Knowledge Base/BETA: MediaShout Version 4/Application & UI
Audio Deck1 doesn't remember any script that it uses when UI is tweaked
Kenno
posted this on June 25, 2010 08:10 am
After the upgrade to b185 both of the Audio Decks I have in use (both shown here in the attached pic, Deck2 is as a rollup at the top of the screen) had no memory of any previous scripts used.
I opened a script in each deck and closed MS. Upon reopening MS, Deck2 now remembers all the last used scripts (all the ones I've opened since the upgrade), but Deck1 never has any memory of any scripts loaded or played since the upgrade.
I've tried opening and resaving a script in the Audio Deck1, and actually playing a song from the script in the Deck, but to no avail.
It seems to be Deck1 that is broken.
Comments
I have been testing this with 4 Audio Decks in the Deck pane. Follow these 4 steps and let me know what you come up with.
1. Insert 4 Audio Decks into the Deck Pane.
2. Save the changes to the workspace
3. Create a playlist for each deck and save them
4. Restart Shout
Now try correcting what you find. Remember, if you move a deck, save the changes to the workspace.
I did as you requested.
I already had AudioDeck1 in the deck area and audioDeck2 in rollup as shown in pic above as part of my original setup.
I then created 3 additional Audio Decks 3,4,5, in the main Deck area.
I saved the workspace with the name "what is John up to".
I created a new playlist in each deck and saved with seperate names.
Restarted Shout.
On restart I find four empty AudioDecks now, with no remembered scripts in the AudioDeck dropdowns. AudioDeck2 is still working fine at this stage.
BUT since then..... Now I've tried moving some of those four Audio Decks out of the Deck area to see what will happen.
I then get a mixed result of AudioDecks staying put and keeping their last used script upon restart.
I also found once that a deck that I pinned in the title bar (additional to AudioDeck2 that's always in the title bar), didn't stay there after restart. But mysteriously reappeared after a future restart. I also closed an AudioDeck that I'd attached to the Viewer area. That reappeared still attached after a restart.
Different things happen each time I close and restart
What are you finding?
Regards Ken
You also lose the AudioDeck's current script when you move from one workspace to another and back again.
I've gone back to an old workspace, and suddenly both of my open decks are now remembering the last used script, everytime I restart MS. What's with that!
"What is John up to" I like it. The reason I don't always give all the information I have is, if I feel the results may vary from user to user, it will give me a better understanding of what is going on and the scope of the issue. If I gave the exact steps to reproduce what I see then we may think, thats as far as it goes. It also gets testers to try things I may not have thought of, like you were doing by moving the Decks around and changing workspaces. And if you are anything like me, I love to be able to nail down exactly what is going on. This way If I can't, maybe another tester can, and the sooner the exact trigger can be found, the quicker and easier it can be fixed. In my tests is was able to get all 4 decks to remember a play list, but not in the order in which I created them. I think we may have a variation of the old bug. I haven't tested yet, but I have a suspicion that reason for the varying results is due to what Deck is open at the time the workspace is saved and what Deck is active when you restart Shout. For reference here is the archived post AudioDeck 1 doesn't remember last used playlist, (Solved in B18X) It looks like it was not solved 100%.
I did the "what is John up to test and have the same results as Kenno. It is as if Audio deck one has disappeared. It does not come back when Shout restarts and it is not in my saved files either.
I dropped off my test results in the dropbox beta folder. Feel free to run the same tests and let me know what you come up with.
You are a cruel taskmaster. Think I will take it to Mr. Burton in the morning as I am going to visit his church for their Sunday A.M. The joys of being an unemployed bivocational minister is that you can visit all the churches you've never been to before
You are absolutely right. You got me thinking. I went a little to far in the testing. Really, who is going to save the workspace over and over after creating playlists. After thinking about it, my tests did revile that playlists were remembered unless the workspace was saved while an Audio deck was open. Lets see what happens to the playlists after the workspace is created. I found that if the workspace is created and saved while in any deck other than an audio deck then the playlists are remembered. Follow the steps and let me know if this works for you.
