UGH!! Slide show skips

[Sandee]

I've done everything humanly possible (which includes burning the cd at different speeds) to get this dang show to work properly! Nothing is working!! (using Mp3 too)

HELPPPPPPPPPP

[Guest guru]

Welcome Sandee! But don't get so angry...

Tell us first something about your show (image format and size in pixel and KB, screen resolution, soundtrack) and your computer (CPU, Ram etc.) !

[Leif]

I've done everything humanly possible (which includes burning the cd at different speeds) to get this dang show to work properly! Nothing is working!!

Does it work when you run it from your hard disk??

[Alan Lyons]

Hi Sandee,

Welcome aboard, Leif has a point about the hard drive. If the show has to be collected from a CD as it's been shown then this is one more delay that can occour. If you have set out your time line and it works on your HD ok, when you run from the CD your time line may be quicker than the abilty to deliver the images to the screen. See also "Temp CD" on Page 2 of this forum.

If at any time you feel that P2E is problematic then try to create a show with slides, projectors, and disolve units, then you will see how easy this programme has made things, Alan

[nobeefstu]

Welcome Sandee,

Its almost impossible to help you with your troubleshooting and issues using the limiting details you supplied in your post.

As Guido suggests ... please inform us of the relevant PC/Show details and particular settings used ... what/where "is" and what/where "is not" working properly.

Im sure we all here can help you in some way ... to smooth over your bumpy start with PTE.

[Sandee]

Thanks much for the replies!

I was a member of this board awhile ago, but for some reason I got deleted and had to re-register! Anyway, thanks for the welcome!

So sorry for the limited information, I guess I'm just totally frustrated. I'm not as technically adept at "Pix" as most of you guys, but I try...LOL...I've been using Pix2exe for almost a year now!

Here's more info:

Image size (file): between 62-80 KB

Image dimetions: approx 10x12ish @72dpi, jpg (client wants the images to fill up the screen)

Screen resolution - 1152 x 684

Puter info: 512 RAM, HD - 128ish

Sound on show - Mp3

Properties on sound - "Play background music" - Sound isn't timed, just runs throughout show.

After I do a "Create slideshow as", I run the "Preview".....no problems (cuz its running off HD)

Burn exe and inf file to CD, test out on 2 or 3 diff puters, the music skips on every one!

I've tried burning at diff speeds and making sure the file properties are "High" when burning in Nero

I've also tried changing the file sizes, defraging, etc., still no help!

Thanks again for the replies! What the heck am I doing wrong?

[alrobin]

Sandee,

When you run "preview" you are still in the "prior to PTE creation" mode. What happens if you double click on the ".exe" file you created? If that opens and runs OK, I would suggest it may be a problem with your CD burner.

[nobeefstu]

Sandee

Just a few questions about your MP3 and Slide Timing.

-What Size (mb) is your MP3 ?

-Has this MP3 been extracted, converted or edited in any way by you ?

-Does your MP3 "Skip" randomly thru - out the SHOW ... or only at specific Slide #s and transitions ?

(I assume the MP3 plays correctly ( just thru your media player only) on all PCs in your tests.)

-----------------------------------------

Now, A few more about your PTE transitions and timing.

-What "Type" of transistions have you selected ?

-What is your Slide Timing (Display durations and your Transistion durations) ?

-----------------------------------------

OK, One last Question ...

-Have you selected internal or external player ?

Thats it ... I just need a better overall picture to sort with

[Sandee]

Sandee,

When you run "preview" you are still in the "prior to PTE creation" mode. What happens if you double click on the ".exe" file you created? If that opens and runs OK, I would suggest it may be a problem with your CD burner.

Yes, it runs fine when I click on the .exe in Win Exp.

[Sandee]

Sandee

Just a few questions about your MP3 and Slide Timing.

-What Size (mb) is your MP3 ?

-Has this MP3 been extracted, converted or edited in any way by you ?

-Does your MP3 "Skip" randomly thru - out the SHOW ... or only at specific Slide #s and transitions ?

(I assume the MP3 plays correctly ( just thru your media player only) on all PCs in your tests.)

-----------------------------------------

Now, A few more about your PTE transitions and timing.

-What "Type" of transistions have you selected ?

-What is your Slide Timing (Display durations and your Transistion durations) ?

-----------------------------------------

OK, One last Question ...

-Have you selected internal or external player ?

Thats it ... I just need a better overall picture to sort with

Answers:

-Around 1400KB

-Nothing edited

-Specific Slides

(Yes, it plays fine on media player on all PC's)

-Transitions are: "Enable Transitions - All checked except for "Hot Blocks"

-No set timing

-External

[alrobin]

Sandee,

I would suspect that the problem is either the quality of the cd's you are using, or the performance of your cd burner. Is it convenient to transfer the "exe" file for your show over to another pc with a cd burner, cut a new cd, and try that?

Of course, to do that, you will need either a network connection to the other pc, or some form of mass storage other than a cd. Or a transfer through the internet to the other pc, which, if you don't have high-speed, may not be too practical.

