DVD Slideshow GUI-Can't Import Images

[Laysan_A]

Hi,

I just downloaded the latest (o.86?), but I'm not sure that the problem was not there before (85B).

My wife is doing a slideshow with 200+ images. Using ver. 0.77 (I think) she imported all the images along with looping sound and random transitions. Nothing fancy. We began having problems with some of the transitions, and after reading some other posts on that problem I downloaded the newer version which deleted the problem transitions, but it turned out she could not import any more images.

Today, I decided to try your interesting drop shadow background and got a fault in the avisynth script - it was a syntax error of some kind. I tried to find it, but lacking both a reasonable understanding of scripting, as well as a script parser (the fault was on line 148, I think) I couldn't find it (an integrated script parser would be a great addition - I had another error yesterday on line 800-something!). I ended up going through all of the avs backgrounds and none of them worked - but I guess that's another problem...

Okay, today I decided to start fresh and import into a blank show. At first nothing would happen at all. Later, I began getting error messages. It was trying to import the url to your download page, which despite the errors and because of my refusal to shut it down would actually show-up in the window, though any manipulation other than highlighting and cutting would only produce another round of error messages about no such image.

I read the post about this or a similar problem and opened up the clipboard viewer and sure enough there was the url to your download page. I deleted it but when I tried to import an image still nothing happened. I checked the clipboard and there was nothing there! I then opened the folder manually and copied the image, then used the native paste function to paste it in. Again nothing happened, however the path was now in the clipboard!

Another interesting thing happened, I shut the program down and restarted it (this was after deleting the url from the clipboard). When I attempted to copy and paste an image the url showed-up again, however when I opened up the clipboard viewer it wasn't the url that showed-up but the path to the image I wanted to import.

A reboot didn't solve anything.

Any ideas?

Im on a laptop with 1Gb ram and around 20-30 Gb free HD space and a t2300 processor. I'm running XP-SP3

Thanks!

[tin2tin]

Hi,

I just downloaded the latest (o.86?), but I'm not sure that the problem was not there before (85B).

My wife is doing a slideshow with 200+ images. Using ver. 0.77 (I think) she imported all the images along with looping sound and random transitions. Nothing fancy. We began having problems with some of the transitions, and after reading some other posts on that problem I downloaded the newer version which deleted the problem transitions, but it turned out she could not import any more images.

Please, do not use old versions. 0.77 is very, very old! If you're having problems always try with a few slides first.

Today, I decided to try your interesting drop shadow background and got a fault in the avisynth script - it was a syntax error of some kind. I tried to find it, but lacking both a reasonable understanding of scripting, as well as a script parser (the fault was on line 148, I think) I couldn't find it (an integrated script parser would be a great addition - I had another error yesterday on line 800-something!). I ended up going through all of the avs backgrounds and none of them worked - but I guess that's another problem...

I assume you're now writing about 0.86? Can you import slides here(since you're trying to use backgrounds)? Did you install the included avisynth? AvsP is a great IDE for avisynth scripts(.avs). As you can see there are a milllion ways of combining things in DSG so I can't locate a bug unless you write what what you're doing when the error happens(and can repeat it).

Okay, today I decided to start fresh and import into a blank show. At first nothing would happen at all. Later, I began getting error messages. It was trying to import the url to your download page, which despite the errors and because of my refusal to shut it down would actually show-up in the window, though any manipulation other than highlighting and cutting would only produce another round of error messages about no such image.

I read the post about this or a similar problem and opened up the clipboard viewer and sure enough there was the url to your download page. I deleted it but when I tried to import an image still nothing happened. I checked the clipboard and there was nothing there! I then opened the folder manually and copied the image, then used the native paste function to paste it in. Again nothing happened, however the path was now in the clipboard!

Another interesting thing happened, I shut the program down and restarted it (this was after deleting the url from the clipboard). When I attempted to copy and paste an image the url showed-up again, however when I opened up the clipboard viewer it wasn't the url that showed-up but the path to the image I wanted to import.

A reboot didn't solve anything.

Any ideas?

