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Change volume before playback in python-vlc

I'm trying to adjust the volume of an instance of vlc.MediaPlayer before playback. Running the below snippet (python3 test.py) plays five seconds of the audio file path/to/file.m4a. It appears that audio_set_volume does actually set the volume of the player, given that the subsequent print statement returns 10; but there's no practical change in volume (whether I set it lower or higher).
# test.py
import vlc
from time import sleep
media_player = vlc.MediaPlayer("path/to/file.m4a")
# Set the volume to 10%
media_player.audio_set_volume(10)
# Returns 10
print("Set volume: " + str(media_player.audio_get_volume()))
media_player.play()
sleep(5)
This similar question doesn't appear to have been resolved.
Versions:
Python==3.10.6
python-vlc==3.0.16120

You didn't create a vlc.Instance() which probably won't help matters.
Try:
import vlc
from time import sleep
instance = vlc.Instance()
media_player = instance.media_player_new()
media = instance.media_new('./vp1.mp3')
media_player.set_media(media)
media.parse()
media_player.audio_set_volume(30)
media_player.play()
print("Starting Volume "+ str(media_player.audio_get_volume()))
low = True
while True:
sleep(5)
if low:
media_player.audio_set_volume(150)
low = False
print("vol 150")
else:
media_player.audio_set_volume(50)
low = True
print("vol 50")
See if you get any mileage from that?

Stopping a function based on a value

I am running a python script on a raspberry-pi.
Essentially, I would like a camera to take a picture every 5 seconds, but only if I have set a boolean to true, which gets toggled on a physical button.
initially I set it to true, and then in my while(true) loop, I want to check to see if the variable is set to true, and if so, start taking pictures every 5 seconds. The issue is if I use something like time time.sleep(5), it essentially freezes everything, including the check. Combine that with the fact that I am using debouncing for the button, it then becomes impossible for me to actually toggle the script since I would have to press it exactly after the 5s wait time, right for the value check... I've been searching around and I think the likely solution would have to include threading, but I can't wrap my head around it. One kind of workaround I thought of would be to look at the system time and if the seconds is a multiple of 5, then take picture (all within the main loop). This seems a bit sketchy.
Script below:
### Imports
from goprocam import GoProCamera, constants
import board
import digitalio
from adafruit_debouncer import Debouncer
import os
import shutil
import time
### GoPro settings
goproCamera = GoProCamera.GoPro()
### Button settings
pin = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D12)
pin.direction = digitalio.Direction.INPUT
pin.pull = digitalio.Pull.UP
switch = Debouncer(pin, interval=0.1)
save = False #this is the variable
while(True):
switch.update()
if switch.fell:
print("Pressed, toggling value")
save = not save
if save:
goproCamera.take_photo()
goproCamera.downloadLastMedia()
time.sleep(5)

Here's something to try:
while(True):
switch.update()
if switch.fell:
print("Pressed, toggling value")
save = not save
if save:
current_time = time.time()
if current_time - last_pic_time >= 5:
goproCamera.take_photo()
goproCamera.downloadLastMedia()
last_pic_time = current_time
Depending on exactly what sort of behavior you want, you may have to fiddle with when and how often time.time() is called.

Cheers!
Maybe something like this?
import threading
def set_interval(func, sec):
def func_wrapper():
set_interval(func, sec)
func()
t = threading.Timer(sec, func_wrapper)
t.start()
return t
We call the function above inside the main loop.
Wrap your while loop content on a function:
def take_photo:
goproCamera.take_photo()
goproCamera.downloadLastMedia()
Now we create a flag initially set to False to avoid creating multiple threads.
Notice that I did this before the while loop. We just need a starting value here.
active = False
while(True):
switch.update()
if switch.fell:
print("Pressed, toggling value")
save = not save
if save: # we need to start taking photos.
if not active: # it is not active... so it is the first time it is being called or it has been toggled to save as True again.
photo_thread = set_interval(take_photo, 5) # grabbing a handle to the thread - photo_thread - so we can cancel it later when save is set to False.
active = True # marking as active to be skipped from the loop until save is False
else:
try: # photo_thread may not exist yet so I wrapped it inside a try statement here.
photo_thread.cancel() # if we have a thread we kill it
active = False #setting to False so the next time the button is pressed we can create a new one.
Let me know if it works. =)

