I am getting very frustrated.

After my previous issues with memory filling up, I broke my 5,300-frame timelapse into three folders of ~1700 frames each. Now (after restarting my computer and restarting LRT), when I point LRT to the folder with 1700 frames, it IMMEDIATELY ground to a halt, loading about one preview per second, and filled a huge chunk of memory.

LRT is set to have 6GB of RAM available to it, and previews are set to a tiny 180x120 pixels.

At this point the software is completely unusable. If I can't get it fixed I'm going to need to ask for my money back...

that's really strange, i'm using it with long sequences (yesterday i've tried one with about 2000frames) but don't noticed any kind of slowing down.
What are you using? pc or mac? and what model? seems strange to me, because i find it very useful and fluid in its operations.
And another thing, are you using the 2 version? because it has different .exe for different systems, so you could try using LRTimelapse_largeMem.exe instead of the default one (on my system for now i haven't seen the difference between this exe, except for the amount of ram it use, but really i'm ok with the default .exe).

@Colgate: just let's try to narrow down things a bit. I'm sure there is something wrong.
Other users included me don't have any problems, even with large sequences.

Are you on PC or Mac?

Could you please check the Logfile (info/Show Log) when loading the sequence and post it here or send it via email to me?

Just a bit of patience, I'm sure we will sort that out.
Another thing: do you have any special characters (umlauts etc.) in your Foldernames? That sometimes gives trouble with exiftool.

This post was last modified: 2012-08-03, 03:07 by screamer.

Hey gwegner,
just now i'm experiencing the same problems ascolgate2004. The strange thing is that i'm simply doing a second pass (as you exaplained in a post here in the forum) for deflicker a sequence that yesterday i've opened and worked without any problem.
I don't know if it could help, but what i've done is this:
yesterday i've imported and autoconverted to dng in lightroom. Opened in LRTimelapse without problems, setted up the things (area and keyframewizard), then saed metadatas. in lightroom edited the keyframe, saved metadata, and applied all the things in LRTimelapse, denoise and all the rest.
Today i've taken that sequence, and exported as jpgs in another folder. Then trying to open it with LRTimelapse.
first used the default .exe (total memory 384). The free memory finished something in the middle of loading sequence, and the all slowed down a lot. So i've closed, opened the LRTimelapse_1GB.exe. Now i have 989Mb of memory, and used is 393 (still, don't changing). But at the same place of before, LRTimelapse was slowing down terribly, and now is loading a frame every 2 seconds, something like that.
The sequence is not so long (643frames), and yesterday it has no problems. The only difference is that yesterday the sequence was in dng, and today is jpg, so could be something related to jpgs?
I will try to export again the sequence, and this time in dng, just to see if does matter.
A think that i noticed, is that the new sequence has all the metadata of the original (so it's loading also the keyframes and other things), but i believe this is normal.
Anyway, before getting too much alarmed, i need to try a reboot too let you know

just a last observation, seems to be related to reading/writing metadata, because all the rest is responsive (like preview, keyframe wizard etc). And the memory has fallen down to 97Mb free, just when i pressed the first save.

here is the log, hope it helps (noticed something about fixing a lot of metadata, but don't know if it's normal)


Please send the content of this log-file to support@lrtimelapse.com if you experience any problems.

[2012-08-03 01:45:40] DEBUG: Loading properties from C:\Users\screamer\AppData\Roaming\LRTimelapse\user.props
[2012-08-03 01:45:40] INFO: LRTimelapse 2.0 beta 1 (2012-07-16)
[2012-08-03 01:45:40] INFO: © 2012 Gunther Wegner
[2012-08-03 01:45:40] INFO: http://lrtimelapse.com
[2012-08-03 01:45:40] INFO: Java version: 1.6.0_24 from Sun Microsystems Inc.
[2012-08-03 01:45:40] INFO: ------------------------------------
[2012-08-03 01:45:40] INFO: Licensed to: Luca Biada, Roma - private license.
[2012-08-03 01:45:43] INFO: Detected Screen size: 1920 x 1080
[2012-08-03 01:45:47] INFO: Newest version: 2.0 beta 1 (2012-07-16), current Version: 2.0 beta 1 (2012-07-16)
[2012-08-03 01:46:14] INFO: Fixed 4120 metadata properties automatically.
[2012-08-03 01:46:14] INFO: Cleared orphaned ExposureBeforeDeflicker values.

Some points to clarify things:

1.) The default Exe on Windows reserves round about 60% of the available Memory. If you launch it with a whole lot of programs started it will reserve not much and you run into trouble. That's what the other Launchers are for.

2.) JPGs are slower than raw. They are slower when generating Previews and they are certainly much slower when reading or especially writing metadata because the metadata hast to be included into the JPG file.

3.) If you load a sequence the first time LRT will generate previews (stubs) for faster accessing next time. So if you load a 1000 images sequence and after 300 images you cancel - the next time the first 300 images will be loaded lightning fast and after that it gets slow again, because the previews still have to be generated.

From how I interpret your post I don't think there is something wrong, just take care of the memory.

Hi agree all the points you posted, and my observations lead to the same conclusion you gave me

I'll copy and paste my log, etc. tomorrow or Monday, but in short, none of the above will solve my problem. I am processing raw files (not jpgs), there is a ton of memory (both in my machine and available to LRT... about 6GB worth), and it isn't even a large number of images... only 1700.

