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LORII Problems


Speakefamily

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We upgraded our LORI to LORII and we are having so many problems. Sequences don't match song timing. I have been trying to fix the 4 songs. My wife is so MAD at me. She said all that work and now 4 songs don't work anymore. I have been trying to fix them for about a month now. She told me why did I upgrade if it's not broke don't fix it. I told her LORII is better. She walk away...

Please help I really don't want to resequence 4 songs about 11min total.

Harold

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Harold, are you using the latest, updated version of LOR II? What type of audio files are you using, MP3 or WAV? If MP3, are you using a fixed bit rate of at least 128?

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The following addresses the only known problem of synchronization and upgrading to LOR II. It is most likely the problem that you are experiencing. This is the most common problem with LOR II upgrades and it does affect some people. However since the release of version 2.0.14 it has become much easier to correct. The good news is that if you are experiencing this particular problem, the fix is quick with 2.0.14.

The Problem: All versions of Light-O-Rama (LOR) use Windows Media Player (WMP) to determine the timing for a musical sequence. LOR II uses a different section of WMP to get the timing information than was used in some earlier versions. Unfortunately, with some MP3 files the two different versions of WMP return different timings. This only affects some versions MP3 files.

It turns out that the old version of WMP would sometimes change when the MP3 file started. Usually it would put a short delay at the start of the MP3 file that was not actually part of the song.

The fix: As stated above, most likely your sequence has a period of delay at the beginning as a result of the false delay that WMP previously reported. Hopefully you still have the original sequences! They are actually still in sync BUT they have a constant shift throughout.

Open the original LOR I sequence in the LOR II Sequence Editor then click the play button. Most likely the song starts sooner than the sequence expects so all of your timing happens too late. This offset can be any amount of time BUT it is usually somewhere between 0.2 and 1.0 seconds ( 0.3 seems to be fairly common ).

Assuming that the music starts sooner than expected, you need to shift the entire sequence to the left to match up with the music. You need version 2.0.14 to perform the shift.


  • Open the LOR I sequence file in the LOR II Sequence Editor
  • Click Edit-> Skew Track...
  • Select "Skew Left" and start with 0.3 seconds. (not 0.03).
  • See how it goes. Repeat the Skew (left or right) until the song is in sync.

Also: You mentioned in your post that you were having a number of problems. Please let us know the other problems are that you are having so we can help out.

If the "skew" does not solve your problem let us know and send a copy of the LOR I sequence (LMS) and audio file (MP3) to support@lightorama.com

Dan

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Mountainwxman wrote:

Dan... take you post above and put it in a new sticky in this forum. Maybe some people will see this solution before posting the same problem over and over.

Good idea.
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LightORamaDan wrote:

The following addresses the only known problem of synchronization and upgrading to LOR II. It is most likely the problem that you are experiencing. This is the most common problem with LOR II upgrades and it does affect some people. However since the release of version 2.0.14 it has become much easier to correct. The good news is that if you are experiencing this particular problem, the fix is quick with 2.0.14.

The Problem: All versions of Light-O-Rama (LOR) use Windows Media Player (WMP) to determine the timing for a musical sequence. LOR II uses a different section of WMP to get the timing information than was used in some earlier versions. Unfortunately, with some MP3 files the two different versions of WMP return different timings. This only affects some versions MP3 files.

It turns out that the old version of WMP would sometimes change when the MP3 file started. Usually it would put a short delay at the start of the MP3 file that was not actually part of the song.

The fix: As stated above, most likely your sequence has a period of delay at the beginning as a result of the false delay that WMP previously reported. Hopefully you still have the original sequences! They are actually still in sync BUT they have a constant shift throughout.

Open the original LOR I sequence in the LOR II Sequence Editor then click the play button. Most likely the song starts sooner than the sequence expects so all of your timing happens too late. This offset can be any amount of time BUT it is usually somewhere between 0.2 and 1.0 seconds ( 0.3 seems to be fairly common ).

Assuming that the music starts sooner than expected, you need to shift the entire sequence to the left to match up with the music. You need version 2.0.14 to perform the shift.

Open the LOR I sequence file in the LOR II Sequence Editor
Click Edit-> Skew Track...
Select "Skew Left" and start with 0.3 seconds. (not 0.03).
See how it goes. Repeat the Skew (left or right) until the song is in sync.