What I ended up doing:
### Imports
from goprocam import GoProCamera, constants
import board
import digitalio
from adafruit_debouncer import Debouncer
import os
import time
import threading
### GoPro settings
gopro = GoProCamera.GoPro()
### Button settings
pin = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D12)
pin.direction = digitalio.Direction.INPUT
pin.pull = digitalio.Pull.UP
switch = Debouncer(pin, interval=0.1)
### Picture save location
dir_path = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))
new_path = dir_path+"/pictures/"
save = False
### Functions
def takePhoto(e):
while e.isSet():
gopro.take_photo()
gopro.downloadLastMedia()
fname = '100GOPRO-' + gopro.getMedia().split("/")[-1]
current_file = dir_path+'/'+fname
if os.path.isfile(current_file):
os.replace(current_file, new_path+fname) #move file, would be cleaner to download the file directly to the right folder, but the API doesn't work the way I thought it did
e.wait(5)
### Initial settings
e = threading.Event()
t1 = threading.Thread(target=takePhoto, args=([e]))
print("Starting script")
while(True):
switch.update()
if switch.fell:
#toggle value
save = not save
if save:
e.set() #should be taking pictures
else:
e.clear() #not taking pictures
if not t1.is_alive(): #start the thread if it hasn't been yet
if e.is_set():
t1.start()

Play a random sequence of 4 sounds while a video is played in Psychopy?

