telecatprod Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 I run two shows (one at my house, one at my parents). Both run off DC-MP3s.Last year when programming, I discovered (by seeing it not work) that a DC-MP3 does not play loops in an animation sequence. It just plays straight thru like there was no loop.Now this year I was trying to create an animation sequence that had three tracks in it. When I tried to load that sequence, the Hardware Utility said that the DC-MP3 can't play an animation with more than one track so it wouldn't load it. Apparently it can play a multi-track *musical* sequence just fine (tried it). But not animation.Questions:* The first could have been addressed by a firmware update already. Has it been? I've been lax in checking firmware versions. My apologies for raising it if it's been fixed already. If it hasn't, will it be? Loops are your friend for things like stand alone leaping arches.* The second clearly is not firmware fixed already as the Hardware Util is the stopping point. Why can it play musical shows with multiple tracks but not animations? Will this be fixed?* Is there anything else a DC-MP3 *can't* do that I might want to know about?Thanks!-Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Some that come to mind are:Multiple network support.DOS commands for RDS, web site updates, beta brite signs, or other uses..Subsequences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightzilla Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Well that is good to know. Good thing I do not use loops. I use the mini MP3 Director unit and it does what I need it to do, but I did want to upgrade to the DC-MP3 next year. I would like that built in timer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Unless you're using a mix of musical and animation sequences, the DC-MP3 is a bit overkill -- you can run animation-only sequences from any 'D'-series (e.g. CTB-16D) or Showtime controller...It seems weird musical sequences would support tracks but not animation... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Sand Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Since the DC-MP3 predates LOR2, I'd say it's probably not really playing multiple tracks at all but rather the hardware utility combining the tracks into a single LOR1-type sequence for copying to the flash card. Maybe it's a limitation of the hardware utility rather than DC-MP3 itself that it can't do the same for animation sequences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Actually, if you look at the XML representation of a sequence, the channel data is completely independent of tracks, and tracks are just a presentation layer description. There is nothing to strip from the channel data relating to tracks, and nothing to combine, as all the channel data is one single block. The hardware utility for MP3 director (and the show player) just ignores the data on how to present the channel data as tracks.So I'm not really sure why the restriction on tracks in animation sequences, while they are allowed for musical. Either there is some additional feature for animation sequences and tracks that I am not thinking of, or a historical accident where they forgot to tell the hardware utility that it can do tracks for animation sequences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts