Fade / Transition Lag..

[jinjagoliath]

This is one for you more experienced P2E'ers.

While trying a new effect in the middle of my existing presentation, I discovered, rather disappointingly (oh for a spell checker! ).. that when the timeline tells me the transition has finished, in fact it hasn't when I do the FULL preview.

The result is a messed up presentation where the music continues but the pictures seem to lag for 10 seconds or so, and then catch up again.

In the smaller preview window (with the time-line) all seems ok.

I wonder if this is my graphics card, however, P2E doesn't like transitions too close to each other it seems.

Does anyone else (also living in the ideal world ) think that perhaps WYSIWYG should apply to the time-line transition bars.

That would be most nice.

J G

[Ed Overstreet]

There are a number of things that could be causing the discrepancy between the sync preview window and the full-screen preview. My first suggestion to try to fix this would be to ensure that none of your photo files are larger than 150-200 KB at most (if you're using 1024x768 images, use JPG compression quality 5 in Photoshop, which keeps the file sizes manageable). My second suggestion would be to ensure that your music track has about 5 seconds of silence at the front, so the music doesn't start immediately. Begin the show with a black canvas (e.g. 1024x768 solid black image) and don't start your transition into your second image (which is actually the first photograph) until 5 seconds into the sound file ( or later, if you don't want your first image to come up with the music); this gives older or less-powerful computers enough time to finish loading the exe file before trying to run the transition into frame 2. On my 500 MHz PIII system, all problems that I've encountered with inconsistencies between the two preview displays go away if I adhere to these two principles. If these tips don't work, someone else may have another suggestion, but try these two tips first. Good luck

[jinjagoliath]

Thanks Ed - that's all excellent advice.

The problem I'm having is slap-bang in the middle of the pres. - but I learned too, as you did, that an intro (blank) at the start helps things.

Not least in cue-ing up on a computer and giving the AV operator time to flip the the button on the projector remote (which never works first time!).

I checked the file sizes of my images around the 'twilight zone' in my presentation and all (except one of 202kB - a minor extravagance ) comply with your very wise file size rule..

Thanks for the post - it's good to know that "great minds think alike".

[sadly: "fools seldom differ", or so I'm told ]

PS I have tried the new #7 BETA version, but the problem still exists. My PC isn't too slow 750MHz (but graphics are on the Motherboard which is never so good)

J G

[alrobin]

JG,

How close together are your images? For images that size, PTE requires around a quarter of a second or so to process each image. So, to be safe, you should leave around half a second between the end of each transition and the start of the next one.

If you are using "cuts" (fast transitions), you may find that the maximum number of slides which your system can handle per second is only 3 or 4. PTE will perform the transitions, but it will take some time for the system to catch up. You need to experiment to determine the precise capabilities of your own system.

[jinjagoliath]

Wow! Half a second really? I'm surprised, that seems awfully far apart.. but perhaps I need to down-size my images. I thought 150-200kB was reasonably conservative, but I'm learning all the time

I have made some quite successful close transitions, particularly where there is no fade effect involved, it seems to be the 'fade' that botches things up for me.

The thing to remember is that when synch-ing with music, it is quite often the beat which dictates the timing of the change. P2E is quite good at this on the whole, so my disappointment is perhaps due to pushing boundaries of the sofware. Or mybe Igor could work on this Make me very happy.

Thanks for the tips though.

I'd like to post a sample presentation, to let you see what I mean, but am not sure about the copyright thing.. not using Royalty Free...

Would this be ok for private viewing?

JG

[alrobin]

JG,

You may be able to get it down to less than 1/2 a second - each situation is different. You really have to experiment with your own setup. Another thing to look out for is that you don't have any other programs running in the background and using up precious processor resources.

No problem posting a test case - I would be happy to have a look at it and provide feedback. Don't worry about the copyright on the music - just use some obscure piece that no one will recognize!

Seriously, if the distribution is kept small, there is not too much to worry about. If you put it on your own web site, you can keep the distribution small by not publishing the address too widely. I don't think anyone on the forum would tell, anyway. In the end, it's your call, though.

[jinjagoliath]

Al,

Thanks for the encouragement.

I think I will post my efforts (once I'm happy enough with it) just some final tweaking and I'd be happy to post at 80% satisfaction.

[it always seems that the final tweaks take longer than the bulk of the work - may be that's just the perfectionist in me ]

If you think that a faster PC would make a difference, then I'll just have to get one (great excuse ) I'll tell my wife you said so

However, it is good to know that the presentation will run on most any other machine as 'God intended' - so having it road tested for public consumption is a good thing... even if the licencing issue becomes a hurdle.

Thanks for the offer of assistance - be gentle with me! (Only my 4th serious attempt with P2E)

Look forward to learning more from your experience, though. So seriously, in anticipation, thanks.

J G