Compressed Show files Decaching?

[bob_moody]

Here is an event I have not seen before while running the LOR Show player.

After/while loading all the compressed sequences for a show. Suddenly, several of them start to decache.

12:26:03 PM: Loading compressed sequence: C:\Documents and Settings\Bob\My Documents\Light-O-Rama\Sequences\The Christmas Song.lms.lcs
12:26:07 PM: Loading compressed sequence: C:\Documents and Settings\Bob\My Documents\Light-O-Rama\Sequences\Waltz of the Snowflakes.lms.lcs
12:26:14 PM: Decaching Startup: C:\Documents and Settings\Bob\My Documents\Light-O-Rama\Sequences\X10 Startup.las.lcs
12:26:14 PM: Decaching Musical: C:\Documents and Settings\Bob\My Documents\Light-O-Rama\Sequences\SantaSightings.lms.lcs
12:26:14 PM: Decaching Musical: C:\Documents and Settings\Bob\My Documents\Light-O-Rama\Sequences\AnnounceMsg.lms.lcs
12:26:14 PM: Decaching Musical: C:\Documents and Settings\Bob\My Documents\Light-O-Rama\Sequences\Blue Christmas.lms.lcs
12:26:14 PM: Decaching Musical: C:\Documents and Settings\Bob\My Documents\Light-O-Rama\Sequences\Do You Hear What I Hear.lms.lcs

 

Can someone shed some light on what may be happening here? 

I have also attached the full text file of the log from startup to where I stopped it in the interest of full disclosure. 

Thanks for the help ... 

Bob 

statusLog.txt

[PhilMassey]

I think it occurs when you choose to "load all sequences before any are played" in the show editor, and I'm guessing, the PC runs out of memory to keep them all loaded and has to unload some.

I chose not to use that option for that reason and if I recall correctly for the long delay in loading my 40 some sequences.

[bob_moody]

Thanks for the reply Phil.

I have always used that option and never seen this until S4. 

That being said, I am running the same play list I had last year BUT...... I did add 3 new props (Boscoyo Chromahat and 2 Boscoyo ChromaTrees)

I had observed and question the considerable increase in sequence size over last year. Both LMS and LCS files. 

The machine is a Dell Inspiron 1300 laptop. Pretty lame by todays standards but has been a workhorse as a LOR show player. 

Single Celeron processor and 2GB of RAM running Windows XP.

When running the show:

CPU varies from 13 to 35%

Memory is fairly consistent between 1.2 and 1.41GB

Networking is rock solid at 3% (100MB nic) 

Bob

 

 

[PhilMassey]

The total size of all of my .LCS files is approaching 3 GB. My desktop has 8GB of ram and I do remember the decaching going on when I tried the Load all before, option.

I doubt that I was out of memory but who really knows what Windows is really doing back there.

I find compressed sequences load quickly enough anyway.

I don't think I ever even needed compressed sequences before S4 anyway. Looks like the LCS is roughly two thirds of the LMS file, depending on content type, I suppose.

 

Phil

[bob_moody]

Your size observation is about what I'm seeing as well. 

The show is somewhat behaving better now. I think I have only thrown 1 error in about 3 hours of running .. 

MUCH better than what I was seeing earlier. I did rework everything and the verifier is only showing warnings about channels not being turned on which in this case is expected. 

I think the verifier needs to look at the whole RGB pixel not just 3 individual channels. The warnings are coming up on the hat part of my Chromahat. It's turned on red and stays there. The blue and green pixels are never used. The pixel is being used but not all three channels so it throws warnings on the B ad G parts... no biggie.. its can be explained. 

I will try turning off the load all sequences and see what happens. I'm currently playing with a 3 sec delay between songs.

I'll see how the playback is affected. This may be a good opportunity to get Sandra a new laptop  use her old one ( i would at least get dual core, 4GB and and SSD drive) for a show computer and retire the old Dell 1300 to the workshop. 

 

Bob 

[PhilMassey]

Are your files local on the laptop or on a network.

 

[bob_moody]

Local on the laptop. 

 

[PhilMassey]

Just wondered since I was getting delays when I was loading from a network drive, and moving them to the local drive eliminated the delay.

[bob_moody]

Well your suggestion made a big impact!!! 

I reconfigured the show to load as needed. I'm not seeing any real extra time delay between songs and memory usage has dropped from 1.4 Gigs to 436 Megs.

I'll run it for a while and see how it goes on some of the larger sequences and get back to you.. 

THANK YOU VERY MUCH ... for the advice ... 

Bob 

[bob_moody]

Still having issues ... (arrrghhhh)

I noticed that as each song loaded and played the memory usage increased. Not releasing?? 

BUT.. the kicker is, as I reported in another post I am seeing errors during playback in the command window. When i was preloading and a song threw an error everything continued on. Now the show stops and wont load the next song. Memory is at about 1GB but everything appears locked up on the player. 

If you or someone could take a look at thread:

This will explain the command window errors I am seeing. 

Bob 

[dougd]

When creating the show, pick load sequences as needed.

In the control panel, use compressed sequences needs to be checked and also show player memory restarts needs to be checked. I believe that is what I do.

[bob_moody]

Thank you Doug... that is exactly what I have set 

Bob 

 

[dougd]

So I ran about 10 sequences today and had to make a change to my settings. With show play memory restarts, lor monitor locked up, via the task manager the memory used by the lor monitor was at 3.5 gig. I unchecked show player memory restarts and everything ran perfect after that. I did see status's that sequences were decaching but the show ran perfect.