Problems playing video clips in 10.6.1 Standard

[johnmsullivan]

I am a new user of the program and it does exactly what I need, except.....

We are running a production which has about 25 image and video cues running to a projector (connected to a second screen on a laptop running XP SP3). The image clips all play correctly and on cue. However, the video files (all .AVI) play intermittently. The sound always plays but the video is not displyed on the second screen. Repeatedly hitting ESC and re-starting the cue until it wakes up can get it going. The problem is that there is not always time to do this before the cue is required. The production is running this week so any thoughts on how to solve this would be most welcome! I should also say that we have installed the program on another laptop, rebuilt the cue list from scratch and still get the same problem, leading me to believe it's a problem with SCS rather than the hardware or video drivers.

Any one else experienced anything similar?

[enigmatheatre]

HI

I also had this problem with video cues. I have found that the audio plays but the video is blank till 10secs in then it snaps on. I have played around with this and found that if you exit scs the restart it the video plays fine the first time after the restart but any time after that it snaps in 10sec in. I did get it to work in the end by reducing the output resolution on the second output on my pc and now it plays first time every time.
I hope this helps you.

Greig.

[johnmsullivan]

Thanks Greig, I'll try that. Out of interest, what video resolution did you reduce to on your second output?

John.

I did get it to work in the end by reducing the output resolution on the second output on my pc and now it plays first time every time.

[enigmatheatre]

Hi John

I think I changed it to 600 x 800. I'm not to sure as the show is away on tour so I cant check.

Greig

[dee99]

Try to use a different codec for the video (FFMPEG ?) or a different format video.

Dee

[runawaymartin]

Hi guys . . . I'm also having a similar problem but it's not common to every computer. My production desk top computer running on XP and a laptop running VISTA don't have any problems but another laptop running XP does.
I've just put together a 2 hr show which consists of entirely video and still images and it ran perfectly on the VISTA laptop at a gig on Friday. The Cues/Sub-Cues were a mixture of manual and auto-start.
At this time it doesn't seem to me to be an SCS problem so I'll take Dee's advice and check out the video codecs each is using.
Cheers . . . Martin

[johnmsullivan]

Our run has now ended so I'll try and find some time to experiment with different file formats/resolutions and see whether that makes any difference. I'll post the results here when I have them. Thanks for all the feedback.

John.

[runawaymartin]

Hi John . . . .
This issue has just arisen again for me so I thought I might continue this thread to see if any more advice can be gleaned.
My knowledge regarding video codecs is not good and although I've tried to identify what codecs are being used I haven't had much joy. I was wondering if you, or anybody with some knowledge on this subject, could clarify a) how you ascertain what video codec is being used, b) what would be the most suitable one to install, c) how do you tell the computer which one to use.
Many thanks . . . Martin

[Richard Simpson]

Download the following to ascertain the codec being used

http://www.headbands.com/gspot/


Richard Simpson

[AndyT]

HI There

I also had the same problem, in that I could not get video to play reliably. We tried saving the videos in different formats (WMV, AVI etc.) which didn't appear to make any difference. We found that as our Theatre PC is not internet connected, we could not install the latest MS Media player

The solution we found was to install the latest codecs from the K-Lite codec pack
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_l ... c_pack.htm

Since then we have run faultlessly.
Hope this helps

[runawaymartin]

Thanks for that Andy . . . I'll certainly give that a go. I'll let you know how I get on . .
Cheers . . . Martin

[rrew]

Hello All,

Me too. I am testing my new machine, and am using clips from an earlier show. My video clips (all AVI which ran fine on earlier SCS versions) will run sometimes, then not, then run. I have not found any pattern to it. For example, on one pass, video 1 will run, 2 will not, 3 will and so on in random order. On the next pass 1 won't run, 2 will, but 3 won't. Most perplexing. I have K Lite codecs installed. This is a new, purpose built for SCS; Windows XP SP3, dual core Athalon Phenom II 550, 2 gig ram, 512 meg video (ATI), second monitor set at 480x600.

Thanks in advance for any ideas, suggestions.

RRew

[rrew]

Re: Previous message. Secondary monitor set at 800x600.

RRew

[rrew]

I may have a solution. Reduce the video acceleration in Windows Media Player (WMP 11, that is). Go to WMP. Sync, More Options, Performance, and move the video accelerator slider to the mid position. I did this and have run my cue list 10 times now, including ending and re-starting SCS, with perfect results, and have returned my second monitor to 1024x768.

RRew

[runawaymartin]

Hi RRew . . . I don't want to get too excited yet but I've followed your advice re the WMP settings on my production desktop computer and so far so good. I have a client with a show that is entirely video and still images . . . I stopped files whilst they were playing, jumped backwards and forwards from Cue to Cue etc etc and as I say, so far all is looking good. I haven't had an opportunity to check this out on one of my 'live' laptops but will report back when I have . . .
Thanks for the advice . . . .
. . . Martin