I'm freezing people's computers

[dlesko]

I'm a pro wedding photographer, and when I went digital in March I started using PTE to show my clients their images. I'm getting quite a few people calling me to complain that their computers lock up when they try to run the .exe file I give them.

A typical wedding includes about 400 images. They start as 2 to 6 meg JPEGs, but I run a Photoshop batch on them and create a 0 quality JPEG from each, which then are the files I use to create their show. These 0 quality JPEGs range from about 125K to 400K each.

I am adding music to the shows, and after browsing this forum I wonder if that's the problem. The music consists of 11 tracks in a .wma format. In the project options I do not check the box for "use internal WAV/MP# player".

My finished .exe files range from 70 to 80 megs. I burn them to a CD, and mail it to my clients for them to view on their home computers. I've had probably 6 to 8 complaints so far, typically that when they try to run the show their computers freeze, or lock up. I've told people to try copying the file to their hard drive and running it from there, but that hasn't helped anyone.

Does anyone have any advice??

Dave

[alrobin]

Dave,

PTE doesn't yet support the .wma format. Try converting to .mp3 or .wav.

If you still have complaints, try reducing the size of the images to max 200 kb. or check the transitions to make sure you are leaving a minimum of 1/2 sec or so between the end of one transition and the start of the next.

[Ian]

Actually it does support wma files, but there may be a protection issue when other people's computers try to use them. I think that the default setting for wma files is that Windows allows one copy, but subsequent copies won't play. I'm not really sure as I don't use them. As Al says, use MP3 files for much greater compatability.

Ian

[Ian]

Just read Igor's note - the new Beta 4.1 doesn't yet play wma files, but will be able to soon. (Still can't imagine why anyone would want to use them though!)

Ian

[think(box)]

Dave, I have a high megapixel camera and know from the file sizes quoted that you must be making shows with very large pixel dimension images, like 2560x1920. That can be so demanding on computers that it is likely causing the freezes (and extreme slowdowns) that some encounter. Excess resolution (pixel dimension) wastes resources and space and doesn't give the viewer a better view. The zero quality setting in Photoshop is giving you maximum compression for least output JPEG file size, but when viewing software reconstructs the image it still has to create a huge amount of data. If your images are 2560x1920 and have 32bit color, each image is constructed as a 20MB screen bitmap, and is a tremendous resource drain to display. If you resize to 1024x768 and use 24bit color, each image is reconstructed for display with a mere 2.4MB of data, regardless of JPEG quality setting once again.

Another tip - unless you are using a scanner, ignore anything you see about dpi, or dots per inch. Pay attention to only pixels by pixels, as in 1024x768, and JPEG quality for image file considerations.

Suggested guideline is 800x600 or 1024x768. Your shows will work much better if you batch resize and use Photoshop JPEG quality at 6 to 8 for the smaller size pics. And file sizes will be 100 to 200KB. Best of all, everyone shouldn't notice quality reduction in your show images.

I hope all of this helps. Everyone has had lots of fun with this whole digital image topic as they learn not to get burned. You'll see it all over the forum.

[nobeefstu]

Dave,

The music consists of 11 tracks in a .wma format. In the project options ...

...I've told people to try copying the file to their hard drive and running it from there, but that hasn't helped anyone.

I also suggest as others indicate ... use MP3s.

Using WMA music format is not a wise choice these days ... as there is so many restrictions and protective measures these files can carry along with them. You must be absolutely sure none of your WMA file are protected ... otherwise they wont play on anothers PC or CD.

However, since you have had some success in having your Show PLAY from CD on some Clients PCs ... seems to indicate maybe your WMA files are non - protected and ok. I suspect these working CDs are on PCs that are newer & more powerful.

I believe your PTE Show may be too demanding for PCs ( low to average speed ) some of your Clients may have. Your issue is only being magnified by trying to PLAY it from a CD.

If its your intention to distribute your PTE Shows on a CD for all your clients to see ... you must build your PTE Show alot less complex and demanding. You should at least make it so as to play from the harddrive on all PCs ... and hopefully only the oldest PCs have issues running from CDRom.

I aggree others comments, that some of your Image files may well be too large ... and be sure to check your Slide Timing. Merging your music into 1 file is also helpful in many cases.