I'm trying to create an experiment using Psychopy.
In the specific I'm trying to create a routine ("trial") where a video ("movie1") is presented and at the same time I would like to play a sequence of 4 sounds (one per second) randomly chosen from a list of 10 in an excel file (sounds.routine.xlsx).
Here's what I have done so far:
from __future__ import absolute_import, division
from psychopy import locale_setup
from psychopy import prefs
from psychopy import sound, gui, visual, core, data, event, logging, clock
from psychopy.constants import (NOT_STARTED, STARTED, PLAYING, PAUSED,
STOPPED, FINISHED, PRESSED, RELEASED, FOREVER)
import numpy as np # whole numpy lib is available, prepend 'np.'
from numpy import (sin, cos, tan, log, log10, pi, average,
sqrt, std, deg2rad, rad2deg, linspace, asarray)
from numpy.random import random, randint, normal, shuffle
import os # handy system and path functions
import sys # to get file system encoding
from psychopy.hardware import keyboard
# Ensure that relative paths start from the same directory as this script
_thisDir = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
os.chdir(_thisDir)
# Store info about the experiment session
psychopyVersion = '3.2.4'
expName = 'dsffdsfads' # from the Builder filename that created this script
expInfo = {'participant': '', 'session': '001'}
dlg = gui.DlgFromDict(dictionary=expInfo, sortKeys=False, title=expName)
if dlg.OK == False:
core.quit() # user pressed cancel
expInfo['date'] = data.getDateStr() # add a simple timestamp
expInfo['expName'] = expName
expInfo['psychopyVersion'] = psychopyVersion
# Data file name stem = absolute path + name; later add .psyexp, .csv, .log, etc
filename = _thisDir + os.sep + u'data/%s_%s_%s' % (expInfo['participant'], expName, expInfo['date'])
# An ExperimentHandler isn't essential but helps with data saving
thisExp = data.ExperimentHandler(name=expName, version='',
extraInfo=expInfo, runtimeInfo=None,
originPath='/Users/Documents/dsffdsfads.py',
savePickle=True, saveWideText=True,
dataFileName=filename)
# save a log file for detail verbose info
logFile = logging.LogFile(filename+'.log', level=logging.EXP)
logging.console.setLevel(logging.WARNING) # this outputs to the screen, not a file
endExpNow = False # flag for 'escape' or other condition => quit the exp
frameTolerance = 0.001 # how close to onset before 'same' frame
# Start Code - component code to be run before the window creation
# Setup the Window
win = visual.Window(
size=(1024, 768), fullscr=True, screen=0,
winType='pyglet', allowGUI=False, allowStencil=False,
monitor='testMonitor', color=[0,0,0], colorSpace='rgb',
blendMode='avg', useFBO=True,
units='height')
# store frame rate of monitor if we can measure it
expInfo['frameRate'] = win.getActualFrameRate()
if expInfo['frameRate'] != None:
frameDur = 1.0 / round(expInfo['frameRate'])
else:
frameDur = 1.0 / 60.0 # could not measure, so guess
# create a default keyboard (e.g. to check for escape)
defaultKeyboard = keyboard.Keyboard()
# Initialize components for Routine "trial"
trialClock = core.Clock()
sound1 = sound.Sound(Sounds, secs=-1, stereo=True, hamming=True,
name='sound1')
sound1.setVolume(1)
movie1 = visual.MovieStim3(
win=win, name='movie1',
noAudio = True,
filename='Movies/Random_4.mp4',
ori=0, pos=(0, 0), opacity=1,
loop=False,
depth=-1.0,
)
from np.random import choice
# Create some handy timers
globalClock = core.Clock() # to track the time since experiment started
routineTimer = core.CountdownTimer() # to track time remaining of each (non-slip) routine
# set up handler to look after randomisation of conditions etc
trials = data.TrialHandler(nReps=1, method='random',
extraInfo=expInfo, originPath=-1,
trialList=data.importConditions('../Desktop/Countingpuppet/sounds_routine.xlsx', selection=choice(10, size = 4, replace = False)),
seed=None, name='trials')
thisExp.addLoop(trials) # add the loop to the experiment
thisTrial = trials.trialList[0] # so we can initialise stimuli with some values
# abbreviate parameter names if possible (e.g. rgb = thisTrial.rgb)
if thisTrial != None:
for paramName in thisTrial:
exec('{} = thisTrial[paramName]'.format(paramName))
for thisTrial in trials:
currentLoop = trials
# abbreviate parameter names if possible (e.g. rgb = thisTrial.rgb)
if thisTrial != None:
for paramName in thisTrial:
exec('{} = thisTrial[paramName]'.format(paramName))
# ------Prepare to start Routine "trial"-------
# update component parameters for each repeat
sound1.setSound(Sounds, hamming=True)
sound1.setVolume(1, log=False)
# keep track of which components have finished
trialComponents = [sound1, movie1]
for thisComponent in trialComponents:
thisComponent.tStart = None
thisComponent.tStop = None
thisComponent.tStartRefresh = None
thisComponent.tStopRefresh = None
if hasattr(thisComponent, 'status'):
thisComponent.status = NOT_STARTED
# reset timers
t = 0
_timeToFirstFrame = win.getFutureFlipTime(clock="now")
trialClock.reset(-_timeToFirstFrame) # t0 is time of first possible flip
frameN = -1
continueRoutine = True
# -------Run Routine "trial"-------
while continueRoutine:
# get current time
t = trialClock.getTime()
tThisFlip = win.getFutureFlipTime(clock=trialClock)
tThisFlipGlobal = win.getFutureFlipTime(clock=None)
frameN = frameN + 1 # number of completed frames (so 0 is the first frame)
# update/draw components on each frame
# start/stop sound1
if sound1.status == NOT_STARTED and tThisFlip >= 0.0-frameTolerance:
# keep track of start time/frame for later
sound1.frameNStart = frameN # exact frame index
sound1.tStart = t # local t and not account for scr refresh
sound1.tStartRefresh = tThisFlipGlobal # on global time
sound1.play(when=win) # sync with win flip
# *movie1* updates
if movie1.status == NOT_STARTED and tThisFlip >= 0.0-frameTolerance:
# keep track of start time/frame for later
movie1.frameNStart = frameN # exact frame index
movie1.tStart = t # local t and not account for scr refresh
movie1.tStartRefresh = tThisFlipGlobal # on global time
win.timeOnFlip(movie1, 'tStartRefresh') # time at next scr refresh
movie1.setAutoDraw(True)
# check for quit (typically the Esc key)
if endExpNow or defaultKeyboard.getKeys(keyList=["escape"]):
core.quit()
# check if all components have finished
if not continueRoutine: # a component has requested a forced-end of Routine
break
continueRoutine = False # will revert to True if at least one component still running
for thisComponent in trialComponents:
if hasattr(thisComponent, "status") and thisComponent.status != FINISHED:
continueRoutine = True
break # at least one component has not yet finished
# refresh the screen
if continueRoutine: # don't flip if this routine is over or we'll get a blank screen
win.flip()
# -------Ending Routine "trial"-------
for thisComponent in trialComponents:
if hasattr(thisComponent, "setAutoDraw"):
thisComponent.setAutoDraw(False)
sound1.stop() # ensure sound has stopped at end of routine
trials.addData('sound1.started', sound1.tStartRefresh)
trials.addData('sound1.stopped', sound1.tStopRefresh)
trials.addData('movie1.started', movie1.tStartRefresh)
trials.addData('movie1.stopped', movie1.tStopRefresh)
# the Routine "trial" was not non-slip safe, so reset the non-slip timer
routineTimer.reset()
thisExp.nextEntry()
# completed 1 repeats of 'trials'
# Flip one final time so any remaining win.callOnFlip()
# and win.timeOnFlip() tasks get executed before quitting
win.flip()
# these shouldn't be strictly necessary (should auto-save)
thisExp.saveAsWideText(filename+'.csv')
thisExp.saveAsPickle(filename)
logging.flush()
# make sure everything is closed down
thisExp.abort() # or data files will save again on exit
win.close()
core.quit()
The problem is that using np.choice only one number is reproduced and not the entire sequence of four randomly chosen numbers without repetitions. How can I do this?
Thanks in advance

