denwell

As Peter rightly says - this is one way to do it. I prefer to click on the image file reference at the top right of the main window (above the preview image & next to the 'add sound' button) to select an alternative image to look at with the same attributes as before. You can then always ctrl-z to restore the original image. Works for me! DEN (NE UK)

John I haven't joined in this thread yet - but I bought the H2 just about six months ago and find it just fine for location and voiceover use. Take a look here for the supplier I bought from - 'Music Street' ( a musical instrument supplier) - very speedy delivery and is selling now at £149. http://www.musicstreet.co.uk/ Look under 'Recording/Live' You will need an additional 1 or 2GB SD card. Have fun! DEN (NE UK)

As I said in my previous post: the genie is out of the bottle ............................ ! Let's move on. We could go round in circles here. DEN (NE UK)

All this discussion is no reflection on you Igor nor PTE. There are undoubtedly times when the ability to extract original images and sound from within an existing show is valuable to the producer, as we often hear on this forum. I'm sure any average person would not go to these lengths to 'pirate' screen resolution images from a show, and as we know there are simpler (screengrab) utilities which can do this. MultiExtractor seems to do all it claims, and once the genie is out of the bottle ............................ ! Let's move on. DEN (NE UK)

To be safe - buy royalty free music from any of the numerous music libraries on the net. Or try podsafe music - uploaded by wanabe musicians for free use in the furtherment of their creers. When I make a presentation for a client I invariably take this route. I have IAC licenses too, but they do restrict the distribution of presentations - I always state that they must not be made available for public viewing ( for whatever cover and peace of mind that gives me!) DEN (NE UK)

Igor Once again you and your team have delivered to us all a software second to no other in its simplicity, coupled with an awsome power to make real our creative thoughts and ideas. Greatful thanks to you all. DEN (NE UK)

Peter/Igor Or what about saving to a temporary autosave folder that is deleted by PTE on a 'clean' shutdown, having already saved (or otherwise) the preferred project file in its desired location? Maybe this is what happens now - although I haven't installed or tested beta 9 yet! DEN (NE UK)

Mikkelrev I use this presenter : Targus AMP02EU Notebook Wireless Presenter which allows easy control of simple PTE shows where a right click moves forward and left moves backwards but this is configurable to suit your PTE settings. It's wireless and USB connected and also has a 'cursor' which is useful to activate software commands on screen. It also has a laser pointer which I find useful also. It's inexpensive at around £25 and I can recommend it to you. DEN (NE UK)

Brian / Peter The manual control is there in 5.51 as you say Peter, but the backward transition as always a 'cut'. With this in mind though I find reasonable manual control over a show as in 4.49. DEN (NE UK)

Peter I don't think you need stronger glasses ! I believe it's an optical illusion too. I've had it happen to me when one's eyes get used to a rotating object which stops suddenly. The eye seems to compensate for this sudden stop of motion and the object appears to 'backtrack' for a moment. But keep taking the pills just in case! DEN (NEUK)

Nice One Peter! As someone who knows the village well. but not as well as you naturally (- I'm an outsider!) I can only say that if I was among a local group watching the presentation, it would hold my attention due both to the 'nostalgic' element and the comparison with todays situation in Skelton. Add to this your own dulcet tones and obvious love of your home town, I believe this to be a worthwhile project for us locally, also an excellent example of the use of PTE's features. The pans and zooms were spot on in my opinion - the only thing which jarred somewhat was the background (just to add to the other comments on this one). Maybe something more in keeping with the nostalgic style used. The 'tiled' appearance is a little too obvious to me. The arrows I feel were not too large ( remember the age of the potential audience!) and stood out well to highlight the changes in the village. Altogether - well done I really enjoyed it and I look forward to seeing it again doing the rounds hereabouts! regards Dennis DEN (NE UK) very near to Skelton

Peter Try this: Open Windows Explorer and then click on "tools" and select "folder options". From there click on the "files type" tab. Audio CD should be near the top of the list. Highlight "Audio CD" and then click on the "change" button. From there you should be able to select the application you wish to play CDs. If "None" is in here look for CDA further down the list and change from there. This instruction is for XP/SP2 - may be similar for Vista. Good luck DEN (NE UK)

Brian I'm no audiophile and stand in awe of your own audio knowledge. However I'm just passing on (for what it's worth) my own experiences with this device, which doesn't need PC drivers - it's seen as a normal input device by XP: "There aren't drivers necessary for the iMic. If your operating system is USB Audio aware (XP does this best), your Mixer will see the iMic as an Input/Output device. Simply go to Sounds and Audio Devices in your Control Panel and select the iMic as your recording device and your computer's sound card as your playback device." I'm aware most people would use it for digitising old LPs and cassettes, and it's cheap, but as an input for a live mic then I found it to be unsuitable for my purpose that's all - despite the usual reviews for and against. This thread began with a request from Barry for information/experiences regarding live sound recording - I'm merely trying to pass on my thoughts. Following your advice I may indeed pursue this device further in time. Let's hope Tom finds the Imic does all he wishes if/when he purchases one- I look forward to hearing his experiences. DEN (NE UK)

