Help, I can't change the media file

[Greg Doughty]

Hi all and Brian,

When I opened an exported .sup file to copy to the LOR sequence, I noticed it was all gray. I thought that maybe my netbook was being really slow, so I copied the .sup anyway because it also was highlighting the pixels even though they were invisible. After I pasted the .sup into my sequence and played that one piece, my circles were always on and gray.

Well, I had to move my LOR folder to my desktop as dropbox was jacking up my show. I was going to try exporting the superstar sequence again and then copy and paste. When I open the sequence, the dialog box states that the audio file is not in the right place (which I know and need to redirect) but when I click ok, superstar shuts down and windows shows "superstar has stopped working..."

How can I change the media file without opening superstar, or is that possible?

Thanks

Greg

[Greg Doughty]

UPDATE: I think that since I moved the folder from dropbox to the desktop, I am unable to open any of my superstar sequences!! Yikes!

[BrianBruderer]

If you are not running version3.8.0.0 you can try going to the Software Download page and downloading v3.8.0.0. That may or may not help.

On my computer, if SuperStar cannot find the Audio file, it displays a message box saying it can't find the audio file and then the .sup opens. But it sounds like there may be a bug that happens if the file it is looking for is in a dropbox folder.

There is no way in SuperStar to change the audio file in a .sup without opening the .sup file in SuperStar. If the bug you are experiencing continues to happen, the only work around is to find the .sup file and open it using notepad. In notepad you will see the path to the audio file on the top line. It will be something like:

<SuperStarMetaFile saveFileVersion="2" sequenceCentisecondLength="18561" musicFilename="Audio\WizardsInWinter.mp3">

In the above example you would remove the audio file name by changing the top line to:

<SuperStarMetaFile saveFileVersion="2" sequenceCentisecondLength="18561" musicFilename="">

After removing the audio file name, save the file and exit notepad

Then you can open the .sup file in SuperStar, click on the File menu and select "Open Audio File" and open the audio file at the new location.

[Greg Doughty]

Thanks Brian. I just tried what you suggested, but now when I try to even open the file, Superstar shuts down.

btw, you're up really early if you are in Texas.

[Greg Doughty]

Actually, I only tried the notepad. I am downloading 3.8 now. I'll let you know what happens.

[BrianBruderer]

Yes, I have a cold and couldn't sleep.

How are you opening the file? Are you clicking on the File menu and selecting the file from the list of past files at the bottom of the menu? If so, don't do it that way. Click on the File menu and then select "Open"

If it is hanging when you click on the File menu and then select "Open", please email the file to brian@superstarlights.com and I will take a look at it.

I don't expect that downloading 3.8.0 will help, but it is always a good idea to be using the most recent version of the software.

[Greg Doughty]

It is the latter situation you mention. I will download 3.8 and get back to you. It's pretty fortuitous for me that you have a cold, but I kind of feel your pain as my ten year daughter is flying through the Kleenex!

[BrianBruderer]

Meanwhile, please email me the file. I am curious, it may freeze on me also.

[Greg Doughty]

Sent

[BrianBruderer]

Got the file, it opens without errors for me. Have you been able to download 3.8.0.0 yet?

[Greg Doughty]

I did and it is still not opening. I restarted the computer as well.

[BrianBruderer]

When you launch SuperStar, does it say v3.8.0.0 in the title bar at the top?

So SuperStar launches fine, but when you open the file you sent me it gets an error and shuts down?

Try doing the following:

1) launch SuperStar

2) add one effect

3) Click on the File menu and select "Open Media File" and open a media file

4) Click on the File menu and select "Save As" and give the sequence a name

5) shut down superstar

6) launch superstar

7) attempt to open the file you just saved

[Greg Doughty]

It does say 3.8 and the process you suggested allows me to open the test .sup.

[Greg Doughty]

Okay, so I just looked at the folder properties and all of the files are Read Only. When I try to uncheck Read Only, the folder will not allow me to do it. Could that be a problem?

[BrianBruderer]

Rename the file you sent me to something like "Carol_of_the_bells_test.sup"

Open the file "Carol_of_the_bells_test.sup" in notepad and confirm that it is the file without the audio file name

shut down notepad

launch superstar

click on the file menu and select Open

Open the file "Carol_of_the_bells_test.sup"

Tell me what happens

[Greg Doughty]

I get the same dialog box, "Superstar has stopped working"

[BrianBruderer]

It sounds like the directory where you have saved the files won't give you "write" access to the files. It may be part of the problem, but I just made my .sup file "read only" and it did not cause a problem. However, superstar uses a file named SSEdit.cfg to save all the configuration changes. And if I make SSEdit.cfg "read only" then SuperStar did get an error and shut down when I tried to change the configuration.

Where on your hard drive to you have your SuperStar files? Where do you have the Lightorama directory?

[Greg Doughty]

Wait a minute. After downloading 3.8, I neglected to restart the LOR control panel, thus not performing the initial setup for LOR file tree. I just opened up the test file after setup and it works. Let me look at the other ones now.

[Greg Doughty]

Geez, works like a champ now. Thank you for all of your help!! Take some meds and try to get some sleep. I really appreciate you hanging with me. That really says something about your product.

Thanks again

[BrianBruderer]

Glad you got it working. Nevertheless a program should never crash, it should always "fail gracefully" when it enconters a problem. I expect that maybe it couldn't find a file such as SSEdit.cfg and crashed. I will look into it, and try to make it report an error in that case and not crash.