Missing Channels, and music skipping

[k6ccc]

9 minutes ago, Orville said:

Seems the Calendar and Weekly options can co-exist, I'm not sure if they are supposed too, but I had a Calendar Show and a Weekly show set on the same day{Week} and date{Calendar}, perhaps you made a show in the Calendar option inadvertently and both are attempting to run at the same time?  Thereby possibly creating this strange conflict. 

I think one should warn you about the other being in conflict, mine did not, so I started looking at the Calendar and at the Weekly shows I had set up in the Schedule Editor, sure enough, deleted the Calendar Show and then everything went back to working normally.  Fortunately I found this issue before I started running my show!

The Weekly and Calendar schedules work perfectly well together - as long as you know what does what.  The Calendar schedule will ALWAYS preempt the weekly schedule.  I use that capability somewhat regularly.  During the non-show season when my year round landscape show is running, the weekly schedule is used.  However when there are specials (such as Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day, Light up for Autism Night, etc), the special shows are scheduled via the calendar schedule.  The result is that the weekly schedule runs whenever there is nothing in the Calendar, but when the Calendar schedule has a show, that show preempts the weekly schedule.

 

[Orville]

10 hours ago, Homertown said:

I do audio editing for a living , its one of the tech things I am actually great at, so I'm sure there is  no conflicts in the audio clips, I used Adobe SoundBooth CS5 to create the audio files, but I think im going to dump them and start over with all new tracks and re configure an entire new sequence and see how it reacts. Maybe even with a new laptop....If it does similar to the same thing, then im at a stand still.

Beginning to think you may think these audio files are in CBR {Constant Bit Rate}, but are really in VBR {Variable Bit Rate}, if they are VBR, they will not work reliably and they can cause the music skipping and channel not lighting issues you're describing as well.

I thought a couple of mine were in CBR, turns out they were VBR, and things never worked properly until I made sure they got saved as a CBR file format. Happened years ago when I first started in this hobby in 2010, so I never give this one much thought now as I make sure every MP3 file I'm using is CBR before I'll start a sequence with it.

Also if your music editor does not show VBR or CBR when importing or exporting a file, I have found the best way to be suire ALL MP3 files I'm using are CBR by using a program called MP3TAG, you can turn on the VBR option in the drop down box from the VIew button on the toolbar at the top, click it, then select customize columns, check the VBR, it'll place it at the top heading for the horizontal column just under the toolbar, it will show whether the file is VBR or CBR.  Here's a screen shot of my current songs for my 2018 Christmas Show.   And this is a FREE program.  It's the one I use to verify all my MP3 Files and add missing info {if I know it or can find it} to the MP3 file.

[Orville]

8 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

The Weekly and Calendar schedules work perfectly well together - as long as you know what does what.  The Calendar schedule will ALWAYS preempt the weekly schedule.  I use that capability somewhat regularly.  During the non-show season when my year round landscape show is running, the weekly schedule is used.  However when there are specials (such as Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day, Light up for Autism Night, etc), the special shows are scheduled via the calendar schedule.  The result is that the weekly schedule runs whenever there is nothing in the Calendar, but when the Calendar schedule has a show, that show preempts the weekly schedule.

 

I must have somehow got 2 shows to run simultaneously, perhaps they aren't supposed to.  But once I removed the Calendar options that were on the same date and time schedule as the Week option, my problem like this one disappeared.   That's why my response is the way it was.

So if a Calendar show set is selected and even though it's at the same exact time slot as a Week show, the Calendar option is supposed to take precedence over the Week option show, so the show in the Week option is not supposed to run at all, even though set for the same exact start and end time?

[dibblejr]

That was my Halloween problem - forgitnto clear calendars and schedule- bump heads and shut down.

Yall remember that- Phil’s work around helped and one day I finally got an error message. Why I didn’t get an error from the beginning is the big ? That never got answered.

I just totally forgot about the previous scheduler. LOL

JR

[Orville]

19 hours ago, dibblejr said:

That was my Halloween problem - forgitnto clear calendars and schedule- bump heads and shut down.

Yall remember that- Phil’s work around helped and one day I finally got an error message. Why I didn’t get an error from the beginning is the big ? That never got answered.

I just totally forgot about the previous scheduler. LOL

JR

Then there must be a bug in the Schedule Editor that allows this to occur, otherwise you and I both should have received errors that would have told us there were conflicting scheduled shows.    I never got any error or warning.  It{Schedule Editor} accepted it without question, then when run time came, what a mess of lighting it was too!  

So I figured they can co-exist and run simultaneously at the same time, even though they are totally different shows, set for the same start/end time.    And what a mess they create too! LOL

Just know I won't be making that mistake again.  

There may be a use for being able to do that, but if you use it, make sure the channels in the Calendar show don't use the same ones in the Week show on the same controller I.D. used for shows, or you're going to have a very weird show on your hands, especially if running at the same start/end time! 

I suppose this works well for having something like yard lights on channels not used for your display, then having both run simultaneously makes more sense.  However, I wouldn't want my landscape lighting on when I'm running a show, but thinking about it, maybe that's where this would help keep those lights off during show time and bring them up after the show, and then have the landscape lights on overnight.   Hmm, now this has me thinking on how to use this too for shows and other uses.

