Windows XP SP2, Firefox 1.0.1 and Internet Explorer 6.0.

To pick a random example from the web, any large image will do:

http://img2.dpreview.com/gallery/fujifilms3pro_samples/originals/dscf0484.jpg
(WARNING: 3MB image)

In Firefox, as the image loads, it displays smoothly as it is
downloaded. In IE6, it displays in large "chunks" every second or two.

A satisfactory answer to this question will be a way to make IE
display the image "smoothly" as it downloads, like in Firefox. Either:

1) (preferably) Something I can do in a surrounding web page (e.g.
loading it in a table, some META tag, a DXImageTransform filter etc.)
Javascript is OK, Java is not, and it must load a single JPG file, not
anything split up into chunks.

or

2) Something that can be done relatively easily to the browser on the
end-user's side, such as a preference tweak or registry change.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 23 Mar 2005 11:36 PST

Alexander,

Try this, and let me know if it does the trick:

From the IE menu, select:

Tools =====> Internet Options =====> Advanced

and in the Advanced box, under the "Multimedia" heading:

-- select "Enable Automatic Image Resizing" 

-- and de-select "Smart Image Dithering"


Let me know how that works out.

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by alexander-ga on 23 Mar 2005 12:24 PST

No luck, pafalafa; behaves exactly the same. :(

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 23 Mar 2005 12:30 PST

How odd...it made a huge difference in the downloading behavior on my machine!

I'll keep looking though, and if nothing turns up, I'll unlock the
question so that other researchers can take a crack at it.

paf

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Clarification of Question by alexander-ga on 23 Mar 2005 12:39 PST

Well, I had automatic image resizing on anyway, which obviously makes
a difference when loading a large JPG into a window directly. (Still
not smooth either way, though.)

And the dithering option doesn't seem to change anything, though since
I'm at 32-bit color, I wouldn't expect it to.

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Clarification of Question by alexander-ga on 23 Mar 2005 12:56 PST

I found a way to make IE do this, but haven't been successful in
programatically forcing redraws in a similar way.

If you start to load the image, then grab hold of one of the window
edges and rapidly move it back and forth to resize the window, the
image will properly update on each resize "tick", making a nice smooth
load.

Obviously asking the user to do this is kind of out of the question though. ;)

http://www.vbaexpress.com/EE/google.jpg

That's a pretty big picture.
I compressed it 50% down to 146KB from nearly 3MB.
I don't suppose that's what you're hoping for...

No, sorry. I just chose an abnormally large picture to make the
difference more obvious on fast connections. Even with your picture,
you should be able to see a difference in display behavior between
Firefox and IE.

With mozilla, are you sure that it didn't just display the image
smoothly once it was downloaded?

A picture is displayed smootly because of its encoding.  When you save
a picture, if you save it in gif, you can choose standard or
interlaced encoding.  The standard encoding will make it appear
normally, line by line, and interlaced encoding will make it appear
smoothly.  You can do the same with jpg files.  You can save it in
progressive encoding.  It will make it appear smoothly.  But the
browser cannot do it.

What I suspect is that Firefox downloads the file.  Once it is
downloaded, it smoothly shows the picture to create a visual affect. 
But I don't think that Firefox displays standard encoded pictures
smoothly while they download.

This web site explains encoding:
http://www.pnwwebdesign.com/graphics/compressiontutorial.html

I am sorry that you cannot show standard encoded pictures smoothly
while they download... All you can do is installing a plug-in or
add-on in internet explorer that will show the picture smoothly once
it is downloaded... but you cannot while it downloads if the file is
encoded standard.

Pictures will be displayed smoothly while they download only if the
creator encoded it non-standard (interlaced or progressive)

If you have a web page and you want your pictures to load smoothly,
save them in interlaced or progressive encoding (paint shop pro can do
it)

When you are in paint shop pro:

Open your picture and follow these steps:
File Save as...
Select jpeg type
Click options
Select progressive encoding
Choose your compression factor (0=good quality 100=bad quality)
click ok
save the picture where you want

You can also do it with gif files, but the encoding will be "interlaced"

a 60 day trial (full functionnality) of paint shop pro can be found there:

http://www3.jasc.com/pub/en/psp901enp.exe

for more infor on psp or picture encoding contact me!

I should clarify. By "smoothly", I mean each scanline is displayed *as
it is received*, from top to bottom.

With Firefox, say it receives 22% of the image and then the network
stalls briefly. You will see 22% of the image displayed, a brief
stall, then display will continue as more image data arrives.

IE does basically the same thing, *except* only updates the screen
every 1-2 seconds while downloading is in progress. (And then
instantly after all the data has arrived.) I need more frequent
updates during downloading.

I am aware of the differences in image encoding. Here, I am only
concerned with "normal" baseline JPEG encoding, which stores data as
8-pixel high scanlines, top to bottom.

Also to clarify, I'm not really looking for a nonstandard plugin to achieve this.