Dan,

I used the skew tool to move the sequencing to match with the music and it worked! My only problem now is that I used to have a small pause before the music started and now the music and sequences start immediately.
Is there any way to add time before the music starts in a seqence without editing the actual music file? I don't think there is but thought I'd ask anyway. Thankfully, I only had the timing problem with 3 of our sequences.

Thank you so much for the help. My wife was happy. So I ask if I can buy more controllers she said I could buy 8 more in June Sale. THANKS LOR.....

Harold

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Speakefamily wrote:

[snip] Is there any way to add time before the music starts in a seqence without editing the actual music file? I don't think there is but thought I'd ask anyway. Thankfully, I only had the timing problem with 3 of our sequences. [snip]

You will need to edit the music file... That little pause in the MP3 files was actually never there. A feature(bug) in the Windows Media Player program was creating that delay. Microsoft fixed the problem but the result is that your little delay is now gone.

Per a very good request, I added/started a new section above with LOR II conversion problems. So far this is the only issues listed but we will be adding a few more. This should help folks.

The Skew makes it pretty easy to fix this problem.

Dan
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If you are just looking to recreate that lost brief silence between the song in the sequence, with no lights, you could make a 0.3 second empty animation sequence to insert in the show schedule between musical sequences.

- Kevin

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am starting new with LORII. The music syncs fine as long as I play it from the beginning. If I try to play starting anywhere else then the music doesn't match up. What's going on here?

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Yep, found something about better performace using wav. I converted my mp3 to wave and now it works!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a problem, hope this is where to voice it. I use a laptop to run LORI on. I put the program and associated files on a flash drive.(which I am glad I did...another story!). All is good. I upgraded to LORII by placing it(LORII) and associated files on the flash drive also. I don't believe I am having problems as to running the program when I have my flash drive plugged into the USB port. My problem arrises when I do not have my flash drive plugged in and I want to do something else on the laptop except LOR. Just turning on the laptop and going through start-up I get the following message windows. First I get the window: Windows Installer; Preparing to Install. Then I get a second window: The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailiable. Click OK to try again, or enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package" Light O Rama.msi" in the box below. The box below shows something like this: C;Docume~RickLocals~Temp{D2B8AC71.AE5B.46BA.B3F4.44720984D1C6}.

I tried changing the drive from C: to the drive that my flash was on but to no avail.

When I cancel that box, another box comes up: Error 1706. No Valid source could be found for products Light O Rama. The windows installer cannot continue.

After I cancel this game two or three times, it will go away for a while, then throughout me using the computer, this message cycle starts up again.

Is this a problem for "Dan the Man" ? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

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You probably should have created a new thread for this. Dan may be able to separate it later.

You stated:

I upgraded to LORII by placing it(LORII) and associated files on the flash drive also.

Does that mean that you placed the file used to install S2 on your flash drive and then used it to install S2 onto the new computer or did you install S2 onto the flash drive? From what you describe it sounds like you may have installed S2 onto the flash drive. If that is what you did then the problem is that because it was never installed on the new computer, there are probably some files and registry entries missing. You should try to install S2 directly onto the new computer.

If I am completely wrong with my assumption, let me know.

tom.
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Some programs are specifically designed to run from flash drives. I have no idea if LOR is designed this way but would think not. I would boot with flash drive in, delete the program and reinsall on your c: drive. You might need to do a registry clean. Search around for a link.

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Yes, I imagine (although I've never tried) that LOR could run from a flash drive as long as that flash drive is plugged into the computer you used to install it onto that flash drive.

But if you then plug that flash drive into another computer, it's not going to work.

I would suggest reinstalling onto a local hard drive.

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I used the flash drive to run LORI. It worked great. I have used the laptop for two seasons using the flash drive in this fashion. It is just when I upgraded to the LORII that I started getting these windows. If I have the flash drive plugged in when I start the laptop, I have no problems.

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I'm just curious as to why you would want to run LOR off of the flash drive? I can see using it for backing up the files, but why not install it to the C drive?

Mark

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If I have the flash drive plugged in when I start the laptop, I have no problems.

Do you have "Launch at startup" turned on? To check, right click on the LOR Control Panel's icon in your system tray. If "Launch at startup" is greyed out, that means it is turned on (counterintuitive - we intend to make this clearer in the future).

If so, perhaps try turning it off, by clicking on "Do not launch at startup".
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