Show Cue System

Hi Guys,
I have a show programmed where a video will start 4 minutes before the end of an audio cue file. Problem I'm having is that at occasionally the cue registers as playing but the video doesn't appear. Anyone have any thoughts on what would cause this? There is an image cue 2 cues later that plays fine. The file is an avi SD.

Dave,

Which version of SCS are you using, and which video playback option (eg xVideo, etc)?

10.8.2 and the xvideo playback

Hmm. Seems strange that this only happens sometimes. If it always occurred it would most likely be a Codec issue. Could you email me your cue file (the .scs or .scsq file) and tell me which video cue sometimes fails to display?

Is SCS always restarted for each performance, or is it possible that the error occurs only if you leave SCS running but re-open the cue file?

I have emailed the file. Computer was shut down between shows. As I said in the email, directshow has worked for me so far 2 nights in a row, I'll let you know if it happens under that mode.

I too came across this problem today - the first time I have tried to project a video file (still images are fine). SCS shows the file as playing, but the screen remains dark. The next still image comes up as it should. I am using the default 'DirectShow'.

I'd be grateful for any advice.

Roger Fletcher

That's a bit odd, Roger. Dave has found that since he changed to DirectShow the video has always displayed correctly. Have you tried switching to xVideo?

There is another video playback option you could try, and you can download this from http://www.showcuesystems.com/download/scsmm.zip. This zip file contains just one file: scsmm.dll. Extract this file and copy it into the same folder as scs10.exe. Now whenever you start SCS it will find this 'plugin'. In General Options you can now select SCSMM from the drop-down list for 'Video Playback Library'. Functionally, this option is similar to DirectShow, ie fades are not available. Previously, SCSMM was only made available to users who were experiencing particular problems with video playback, but I'm now publicly releasing SCSMM, although it's not yet included in the SCS download itself.

I've had something similar in the past but only after I had carried out my pre-show confidence testing. Restart of SCS resolved the issue. Problem dissapeared after I ensured that all my video files used the same bit-rate (constant not variable). Seems that there may be caching of the bit-rate somewhere and the output device or SCS uses the wrong info.