There is much to like about this program. However, I have yet to find a way to fix a movie length as an absolute and then adjust lead in and lead out etc within that fixed length.

I am guessing that most users embed the final clip within another video as an edit. In which case, you want to be able to specify clip length.

PTM lets you fix the length of the motion component only, not the actual clip length, as far as I can see. Then you have to do mental arithmetic to add in the head and tail length. It is not hard math, just counter-intuitive.

Please tell me I am wrong and there IS a way to set and LOCK the clip length.

Photo To Movie is one of the few programs in this genre that allows you to see the audio wave form. This makes it easier to match slides to the beat. I like the ability to readily manipulate clip durations and behaviors, as well as choose paths and intermediate key frames. Overlap and dissolve is a very useful function, and it is easy to add titles and credits, and end up with a slideshow that fits the music length, or you can choose to have the slides finish before the music and fade to black.

Have been comparing Lightroom 2 with Aperture 2.

I do a lot of panos, and Lightroom has a simple integration with that Photo Merge feature in Photoshop. Aperture is a cumbersome, multi-step export operation.

Aperture has a much more usable touchup and healing capability, whereas Lightoom is pretty basic. And Aperture has integration with Apple Photo Books.

Still have not decided whether I like the gray palette of Aperture, or the black one of Lightroom.

Currently I shoot with a Nikon D200. But I used to own a Nikon CoolPix 5700, and Aperture will not recognize the 5700 file format, for the thousands of images I took with the 5700. Lightroom will.

Anyone have any comments to add to the above?

I compared ChatterBlocker with SonicMood. Both are similar, yet offer different experiences. Under MUPromo, bith were the same price. I chose ChatterBlocker because it gave me a little more choice to single out the sounds I wanted, rather than a melange.

ChatterBlocker also allows the choice of combined sounds, maybe not quite the range, as well as instruments, and respective volumes for each.

Working in home office, I doubt I will use the voice chatter, but I can see how for corporate settings this would be good. I have to contend with 50,000 HP mach leaf blowers, and endless neighborhood barking that make me feel like I am living in a dog pound.

Uh-Oh - there goes another screaming leafblower. Time to scream out the window "Use a ***** rake!", or simply up the master volume on ChatterBlocker.

ChatterBlocker masks most of this and saves my sanity!

I like the new FTP setup. Also, I compared it with other programs, and its upload and download speeds are faster. NIce to be able to see the server and own directory side by side.

When I upgraded from SD4 to SD5, my download speeds from various sites dropped from between 400-500KB/s to 62KBs. Anyone else have this experience? I am still using Tiger (until I buy a new system).

I had initial problems with the program not finding a file it needed. But after giving my system a workover with Onyx and then a full TechTool Pro overhaul, and finally repairing permissions, it installed just fine.

Maybe it is more persnickety than most [ tech terminology ;-) meaning susceptible to minor file inaccuracies].