Flickering Fades

[raybridges]

I have a problem in preview and with a created show with the fades flickering. This happens on an irregular basis. It does not affect every sequence

but does affect some sequences in previous Pictures2exe as well as version 6. any ideas anybody.

[fh1805]

Ray,

Three questions:

What else is running in the background (including all those "hidden" tasks that you never know anything about?

What size are your images (in pixels by pixels)?

Is Hardware Acceleration (D3D) ticked or unticked?

One possibility is a conflict for PC resource with some other task. Another possibility is that the image file demand on the graphics card memory is too great. A third possibility is that you have not turned on Hardware Acceleration.

If it always happens on the same sequence but never on others I would suspect either the image file size or the D3D setting. If it happens only sometimes on a given sequence and at other times the sequence runs smoothly I would suspect the hidden task conflict.

regards,

Peter

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Juddering flickering & moire (shimmering) can all relate to the size of your images, try a trial with a few images sized to 1024x768 and 75dpi & let us know what happens. Older hardware can also be a factor. Let us also know what your PC is & your OS.

Yachtsman1

[raybridges]

Ray,

Three questions:

What else is running in the background (including all those "hidden" tasks that you never know anything about?

What size are your images (in pixels by pixels)?

Is Hardware Acceleration (D3D) ticked or unticked?

One possibility is a conflict for PC resource with some other task. Another possibility is that the image file demand on the graphics card memory is too great. A third possibility is that you have not turned on Hardware Acceleration.

If it always happens on the same sequence but never on others I would suspect either the image file size or the D3D setting. If it happens only sometimes on a given sequence and at other times the sequence runs smoothly I would suspect the hidden task conflict.

regards,

Peter

Peter

Thank you. I have tried running 2 versions of one AV, one at 1024x768 at 75dpi and one at 1400x1050 at 300dpi. There is no discernable difference.

I have ticked Hardware Acceleration. The problem rears its head every time I play the sequences, both on my desktop pc and my laptop. There seems to be quite a lot going on in the background, but I am unsure what to do about this.

Regards

Ray

[raybridges]

Juddering flickering & moire (shimmering) can all relate to the size of your images, try a trial with a few images sized to 1024x768 and 75dpi & let us know what happens. Older hardware can also be a factor. Let us also know what your PC is & your OS.

Yachtsman1

Yachtsman,

I have tried what you suggest, but to no avail. My computer is about 3 years old and Windows XP is my operating system. I have used this combination for a considerable time and it is only recently that this problem has occurred.

Regards,

Ray.

[fh1805]

...There seems to be quite a lot going on in the background, but I am unsure what to do about this...

Ray,

Unless you constantly stay on top of things, your PC slowly but surely builds up unwanted "clutter" in terms of little software routines that get loaded during start-up. Each one, in their own right and at the time they first loaded, may well be perfectly valid. But over time, as your usage pattern changes, some of them may become redundant. Your choice of anti-virus software and firewall software can also have an adverse effect on performance.

If you don't have the knowledge and/or confidence to tackle this yourself, the safest solution is to get a local professional to take a look at your machine.

regards,

Peter

[Ed Overstreet]

Another factor that seems to make a difference on my system, especially with animations, is the spacing between transitions (the amount of time between the finish of one and the beginning of the next one) and, in the case of some animations, the speed with which the transition occurs (a pan-and-zoom often looks a lot smoother if it's done slower than when it's done very quickly). I'm no expert on these things, but I suspect these factors affect how smoothly the software or operating system can "digest" the demands being made on them, especially with higher-resolution images.

On my system (1 GB RAM and 128 MB video memory, Windows XP Home SP2), in a demonstration show I'm preparing for my club, a very extensive but leisurely pan-and-zoom through a 4000x3000 pixel image, spread over about 80 seconds, runs very smoothly and noticeably smoother than a pan-and-zoom in another 4000x3000 pixel image, spread over 24 seconds, and smoother still than an 15-second pan-and-zoom through yet another 4000x3000 pixel image. My supposition on this point is admittedly based on a small sample of cases, but it is indicative, I think.

[raybridges]

Peter,

I run Norton Antirus 2010. I preiously ran Mcaffe but this slowed my PC up quite a bit. Things are now much better. I will try what you suggest and see what happens. Thanks for your help and suggestions.

Ray.

[Don]

Ray,

I now run Vista, but I did have XP on my last PC. There are two steps that you can take that are relatively easy and, in my experience, helped my computer to run much better. I'm not a "techy," yet had no difficulty executing these steps. I'm sure that there are others in this forum that are far more technically equipped than I am and they may have some thoughts to add.

Step #1: Defragment your hard drive. I did this roughly once per month. Here is a link that will explain the steps: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial55.html.

Step #2: Run Error-checking. I did this about every several months. Here is a link that will explain the steps: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265.

If you find these articles inadequate, let me know. I'll prepare a step-by-step method to accomplish each. They are really not difficult, yet can have a tremendous impact.

Good luck.

Don

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Disc clean also gets rid of clag

Yachtsman1

[raybridges]

Thank you everyone. I do a defrag and disc clean as a matter of course but I will try your other suggestions and see what happens.

[Ken Cox]

RAY

put the show up to the Cottage or Mediafire and let others have a look

ken

[raybridges]

Hello Ken, I have put an AV on Media Fire for everyone to see. You can find it at

Cambridge American Cemetery.exe

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hello Ken, I have put an AV on Media Fire for everyone to see. You can find it at

Cambridge American Cemetery.exe

Hi Ray

The download is too big for my interest, 65mb would take an hour at my download speed. If you can let us know how many pictures and what size the sound file is???

Otherwise try a smaller show for analysis.

Yachtsman1

[Ken Cox]

Ray

smooth as silk at my end

-the flag lowering and poppy at the end were smooooooth

you better take lots of Kleenex with you if you show it in public !

I suspect you do not have the computing power to run it

my system

Operating System System ModelWindows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 (build 2600)

Install Language: English (United States)

System Locale: English (United States) No details availableProcessor ^aMain Circuit Board ^b2.80 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4

16 kilobyte primary memory cache

1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Hyper-threaded (2 total) Board: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. P4P800-E Rev 1.xx

Bus Clock: 200 megahertz

BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 1002.002 02/25/2004

DisplayStandard floppy disk controller

Intel® 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers (2x)

Primary IDE Channel [Controller] (2x)

Secondary IDE Channel [Controller] (2x) ALL-IN-WONDER 9600 SERIES [Display adapter]

ALL-IN-WONDER 9600 SERIES - Secondary [Display adapter]

Default Monitor

Samsung SyncMaster [Monitor] (21.7"vis, s/n HVGS503696, May 2009)

SyncMaster P2270/P2270G(Analog) [Monitor]

2 gb ram

great show -- great picts -- dont forget the Kleenex

thks for putting it up for us to test

ken

[raybridges]

Hello Ken,

Thank you for your feedback. I have followed all of the advice on the Forum which has improved things somewhat. So thanks for all your help.

Ray.

[JRR]

Ray:

Nicely done. (BTW, I am on a cable connection and it downloaded in 90 seconds)

Ran very smoothly on my not too new PC.