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Another member had reported a problem on May 19 within another post which I am also experiencing. Unfortunately, no replies were made to his post. By posting a new topic here, my hope is that suggestions will be made to help me (and him) with this problem. It would be greatly appreciated. I have created a slideshow with pic2exe 4.2 and am trying to burn it to DVD+R format with my new Plextor PX-504UF external DVD burner. I have downloaded the trial version of ULead Movie Factory 3, with high hopes for success. This process has been extremely frustrating, since much money and time has already been expended, but I have no usable DVDs to share with my friends and family. After creating the p2exe .avi file, I have made many repeated attempts to burn the production in Ulead MF-3. Upon hitting the OUTPUT key, the Ulead progress bar appears and the program seems to begin doing its' job. After a few minutes though, two error messages appear after each of my repeated attempts: failed to re-use converted cache file (4570) and: unspecified error - Report ID: 0x800411 da (4570) [14252:1:0] After the last try, another Windows notice appeared, informing me that: the apr.exe program will be closed immediately, pic2exe. then closed, but Ulead stayed open. Yikes . . . now I have the Windoze police after me! I've tried rebooting and altering the Ulead menu configurations . . . to no avail. Thank you, in advance for any help you can provide. Steve

Hi I took delivery on my new PC a week or so ago and am amazed at the increase in speed over my previous PC. I now have a Pentium IV 3.0Ghz Dual Prcoessor with 1 Gb DDR RAM and a Sony DVD-RW, and it just flies. I have been testing two sequences - a 14 minute sequence of 140 slides with music and another with 40 slides plus music. The slides in the first sequence were sized at 768 pxls x 432 pxls saved as jpegs with medium compression, the second set 1024 pxls x 576 pxls. Previously it took over 2½ hours to encode the 14 minute avi to SCVD and now it did a full DVD in 16:9 format comprising both the 6½ minute show and the 14 minute one plus a title screen in just over an hour. The difference in image size did not faze either PTE or Nero. The quality on my 28" widescreen 100 Hz TV is excellent and looks slighter better than on previously made SVCDs. In light of my increase in performance and the quality of Nero Vision Express encoding/burning I shall not need TMPGEnc, et al !!!! The PTE Beta #7 performed admirably.

How do you create the black/white to color transition in the slideshow presentation? A.

I've tried to do DVD's different ways and the quality has always been so-so. So for my benifit and all the other newbie's can you Pro's give us a hand? Please feel free to respond to just one or more of the questions. Starting at the beginning, Let's go for burning a DVD at Mpeg 2 @720x540. Goal, get the best possible DVD quality of our slide show possible....period. Q1: What resolution is best to set the photo slides at: is 72dpi, (same as computer) OK or better to go to 120 or higher? I've done 11" x 17" pic's at 180dpi and see no real difference than set at 72DPI. Does image size matter? Q2: When I do slides at a small size, say 2"x3" they look fine on the computer but real bad on DVD playback, but even the full screen slides are still not great but are almost acceptable. Do smaller slide pic's have to be treated differently? Q3: Time to Burn... I read some other posts here on the best way to burn, using different methods. But haven't seen any agreement. What's produced the very best results for you? Q4: I'm using "Sonic MY DVD" (which has beening rated good on quality) but am not happy with the DVD playback. It's just so-so. The quality is not even close to my computer playback. I was able to use P2E's AVI file imported to Sony Screenblaster then burn MPEG2 to Sonic. REsult's...OK, but laking anything close to my computer clarity. When I try to import P2E ( as a custom avi or other) directly to "My DVD" it crashes. Anyone have any experience on this? It just doesn't like the AVI file for some reason. Thanks in advance to all you good people! -Dave