1. Create a workspace with multiple audio decks
2. Save the workspace while NOT in an Audio deck.
3. Restart Shout
4. Create playlists for all decks
5. Restart Shout while NOT in an Audio deck
This should result in playlists being remembered. Let me know what you find.
Now, lets test restarting Shout while in an Audio deck to see if we can create predictable results. This is where the bug lies. You will see that the play lists will be shuffled and duplicated depending on which deck is active when you restart Shout.
This issue is much the same as one I've battled with for 9-12 months. I've posted on it before. In my Vista installation of MS, at some stage I had four AudioDecks open. I closed two of them (they happened to be AudioDeck 2&3). So I only had deck 1 & 4 visible. Then when I opened an additional deck, it came in as AudioDeck 5. Even if I closed Audiodeck4 and reopened a new Audiodeck, it would always be AudioDeck 4 or above that came in. I could never have AudioDeck 2 or 3 again. They weren't hidden either. All was fixed when I installed MS anew in Windows 7.
But it does seem to follow the workspace. I lost a deck last night, and the only way to retrieve was to go to another Workspace that had them all in, and I deleted the Workspace with the missing AudioDeck.
I probably could have fixed this in my Vista installation if I'd known that I could have gone back to another Workspace (with all AudioDecks intact) and deleted the corrupted workspace.
I'll try your new plan John soon when I have some more time. Bit tied up now.
Not a problem. I wonder, could having floating decks have an effect on the results?
I did as you suggested.
I closed all existing audiodecks. Then opened 4 AudioDecks.
Once I did this, they all opened without playlists. Another time they all opened with Playlists intact, another time 3 intact and one empty. So not consistant there. But when they opened with Playlists intact, it wasn't neccessarily the one that was active when that deck was closed, but rather several decks had the same playlist loaded.
I then saved the workspace and restarted MS.
Only three of the four AudioDecks have playlists after reopening MS.
This has been pretty consistent.
It sounds like you skipped step 4 because there were playlists already assigned. Try reassigning playlists to the decks and restart Shout.
Correct, I didn't recreate new ones, as they were already there so I just used them. I can try tonight.
John, I have had the results you've seen. The playlists are shuffled if there at all. I've tried every option you and Kenno have suggested, I also end up with mixed results.
Audio Deck 1 reloads test script 4 repeatedly; Audio Deck 2 reloads Test script 2 (good); Audio Deck 3 reloads nothing (bad); and Audio Deck 4 reloads Test Script 4 (yeah). I did note that when I move to a different pane prior to saving the workspace, when I then save the workspace, the focus reverts to the Audio Deck section within the Deck Pane
When I save the workspace and script after making the audio decks "floating", they now remember the newly created playlists, but are still shuffled.
I rescind that previous post. I forgot to save the workspace last time. Once I did, it remembered all 4 playlists in their correct Audio Decks.
Well, it did it once, not again, back to shuffling.
After numerous tries, and workspace saves, options upon opening etc. Regardless of what info I try to include/exclude wherever the Audio Deck pane is (floating, deck pane), I continue to find that Audio Deck 1 reloads test script 4, AD2 loads TS3, AD3 loads TS2, AD4 loads TS1. One thing I've not tried is to give the workspace a new name, I keep using "Inquiring Minds" for the workspace name.
How do you "revert" to an older workspace? I liked what I had before I started this testing, and I can't seem to find anyway to load a workspace.
Chuck, If you go to View>Workspace then any workspace you saved should be at the bottom and the current workspace will have a check next to it.
Try this new test and let me know what you find. This is the same test as above. The steps have been broken down for clarification.
1. Delete all playlists created in earlier tests and rename playlists you wish to keep.
2. Close all audio decks and open the Elements deck
3. Go to View>Workspace and save workspace using current workspace name
4. Restart Shout
5. Add multiple audio decks
6. Open the Elements Deck
7. Go to View>Workspace and save workspace as a new workspace
8. Restart Shout
9. Create playlists for all decks. When saving the playlists, give them a name that indicates what audio deck you created them in. Like "Deck 1" for Audio 1
10. Open the Elements Deck and restart Shout
Check the audio decks. The proper playlist should be applied to the proper deck.
