Screen saver lag in loading photos from new folder

Question

I use my screen saver to display the family photos in a side show. I have several thousand photos in several folders. I have noticed that whenever I want to change the folder used as the side show source, it takes the Screen Saver Preference pane a very long time to respond. It is as if it is scanning all the photos in the currently assigned folder in order to display them in the preview window provided, and it gets so dogged down doing that it can't respond to my clicks on the Choose Folder option. This is puzzling because when I move my mouse cursor to the upper left corner of my screen to activate the screen saver, it only takes a few seconds to begin displaying photos, even with iTunes and other apps running. But when I open the Screen Saver Preference Pane just to change the source folder or to make any other simple change in options (pan and zoom, time to activate screen saver, etc.) it bogs down completely for 2-3 minutes. This makes no sense to me -- if the OS can get the screen saver side show going on a folder with several thousand photos in just seconds when the hot corner is used to activate it, why does it take the Preference Pane version so long to load the very same photos in a preview window? The problem is so bad, that I rarely bother to change source folders now. Which is a shame, because the side show program does a stellar job displaying photos -- at least once it gets around to it! A possible solution would be to give the user the option to suppress previewing of images. I have suggested this to Apple in several emails, and with each update to the OS I hope to find the problem corrected. So far, no cigar.
As long as I'm at it, I'd like to make my annual request that Apple to make the Screen Saver side show a stand-alone application. My reasons, partly taken from an earlier post, are as follows. The built-in side show provided by Apple via the Screen Saver Preference Pane does a fantastic job of displaying even low-resolution photos in full-screen mode (especially with pan and zoom activated) without the photo appearing excessively blurry or pixelized. I don't know how the Apple programmers do it, but the photos displayed by the screen saver seem crisper and sharper than the same photos displayed by Preview or Photoshop. This may partly be due to an illusion created by the pan and zoom -- the expansion and shifting of the image on the screen causes the mind to focus on the signal, which is consistent from frame to frame, as opposed to the noise (pixelization) which varies somewhat randomly. I think there is some kind of perceptual averaging process that allows the mind to perceive the underlying true image, despite the low resolution.
Be that as it may, I love the iMac screen saver. But I can't get control of it because it is not a stand-alone app. If the side show were available as stand-alone application it would probably have other features such as the ability to pause, go backward or forward, set the duration of each photo, select background music, etc. These would be in addition to the pan and zoom options already offered by the Screen Saver Preference Pane. And unlike the Preference Pane, selecting a new folder for the side show would (hopefully) not dog the machine completely down.
I am aware that side show capability is available within iPhoto and also at the FINDER level when using Spotlight to search for images. But again, none of these are stand alone apps, they all work a little differently, and no one of them does everything you need. How about just having an app called Slideshow (or iSlideshow)?
Does anyone else see a need for this?

Answer 1

I have several thousand photos in several folders. I have noticed that whenever I want to change the folder used as the side show source, it takes the Screen Saver Preference pane a very long time to respond. It is as if it is scanning all the photos in the currently assigned folder in order to display them in the preview window provided, and it gets so dogged down doing that it can't respond to my clicks on the Choose Folder option.
Assuming you don't want to redistribute your photos into a greater number of folders or subfolders so there would be fewer in each folder to process, you could try a workaround. Try moving your currently-assigned folder to your desktop temporarily, before opening the Screen Saver preference pane. If the preference pane can't find the old folder, it may immediately ask you to choose a new one. You could hopefully then do so, close the preference pane, and then put back the old folder.
It's my understanding that there will be no future updates to Tiger, only security fixes.