Im on a laptop with 1Gb ram and around 20-30 Gb free HD space and a t2300 processor. I'm running XP-SP3

Thanks!

Hmmm, I hope that it's not sp3 which are causing the problems. Haven't tested that. What happens here(XP SP2) is that whetever there is in the clipboard is overwritten when importing and it imports fine. On Vista there was a problem for the filedialog.exe to save a temp file to hdd, it didn't have the permission, I wonder if it's the same thing happening now on SP3 with no permission to add text to the clipboard.

The import syntax is:
First line: path to folder. No '\' in the end.
Following lines: names of images. Ex 'abc.jpg'

If a corrupted image/non-image url somehow is imported DSG will choke on that and you'll get all kinds of errors I suspect.

Well what can you do about it? I don't know why filedialog.exe doesn't add the path of the folder and the individual images to the clipboard. The filedialog.exe is coded in autoitscript and is an external program because wxbasic(DSG is coded in this) does not support loading of multiple files with the standart windows file dialog. There has been some false (virus) positives on programs running on autoitscript, and that's why it may not be allowed to run proberly. But I really don't know if this is the case....

I guess I can try to make a new build of the filedialog.exe against the latest autoitscript... stay tuned...

[tin2tin]

Try to exchange this filedialog.exe with the old in the main folder of DSG and let me know how it works for you.

[Btw. DropShadow is a background and must be loaded as such(under Presets).]

[OldeMan]

Hmmm, I hope that it's not sp3 which are causing the problems. Haven't tested that. What happens here(XP SP2) is that whetever there is in the clipboard is overwritten when importing and it imports fine. On Vista there was a problem for the filedialog.exe to save a temp file to hdd, it didn't have the permission,

I haven't tried .86 yet, but I'm running .85B on WinXP w/SP3 with no problems.
Only had a small GFDauthor hickup due to a very back level active-x control (RICHTX32.ocx).
I had to reload WinXP from scratch and applied up through SP3 before trying DVD Slideshow GUI.

SP3 seems to run well on my system, I installed it from the downloaded CD not the update service.

[tin2tin]

Thanks for letting me know that importing works okay on SP3.
(The importer is the same on 0.85B and 0.86)

[Laysan_A]

Hi tin2tin and OldeMan - Thanks for the replies. It's a mystery. It looks like I need to futz around some more...

I'm on our old laptop so I can't do anything now (my wife's hogging the main laptop).

The slides from 0.77 opened fine in 0.85B and 0.86 (I just changed the ver.#) I just couldn't add any more to it (or to a new one), or add any animated backgrounds. Once it was opened and running in 0.86, I saved it again, assuming that would take care of any differences in syntax in the gfds.

By the way, I noticed you're using avisynth 2.58 which is an alpha. Is there a reason, or can I continue to use 2.57? (Yes, I did install it - though I wasn't entirely happy about it).

I hope it turns out to be something simple, and not a problem with my sp3 install (I did mine via update service - though I did download the files too). I'd really hate to have to do a fresh install.

I'll get back to you when I've had a chance to try a few things out. I'll begin again with the basics - uninstall and reinstall.

Thanks!

[OldeMan]

Suggestion..Check to see if it works with 99 slides. I think there is an issue wth the DVD specs if you have more than 99 chapters in a single VTS of a DVD. I limit my imports to about 100 pictues, if I'm creating a DVD output.

Maybe a recent change to DSG found a way around this problem.

[tin2tin]

The slides from 0.77 opened fine in 0.85B and 0.86 (I just changed the ver.#)

Well, this is proberly the reason. A file from 0.77 is not expected to work on 0.85/0.86 that's why it complained when you tried to load it(before you changed the # - again 0.77 is very, very old - just don't use it!). You'll have to rebuild your slideshow. And forceing it to load an old file by changing the # in the file will corrupt the new.ini file as well. Please delete new.ini, restart DSG and begin a new slideshow...

[FYI: 0.80B
New Features:
- Change thumbnail size
- Working directories saved with files/ini

Meaning that no working directories are saved with a file from 0.77 - which means there is no working directory for the filedialog to open! And that's the reason for your problem.]