Not tested, but something like this:
FPS = 60 # Frame rate of your monitor
from random import choice
from psychopy import visual, sound
win = visual.Window()
movie = visual.MovieStim(win, 'my_file.avi')
sounds = [sound.Sound('sound1.wav'), sound.Sound('sound2.wav'), sound.Sound('sound3.wav'), sound.Sound('sound4.wav')]
frame = 1
while movie.status != visual.FINISHED:
movie.draw() # Show the next frame of the movie
if frame % FPS == 0: # If a second has passed
choice(sounds).play() # Play a random sound

How to play a sound when a value increases by 1 between loops? What does the code look like that identifies the increment by 1?

I have designed and created a program using Python 3 that reads unread messages in my Gmail inbox under two labels.
By using tkinter I have two lovely boxes that display the total messages in each label. One for sales of one particular product and the other for another.
They use the update loop to recheck each label every few seconds.
Then after the business day, I use a cleanup script in Gmail that flushes the inboxes two labels.
The program is for use on my team's sales floor. They can see daily, the number of sales, and get a real-time readout to the success of certain marketing campaigns. It has done wonders for morale.
Now I would like to implement some sounds when sales go up. A cliche bell ring, a "chhaaaching" perhaps, you get the drift.
So, I am currently tackling with my limited knowledge and have searched all throughout StackOverflow and other sites for an answer. My guess is that I need something like the following...
"if an integer value changes on the next loop from it's previous value, by an increment of 1 play soundA, or, play soundB if that value decreases by 1."
I can't for the life of me figure out what would be the term for 'increases by 1', I am also clueless on how to attach a sound to any changes made to the integer on the proceeding loop. Help!!
If I wasn't clear enough, I am more than happy to explain and go into this further.
Thank you so much guys.
Here is my code as it stands so far...
#! /usr/bin/python3
import imaplib
import email
import tkinter as tk
WIDTH = 1000
HEIGHT = 100
def update():
mail=imaplib.IMAP4_SSL('imap.gmail.com',993)
mail.login('email#gmail.com','MyPassword')
mail.select("Submissions")
typ, messageIDs = mail.search(None, "UNSEEN")
FirstDataSetSUBS = str(messageIDs[0], encoding='utf8')
if FirstDataSetSUBS == '':
info1['text'] = 'no submissions'
else:
SecondDataSetSUBS = FirstDataSetSUBS.split(" ")
nosubs = len(SecondDataSetSUBS)
nosubs = int(nosubs)
info1['text'] = '{} submission[s]'.format(nosubs)
subs.after(1000, update)
def update_2():
mail=imaplib.IMAP4_SSL('imap.gmail.com',993)
mail.login('email#gmail.com','MyPassword')
mail.select("Memberships")
typ, messageIDs = mail.search(None, "UNSEEN")
FirstDataSetMSGS = str(messageIDs[0], encoding='utf8')
if FirstDataSetMSGS == '':
info2['text'] = 'no memberships'
else:
SecondDataSetMSGS = FirstDataSetMSGS.split(" ")
memberships = len(SecondDataSetMSGS)
memberships = int(memberships)
info2['text'] = '{} membership[s]'.format(memberships)
membs.after(1000, update_2)
membs = tk.Tk()
subs = tk.Tk()
membs.title('memberships counter')
membs.configure(background="black")
subs.title('submissions counter')
subs.configure(background="black")
x = (subs.winfo_screenwidth()//5) - (WIDTH//5)
y = (subs.winfo_screenheight()//5) - (HEIGHT//5)
subs.geometry('{}x{}+{}+{}'.format(WIDTH, HEIGHT, x, y))
info1 = tk.Label(subs, text='nothing to display', bg="black", fg="green", font="Lucida_Console 40")
info1.pack()
x = (membs.winfo_screenwidth()//2) - (WIDTH//2)
y = (membs.winfo_screenheight()//2) - (HEIGHT//2)
membs.geometry('{}x{}+{}+{}'.format(WIDTH, HEIGHT, x, y))
info2 = tk.Label(membs, text='nothing to display', bg="black", fg="red", font="Lucida_Console 40")
info2.pack()
update()
update_2()
membs.mainloop
subs.mainloop()

