Simple Show Builder and G3-MP3 errors...

[dansamy]

I'm getting an error that my mp3 file is not located, but they are in the audio folder. Any help?

[dansamy]

Ok. I tested it also with the sequences from LOR that came on the SD card. I KNOW those self installed to the default folder. Same error. Any ideas?

[dansamy]

Here's a picture of the error. I'm almost certain this means the show builder is looking for the file in a different location than where it currently is, but I have no idea where I need to move the audio files to in order for it to correctly locate them.

[Orville]

Are the .lms and .mp3 files in the same place on the SD Card?  If not, that's a problem.

i.e. the root directory, the SD card should NOT have any folders on it at all, you create the shows from the Hardware Utility, you just can't copy the files to the SD Card, a lot of folks make that error.

But all files should be together on the SD Card in the Root directory of the card, lms and .mp3 both.  As when the show is created via the HWU, the MP3 and Sequence get married and run as one in the Director units.

You go to the MP3 tab in the HWU to set up and create your shows, as long as your folders on your hard drive have not moved or changed from when you created your sequence, the HWU needs only the .lms file, but if the audio file was moved from where the sequence initially found it, you will get those errors that the audio file is missing.   You need to be sure the sequence KNOWS EXACTLY where the MP3 you used is located for everything to work together and not get those missing MP3 messages.

Edited October 26, 2018 by Orville

[GriswoldStyle]

simple show Builder was tricky... If I recall, for the simple show Builder your sequence files need to be in the lightorama directory under sequences. Also the audio needs to be located in the lightoRama directory under audio.

If you put them in any other folder or if the media file in the sequence is listed as a different folder this will not work. You will need to copy those files into the proper folders. if I'm incorrect someone please correct me I know I had issues with simple show builder when I first started.

Now rather than using it that way on the simple show Builder you can do it directly from the hardware utility and manually do the MP3 tab. I find that one is much easier to work with.

 

Edited October 26, 2018 by GriswoldStyle

[GriswoldStyle]

1 hour ago, dansamy said:

ut I have no idea where I need to move the audio files to in order for it to correctly locate them.

 

As Orville said, it's a lot easier to go through the hardware utility and just click on the MP3 tab you can add your songs there and completely bypass the simple show Builder. the simple show builder was always a pain for me so I just go through the hardware utility.

Edited October 26, 2018 by GriswoldStyle

[Orville]

54 minutes ago, GriswoldStyle said:

As Orville said, it's a lot easier to go through the hardware utility and just click on the MP3 tab you can add your songs there and completely bypass the simple show Builder. the simple show Bill Burr was always a pain for me so I just go through the hardware utility.

Yes, use the HWU, then  your files can be in ANY FOLDER, ANYWHERE on your computer, if using the SSB to create a show for an SD Card in an Director, ALL FILES, Sequences and their sub-files: .lcs, .lsv, .lms and the MP3 files ALL must be in the main {root area} of the Sequences Folder for the SSB to locate them and marry them as one into a show.

The HWU will give you more flexibility in creating your shows and you don't have to go moving all your files into one directory, then moving them out and new ones for the next show put in their place, i.e. Halloween then Christmas, because if you keep adding sequences for various holidays, sooner or later you're going to have a mess, you may end up having 4th of July and Halloween sequences playing during your Christmas Show, and since the props on the controllers are probably going to be different for each Holiday, you're going to have some lights coming on and others off when you don't expect them to be.

All my files are in separate folders for the different Holidays, Christmas, Halloween and each has sub-folders, such as 2018, again divided into more sub-folders such as Completed, WIP {Work in Progress}, Semi-Complete  that way I know where sequences are that are ready to go, and those I still need to work on to get ready.   Audio files are also categorized by Holiday or Music, i.e. Halloween, Christmas, Memorial Day, Easter, Christian, Soundtrack, Sound Effects{usually WAV files}, Rock, etc.  Many will have sub-folders for "Edits" when I remove extraneous silence or if I want to shorten a song down.  Or like under Christmas, Rock, Traditional, Mellow,....etc., etc.   All depends on what you're comfortable with.

