How is the audio on a video cue handled?

[TMetzinger]

New user here, but my searching of the forum to find an anser to the question has failed.

So far I'm really enjoying what SCS can do for me. But I do have one issue.

I've got a production set up with several sound devices (FOH, Stage Monitor) set up and working properly. When I add a video cue, the "Audio" box at the bottom (with the trim and pan settings) shows "default" and I can't change it. This results in the audio not going where I want it to go.

Hoping that this is a bug or a setting I missed somewhere.

Thanks!

Tim Metzinger

[Mike Daniell]

Currently a video's audio will only play through the Windows default sound device - hence the term 'default' in the device field.

SCS plays video files using either DirectShow or an API (application programming interface) into Windows Media Player (WMP).

The WMP API was the first method included in SCS, and this API has no facility to nominate the audio output device - it plays audio via the Windows default sound device and there's no way to use any other device.

DirectShow has more flexibility but to do anything other than the functionality currently supported in SCS is very difficult. SCS use the BASS audio library for playing audio files (WAV, MP3, etc), and there is in development a 3rd-party DLL that will enable video files to send audio output to any device. This DLL also uses DirectShow, but unfortunately the DLL is not yet stable enough for me to include in SCS. If and when I find the DLL stable I will be including it in SCS - unless I find a better video playback option before then. I'm going to see if I can include an interface into VLC, but the documentation available on that interface is also very difficult to follow

[runawaymartin]

Hi Tim . . .

If you're using a Video Cue in a show that only contains video files then you can just use the computer's default output as your sound source.

If, however, and this is the more likely scenerio, you are running a show which includes audio files as well, this would be my suggestion to you.

First lift the audio from the video file and save it as a separate audio file (it will help if you can ascertain a common sync point). When you construct your show in SCS you have a couple of options as to how you put it together. (1) You can create a Cue which contains your video file and the relative audio file as a Sub-Cue, or, (2) Create 2 Cues . . The 1st being the Video Cue and the 2nd the Audio Cue . . you then make the 2nd Cue an Auto-Start cue which starts at the same time as your Video Cue.
For either scenerio you may have to experiment a bit with relative start times . . this may vary from computer to computer.

Hope that may be of some help . . . .

Cheers . . . Martin

[TMetzinger]

Thanks for the information! I'm glad to know that the audio box says "default" for a reason and isn't supposed to be selectable (yet).

And I'll try to strip the audio off of the video and play both cues together, but I am a little worried that they'll drift out of sync over the length of the cue. I'll experiment and report back.

[runawaymartin]

Hi Tim . . .

When running any tracks in sync with SCS it's always a good thing to make all the Sub-Cues involved the same length. This can often be done within the editor by shortening the play length of certain Sub-Cues to match up with the shortest one . . that obviously depends on the Sub-Cue's content. I use Premiere Pro to extract any audio from a video and that then assures that the length is the same . . . I'm sure there are plenty of other similar, and probably cheaper, ways of doing this.

Good luck, mate . . . Martin