Custom emoticons - animated GIFs - not valid image file error

[Tuppence]

Hi

I have tried lots of different things to try and get around this odd
problem, from different file sizes, to different pixel dimensions, to
different GIF optimaztion options, but nothing works.

When I try to add a custom animated GIF emoticon, it gives me this
meaningless error. Everything else displays the GIF perfectly, so it's not an
invalid file!

Also, when it does accept one of my custom emoticon animated GIF files, it
plays them terribly: with some it only loops the first two or so frames of
the animation, with others it misses 80% of the frames and only plays the
remainder but with no contiguous frames, or the image is distorted (although
it hasn't shrunk it, it's under pizel size limit), colours are messed up, or
it completely ignores the frame delays that everything else takes notice of.

A search on the net shows lots of others are suffering this problem. What is
wrong with the program?!

Thanks

[Jason Tsang]

Some 'firewall' programs are known to have a setting to prevent animated
gifs from 'animating'. You might want to check if this setting is enabled
(i.e. some versions of Zonealarm has this feature among others).

--
Jason Tsang - Microsoft MVP

Find out about the MS MVP Program -
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx

"Tuppence" > wrote in message
...
> Hi
>
> I have tried lots of different things to try and get around this odd
> problem, from different file sizes, to different pixel dimensions, to
> different GIF optimaztion options, but nothing works.
>
> When I try to add a custom animated GIF emoticon, it gives me this
> meaningless error. Everything else displays the GIF perfectly, so it's not
> an
> invalid file!
>
> Also, when it does accept one of my custom emoticon animated GIF files, it
> plays them terribly: with some it only loops the first two or so frames of
> the animation, with others it misses 80% of the frames and only plays the
> remainder but with no contiguous frames, or the image is distorted
> (although
> it hasn't shrunk it, it's under pizel size limit), colours are messed up,
> or
> it completely ignores the frame delays that everything else takes notice
> of.
>
> A search on the net shows lots of others are suffering this problem. What
> is
> wrong with the program?!
>
> Thanks

[Tuppence]

I do not have any firewall running, they're unnecessary and problematic. I'll
start using one when some amazing hacker targets little ol' me for some
reason.

Thanks anyway for the suggestion. I'm starting to think Messenger is just
badly coded.



"Jason Tsang" wrote:

> Some 'firewall' programs are known to have a setting to prevent animated
> gifs from 'animating'. You might want to check if this setting is enabled
> (i.e. some versions of Zonealarm has this feature among others).
>
> --
> Jason Tsang - Microsoft MVP

[Treebeard]

Firewall baloney. There is simply no consistency to what Messenger
considers to be a valid image file. Gifs that work perfectly in all other
applications WILL NOT work properly in messenger. Would it be too much
trouble to publish the parameters of what Messenger considers to be a "valid"
image file, or doesn't ANYBODY know. Tuppence is right on the money I
think.

"Tuppence" wrote:

> I do not have any firewall running, they're unnecessary and problematic. I'll
> start using one when some amazing hacker targets little ol' me for some
> reason.
>
> Thanks anyway for the suggestion. I'm starting to think Messenger is just
> badly coded.
>
>
>
> "Jason Tsang" wrote:
>
> > Some 'firewall' programs are known to have a setting to prevent animated
> > gifs from 'animating'. You might want to check if this setting is enabled
> > (i.e. some versions of Zonealarm has this feature among others).
> >
> > --
> > Jason Tsang - Microsoft MVP