for playing audio you can use pyaudio module
in ubuntu, install by pip3 install pyaudio include sudo if required
import pygame
pygame.init()
increased=0
inc_music=pygame.mixer.music
dec_music=pygame.mixer.music
inc_music.load("/home/pratik/Documents/pos.wav")
dec_music.load("/home/pratik/Documents/neg.wav")
def get_inc():
global increased
a=increased
return a
def pl():
global inc_music
global dec_music
while True:
increased=get_inc()
if increased == 1:
inc_music.play()
increased=increased-1
elif increased == -1:
dec_music.play()
increased=increased+1
here increased is a global variable. Make sure whenever your sales is increased it is set to +1 and whenever it is decreased it is set to -1 and call pl function in a separate thread by using threading library in the background. Since, it is a forever loop it will continuosly run in background and ring the bells.
from threading import Thread
th=Thread(target=pl)
th.setDaemon(True)
th.start()
While writing the above I assumed at a moment there is either an increase or a decrease in sales, both dont occour simultaneously. If they do, use another global variable decreased which is also initialised with 0 and decreased by -1 each time decrease in sales. And return both of them from get_inc() .

Below code produces a label that gets updated randomly, and plays the sound files located in "C:\Windows\Media\" based on the change:
import tkinter as tk
import random
from playsound import playsound
def sound(is_positive=True):
if is_positive:
playsound(r"C:\Windows\Media\chimes.wav", False)
else:
playsound(r"C:\Windows\Media\chord.wav", False)
def random_update():
_old = label['text']
_new = random.randint(1, 100)
if _new > _old: # use (_new - _old) == 1 for checking
sound() # increment of 1 exclusively
elif _new < _old: # use (_new - _old) == -1 for checking
sound(False) # decrement of 1 exclusively
label['text'] = _new
label.after(2000, random_update)
if __name__ == '__main__':
root = tk.Tk()
label = tk.Label(root, text=1)
label.after(2000, random_update)
label.pack()
root.mainloop()
playsound is not a built-in package so it needs to be installed separately. You can install using:
pip install playsound
or:
python -m pip install playsound
in the command prompt on windows.

