Sequential Images on Media Layer Causing ProPresenter To Freeze/Hang

[matthewbeamish]

I originally submitted this technical issue bug to Renewed Vision support, but after working with them to narrow down the root cause, it seems that the BitFocus ProPresenter module is likely at fault.

This was my submission to Renewed Vision support:

I am having an issue where the ProPresenter 7 application on Windows 10 eventually freezes/hangs up when attempting to display multiple images (ie. JPGs) in a row in a presentation.

I was initially on version 7.8 & 7.8.1 when I became aware of this issue, but even after rolling back to 7.7.1, this issue still occurs.

I have uploaded to my Google Drive (see link below) a video documenting this issue, but will include it as well in writing below:

1) I have reset ProPresenter to “factory defaults” by removing the “ProPresenter” folder from the “Documents” folder on my computer – this ensures that there aren’t any customizations to settings, screens, looks, etc. that might be factoring into this issue. 2) Create a new presentation in the default library. 3) Drag multiple image files (ie. JPGs) from a Windows Explorer window into the new presentation. 4) Beginning sequentially clicking through the images – after roughly 8-10 images, there will begin to be a noticeable delay after clicking on an image/slide and when it appears in the preview window or on the screen. This delay increases on each image/slide afterwards until ProPresenter 7 starts to freeze/hang up/not respond, as can be seen in my video (when the title bar of the application changes to white).

After further testing, this appears to only be an issue when the images are on the media layer (either foreground or background). If you convert all the media elements to slide elements using the tool within the context (right-click) menu, this issue doesn’t occur when the images are on the slide layer.

Initially, these images were exported from PowerPoint at a smaller resolution (960x540) than our screen resolution (1280x720), so I did test by exporting the images at our screen resolution to see if it was an issue with ProPresenter scaling the image up to match the screen resolution, but that does not appear to be the case.

I also tried exporting the images from PowerPoint in a different format (ie. PNG) than the JPG that I was initially using and that didn’t appear to affect or resolve this issue either.

Also, the images aren’t large (either resolution or by file size – under 200Kb), so our computer should be more than able to handle them.

I don’t believe the issue is being caused by the specific images we are using, but rather some type of bug within ProPresenter. Nevertheless, I have uploaded to my Google Drive (see link below) in a Zip file the images we are using for your reference just in case.

Documentation Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T05xV1UQiwx0_292HD_2CBZYr__xfzfo/view?usp=sharing

Images Zip: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EgCA8tlfN9Z6Rsc_yJh9TyKXlhdbFrP4/view?usp=sharing

After doing some troubleshooting with Renewed Vision support, one of the steps they asked me to do was to create a new user account on my computer and see if the issue occurred within the new user account and surprisingly the issue did NOT occur. That then got me trying to figure out what was different between the two user accounts and I realized that BitFocus Companion was running in our regular user account but not in the new user account that I had just created.

To further test the theory that BitFocus Companion was the culprit, I fully closed Companion and opened ProPresenter and the issue did NOT occur. Once I re-opened Companion and tried to click through the image slides again in ProPresenter, the delay did start again and ProPresenter started to freeze/hang up.

As we only have two modules (ProPresenter and Planning Centre Online) setup within Companion, I tried disabling the ProPresenter module and the issue went away - there was NO delay when clicking through the image slides and ProPresenter never froze or hung up. Only once I re-enable the ProPresenter module, did the issue/delay come back.

As a result of all these tests, it appears that the issue/bug that I'm facing with a delay/freeze in ProPresenter when there are multiple sequential images on the media layer is due to an issue within the ProPresenter Companion module and not within ProPresenter application itself as far as I'm aware. As I know the ProPresenter companion module doesn't have anything to do with the generation/display of the graphics within the application, I suspect the issue/bug has something to do with the variables that are set within the Companion module each time a slide is clicked and some type of overflow/timeout occurring, etc.

Can you please look into this and let me know what you find? I'm more then happy to further test and help in anyway that I can.

[greyshirtguy]

First of all... "Wow - what wonderful detail you have included" If only all issues came with such detailed info!

Have you seen this info in the Configuration section of the ProPresenter Module Help:

I'm guessing you have that option still enabled and if you turn it off (set it to "No"), it will solve (well, workaround) the performance issue. Can you please check and let me know?

I am in discussions with the product owner and devs about this hoping to find a solution.

[matthewbeamish]

I usually find that the more details provided in a situation like this, usually the quicker a solution is to come about!

It looks like I actually missed/overlooked that note in the configuration section of the Help. I had previously been using the ProPresenter Companion module with ProPresenter 6 and hadn't upgraded Companion or the modules in quite awhile. I upgraded everything when I upgraded to ProPresenter 7 about 2 weeks ago, but I guess I didn't take a fresh look at the Help documentation at that time, as I likely thought I already knew everything and had it all figured out. So thanks for pointing me in the right direction and glad that the devs are at least already aware of the issue.

As I already mentioned, at least from my testing, it looks like this impact in performance is only apparent with any slides that don't have any content/elements in the slide layer. I can click through multiple slides for songs (ie. lyrics) without running into this issue, but as soon as I start clicking through slides that only have content on the media layer, this issue/delay begins to become apparent. If I convert the media actions on all the slides to slide elements, then the issue goes away as well. Hopefully that gives the devs some further information if they weren't already aware of that symptom.

If I can be of any further help, please let me know!

Thanks, Matt