Choppy transitions on SF-200 after update to 2.8.77.1969r_2

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gpriddy
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Choppy transitions on SF-200 after update to 2.8.77.1969r_2

Post by gpriddy »

I'm using the 'dissolve' or bleed transition. Updated to 2.8.77.1969r_2.8 this afternoon, and the transitions are noticeably choppy now, where before they were smooth. I experimented with durations of 0.75, 0.50, and 0.25 seconds. They are still choppy at lower duration values, just faster.

Anyone else seen this?

-Greg
David L
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Re: Choppy transitions on SF-200 after update to 2.8.77.1969r_2

Post by David L »

From which version did you upgrade?

David
gpriddy
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Re: Choppy transitions on SF-200 after update to 2.8.77.1969r_2

Post by gpriddy »

Version 2.8.7.1846
David L
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Re: Choppy transitions on SF-200 after update to 2.8.77.1969r_2

Post by David L »

Greg, I believe what you are seeing is the difference in the types of dissolve.

Build 7 had the original pixel "dissolve" originally designed for the SF-100 to simulate an alpha dissolve. Build 77 replaced the old processor-intensive pixel "dissolve" with a hardware accelerated true alpha dissolve. It works by dissolving the whole frame in small steps, so the longer the dissolve, the more and the smaller the steps and the smoother it is.

If I remember correctly, the original dissolve was about 3 sec, but the new one can be very fast and defaults to 1 sec, which is what we found most people beta testing preferred. It can look a bit "choppy" in faster speeds, especially if there is a lot of contrast or a lot of black on the screen. Raising the duration should make it look a lot better.

We have also found that some LCD monitors have adaptive brightness and time aliasing functionality that may make small full screen brightness changes interfere with internal algorithms used to smooth the LCD output. These make any true fades or dissolves choppy. Turning those options, sometimes called "noise reduction" or "motion xxx" off in the menu, or sometimes just resetting to factory defaults may help enormously.

If you can't get it to look right, send a little cell phone clip to support@noventri.com, so that we know we are talking about the same thing.

David
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Re: Choppy transitions on SF-200 after update to 2.8.77.1969r_2

Post by gpriddy »

I tried longer transitions, but the dissolve effect still has a 'stepped' look to it, only now it's stretched over a longer period of time. It's definitely more noticeable when going from a very light page to a very dark page (or vice-versa). Our pages have a textured light blue background, which contrasts with the dark background of the Noventri weather pages.

Dissolve transitions between our pages don't look too bad. I changed the transitions in/out of the weather pages to a 2-second checkerboard, which is not my first choice, but it looks better than the new dissolve on these light-to-dark and dark-to-light sequences.

We're using an NEC commercial display, which doesn't have a lot of picture options.

The cell phone video doesn't capture what I'm seeing with my eye.

Overall, (from a user perspective) the old dissolve was far superior to the new one. The old one was very classy and subtle.

-Greg
David L
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Re: Choppy transitions on SF-200 after update to 2.8.77.1969r_2

Post by David L »

Yes, the two are definitely different. I will forward this issue to development for comment.

David
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Re: Choppy transitions on SF-200 after update to 2.8.77.1969r_2

Post by David L »

Greg,

We will be adding more transitions in the future, so it's not a problem to add the old dissolve back in as an option, since it's already coded. I have put the request in, so look for it in an upcoming release.

David
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