Generating consecutive bitmaps with wxPython trouble

Well, while I don't consider myself an experienced programmer, especially when it comes to multimedia applications, I had to do this image viewer sort of a program that displays images fullscreen, and the images change when the users press <- or -> arrows.
The general idea was to make a listbox where all the images contained in a certain folder (imgs) are shown, and when someone does double click or hits RETURN a new, fullscreen frame is generated containing, at first, the image selected in the listbox but after the user hits the arrows the images change in conecutive order, just like in a regular image viewer.
At the beginning, when the first 15 - 20 images are generated, everything goes well, after that, although the program still works an intermediary, very unpleasant and highly unwanted, effect appears between image generations, where basically some images that got generated previously are displayed quickly on the screen and after this the right, consecutive image appears. On the first apparitions the effect is barelly noticeble, but after a while it takes longer and longer between generations.
Here's the code that runs when someone does double click on a listbox entry:
def lbclick(self, eve):
frm = wx.Frame(None, -1, '')
frm.ShowFullScreen(True)
self.sel = self.lstb.GetSelection() # getting the selection from the listbox
def pressk(eve):
keys = eve.GetKeyCode()
if keys == wx.WXK_LEFT:
self.sel = self.sel - 1
if self.sel < 0:
self.sel = len(self.chk) - 1
imgs() # invocking the function made for displaying fullscreen images when left arrow key is pressed
elif keys == wx.WXK_RIGHT:
self.sel = self.sel + 1
if self.sel > len(self.chk) - 1:
self.sel = 0
imgs() # doing the same for the right arrow
elif keys == wx.WXK_ESCAPE:
frm.Destroy()
eve.Skip()
frm.Bind(wx.EVT_CHAR_HOOK, pressk)
def imgs(): # building the function
imgsl = self.chk[self.sel]
itm = wx.Image(str('imgs/{0}'.format(imgsl)), wx.BITMAP_TYPE_JPEG).ConvertToBitmap() # obtaining the name of the image stored in the list self.chk
mar = itm.Size # Because not all images are landscaped I had to figure a method to rescale them after height dimension, which is common to all images
frsz = frm.GetSize()
marx = float(mar[0])
mary = float(mar[1])
val = frsz[1] / mary
vsize = int(mary * val)
hsize = int(marx * val)
panl = wx.Panel(frm, -1, size = (hsize, vsize), pos = (frsz[0] / 2 - hsize / 2, 0)) # making a panel container
panl.SetBackgroundColour('#000000')
imag = wx.Image(str('imgs/{0}'.format(imgsl)), wx.BITMAP_TYPE_JPEG).Scale(hsize, vsize, quality = wx.IMAGE_QUALITY_NORMAL).ConvertToBitmap()
def destr(eve): # unprofessionaly trying to destroy the panel container when a new image is generated hopeing the unvanted effect, with previous generated images will disappear. But it doesn't.
keycd = eve.GetKeyCode()
if keycd == wx.WXK_LEFT or keycd == wx.WXK_RIGHT:
try:
panl.Destroy()
except:
pass
eve.Skip()
panl.Bind(wx.EVT_CHAR_HOOK, destr) # the end of my futile tries
if vsize > hsize: # if the image is portrait instead of landscaped I have to put a black image as a container, otherwise in the background the previous image will remain, even if I use Refresh() on the container (the black bitmap named fundal)
intermed = wx.Image('./res/null.jpg', wx.BITMAP_TYPE_JPEG).Scale(frsz[0], frsz[1]).ConvertToBitmap()
fundal = wx.StaticBitmap(frm, 101, intermed)
stimag = wx.StaticBitmap(fundal, -1, imag, size = (hsize, vsize), pos = (frsz[0] / 2 - hsize / 2, 0))
fundal.Refresh()
stimag.SetToolTip(wx.ToolTip('Esc = exits fullscreen\n<- -> arrows = quick navigation'))
def destr(eve): # the same lame attempt to destroy the container in the portarit images situation
keycd = eve.GetKeyCode()
if keycd == wx.WXK_LEFT or keycd == wx.WXK_RIGHT:
try:
fundal.Destroy()
except:
pass
eve.Skip()
frm.Bind(wx.EVT_CHAR_HOOK, destr)
else: # the case when the images are landscape
stimag = wx.StaticBitmap(panl, -1, imag)
stimag.Refresh()
stimag.SetToolTip(wx.ToolTip('Esc = exits fullscreen\n<- -> arrows = quick navigation'))
imgs() # invocking the function imgs for the situation when someone does double click
frm.Center()
frm.Show(True)
Thanks for any advice in advance.
Added later:
The catch is I'm trying to do an autorun presentation for a DVD with lots of images on it. Anyway it's not necessarely to make the above piece of code work properly if there are any other options. I've already tried to use windows image viewer, but strangely enough it doesn't recognizes relative paths and when I do this
path = os.getcwd() # getting the path of the current working directory
sel = listbox.GetSelection() # geting the value of the current selection from the list box
imgname = memlist[sel] # retrieving the name of the images stored in a list, using the listbox selection, that uses as choices the same list
os.popen(str('rundll32.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\shimgvw.dll,ImageView_Fullscreen {0}/imgsdir/{1}'.format(path, imgname))) # oepning the images up with bloody windows image viewer
it opens the images only when my program is on the hard disk, if it's on a CD / image drive it doesn't do anything.

There's an image viewer included with the wxPython demo package. I also wrote a really simple one here. Either one should help you in your journey. I suspect that you're not reusing your panels/frames and instead you're seeing old ones that were never properly destroyed.