Tom/Brian In my quest to input audio directly into a laptop, I (rather misguidedly) went for this Imic adapter. It converts mic level to line input level, but I found an extraordinary amount of noise came with it. This was almost impossible to get rid of in my sound editor and it now langishes somewhere in a cupboard. In my opinion - not the best way to go. I would (again) recommend the Zoom H2 (slightly cheaper and more recent than the H4) and a decent set of headphones for anyone getting into live audio. Barry I'm still experimenting with live ambient recording on the Zoom, but if Peter doesn't manage to get a sample to you I'll try. DEN (NE UK)

Barry I have used a minidisc recorder to capture both live sound and to do voice overs - it served me well, but was a little slow in transferrng to PC as it had to be done in real time. You will have seen my posts concerning the Zoom H2 as a suitable replacement. It has all I would need : no moving parts, small and portable'slips in the bag easily', records digitally in MP3 or WAV onto SD cards, transfers to PC via USB2 and accepts external mics. What more could I want? I hesitated, but after talking to Peter recently I have just taken delivery (£130 or so if you shop around). I have just used it to record live sound and interviews at a local living museum in preparation for another AV project. The quality is much better than I anticipated - and it's so simple to use and takes up no room at all in the camera bag. I shall be carrying it with me all the time from now on. You're right of course - simplicity is the key. I have held the same views as Peter regarding many, many presentations where the music is an add-on to a set of images - wallpaper if you will. A good AV with a mix of appropriate live sounds and good music and/or voiceover is a pleasure to experience - that's not taking anything away from your own productions Barry which, as we all would agree, are excellent but I feel you're testing us here - you surely have seen many super presentations ( really what should we call them?) which included 'real' audio as well as music. Each to his or her own skills limits - nothing wrong there. I hope this thread runs as we should be debating the whole package - not just the software and hardware but the artistic content ( images and sound ) of the final product to be enjoyed. DEN (NE UK)

Mark Can I ask for some justification for your statement above on sharpening for AV use "apply sharpening at 100%, 0.7, 0 (regarded as a one size fits all - for AV's.)" ? I'm not implying any criticism at all - just interested in the background thinking to this assumption. DEN (NE UK)

Peter It may be wise to include some references to obtaining and installing the Lame enc.dll needed to export the end product in MP3 format. Many who first use Audacity omit this stage and are baffled when the file will not export in MP3 format - although the 'Help' files do give a steer here. Just a thought DEN (NE UK)

Here's a strange one too ! When trying to access the forum from Beechbrook - IE 6 is closed down on my PC! I can access directly from Favourites, but first access from here results in a 'Cannot find page' alert, A second attempt gets me to the forum. This has been the case for the last few days now. NO virus alert has been triggered at all by Avast, my anti virus application. The plot thickens! DEN (NE UK)

Peter Yes the introduction of noise when inputting direct to PC is an issue I have been concerned about, and you're right it's no hardship to dl from an SD card - at least it doesn't need to be done in real time as with my minidisc setup. I can appreciate Kipper's point about synchronisation in Audacity (and Audition too). It would be useful to be able to visually check the waveform directly as it records, but if noise is a problem then the SD route looks the better way. I have tried using an iMic input device which alters input levels to allow mic input to a laptop but - you're right Peter - noise was unacceptable. PS You guessed it correctly -see you in the New Year. DEN (NE UK)

Kipper, John I too have been investigating a method of recording direct to PC via USB and the Zoom H2 does have the capability to record direct or use SD card for some 6 hrs recording time. It's also cheaper than the older H4 (around 150GBP if you shop around) Check out : http://www.samsontech.com/products/product...cfm?prodID=1916 Currently I use a Sony Minidisc to record and input to PC for post production/editing. This works OK but the facility to record directly to laptop - digitally - is what I am heading for. I'll watch this thread develop. DEN (NE UK) just a couple of miles down the road from you Peter!

Thanks Ken We must never forget ! Our thoughts and thanks are with all those who fought and perished in all wars. If we don't end war, war will end us. ~H.G. Wells, Things to Come, 1935 DEN (NE UK)

John I use PTE v.4.8 for the presentations - this allows FULL manual forward and reverse control (WITH transitions preserved) using either keyboard or mouse. At the club we also have a handy USB radio presenter control (developed for MS Powerpoint) which the judge uses to move through the images. Unless I'm missing something, I don't think the DOM's 'Pick-A-Card' project is the answer. I think it may need development by Igor and his team to achieve what's needed here. DEN (NE UK)

Ken I saw this video last year - it's incredibly moving, and inspired me to make a presentation of my own entitled 'Two Minutes'. It remembers the dead of wars past and makes the point that if we do not remember the past we are sure to repeat it again. Let's all take some time out this weekend to remember, with thanks, all those who gave their lives in ALL wars. DEN (NE UK)

Yes Igor but still the 'reverse' transition is not preserved. Can this be fixed in a beta soon? DEN (NE UK)

I have the dubious honour of making a PTE presentation of our club's monthly print competition (like Ed - with the original prints on view in the room). But - as Ron and Geoff want to find out - is there a method of recalling the successful images at the end of the run of pictures? This would save me having to contact our judges in advance and 'dropping in' the winners etc. to the presentation. I too will watch this one run! DEN (NE UK)