Major problem - Losing audio as the night progresses

[Tim Fischer]

I just filed a trouble ticket with the text below. I'm wondering if anyone else has seen this and has a workaround or something. As I can't always be home when the show is running, and even when I am I usually verify everything's ok by verifying the lights are still flashing (which in this case, they still are) this is very concerning! It happened 2 nights ago and now again tonight

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I've had this happen several times this year now, and tonight I finally figured out what is going on.

Basically I'm losing audio in my show. The only way I can get it back is to disable shows, and then re-enable them.

Tonight I noticed the radio station was much softer than usual. I went and checked the computer levels, and they were set where I would expect. I actually cranked the level to the top of the slider and it still wasn't where I would normally have it. I made a mental note to look at it after the show shut down for the night.

But... The last sequence of the night, which started playing right before the show controller went into shutdown mode - I had no audio at all. The lights all flashed, I got video (I do a video show), but no audio. System sounds worked. I ended up playing my "thanks for stopping" mp3 file which goes in the shutdown tab manually via Windows Media Player, and probably blew a few people's ears out as it was VERY loud as I had cranked the sliders way up.

Just to try a test, I used "Show on Demand" to queue up my off-hours music show. There was still no audio. So, I disabled shows, then tried the show on demand again. Now, everything was normal, and I had proper levels once again.

Something in LOR is causing the volume to decrease and then go completely off as the show progresses. I'm not sure if this is another memory leak or something else.

I should have noted I'm running 3.5.2 - but also saw the issue with 3.5.0

[Tim Fischer]

As I feared, I'm probably the only one who's ever seen this. Great. :-/

And of course this had to happen on a weekend, which means I probably won't hear back from anyone who can help me at LOR until Monday at the earliest. Ugh.

[ItsMeBobO]

Something like this actually did happen to me. In my case it was embarrassing as it turned out to be completely my fault. On the keyboard there is a mute and volume control. It was getting pressed and turning off the volume without me realizing it. I thought the sound board went out and moved my show to a different computer. Later I found looking at the Volume mixer board which has each program listed with a sound level, that it was muted.

I dont pay attention to all those extra keys but somehow they were getting pressed. Maybe you should try a different keyboard?

This probably isnt it... but it was worth mentioning.

Edited December 15, 2012 by ItsMeBobO

[Tim Fischer]

Something like this actually did happen to me. In my case it was embarrassing as it turned out to be completely my fault. On the keyboard there is a mute and volume control. It was getting pressed and turning off the volume without me realizing it. I thought the sound board went out and moved my show to a different computer. Later I found looking at the Volume mixer board which has each program listed with a sound level, that it was muted.

I dont pay attention to all those extra keys but somehow they were getting pressed. Maybe you should try a different keyboard?

This probably isnt it... but it was worth mentioning.

I'm willing to entertain *any* suggestions at this point. But my keyboard is a bare-bones basic one - no volume controls. I brought up the "advanced" mixer in Win7, there were three sliders: One called "Speakers", one called "System Sounds", and one called "Light-o-Rama". The LOR one was where I would expect (and I maxed it out just to try it) and I was still getting zero audio *only from LOR*. Since this happened right at the end of our display hours, I kept it in the "bad" state for awhile, just to see if I could get it back before restarting the control panel. I was able to play Windows Media Player content, system sounds, basically any other sound, so long as it didin't come from the LOR player. Once I disabled shows and re-enabled them, all was well (with no other changes). To me, this indicates it's an LOR problem of some sort (or at least a problem with how LOR integrates with WMP)

[Tim Fischer]

OK this might be user error after all. Thanks to a tip from Reg Wertz, I discovered that while a video is playing (in my second monitor, which goes to the projector in the yard), if I mouse to that window, and use the scroll wheel, it adjusts the volume of **only the audio in LOR**. And it stays that way until I adjust it back, or reset the control panel.

It's highly possible that I attempted to scroll something on the computer last night and hit the wrong window by accident.

