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I have obviously done something wrong but I cannot find what it is and would like some assistance. I created a tutorial using PTE, for which I loaded about 20 images each 1920 x 1200 pixels. In Project Options I set 90% of slide to show for main image for all images. With the exception of the first and last two images, under O&A I then moved all the main images just slightly left by the same amount and then added some navigation buttons at the side. I also used an arrow image that moved round the image to point out various things in the image for my tutorial. This works fine as a PTE exe file. My troubles started when I tried to convert this to a DVD, I noticed that as the process ran through the MPG2 conversion on the second and subsequent slides the main image was reduced to about 25% - 30% of its size. I let the process complete and looked at the MPG2 file that had been created. This reduction has not taken place on the first or the last two images but has taken place on the main images that have been moved slightly left. The arrow and navigation buttons have not been reduced in size. Closer inspection reveals that 2 of the screens where the image has been moved left do appear at their 90% size. I cannot be 100% certain but I believe that both of these images were ones I added to the sequence at a later stage when matching images to the soundtrack. Any suggestions on how I have managed to mess this up would be appreciated.

What difference does it make weather or not a dvd-r or a dvd+r is used for burning? (excuse my ignorance) Janis

I've been trying to reduce the size of my AVI file of slideshows created by PTE. I use Microsoft MPEG-4 VKI Codec V3. It almost doesn't matter if I use my regular Jpeg files (about 1-3 megabytes) or resized files (about 70-80 Kilobytes), the AVI files are about the same size. When I CREATE a PTE file, of course, the file size goes down 90% when using the resized files. 1. Why doesn't a reduction in jpeg size through "resizer" reduce the AVI file? 2. How can I achieve a reduction in AVI size, as I'm trying to place the slideshow on YouTube/Vimeo? 3. Do I have to resize to the YouTube/Vimeo screen sized (in pixels) to achieve a substantial reduction in the AVI file? Thanks in advance. You forum members have been gracious in taking the time to answer my (and others') questions. Wei Photo

The nostalgia show I posted in the show section was offered to the local Railway Society as a DVD, I created the DVD in 5.5, all the images were sized to 1024x768 with between 150 and 250 pp,i the images I downloaded from the internet were also sized to this. My photographs with animation are smooth, the ones from the internet are jerky when the DVD is played back on my laptop, which is the one I created the show on, anyone got any idea why?? The exe file is smooth, only the DVD has a problem. Yachtsman1

I got the right codecs and created an AVI file from PTE, v 5.5. The AVI plays correctly on my computer with Windows Media Player (WMP) and with DivX Player. I then pasted an url with the *.AVI file on my website. The file (48 mb) takes a while to load on WMP, but miraculously, it plays correctly, with music, and a fairly reasonable quality. My questions: How does one create the slide show so that it 1. Plays like a streaming YouTube “video” (I’m willing to forego the quality) or 2. Plays like a streaming video with other software (Flash? I’m guessing). Can anyone point me to some of their experiences—or documentation on how to do this? I don’t think my audience can sit around waiting for the AVI file to load (there’s no moving slider that tells how long they will wait on WMP), or will be willing to download an AVI file from via FTP (they won’t understand/tolerate how). Thanks in advance, WeiPhoto

I am making this post to ask for some help from some of you. I am trying to get to grips with some of the factors that do or might influence the quality of a played back sequence that has been prepared in PTE and burned to DVD using Video-Builder. I have prepared four very simple test sequences to begin my exploration. I would welcome feedback from any who are willing to take the time to assist in this learning experience. The attached file contains everything you will need, including a ReadMe file whose contents are: "Four PTE project files all built at 4:3 aspect ratio - DVD-Video-Test1 is built with images at 1024x768 and with the Project Options...Screen setting of Fullscreen - DVD-Video-Test2 is built with images at 1024x768 and with the Project Options...Screen settings of "Windowed mode", sized at 720x540 and no borders - DVD-Video-Test3 is built with images at 720x540 and with the Project Options...Screen settings of "Windowed mode", sized at 720x540 and no borders - DVD-Video-Test4 is built with images at 720x540 and with the Project Options...Screen setting of Fullscreen Four image files: - a Black Slide at 1024x768 pixels - a Black Slide at 720x540 pixels - a Background image at 1024x768 pixels - a Background image at 720x540 pixels If you are willing to help me improve my understanding in this area, in preparation for an FAQ or two, I would like you to do the following: - extract all the files in the zip into a folder - use PTE's Video-Builder component (even if, like me, all you have is the trial version of Video-Builder) to burn all four projects to a DVD - play that DVD back through your DVD-player and TV combination I am interested in your opinion as to whether any of the sequences looked particularly sharper than any of the others or particularly softer than any of the others.I would also welcome your thoughts on which zoom level for the text would seem to be the smallest level acceptable for easy reading (e.g. on an image that might stay on screen only for four or five seconds) Thanking you in anticipation," If you do decide to help out, please report back via a post to this thread or via an e-mail directly to me. Note that all four sequences were burned at 4:3 aspect ratio on the DVD. By all means watch them at all the different aspect ratios your DVD-TV combination supports. DVD_Video_Test.zip regards, Peter