A while ago, I made a cd with some 'tiff" files, and over half of them were corrupted somehow, either by the cd itself, or by my cd-rw drive.

Then, a few weeks ago, I saved a PTE show on a cd, and tested it satisfactorily on my own desktop, as well as my laptop. However, when I attempted to play it back through a friend's laptop, some of the images were badly "streaked", and the show skipped so that it was unusable. In fact, when I could not even copy it over to the friend's hard drive due to some data-check errors.

This problem seems to be sporadic, as most of the time the cd's I burn are quite satisfactory.

Best of luck trouble-shooting your problem. Please keep us informed as to how you are able to solve it.

[nobeefstu]

Sandee

Thanks for the info.

It seems your SHOW setting are very basic from your specs indicated.

Images - 62-80 kb

Mp3 1400kb

Basic transition and duration settings.

Sometimes when using overweight Images and extremely demanding Transitions ... I have seen cases where the SHOW freezes or locks and or sometimes contribute or cause the MP3 to stutter or skip. This issue can happen also on a HD Driven Show ... but mostly will become evident when trying to run a SHOW from the CDrom Drive. Speed of data transfer becomes the culprit. The CDR medium x -speed and the CDRom x-read speed create the beginning your data flow bottleneck.

I would suggest you verify the problem SPECIFIC SLIDES and re-make the Images from their master/original Image ( dont reuse the current content images) ... you may have some sort of image problem or data corruption making the SHOW not flow consistantly/smoothly at CDRom read speeds.

Most minor HD issues can become big CDRom problems when using CD Disc run Shows. Its just the nature of the beast.

One last question .... are those problem SPECIFIC SLIDES containing lots of multiple objects ? ... if so ... I would reconfigure them.

[Sandee]

I found the problem!!! Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!! Man, was this frustrating! Now I totally feel like an idiot!!!

What I did was go back to the beginning and start again! (after taking some deep breaths and calming down...LOL) Some of the images were too big, and I think that's where the problem stemmed from. I created the new pte, previewed it without problems. Then it was time to burn! Ok, so I make sure nothing at all is running in the background, load files into the Nero and burn at 2x!! I've only checked the CD on one 'puter so far, but gonna try it on another one and a laptop before delivery to client.

You guys are the greatest! Thanks so verrrrrrry much for the replies!!

[ken]

Sandee - you are not alone!! I am a professional photographer, and bought this to make slide shows to show clients the "proofs" that they will later select their favorites to purchase. On family portraits - I may shoot 60 - 80 images. I shoot with a Canon D60 in jpeg 4 mg format. The images run well in preview, but when I burn to cd, the music skips. I tried everything, but it skips, even on other computers. I assume it must be too much data for the cd player to read and output at one time. How did you resolve your issue. I have 1 gig ram, and use easy cd creat 5 to burn with.

Anybody --- help is welcome!

[jimnshell]

This appears to be a major problem with Pictures2exe. I have had the same problem and have tried everything I can think of. The slide show works fine with the exe file created to the HD on the original computer. At first, I thought the CD version was having trouble because of access time, etc. So, I copied the exe file from the CD onto the hard drive (on the same computer that runs the original EXE file correctly) and the exe file exhibits the same faults as if running from the CD. I have tried different CD burners, etc., but to no avail.

ANY recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[LumenLux]

Ken & jimnshell - it appears to me that the problems you are siteing are likely quite different.

In Ken's case it seems that the 4 meg (LARGE) files are likely the most important & correctable factor. Ken you can probably search this forum and find lots of good advice regarding file size and software to reduce file size, individually or in batches.

jimnshell's case seems to me to be a problem being introduced by the burning process.

We' ll see if others here see it differently.

[ronwil]

Could the fault lie with the graphics card of the other computers?

Ron [uK]

[Guest guru]

As to Jimnshell's unusual problem, I'm quite sure LumenLux is right. When you burn (copy) a file from Hdd to Cd and then again from CD to Hdd, the file must remain absolutely identical.

Jim (I guess this is your name...), did you compare original .exe and the new one copied to Hdd? Are they really identical?

[jimnshell]

Thanks for all the replies. To answer the question on comparing. I used the comparsion function when burning the CD. Everything checked out during the burn. Or at least the burning software said the files were identical and OK.

I even tried a DVD combo burner in hopes that this would help. No luck yet. Sometimes the music doesn't even play from the CD version of the exe file.

It just doesn't make sense. If the exe file works from the HD, then the file copied to the CD (especially if copied back to a HD) should work also.

Never encountered this type of problem before. It's got me baffled.

[think(box)]

Jim,

Have you positively confirmed that your music plays completely and flawlessly outside of the show? There have been corrupted original music file problems behind the difficulty in the past. You might want to check that your image files are flawless as well by viewing them separately from show. If that is not the cause:

I am wondering if maybe the music "buffering" is not large enough when there are large pixel-size images in the show on CD. Since the default music playing mechanism for P2E shows is Windows Media Player through an application call, would you please try an experiment to gather a bit of debug information in the following steps?

Make a show with the same large picture content yet with no sound, and burn to CD.

