Video glitch

[JHSvending]

Still having a problem when playing a few selected songs.Sometimes after playing a song the next song is all scrambled with lines and dots.The only way to correct it is to close out of hoster and then reopen it. This is a real problem when I have the play list full and have to re-enter the list in the middle of a show.I just checked it as to see if it happens after the same song and it does.The song is from JVC 1001-08 Losing my religion.Other songs on that disc work ok ,it's just that song.I have other songs that had done it in the past but didn't write them down at the time so I'll have to catch them when they are requested again ,Also tried Loading it at different file sizes, doesn't fix the problem.Updated microsoft,installed the new hoster 2014.I have updated the drivers for the Radeon 7500 ,128mb.graphics card.Any help would be greatly appreciated.Thanks

[Flipeoke]

Check your original discs, I have found a few of my discs that have scratches will not import properly and will cause video problems exactly like you describe. If your originals play with random dots/missing letters, scrambled graphics, etc, replace the disc and reimport, otherwise use a different version of the song.

Perhaps it is a different problem you are having, but I too had problems which followed to all subsequent songs (until I restarted Hoster)

Also BTW, you don't have to add the songs to your playlist again once you restart hoster, just load the playlist from your harddrive, it automatically saves a copy everytime you make any changes...


Flip

[JHSvending]

Thanks I forgot about the play list being saved.I have tried other songs on that same cdg and they work fine without the glitch after playing,It's that one song on the disc.the last song on that one disc has alot of dropouts in the graghics but still doesn't cause the glitch on the next song.I'm going to contact MTU on Monday and send them the cdg I have and maybe they can find the problem.

[Flipeoke]

Seeing how you mentioned it's the "last song" on the disc, what type of burner are you using? Some that state they are CDG capable, really aren't and they tend to have problems further towards the end of the disc. Just a thought...

Flip

[Flipeoke]

As an added note, (afterthought) I know my JVC (actually RSQ) CDG player tends to scratch discs between tracks 6 and 9 depending on lengths of the songs. There is an indent in the tray (about where a 3" CD might fit) , and this is where alot of my scratches occur... and yes I do have many discs where only one track will cause problems, the All Hits 8001-8022 I have are notorious for this as many of them are cheap quality CDRs (even thought I bought them from a dealer). Of course it doesn't help my partner tends to spin the disc on the tray to read the track listings. I think this is why I have so many scratches on this area. Look at the originals and see if there is a "ring" of scratches in a certain area... sometimes you can see the spaces between tracks, and you can count to see which track has these scratches. Like I said, just another thought I had...

Flip

[mindonstrike]

Except it's not after any normal playing song it's a particular song itself that gets scrambled and then messes up everything else afterward.

The song was "jump jive and wail" from Soundchoice's 1999 NSC pack, disk # 6. The title screen for that song (no matter what it was played after) would would come up a total mess and after that any Chartbuster song would be missing most of it's screen, and any Soundchoice song would have a black/blank screen - except for JJ&W which would come up scrambled like it did initially. As I recal Hoster had a tough time importing most of that set of disks. Friday I'll play with it a bit and see if there's anything I can figure out, then I'll move that KMA to another folder in case someone wants to check it out and try reimporting.

PS this was totally different from what I described in the thread I started about the possible video bug

[pcgumshoe]

I don't yet use hoster in my show :f I am still importing my songs, which is no easy feat since I keep adding new discs every week! But I am 1/4 of the way into my 520+ Discs.

Anyhow, my experience in the Player world is this, if the CD accidentally skips (too much bass in the room, some drunk bumps the booth, whatever) I get some of the characters that remain on the screen during the remainder of the song, sometimes they are small, other times they are whole phrases in the song.

After the song ends, my JVC clears the screen with a blank screen, also my Pioneer 888 does it too. I have another player by VOCOPRO (i don't recommend the brand, as I only use it to DJ and for filler music) that doesn't clear the screen when the last song is played and the last screen remains on the video line.

My thoughts are along the lines of Flipeoke. When you imported the track there was some corruption, as you have imported the track more than once, then there may be something wrong with the CD. Most people forget that the most delicate part of a CD is the label side. I constantly admonish people for placing their discs label side down. That is the worst thing you can do, if you scratch the label, you are more than likely to have scratched the necessary mirror. There is about .3 mils of polymer plastic protection your data on the bottom of the disk. The top only has a very fine layer of paint (if that) protecting the mirror. Remember that the laser shoots out and waits for the "RETURN" of the beam to determine a "0" or a "1" in binary.

I would take the disk and hold it to the light and see if you can see through the disk or see any wholes. Look hard, you may not see them immediately. I have one two disks that were scratched this way in my Case Logic cases... Actually worn through the paint from pulling it out so much. The mirror got worn away as well. When I imported the disk, some of the tracks have these anomolies that do show up on the screen. Some times the audio is still there, sometimes it isn't and digitally skips.

If you have scratched the top of the disk, there is nothing you can do. I have heard rummors about using metallic finger nail polish. I don't wear fingernail polish, so I haven't got a spare to try. But I might. If the bottom is scratched use NON-ABRASIVE toothpaste or car polish, or go out and get DiscDoctor. Works great at $29.99 at Bestbuy or Compusa. They have an automated one for $39.99 too. You can always repair the bottom.

Now as to the continuation of the unwanted image, I don't know that MTU initiates a "CLEAR SCREEN" command in their program -would be a good button to have :t If the screen doesn't get cleared, then the problem will carry over as long as no clear screen occurs. I am wondering what it would take to clear the screen. If I had the problem to reproduce, I might try creating a track in KPro that just has a title page to clear the screen (or redraw the screen) make it an unused track number and import it. then play it whenever this happens.

