Ronniebootwest

I used Pinnacle version 8 for some time to prepare DVD's of my .exe files. I was very impressed (certainly has the edge over that Ulead rubbish). When version 9 came out a few weeks ago, I immediately upgraded. I haven't had much chance to get to grips with it yet but am sure that it will work perfectly. In PTE you will need to use the 'Pinnacle' option when making the avi file. When you figure out how to capture old footage from your analogue camcorder, I would appreciate some advice on how you did it - 'cos I want to do the same rhing! Ron West

An exe file produces first class quality for viewing on a computer monitor - this quality can not yet be reproduced by burning to a CD or to a SVCD. If you want to maintain any real quality when showing on a TV screen then you have no real alternative than to consider a DVD player. Hence the rendering of an .exe file to mpeg2 to DVD. Ron West

Some threads generate a lot of comments - this is one of them and 'The Rhird Image' is another. There is nothing wrong with constructive critisism after all. I am new to this hobby and have only posred 3 of my early presentations. I had a lot of email contact with the members of this forum and they were always very helpful. Mostly they wanted to know how I did certain things (for example, opening titles with text effects). I am still being asked to produce a quick slide show of those effects, even now. It is all in thre magic of Photoshop. Equally I have had load of help from others in this forum, particularly Boxig and Hawk - I think that the only real way forward is to remember that we all want to learn and if we have something worth passing on - then let's do it. I agree with a 2 tier system, eg. one for enjoyment and the other for critique. Ron West

Are you sure that the other system (where the flash does not work) has a flash player installed? I used to have this problem until I downloaded the 'SWIFF' player. It works better than the macromedia flash that everyone else seems to use. Ron West

Have you had sufficient replies that have helped you solve your problem? If not then please email me and Imight be able to help you further. ronniebootwest@aol.com

This whole question of having a web page is very interesting. I am making audio visual tutorial CD's now (as a business) and I have been trying to get a web site up and running for some time. It is a nightmare! I have now decided to pay someone to design and publish my web site to save all the hassle. It leaves me cold, all this HTML stuff. Any advice on what I should be doing would be much appreciated. Ron West

The easy answer is to get in touch with www.bbdigital.co.uk who will provide you with some excellent CD's on copyright free music.

120 minutes? on just 1 CD! How do you manage to do that?

Does this mean that you are now copying the music as well as the images? Naughty, naughty! Perhaps it is time to add something in the program that will stop this - just like the option to prevent copying the graphics! I know, I am an old fart, sorry!

I have often wished that PTE could provide more options to restrict the use of .exe files distributed to clients. Other programs (for example Prowshow Gold from Photodex) allow a number of restrictive dates to be applied) PTE would be greatly advanced if it were to include the same kind of provisions. Perhaps the Administrator will take note and include this in a future release.

Hi Boxig! I have now used the 'Dark Table' and find it very useful so far. There are a few little niggles though that I am sure you can sort out. I know that you are on holiday at the moment so I will wait until you return and then offer my suggestions to you. Meantime; has anyone else used this neat little program yet?

Making a slide show to play on a DVD player is quite straightforward if you have the right gear. PTE is excellent at creating an exe file but, as yet, hasn't got it's act together with the video thing. There has been much discussion about DVD in this forum and yet we still cling despareately to the idea that PTE can produce the goods. Soon perhaps, but not yet I fear. It is not the making of the video file that is the problem, it is the converting of the avi file to video (rendering) that causes the grief. You will need to have a decent program that will encode properly. Ulead Movie Factoy and Pinnacle Studeo for example. Better yet, try 'ProShow Gold' It is the best that I have found so far.

Gosh, what a mountain to climb eh! There is so much discussion about this DVD thing and still nothing seems to be getting any better. I almost gave up trying to get better quality from my DVD burner and then I discovered a program called "Proshow Gold" from Photodex. I have found that this software creates a 'video' file that can be rendered in Pinnacle Studio 8 to produce a DVD that provides excellent quality on the TV screen. This software also produces its own .exe files - though I must confess that the quality of these is much below that of the PTE avi. Have a look and see what you think. Paste this link in to your browser. (I don't know how to insert a hyperlink - perhaps someone will tell me how please) http://www.photodex.com/

Joy, isn't it strange that something as simple as 'scrolling credits' is proving to be so elusive. I too would very much like to be able to produce them for my slide shows. Pinnacle does have a 'sort of' way of making them but nowhere near as good as the titles created by Moviemaker. Expensive programms cannot even produce scrolling titles it seems. You mention that moviemaker titles have to be encoded in other programs - well I have tried to do that and have failed so far, perhaps someone can tell me how to do it properly. Like you, I am becoming frustrated with not being abkle to do these things in PTE itself. Perhaps soon we will see this improvement in the program (and other things alos) else we might need to look further afield to find software that will meet our needs more closely.

