HvK

Thanks Igor for all the great work, that you did over the years and still keep doing. I am very sorry that I am so quiet in the forum for some time now. I am extremely busy at work lately and in my spare time I am working on a few books about my other passion fly fishing and fly tying. I also have a huge delay in my picture work. Not in shooting my pictures but more in the edit work fom RAW to jpeg and psd or tiff. I still have 20.000 from Iceland and approx 30.000 from Canada that still are in RAW only. At least a nice job to start with after my books ready and when I am retired in about 3 years1 hihi Thanks for everything. Your old friend Hans van Klinken from Holland PS. it was soooooo good to see still several guys from the old days so active within this forum. I envy all of you and wish I had more time hihihihi

I love this discussion hihihi. I am a real dummy with hardware but all I can say right now is that all shows I downloaded so far I was able to see very well and clear on both my computers. The laptop is a new one but doesn't have a powerful graphic card and my desktop is 4 years old. I know I need a new desktop if I want to continue seriously with version 5 because making a video will takes me 12 hours on my destop right now (lol) At least my laptop is 10x faster! The only thing that keeps me busy right now are the screensettings and how they showing up at different computers.

Thank you Bill, It's really highly appreaciated what you doing for all the PTE members for such a long time already. Hosting is a hard job. I know this myself. I once run an excellent electronic fly fishing magazine online with a Swedish partner but when we got more then 800.000 downloads for our fourth edition we simply had to stop because the extra cost got too much for us. Donations are very important, especially when the number of downloads increasing! Without any donation I can't even run my fly fishing site today! We finally don't doing anything commercially. I hope you will be able to continue and hopefully people will be so kind to keep sending you donations!

Igor its great not to forget to think about all those people that having old machines! It's no problem for me to develop 2 different shows. One with directX and 1 without. I often did that already by making two equal shows with different screensettings.

Hi Igor, Please can you tell me if you keep working on version 4 as well or only continue with version 5 (deLuxe or pro) I know a lot of programs that having a normal version and a pro or deLuxe version. I am asking you this because I had in mind to work out something for version 4 but if all the effort going into version 5, it is not worth putting this extra effort in version 4 as well! This because if everybody concentrating on the new version I better do the same as well, although version 4.8 is awesome and only might need a few extra changes! (for example deleting of pictures inside your templates within PTE) Personally I love version 4.8 and it's excellent for doing very nice beamer demonstrations and I can asure you that I will keep working with it. Version 5 is a new concept and a HUGE improvement because now I can think about making TV presentations as well. Thanks

Yeah Looks great indeed. Nice piece of art!

Hi Lin, I finally found some time to view your website. Wow some nice shows on them. I liked the Colorado show very much. Awesome pics, very similar to the way we like to use our camera's as well. Must be some good fly fishing up there hihihi! But it will be hard for us to do there with all these nice wildlife around!!! Long time I have seen show in our country. At least I see some when I visit Artic regions.. Although I personal believe that global warming goes much faster as everybody spread around. I see HUGE impact and effects in many of the wild places we visit. I always look close to insect life and fish behaivour and the changes are dramatically, even at places deep inside the Yukon and NWT. It's the same with birdlife! In Holland we broke all heat records this year and I think they mention in the year overview that we had the highest avarage temperature increasement on yearly base measured anywhere in the world! Hopefully the Icebergs are still there when we visit Nfld and Labrador next year!

Very nice show Andreas, well done. The screen comes up in a small 4:3 setting on my laptop. I am not sure if you planned it that way. I just mention it because I save some of my shows as 16:10 setting and they still show up in 4:3 to others as well. This in spite I was thinking it would come up in a nice widescreen as I made and view the shows myself!

As promissed include some samples about how I am working with backgrounds and buttons Sample 1 is from the autorun (MMB) , the other 3 samples from the PTE mainpages that are activated from the autorun. As you can see I have many shows running from just 1 mainpage. To make this entire Iceland project I had to include 3 mainpages to be able make the show as I wish! and as it it very useful for me to use it for different kind of people. For example CD 3 only presenting fly fishing and birdlife. This Iceland dvd includes 37 PTE shows, all running from mainpage or autorun. Altogether the entire project has 54 (exe) actions and also 10 acrobat files. (No problem to activate them from the project, as long people have installed acrobat reader on their computer!) To view and read the entrire project will take you at least 5 hours! By seperate the presentations, it' very easy to use a beamer and show the presentations for people with different interests. There shows for people only interesting in birdlife, or fly fishing, or volcanic impact, or just nature as flora and fauna. Now you also can see why I don't upload more shows on Beechbrook, because ONLY the mainpages including the music. This to reduce the sizes from the seperated shows a lot. Some shows have more then 150 pictures!

Thanks, I already was worried about that! Robert, what if you try 1280x800? It has something to do with saving the file.. I am sure about that. It was just a little playing around anyway! This screensettings in version 5 drive me a bit crazy hihihihihi! Also on my TV But anyway i will figur it out in the coming days!