This problem has just surfaced. I have created the pte slideshow and it plays back all 4 of the audio files correctly. Unfortunately, after creating the DVD slideshow, only the first track plays and then no more audio. I have tried 1. Auto syncing the music along the timeline 2. Doing a manual sync No joy with either - just the first track plays and then silence. The sound files are wma soundtracks - but I have never had problems with this format anytime in the past, so I doubt it is that. In the DVD menu setup, the audio is set to MPEG audio with a bitrate of 224kbps. Any ideas???

How to prepare and then burn DVD-Video or SVCD disc Using PicturesToExe you are able to produce AVI video file which can be easily burned as DVD-Video disc with help of any special software (read below). Even it is possible to create SVCD disc on usual CD-R disc with high quality of image and sound (almost as DVD-Video). PicturesToExe provides fast and lossless transferring of video and audio for converting into DVD-Video format. This allows to keep excellent quality of your presentations and very smooth transition effects. Advice: please create usual EXE files for playing of presentations on PC, and DVD-Video disc if you want to play your presentations on DVD players connected to TV. Newest version of PicturesToExe is 4.20 beta: http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/apr_beta.zip 1) Preparing of AVI file file in PicturesToExe: Start PicturesToExe; open your project; and then call AVI video output dialog ("AVI button in the main window of PicturesToExe"). Choose "NTSC" TV system, if you live in United States, Canada, Japan, Taiwan or South Korea. Choose "PAL/SECAM" TV system you live in Europe, Australia, Africa, or in any other country. Select "DVD-Video disc", if you have DVD-Writer or "SVCD disc" if you have usual CD-R/RW drive. "Interlaced for TV" option is highly recommended to get excellent quality and smoothness of transitions on TV. You can click "Preview" button to immediately see the resulting presentation playing as video file. In this mode, please ignore that transitions may be shown not so smooth. But on burned DVD-Video disc all transition effects will play excellent as in usual EXE file. Also we recommend to make sure that text fonts are enough large to be readable on the screen of TV. Now click the "Create AVI file" button and PicturesToExe will produce video file within 10-30 seconds. Important note: Please don't click "Finish" button until you didn't fully burn the DVD-Video disc. 2) Converting and burning AVI video file into DVD-Video disc: PicturesToExe can not burn DVD-Video, so you need to make use of any special software which can convert produced AVI video file into DVD-Video format and burn the disc. We recommend you to use Ulead DVD MovieFactory2 http://www.ulead.com/store/dmf/runme.htm which can do it. Also you will able to make simple DVD menu. (In this program, please don't forget to choose NTSC or PAL/SECAM in the Preferences window. To call this window, press F6 key). Please click the "Finish" button in PicturesToExe when the disc will be fully written. (Temporary AVI video file will be automatically deleted, because it is intended only for converting into DVD-Video format.) ------------------------------------------- Note: Advanced users can use "Create custom AVI video file" option for various purposes. This allows to produce AVI video file with necessary audio and video codecs (MPEG4, MJPEG, etc).

Greetings, I would like to extract an image from some of my video files that I have made. I'd like to get them into a PTE show. I have converted a lot of my analog tapes into digital 'video_ts.ifo' files. Some are AVI files. I'd like to be able to do something like a 'print screen' while they are playing to capture an image, but as good a quality as possible. I realize the quality will not be great but I'd use them as smaller sized images in the PTE program. Is there any way to do this? Thanks... Gary

Runtime Error! Yesterday evening I started to burn DVDs. When I tried to burn a DVD-video disc I got the following error message: Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library Runtime Error! Program: ...m files\WnSoft PicturesToExe\5.5\VideoBuilder\author.exe abnormal program termination This happened when the program executed: VOB files multiplexing. I see the same problem on the forum but I don't find the soluce ... Thank's Quartz PicturesToExe.doc

We plan to release v5.00 soon (in two weeks). If problems with AVI video output still exist, please reply me as soon as possible. Thanks in advance.

