Sequence Editor Locking up

[Bebo001]

I updated to version 3.11.12 of Sequence Editor, and now one of my sequences will work.  If I press play, a gray loading box that says "Analyze Media File" shows up and freezes the program.  Even leaving the computer alone for hours does no good in loading progress.  The Audio files still work fine in Media Player.  What can I do?  The Sequence was purchased last year from the Sequence store.  I have also re downloaded the sequence from the store and am having the same issue. 

Edited November 27, 2014 by Bebo001

[Max-Paul]

Only that one sequence? But others load just fine, I presume.

[Kuper-Christmas]

Make sure you have the media file located where LOR wants to find it.

Probably in the folder: ...... \Light-O-Rama\Audio   not  ...Light-O-Rama\Sequences

[Robert Burton]

Oh I have been running into this problem too!  Are you sure that it will help moving the file to that folder? I have mine organized by year...and also run videos. So I sequence to those. I know that might be slowing it down as well.

[Kuper-Christmas]

It will only help if the Sequence Editor can't find the audio file.  If it can find the file but runs slow it must be a different problem.

[bob]

Perhaps try using an audio editor to make a different version of the audio file in a different format? Like if it's an MP3, save it as a WAV file.  Then modify the sequence to point to the new version instead.

[karldrahovsky]

This is a serious problem.  Causing hours of delay.  Finds the file but always stuck at 7th bar.

 

Then often it receives the error... "The media file for this sequence could not be converted to the LOR internal media format.  While the media file may work, some of the functions, such as "Play Speed" or "Play Range", may not, or may work incorrectly."

 

What is most funny about this is it did prior years.

[scchapman]

I ran into this issue also, and wrote up a ticket:  Turns out to be a bad CODEC.  However, finding the bad one is a difficult process.

After uninstalling everything media related, I ultimately downloaded and installed a CODEC bundle UltimateCodecsSetup.exe.  

LOR helpdesk doesn't recommend the solution I found, they prefer that one "rebuilds one's box".

Anyway hope this helps!

 

Following is the helpdesk ticket dissertation for your reference:

 

Helpdesk response   That indicates that one or more CODECs that are installed on your system have issues. We don't install any CODECS, so this is outside of our software.

When you see that message, we ask something called 'Direct Show' to load the media file. When Direct Show does this, it loads a complete chain of CODECs. If any of those codecs have a bug, it will lock up.

You can attempt to turn off 'Use Internal Media' in the Sequence Editor. This may help, however it could still lock up.

Unfortunately, Windows does not make it easy to figure out which CODEC is causing a problem and/or to remove CODECS if you still have problems. The best we can recommend is that you start to uninstall any programs you installed that also handle media (like radio players, audio editors, etc) one by one and see if things start to work again.

The problem with that is if these programs were not written properly uninstalling them WON'T uninstall the CODEC -- and let's be honest here -- if the CODEC is locking up, $5 says the program it came with is no good either.

In the end, you may end up reformatting the entire computer and re-installing Windows so the computer basically looks as if it just came from the factory. My response The codec thing was the issue -- and uninstalling basically everything and anything related to media did nothing for me.  I even ran Microsoft "fix it" software for CODEC Crashes.  Still didn't do anything for me.  However, your suggestion of "rebuilding" my box, was a ridiculous suggestion, as how many folk do you know can afford to do that after several years of software installs.

But just so you know, so that you can actually help the next person with this problem, I found a CODEC bundle that claimed it had the latest and could "fix" bad ones.  I downloaded it -- UltimateCodecsSetup.exe  (one needs to make sure to "decline" and/or skip all the ads to install a bunch of other stuff one won't want).

Once I ran the setup, I went back to SequenceEditor and selected the Linus and Lucy sequence, and hit play.

To my utter delight, it actually started playing - whoopee!!!

I would like to suggest that your help desk keep this solution handy in order to pass it on to other unsuspecting folk (especially newbies to LOR).

I would also like to suggest, some type of Warning to let folk know that bad CODECs on one's machine (however, they got there) can render your LOR sequence editing software useless.

The average user isn't going to know that, before they spend money buying sequences that they won't be able to play/edit.

In any case, thank you for at least pointing me in the direction of the bad codecs.

You can now close my ticket.

  Helpdesk response I appreciate that, however it has been MY experience (being both the programmer and the architect for Media Handling in S3), that installing mega codec packs like that one, or others like K-Lite, typically cause more problems than they usually solve.  After all, it was a CODEC that was installed that is causing the issue.  On the other hand, reformatting and rebuilding the computer from scratch will ALWAYS fix the issue.  

Yes that is a rather blunt instrument to yield, however the blame for that rests solely on Microsoft's head.  If they would make it easier to see/fix/edit the CODEC (DLL) stack, we wouldn't have to suggest it.