Export to PM SlideShow

[David Roth]

I am having a problem in viewing the slides in the exported package. The titles display, the thumbnails can be viewed, but the images themselves do not show. I've updated my video driver and recreated the package, but the photos still do not display. Does anyone have a suggestion?

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

Hi David,

This sounds like a frustrating problem.    Hopefully we can get you some help.   Please read this post, and answer as many questions as you can.

http://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=4688.0

-Mick

[David Roth]

Here is the environment:
Windows 7 Premium Home Edition 64 bit. Service pack 1.
PM 4.6.9 (Also, 5.0, but that computer is not available to me right now, so I don't have the release number)
Browser: Chrome Version 36.0.1985.143 m
Adobe Flashplayer 14

Problem: Created a PM Slide Show with export command, but nothing displays; no titles, no image, no thumbnails. If an mp3 file was added it does start to play.

Export options selected:
PM SlideShow
Open in Browser
Image Title: {caption}
Plays automatically
Show Captions
Use Full Screen HTML
Show Thumbnail Title

Finally isolated the problem to two images in the slide deck. When they were removed, the export worked correctly. When either or both were included with any images that previously worked, the entire export would not work (black screen in browser). Both are attached.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[David Roth]

Here is an updated status with a work-around I found. I performed a "Save As" and a "Save A Copy" in Picasa 3 without performing any edits. The copied images in both cases worked correctly in the PM Export. A Windows copy did not correct the problem in the new image. Picasa is obviously doing something to the image even though it was not edited. The work-around is simple to execute now that I know what causes it. However, it would be nice to know what makes these two JPEGs different that the exported images cause problems in the player. I can see from examining the player files PM export creates that they have been manipulated because the image and file sizes are different.

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

For right now, we don't have an explanation for it, but we will continue to investigate.

-Mick

[David Roth]

Mick,

Any further updates on this? It was easy to spot the problem before (It was more or less serendipity.) Now I have over 300 images and have not been able to isolate the offending image.

[Hayo Baan]

Hi David,

Interesting. Your problem made me curious so I downloaded your two images and tried the exporter myself. While the images showed-up in the thumbnail strip, the rest of the screen remained blank!
I tried the same with some other images and there also a completely blank main image…

I then looked at the generated code that determines what images should be shown (perhaps it was simply a wrong path or something), but that all looked good. I then started to play with some of the other parameters and I have found the issue!

In the exporter you can specify the "Fade Time", by default that is 0. And as it turns out, that is the value that results in a blank screen. All other values seem to work though! So there probably is the cause for your problem too!

Cheers,
Hayo

@Mick I guess the exporter code just needs to check for a zero value and refuse to work if that's the case.

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

@Mick I guess the exporter code just needs to check for a zero value and refuse to work if that's the case.

That would make sense I think.  Or at least some sort of heads-up.

[David Roth]

Thanks Hayo!

That appears to have been the resolution. I've had to reconstruct my system over the past few days, so I am now working with a fresh install of Photo Mechanic. I noted that the default value for the fade is 3 and I left it that way. All the images appeared. I reset the fade to zero (which is probably what I did before since I did not desire a fade) and the re-exported slides did not display. Thanks for taking the time to research this. I am not sure that I ever would have thought to change that value.

Dave Roth