As long as Shout is not closed while an Audio Deck is open the playlists will be remembered. If an Audio Deck is open when shout is restarted, the open deck will cause the shuffling and duplication of the play lists. Reapplying all the playlists (even if the you have decks with the proper playlists), opening any deck other than an Audio deck and restarting Shout will put everything back in place and will remain this way, unless of course you restart Shout with an Audio Deck open.
John, I must need to reinstall MS, apparently my installation has some issues; the View>Workspace dropdown on my installation does not include any of the 5 or more saved workspaces. I think, presuming that you agree that I should resolve that first, then on with the test?
If Shout is installed on a system with multiple user accounts, or if multiple users were ever created, you might see this issue. Right click the Shout icon and try the Run As Administrator option and let me know what you find. Do this first.
John I had to make a decision, and your reply was after I'd made it and uninstalled/reinstalled. But just so you know, this system has never had more than my account on it. It is running Windows 7 Ultimate, if that makes any difference. I can now see saved workspaces...yeah!!
Thats great. Glad to see you can see what you can see.
I'll move forward with the Audio Deck tests.
John, I've completed the test, recording each step, and saved the results in the \\Dropbox\Beta\Audio Deck Test results\Chuck's Results
Thanks.
Due to the size to the 4.5 QT Test Media folder, some may experience no more room in their Dropbox. I will be removing this folder tomorrow evening 7/1/10 at 11:00 P.M. to give everybody a chance to copy this folder to their drives. Correct me if I am wrong, but for Kenno that should be, 5:00 PM 7/2/10.
Yes that puts me up to 52% of dropbox usage. I've inlarged mine by inviting friends. 3.75G now. In fact our church now use it for office and mediateam use. It's really streamlined things for us.
You're almost right with the time/date. But the date would be 2/7/10 for us. 7/2/10 passed about 5 months ago for us. Just more proof, that we're always way ahead of you over here. LOL.
That is because you like to do things backwards. July 2nd, 2010 = 7/2/10. If you go backward long enough, you will eventually find your self in front of everybody LOL
To me it seems logical to go from the smallest unit to the largest. ie. day/month/year, not med/small/large. If you guys want to get ahead of yourselves a bit, you can come to New Zealand. But not too many at once. If too many came, we'd need to kill a few more sheep to make room.
I'm sure you've got the theme for a new film going on there. I've never seen one on forward to the future and eventually catching yourself up.
Sometimes I despair. If you want proper training, you'll need to pay. I'd have to do it State by State though, to keep it manageable.
Focus guys! Day/Month/Year.
It's actually biblical, LOL. Many references eg: The forteenth day of the second month etc... Wow, that'll get you going. Haha.
Now get back and find those bugs!
John, do you require us to do some testing with the MOV files in the QT folders. Some of them play and some don't. All of them except two play.
DVCPRO50_low.mov say decoder not found. The H.264 says WMP encountered a problem playing the file.
Let's know if you want proper testing done.
There are no special tests for the files. They are just a batch of test files in different mov formats to test the QT feature. These will hopefully be the ones we will support. The two files you see problems with are the two everybody has problems with. They are known not to work. On a high note, this topic will soon be archived. I just got word the next build solves this one or so I hope. I still waiting to hear when the next build will be ready.
The media file has been removed at my end. Please check your dropbox. If it is still there, you may move or delete it.
I am still seeing that this problem exists, if it is a problem. The original comment was that the audio deck doesn't remember any script that it uses. The audio deck once again doesn't load the saved .ssc file, nor is it in the dropdown box. I can of couse load it, but I don't think that is what the original comment was about.
I must not have been following instructions well enough, I'm sorry, I closed and relaunched MS several times, and it was fine.
Hi John,
I've tested this thing to insanity. I've put a 22 minute video in Dropbox \ b185 \ audio deck memory issues. Sorry it's 56MB. It includes almost every test I could imagine, and you'll need lots of coffee to stay awake while listening to it. But I covered every aspect I could think of. I've made some interesting observations that could be helpful, but you may notice some others as you watch, if you can stay awake long enough.
God bless.
I knew it John. I'd bored you to sleep with the video. When you do finally wake up, let's know if it all makes sense, or sheds any new light.
b188. This is still the same for me John. I have built new playlists for the Audio Decks and new scripts for the Cues Deck.
