Photobooth issues w/PS Remote

[photo_E]

I'm having some problems with the photobooth in PS Remote, and can't find any similar issues on the website - wondering if anyone has suggestions to fix this (I have an event next weekend, and need to get my booth running!).

1. Countdown is jumbled: Before the photos take, it counts down from 5. My problem is that when the '4' comes up, the '5' dosen't dissapear - the new # simply appears on top of the old one. So, by the time '1' comes around, you have no idea the photo is going to take, because the countdown is just a jumbled mess.

2. 'Look at the Camera' timing off: The screen telling people to look at the camera only appears *after* the picture is taken, not before. This makes it very useless + annoying, and when combined with my above issue, leads to lots of photos of people looking away from the camera. Can I change the timing on this so it shows before the photo is taken?

3. Font / Colour changes have no effect: If I try to change the font away from the default bright green in the photobooth properites part of the menu, it has no effect at all.

If anyone has any ideas, I look forward to hearing back from you. I'd love to get this fixed!

For the record, I'm running the trial version of PS Remote, with the latest updates, on a MacBook Pro. I have Win XP installed through Boot Camp, and haven't had any problems with my other programs. I'm shooting on a Power Shot G2.

I also have some customization questions, but I'll hold off on them until I get the software working, I guess!

[snapshot]

Wish I could help, but I can't say that I've ever encountered any of those issues.

On the countdown, did you change the default text ("taking picture 1 of 4 in 5 seconds"), or is it the default text that is messed up?

You may want to reinstall and see if that fixes some of your problems.

[Chris Breeze]

It sounds like there might be a problem with the graphics driver setup for XP under bootcamp on your MacBook Pro. If it isn't setup correctly you may find that graphics are too slow to keep up with the live viewfinder images and screen updates. I run XP Pro on a MacBook Pro using bootcamp and it runs fine and is indistinguishable from a native Windows PC running XP.
Also, the G2 is quite old now and only supports USB 1.1 which means it will be much slower to download images than the latest USB 2.0 PowerShot cameras.

[photo_E]

Thanks for your replies.

Turns out that 1 problem was easily fixed, another wasn't actually a problem at all, and the last one I can live with:

I was using a second display to run the photobooth software, and when I switched the displays to run in 'mirrored' mode, the jumbled countdown text fixed itself (don't ask me why).

My problem with the text was just confusion - I hadn't changed the background images, and of course the green text is on the backgrounds, so when I put new images in, those should dissapear.

Finally, the 'look at the camera' screen still appears after the photo is taken. This is too bad, but I think I've discovered a creative workaround (I'll let you know if it works)... I'm going to lay my monitor flat inside the photo booth, with a two-way spy mirror at a 45 degree angle above it. People won't be looking at the monitor to read text, but at the mirror instead. The camera will be behind the mirror, so you won't have to look away when the picture takes - the picture will be taken through the mirror/screen instead! Any thoughts on whether this will work? I'm ordering the mirror today...

Thanks again for your help.

[jay1]

Hi Chris
Im having the same problrms with the countdown - I have a G7 (2.1 usb speed) prints before the last countdown is done
were do i change the graphic drivers??

[Chris Breeze]

You can usually download the latest drivers for graphics cards from the manufacturer's website.

[jay1]

Chris
Im not a computer guy-is there anyway to change the settings on the graphic card ? If so I have no clue -

[jay1]

Chris -Is this the computer setup you use?
XP Pro on a MacBook Pro using bootcamp-
I've had it with windows- Is there a older mac I can pickup to just run the photobooth program?

[nhanandmel]

Jay1-

If the problem you are experiencing is the jumbled countdown screen, I found out that it may have to do something with your screen resolution. PSremote has a folder with a few different countdown screens in it, and they have different resolutions ie 1280x1024 and such. Try to see if you can match your resolution to the background that you are using. Once I did that it fixed my problem.

Nhan

[jay1]

I using the same resolutions-doesn't fix it for me!

[greggie1]

I'm having similar problems.

1. The live viewfinder isn't appearing at all anymore in fullscreen photo booth mode. I had it working at one point, but now it's just gone. I've messed with the settings a lot, but still nothing. It just displays the last image taken.

2. When I use fullscreen photo booth mode, I get the same problem that the previous posters had with numbers just stacking on top of each other. This also worked at first, but it seems to have deteriorated somehow.

3. When the countdown starts, a black box (with the stacked countdown text inside of it) overlays the saved image and looks really messed up.

Essentially, PS Remote is unusable for me right now as fullscreen photo booth software. (I have the full version.) I need to get this fully working very soon.

I'm running XP on a Mac Mini.

Any help?

[Chris Breeze]

Please check the photobooth settings. If you're having problems it's best to only change one thing at a time and check the results before moving on to the next setting.

Live view:

Does it work if you select Camera->Live viewfinder? If it doesn't work try rebooting the PC to see if that makes a difference. If it still doesn't work the camera may be faulty.
Is live viewfinder enabled in the photbooth settings dialog
Check the height set to something sensible e.g. more than 100 pixels but less than the height of the screen.
Check the offset from the top of the screen. Try setting it to 0 so that live view is at the top of the screen.


Screens presented to user:

Is the setting for the folder containing the images set to the right folder?
Does the folder contain an image for each shot e.g. if there are 5 shots in the sequence you need 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg, 4.jpg, 5.jpg
Are the images the right size? They need to be at least the same size as the screen


If all else fails please try setting the values back to the ones shown in the help file.

[greggie1]

I tried those steps exactly as you described, and the problem has not gone away. I also experimented with screen resolutions (as suggested in this thread), uninstalled and reinstalled the software, and still nothing. Keep in mind that it was working at first and then suddenly stopped. I didn't change any hardware or software.

Still having the jumbled up countdown problem and the missing fullscreen live view problem. And yes, the live viewfinder does work just fine when I activate it from the menu (not in fullscreen mode).

Are there any other possibilities?

I have a gig in 6 days, so this is not good. Please, if you can offer any more technical support, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Chris Breeze]

If it worked before and there's nothing wrong with the camera then it's got to be a problem with the screen resolution and/or photobooth settings used.
I can take a look at your settings and photobooth images to try to work out what's wrong, but I would have to charge for my time to do this. Please contact me directly at [email protected] for more info.

[snapshot]

It's terrible that you are having these problems. Luckily, the photo booth mode has worked fine for me.

If you posted some screen shots of your photobooth images folder, and the photobooth setting screen, I will take a look at it and see if I can see any problems.