Incredible Software!! - My Multi Screen Custom Frame Setup - Issues with Multi Screen + Landscape / Portrait Screens..

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stewface
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Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2015 10:40 pm

Incredible Software!! - My Multi Screen Custom Frame Setup - Issues with Multi Screen + Landscape / Portrait Screens..

Post by stewface »

So.. I just spent 45min writing a lengthy post about my setup.. and the problems I am having.. but seems this forum logged me out between writing it and hitting post.. so I am going to have to summarise.. :twisted:

AWESOME SOFTWARE.. :mrgreen: a huge step up from the raspberry pi + plain LCD screen+ wemo motion setup I had before..

I've build a custom setup using a Gigabyte mini pc - http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/pro ... id=5038#ov bought a bunch of IKEA RIBBA frames and done a custom frame installation with LCD screens.. uses multi display, and the screens are mounted portrait and landscape.

I will post more photos and give a better summary of the setup, and the low power options that I did (PC uses 6 watts, screen uses 10watts!)

Main reason I wanted this setup was the horizontal / vertical image filters.. (which are incredible!) along with the ability to show all images from a single folder across all screens, and the folder name + date (from metadata) display on screen.. (WOW!!) works so well with my existing folder structure and setup!

Although it seems though these two features (horizontal / vertical image filters + all images from one folder) don't work together, I have set it up correctly to do so.. (and its works when the screensaver gets started..) then maybe after 5-10min it gets confused (maybe because it runs out of portrait images to show) then just picks different folders for each screen.

I have had a think about a hack to fix it.. being that you 'reset' the screensaver after say X minutes, I think between 5-10 should do the trick where after that time it will reset and then start again from another folder.

The other issues I found with the software is that it seems to repeat images sometimes, (I have double checked and its setup correct to not do this) so I was wondering if there is anyway of seeing the image file log to confirm its getting added to each time, and the files that are listed in there.

The last issue is the monitor off and specific times plugin doesn't seem to work at all, it does work with the setting turn off in X minutes, but when I setup the time on / time off, it wont turn off - I have set the Allow Wake Timers up in the options but still stays on after the time set (I can't test if it will wake up as I cant get it it to turn off.. but as I hit the power button putting the computer to sleep I suspect it doesn't work)

Let me know what you think of the setup, and if you want more pictures and a guide on the construction let me know and I will get some more photos in the daylight! 8-)
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gpb
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Re: Incredible Software!! - My Multi Screen Custom Frame Setup - Issues with Multi Screen + Landscape / Portrait Screens

Post by gpb »

Hello,
thank you very much for you feedback and for sharing your setup, it's really a nice project !
I apologize for the time spent writing the first post, unfortunately all forum software have a much shorter timeout for the session.
About your questions:
1) I guess you are using the setting to always get images from the folder selected for primary monitor. Since you are using filters it is possible there are no images left that meet filter settings, in this case gPhotoShow gets images from another folder.
2) gPhotoShow should not repeat images but when using filters it may happen. For example if you have 1000 landscape images and 100 portrait images you will see portrait images to repeat more often than landscape ones. In the filters page there is a setting, "When one monitor finishes files list restart slideshow on all monitors" in the filters page, when this option is ticked files list is restarted on all monitors together, in the case of previous example if the list is restarted on all monitors every time it is possible that some landscape image are never displayed and other are displayed again, it the option is not ticked only portrait images are repeated. So it is a choice to have the landscape images or the portrait ones repeated. A displayed files list is easy to get, go to "Files Options" page and tick the option "Create displayed images list". In addition gPhotoShow keeps files list as simple text files in the folder: C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\gPhotoShow
file ending with -F is the full list (all files), files ending with -Mx (M0, M1) contains files to be displayed on monitor x, the lists are not filtered.
3) Monitor On/off plugin: I didn't understand how you configured it, to wake-up the system automatically you should configure the operation as "Standby" or "Hibernate". This plugin relies on the windows api so it works only if windows is configured correctly. BTW, you could use any other program to schedule standby/hibernation, gPhotoShow handles system notifications and restarts the slideshow when system is resumed.
Gianpaolo Bottin
gPhotoShow.com
stewface
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2015 10:40 pm

Re: Incredible Software!! - My Multi Screen Custom Frame Setup - Issues with Multi Screen + Landscape / Portrait Screens

Post by stewface »

I’ve really gotta stop working so much so I can spend some time on my hobbies projects!

I got a few minutes to tinker around with the setup again.. and got it wall mounted.

I have attached few photos to show the back of pictures and how I mounted the LCD screens.


1 - Yep, that looks like its the case, I wonder if there are any tricks you (or anyone else) would know that could restart the screensaver every 20min to get it back on track and pick a new folder? Would be good to mix up the folder selection too so it doesn’t get stuck going through one folder with thousands of images and jump to a new event.

2 - I found the file, Looking at it it seems to have listed every single photo in there now.. what happens in that instance that its already displayed all photos? Does it just then go at random (and potentially repeat some photos more frequently? - which is seems to do..?)

That would work best would be a up to date record of the last few weeks of photos to ensure some photos are not being preferenced more than others (or is that what it does?)

3 - Solved the monitor off problem at the OS level thanks to these articles:

http://www.howtogeek.com/119028/how-to- ... matically/
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows- ... ows-vista/


Keep up the great work with the software.. I can’t wait to see what is in store for future updates.

Cheers,

Stewart
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gpb
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Re: Incredible Software!! - My Multi Screen Custom Frame Setup - Issues with Multi Screen + Landscape / Portrait Screens

Post by gpb »

Nice project !
stewface wrote: 1 - Yep, that looks like its the case, I wonder if there are any tricks you (or anyone else) would know that could restart the screensaver every 20min to get it back on track and pick a new folder? Would be good to mix up the folder selection too so it doesn’t get stuck going through one folder with thousands of images and jump to a new event.
At the moment there is no way to make gPhotoShow to jump to another folder, the only could be to stop the screen saver and start it again. On one of the next updates I will add a maximum number of photos to display from a folder.
stewface wrote: 2 - I found the file, Looking at it it seems to have listed every single photo in there now.. what happens in that instance that its already displayed all photos? Does it just then go at random (and potentially repeat some photos more frequently? - which is seems to do..?)
In this case gPhotoShow restarts the slideshow for that monitor (ie. starts again with a full files list), of course in case there are few photos to display you will often see the same photos.
Gianpaolo Bottin
gPhotoShow.com
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