Hello everyone, another newbie wannabe slideshow creator with a dumb question, hope you can help me. I have purchased and downloaded the latest version of pictures2exe and have spent many hours preparing my first slideshow of underwater photos from my last dive vacation. The preview is very exciting and I was happy to co-ordinate music tracks to the slides. Came out at almost 100 MB. My problem is . . . I cannot manage to burn the project onto a CD-R in SVCD format. At first, I bought and attempted to use Nitro-Burn&Go software, but the format was not accepted. So I downloaded ULEAD DVD MovieFactory 3, (pic2exe "help" recommendation) followed all the recommended actions and I repeatedly get error messages. The message states that the format is incompatible. It seems the only format that ULEAD accepts is a "DMF Project" (.dwz). I even tried saving as a DVD format (thinking I could purchase a DVD writer), but it was still rejected by ULEAD. Hopefully, there is a simple fix and I am doing something wrong? Sorry if this question has been asked before.

Here my problem. - I created a slideshow with PTE (1024/768). - To create a SVCD, I made it in Windowed mode with 1280 width and 960 height - My slideshow has a few little pictures, with a small border (2 black pixel, 1 white pixel), encrusted in some 1024/768 slides, Once the SVCD runing on the TV, there is a very visible and boring flickering with the borders of these encrusted pictures. This problem is especially noticeable at the right bottom of my TV screen. Have you a solution to this phenomenon ? Patrick (sorry for my poor english)

Hello all, I am needing a program/utility that allows me to create a Screen Saver program from a video file (like an AVI). Do any of you know of one that is around and doesn't cost anything (that's the key, as I don't want to spend any money to do this for someone). Thanks in advance for your help in this matter! Fred

HI all - new user of P2E and Loving it! Tried to creat an AVI file of a presentation ( a temp avi) and then had a look at it in Windows media player ( P2E still running of course). Went to Full Screen on wmedia player - very dissapointed in the quality of the pictures. Seem soft, indistict with enough aretifacts to irritate me The presentation as a preview or an EXE file looks great on the monitor however. So....question - is the poor quality I'm seeing a true reflection of what P2E has encoded for an AVI file and therefore - as good as I can hope for when encoded for a vcd/svcd/dvd OR is it really a reflection of poor handling by windows media player and I should just ignore it and continue on to the burning route? I was planning on using TMPEG to encode and probably VCDeasy or nero to burn but...am I only going to get a mediocre facimile of what was a great EXE ? your thoughts appreciated,

Is there a way to position the comments on the bottom, but tell PTE to move them up a little? The problem I am having is that when I create an avi and then burn to a dvd-video - most of my comments on the bottom are slightly (about half) cut off. Is there anything I can do to fix this problem? Thanks, Brian

Here is a site with an interesting tutorial on Ulead DVD Movie Factory 3. http://www.jonesgroup.net/dvdmfthreetutorials.htm

Hi, I have finally burnt a pretty good svcd & dvd to use to show some members of my family (without computers) my picture show. I have now found if I burn an SVCD or DVD without the transitions in the show it burns fine. If I leave the transitions in (and I have only used the fade in fade out) the quality of the show is bad. I get a lot of movement on the screen and the quality of the slides is poor. It appears as I say to be the transitions causing my problem............ Has anyone else experienced this? Glenys

I just downloaded the 4.20 version so that I could try to create an avi file. I've opened my project and then I click on the video button, then select one of the format options, then select the file name and where to save the avi file, and then click Save; that's when the error occurs. It doesn't matter which option I select, Custom AVI, VCD, SVCD, or DVD, when I click on Create AVI and then give it a file name and place to save, I get an error that says "catCantCreateFile". The same error occurs if I click on Preview. Am I missing something? I'm running Win98.

