Home Forums Mac Software Mac Operating Systems QuickLook & Screensaver/Power Settings

I've turned grelber's animated cat avatar into a sort of screensaver by embedding it in a TextEdit doc and accessing it with QuickLook>Full Screen. (It's quite surreal when the cat is moving and the controls have disappeared.)

I've run into two issues with my "screensaver," though, at least one of which may be a bug in OS X (10.5.7):

1. The cat ceases to be animated after an inconsistent period of time ranging between 10 and 20 minutes. (Edit: A few seconds short of 18 min seems to be the norm.)

2. When I invoke the cat with QuickLook OS X functions as expected, but when I switch to QuickLook>Full Screen my screensaver (5 min) and display (15 min) and computer (30 min) sleep settings go by the boards, and OS X functions as if there are no such settings.

A small test suggests that QuickLook>Full Screen invoked for any item defeats screensaver and sleep prefs and seems to confirm that the animation is not a contributing factor.

Issue 2. seems like a security flaw; I've no idea about issue 1.

Anybody?

Thanks,

1) I would speculate there is a gif loop limit in quicklook. (or possibly in quicktime? have you tried viewing it just in quicktime player?) Speculating the image loops about 1,000 times in 18 minutes?

2) many things can 'ping' the system to prevent sleep. They don't even have to be frontmost or even gui - I've seen scanner drivers give macs insomnia on several occasions. I don't think I'd consider it a security problem unless you have your screensaver or sleep set to ask for pw on wake?

1. I opened the gif in QuickTime, but it doesn't loop...only runs once, for a second, so 1,000 loops in about 18 minutes is about right.

2. Your point that "many things can 'ping' the system to prevent sleep" is well taken, but a scanner driver (for instance) doing so represents an incompatibility that I'd not expect to see from built-in Apple functionality. (Does that make sense?)

I've filed a bug report with Apple, just to be on the safe side.

(I'm not set up to ask for a p/w, so that's no issue for me.)

open the image in safari. (it works a lot like preview) It should honor the Loop flag and I assume uses quicktime or something related in webkit to render it.

You were correct; it timed out after about the same time period in Safari.

artie505,
Currently this topic is in the Mac OS X 10.6.x forum, and I am confused about the placement of the question.

I may be missing something about the operating systems you are working with, and just wanted to check in with you.

> "I am confused"

That makes two of us, dianne; either I clicked on the wrong line when I posted and never noticed or this thread changed forums of its own volition.

Good catch either way.

Thanks.