Screen Saver - Refreshing the list?

Post your questions, bug reports and feature requests here
Post Reply
kshea663
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2017 7:25 am

Screen Saver - Refreshing the list?

Post by kshea663 »

I tried to search the form for problems similar to mine, but was unsuccessful. I am using a TV on the wall of my home as a photo viewer and there is a Windows 10 Home computer connected to it. The computer has gPhotoShow Pro as the screen saver. There is only one folder of photos, with 6,000 photos in it. The photos are set to display randomly and change every 30 seconds. The TV is set to turn itself on at 7:00am every morning and turn itself off at 11:00pm. The computer is set to 'sleep' at 10:58pm every night and to 'wake' at 6:58am every morning. The computer sits idle for 1-minute every morning before the screen saver kicks in. The computer and TV are showing photos every 30 seconds all day (16 hours, or 960 minutes, or 1920 photos). This all works very well! I should be getting a little over 3 days of unique photos (6,000 photos) before any repeats. However, this does not appear to be the case and photos are repeating on a daily basis. Is this because the renewing of the screensaver every morning resets the image list? How can I verify that photos are, or are not, repeating (as the file list seems to get overwritten every time the screensaver starts again)? If I just have the TV turn off/on at the preset times and let the computer run all night, then I would miss about 8 hours of photos before the TV turns on the next morning. I imagine others are doing something similar with their photo-displays so I am hoping someone has a workable solution. Thanks in advance for any help!
User avatar
gpb
Site Admin
Posts: 761
Joined: Mon Dec 19, 2011 1:23 am

Re: Screen Saver - Refreshing the list?

Post by gpb »

Hello,
by default gPhotoShow displays all photos it founds in the configured folder without repeating them. Make sure the option "Save file list between sessions" is ticked, you can find this option in the "File Options" page of gPhotoShow Pro configuration window.
Is this because the renewing of the screensaver every morning resets the image list?
What do you mean with "renewing", if you change the folder every day gPhotoShow resets its files list, if you change only the content (ie. add/remove files) gPhotoShow will add new file and remove missing ones.
Gianpaolo Bottin
gPhotoShow.com
kshea663
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2017 7:25 am

Re: Screen Saver - Refreshing the list?

Post by kshea663 »

My situation is very basic. I only have one folder with 6000 photos (all .jpg) and no sub-folders. No video folders or any other types of images to be displayed (i.e no panoramic, no animations, no web, etc). I don't have any exclusions or filters or any other limitations to omit any photos. The one folder has the same 'weight' (of 1). Only one transition (dissolve) is being used. I only have the one monitor (TV mounted on the wall). I don't use PhotoWall or Scrapbook. No sound is being used and no file information is being displayed. I don't change the folder containing the 6000 photos or add any photos to it. The one folder simply has 6000 family photos all of which are already cleaned-up, rotated, and sized (1920x1080) and just need to be displayed on the TV monitor.

However, it doesn't appear that each photo is being displayed before some photos are repeating. With 6000 photos, I should not see any repeats on any given day, or even in less than 3 days (as the computer is awake and running GPS Pro for 16 hours, or 960 minutes, and showing a photo every 30 seconds resulting in about 1920 photos each 16-hour period).

The photos are to be displayed randomly (by checking, 'Show files in random order' on the 'File Options' page). On the 'File Options' page, I do have the 'Save files list between sessions' checked. But I cannot seem to see this file list. Can you tell me where to look for it? On the 'File Options' page, I have recently checked the 'Create displayed image list' and, after the screensaver shows multiple photos (at least 100), I move the mouse to go back into GPS Pro and click on 'Open' to see this list --- but it only displays one photo at the top of file that opens in Notepad, which I believe is the last photo shown before I moved the mouse. The file does not list the 100+ photos that were just displayed. So, I cannot check to see if there are any repeated photos (file names) in the list.

I read somewhere that the refreshing of the screen saver (as happens every morning when my computer 'wakes up') refreshes the file list. But the check mark on the 'Save files list between sessions' should be preventing this, right? What I mean by 'renewing' is that every night at 11:00pm, the computer goes into 'sleep' mode, which I presume stops the screensaver. At 7:00am every morning, the computer 'wakes up' (and likely displays the desktop icons). After 1 minute of inactivity, the screensaver starts up again and GPS Pro starts displaying photos again for the day. The problem is that is appears photos are repeating before all photos in the folder have been displayed. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance for your help!
kshea663
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2017 7:25 am

Re: Screen Saver - Refreshing the list?

Post by kshea663 »

Tonight I was able to find the GPS Pro hidden folder/files on my Windows 10 Home computer being used for GPS Pro. The files were in a User/App Data/Roaming folder. There were three files in there GPS Pro sub-folder. I deleted all three files and started a test in which I had the screensaver display 150 photos before I moved the mouse. When I went back into the hidden GPS Pro folder, the three files were back. One appears to be a list of all the files (photos) I have in my chosen folder to be displayed. This file has the number (6000, which matches the # of photos I am displaying) near the top of the file. Another file shows that same '6000' number near the top and right under it showed a number of '5850', which would be the number of photos still left to display (6000 - 150 photos displayed during the test = 5850). Following these numbers is just a list of numerical numbers in order, starting at 0. The 3rd file seems to be the displayed photos list and it had 150 photo file names in it, which I presume are the 150 files that were displayed during the test.

I will now monitor these lists on a daily basis to see if the number of photos being displayed is about the 1920 each day as expected and that the file names (photos) are unique (i.e. no duplicates) until all 6000 photos have been displayed.

To do the test I had to start/stop the screensaver manually (using the mouse). I have not reset the TV monitor to turn on at a scheduled time in the morning and off at a scheduled time at night. I have done the same for the computer. With everything back to being automated, I will still be able to monitor the three log files and see what is going on. I will let you know if I run into any problems.
User avatar
gpb
Site Admin
Posts: 761
Joined: Mon Dec 19, 2011 1:23 am

Re: Screen Saver - Refreshing the list?

Post by gpb »

Hello,
gPhotoShow keeps the list of files in the folder you found inside user profile. FilesSS-F.lst contains full file list for the screen saver, FilesSS-M0.lst is the list of files not displayed yet for monitor #1, this file contains the number of files and a list of indexes in the full list.
Every time gPhotoShow starts loads both lists and when a file is displayed it is removed from the second one. When gPhotoShow exits both lists are saved. gPhotoShow should never display the same file twice before the list is finished provided each folder is listed exactly once in the folders list, if there are duplicated folders images will be duplicated and you will see them twice inside the file FilesSS-M0.lst
Anyway consider that many users had the impression of seeing the same image more than once only because they have similar images and looking at them in different moments think they are the same image. You can also configure gPhotoShow to display file name over images.

Are using gPhotoShow as logon screen saver ? I mean a screen saver that starts when no user is logged in ? This is a very particular conditions, windows enforces several limitations and it is possible in such conditions gPhotoShow is not able to create its files lists.
On the 'File Options' page, I have recently checked the 'Create displayed image list' and, after the screensaver shows multiple photos (at least 100), I move the mouse to go back into GPS Pro and click on 'Open' to see this list --- but it only displays one photo at the top of file that opens in Notepad, which I believe is the last photo shown before I moved the mouse. The file does not list the 100+ photos that were just displayed. So, I cannot check to see if there are any repeated photos (file names) in the list.
DisplayStats.log contains files displayed during the last run, if you stop the screen saver and open the list it should contain all files displayed until that moment, provided the screen saver was running on the same user account.
Gianpaolo Bottin
gPhotoShow.com
Post Reply