But neither the Audio or Cue Decks have any memory or previously used scripts/playlists.
This is working fine for me. Being that I knew you have an audio deck pinned to the UI, i did the same. With the deck pinned to the UI it does not remember the last script. When all deck are in the default location, they remember everything. The last list opened and the MRU list in the order they were last viewed. Being that you are also having issues with the Song Deck column widths, please let me know what changes you have made to the Deck Pane so I can duplicate your workspace. Or try putting a copy of the workspace file in the dropbox and I will try it.
They do need to remember MRU when pinned elsewhere in the UI. Interestingly the deck that is pinned outside of the deck area is the one (for me) that actually remembers the MRU. Just not the ones in the deck area.
My WorkSpace files is in the Beta DropBox under B188 in case that helps.
You'll also see my setup in the video I just put in the Song Deck Column Width thread.
Regards Ken
Put Audio 1 back in with the other audio decks. If I pin the audio deck where you have yours pinned, then it does not remember the last deck used but the it does retain the MRU list.
My audio deck 1 is already with the other decks. It's audio deck 2 that's pinned seperately.
Mine always either remembers correctly OR is blank. I don't ever have it remember all but the last used script.
There's also something seriously wrong with the workspace saving.
If I put audio deck 2 back in deck area, load a script into empty audio deck 1, (has always been in deck area but not remembing anything) and also put a script in the Cues deck (testing this too as it doesn't remember MRU) then close MS without saving to a new workspace.... nothing is changed. Not even the fact that I've moved the audio deck 2 back into the deck area.
Please also see post above.
If I do everything as above, but save to a new workspace, then the cue deck and audio deck 1 will remember the last used script.
So there seems to be two possible issues interacting.
1. audio deck 2 pinned seperate
2. audio deck 1 in deck area
3. cue deck in deck area.
4. not saving workspace after each change
If these are the conditions, then for me, the audio deck 2 and cues deck will not remember MRU.
I dont know what else to suggest. Unless any one else is having the same problems. Try using one of the stock workspaces. If this doesn't improve your results, it could be the patched up INI files. Did you ever do a clean install after the 185 mess?
Just to add to the above info...
I can leave the Elements deck pinned in the Viewers area and if I move the audio deck 2 back in to deck area, and save to a new workspace, then the MRU of audio 1 and cue deck work.
I realised above I hadn't mentioned what I'd done with my Elements deck, as it's always in the Viewer area.
The reason I have it in the viewer area, is it can stay visible for a 'one click' drag of black/comment and other new cue types into the script even if I'm working in the song or bible deck. It's two clicks to get to, and drag in a black or comment cue etc if the Elements deck is full size in the Deck area. I could pin it beneath the song deck but that reduces the song/bible etc deck size too much. Putting it in the Viewer area, just significantly reduces the number of clicks to produce a script.
Yes I did a clean install and used CCleaner etc and reinstalled. But the ini files seemed to stay, so I had to find and delete them.
So as far as the MRU and the last list used, everything works fine with all audio decks mounted in the default location. Would you agree?
Yes that seems to be correct. All audio decks in place and MRU works fine for audio and cue decks.
To answer you previous question. When I did a clean install for b186 I started with the standard workspace and built from there. So everything was from scratch. I even deleted my old workspaces and created new one. So this should be able to be repeated.
I've used a seperated but attached audio deck since before v4 official release. It work well for some time, then it broke. But since then it has work in the last six months, but is now faultly again.
Still the same in b190
My Audio decks loaded with the scripts that were loaded the first time I launched 190. Since then they, regardless of what efforts I put into them, relaunch with the same audio scripts. They also still do not have any dropdown entries save the one that it launched with.
Hopefully this one will get fixed within the next couple of builds. We gave them a lot of things to work on with this one. I can still confirm, with everything mounted in its default location, the bug is not present.
John, here is a video of what I believe to be a recurrent problem. It has an entry in the *.ini file for this (recently used audio scripts), but never seems to be updated and therefore does not appear when you relaunch Shout. So I think this should be saved when you save a workspace and have the MRU Audio decks available in the dropdown pane.