Hi folks, As some of you regulars will know I have stated elsewhere in the forum that, in my opinion, burning to DVD and playing back through the TV, is a can of worms. Well, I've finally plucked up the courage and taken the lid off my can. And the worms are out! First the good news. I successfully burned the DVD using VideoBuilder (mine's a trial copy so I do get the scrolling message but that's no problem) And I found the burn process very easy to do - just followed the "Next" button taking defaults all the way. I took one of my shortest sequences (just 7 images set to music and lasting just 30 seconds) and burned to a DVD+RW disc. It plays back fine in my desktop computer and, to my surprise, it played back through the DVD player into the TV down in the lounge. Now for the BUT.... The sequence was built for projection through my digital projector so is sized at 1024x768 (i.e. 4:3 aspect ratio). The TV (a four-year old Tatung that uses CRT technology not LCD) is a 16:9 widescreen TV. So I ended up with a stretched image. This is what I expected. What I didn't expect to see was barrel distortion within the PTE image. The sequence was built using a background image (set via Project Options...Screen...Background within the pte project) and the individual main images are sized to 85% (again done via Project Options...Screen... within the pte project). The sequence plays perfectly in Preview, the mini-player and as an exe file on the computer. On the TV playback, the background fills the TV screen and has got clean straight edges but the superimposed main images all show consistent and identical barrel distortion on all four sides. I stress - it is the edges of the superimposed main image that shows the barrel distortion and not the edge of the background image. I'd welcome thoughts on this matter from those with significantly more experience of DVD and TV play back than I have. regards, Peter Post-script: I'd read many times about the significant loss of image quality when playing back from a DVD through a TV. Well, I'm pleasantly surprised at just how good the image quality is. Ok, it is not as good as on the computer screen but it is still very acceptable.

I have Roxio 10 my dvd. every time i burn a dvd slideshow it and then play it in numerous dvd players, it fuzzes the screen, but i can hear my soundtrack perfect. the pictures are scrathy and ship. it is not burning correctly at all. i have a dvd+r drive and i am using dvd+r dvd's. what could i be doing wrong?HELP! anyone!

Having just completed my first project with latest version I have a couple of thoughts. BTW this project worked great apart from thoughts below. 1. There should be the option to burn multiple discs immediately..... 2. There is no way to create an ISO file as in previous versions, only an AVI file (without title page) which must be used staight away by another burn engine or it disappears from desktop. This is not much use if you want to send the completed project including titles to elsewhere to be burned on another machine. Or am I missing something somewhere in settings?????.

I have Roxio Creator for my dvd burning program. I am trying to burn a dvd from a pics 2 exe slideshow. I created the slideshow as an AVI file and that didn't work. Thought?? Angie

This issue has been driving me nuts. I am trying to show PTE shows in a 32" 1080i HDTV. The first "problem" was clipping at top and bottom. I am burning on a DVD burner and linking to the TV with a Blu-Ray (Playstation 3) player. Within DVD-Video Builder, the option screen, says: "Video options (720 x 480, 29.97 fps) Also, Wikipedia states that: "DVD-Video discs use either 4:3 or anamorphic 16:9 aspect ratio MPEG-2 video, stored at a resolution of 720×480 (3:2) (NTSC)" So, it would appear that that much of the 1920x1080 or 1280x720 image information is being discarded during the burning phase. Even if I had a HD DVD or Blu-Ray burner, could DVD-Video Builder create a 720p or 1080i HD DVD? Also, is it the "anamorphic" process that causes the size discrepancy on the HDTV screen? If these assumptions are wrong, please explain as I want to produce the best videos for HDTV possible from PTE.

