Rendering for Impromptu Slideshow

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GerryLR

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I'm having trouble using the "impromptu" slideshow feature in LR2.1 (invoked on my PC by Enter+Control, from any module). By "impromptu" I was hoping to see a brief slideshow at any moment by slide selection and a simple keyboard click. When doing this my slideshow seems to start and end at random places. I believe this has somthing to do with allowing enought time for 1:1 rendering to take place.

The slides for my slideshow are generally from a Folder (not a Collection). Are these rendered in the background before selection, or do I need to do somthing to render them when selected? Probably better to move these to a Collection first --but that's another step I was hoping to avoid.

Any advice?
 
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Welcome to Lightroom Forums!

It may be that previews have not been rendered. In Grid, select the photos you want in your slideshow, and "Render Standard Previews" from the Library/Previews menu.

In order for this to be sufficient, your standard preview size needs to be at least as wide as your monitor (or more specifically, the width of the slides as presented in the slideshow). The preview size is set in the File Handling tab of Catalog Settings.
 
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Thanks Mark,
My File Handling selections seem to be fine, and all of my selected images seem to be rendered.

When I hit CTRL+ENT from the Library module results are unpredictable - sometimes fewer than selected images play; sometimes more than selected images play.

When I copy selected previews from a Folder to a Quick Collection things are somewhat better (although the opening title slide does not appear when I select a back-end subset of the Collection).

There are either some subtle bugs here, or a usage issue I do not understand.
 
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Hi Gerry, welcome to the forum!

I'd go with previews too - slideshows stopping in weird places are usually down to it trying to render (or re-render) previews. Do give the select all > render previews a go.

Does the slideshow module work ok? For example, is it just the impromptu slideshow that's having a problem, or all slideshows?
 
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Thanks Victoria.
I've had some problems with the SS module as well - but not as often. My goal was show a quick full-screen comparison of edits directly from Library or Develop modules, without a lot of extra keystrokes. My source slides are fully 1:1 rendered in Folders - not Collections. Could that be part of the problem? (Kelby says "use Collections as source for slideshows", but doesn't say why).

Perhaps I need a bit more trial and error.
 
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No, no difference in rendering between folders and collections. The preview is tied to the image itself, not to the folder or collection, so that's not it.

But the behavior you describe is really very similar to the behavior while previews are not rendered, or are in the process of being rendered. I've never seen anything like this caused by anything else.

Have you confirmed at "Random Order" isn't checked in the Slideshow module? It's near the bottom of the right panel.

The first image for Impromptu Slideshow should be the "most selected" image, or at least it is for me. It doesn't start at the beginning every time. Might that be what you're seeing?
 
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This is my first post, so hello to you all.

I am having exactly the same problem. I am using Lightroom 2.2 on a MacBook running OS X 1'.5.6, however the problem predates these system details – Impromptu slideshows (and even those from the Slideshow Module) have been erratic for me since starting with Lightroom 1.

It is difficult to pin down exactly what is going wrong, as it is not always the same error. It is simply that the impromptu slideshow regularly doesn't behave as expected. When I say regularly I mean 'more often than not'.

I would expect that, when invoked, the impromptu slideshow should begin from the 'most selected' image. If that is the only image selected at all, I would expect it to then play through the rest of the images (in the collection or folder) until it gets back to the original image, at which point I would expect it to either stop, or display 'repeat' (and then do so) if that was selected in the preferences. In situations when there were several images selected from a collection or a folder, I would expect that it would begin with the 'most selected' image and then play through all the other selected images in order (missing out any that are not selected) before stopping / repeating when it reaches the original 'most selected' image.

Do my expectations – as outlined above – coincide with the way Lightroom is supposed to behave / behaves for you?

In my experience Lightroom very occasionally behave like that, usually one or more of the following happen:

– The impromptu slideshow begins on an image other than the 'most selected' or only selected image. This is particularly common when the selected image is the first in a folder or collection – in which case the slideshow often begins with the second image instead

– The slideshow doesn't play all the way through – or gives the repeat notification part way though, sometimes repeating, sometimes carrying on.

– Sometimes it even begins with the 'repeat' notification or a long blank slide.

With these bugs the impromptu slideshow feature is more or less useless to me. I haven't made much use of it in the past, but would like to resolve these issues so I can begin to do so.

I can confirm that the problem does not have anything to do with Lightroom not having rendered previews, as it occurs even when I know with certainty that they have been rendered.

I hope someone can help me. Best wishes, Jonathan
 
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Welcome to Lightroom Forums, Jonathan!

Starting at the wrong image and starting with a long black slide are known bugs from earlier revisions that were supposed to have been fixed. Are you still seeing those two?

The problem of looping back early is a known effect of not having previews fully rendered, or trying to render them while the slideshow is running. Rendering previews (preferably 1:1 previews) before starting the slideshow usually makes that one go away.
 
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Sorry to say that I've had exactly the problems described by Jonathan -- even when I've taken special care to render slides 1:1 before the slideshow begins.

