"Not enough storage available" error (saving slide show)

[gleo]

This seemed worth its own thread...

I made a 22 minute slide show, lots of hi-res images, in Photoshop Elements 4.0.

When I try to save it as a .wmv file at top quality (which I want), it takes about 10 seconds then says "There is not enough storage available to finish writing a WMV video" -- even though I have 296 GB free on the secondary drive (internal) I'm trying to save it on! I tried the primary drive too (with 28 GB free), same deal.

The whole thing at the next quality level down is only about 100 MB. There's no way there isn't room for the high res version.

The Elements program itself is on my C drive, which has about 28 GB free. I can't imagine that's not enough either, but maybe it wants to make temp files there? If so, how can I fix this? Any ideas? This is most frustrating, as you can imagine. I spent 5 solid days creating this thing, I'd hate to think I'm the only one who gets to look at it -- I'm sick of it!

Thanks!

My system: Dell desktop, XP SP2, latest updates. 2.52 GHz with 2 GB of RAM.

[jwhitten]

Gleo,

It does sound like a temp file problem you are having. You can chage your temp directory to your secondary drive or increase the size on your primary drive and that might fix the problem.

Here is my opinion though. Elements is wonderful for editing photos. It pretty much stinks for creating slide shows. Pro Show Gold it the way to go. Shows that take Elements an hour to creat only take PSG ten minutes and it has a lot more transitions and cool features.

You can download a free 30 day trial version at http://www.photodex.com/products/proshow/

Joe

[gleo]

Thanks, Joe.

I'll check out ProShow Gold. I recall hearing once that it doesn't do well with really large numbers of hi res photos, particularly raw photos... do you happen to have any experience with that? Thanks.

Also, do you -- or does anyone -- know how I change the temp directory for Elements? I couldn't find any options like regular ol' PS offers.

Thanks again!

[gleo]

A SOLUTION ... sort of:

In case anyone else has this problem, here's the weird 2-step solution that seems so far to work for me:

Step 1: I moved the catalog to my larger hard drive.

Step 2: I saved the slide show immediately after restarting the computer. If I try after I've done other work -- any work, it seems -- PS Elements will give me the "not enough storage available"

I have no idea why I have to restart my computer first! I tried it by accident, and have tested a number of times.

[jwhitten]

Gleo,

I have created slide shows using 300+ megs of images and burned it to a DVD with no problem using ProShow Gold. I might try a bigger one eventually, but that was about 120 images which is quite a large slide show.

Elements has a problem releasing memory that it uses. Even after you close images, Elements still uses the memory. That is probably why the restart helps you out.

Joe

[gleo]

Thanks again, Joe. Yeah, it's seeming to be a very messy program.

Unfortunately, ProShow Gold doesn't support CRW files and I have way too many to convert all of them. Also, I played around with the demo and it's not nearly as easy as PSE 4 to customize zooms -- as far as I could tell. It's all in the same screen with instant click and drag in PSE, but more complicated in ProS G. Am I missing something there?

I'll keep trying to force PSE to work, but I am not hopeful.

G

[jwhitten]

G,

You should be able to batch convert your CRW files using Elements. That's what I do with my .NEF files. Under File / Process Multiple Files. PSG will recognize .JPG, .PNG, .PSD....

I find PSG quite easy to use. PSG has a simple Zoon tool that you can adjust easily with your mouse or manually. You can also rotate images and it handles transparent backgrounds too.

I'm not really trying to sell you PSG - I don't own any stock hahahahah. I just thought it might be easier for you and help you get around the memory issues.

Maybe you will win your memory battle - you do seem determined :)

Joe

[Barb O]

"It does sound like a temp file problem you are having. You can chage your temp directory to your secondary drive or increase the size on your primary drive and that might fix the problem."

This comment was made in an earlier post by Joe. It seems like a very worthwhile suggestion to me.

Most probably it is not just the storage for the final wmv file that is a factor here. In fact the final file could be an insigificant percentage of the storage requirement. Large resolution photos each need to be downsized to fit the resolution of the slide show and then the entire slide show needs to be constructed in the WMV encoded format. This can require a significant amount of temporary space.

The topic "Optimize handling of temporary files in Windows" in the Adobe techdoc at http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/331968.html has some information about temporary files and the TEMP variable.

Barb O

[gleo]

Thanks Joe & Barb.

It turns out one of my issues was the way Virtual Memory was being handled on my system -- which had been altered to optimize some other program. Returning to defaults seemed to fix things, along with changing the directory.

I'll still play with ProShow, Joe, thanks.

I now have another question, but it's on a different subject so I'll post separately unless I find a solution here first. It's really basic and I'm sure folks have covered it already. Nice to have such kind people as yourselves here as a resource.

[MikeH]

If you are using PSG, an update has been released (Version 2.6.1775)

Mike

[gleo]

What's PSG? Forgive my ignorance.

[MikeH]

ProShow Gold...

Mike

[gleo]

Thanks, sorry I missed this post before.

[gleo]

Joe & Mike, et al:

Thanks for the ProSho Gold suggestion. I've been experimenting with the demo, and it indeed seems superior for slide shows in most ways. One thing I can't find a workaround for, perhaps you can let me know if it's a limitation or I'm blind:

How do you zoom in super-close for motion zooms? In MOTION AND EFFECTS 500% is the max -- but that's not nearly as close as PSE 4.0 goes. Even though PSE doesn't tell you the numeric value, by comparing the two programs with the same image, it looks like PSE zooms in 1600%. I need to do a lot of those really tight zooms that PSE can do. (From what I can tell, the original image size makes no difference, but even if it did, I am not resizing 500 photos in another program first!)

Is there a workaround? This seems like a big limitation in the usefulness of PSG.

Thanks for your help.