How to save a shared show to your hard drive ... xyzzy

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

OK, I have been threatening to write this so I could find it again
when someone asks. Let's see if this works

You have watched a show at Photodex sharing that someone so
thoughtfully provided a link to and you want to keep a copy on
your local hard drive for later viewing - here is the process.

The following information is un-documented as near as I can tell, so
Photodex may decide to change it at any time (hopefully not). I am
assuming you are using Windows XP - for Vista, see the notes at the
bottom -- any other OS flavors, the path may not be the same.

Downloading the show:
When you click on a "shared show", Presenter begins to download the
show using a temporary name to the following directory (change "mikey"
to your account name).

C:\Documents and Settings\Mikey\Local Settings\Temp

[edit] - thanks to briancbb for the following - I had forgotten )
Two additional things. The Local Settings folder is a hidden folder.
If you can't see it go to Tools>Folder Options>View>Show Hidden Files,
and make sure it is selected (dot in a circle). Also under the same options
make sure that 'Hide extensions to known file types' is unselected,
otherwise you will not see the file extension (the.tmp and .px)

If you look in that directory and sort by size, most often the shared
shows will end up near the bottom. You do NOT need to actually
"Play" the show to get it downloaded, but it is important to understand
that when you exit Presenter, the temp copy of the show gets deleted.
The trick here is to let Presenter download the entire show. The show
will have a name like psg???.tmp where the "???" will be 2 or 3
letters or numbers and will end up roughly the same size as what is
shown on the page where you view the show near the bottom. For
example, if you look at this show of mine (for a quick giggle ... )
http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewsho ... 4319&alb=0
you will notice under the display window it shows that it is "5.40 megs".
This will give you an idea how big the show is before you download it -
you may want to skip it on a dial up line if it is 200 megs

There are several ways to tell if a show has finished downloading - use
which ever one(s) work for you:

- if you can see your router (for those on broadband), the activity light
for your pc will suddenly drop way down when it is done - use one of
the following to confirm it is done:

- Looking at the size make sure it is close (they don't show exactly the
same due to the megabyte "value" -- 1,000,000 vs "real" megs of
2**20 = 1,048,576 (yeah, I know - don't go there !). If you do a
"View -> Refresh" the size should stay the same indicating the download
is done.

- If you have brought up the folder contents for the above temp directory
BEFORE the download was complete, the file will have a size smaller than
what is listed for that show. Don't touch anything, just leave that window
open with the file being downloaded showing. When the download is
complete and windows closes the file, the displayed size will suddenly jump
to the final value (close to that listed for the file). The download is complete.

Saving the file after downloading:
Now that the file is done downloading, DO NOT EXIT PRESENTER
Right click the file that was downloaded to the temp directory specified and
select "Copy" (you must use Copy, you can't move the file since Presenter
still has it's grubby little fingers on it). Copy the file, go to the directory
where you want to save the file and select "Paste". You now have a copy
of the file, but it still has the "psg???.tmp" name. At this point, you can
rename the file to whatever name makes sense to you (I usually use
an abbreviated form of the title and the users name). Set the file type to
.px (when you rename it, you can do all that in one step - just type the
desired_name.px when you rename it). You can now exit Presenter.

Presto !! You now have your own copy of a show from the
Photodex sharing site.


NOTES:
--- You do NOT need to actually "watch" the show, you only need to let
Presenter download a copy of the show to your Temp Directory. Also
note that you must use the copy/paste routine to some other directory,
you can't just rename the temp show in the temp directory, again because
Presenter "owns" that file and still has control of it.

--- I would suggest putting shortcuts on your desktop to the temp download
directory as well as where ever you normally store your shows. This makes
it easy to go there next time instead of trying to remember where they are



VISTA update (thanks to Al Cain)
These instructions are for VISTA USERS ONLY.

Downloading the show:
When you click on a "shared show", Presenter begins to download the
show using a temporary name to the following directory (change "mikey"
to your account name).

C:\Users\Mikey\AppData\Local\Temp

To be able to view this folder, you have to do two things...
1) Turn OFF UAC (User Account Controls) Then Re-Boot
2) In Folder options, go to Tools>Folder Options>View>Show Hidden Files,
and make sure it is selected (dot in a circle). Also under the same options
make sure that 'Hide extensions to known file types' is unselected,
otherwise you will not see the file extension (the.tmp and .px)

End of VIST Specific info

Hope that helps people

Let me know if I forgot anything or if any parts of it are unclear (I will update
this post so it is as current as possible)!!

mikey

[briancbb Profile Private message]

Thanks Mikey for posting this in a prominant position. The times I have also searched for this to help someone out.

Two additional things. The Local Settings folder is a hidden folder. If you can't see it go to Tools>Folder Options>View>Show Hidden Files, and make sure it is selected (dot in a circle). Also under the same options make sure that 'Hide extensions to known file types' is unselected, otherwise you will not see the file extension (the.tmp and .px)

Mikey is probably like me, these are always marked as above, but I don't think this is necessarily the default conditions when XP is loaded.

