bharkins

Thanks for all your input. I did solve the problem the next day after my post. Here's the problem: I found that my integerated audio function on the Asus MB would not play PTE sounds. All other sources of audio played fine in that mode - CDs, wav, mp3, etc. Fortunately when I built the machine, I kept my Turtlebeach Santa Cruz sound card and installed it. Reconnected and everything works fine with PTE. However, it does appear that PTE does not work with my particular MB, namely the Asus P5ND2-SLI. Whether anyone else has had a problem with that particular board maybe Igor would know. But for the moment, I am happy again with PTE (and the Santa Cruz card has much better quality). In my email to Igor, I suddenly realized that the "Removable" icons were USB ports named as diskdrives which are actually 2 external drives for backup, normally off, so that problem was an "operator error". Bill

I have recently built a new high performance computer (dual core, 2 Gb RAM, Nvideo 7800GTX video card) which is running fine except for PTE. I cannot get any sounds from exisiting PTE exe files, nor any sound from my Barry Beckham CDs. I saw that 4.44 was just issued today so I installed it after fully uninstalling the previous version. The same bugs occur. This appears to be a possible Windows glitch (XP/SP2). If I go to the upper left pane to select the partition where my images are stored, the tool tip indicates that the partition is "Removable". It will not open by left clicking, which shows the tool tip "Drive is not ready", but if I right click and open, an error message appears "Please insert a disk into Drive G", which is illogical as partition G is on the second data hard drive. So at present until I ge this solved, I cannot use PTE (after several years on the prior machine). Fortunately, my laptop is OK with v. 4.44 which is for my computer club presentations. There must be some simple fix to this and I'm assuming the Gurus of the Forum will have some ideas. Has anyone else experienced this bug? Bill

I don't know if there have been new forum messages in the past several days, but as I have been setting up a new custom built computer, I was off line for a while. I want to make sure I am still receiving forum messages as I haven't had any for a few days, and there is always a few everyday. Also eagerly looking forward to v5.0 - I have a computer club presentation at the end of this month on "Slide Shows" and would like to demonstrate the latest version (if it isn't too much more complex than the current one). I missed a few days of the forum as it is a very interesting part of my daily email viewing. Bill

When do we see version 5.0? Bill

When will it be available for download? Seems like a major move forward. Bill

1280 x 768 on 23 inch HP flat panel monitor Bill

I have an HPf2304 23 inch flat screen. The 1280/960 resolution distorts the image noticably. I use 1280/768 and it is perfect for the wide angle aspect ratio.

Now I'm confused. You say Anti hacker/Anti Hijack program, but Ken's link leads to MS Anti Spyware utility which I have had for a couple of months. Is this the same thing? I regard as Anti Hacking is to route out malware, not Spyware. Please clarify. The root kit issue has a few programs out there that try to weed out the bad malware that is "underneath" Windows - such as Hacker Defender detector. In my reading it seems as though a lot of the root kit malware is emanating from Czechoslovakia. I wonder what's happening along that line in Russia - Igor? Bill

Brian, I always enjoy your computer topics (even if off topic from PTE) . The PC security issue is of concern to every user that has an Internet connection. I have all the safeguards you mention including MS Antispyware Beta 1. However, I can not find an MS AntiHacker program as you mentioned. Can you direct us to the proper URL? In your message, you did not mention the issue of RootKit viruses. I just discovered the term a few days ago. There is a lot of info about the topic by running a Google search. The root kit software gets in under Windows and it can't be seen by the normal AV software and is almost impossible to get rid of. Worth investigation. Bill

I use Acronis True Image for backups, scheduled for weekly incrementa backups to an extenal 250 Gb drive. This is kept off most of the time so it should have significant reliability. Before running a full backup, I use PerfectDisk for defrag, also scheduled to run before the backups. It is a far better defrag utility than what is offered in XP (IMHO). That is a sad tale of woe to lose one's photos considering the amount of time and effort put into them, including any Photoshop work. If I only had one section of my data to backup it would be my images. I have about 20Gb of digital images so removable media such as CDs is not practical for me. Bill

I'm always amazed at the wealth of information on this forum in addition to PTE! Thanks Leif for the link to Screamer Radio. A freeware that really works as stated. The fact that it is recordable, it would be conceivable to grab some clips for P2E shows. Have you tried to do that Leif? Bill

OK, I re-downloaded it, installed and it opened fine. Now I play around with it. It looks useful for images which have were taken at high ISO levels. Bill

I downloaded it, but could not install it on opening. Bill

What an incredible piece of software all managed in only 1.1Mb! For anyone not having the regular Photoshop, this is the way to go and a nice adjunct to P2E. I have only played with it a few minutes, but as a Photoshop user, it is very intuitive and easy to use. ...and 1.1Mb, I can't beleive it! PS CS is over 100Mb. Wnsoft has done it again. Bill

Lin, that is a spectacular effect with Flash. I hope Igor is reading this one, as the forum members would be very happy with this capability. There has been a lot of discussion of the "Ken Burns" effect which I expect most photographers are familiar with. You website is very nice too. Bill

Would love to go, but the current travel budget is a cruise from Barcelona to Lisbon via Rome, Florence, So France, back through Seville and to Lisbon - in May. My computer club is already asking about the next slide show to be presented! I will be drafting the PTE show as I go on the laptop on a daily basis. Bill

You Brits have all the fun! I wish there was a similar A/V group in So California. Bill

I'll vote for the Text Editor plug-in, although, I find I can do everything I need at present on text - font, size, color, position - isn't that what text editors do? The only major change would be a Powerpoint type of approach for custom animation, etc., but that's a different purpose. Bill

Cici, your shows are fabulous. Colors is beautiful and not only the animation aspect, but the precise synch of music to each slide of different flowers is amazing. However, I have to admit that I don't understand the ending! Bill

Brian, what is "dot.net"? I could not find it on Google. Bill

Well, if you're not an Internet technologist, I don't know what is! I downloaded the program and will give it try in FireFox. Bill

Brian - do you know if the program will run with browsers other than IE6, i.e., Firefox, Opera, etc? Bill

I do this often at my computer club. Create a link to the PTE exe file in the slide from which you want to introduce the slide show. When you click on the link, PPT will ask "if you are sure you want to open this file?" (because it is an exe file). MS is "protecting" you from your own work, and it is quite irritating. MS has not cooperated in introducing a dialogue box that is common in Windows based software that says "Don't show this window again". However, once past that annoyance, PTE will start as usual. Bill

Have you guys and gals tried MS PhotoStory3 - go to http://tinyurl.com/4f869 . No where near P2E but MS has managed to provide zoom and pan which we hope Igor will get to one of these days. PS3 is not at the level of transisions, titling, music placement and I could not see how to control the pan/zoom - at least I couldn't find it. However, it's got what P2E needs - pan/zoom! Bill

Thanks JRR for a great website URL. I just scratched the surface but for Photoshop CS it's a great plug-in. There are many other tutorial movies on PS CS which are well done - I only looked at a few. Long downloads unless you have broadband. Bill