And yet, it still CRAWLS when I point it to a directory of files, starting out taking over a second per image, and slowing down from there... and fills up several gigabytes of RAM immediately and continues eating RAM as it goes.

Looking forward to get your log-file.

Here is a log file. For this file, I opened LRT, clicked on a directory on the left which had 1,767 .CR2 raw files in it (with no .xmp metadata files), and LRT began loading preview images, taking about 1 second per preview image. The available memory, about 6GB, dropped to about 4GB in the first 20 or so seconds (so, in the first 20 or so image previews).

Again, the preview size is 180x120 pixels.

I clicked "cancel" to stop the preview loading after a short time, because I need to use my computer for other work today.


Please send the content of this log-file to support@lrtimelapse.com if you experience any problems.

[2012-08-06 11:44:32] DEBUG: Loading properties from /Users/chrisconti/Library/Application Support/LRTimelapse/user.props
[2012-08-06 11:44:32] INFO: LRTimelapse 2.0 beta 1 (2012-07-16)
[2012-08-06 11:44:32] INFO: © 2012 Gunther Wegner
[2012-08-06 11:44:32] INFO: http://lrtimelapse.com
[2012-08-06 11:44:32] INFO: Java version: 1.6.0_33 from Apple Inc.
[2012-08-06 11:44:32] INFO: ------------------------------------
[2012-08-06 11:44:33] INFO: Licensed to: Chris Conti, Somerville - private license.
[2012-08-06 11:44:37] INFO: Detected Screen size: 1680 x 1050
[2012-08-06 11:44:37] INFO: Newest version: 2.0 beta 1 (2012-07-16), current Version: 2.0 beta 1 (2012-07-16)
[2012-08-06 11:54:27] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6231.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:28] INFO: read 2322819 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:28] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:29] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6232.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:29] INFO: read 2321907 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:30] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:30] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6233.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:30] INFO: read 2316728 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:31] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:31] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6234.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:31] INFO: read 2322057 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:32] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:32] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6235.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:32] INFO: read 2319139 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:33] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:33] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6236.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:33] INFO: read 2316505 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:34] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:34] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6237.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:34] INFO: read 2316816 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:35] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:35] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6238.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:35] INFO: read 2314885 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:36] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:36] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6239.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:36] INFO: read 2314283 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:37] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:37] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6240.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:37] INFO: read 2313595 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:38] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:38] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6241.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:39] INFO: read 2310815 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:39] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:39] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6242.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:40] INFO: read 2313079 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:40] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:40] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6243.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:41] INFO: read 2308352 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:41] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:41] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6244.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:42] INFO: read 2307844 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:42] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:42] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6245.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:43] INFO: read 2304357 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:43] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:43] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6246.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:44] INFO: read 2308563 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:44] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:44] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6247.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:45] INFO: read 2300747 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:45] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:45] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6248.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:46] INFO: read 2301841 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:46] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:46] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6249.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:47] INFO: read 2302720 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:47] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:47] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6250.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:48] INFO: read 2298342 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:48] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:49] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6251.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:49] INFO: read 2291661 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:50] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:50] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6252.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:50] INFO: read 2291786 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:51] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:51] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6253.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:51] INFO: read 2287984 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:52] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:52] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6254.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:52] INFO: read 2286300 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:53] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:53] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6255.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:53] INFO: read 2280175 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:54] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:54] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6256.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:54] INFO: read 2282765 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:55] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:55] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6257.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:55] INFO: read 2274575 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:56] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:56] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6258.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:56] INFO: read 2282088 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:57] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:57] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6259.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:58] INFO: read 2280896 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:58] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:58] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6260.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:54:59] INFO: read 2287200 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:54:59] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:54:59] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6261.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:00] INFO: read 2282778 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:00] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:55:00] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6262.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:01] INFO: read 2283852 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:02] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:55:02] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6263.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:02] INFO: read 2283044 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:03] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:55:03] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6264.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:03] INFO: read 2282287 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:04] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:55:04] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6265.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:04] INFO: read 2278260 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:05] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:55:05] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6266.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:05] INFO: read 2281043 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:06] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:55:06] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6267.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:06] INFO: read 2274935 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:07] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:55:07] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6268.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:08] INFO: read 2278516 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:08] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:55:08] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6269.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:09] INFO: read 2272106 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:09] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:55:09] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6270.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:10] INFO: read 2273908 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:11] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:55:11] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6271.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:11] INFO: read 2280892 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:12] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:55:12] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6272.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:12] INFO: read 2278317 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:13] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:55:13] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6273.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:13] INFO: read 2274798 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:14] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:55:14] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6274.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:14] INFO: read 2278875 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:15] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:55:15] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6275.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:16] INFO: read 2276785 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:18] INFO: Successfully read preview.
[2012-08-06 11:55:18] INFO: Loading preview with ExifTool: IMG_6276.CR2...
[2012-08-06 11:55:18] INFO: read 2275270 bytes from ExifTool...
[2012-08-06 11:55:22] INFO: preview not available, trying to load embedded jpg
[2012-08-06 11:55:22] INFO: Successfully read embedded jpg.
[2012-08-06 11:55:22] INFO: read 9 bytes from ExifTool: {ready}

There is no abnormal behaviour to be seen in the logfile. Depending on where you have stored your files (network?) and how fast your computer is, 1 second could be a normal time for the initial preview generation. As I just said, all subsequent load procedures of that folder would be much faster. Just let it work in the background the first time.