Accelerating Manual Advance in DVD Slideshows

[ This article was first published in the February, 2011, issue of
Larry’s Final Cut Pro Newsletter. Click here to subscribe. ]

Loren Miller writes:

Learned a nice trick to accelerate manual advance of slideshows:

1) Set the duration of all slides to 0:15

2) Tick off the Manual Advance checkbox on each

After the Build…

3) Use the Play button — NOT the chapter advance button — to advance slides almost immediately.

I discovered that, even when you check manual advance for each slide, you can see the player ticking off whatever duration was previously set for automatic advance– default is 5:00 per slide– before you gain control over manual advance! Bizarre but true. So reducing the duration to the minimum allowed 15 frames releases control to manual advance practically right away.

 

Also, the Play button is a handier and more consistent advance control than the Chapter advance button, and of course using the remote’s circle perimeter left-right buttons (the most intuitive solution and thus not available) requires fancier setup or scripting– if they can be made to work at all. That would be a * great* tutorial.

Larry replies: Thanks, Loren! Nice tip – and it is good to hear from you again.