I recently purchased pte 5.5. I created a slideshow easily and with out problems. However, when I click on the Video button( or go under File burn dvd-video or create AVI )in the control panel and go through the steps to create a dvd-video OR AVI file, it only converts the audio. I am pressuming this is human error so if anyone has come across this please tell me what I am doing wrong. Secondly, I started another slideshow(I only need computer version) and now I am having other problems. First problem: Only the first couple of slides do the conversion effect I have seleced, the others do not. I attempted selecting all slides and applying. The preview box in the software window shows the conversions correctly, but the preview button on the control panel does not. Second problem: Preview skips images. Once again, this only happens in the Preview option on the tool bar. Please Help. I am at my wits end and about to pull my hair out!

Hi! Maybe someone here can help me figure out what to do. I purchased the deluxe version of PTE (including Video Builder) last night and I have not yet been able to use it! Right after ordering, I received the email confirming my order and I also received the email that was supposed to have the "keys" in an attached file so that I could register and use the software. However, there were no files attached. I tried several times to open PTE and "load a key" but it kept asking for a file. There was some plain text at the bottom of the email that I think is the "key" but I didn't know what to do with that. After trying for some time to figure out what to do, I decided to paste that information into a text file myself and tried to use it. That actually worked for the PTE software and it now shows me as a registered user. However, I cannot get that to work with the Video Builder at all. Plus, the PTE software only shows my as having the standard edition, even though I was charged for the deluxe edition. Whew! Long story! Anyhow, if anyone has any idea how I can reach someone to get this problem fixed that would be REALLY great! I am really beginning to get frustrated with this because I have attempted to contact WnSoft through the support page several times and have had absolutely no response. Does anyone have any suggestions for me?? Any help would be very much appreciated!!! Thanks in advance!

I have just done a dvd burn with Pictoexe 5.5, which by the way is excellent, and the dvd plays on my pc and home dvd player and my friends dvd player. But when I try it on another dvd player I get the message bad disc on the tv screen or unloadable disc on another DVD player. Can I finalize the disc so that it will play on any DVD player. I am trying to sell this DVD to people so it has to work on all DVD players. Cheers Jeff

I am using PTE 5.5, and have been successful in actually burning the DVD, and I have just burnt a DVD with 8 sequences on it. However, the problem is when I put the DVD in my DVD Player, I can click on Sequence No.1 and it will play O.K. Unless I stop it., it will then continue to play No.2 then No.3 and so on. If I stop it, I then cannot get the menu back until I have opened the drawer, shut it again - then the problem is moving to the next sequence I want to play, say No.4. Is there something I am missing on the procedure of actually burning the sequence? Any help appreciated. John

I made a PTE slideshow. I then created a DVD Video. In the process of creating the DVD, I saved the template that I had created for the DVD. Now I want to add some additional separate text lines to the saved PTV file. However, after I open it up, there does not seem to be a way to add text except to start all over again. Is there some way of adding text to the already saved PTV file without having to redo the entire template? And I now notice that I can not add a second separate "Title" line when you first start creating the Title page. Is there a way to get more flexible in creating text in the Title page? Thanks... Gary

To any member, but especially to Lin and Ken - Images on TV are larger than screen. Source jpg images are 1920x1080, which is the pixel size of my 32" HDTV. With aspect ratios of 16:9 set in both PTE and Video Builder, the resulting image on the TV screen is larger than the screen. I have tested using "fullscreen" and "windowed" modes; "progressive" and "interlaced" styles without much effect. I have even used "windowed" mode with a window smaller than 1920x1080, with no change in results. Also, I have tried a source image of 1280x720 ... same results. This is driving me nuts. Can either of you or anyone else give me a clue as to what to do? Oh yes, I doulble checked the User Guide for v. 5.5 and believe that I am doing everything according to the Guide. Thanking you in advance, okcjack

Ok - I'm new to this program - but when I made my first DVD for TV display - the images are soft and disproportionally squeezed! The images in the slide show creation and preview are perfect - but are terrible when burned to DVD. What am I doing wrong?

Hello. How can I add mpg files in DVD builder ? It only accepts Avi files. But it can create mpg files but not import the same file that he has created ? thanks for helping Axel

Videobuilder is very handy DVD authoring tool and the picture quality is fine when the slideshow contains still images only. Unfortunately all animated pictures seem to be suffering from jerky movement and particularly noticeable for fast or faster movements. I suppose the default parameter values in project option are appropriate for most situations. Have I missed something or it is another hardware problem. I look forward to hearing any suggestions. PS: I use V5.0 as 5.1 doesn't work on my computer (black screens during rendering) Cheers Pele Leung