Garris

There is a built in utility (like msconfig) that you can run using the run command. I can't remember what it is called but I ran it several weeks ago and it tests your system's ability to handle direct x. WinXP-2 has direct x 9. My system passed all of the tests even though my video card does not support dx9. Hmmmm.

I have not kept up to date with the changes in the program for awhile and am now revisiting. Great to read that the long awaited pan & zoom feature is in the works. My question is will I be able to utilize this feature? I have a 600 MHZ Athlon, 380MB Ram, 3dfx voodo3 video card with 8MB memory. I recently installed Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 which has the pan & zoom feature but I can not access the slide show at all. I get a message that my video card does not support direct x 9 and the module will not open. Since I am not interested in upgrading this 6 year old clunker I will have to waite awhile to get into video. It sure would be nice to add the pan & zoom effect to my slide shows though. Do you think it will run on my system? I downloaded one of the recent shows from this forum and my monitor only displayed the top half of one image. Obviously my card could not handle that show. I dont recall who provided it.

Ken, I used your link and was presented with a step wedge. 80 through 100 are all black. This is my very problem. Brightness is at max and turning contrast down only worsens things. This is other than a simple brightness/contrast issue. I have been adjusting adobe gamma in control panel yet can not find a point where gamma is 2.2 (which is the "windows" standard) and still see the lower tones. In Adobe Gamma it says to adjust brightness till the small black box is very dark (but not black) while keeping the white box white. All I ever saw was the larger black box and did not realize there was a second smaller black box because this box is a very low tone ( maybe 20 or 40 in the 0-255 tone range). I would be interested to hear how many levels you guys can see on a 21 step wedge begining with white. You can download the wedge from normankoren.com. It is under the "monitor calibration and gamma" link and there will link to a file named:Printer test File.jpg.zip. The graphic contains other elements for calibrating color but that is not a problem. maybe we are all missing some tones. Thanks for the interest.

Very true words Al but what I really need to do is figure out why I can not get proper calibration. I guess its either the monitor or my video card. Both are 5 years old however I have had this problem since new. Thanks for the reply.

I have been editing my photos for a long time noticing that there is no shadow detail and assumed this to be caused by poor dynamic range in CRT monitors. I now have discovered that my gamma and black level are not right. Using Norman Koren's gamma / black point chart @ normankoren.com and following instructions for adjusting both using "Adobe Gamma" and Brightness control on monitor, I find that I can not see the low key tones unless I decrease Gamma (slider to the right) to 1.5 even with brightness full up. I simply can not achieve the 2.2 Gamma setting and still be able to see the bars which are used to set brightness. When viewing a step wedge the entire lower quarter is black. This has been so since the monitor was new. It is 5 years old now. Is the monitor defective? "Windows"and internet pictures look fine at gamma 2.2 but at 1.5 everything is washed out but I can see the quarter tones. I'm horrified at the thought that I have compensated for this problem on all my photos using curves and that when I correct this problem they will have little contrast. Any help desperately appreciated!

I agree with Ken, most of my friends have DVD players so it is important that these shows look good on a TV screen. The problem is..they don't. I do not have DVD burning capability yet so my images are stored as JPG on the same CD as my exe's. Images are numbered so the DVD player's slide show feature displays them in the right order. I believe this "shimmering" problem is caused by interlacing and yet if you pause a comercial DVD video displaying a still frame, there is no shimmer and the picture looks great. These images are 720X480. hmmmmm.

Ken, That shimmer link you posted in the other thread took me to the forums page as did the reply links. It worked once today but now I can not reply. Deleted the temp contents & still not working. This is a first. Will try to re log.

Keeps taking me back to the start page....oh well..next time maybe.

I've been using PTE over a year now and this resolution/size issue is still unclear. Am I to understan that any pixel resolution greater than screen resolution is wasted? I usually resize to achive a FILE size of 150-250MB without regard for pixel numbers and set quality high. Images look good on a computer screen at 800X600 and even better at 1280X1024 ( diagonal lines show less distortion due to sizing down ). However on a TV screen via a DVD/JPG viewer some images vibrate especially if they have great detail. Some questions: 1. Should I resize by pixel dimensions? 2. What is the best size and will that size be sufficient for viewing on high definition/wide screens or digital projectors? 3. What is the pixel resolution of a 4X3 TV screen? 4. Does PTE recompress the images at a different quality level when creating the show? Thanks for input.

Someone must have a master plan for the upgrade process yet everyone seems to be doing it differently. Unzipping to a new folder is fine but without an uninstall on the old version, shortcuts will not work, add/remove programs will effect old version. I only want the latest version installed at any one time yet I do not want the hassel of re-registering each time. Which is the correct way? thanks. Garris

Quickflicks; yes I have automate-batch. I need to learn how to record a resize. Listed under SET is " Default Actions" only. Under ACTIONS is "Large Buttons, Woodframe, sepia toning etc. Yes I have portrait & Landscape images. Can I process them under one action or use two actions and select the images to process? Will be off for a week but check back here around 4/16. thanks.

can anyone tell me the procedure for batch resising files in Photoshop 5.5? Options listed under FILE do not include resize?

Guru, I see how this places the project file and images in one folder. Taking from that- I found that it works equally well just to place the project file for a show in the image folder for that show not using the template folder at all. This way I can continue to use my "working" folder and back up without getting the "programs" folder involved. Thank you for your excellent advise. Garris

I create a one-slide "menu" show with buttons linking to other shows on the CD. Since the menu and other exe files are all on the root, things work even though paths point to folders on the desk top computer. I also save the project files and images in separate folders on the CD. When I open the project files from windows explorer, PTE can't find the images in the slide list. The left pane seems to find the images even though they have been moved on my hard drive. I've read here about not using full paths but am not sure how to remove Drive letters and create relative paths. If I alter the direct paths under the slide list in PTE and click "create", a box says "cannot find images". I want to be able to open project files on the CD and have the images apear in the slide list after they are no longer on the desktop hard drive. Perhaps this is not possible in which case I will have to create a new show from scratch from the image folder on the CD rather than editing the old one. But then why save the project files? The images are also available for viewing on a DVD/jepeg player and I want to use that feature when a computer is not available. Having all images on the CD root would really clutter up the TV screen. All help Appreciated. Garris

I have found that JPEG files of 800Kb display with about 1 second delay in my slideshows from CD and I have a modest 600MHZ, 128MB RAM computer. I am adding a JPEG files folder to my slideshow CD's which allows the still images to be displayed on a TV using a DVD player. I have tested it and it works but since I do not presently own a DVD player, further testing must wait. The question is: Given the capabilities of the average JPEG/CD compatable DVD player, will the 800Kb files display in a timely fashion? Secondly, will smaller files look as good on a 25 inch screen?