Songs wont play from the hub but plays in sequence editor.

[notredameforlife]

I pinged my holidaycoro boxes and they come back so i know its not a internet issue. I can play the songs on sequence editor but i cant play them when i add it to the  hubs showtime. I added the Ip address to the right universes so i know its not that. What I believe the problem is none of my new songs have .play   format. I remember it was easy to convert your songs in s4 but i cant find out anywhere how to convert my songs to .play in S5.    

[PhilMassey]

Up to ver 5.2.4 the playback files are created manually. by file/create playback files.

After 5.3.0 the playback files are created  differently by running a show, automatically, and they are put in the lorinternal folder.

IMO, the 5.2.4 method is better. Some folks are having difficulties with the new method 

[notredameforlife]

I have 5.3.6 pro .      I went to my folder and all it has is a .loret   and .bak    file. i dont see a .play file anywhere.         I went to the hub and added these songs that doesnt have the .play file and it doesnt work . I hear the audio file but the lights dont do anything. 

[PhilMassey]

You create a show with the loredit files, then play it using on demand and the playback files should create themselves. Go to dinner. It will take a while. The second time through they should play normally....... maybe.

[notredameforlife]

lol at maybe. Well I work tonite and can test them out. I did what you said the on demand and will see if it works tomorrow. I hate this new format I like how you created a .play file and didnt have to rely on lightorama to do it grrrrrr   thanks

[stevehoyt]

notredameforlife

FYI as has been  mentioned in other threads on this issue the playback files get created in a subdirectory path under your LOR Software install 

light-o-rama/LORinternal/playback/L/....

you can look there to verify they got created

[Brad Stucky]

I'm having similar problems with 5.3.10.   I verified the playback files created in the  light-o-rama/LORinternal/playback/L/..  directory on my show computer, but when I show on demand, there is no audio although the lights seem to be fine.  I have not verified a scheduled show through the show player, so I may try that.   The sequencer will play the audio just fine so I know the sequence is finding the audio file.   Last year all I had to do was create the playback files on my editing computer and then upload to my show computer.  Everything worked slick as a whistle and I didn't have to have the original .loredit files on the show computer.   It looks like I may have to go back to 5.2.4.

 

UPDATE:

I discovered my problem.  When I created the show for playback,  I was in a hurry and entered the music sequence on the background (animation) tab of the show creator.  If I remember correctly, this wasn't possible in previous versions of the show creator.  It only allowed animation files to be loaded at the background and animation tabs.  Evidently, you can now load a musical or animation sequence and the audio will be ignored if a musical sequence file is placed on an animation tab.   Anyhow, it appears everything is now working properly.  Whew!!!!

Edited November 14, 2019 by Brad Stucky
addition information to post

[stevehoyt]

another FYI

I am running 5.3.6 tests nightly. I have animations, background, and music sequences. It works fine, so maybe try backing off to it. I have seen the show player hang on starting a show. Starting it a second time  fixes hat issue. Also if a sequence needs to get "recompiled" as something has changed, it can take a LONG time.

 

Steve

[Box on Rails]

I had the same issue with Show files in Widows 7. I went  5.3.8 so So I reinstalled 5,2,x and ran my Halloween program just fine. after i read the bug fix for that issue in 5.3.10 I updated. I just set up a show and ran Show on Demand. The first song took 6 minutes to start playing then a 10 minute pause before the second son played.. I have been waiting now 20 minutes a still no 3rd song yet. I only put 5 songs in the show to test it. I wish they would give you the option of creating the show yourself like early 5.2.x versions or you can let the software do it on the fly like 5,3, x (oh wait it just came on song 3 came on at 25 minutes after number 2 ended.) Not Acceptable. My next fix is going to be upgrading my show computer to windows 10,  well as I am typing the 4th song came right on with just a few seconds delay between. I'm going to keep it running through for 2 or 3 times and see what happens. This is so stupid. This close to show time and still chasing software bugs. and after well over a year with S5 being out, 

[PhilMassey]

Windows 10 won't fix this issue.

I have tested every update since 5.3.0.on W10. The first pass through the show will take hours for a big song list 

All have major delays between songs for me AFTER the file creation pass.

I am downgraded to 5.2.4, creating playback files manually, and they play fine.

Groundhog day again.........

[notredameforlife]

So it seems like I should downgrade to 5.2.4 but I am scared of having other issues when I downgrade or losing my songs. tempting.......................

[PhilMassey]

The only problem I have had is with sequences containing motion gifs. They would not open in 5.2.4, So I simply re installed 5.3.10  and took those  effects out, then they worked in 5.2.4. I am also careful not to save the LOR file while in 5.2.4. Always back up your files anyway.

[Brad Stucky]

21 hours ago, Brad Stucky said:

I'm having similar problems with 5.3.10.   I verified the playback files created in the  light-o-rama/LORinternal/playback/L/..  directory on my show computer, but when I show on demand, there is no audio although the lights seem to be fine.  I have not verified a scheduled show through the show player, so I may try that.   The sequencer will play the audio just fine so I know the sequence is finding the audio file.   Last year all I had to do was create the playback files on my editing computer and then upload to my show computer.  Everything worked slick as a whistle and I didn't have to have the original .loredit files on the show computer.   It looks like I may have to go back to 5.2.4.