Hi I seem to recall seeing somewhere in this forum a method of saving a permanent copy of the avi file. This might be useful when building up sufficient small slide shows to fill a DVD. Anyone have a link? Eric

I'm new to P2E and this forum. I've just created my first show for a wedding I just did, problem is my clients are MAC based. I'm reading all the posts on making the DVD's and apperciated all the nice information shared. I'm hoping that I can have the option of converting the P2E show into a Quicktime file so they could view it on thier MACs. I'm guessing that if I can save the file as an AVI, I could purchase some version of Quick Time to convert the AVI file. I'm guessing this would allow them to view the show on thier computer without the hassel of creating the DVD. Anyone tried this, or have any tips? Thanks Bret Percival Percival Photography

Hello, I have tried to create a DVD of a family trip for members who do not have a computer but do have a DVD player. On the .exe show I have a background and on one of the slides I have used the object editor to create a small descriptive text. The text spreads over the sides of the slide into the background which gives me the effect I want in .exe. But when I burn the show to a DVD it only appears to burn the actual slide to fill the tv screen and I loose the background, also the slide I have created with the overlapping text is full screen like all the other slides and I loose the text either side that runs into the background. Oh the background is there and shows when a slide plays in vertical position. I have saved my slides at 1024x768. Are my slides too big at this resolution? Is it right that I lose the background when I burn a DVD? Also the DVD when it is played onto a TV is shaking, Is this to do with the DVD burning program of have i not set something up properly in PTE? I am setting everything up as PAL. for the UK. Any ideas anyone please. Thank you.

I have tried every conceivable way to create a SVCD from my pte presentation. (B-17 Little Girls) My problem area with the SVCD is "audio". In the pte I have 4 different songs. Video comes out OK but no sound when trying to prepare SVCD. I have latest Nero version, also Ulead DVD Workshop 2, and Dr. DivX plus Media Player 9. Using XP Home on new Dell 8300 and years with computers. Also have Sony DVD-R and RW plus CDr&RW writer. My best guess is I need MPEG-4 driver. (?) Followed PTE instructions but so far nothing has worked. This is not really necessary... but simply becomming a matter of principal with myself. With Ulead DVD workshop I am able to get the first sound but have not yet figured out how add other songs in select areas. Only fix that I can see is joining the 4 songs to one and let PTE time the whole thing to the presentation. Any suggestions or instruction much appreciated.

I successfully created an exe file for a slideshow and appeared to have successfully converted to an avi file for burning onto a CDR disc complete with transitions and music backgrounds. Playing back through a DVD player and viewing on a TV screen, the slideshow performed successfully at first, but after displaying approximately 50 slides out of a total of 127, the pictures flashed on and off 10 to 12 times during the six seconds allowed per picture. During this, the background music played on as normal. The original exe file played perfectly on the computer. Nero Burn software was used to burn the disc. I can only assume that the fault is either (i) in the encoding from exe to avi (ii) in the Nero Burn software (iii) in faulty CDR discs (iv) in a faulty DVD player. However, the fault is not likely to be in the CDR discs because the music background plays on normally. Can anyone please help?

Can't remember where I made a comment about Roxio 6 the last time but I, as some know work at our Church video taping Bible classes and capture using an 1995 old Pinnacle program and edid with Premiere 5.0. I extract the sound also to made a audio only cd (Redbook) for cd players in autos and cd player (portables) in the home. I used the file from the video cd and brought it to the work station of the Roxio 6 and WOW!! suck quality I can't believe. It looks wonderful on tv!! Now about the menu!! I guess we will have to live with it but actually it really is not that bad. You can change the background and text and even add your own narration or music. That clip that counts backwards you can trash it if you do not want to use it. You can even if you want to use it stop it just before it gets to the title which say "Roxio" and delete it at that point to the right or end of the clip. However they could have made it so that you could do this and replace Roxio with your title name. Anyone that wants to email me about Roxio that I can help with or perhaps you can help me lets email but it really would be better to keep this on the forum to benefit all the forum members. Harry pictures@ruralcomm.com

Hi I’m fairly new to pictures to P2exe and have a question relating to burning shows to DVD. I see that Unlead DVD MovieFactory is the recommended software for this purpose although I have a PC with a number of pre-installed programs which I believe maybe capable of achieving the same task. Power DVD5, Power Producer 2 Gold & Nero 6 all say they can read .avi files so I’d like to know if anyone is using any of these with any success, particularly if they have also used Movifactory.