Open your MP3 file from hard drive with Windows Media Player. Usually this is done by double-clicking the MP3 file, unless MP3 is associated with another player type. If that is the case open Windows Media Player directly and then open the MP3 file from the File menu.

While a track known to skip is playing, open your picture show from the CD drive. Does the music now play flawlessly?

Please reply to the forum with your findings and we'll try to help. One other thing - how are you using the music in your show? Is it free-playing or synchronized, and is it wav or mp3? Thanks!

Forum members: If the show plays with built-in music successfully from Jim's hard drive, then couldn't he use one of the utilities that seemlessly copies show to hard drive before playing it?

Kind regards,

[LumenLux]

Forum members:  If the show plays with built-in music successfully from Jim's hard drive, then couldn't he use one of the utilities that seemlessly copies show to hard drive before playing it?

Kind regards,

I think this would be true if, and only if, the show is accurately burned on the CD to begin with. But if that is the case, the normal copy from CD to HD should also put a working show back on the HD.

Now Jim, have you tried copying the show from your CD onto a different PC. I am wondering if the Temp folders on your PC are possibly harboring some remnants that trouble the running of the show copied back from the CD.

Maybe nobeefstu (or Al, or Bill or ?) can jump back in here and say whether that could be a factor.

[think(box)]

OK Bob, let's take your cue. And I don't think existing Windows temp folder contents matter unless they are leaving insufficient free space on drive C: for Windows to run software.

I have a way to be sure about data match between the burned and copied-back .exe files. In case Jim or others using this file comparison process do not know how to use MS-DOS, I will give detailed steps (for those already familiar with DOS syntax simply do a DOS FC/B file comparison). Following this description I have a link to a free windows application that is clickable and that you can use instead of DOS FC/B if you prefer to just install a utility:

Rename one or both files to be compared using names with 8 or less characters (it's easier this way).

Put the files to be compared at root folder (top folder of drive - it's easier this way)

Start an MS-DOS window, or in XP a "command prompt" window I believe.

Type drive letter where files to be compared are, followed by ":" as in C: and press enter.

The command "prompt" should now be something like:

[WINDOWS] C:\WINDOWS>

Type these two commands, pressing enter after each (that is CD<space>backslash, not <slash>):

CD \

PATH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND

Now the prompt will look like this, except that it may be D: or E:, etc. as you are using for your drive:

[WINDOWS] C:\>

Finally enter this file comparison command (this one uses slash, not backslash, as in FC<slash>, where FILE1 and FILE2 characters are replaced with your two file names:

FC/B FILE1.EXE FILE2.EXE

If you get a response that ends with this then the files are EXACTLY the same in every byte:

FC: no differences encountered

If instead you get a (possibly very) long list of numbers in three columns, then the files are different.

Enter as many compare commands as you want and when you're done close the DOS window.

There are many utilities around to compare files, but "FC/B" (binary file compare) should be on everyone's windows machine already. FC/B does a known-accurate binary comparison of two files up to 2GB in size each. If the FC application isn't on your machine, then you have to use some other utility to compare two existing files. Here is a known-good windows application to compare files (free): FC32. Goto the "NoNags" site to download it (this is a good freeware site without nagging ads in the software):

http://www.k7v.com/nonags/index.html

Scroll down to "Download categories" and click "File Synchronizing"

Scroll down to FC32 and click "FC32 1.0 for Win 9x/NT" link and download, then install and run. This app may not work on XP if you use NTFS file system, in which case you may have to find another free utility. Others may be able to point to a free XP-compatible utility, or if not Granot may even write one. He kindly makes mini-utilities in a flash.

Are the files found to be identical by one of these binary file comparison methods?

Cheers,

[jimnshell]

First, thanks for all your help everyone. I will be trying all the tips and possible solutions as soon as possible. (Have to get back to the work site.)

LumenLux wrote : "Now Jim, have you tried copying the show from your CD onto a different PC. I am wondering if the Temp folders on your PC are possibly harboring some remnants that trouble the running of the show copied back from the CD.

Maybe nobeefstu (or Al, or Bill or ?) can jump back in here and say whether that could be a factor. "

Yes, I have brought the exe file home to my computer and copied it down to the HD, but no luck. If the compare function mentioned above is OK, then I am going to make the pic files smaller and see if that works. I just hate to have to go through all of them and resize. I think once I conquer this problem, all future slide shows will be a breeze.

Again, THANKS!

[JRR]

Jim:

Don't you love computers !!!

Once you get them behaving they are great, but until then

If you do have to re-size the images, you can do it PhotoShop using FILE>AUTOMATE.

I am not sure if IRFANVIEW will do it, others might as well

There have been brief discussions on this in other threads.

Good luck, as you say it should be a breeze once you conquer this problem.

[Guest guru]

Quotation:

I am not sure if IRFANVIEW will do it, others might as well (JRR)

Yes Jim, Irfanview does it in single and in batch mode, by resizing (faster) or resampling (better).

XnView too does it very well (it's a freeware very similar to IrfanView, that can import 360 format types and export 40).