But I definitely recommend the HWU for creating your shows on an SD Card, again more options and depending on your Director unit, you can set start and end times for your show, providing your Director unit has the built in clock option.  And it's not as restrictive or limited as the SSB is.

 

[dansamy]

I think OneDrive was PART of the problem. I had no idea that Windows 10 was helpfully putting all my files into OneDrive. Which means of course SSB can't find them. I think I will figure out this HWU deal. It sounds like that will solve my problem. I hope. Y'all. I even uninstalled and reinstalled LOR. I'm sure I've made a mess of my files now. Speaking of, do i have to re-register with my key when I uninstall and reinstall on the same PC or does it automatically recognize that it's the same PC?

[Mr. P]

First thing I did when I got my new computer was delete onedrive, it's just Microsfts ploy to get you on their cloud.

[PhilMassey]

Shouldn't have to re register, unless you did the registry wipe. 

[Orville]

When re-installing, there is a chance you may have to also re-enter your license key, if so, you might have to re-register, but doubtful. 

For the most part, all you should ever need to do is possibly re-enter your license key, you will also possibly have to tell it where you want to store your sequences again, other than those, everything else should be good and just like you originally set it up.

Edited October 26, 2018 by Orville

[Orville]

I use OneDrive, but only those that are associated with my e-mail accounts, I don't link ANYTHING from my computer to them, but I do upload things to OneDrive that I may wish to share with others and provide a link to them.  Other than that, NOTHING ever gets auto-uploaded there.

[dansamy]

6 hours ago, Orville said:

I use OneDrive, but only those that are associated with my e-mail accounts, I don't link ANYTHING from my computer to them, but I do upload things to OneDrive that I may wish to share with others and provide a link to them.  Other than that, NOTHING ever gets auto-uploaded there.

Well, I apparently missed the info that OneDrive was "helping" me automatically. I had to turn off syncing my files. 

[Orville]

11 hours ago, dansamy said:

Well, I apparently missed the info that OneDrive was "helping" me automatically. I had to turn off syncing my files. 

Must be something inherent with newer versions of Windows.  I'm using Windows 7 Home Edition and I have my files synced, but I've never had Windows auto-upload my files for me.   If it did that, instead of keeping them where I want them{or where I originally put them} I'd be a bit miffed, especially when it came time to create a show and files weren't being found because of that.  

I'll NEVER understand why the Microsoft people {read: IDIOTS} can't comprehend folks don't want stuff like this to occur without them knowing about it.  MS: Here let's just turn this auto-uploader on and not tell anyone it's doing this for them

Just not a smart thing to do in my opinion!

.

[dansamy]

Ok. I was able to create a show and write to SD successfully. Then, made changes and now back to can't find file. Seriously? And that's using HWU this time. I have to be missing some small, yet important, piece of information. 

[Orville]

9 hours ago, dansamy said:

Ok. I was able to create a show and write to SD successfully. Then, made changes and now back to can't find file. Seriously? And that's using HWU this time. I have to be missing some small, yet important, piece of information. 

None of the programs are going to automatically locate the file, you have to remember where you saved it too.

There are two ways to locate it:

Option #1. Use the SE

The easiest one being the SE itself, open SE, then open the sequence load option, locate the sequence you modified, load it into SE and be sure it's the right one that you made the changes to, if it is, click on Save As, this will show you what folder it was saved in {opening it also shows the folder, but if you saved the same modified file in a different folder, you'll have to open different folders until you find it, then it's easier to use the 2nd option below to locate it.  If you were successful in locating with the SE, close SE, open HWU and Add the modified file to your SD Card, if it's the same name it'll ask if you want to overwrite it or possibly the entire SD card.  If you used a different name, best to RECREATE the show using the new file, so you don't have both the old unmodified file with the new renamed file in your show.

Option #2: Use Windows Explorer {NOT Internet Explorer!}

   If you know the file name, Open Windows Explorer, click on the drive where you think your file is, if you have multiple drives, then select Computer in the left window pane, once done, now in the upper right, there is a search box, type in the filename or what you remember of it, it can be a partial name, any files with the info you supply will show up in the search box, if it finds anything, look at the dates on the files{you may have to scroll right to see it}, find the most recent one, highlight if possible, then scroll all the way to the right of that file in Windows Explorer, Windows Explorer will show you what folder it's saved in.   Then you can load it into the HWU and write it to your SD Card.  