I uploaded a kind of test file on Breechbrook (geyser Strokkur) It's a transition effect I accidently found by combining version 4 and 5 by using the transition duration time as creating in version 4 as main slide setting in version 5. This was the only way for me to create a running push effect without stopping for each slide. So actually all slide you have in the presentation keep running. It's also a nice way a perfect way to present very large panarama views as well. It's was just having some fun while playing around with version 5. So it's not a normal transition or effect. It's a little test but just for fun. I am not sure how it turns out on other screens. I tested it only on my desktop and laptop. The first exe was only possible to view in 4:3 but I finally manage to safe it in 16:10 setting. This is the one I uploaded! A little feedback about how it shows up on other computers would be great! So far I don't have a good control on screensetting in version 5 like I have with version 4 but of course I will keep trying!

Your welcome. I will include a few sample pictures in this topic later this week so more people will know where I talk about. Since I discover years ago that you could load a large autorun, a mainpage (pte exe) with all your music and thumbs and finally your seperate exe files and let them run ALL at the same time without any problems PTE became my most favorite and useful program for presentations and photo shows. I see great idea's with version 5 because beamer shows always less then slides and the chance to use your presentations for tv opens a complete new world for me. That means I am already concentrating on the startpage layout for the video shows in future. I still have to learn a lot about the BIG difference between foto and video (mainly the computer stuff) I have no clue right now. But luckywise layout work and similar idea's doesn't change too much for me. I feel real good right now, just finish a 1.22gigabite presentation. It's my masterpiece so far. It runs from 1 DVD or 3 cd's and all thanks to PTE and MMB!

Hello, Just for those who are interested. I uploaded a few handy tools for some easier background work in the Object editor. I made a new raster to place buttons and small pics so you can put them nicely in line. Just load the raster, place your buttons and small pics in line and delete the raster again and you have everything nice in line. (don't forget to group the small items before saving) The buttons I uploaded are already online and include are not only a whole bunch of buttons (gifs) but also the psd file for those who familiar with Photoshop! The background raster for placing 2 vertical (portrait pictures) is very handy when you want to make a show with pictures in portrait view. Same trick, just load the raster for portrait views, place your pictures onto them, delete the background raster, set position in centre and group the 2 pictures and you can view these portrait shots in any screensetting 1024 and higher. The most important tool is the 1x1 pixel (doesn't work in version 5). Always load this file as first before you want to work with several things in the background. So again, load your 1x1 pixel, load your raster, place buttons and objects, delete the raster (but not the 1x1 pixel. Group your objects and save everything! The 1x1 pixel always have to stay in your presentation. If you want to activate the buttons or want to bring people to other presentations within your presentation, click right mouse button and set the properties for the button. (don't put music on the files you loading but keep all your music on the page you want to have your buttons on. Don't forget to let the presentations stop at the end so the mainpage will stay on screen. You now can play music without any synchronisation as well. Just try it. Some of you will like it!

Hi Igor, Just report you that I had my first ever problem by running a 120MB mainpage exe in combination with other exe! (this is the exe file that run my main page and ONLY content buttons links to the exe's and the back ground music. That means I am running 2 exe at same time! No problems ever so far but never had such a big mainpage exe before as well. There two files running in the same time. One is 120MB the other 102 MB. Everything went perfectly so far only the mainpage exe got crazy just once. I don't really bother when it happens only once but just want you to know! It's the DVD show so the files for the mainpages are the largest ever. The problem only happend once so far and I hope it is just an accidently error. I try to reduce the size now and see what happens!

Hello, I think I find a good reason for some error codes made by user. Maybe this will help out some of you too! I asked a friend helping me out today when I did my final check for my DVD and CD's. I asked him load the updated pte files that I had worked on and make some new exe files for me. I told him to save the updated exe files directly into some seperate folders so I could check the udated exe files on my laptop again while he worked on my desktop doing this update job for me. I needed the same exe files in a few different folders so he had to make quite afew! Several files he send to my laptop didn't work and got all kind of stange errors. I couldn't understand it at first because all files were perfectly before. Then I discovered that the same exe in the other folder worked perfectly. So I checked it out several times and discovered that some exe files where not completed! For example 1 exe that was 100MB in one particular folder was just 89MB in another folder. Then I asked him to do the job again while I check on him and then saw what happened. He didn't wait until the exe was completely finished (100%) and so created errors that normally shouldn't be there! When I told him to wait a little longer and make the these corrupt exe files again NO errors were there!

OK I got hair sharp pics now by using the same trick and set the duration time at 25sec in version 4.8. I also find a way to keep the pics in the center now. Just using the left and right arrow key on my keyboard. Please note the trick only works when you set the slide time at 1ms in version 4. ONLY then pte version 5 will take the duration time as you set it in version 4 and skip the interval. You cannot change the interval time or duration time in version 5 because then the trick doesn't work either anymore! By changing the pictures by using the root I can keep the "good bug" but as soon I add a new pic all the time settings are gone. So what's left is using the file I made in version 4 and changing the pics in their root setting! That trick works for me since a very long time. (works also very well when you get errors sometimes!) I also discover that I can add pics in objects in version 5 in this file without changing the effects! PTE version 5 can not read 1x1 pixels so I have still a problem with my old files because I use black 1x1 pixel files as background in 80% of my previous shows !

