There are a lot of things that can affect how smoothly your slideshow play both in hardware and software settings and every computer and setup is different. If your slideshows are not playing smoothly then this article will give you some ideas of what things can affect this so you can make adjustments to get the best results with your particular setup.

Using a second screen or projector

Slideshows require a lot of data transfer and a fast connection to the device that you are showing the slideshow on is critical. Wired cable connections such as HDMI, DVI will always perform better than wireless connections and these are preferred. If you are using a wireless connection there are lots of factors that can slow the data transfer such as network speed, distance, and network congestion from other users on the local network.

Screen resolution

Displays with higher resolution such as 4K screens require more image data (around 3 times that of HD) transferred to the display device than lower resolution screens. To check if this is effecting your slideshow playback, you can change the resolution settings for your displays to a lower setting in your computer's settings (on Macs: System Preferences -> Displays. On Windows: Display Settings).

Computer performance

Faster computers with more memory will be more reliable than slower machines. However, even fast machines can slow down if you have lots of applications running that use up all the free memory. If you are having intermittent issues when playing a slideshow, try restarting your computer before you play the slideshow. This will stop any unnecessary programs and free up maximum spare memory. Computers with SSD drives will always perform much faster than those using rotating disk drives.

Hardware Acceleration

By default, ProSelect uses OpenGL (on Windows and Macs running OSX 10.13 and earlier) or Metal (Macs with OSX 10.14 and newer) to provide extra slideshow performance. You can turn this on or off in ProSelect's Preferences -> Slideshow -> Slideshow settings -> Performance. It is recommended that you have this turned on but for troubleshooting purposes, you can try turning this off. Turning this off will disable the Ken-Burns effect (slow panning and zooming) in your slideshow styles. See below for more about OpenGL. When using OpenGL you can have an effect on performance

OpenGL Performance

If your computer is using OpenGL (and you have it turned on in ProSelect), then you can affect the performance by adjusting the OpenGL UpScale control in Preferences -> Slideshows -> Slideshow Settings -> Performance.  By default, having auto-scaling on will choose a value depending on your screen size which is a reasonable balance between Quality and Performance. You can turn off Auto-Scaling and adjust this yourself.

Album image size

When you add images into a ProSelect, downsized copies of the images are saved in the album file. The size of these images is controlled by your Preferences setting (Importing Images -> Settings -> Adding Images -> Resize to). Selecting a larger size will provide greater detail but will also slow down ProSelect operations because it takes longer to load and manipulate larger images from the Album file. It is best to select the smallest size that you need for your screen sizes.

Running ProSelect in Hi-DPI/Retina mode

If you are using a Hi-DPI screen (on Windows) or a Retina Screen on a Mac then ProSelect will, by default, be working at higher resolutions and run slower. To turn off HiDPI operations on Windows see this KnowledgeBase Article: Running ProSelect as a non Hi-DPI application. For Macs see Running ProSelect as a non Retina application.

Album File Location

When playing a slideshow, ProSelect is constantly loading images from your Album file. If you have opened the file across a network, then network speeds can slow down the time it takes to get the next image and affect the smoothness of the playback. This is particularly the case with wireless networks. To check if this is causing problems, copy your album file to your local machine's disk drive then open it from there before playing your slideshow.

Complex Items

If you are including layouts/book pages with multiple images and/or mats and frames or rooms with multiple items, then these have to be "assembled" during the slideshow and this can cause a noticeable lag during playback. Recent versions of ProSelect have the option to "pre-buffer" these items (build them before the slideshow starts) to avoid this problem. You should have this selected in ProSelect's Preferences -> Slideshow -> Slideshow settings -> Performance. 

OpenGL Issues

If turning off the "Use OpenGL" makes your slideshow run smoothly, this indicates that your computer doesn't have the required OpenGL drivers installed or you have an old version of OpenGL drivers installed. See White square displays when starting a Slideshow.

In this case, you should either update the graphics driver on that computer.

On Macs: Updating to the latest update of your current version of OSX will generally install these.

On Windows 7: You can usually download the OpenGL drivers for your computers graphics chip-set from the manufacturer. To find the graphics chip set:

1. Right-click the desktop and select Screen Resolution
2. In the window that opens, click the Advanced Settings link --> Adapter (tab)  --> Properties --> Driver (tab) --> Update Driver

On Windows 8:

You can usually download the OpenGL drivers for your computers graphics chip-set from the manufacturer. You must be signed in as an administrator to follow these steps. To find the graphics chip set:

1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search. (If you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, and then click Search.)
2. Enter Device Manager in the search box, and tap or click Device Manager.
3. Click Yes when prompted for permission from User Account Control.
4. In the list of hardware categories, select Display adapters
5. Select the video card name  --> Driver tab --> Update Driver then follow the instructions.

Windows 8

If using Windows 8, then please also see the section "External Monitor Flickers when playing the slideshow" in the ProSelect on Windows 8 article for this and other important information.