Hi I am about to replace my PC and can have any specification I wish but do not want to waste money on non essentials. My current PC (Pentium III, 800 MHz) is proving too slow to cope with encoding and burning DVDs. My interests are confined to digital photography using Photoshop and recently, creating PTE shows to burn to DVD for my family. I am not into games and the like, nor video editing. I am thinking that I need a fast processor with plenty of RAM and fast HDD access but no state of the art graphics card or sound. Any suggestions as to what main hardware items might be worth considering would be helpful.

I'm a new user and burned my first project to a cd. I had the options checked to time the pictures on auto with the music. Once the show was created it works fine. When I burn with Roxio data, than play the show back it seems to get stuck on one or more pictures for about a minute, than has to catch up with fast pics and flickers . Could this be a problem with my burner?player or haven't I created the show correctly? Thanks

Have just copied latest version P2E show to DVD using Ulead MF2. Quality of picture only fair on PanasonicTX-28PK2/E. Am using Phillips DVD writer and Bush DVD player with full screen video display 720 by 576 PAL. A 50/60 refresh rate Pal and NTSC. Digital bit stream processing rate up to 10.08 Mbits/sec. Problem is a very noticable lack of steadyness of image specially in highlights although dissolves are good. Not seen this problem mentioned previously. I do not really know what standard of picture is'normal' for DVD pictures. Would a higher quality DVD player be the answer? The Bush player now 18 months old was fairly cheap.Can anybody help please? I have incidently shewn the DVD show at its normal picture format but the problem remains. WALTJONES

If I put PTE on DVD in USA for play in Germany - I presume I need to encode/burn to PAL not NTSC? Do some DVD players in Europe have switchable capability between the two? If so, is an NTSC format still not useable if the TV is typically PAL? And regarding the regional codes on commercial cd's - is there anything similar to worry about when puting our PTE shows on DVD for different parts of the world?

For those that might be interested. The following is my totally trouble free method for converting PTE slideshows to DVD: 1.) I normally create a standard slideshow for 1024x768 screen resolution. The background music is normally mp3s @ 128kbits. 2.) To make a NTSC DVD, I use the PTE Video Codec in custom AVI mode with settings of 720x480x29.97fps. 3.) Under the slideshow screen options, I set for fit to screen at 90% of screen. The 90% makes the resultant video just fit the entire slide on a standard NTSC TV. 4.) I then feed the resultant PTE vid file to a Cinema Craft Encoder Basic Mpeg-2 encoder. Set at 2 pass vbr with an average bit rate of 6000kbits. A min of 2000kbits and a max of 9000kbits. The audio is mpeg-1 at 224kbits. 5.) I the use Mediachance's DVD Lab to author and burn the DVD. Very simple and works great. Cinema Crafts encoder is fast(relatively speaking compared to tmpgenc) and yields excellent results. DVD Lab is also excellent, much..much better than my experiences with Pinnacle Studio or Roxio, or NERO, or ULEAD. CinemaCraft MediaChance Just thought I would pass my excellent experiences along....

I have created an avi file to create a DVD in Ulead movie factory 3 trial and i have PTE 4.20. Firstly Ulead would not accept my file, then for some strange reason (Probobly the swear words aimed at it), it loaded the recreated file. BUT........ I went through the stages to create the DVD but for some reason my sound file is no good........... ?? coming down from PTE. It plays about the first few seconds and stops. No problem with the picture files. I did carry on and burn a disc. The slide show worked but the sound just played that first few seconds over and over and over and well you get the picture. It is an MP3 file created in cool edit. Any thoughts please. I am not sure if it is a problem with the prog creating the .avi or the biggest problem, namely me doing something wrong or having something set up all wrong. Thank heavens for this forum and all you techies out there. Glenys