 

UPDATE:

I discovered my problem.  When I created the show for playback,  I was in a hurry and entered the music sequence on the background (animation) tab of the show creator.  If I remember correctly, this wasn't possible in previous versions of the show creator.  It only allowed animation files to be loaded at the background and animation tabs.  Evidently, you can now load a musical or animation sequence and the audio will be ignored if a musical sequence file is placed on an animation tab.   Anyhow, it appears everything is now working properly.  Whew!!!!

Looks like I spoke too soon again.  Some of my songs are working but some are not.  My DMX pixel props are playing for some songs and not for others, and it's not always the same prop that is missing.  They just seem to be playing at random.  Also, some of the props are not playing correctly.  I'm unable to confirm LOR network props at this time so there may be trouble there as well.  Since some songs seem to be playing correctly, I'm guessing it's my error for the ones that aren't.  If I can't find my errors, then it looks like 5.2.4 is the only solution at this time since I had little trouble with that procedure.

Last year when creating the playback files within the editor, I would occasionally get a warning that an effect across older AC controllers wasn't possible so I would locate the error and fix it.  Is this still being checked before playback files are created with this new method?

Also, it appears that the only way to get these playback files installed for the show is to run a show.   When you do that, you incur whatever processing delay there is to create a playback file in addition to the playback of each sequence itself, before the next sequence is then processed and played.  This can take considerably more time than just simply creating the playback file for each song.   If you update a sequence then you will have that processing delay again, unless you create a show for each of your songs, run that particular show to update that particular playback file and then go back to your regular show.  Really?  Is this the only way to do this?   Come on!!   Where is a batch program to create these playback files without having to run a show?  Am I missing something here?  I will update as I discover more.

[notredameforlife]

is lightorma doing anything to fix these issues......... i love lightorama but have been tempted to switch to the other side lol.......................

[PhilMassey]

Don't get your hopes up. I reported this in July.

[Brad Stucky]

23 hours ago, Brad Stucky said:

Looks like I spoke too soon again.  Some of my songs are working but some are not.  My DMX pixel props are playing for some songs and not for others, and it's not always the same prop that is missing.  They just seem to be playing at random.  Also, some of the props are not playing correctly.  I'm unable to confirm LOR network props at this time so there may be trouble there as well.  Since some songs seem to be playing correctly, I'm guessing it's my error for the ones that aren't.  If I can't find my errors, then it looks like 5.2.4 is the only solution at this time since I had little trouble with that procedure.

Last year when creating the playback files within the editor, I would occasionally get a warning that an effect across older AC controllers wasn't possible so I would locate the error and fix it.  Is this still being checked before playback files are created with this new method?

Also, it appears that the only way to get these playback files installed for the show is to run a show.   When you do that, you incur whatever processing delay there is to create a playback file in addition to the playback of each sequence itself, before the next sequence is then processed and played.  This can take considerably more time than just simply creating the playback file for each song.   If you update a sequence then you will have that processing delay again, unless you create a show for each of your songs, run that particular show to update that particular playback file and then go back to your regular show.  Really?  Is this the only way to do this?   Come on!!   Where is a batch program to create these playback files without having to run a show?  Am I missing something here?  I will update as I discover more.

Well I found some issues on my EDIT computer where a few of my sequences  were using an earlier preview file with different channel settings.  After loading each .loredit sequence and assigning my final preview, I then created a show with these files and set show-on-demand to play the songs on my EDIT computer.   With only part of my lighting network connected to my EDIT computer, it appeared that everything was accepted for playback and after the first long cycle through the show list to create the playback files, the second time through played all the songs without delay and correctly as far as I could determine.  I then transferred the playback files and the related show file to the proper directories on my SHOW computer and attempted to run the show but it failed.  I discovered from the log that the show is looking for the full pathway of the sequence files.  (c:\user\"computer-user-name"\documents\light-o-rama\sequences\"name-of-sequence.loredit", so unless you have the same user on your EDIT computer as your SHOW computer, the show will not be able to find the sequence files.  I created a new show file on the SHOW computer so that the full pathway of the sequences would be correct.  When I did this and initiated a show-on-demand, the sequences files began to play using the playback files that had been transferred from the EDIT computer to the SHOW computer.   I then verified that if I update any .loredit file on my EDIT computer, all I need to do now is run a show on my EDIT computer to update the related playback file and then transfer that playback file to the \\playback\L\ directory on the SHOW computer and there won't (shouldn't) be any delay on playback when that file is cued up.  BUT WAIT!!  I can't run a show on my EDIT computer while the SHOW computer is running a show!! DMX E1.31 on the 2 computers will be competing for communication.  Is no-one using a separate computer for editing?  I guess I could put the SHOW computer on a different network and thumb-drive the files from the EDIT computer to the SHOW computer.  That's sure a step back from what I did 13 years ago when I first started using LOR.
It would be nice if there was a batch program where you could load the .loredit files of your choice and execute the batch command to create or update the related playback files without having to run them through a show.  It would also be nice if there was an option for the playback files to be copied to a shared network location. (playback file directory on SHOW computer)   Another suggestion would be to have the sequence editor prompt with option of creating (and copying to network location) of playback file when the .loredit file is closed.
I understand this playback file creation is different than 5.2.4 versions and earlier and I'm guessing it has something to due with the end user not having to mess with the added task of manually creating and dealing with the playback files but for those of us using another computer for the show on the same network, this makes things really awkward.  I much prefer to manually create the playback files and not have to worry about the show referring to .loredit files before using the playback files.  It just seems simpler, cleaner, and less likely to cause problems.  If this is not remedied, I guess I will go back to 5.2.4 and copy the Superstar executable from 5.3.10 to 5.2.4.   MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone.