As previously mentioned, impromptu slideshow is initiated in the Library module with my slides in Folders rather than Collections. Shouldn't matter, but perhaps there is a subtle bug here.
 
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Mark Sirota said:
Starting at the wrong image and starting with a long black slide are known bugs from earlier revisions that were supposed to have been fixed. Are you still seeing those two?
Click to expand...

Yes, this is definitely the problem I am having. If it is supposed to be fixed then it is very confusing as to why I am still suffering from it. Is is possible that I have a corrupt preference file of some kind, which is allowing bugs from earlier versions to still cause these problems?

Mark Sirota said:
The problem of looping back early is a known effect of not having previews fully rendered, or trying to render them while the slideshow is running. Rendering previews (preferably 1:1 previews) before starting the slideshow usually makes that one go away.
Click to expand...

I have been rendering 1:1 previews (and waiting for this process to finish) before starting the slideshow. This does not seem to make any difference either way.

Jonathan
 
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Possible, shift or rename your prefs and see what happens, you can always put them back if there's no change!!
 
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[systemdrive]/Users/[your username]/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.Lightroom2.plist is the one you want.
 
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Removing the preference file does seems to make slideshows more reliable. However, they still seem to be throwing up anomalies. Occasionally the slideshow still starts on the wrong slide or finishes early (again 1:1 preview have been rendered).

GerryLR – does resetting your preferences have any effect on the problems you are having?

Unfortunately, as draging out the preference file generates a new one, it means you loose all your colour labels and ratings etc. I have made extensive use of these and I cannot afford to loose them for the sake of slightly more reliable slideshow performance. I will be putting the preference file back again now...

Do Adobe provide any way – or does anyone else know – how to repair a corrupt preference file without loosing the preferences?
 
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No, colour labels and ratings are all stored in the catalog. The only things you lose whn you delete the prefs file are things set in the Preferences dialog, and View options, things like that. Anything image specific is in the catalog.
 
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Yes, you are right about this, thank you. I've tried it again and discovered that in needed to switch the 'colour label set' to find my colour labels again. Star ratings are even easier to make visible again...

However, this has now given me more time to play around with slideshows when the preferences have been reset. The slideshow issues I have mentioned earlier are definitely still present, so clearly corrupt preferences were not the cause...

Where to now...?
 
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Yep, have a look under View > View Options and you'll probably find they're hidden, as those settings are in the preferences file. If you need to double check the data is still in the catalog, just look in the Metadata panel on the right, which should show them regardless of your view settings.
 
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Jonathan, can you come up with a recipe to recreate one or more of these problems? If others can reproduce it, then the bug should be submitted to Adobe. If not, we keep looking for something with your setup or workflow.
 
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Hi Mark

Difficult for me to come up with a recipe. Unfortunately the problems with slideshows are 'just there' with my install of Lightroom – and have been there since v1 – sometimes the slideshow will work okay, and I think the problem has gone away, and then it just isn't working again.

I've just loaded up Lightroom now and I will describe what happened when I launched an impromptu slideshow from within the Library module. This slideshow is using a collection of 12 images as its source.

In the Library module I first selected 'render 1:1 previews' to ensure that these had been generated. I then went to the Slideshow module to check whether it would use all photos on the film strip or just the selected ones. The Slideshow module was set to 'use sellected'. I returned to the Library module, selected all the images in the collection, with the first image as the 'most sellected'. I then pressed play on the toolbar, activating an impromptu slideshow. The slideshow started correctly at the first images and play through all of the others, stopping at the end as it was not set to repeat.

So far so good.

I then deselected around 7 of the 12 images, but kept the 'most selected' image to be the first in the collection (image 1). Again I pressed play. This time the slideshow began with the last of the selection (image 12) – which was one of the images that were still selected, but it was not the 'most selected' – then moving on to the first, and then playing through every image until it reached the 11th image, at which point it stopped.

In this example Lightroom ignored the instruction to play on 'sellected images' and then ignored starting with the most selected image, instead choosing the last image to be show form the previous slideshow.

Is the above a decent example / receipe? I can continue to launch further slideshows and describe what happens if that is useful?
 
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Thanks for your interest.
Frankly, I've given up on LR Slideshow - impromptu or otherwise. No matter what remedy I've tried I've never been able to get SS to perform in a repeatable, predictable manner. Worst than this, using SS causes my PC to crash and re-boot! Sounds wierd, but this never happens using any other software (or the the non-SS features of LR) and has happened at least half-a dozen times when using SS. Another SS random non-repeatable event.

Just not worth the effort. I'll do my slideshows another way. Seems a shame since (non-SS) LR is such a great piece of software.
 
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Gerry, I don't use SS very much so I've just lurked here. It frequently arises that SS problems derive from the PC's video subsystem. I've rescanned the thread, and don't see the answers to these, but have you:

a) verified up to date video drivers ?
b) tried your catalog on a different/additional PC (if easily available) ?
 
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