[dianah]

Has anyone been able to play the .exe from a CD? I haven't been able to do this yet. I've had to move everything back to the computer to play it. This also happens with a DVD. My music is in a .wav format. My pictures (50) are about 5000kb. If I take the image size down, would it be possible to play directly from the CD? Thanks Diana

[Ronniebootwest]

Hi Dianna! Yes an .exe file will play direct from a CD. It is wise to heed the advice already given in this thread though. i.e. Keep the file size low at 800X600 or 1024X768 (pixels) and use a jpeg file with compression set to 6 or 7. If you add music, then only use mp3.

Ron West

[dianah]

Thanks a whole lot West. I'll go try it right now.

Diana

[alrobin]

Diana,

I have had problems in the past playing a PTE show directly from a CD when it used .wav files. Try compressing your music to an mp3 file and see if that works any better.

[dianah]

Thanks Alrobin and Ronniebootwest!

Well, I now have the photos compressed (57 photos) and saved as jpg's. The music is mp3 and it stops playing half way through the CD (when playing off the CD)

Any suggestions?

Diana

[jongru2]

I have an olympus 5.0 mega pixels, use a compaq amd 650mhz and always use mp3 or wav if space is sufficient on disk. My average slide show is about 280 mb with about 250-300 pictures. Never had a problem with a client telling me his computer freezes.

I've done over 150 slideshows and other than me forgetting to do something I should have done....never had that complaint....maybe it is time to study your own computer and analyze if you are causing periodic freezes on their computers....

I use an autorun file for win 98 and no autorun file for Xp.

jongru...

[Conflow]

Thanks Alrobin and Ronniebootwest!

Well, I now have the photos compressed (57 photos) and saved as jpg's. The music is mp3 and it stops playing half way through the CD (when playing off the CD)

Any suggestions?

Diana

Hi Forum,

I have been reading the Post from Bill,Dave,Al and Diana about "Computers Freezing" and

for what its worth I have found that a major cause of "Frozen PCs" is lack of User Memory

or User RAM.

I undertook a small survey of Neighbourhood PC's, the usual gambit of 98's - 98'Se, ME's

and XP's and found - right across the board - unless you have a minimum of 128mB of User

Ram (and thats small) you simply are "not at the races"

PTE is very demanding on User Ram - its not the programs' fault - rather the problem is one of how you, the user, are deploying the User Ram (do not confuse with your Hard Disc)

If you want the PC to be "all singing & dancing" you had better reach for your Checkbook

and purchase at least 256mB if not 512mB of Ram, I will also add that the fastest PC is

absolutely useless without adequate RAM. Its a shame that PC vendors don't tell people

that hard fact, of course its all in their interest of keeping the prices low so they can SELL !

I agree with Al Robin, "KEEP IT SIMPLE", a PC is not a Multi-Tasking Computer it can only do

one job at at time - although it appears to be doing much more.

Another tip - don't mix Sound Formats, such as an Mp3 followed by a Wav file and so on.

Better to keep your Soundtrack(s) as Mp3 and Voiceovers/Effects as short Wav's.

Hope this is of some help.

Brian Kelly. Conflow.Dublin

[Ken Cox]

Brian

you must have got that vacant look a few times when you said " you need more Ram" and got "whasat??" for an answer

good tips

ken

[ocgraphics]

Hi Dave,

The problem is with the way you have converted your images. Even though you have saved the files at 0 quality they are still going to be sized back to full size. You should convert your images to the size that they are going to be viewed at first 1024 x 768 pixels and then save these as maximum quality jpgs. There is just too much processing power going to resizing the images the way you are doing it.

See the tutorials on this on my web site http://fp.ocgraphics.plus.com

Richard.

[Ronniebootwest]

I am not at all sure that saving a jpeg at full quality is the right thing to do. In order to keep file sizes as small as possible, a compression size of 6 or 7 will prove to be much better I think.

[Ronniebootwest]

Running a PTE show directly from a CD works for many prople. However, if the recipient of the CD has a computer with limited resources (e.g. RAM of less than 128mb) then problems may be encountered when trying to play the CD.