AS you can see clearly the pics are not in center because the option doesn't work with selection yet! Meanwhile I slow down the speed to 15sec and the pictures get almost their original sharpnes now! They are a bit blur in the sample on my site because of the speed of 10 sec! I keep trying and will let you know when I see more interesting things!

This a message for those who just downloaded the landscape view. I changed the file and uploaded a portrait view sample which looks MUCH nicer!

Igor, I just discovered some awesome transition effect that only can be creating when you SET the timesettings in 4.8 first and then load the file in pte 5! It's something I already wanted for years but it never was possible before so probably this happened accidentically OR I really missed a real big trick so far. I was searching for a possibility to make 1 moving slide from 8 pictures and I think I accidently found it and it works well too. suddenly I had a nice preview from from all 54 pictures in my project... that were on a contant move .... running from right to left continuesly! and very smootly too So what actually happened!!! I was trying to make a kind of smooth running effect with the push effect from right to left. Of course the slide stopped even when I put the settings on just 1ms in main option. So I tried increase timing of the duration of the effect and increase this timing up to 8sec. Of course my idea didn't work and the slide still stopped Then I thought let me try and see what I can do in version 5 with the pan effect and I got this time error message again with interval time before I wanted to preview the show. I then saw that the duration time I set in version 4 became the interval timing in version 5. So I moved up to 4 and back to 5 a few times and changing the settings. Then suddenly one nice continues running slideshow coming from the right keeps running until the end! wow eureka! now I can make something nice from my geyser shots! Sadly I can't make any changes so it's a bug ..... as soon I change anything the effect is not possible anymore. I only can delete pics from the project but if I include or change a pic the effect not possible anymore! That's a pity. However... I didn't do anything in objects or animation. It's just created with project options. For those interested in what I mean see sample~ http://www.spellofnature.com/html/slideshow.htm geyser5 zip

Just finish my latest work. Now the hard part starts while doing my final check with the completed shows running from CD and DVD. Already found 15 mistakes in first check at first cd hihihi (they easy made) Things like 2 pics not the same size or some errors in the text gifs I made. I didn't synchronize the music because it runs from the mainpage that just stays on the screen all the time. A pity the files are so big and I have music only on the 3 mainpages and some text files made with PTE so people don't get bored while reading! The entire show runs from DVD in 3 parts (each part I also made on 1 cd so the entire show is 3 cd or 1 dvd) So far I try everything on 3 different computers. Old one, 4 year old one and duo core and thanks to the grouping of buttons, text and pic in the wonderful object options everything turns out well from 1024x768 and all larger settings. (I didn't make the show for 800x600 screens anymore) Sadly this only possible by adding a background pic. It doesn't work on the PTE background only because the mainpages all get mixed up. Amazing is that even with my standard setting of ALL pics and text gifs at 1140x760 it shows up well at 1024x768 screens as well! Without grouping and original background pic the buttons, text and additional pics land everywhere on the screens! I also found a nice way to present portrait shots in a larger way now. More about it later when I have checked out everything! BTW I made all text in photo shops because if I set a nice font nobody has it can't be viewed anyway. So I made gif files from all text I want people to read! I will experiment more with version 5 especially with my geyser pics when this job is done!

Hi Igor, I installed version 8g as you suggested. The burning problem is solved. It doesn't stop at 99% anymore now! Sadly I fight a different problem now. I made this start screen (see attachment) but it doesn't fit into my tv screen. (its too big) I used background picture and insert some views of the show as start for the seperate shows. Last night I used one of your screens and everything fit perfectly. The pictures in the show also too big while in the previous version it fitted perfectly. I don't know what I did differently. So I gone continue with my cd photo project now for a while again! Btw if you save the layout **.ptv and use it on other computer it doesn't work. Not even when you also use the templates. The rough lay-out is there inside but the pictures are not. (you also can't replace them in the root but I guess that's just temperarely or for now... I also thought when I load all 4 shows (at once) it will burn all 4 on dvd but it just do one only. Maybe I was too impatience hihihi... and you have to do them one by one....

It has nothing to do with the new version Igor... It's just zonelaps that occur the problem!!! It also happens in version 4 and many other software programs as well!

Thanks Igor, Will remember it when I buy new desktop next year! Anyway I am just experimenting so will make the pics less numerous just to see if the idea I had works! I will burn it tonight on my laptop and see how it works!

Hi Guys, My gosh, video is something real different then just highres pics. I made nice lay out and just wanted to make the dvd but I guess my old faithful desktop need 12 hours to finish it hihihi Guess I need a new desktop... My laptop 10 times faster LOL anyway attached the trial as far it went smoothly !!!

Hi Royce, Very usefull. I would add a few words about the amazing BATCH action in Photoshop because that save people a lot of time to make borders around a pic or for resize them. I never use unsharp (which can give problems in some transitions) I just activate the batch and reshape and edite hundreds of pics at once! Photoshop just do all the work for you! I lately make 1140x760 sizes which run very well on widescreen laptops as well! It's a perfect crob from Raw as well!