[Brad Stucky]

4 hours ago, Brad Stucky said:

Well I found some issues on my EDIT computer where a few of my sequences  were using an earlier preview file with different channel settings.  After loading each .loredit sequence and assigning my final preview, I then created a show with these files and set show-on-demand to play the songs on my EDIT computer.   With only part of my lighting network connected to my EDIT computer, it appeared that everything was accepted for playback and after the first long cycle through the show list to create the playback files, the second time through played all the songs without delay and correctly as far as I could determine.  I then transferred the playback files and the related show file to the proper directories on my SHOW computer and attempted to run the show but it failed.  I discovered from the log that the show is looking for the full pathway of the sequence files.  (c:\user\"computer-user-name"\documents\light-o-rama\sequences\"name-of-sequence.loredit", so unless you have the same user on your EDIT computer as your SHOW computer, the show will not be able to find the sequence files.  I created a new show file on the SHOW computer so that the full pathway of the sequences would be correct.  When I did this and initiated a show-on-demand, the sequences files began to play using the playback files that had been transferred from the EDIT computer to the SHOW computer.   I then verified that if I update any .loredit file on my EDIT computer, all I need to do now is run a show on my EDIT computer to update the related playback file and then transfer that playback file to the \\playback\L\ directory on the SHOW computer and there won't (shouldn't) be any delay on playback when that file is cued up.  BUT WAIT!!  I can't run a show on my EDIT computer while the SHOW computer is running a show!! DMX E1.31 on the 2 computers will be competing for communication.  Is no-one using a separate computer for editing?  I guess I could put the SHOW computer on a different network and thumb-drive the files from the EDIT computer to the SHOW computer.  That's sure a step back from what I did 13 years ago when I first started using LOR.
It would be nice if there was a batch program where you could load the .loredit files of your choice and execute the batch command to create or update the related playback files without having to run them through a show.  It would also be nice if there was an option for the playback files to be copied to a shared network location. (playback file directory on SHOW computer)   Another suggestion would be to have the sequence editor prompt with option of creating (and copying to network location) of playback file when the .loredit file is closed.
I understand this playback file creation is different than 5.2.4 versions and earlier and I'm guessing it has something to due with the end user not having to mess with the added task of manually creating and dealing with the playback files but for those of us using another computer for the show on the same network, this makes things really awkward.  I much prefer to manually create the playback files and not have to worry about the show referring to .loredit files before using the playback files.  It just seems simpler, cleaner, and less likely to cause problems.  If this is not remedied, I guess I will go back to 5.2.4 and copy the Superstar executable from 5.3.10 to 5.2.4.   MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone.

 

 

Well, I discovered a simple work-around for the E1.31 competing for control while running a show on both computers.  I'm embarrassed this is so simple.  This idea came from Alan (default) in the topic  Export for Network.  (Thanks Alan)  I exported my working network configuration on my EDIT computer and then set all my DMX channels to E1.31 local. (127.0.0.1)   (You could set them to NONE RAW DMX as well, but you can only do 1 universe at a time that way. )  I then saved this as well so that I can switch back and forth  between the 2 network setting if needed.  (IMPORT)  Once all my remaining props are out in the yard, instead of in our house, I can just leave the network setting in the non-interference mode.  With this in place I can now run a show (to create the playback files) without interfering with a show that is playing on the SHOW computer.  Since the sequence playback file only has the DMX universes and channels that will be used and NOT where/how the information is being transported,  the playback file copied over to the SHOW computer will simply use the  network configuration of the SHOW computer. 

[notredameforlife]

Sounds like I will be downgrading to 5.2.4  since the newest updated still doesnt work. For some weird reason I can play only one prop in sequence editor and when I enable show from the hub. I have the universes set to the right ip address, i am able to ping my holidaycoro boxes, I am using rgb smart lights for my display. I have no idea why only one prop works but the rest doesnt. I have no channel conflict when i open sequence editor. This will be my last year with lightorama I believe. I been emailing customer service back and forth all day, with doing shift work its to hard to spend thousands of dollars on lights to be not able to use them.           

[notredameforlife]

My networks are also properly configured...... I am lost if its a simple issue I messed up on. 

[notredameforlife]

FYI i left 3 boxes in test mode ,................. i was so frustrated, simple mistake drove me nuts and wasted a whole day lol