Brian

[DanDan Profile Private message]

Hi Mikey,
I have used your method several times by now, and I appreciate your tips. I have noticed also that if Presenter crashes while viewing a webshow that those shows remain in the temp folder also. These along with many other files.
Question: I do clean my browser cache fairly often, and also run disk clean up from time to time, still the temp file cantains many temp files and a few folders. Is there anyway to determine what all those other files pertain to, if they are needed, or for whatever reason they don't "clean out". This has puzzled me for sometime.
I know this is not a PSG/PSP question, but there may be others that are confused over this also.
Thanks,
_Dan

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Brian -- thanks for the input -- I have edited my post to include your comments
(Like the side cover of my computer), I "fixed" the temp directories so I could see
them and have not seen a problem since (still not sure where the cover for
my computer is though )

Dan - No, there is no clear method that I am aware of of figuring out what
all those files are in the temp directory. By definition, they are *supposed*
to be temporary and you should not suffer any problems if you delete them
all ... that said ...

Some of them are obvious by their name, some are text files you can view
and figure out what they were, others seem to have no relation to anything.
I have in the past, deleted everything in the temp directory as part of a
"house cleaning" and in general, not had any issues but remember, not
everyone follows the rules about what files are in the temp directory.
There now, did that leave you more confused than before ??

mikey

[alcain Profile Private messageWebsite]

Mikey, I have tried your method before, but now that I am "stuck" with Vista Home Premium... I cannot access my Local Settings/Temp (Access Denied)... Any Ideas for us poor old Vista users? Thanks. ~al

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Don't install Vista ?? ( any vista disks I get will go
right next to the AOL disks ... )

See if you can unprotect those folders from an admin account. I have
not played with Vista (and have no intention of doing so in the near
future so I am flying blind here. Usually, you can change permissions
on folders. See if the comments I added from Brian apply to Vista.
If you do figure it out, let the rest of us know and I will add it to my
original post.

Reminds me of a quote I saw a while back ...
"the instructions said to install Windows NT or better .. so I installed Linux "

mikey

[alcain Profile Private messageWebsite]

You can't have too many gadgets or
too much disk space !!

Mikey - you will love me (or hate me) for this - Wife let me get an external Seagate 320Gig HD last month, this month I am "allowed" to buy a Fluke digital infrard non contact thermometer! I just love my toys! er umm ..."gadgets"... You know that a man MUST have his gadgets...

~al

ps when I figure vista out, i'll post...

[alcain Profile Private messageWebsite]

You can't have too many gadgets or
too much disk space !!

Mikey - you will love me (or hate me) for this - Wife let me get an external Seagate 320Gig HD last month, this month I am "allowed" to buy a Fluke digital infrard non contact thermometer! I just love my toys! er umm ..."gadgets"... You know that a man MUST have his gadgets...

~al

ps when I figure vista out, i'll post...

[DickK Profile Private messageWebsite]

Mikey -- I love the little joke in the title. Clue: xyzzy is not a typo and not just so he can find the thread later (but a great choice for that!)

100 geek points if you know where it's from and 100 bonus geek point if you know when/how to use it.

Dick

[alcain Profile Private messageWebsite]

Mikey -- I love the inside joke in the title. Clue: xyzzy is not a typo.

100 geek points if you know where it's from and 100 bonus geek point if you know when/how to use it. )

Dick

Originated from The Wizard Of Oz as a (Magic Word), now used as a cheat code in programs and games, but I am probably way off...
~al

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

As far as I know, it was from one (the?) first "Adventure" computer game called
of all things Adventure. Sometimes nothing would happen, other times it would
make things happen or appear if I remember correctly. There was also a Wumpus
running around if I remember correctly
You wandered around in a 3D maze using keyboard commands (none of this
visual stuff like you see these days). You would enter rooms and see things
which you could type commands like "pick up lamp" or "drop keys" (since you
could only hold so many things at a time and some were needed for where you
were going next.

Howzat ??

mikey

PS -- in thinking about it, I probably still have a copy of "Adventure" downstairs
on an 8 inch floppy disk for the old CP/M system (don't know if they are still
readable though )

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

You can't have too many gadgets or
too much disk space !!

Mikey - you will love me (or hate me) for this - Wife let me get an external Seagate 320Gig HD last month, this month I am "allowed" to buy a Fluke digital infrard non contact thermometer! I just love my toys! er umm ..."gadgets"... You know that a man MUST have his gadgets...

~al

ps when I figure vista out, i'll post...

Heh heh -- already there!! I have a Fluke 561 HvacPro IR thermometer and
1,150 gigs in my main machine, a removable rack with a 400 and 500 gig
drive and a spare (still in the boxes) 400 and 500 gig Seagate drives
(we won't go into the other machines in the house )

Catch me if you can !!

mikey

[DickK Profile Private messageWebsite]

Well, I figured you'd know, Mikey and you did.

"XYZZY" in the original Adventure was a "magic word". It would, when entered as a command, in some rooms instantly transport you to another room. Last I checked, a text version, very true to the original, was still available online for download (as are the first three of the original Zork series as well).

yeah, I know the age is showin' again. oh well, but those were fun times.

Dick

[hardsoftware Profile Private message]

(as are the first three of the original Zork series as well).

Now that brings back memories

Ben

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

(as are the first three of the original Zork series as well).

Now that brings back memories

Ben

Yeah, back in those days, the 8080 was king, the Z-80 the new kid on the block
and I hand assembled my code in octal (even still have my little octal "slide rule"
that had all your opcodes and registers on it -- you slid it to the right combination
and it gave you the octal value for the code (there was also a hex version, but
the 8080 was much easier to do in your head in octal due to the design of the
processor). Wow -- talk about brushing the old cobwebs aside !!

mikey