your travels perhaps you can answer this for me. After using PTE 7.5 I still cannot get my head around the two options we have in the Timeline Preferences under the heading of View of waveform. Well, I understand what they do. but can't see why. You have given us the Mixed Channel view (which I vastly prefer) and you have also given us a Compact view of mixed channels, but it's not compact !! The green shaded area is the same size as the Mixed channels so where does the compact view come in? Unless there are other options to follow in a later version. If you give me a compact view I expected to be able to click the edge of the green band and reduce its thickness. (maybe to accomodate a lot of sound tracks and perhaps that is your intention as PTE develops.

Just a personal view, but a top to bottom or bottom to top pan bores me to death. Why would anyone want to look at a huge image bit by bit through a letter box?

Ron So, was the decision to go to a Mac a good one?

Yes, I agree there is always that risk, but perhaps less so here perhaps. Many other programs have that option a bit like the universal Ctrl+C - Ctrol+V and others.

Igor I have only just started using PTE 7.5 for reasons you know. I felt the need today to be able to nudge a selected wave file a very small amount one way or the other. Picking it up with the cursor to drag and drop it in place had me fiddling one way and then the other. A Ctrl+ Cursor Control Key Arrow would be a godsend. Later, I could have done with the same thing with an image on the timeline Is that something worth considering at some stage. I have that ability in Camtasia and use it a lot.

Hardly ever used VideoBuilder and was never totaly happy with the quality. I wouldn't mourn it's loss at all

Fair enough, but some might end up spending more time gathering the information than they do with the sequence

Doesn't this list, especially the Camera and Lens info, assume that the sequence was shot with the same lens and camera combination on the same day. I can't think of many of my slide shows where I have done that, so the images will come from at least two different SLR's and maybe a compact or two, plus a number of different lenses. In that case what information should be posted? To be of any use, would a viewer need to know what the technical details were for each image, especially for those who like to pause the slide show at every image to inspect them. Or would a broader brush approach be acceptable? (i.e) what was used most? The one fly in the ointment, with a broad brush approach, can be one image that a viewer likes which is listed as being taken with a Canox 15B with a 28-135 lens, when in fact it was taken with Niknok 18A with an 80-200 lens. Year: Is this information the year the slide show was made, or when the images were taken. I think you will find that Mr Average will consider much of this information irrelavent and that is why most don't bother. They won't feel comfortable enough to say so in an open thread, as I am here, because they don't want to be attacked by the lunitic fringe. Seeing as I can't seem to say three words without stirring up a hornets nest, I feel free to say it as I see it.