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S4.4.10 Hub issue, is this a bug or something else?


Orville

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Okay, I have been attempting to write my shows to my 32GB SD Card for my N4-G4 MP3 Director, but when in the Hub and I set the days and times for a show to run, Monday is prechecked, greyed out and not changeable.  But all other days I can set specific show times for.

So is Monday supposed to be greyed out and unchangeable no matter what, if I selct the option not to run on specific days and other days are checked, Monday is still greyed out and unchangeable.

So I'm thinking this shouldn't be this way, could always change every day in the HU, which I haven't tried saving shows with set times in the HU yet, been trying to use the hub, but this one really doesn't make sense.  Bad enough I'm limited to 99 sequences per show for my off hours music set-up, and now I start setting up multiple shows and find I can't uncheck Monday for shows I don't want to run on that day?

And one other suggestion, why can't you do a multiple select of all files at once?  After learning I can't go above 99 sequences I broke my off hours sequences into 3 folders, 2 contain 99 sequences and the last only 22 sequences.   But I have to select each one by clicking on it, until I've clicked all 99 sequences, then hit the + button to put them in as a show to write to the SD Card.   This would be a whole sight easier if I could use "CTRL A" to select all files in those folders, instead of one click at a time.   I can do the "CTRL A" in the HU, but why was this not incorporated into the Hub?

Just wondering why the Hub wasn't created similar in setting up the SD Card and Shows like the HU is.

Thank you.

 

 

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Was hoping DevMike would have seen this by now {been 7 days since I posted this} and able to give me some answers.   

Just would like to know why Monday is LOCKED {greyed out} in the Hub.  All other days can be checked or unchecked, Monday is NEVER available to uncheck, it's ALWAYS checked.   Didn't want to post this in a different thread with the same info as that would be counterproductive and confusing.

But I would sure like an answer to why this is.  Mistake?  Bug?  Coding Error?  Will it be fixed?

I did check the HU, and in HU I can select or deselect any of the 7 days, including Monday.   Only the Hub will not allow Monday top be deselected and is constantly greyed out and not changeable.   This is in the Hub in 4.4.10.   Is there some reason why this is?

And why did the HU and the Hub get limited to 99 sequences for a show using a Director?  Never had those limitations on the very first DC-MP3 Director, why implement such a restriction now?

Thank you.

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1 hour ago, Orville said:

Just would like to know why Monday is LOCKED {greyed out} in the Hub.  All other days can be checked or unchecked, Monday is NEVER available to uncheck, it's ALWAYS checked.

Never used Hub, but out of curiosity, after saving with other days checked, can you then uncheck Monday?  I'm wondering if it requires at least one day, so Monday is the one until after saving with additional days.

 

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On 11/19/2020 at 6:45 PM, k6ccc said:

Never used Hub, but out of curiosity, after saving with other days checked, can you then uncheck Monday?  I'm wondering if it requires at least one day, so Monday is the one until after saving with additional days.

 

Nope.  Jim it is constantly greyed out.  No matter what other days are checked, Monday can never be unchecked, even after saving and re-opening the show to edit, it will not allow you to uncheck Monday, it's still greyed out.   Funny thing is, it'll allow you to change the time on Monday to coincide with all the other days of the week providing they are checked, but if you don't want to use Monday, you can't do anything with it, you can't just change the time on Monday by itself, that only works when another day or days are selected, but Monday continues to be grayed out.  

Now installing S4.4.12, didn't see anything about this issue in the new release, but hoping it's been resolved in 4.4.12.

I'll know in a little while when I test it out to see if this bug has been corrected.

Edited by Orville
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On 11/19/2020 at 6:45 PM, k6ccc said:

Never used Hub, but out of curiosity, after saving with other days checked, can you then uncheck Monday?  I'm wondering if it requires at least one day, so Monday is the one until after saving with additional days.

 

Installed S4.4.12, same issue with Monday being greyed out as a default.  However, I found out how to work around it. 

The work-around is after you have set and created the Show to the SD Card, then load the show to edit it in the the Hub, then click on the day name in bold and it'll open the time setting popup for that day, set the start and end times to the same time, i.e. 12:00PM to 12:00PM and it'll turn that day OFF.

It would have been so much easier in the area where it says to deselect days to just uncheck it, which turns off all the other days that would get checked, but NOT Monday.  Only way to turn it off if you don't want a specific show to run on that day is to do the aforementioned in the Hub.

The HU, no days are greyed out and you can check any day you want or uncheck any day before writing to the SD Card to remove it, much easier, just can't edit the show in the HU.   So have to use the Hub for that.

Just find it strange that one has to do a few extra steps, which should be unnecessary, just to uncheck a day you may not want fora particular show.

Still don't like the fact I can't put in more than 99 sequences in a show, the only show I have is my off hours.  And I had to break that up into 3 separate shows.  Would have been much simpler if I could have had all these 1 channel, no light command sequences as just one show on the N4-G4 Director I purchased to run them during my off time.  

Having to break these up into 3 shows in my opinion is a bit ridiculous. 

My original DC-MP3 didn't have this limitation on it, so do not understand why a newer more powerful Director unit does.  Or if it was supposed to have that 99 sequence limit, mine didn't for some strange reason, because I had over 350 sequences in one off-hours show years ago on the DC-MP3 Director that ran with no problems.   And I still had quite a few more off hours sequences to remarry to updated audio files and put into my off hours time slot.  

