Video or audio, not both (fix in 10.9.3)

[PeterH]

Hi,

I just bought SCS and I am impressed by it features. As our production uses a lot of video as well, I was trying to play with SCS and I ran into an issue.

The files I got are in mpg format, mostly 720x576 and were created some time ago and already used with different software. They play ok on the given laptop using mediaplayer or other software. But SCS refuses to play them well. Actually when I use DirectShow I hear the sound, but do not have any video on my second screen. When using xVideo it is the other way around, video on the second screen is fine, but no audio at all.

To make things even more weird, if I play the files in the preview window in the editor I have both video and audio. Previewing while selecting the second screen gives no video, just a black screen.

I will list my setup below. Could anyone help me out on this? If any extra info is needed let me know.

Regards,
Peter

Laptop: Acer TravelMate 5730
Memory 2Gb
OS: Windows 7 SP1, 64 bit.
SCS version 10.9.1, registered
K-Lite Codec pack (Installed only after I encountered these issues)
Second screen on VGA as extended screen 2. Tried several resolutions.
Audio using internal sound card of laptop

[Mike Daniell]

The MPEG/MPG format is the most troublesome format - probably because there are so many variations of the format. Try converting the files to AVI. I'm sure AVI will work better. If you don't have software to do this conversion then I recommend the NCH Prism video converter software.

[PeterH]

Isn't avi just a container, which could on its turn still hold mpeg data?

To turn it around, what would be the ideal format for SCS to use? I actually have to work 20+ already produced mpg files, so recoding them isn't my favorite option

EDIT: I tried the suggested video converter for a few files and it seems to work using the default settings (avi H264/mp3).

[PeterH]

Did some more testing. A given is that in the production I need to do movie files need to be played on certain cues. This may also include skipping one, play one a second time, et cetera, based on the things the person on stage is improvising. Basically I have to jump up and down through the playlist This might also happen in the middle of a movie file, not only when it has ended.

Until now we did this using an old version of WinDVD7. This contains a playlist and by just double clicking an item it starts playing on the second screen. This works fine on the same hardware. As SCS has more options I would like to migrate to it, using the same movie files as possible. As discussed above I already converted them to AVI.

But for some reasons this seems not to work. When switching between (running) movies it happens very often that there is no video. Or actually there is for about half a second and it turns black after that. Sound is still ok.

Needless to say I do not dare to use this for my production yet (which goes live in five weeks). As I really like SCS and its interface could you help in any way to make this happen? For now I find the video performance not reliable, as you might expect.

[Mike Daniell]

When switching between (running) movies it happens very often that there is no video. Or actually there is for about half a second and it turns black after that. Sound is still ok.

Hmm. What's probably happening is that SCS is blacking out the video window when the first video is stopped - not checking that another video is now running. I'll see if I can reproduce the problem.

btw, how many video cues are you trying to use? Could you email me your cue file (the .scsq file)?

[Peter Jackson]

Hi PeterH

Might I suggest for repeatable cues you make then as Hot Key Triggers or Toggles (with toggle you can add Fade IN/Out times if you need to cut a cue short) I have just had a play with 6 video cues and a couple of audio cues and everything played fine including snaping some over another playing and then replaying the one I cut off. All videos were in AVI and had been converted with NCH Prism converter (encoder set to H264 -Native) as suggest by Mike which has been working without any problems. video playback was set to "xVideo"

Hope you sort the problem as I think this is one of the best programmes around for PC for show control, as I sure lots of others will agree.

Peter

Just remembered I ment to say that sometimes if you edit a cue and then try to replay, SCS seems loose the 2nd monitor so always best to close down and restart SCS, as a precaution best to ensure your desktop image is BLACK screen so if you have to do it during a performance no one will know as the second monitor will remain BLACK.

[PeterH]

Thanks for helping out. Busy with some other things and the timezone difference does not help either

Although I like your creativity I do not think triggers will help me. The actual show has like 25 to 30 movies in sequence. But as said I have to jump back and forth on occassion as the performance requests it.

But to reproduce the issue I made a small cue file with three movies and this already shows the problem. Will send it to you Mike. Thanks for looking into it.

P.S. Might preloading or exlusive cue do the trick?

[Mike Daniell]

Sorted this out. The problem occurred when using a 'non-linear run mode' (set in Production properties) and selecting a cue while another video cue was still playing.

Fixed in 10.9.3 RC1.

[PeterH]

And might I add that I got great support from Mike solving this!