Video Problems

It has been said: "The great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from". The field of video file formats is littered with "standards", some proprietary and some public domain. Research the MPEG format and you will find it contains many "parts" and this results in variations of the MPEG format. Handling the different formats is implemented via video codecs, but there are multiple codecs available for the same formats. The end result of this dog's breakfast is that it is difficult to include in SCS a video playback facility that can successfully handle all formats.

After a lot of research an experimentation, we have found the TVideoGrabber (TVG) playback library to be the most suitable for use with SCS.

Note: Before going further in trying to resolve video issues, make sure you have the latest LAVFilters installed and that you are using TVideoGrabber (TVG) as the video playback library in SCS. This combination has been found to work very well with all video file formats we've tried. If you have done this and still have video playback problems, then read on, or contact support@showcuesystems.com.

Here are some problems that have been reported by users, and suggestions on how to overcome them.

This can occur if the video playback library runs out of resources to pre-load all the video files it is trying to load. This is most likely to occur if you are using video hotkey cues because SCS tries to pre-load files for all hotkey cues so they are ready for 'instant' playback. If this is the case in your production then set the property Do NOT Pre-Load Video Hotkey Cues. You can set this property in Production Properties - Run Time Settings. After saving your changes, close and restart SCS. Although there may now be a slight delay in starting a video hotkey cue, tests have shown that this delay is quite small.

If you lose connection to the secondary screen (eg due to a faulty HDMI cable) then SCS will attempt to recover from this situation. It's not a 100% guaranteed solution, but SCS will (a) detect if a screen has been disconnected or connected, and (b) attempt to reposition and resize the video/image targets. The following warning message will be displayed in the status line of the main window: "The number of connected screens has changed. SCS will try to recover but we recommend you close and restart SCS."

You will be able to access the 'close window' X marker, etc, as well as the SCS toolbar and/or menu items.

The checks on screens being disconnected or connected are not made if your production does not use any secondary screens (eg if there are no video/image cues).

Microsoft has provided a number of Video Renderers over the life of Windows versions. If you find that your videos do not play on the second screen, then try changing the Video Renderer. You change this setting in Options and Settings - Video Driver Settings.

I have a Matrox DualHead2Go/TripleHead2Go and I can only configure this as a stretched display

Matrox tech support have advised us that their GXM units can only configure the connected displays as a single stretched display unless you have a Matrox graphics card that supports independent mode. To get around this limitation you can go to Options and Settings - Video Driver Settings in SCS and configure the stretched display as independent displays for the 'Screen' in Video/Image Cues.