And I seem to recall my original DC-MP3 Director was capable of playing sequences randomly as well, the newer ones can't.  But that was years ago now, so on the random play I might be mistaken.    But I know I had 350 sequences in a show because I had an older SD Card that won't work in the new G4 Director that had all those sequences on it.  And I only used those particular cards for my shows and nothing else.   So I know that did work on the DC-MP3 Director I had, like said, if it wasn't supposed to, don't know why it allowed it, and it ran every one of them as a single show from 6AM-5:25PM for close to 4 years before it died.   Maybe that's what killed it, I overworked it to death?🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Well at least I got one problem solved I was having with creating my show{s}.   Now for that pesky 99 sequence limitation.....🤔

 

 

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If you edit the show, you can select the times it plays. If you click on Monday's timing, the HUB assumes you are changing Monday and allows you to select other days as well. That's why Monday is greyed out. You selected it.

If you select any other day, that will be the day greyed out and Monday will be OK to check or not. 

The HUB is just responding to the day you selected to change in the edit. It might grey out Monday on the initial build of the show, but you can always edit the card.

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8 hours ago, BillB said:

If you edit the show, you can select the times it plays. If you click on Monday's timing, the HUB assumes you are changing Monday and allows you to select other days as well. That's why Monday is greyed out. You selected it.

If you select any other day, that will be the day greyed out and Monday will be OK to check or not. 

The HUB is just responding to the day you selected to change in the edit. It might grey out Monday on the initial build of the show, but you can always edit the card.

Yes, i figured it out, but I should not even have to do that.  Never had to in the HU when setting shows for a Director, and the HU still works the same as it always did with one exception now, earlier versions allowed me to use basically unlimited sequences in a show, but the S4 version now limits it to 99.  

Which I really don't like, because my Off Hours Music Show runs for 10 hours 25 minutes with 221 sequences. 

And I've had to break that down into 3 shows, whereas in the past this would have only been ONE SHOW, not three, with a start time of 07:00AM and an end time of 05:25PM, then my actual show starts at 5:30PM and runs 'til 10:00PM Sun-Thur, 11PM Fri/Sat.   

But because of having to use 3 shows for my off hours music now, I can't, and don't have the number of shows I had planned for my display over the week.  Those additional 2 shows I had to create for my Off Hours Music really screwed up my plans for this years display.  

Just don't understand if we have unlimited sequences, then why did they LIMIT the Directors to only 99 sequences now?

I just thought it was strange the way the Hub does things, as the HU has options that I've used for years, like no days checked when you create a show for a Director, you can also use CTRL-A to select all sequences in a folder to import into the Show window in the HU, but this feature isn't there in the Hub.   Just seems the Hub in some ways is counter-productive in the way some features that are available in the HU are left out in the Hub.

 

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OK. So I don't have nearly the number of sequences that I run on any one day.

This is my first year with a Director (always used a PC until this year). My really big complaints with a Director are:

1) No calendar, so I can't schedule shows to play on specific dates - like special shows on Christmas and New Year days. BUMMER

2) No "background" sequences. It'll be a bitch if I have to change my FM sign and redo every sequence in every show on every card.

3) Can't use "sequences-in-sequences" so I had to redo all my sequences to include everything.

4) There always seems to be a slight blink out between segments in a show. Never had that with the PC. Haven't figured out how to stop that.

5) Yesterday, the whole display just shut down unexpectedly after about 30 minutes. Popped out the SD card and reinserted it. Show ran for 3 hours after that. STRANGE

So I created several SD cards, one each for the special days. Live and learn. At least my computer can be used for something else while the display is running.

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Solution:  run from a computer not a director.  Then all the things you want are easy.  Personally I have never seen much of an advantage running a director, and lots of disadvantages.

From a computer, you can also monitor what is going on - even remotely; make show and schedule changes on the fly; update (correct) sequences on the fly.  For example, last night was my opening night.  One of the last songs played massively wrong (most of the yard was dark).  Went into the sequencing computer and found that for some reason the sequence could not find the .avi file that comes from SuperStar.  Corrected the file, compressed it and next time it played, all was fine.  Try that on a director...

 

 

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On 11/28/2020 at 5:54 PM, k6ccc said:

Solution:  run from a computer not a director.  Then all the things you want are easy.  Personally I have never seen much of an advantage running a director, and lots of disadvantages.

From a computer, you can also monitor what is going on - even remotely; make show and schedule changes on the fly; update (correct) sequences on the fly.  For example, last night was my opening night.  One of the last songs played massively wrong (most of the yard was dark).  Went into the sequencing computer and found that for some reason the sequence could not find the .avi file that comes from SuperStar.  Corrected the file, compressed it and next time it played, all was fine.  Try that on a director...

 

 

The only real advantage using an MP3 Director: No adapters required and no cat5 cables running out windows or under doors.  So that makes things a little simpler in setting up.   All personal preference.   But it would be nice if a Director were able to do all those things, but it would cost a lot more if it could.   But as for a Director really replacing the computer, in all reality it doesn't do that.  Not even close because of its limitations.

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