I have learned from Barry Beckham, that rollovers can be created by using 'Imageready' (within Photoshop) I have looked at that program and find it so difficult to understand. Has anybody made a simple tutorial of how to make a rollover. It does not have to be within PTE for the moment because I just want to get to grips with rollovers in general. It seems to me that they can only be used as a web page and I know nothing of Java or html codes. If you have seen any of Barry Beckham's tutorials, you will know that rollovers can be used to good effect but need not necessarilly be on a web page.

If you want to create scrolling titles, or any other kind of animation, you will need to use some kind of FLASH software and need Macromedia installed on your computer. I have been experimenting with using flash in PTE. You can see some simple examples by downloading my 'Cwmbran' & 'Crete' shows from Beechbrook. I found that the software called 'SWISHMAX' was about the best so far. Why not download the trial version from the internest and see what you think?

Thankyou Nobee for your tip, I will try to do it that way. It is not absoltely essential that I use mouseovers within PTE at the moment. I would simply like to be able to do it on the computer monitoe to start with. There must be some software out there that will do this kind of thing because I have seen it done in some tutorials supplied by people.

I have been playing with the software called 'Deknop' for creating buttons. It is very good but the help files are a little difficult to understand. I am particularly interested in the 'Mouse Over' section and want to create a situation where I can have one photo as the up button and a second photo as the down button so that when I 'roll my mouse over' picture 1 it will change to picture 2. Or better still, create a button that will change to the photo when I 'roll over' with the mouse. Does anyone have any experience of this feature, who can offer some guidance on its use please?

We all seem to have this problem whan we dirst start using PTE (the size of our first .exe file that is) I was given excellent advice thru the members of this forum and I will pass it on to you now. 1. Always use mp3 files for your music. 2. Keep your picture file size as low as possible. 72dpi is adequate and 800 x 600 pixels will give good results. Ron West

I think that the last update to my slide show called 'CWMBRAN' (on Beechbrook) now works and proves that animated titles can be used from within a PTE show. By using a Swish (.swf) file and the excellent utility provided by Granot, you can do it! Just download the show as usual and save to your favourite place (Isuggest the Desktop on your computer) and this will create a folder with 3 separate files in it. Open the folder and click on the PTE.exe file - the one calles Cwmbran - and watch the simple animations. May I thank Marcovello and also Granot for their help and patience with this creation so far. Ronnie West.

Hi Michel, Yes you will need to buy a DVD burner to record a DV disc. Be careful though! Some DV burners will only play + DV discs and these are not really suitable. Others will only play -DV discs. It is the '+' and the '-' that will make the difference. If posible check before you buy the burner and make sure that it will use BOTH types of disc. I can recommend the PIONEER DVR-A06 This will work well and ptoduces excellent DVD's (with Ulead) but not with Easy CD Creator.

Yes I agree with you! It would be nice to create an AVI filw without music. Is this an improvement that we can look forward to?

The new Bet4 update works very well now and standard DVD's can be easily produced. BUT.......... I have added a flash movie as my opening titles and using the utility provided by Boxig, it works great on the computer screen. However when I Burn a DVD (Movie Factory) it loses the .swf flash file and the animated titles do not play back. Can anyone tell me how to include all the files necessary when burning the DVD. i.e. PTE.exe and the .swf and the flash utility?

I am struggling with adding animated titles to my slide shows at the moment and both Granot and Marco have been absolutely great, giving me all the help and advice I needed. I have just posted to Beechbrook my first attempts at animating my titles. It is not so bad for a beginner! I used a utility written for me by Granot to display the titles full screen and created the .SWf files using SwishMax software. I tried Swish 1.5 but thought it a little to basic for what I wanted to do. I wish you well in your endeavoues and if I can help, please email me. Ron West

Please do not get to excited about the SVCD format. It is second best and only uses MPEG2. The big disadvantage (apart from the poor quality) is that very few DVD players will play the finished disc - you will need a special player! You will not get better than the .exe file on a computer screen. Ron West