As an example, if I was looking for a file named: sidewalk (case doesn't matter}, and I entered "sidewalk" {without the quotes} in Windows Explorer, it would display every file with the word sidewalk in it, if I didn't know it was sidewalk, and only used "side", the program would show me every derivative of a word with side in it as well as any programs that may have the word side within it, i.e. side, sideways, left-side, sidewalk and say a file had side in it, you may see a lot of weird named files such as Word Documents,{.rtf, .txt} Notepad Documents {.txt} or .htm/.html files that contain a word that contains the word side in the document, java {.js} files and .inf files can also show up.  Possibly even .dll files as well as other types, ANYTHING that has a derivative of the word side would be displayed in the right window pane.

The more you know of the filename that can be entered in the Search option in Windows Explorer the better off you are, the narrower your search will become for that file.

Hope this may help somewhat to locate your "not found file".

This is how I do it when I "lose a sequence file" and for the life of me can't recall where I saved it.  It happens to the best of us.

 

[dibblejr]

On ‎10‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 9:50 AM, Orville said:

Must be something inherent with newer versions of Windows.  I'm using Windows 7 Home Edition and I have my files synced, but I've never had Windows auto-upload my files for me.   If it did that, instead of keeping them where I want them{or where I originally put them} I'd be a bit miffed, especially when it came time to create a show and files weren't being found because of that.  

I'll NEVER understand why the Microsoft people {read: IDIOTS} can't comprehend folks don't want stuff like this to occur without them knowing about it.  MS: Here let's just turn this auto-uploader on and not tell anyone it's doing this for them

Just not a smart thing to do in my opinion!

.

Yes, its the new Win10 BS. I wish uncle Sam would step in and up to the plate and take action. Having to provide an email and other info to use "my" computer and link it to everything MS wants should not be allowed or legal. It should be up to the end user.

 Not being a social lite I could care less about needing my email and stuff to be automatically on my computer. And some how my wifes info and email got on my computer. Having to buy Office every year even after owning my own copies for 20 years also bad.

But of course MS brings $ to Uncle Sam so nothing will ever be done. One of those "to big to take action" companies.

JR

[Mr. P]

3 minutes ago, dibblejr said:

Yes, its the new Win10 BS. I wish uncle Sam would step in and up to the plate and take action. Having to provide an email and other info to use "my" computer and link it to everything MS wants should not be allowed or legal. It should be up to the end user.

 Not being a social lite I could care less about needing my email and stuff to be automatically on my computer. And some how my wifes info and email got on my computer. Having to buy Office every year even after owning my own copies for 20 years also bad.

But of course MS brings $ to Uncle Sam so nothing will ever be done. One of those "to big to take action" companies.

JR

If you are talking about setting up an account when you booted Windows 10 for the first time then you can do it without creating a Microsoft account. When you boot Windows 10 for the first time and are setting up the new computer just setup a local account and bypass the microsoft stuff.

[dibblejr]

2 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

If you are talking about setting up an account when you booted Windows 10 for the first time then you can do it without creating a Microsoft account. When you boot Windows 10 for the first time and are setting up the new computer just setup a local account and bypass the microsoft stuff.

Hmm, guess I missed that part. I believe with the free version I had to lync so when I got the new computer I did the same process. The sequencing laptop the "gurus" at Office Depot set up. They asked for my email and of course I forgot about the syncing. Got it back and it was syncd.

Live and learn.

Thank for that tip. Maybe I will do a reinstall between now and turkey day.

JR

[Mr. P]

Just now, dibblejr said:

Hmm, guess I missed that part. I believe with the free version I had to lync so when I got the new computer I did the same process. The sequencing laptop the "gurus" at Office Depot set up. They asked for my email and of course I forgot about the syncing. Got it back and it was syncd.

Live and learn.

Thank for that tip. Maybe I will do a reinstall between now and turkey day.

JR

Microsoft makes it difficult because they want your account. However, when you first boot windows 10 and it asks for you to register, in the very bottom left in tiny print it gives you the option of creating a local account. This will by pass all the windows registering and creating a microsoft account.