By the way, I noticed you're using avisynth 2.58 which is an alpha. Is there a reason, or can I continue to use 2.57?

It seems to be working better concerning memory use etc. I haven't encountered any problems with the latest avisynth yet. But you can use 2.57 as well.

I think there is an issue wth the DVD specs if you have more than 99 chapters in a single VTS of a DVD.

That might be true for the old version, but the latest versions this should be fixed.

[Laysan_A]

Hi tin2tin,

Well, I uninstalled avisynth and dvdslideshow with revo uninstaller - so I got the registry too. With a fresh install I was able to import images again. It works for the old show that I resaved with 0.85, too. I am having trouble with one particular image, though. Does an image have to be rgb32 to be accepted?

I find I still cannot use any animated backgrounds. Just in case you might think that opening that old show might be the cause of this - I tried a bunch of the included backgrounds with a fresh show of only a few images, before I loaded the old show.The avs script errors out. I'll download that script editor you recommended and see what I can find. I'll let you know.

Thanks!

Well, here's the problem with the animated backgrounds. I've tried with drop shadow, backbloom and backbloomtimeblur. All produced the same error in the import syntax: (the extra parenthesis on the end)

b = import("C:\Program Files\DVD slideshow GUI\Backgrounds\BackBloomTimeBlur.avs").converttorgb3 2().eqaudio().BilinearResize(720,480))

When the parenthesis is removed the script runs, or if one is added before the import command.

What do you think?

[tin2tin]

When the parenthesis is removed the script runs, or if one is added before the import command.

True. Fixed that in the latest test file here. I guess I must have forgotten to test NTSC - I live in Europe(PAL).

[Laysan_A]

Hey, thanks tin2tin. Sorry I didn't get back sooner. My wife said in no uncertain terms, "No moving backgrounds", so I got busy doing animations and other things. I'll download it and give it a shot.

While I'm here, I've got two issues for your consideration. Not bugs - just minor annoinces

First, when you change any aspects of a slide and the show recompiles your slide gets moved out of the window so you have to go looking for it (annoying).

Second, I was doing a zoom and pan animation of a picture of a photo-memorial to a dear friend of my wife's. I thought it went well until I saved it an previewed it. Even though it looked okay in the editor, it was really blurred, too lacking in detail to use. I had to redo it three times to strike a balance between magnification and blur. It would be nice to be able to increase the resolution if necessary?

Thanks!

[tin2tin]

First, when you change any aspects of a slide and the show recompiles your slide gets moved out of the window so you have to go looking for it (annoying).

Use the button with the big red cross and the position of the image will be reset.

Second, I was doing a zoom and pan animation of a picture of a photo-memorial to a dear friend of my wife's. I thought it went well until I saved it an previewed it. Even though it looked okay in the editor, it was really blurred, too lacking in detail to use. I had to redo it three times to strike a balance between magnification and blur. It would be nice to be able to increase the resolution if necessary?

Is this when previewing/exporting the entire slideshow or just previewing from the animation window?

I downscaled the image a bit before animating it because using a 8 mb image for animation will take ages/a lot of RAM to render.

[Laysan_A]

Hi - Well, there seems to be a loss of quality from the animation window to the rendered preview (double-click on the slide). Maybe I'm just plain wrong - I know the preview window is smaller, so a low quality image seems to have better resolution - it just seemed that what came out fairly clear in the animation window became much more blurry than size alone would account for when it was rendered (double-clicked).

I just rechecked the original of the slide I was mainly concerned about and it is actually acceptable. Whether the rendered animation is of lower quality than the other slides is perhaps of less importance than whether or not one could choose to import any given slide at a higher resolution than 72dpi. It would have been nice to be able to really zoom in...

By the way, my wife just showed her slideshow to a friend of hers and her friend was really impressed. Even though she did a lot of complaining to me about the various bugs, I think she's pretty pleased.

Thanks!

[tin2tin]

I don't think I'll change the quality of zooms because it will become extreamly slow. However you can allways export as .avs and tinker with the code to get a higher quality and then render with HCenc GUI.