If that's the case, my crash from the other night might be related to the original memory leak problem (which I have now instaled the update for), and this one might be my own dumb fault.

I'll keep everyone posted. Cross your fingers for me!

[jeffl]

If it is; you need to cross your fingers.

[George Simmons]

Tim, I find it strange to be crossing my fingers and hoping that you're a dumb blithering idiot with the brains of a rutabaga, but for a friend I'll do it.

[LOR Staff]

Tim -- I replied back with some tech stuff to your ticket. Did the show run OK last night?

[Guest Don Gillespie]

Tim I lost most of my fingers on a table saw, I could cross my toes if that helps, or I could wait untill your show starts tonight and you tell us everything is working fine, please let me know because it is hard to put shoes on with crossed toes. hope it works for you.

[LOR Staff]

Tim -- is the show running OK right now??

[Tim Fischer]

Sorry, been crazy busy. Last night's show didn't run at all but that's the weather's fault, not LOR's (I cancelled the show as it was pouring rain on top of the foot of snow that was already burying many of my connections)

Tonight's ran flawlessly. Let's hope it starts a trend

Thanks for checking back with me. You can be sure I'll let you know if I have more problems But I'm hoping that the original hang was due to the memory leak which is now fixed by the new release, and the second issue was because I'm a "dumb blithering idiot with the brains of a rutabaga" as George so eloquently put it

[Tim Fischer]

Is it possible to make it so that clicking on the full-screen video monitor doesn't stop the sequence, and that scrolling the wheel doesn't affect the volume? Or does WMP pretty much tie your hands there?

[jimswinder]

I'm a "dumb blithering idiot with the brains of a rutabaga" as George so eloquently put it

George eloquent??

[Guest wbottomley]

Tim.... why were you on mute for so long?

[jeffl]

I'm sending relatives to investigate on Wednesday beings I'm too far away to do it myself.

[Tim Fischer]

Tim.... why were you on mute for so long?

This weekend has been crazy. I played in 3 concerts today. Each one had an hour+ rehearsal beforehand. The last one had an after-party. I was home for an hour in the afternoon repairing some damage to the display from yesterdays rains. Finally got back home about 9pm and someone on FB told me I was being paged on the forums lol

[LOR Staff]

Is it possible to make it so that clicking on the full-screen video monitor doesn't stop the sequence, and that scrolling the wheel doesn't affect the volume? Or does WMP pretty much tie your hands there?

It's all WMPs fault.

We will probably be switching away from WMP next year and going with a separate integrated commercial product. I can't tell you the number of issues we have because of WMP, both directly and indirectly (like conversions for the beat wizard/etc).

I don't know if this new product has the same issue or not, but I do know it's a little more friendly when it comes to full screen video.

[Tim Fischer]

Unfortunately, that's a

It's all WMPs fault.

We will probably be switching away from WMP next year and going with a separate integrated commercial product. I can't tell you the number of issues we have because of WMP, both directly and indirectly (like conversions for the beat wizard/etc).

I don't know if this new product has the same issue or not, but I do know it's a little more friendly when it comes to full screen video.

Please, please *pretty please* tell me that this new product gets rid of the annoying flash of a window frame when each video starts as the sequences switch... It probably bothers nobody but me, but I hate it and think it looks unprofessional.

[George Simmons]

George eloquent??

I think it was the rutabaga part that added the dash of eloquence.

I was debating whether to forego that part but Tim's a friend, so I thought I'd help him out.

[Tim Fischer]

OK, maybe I"m not such a rudabega-brain after all. Tonight some friends stopped by and texted me they were out watching. As we were talking to them, the audio went out. I obviously wasn't on the computer at the time.

I ran inside (almost doing a wipe-out on the ice in the process) and noted the cursor was on the "second" monitor. I rolled up the wheel, and audio came right back.

So, one of two things is happening:

1) LOR is turning down the volume randomly, or

2) My mouse is navigating to the second monitor (pretty sure I didn't leave it there) and sending scroll events on its own. The mouse is wireless, so it isn't entirely impossible.

Thoughts?