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Full view of images pixelated

Frez
I currently use Expression Media 2 and am trying out Media Pro before I buy.

Every time I try to view an image (CRWs, CR2s and even JPGs) at full screen (double clicking on it in the list or thumbnail view) it shows the image pixelated and takes a few seconds before it shows it correctly at full quality.

This never happens in EM2 - the image shows up instantly at full res - is there a setting I need to adjust?

I'm on Snow Lepoard 10.6.8.
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Comments

16 comments

Date Votes
  • Frez
    Hmmm ... everytime I double click an image, I see a process called "Media Pro Image Renderer" appear in my Activity Monitor and then disappear once the image is shown a full quality.

    How do I turn off this rendering?
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  • Wolfgang Plattner
    Hi,
    this is one of the problematic things in MediaPro, they are obviously not able to fix it.
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  • Drew Altdo
    You can turn on the Media Preview (in the Thumbnail and Preview option), Choose your Resolution and Quality and then choose "Display Previews at all times". Once the images are rebuilt they will preview instantly.
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  • rawshooter
    [quote="Drew" wrote:
    Once the images are rebuilt they will preview instantly.


    Yes thats right, but then the previews will also be stored in the database.
    I have almost 50.000 Images (Raw & JPG), if I let MP render previews for all of them, the size of the database will raise up to several GB. - This can´t be the final solution for the "blurry" problem.

    One of the main advantages of Expression Media was to have a lean database and really quick access to the original images.
    For Raws it took the preview files and jpegs where shown on the fly without any delay. Which is, in fact, not a big deal for an average PC. The "blurry" thing was initially introduced by one of the "updates" from MS. (Service pack 2 I believe).

    As long as this annoying behavior didn´t resolve, I will stick with LR. (Even though I know that LR does create previews too, but at least it stores them in a separate folder and don´t pump up the main database with them.
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  • luckyluke11
    I noticed the Preview rendering problem the first time I used Media Pro when it first came out. I was sooo looking forward to MediaPro after PhaseOne announced their takeover from Microsoft (who failed to deliver improvements on the software, which worked beautifully as iView, but needed to be able to handle larger amounts of photographs).

    I was and still am soo disappointed with MediaPro's very slow rendering of Preview images. Expression Media can render large previews on my 2560x1600 display instantly, whereas MediaPro takes two to three seconds per image. That's an unacceptable delay when it comes to viewing several hundreds of images for editing.

    I did a test where I started a new catalog with MediaPro with 31 Images and the same with Expression Media. In order to have the media rendered for 1280 pixel previews, I checked the Full Screen Previews at Large and High Quality. This yielded a 16.2 Mb Catalog, and the images still previewed pixellated for two to three seconds before going to a full quality preview. With Expression Media, the same catalog came up to 425.8 Kb and previewed the images INSTANTLY.

    Why remove a feature that was working so well with something that does not is beyond me. We are not all users of High End cameras like the Phase One where it's the norm to wait for Huge Files to open. I have over 900,000 photographs to catalog, and until now Media Pro is not working for me. Unfortunately I have to maintain several smaller Expression Media Catalogs in order to work more efficiently.

    I hope the engineers are reading this... Thank you.
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  • Wolfgang Plattner
    Hi Drew,

    there is still a lag for about 2-3 seconds, that's no solution.
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  • Frez
    [quote="Drew" wrote:
    You can turn on the Media Preview (in the Thumbnail and Preview option), Choose your Resolution and Quality and then choose "Display Previews at all times". Once the images are rebuilt they will preview instantly.


    Hi Drew,

    Thanks for the quick response. I have a couple of quick questions:

    - Could you describe the difference between EM and MP and how they display RAW images?
    - Is there a way to have JPGs, for example, display instantly without having to generate a preview?
    - If generating a preview is the only method, then can I do this in a batch mode, instead of having it generate when I attempt to view? This will help speed up interactivity and workflow.

    Thanks
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  • Drew Altdo
    [quote="Wolfgang821" wrote:
    Hi Drew,

    there is still a lag for about 2-3 seconds, that's no solution.

    Wolfgang,
    Perhaps there is some confusion in settings as the suggestion I made does result in instant image preview. If you create a support case we can have a closer look at your system.
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  • Drew Altdo
    [quote="Frez" wrote:
    ... I have a couple of quick questions:

    - Could you describe the difference between EM and MP and how they display RAW images?

    In what way? The main difference is that MP replaced the "Manufacture" Render engine with the "Phase One" Render Engine so that the images use the same profiles in MP as they do in Capture One, thus looking identical and integrating the softwares

    [quote="Frez" wrote:
    - Is there a way to have JPGs, for example, display instantly without having to generate a preview?

    If you want to see the full resolution image, then no. The Full Resolution image is the Preview by default and the software is designed to accurately render the image each time the full resolution preview is called upon. Unless you deliberately tell the software to create smaller Media Preview, and save that in your catalog, the rerender operation will occur.

    [quote="Frez" wrote:
    - If generating a preview is the only method, then can I do this in a batch mode, instead of having it generate when I attempt to view? This will help speed up interactivity and workflow.

    Creating a Media Preview and choosing to "Display at all times" keeps the software from rerendering the image as it has a smaller media preview file on hand and displays it instantly.
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  • NN267892UL
    Drew,

    I did exactly as you said but nevertheless I am not able to obtain a preview of a Raw File (ORF and NEF tested) bigger than 800px (1280px+high quality was set in the thumbnail+media view menu). Even worse are jpgs: It works for out of camera jpgs as well as jpgs generated by Capture One. Other jpgs, for example exported by Aftershot Pro, only get an 640px preview. The files are ok, I tested them with other programs.

    What am I doing wrong?

    Michael
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  • Drew Altdo
    Michael,
    Please create a support case and lets have a look.
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  • Wolfgang Plattner
    Hi Drew,

    Within the restricted dimensions of the maximum of 1280px (that is about 30% of the images dimensions) the images are shown immediately, but as I remember it from iViewMedia and as I'm used from other programs like Photomechanics, I want to have this effect at the maximum of the showable dimensions (e.g. PM handles more than 43% without any problems), too.
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  • Drew Altdo
    [quote="Wolfgang821" wrote:
    Within the restricted dimensions of the maximum of 1280px (that is about 30% of the images dimensions) the images are shown immediately... I want to have this effect at the maximum of the showable dimensions... too.


    Wolfgang,
    This is understood but as outlined previously, this is not possible and the explained workaround is the only way to get the images to display instantly. I apologize if this does not fit your workflow.
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  • Wolfgang Plattner
    Hi Drew
    no need to apologize, I'm able to live with that ... 😄
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  • Oriol2
    For me it's impossible to work that way. If I want to compare several images of a shot, I cannot do that when I have to wait some seconds to see every image.

    I have around 102.000 images in my catalog with around 1,5GB size. If I make all the full size previews, as recommended by PhaseOne now, it will be dozens of GB big, and cost a lot of time every time I import new work.

    In iView and in EM2 it's absolutely no delay when fast switching images! What is the problem now who makes it impossible to solve? Twovery old softwares can do that and the most modern one no?

    When MediaPro solves this big issue I will buy it inmediately. For now I will continue to work with EM ☹️
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  • rmoorlag
    Why bother? You can keep working with EM as long as you like.
    MP does not add anything above EM2 right now so i wait untill it does.
    Roelof
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