Black background issue

Post by **Richard Naninck** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 6:54 pm

More and more do I get blacked out backgrounds on panels that show dynamic images. It appears that the order in which images are displayed can make a difference. It happens on all PC's. All have different video cards.

Below two images. One is a blacked out image and the other is how it should be. It doesn't happen on panels without dynamic images. And I have panels with dynamic images that also always work fine.

This has been discussed before, but it is becoming more prominent. Maybe others see this too and maybe we can brake this open again to get a fix.

incoronado · Post by **incoronado** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 8:48 pm

I can validate Richard on this issue. This has been a bug since 2.x. I was hoping this would get fixed in the 3.x version. It happens to me multiple times a day on multiple systems using multiple video cards. I haven't been able to determine any kind of consistancy or pattern to the problem. I thought it had something to do with color depth on .png files, but I have the same problem regardless of color depth. I can send screen shots if you would like them.

Post by **ScottBot** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 11:26 pm

No need for more screen shots. It's a problem I've seen from time to time as well. The problem is that I can't reproduce consistently to diagnose the problem. I have an idea about what it might be, but I would really like to be able to duplicate it so I know if I actually fix it.

I'll fix it sooner or later, but let me know if you come up with anything that can duplicate it 100% of the time.

Post by **Richard Naninck** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 4:40 pm

On one of my test pc's, it almost happens consistently whereas on the other test pc it doesn't. For sure this has something to do with (dynamic) images. I only see this problem on panels with dynamic images. The screenshot above didn't have those images and never had the blackout problem. After adding some dynamic images it started blacking out. I will do some further testing when I get home, because this qulifies as a nasty one. I also have transparant buttons overlaying dynamic images. Most of the time on my coverart movies panel I get a black cover after pressing the transparant button. For some reason it doesn't redraw correct. Maybe it has something to do with transparancy as well.

Post by **ScottBot** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 7:49 pm

One of my suspicions is that it may also have to do with delays in image loading (like an image isn't completely downloaded or initialized somehow and will display as black instead of the graphic).

See if you can reproduce it more often if you delete your image cache on the SWRemote machine vs. having them cached.

Post by **Richard Naninck** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 5:08 am

I always clear my image cache upon starting so on the test PC, it always starts clean. I can reproduce black images very easy.
On my movies panel 15 covers are loaded at panel entry, or indexing to the next page of 15 covers. On a slower PC (test PC in this case) I can see the 15 images build. So when these images are building (going from 1 to 15) and image 1 is visible and image 2 is being built, when I press the transparant button over image 1, it will return black. Building 15 images takes about 1 or 2 seconds on my server PC. When I press transparant buttons while the covers are being displayed, they always end up black. Hope that helps a bit.
Still on holiday though...

incoronado · Post by **incoronado** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 7:42 pm

I think you're on to it. I never thought about that, but it seems to occur only on pages I have dynamic images, as well. How in the world did you associate that?

Post by **ScottBot** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 9:30 pm

But is it JUST panels with dynamic images? The example you gave in the first post doesn't look like it has any dynamic images.

dlmorgan999 · Post by **dlmorgan999** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 10:06 am

I've seen this happen a number of times but in all of my cases it is on panels with NO dynamic images. I've always assumed it was some kind of hardware resource limitation. It happened to me yesterday though and after closing and re-opening the affected panel a few times it cured itself. In other cases, closing and re-starting the entire remote solved the problem.

incoronado · Post by **incoronado** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 3:11 pm

Whether or not the dymanic image is on a current viewable panel, the dynamic image is still updating behind the scenes. No? It seems to me if HB makes a change to any image while the the dynamic image is being updated it has the POTENTIAL to make the background black. I didn't recognize this association until Richard brought it up. I want to point out that the same problem happens to transparent buttons, although, it is more obvious on panel backgrounds. This might just be a matter of a problem that just so happens to appear to expose itself on dynamic images. It's entirely possible it might not be the only place this occurs.

incoronado · Post by **incoronado** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 4:08 pm

I decided to take some time to troubleshoot this. This is what I found. I have created a theme with a single panel with a dynamic image on it. I have a transparent button that I repeatedly press. On average 1 out of 4-5 times the background turns black, but it seems to be random. I removed the dynamic image, save the theme, and reload the swremote. Press the same button that was turning black over 100 times. No black background. The problem is definitely related to the dynamic images. Creating this simple scenario, you should be able to reproduce this problem yourself.

Just a note: My dynamic images are .jpg's and my buttons are .png's.

Post by **ScottBot** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 9:47 am

And were you running the SWRemote on the same machine as the server? If not, do you see the same results if you do run it on the server?

Post by **Richard Naninck** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:21 am

ScottBot wrote:But is it JUST panels with dynamic images? The example you gave in the first post doesn't look like it has any dynamic images.

working on my ipaq in the sun somewhere so I don't see the image I posted, but if that is my onkyo panel it has 3 dynamic images displaying digital, surround and thx modes.

Post by **Richard Naninck** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:27 am

incoronado wrote:I want to point out that the same problem happens to transparent buttons

good call, my dynamic images don't display black, but the transparant button on top does.

Post by **Richard Naninck** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:38 am

ScottBot wrote:And were you running the SWRemote on the same machine as the server? If not, do you see the same results if you do run it on the server?

I can answer that.. it doesn't matter which pc it runs on; server or not. I see it the least on the server, but that may very well be hardware related. I see it lots of times on a test pc running a remote swreomte and much less on a different test pc running the same setup. On my ancient tablet pc I got with my right now I mirrored my complete setup so I could work on some ideas while on holiday. It is so slow that it is a pain to even open the swremote. It has only 512MB ram and shared video memory and 90% of the time I see black backgrounds on panels with dynamic images. It sounds true that it happens even more when transparant buttons are on top of the images.
So:
- hardware / memory?
- dynamic images with transparant buttons on top
- server or remote makes no difference.