 

Edited December 19, 2018 by Orville

[LOR Staff]

On 12/17/2018 at 10:48 PM, Homertown said:

I have tried contacting LOR and I did get 2 responses back,  but it took several days to hear back and both times the responses where of no help and didn't even address the problem as if they didn't even look at the problem rather than just had a standard response e mail ready to paste to every email as a response

I'd like to discuss this part please.

First you stated that it took us several days before you heard back from us.  You opened your ticket on 12/02/2018 at 7:07 pm.  We were closed for the evening.  We replied to you the next morning when we opened (we open at 10AM) 12/03/2018 at 10:42 am.  We asked you for some additional information.  You replied back with the information more than two days later - 12/05/2018 at 8:23 pm.  Again we were closed, so we replied the next morning, (this time before our official opening at 10AM) 12/06/2018 at 9:03 am.  We again asked for additional information.  You never replied back.

Now let's look at the progression of the ticket.  Your initial comment was:

12/02/2018 at 7:07 pm

"Every time My show starts it seems like it pauses and buffers and then starts and then buffers and then starts and then buffers and then starts until 
eventually it just place. 

i’d never just starts the show and place it always wants to start and then pause and then start "

There really is not a lot to go on here, but we are aware of an issue with recent Windows 10 updates and issues they cause with Windows Media Player.  We replied:

12/03/2018 at 10:42 am

Hmmmm.  You're not giving us much to work with.  Has the show worked correctly in the past?

Let's first focus on the Windows operating system.  Microsoft has been pushing out a never-ending stream of updates and we have seen too many cases where LOR acts weird because Windows is in the process of installing various patches.

Go into Windows Settings or Windows Control Panel and get into the Windows Update section. Make sure it's not in the process of installing updates or waiting for a reboot or the update is stuck. Do whatever you need to and get the updates installed. You will need to check for updates multiple times to make sure they're all finally installed.

Now reboot your computer and run your tests again.

If still no joy then what version and level of Light-O-Rama software do you have installed?  

Open Sequence Editor or Sequencer.  Look at the window title bar to quickly find the software version and level that is running on your computer..

Yes parts of that are a canned response.  We use them to save us time in replying the same things over and over.  It does show that we did indeed read your request (like we do for ALL requests).  We asked for some additional information to help us determine if this is a new issue, or an ongoing one, as well as your software version.  You did not reply for over 2 days.

 

12/05/2018 at 8:23 pm

My computer was last updated on November 17 nothing has been updated since then and it says that all updates have been successful and no further updates are necessary. The LOR sequence edited version that I am using is 4.4.0 basic. I am having random problems with this as the system will randomly skip and pause and restart

Ok, so now we know that all the updates are done according to you (which should mean that WMP has been updated).  We also know that you are using 4.4.0, which lets us concentrate on just that release.  You didn't answer if the show had worked in the past or not (from reading this ticket, it appears to be that you are a new user so that would be no.  Knowing that you are a new user would have helped us tailor our responses to your issue.).  Also, in general when we say things like 'You are not giving us much to go on', what we are looking for is more details about the issue:  what exactly is happening?  Is it happening at the same time all the time?  what steps have you performed to try to eliminate the issue?  Are you seeing error messages or other information from the software?  Remember, we are not there in front of your system and we need as much detail as possible to help.

At this point, all we really know is that you are having issues running a show, and you probably are not affected by the Win Update/WMP thing.  We replied:

12/06/2018 at 9:03 am

Look at the Light-O-Rama Control Panel status window. It should be telling you why the Light-O-Rama system is doing it's doing and also tell you about any problems it has run into. See more at http://www.lightorama.com/help/control_panel.htm?zoom_highlightsub=Control+Panel. 

If you don't see any hints in the Control Panel status window then click the 'Copy Log' button under the window. This copies the status log contents to the Windows clipboard.   Reply to this ticket, right click and 'Paste' the clipboard contents into this ticket so we can take a look.

The reason we want this information is because we are still trying to determine your exact problem.  Since we had no other additional information from your last reply that could help us diagnose the issue, we asked for the show log.  The show log is indispensable when it comes to trying to figure out why a show is not running like a customer expects it.  It shows us any errors that are occurring, what actions the show player is taking at what times, etc.  It could offer a clue as to what the issue is that you are experiencing.  Unfortunately, you never replied back.

If you would like us to continue to help with your issue, please reply back to your ticket.  Thank you.

[Orville]

On 12/18/2018 at 10:57 AM, k6ccc said:

The Weekly and Calendar schedules work perfectly well together - as long as you know what does what.  The Calendar schedule will ALWAYS preempt the weekly schedule.  I use that capability somewhat regularly.  During the non-show season when my year round landscape show is running, the weekly schedule is used.  However when there are specials (such as Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day, Light up for Autism Night, etc), the special shows are scheduled via the calendar schedule.  The result is that the weekly schedule runs whenever there is nothing in the Calendar, but when the Calendar schedule has a show, that show preempts the weekly schedule.

 

Thanks for explanation Jim{just saw your post on this}.  

Still not sure why BOTH shows ran at the same time, but they did.  Removed the Calendar one I was playing around with and the issue went away.

But at least now I have a better understanding of how this is "supposed" to work.  I may try this again after the season, since I do use the RGB lights for my walkway lights up/down my ramp during the off season time.  I'll have to test out that Calendar option for special shows I may want to run next year {pre-test things} and see how it works out.   If it'll work like it should per your instructions, that could save me a lot of extra work!