Show Cue System

Hi!

Right now I am converting a couple of very complex surround shows (opera) that were run from MiniDisc and DVD to be played back with SCS. I am very happy with the software so far because it makes life for the technicians so much easier.

However I am running into an error message which seems to occur when SCS has been running for some time (usually about an hour, sometimes less). It is apparently a message picked up from Windows Media Player, stating that the audio device is unavailable (Error code: C00D11BA). It shows, when a video cue is finished and SCS attempts to preload a new video.

Audio interface drivers are fresh and working, and the Audio itself is not affected, only some video files will not load (Sometimes they will load when I select a cue manually, sometimes they won't.) Most of the videos don't have any audio, those who have are set up with synced wav-files to avoid WMP default output. However this error seems to destabilize the system in general.

I am a video technician doing corporate events as well as theatre so I'm not new to codec issues and the set-up procedures for a PC based playback system. But: We're running the whole thing under Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit on a brand new laptop. The audio device is an ESI Gigaport HD 8-Output interface. We're running WMV-Files (proofed to work best, I was surprised) in 1024x182px and 520x768px resolution, VGA output is set to XGA (native projector resolution), audio is uncompressed wav. I want to ask if anyone had a similar experience in a similar set up.

Tests under Windows XP SP3 on the same machine did not proof successful, I experienced a significant lag in video playback of about 5 second (audio would always start in time, video would follow later). This happend on three different computers, tests with hardware acceleration, codec and output resolution did not change a thing. Windows 7 plays video flawlessly and right from the spot with no delay.

Windows 7 uses WMP 12.

The current SCS release candidate did not get along with the audio interface and would send all signals to all outputs simultaneously.
I'm trying to get hold of a 32bit Windows 7 to see if that makes a difference and I will post an update about that.
I would appreciate any help or ideas. The system is used in performances right now and we are skipping error messages and reloading video cues all the time (70+ manual sound cues, 30+ manual video cues).

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I really need to get this fixed.

Cheers,
Felix

This sounds like a Video Card issue rather than anything else. What are your video card makes and models of the ones you tested? Are the drivers up-to-date for your Operating Systems? Is there anything else running in the background of these particular computers? Is there anything else hijacking the resources of the video cards?

I regret that I can't provide any definite answer, but here are some comments, etc:

• Error code C00D11BA doesn't appear to make any sense so I presume there's been some memory corruption.
• I've not used WMP12 so haven't had a chance to confirm how compatible SCS is with this.
• You mentioned that the current release candidate "would send all signals to all outputs simultaneously". I can't think how that could happen, so I'll email you details of a test I'd like you to run.

btw, I'm running some tests on a new video dll which will replace WMP as the video playback engine, and which also will enable video audio to be played through any selected SCS audio device rather than the Windows default sound device. This should overcome syncing problems encountered by splitting the audio out to a separate file.

Mike Daniell wrote: btw, I'm running some tests on a new video dll which will replace WMP as the video playback engine, and which also will enable video audio to be played through any selected SCS audio device rather than the Windows default sound device. This should overcome syncing problems encountered by splitting the audio out to a separate file.

Yeah to that!

Bruce

Thanks for your replies.

I'll share some new experiences with you:
Windows 7 32bit did not make any difference, the error still occurred.

After sorting out the audio issue (which has been my fault), I installed the RC on a fresh Windows 7 32bit installation. Now instead of showing the error message, the program crashes (under the same circumstances aforementioned). Windows logs indeed suggest it is a graphics card driver issue as it crashes on a Nvidia DLL called nvd3dum.dll.

The drivers are up to date and background services have been reduced to the necessary. But I will have a deeper look into the video card settings.

It's obvious that there's an increasing demand for video playback and that naturally we are wanting to use SCS for this purpose . . . I have to commend Mike on his approach to this issue . . . looking forward to the development . . .