Why not consider transferring the PTE show from the CD to a temporary folder and playing it from there. Granot has written a utility that will carry out this operation automatically. Contact him here: http://www.thailandphotoalbum.com

[Guest guru]

I agree with Ronnie. But I wish to tell Brian "Conflow" that PTE is not "very demanding on User Ram".

I can say this not only because I know how PTE works, but also on the basis of personal tests. I just checked on this by making a presentation with rather big images (500-700 KB each) and a Wav soundtrack. I chose (I'm at work) an old Pentium II 266 machine with 256 MB Ram, with the hard disk full of program files (near 100!) and very few system resources.

Well, before I ran the presentation the computer was slow, but there were still 102 MB of free Ram. During the presentation the free Ram got down till 92, then 82, 80 and 92 again, but never below 80. In other words, my PTE presentation made with big images and sound files used no more than 22 MB of Ram.

And it ran, with its fading transitions, on an old Pentium 266 machine!

However, with uncompressed images or sounds, some problems can come out because of the (relative) slowness of CD in comparison with a Hdd.

[Conflow]

I agree with Ronnie. But I wish to tell Brian "Conflow" that PTE is not "very demanding on User Ram".

I can say this not only because I know how PTE works, but also on the basis of personal tests. I just checked on this by making a presentation with rather big images (500-700 KB each) and a Wav soundtrack. I chose (I'm at work) an old Pentium II 266 machine with 256 MB Ram, with the hard disk full of program files (near 100!) and very few system resources.

Well, before I ran the presentation the computer was slow, but there were still 102 MB of free Ram. During the presentation the free Ram got down till 92, then 82, 80 and 92 again, but never below 80. In other words, my PTE presentation made with big images and sound files used no more than 22 MB of Ram.

And it ran, with its fading transitions, on an old Pentium 266 machine!

However, with uncompressed images or sounds, some problems can come out because of the (relative) slowness of CD in comparison with a Hdd.

Hi Guido,

With respect, I think you may be missing the point I was trying to make -

Quite simply where I come from (Ireland) most Computers sold to the domestic Irish Consumer over the past few years are sold with very little "User Ram Memory"- that is until the recent advent of Win XP on our Markets.

Having said that, I was referring to the PC's I came across in my Survey,very few of them had anything in excess of 68mB of User Ram.

Now as you know, at least 20-30mB of this is being used by the PC itself which leaves

very little left to 'construct' a PTE.Exe Program - apart alltogether- from playing a CD

copy of that Program.

Your Pentium 266 started off with 256mB of Ram (4 times what I am talking about) and

of course its very easy for the '266' to contineously refresh that amount of Ram, now if you only have 68mB of Ram its another story,viz:- 20-30 for the Pc, 22 for your Program

and the rest to play off the CD, which means NO RESOURCES LEFT FOR for any other dependent programs listed in the Start Menu.

In this case scenario Windows Explorer 'crashes or freezes' particularily with 95, 98, and 98se platforms.

The point I was making is, "Small User Ram = Trouble" and its not readily apparent to non-technical PC users who mistakenly blame the Program for this anomoly.

I hope this clears up any misunderstanding and I still advise my PTE users to purchase

more that the "miserly' 68mB or Ram supplied with older versions of Windows.

Best wishes from Ireland.

Brian Kelly.Conflow.

[Guest guru]

Thank you Brian for your useful explanation. You're right, 64 MB of Ram can be really too few for a "modern" PTE show, with sound synchronization.

[dianah]

Hello all and thank you for all the info. I have another small problem. After I have completed my slide show with music (jpgs and mp3) It played wonderfully on my computer. Music and pic's all end at the same time. So I burn a CD take it home to my computer and the music ends before the slide show does.

I have 2 gig's of Ram at work and 1 Gig of Ram at home. My total show size is 20Megs, and each photo is about 125kb. The music is mp3.

Any reason for these getting out of sink, between viewing it on the software and burning a CD?

[dianah]

....

[alrobin]

Brian and Guido,

Processor speed can be a significant factor too. I notice that even with my new P4, 2.8 MHz pc, during transitions the processor utilization is over 80% for some shows, with larger images.

Dianah,

Un-synched shows will run at different speeds on different pc's. To ensure perfect synchronization on different machines, synchronize the show to the timeline.