It doesn't sound like it happens all the time, just once in a blue moon.

Here are some questions for those having this problem:

1. Does it just happen in the song and you don't want to finish the song? Or is it transferring to the following songs?
2. Is it transferring to ALL the next songs? or just some (certain brands like Chartbuster?)
3. Can you identify that a scratch is on the label side?

Let know know these and maybe I can do more. I don't know even if the KPro would be able to clear the screen. Of course, I may try using the VOCOPRO to emulate it and then see if a KPro clear screen works.

Hope we can help!

By the way mindostrike, I am in Seattle, maybe I'll get to Spokane sometime and get a chance to see your show!:g

[mindonstrike]

I can not speak for others but this is my experience with this glitch (which is different from the one I started a thread on.

I sat down and ran many different scenarios with this song including playing different songs before and after the one in question (Jump Jive And Wail, SC NSC 9906-09) and it made no difference everything preceding it was fine everything following was messed up until I restarted hoster.
I also did this with tracks 5,6,7 and 10 they to were messed up - very messed -up but they had no effect on the songs that followed.
I reimported JJ&W under a different bookid and it played just fine with no problems, I then moved the bad one to a different folder and reimported JJ&W to it's original spot. It now plays fine and causes no problems. I also reimported 5,6,7 & 10 , it took an extremely looooong time to import,they are still messed up though causing no other problems.
The disk has always been in a jewel case until I started using hoster and I handle all my disks as if they were fine china so I don't think they are damaged though they may just be crappy quality material and workmanship (most of the disks in this set took a loooooooooong time to import). I need to sit down and play all the songs off this set to see what other surprises they have for me.
And I'm going to backup this disk with microstudio to see if that fixes it as it has some other disks that would not import properly.

pcgumshoe: that'd be cool if you do get to Spokane, I know I've been trying to get to Seattle for a long time but the life of a KJ makes it difficult!

[Flipeoke]

Yes this is exactly what I was experiencing with certain "messed up" tracks. Once that song played, everything after it would be screwed up. Some aren't as bad and only cause artifacts on the screen, but the discs that were in real bad shape, and took forever to import, can cause problems which continue to subsequent songs.

Flip

[gduns - with the Lord]

On Pop Hits Monthly Nashville, Where they have the scanned picture on the front of the song, I am Having like a skipping effect on audio. I noticed it last night, and checked several songs, they all have audio glitches. I think it is from the high end graphics on them. Because if you watch the graphics you can hear the glitches during the scanning to the screen.

[gduns - with the Lord]

Sounds like you had a fragmented file. I have seen this and did a defrag and it fixed it. Had to run defrag twice, with a reboot in between defrags to take the freespace off the front of the hard drive. I might be wrong, but It sounds right. Even If windows says you dont need to defrag. it makes a difference to do it.

[mindonstrike]

Actually I defraged a few days before the problem occured, although I only defraged once. I do know I need to scandisk and defrag more often

I did fix the problem though by backing up that disk with microstudio and then reimport using the backup,everything came out beautiful and it imported at normal speed (about 7 or 8 mins for the whole disk) as oposed to taking an hour for the original.

Thanks
Sam

[gduns - with the Lord]

A audio skip on songs with high graphics, like the pop hits country nashville. If you play any of these no matter what rate they are imported at you get a kind of skipping through the audio as the screen draws. You can watch it and hear the skip it is quite noticable. I thought it was a interrupt problem, but I moved my sound card on to a different IRQ and it helps a little, but it it still bad. You dont hear much on lower graphic songs (like sound choice, or chartbuster).

[pcgumshoe]

This skipping, if you use KPro have you ever noticed this type of skipping in KPro? I now that when I am making a disc in Kpro and my audio file is perfect (either directly imported or created on the PC from MIDI) that I will sometimes have skips.

The rememdy I have been given is to lower the DXDiag settings on the Audio Acceleration. To do this, click on the Start Menu and select RUN. From run type, "dxdiag" and then hit enter. When that screen comes up (note the version of DX) and select the Sound Tab. From there move the slider to Basic or below.

Maybe that will work, maybe not. Since many of you are having the same problems, maybe we should all compare hardware and see what, if anything, is the same. Here is what I would ask

Motherboard
Graphics Card
Audio Card
RAM
OS (Version & SP)
DX Version

What settings are you using for your graphics cards? I know that 800x600 is best for Full Screen TV emulation... Just running through some questions and thoughts...

[gduns - with the Lord]

motherboard: Asus
graphics card: msi gforce 4 64 meg running @8x
ram: 1gig
hardrive: 2-120 gig west digital w/raid mirror
windows xp pro
athalon 2200xp processor
48x plextor drive
soundblaster live
Latest direct x drivers avalible.
into a 2600 watt peavy stereo out w/ 1500 peavey bridged sub
with a mackey mixer.

actually I tried lowering the audio acceleration and couldn't detect any noticeable difference. I took it all the way to basic. I am getting ready to try the audiology ii board then the ati 9000 128 meg card. but I have tried the realtec audio card, and it didnt change things. I had the raid controller, the sound blaster card & video board all sharing the same interrupt, and have since then got all of them on different interupts. so I know that isnt the problem. I wish there was better support from the programmer.

[pcgumshoe]

But isn't this fun?!?

Well, let's see, you went down to basic, how about NONE? on the acceleration?

In your bios, how much ram is dedicated to the video card? If it is 64MB, try going to the highest setting. about 1/2 of your physical ram should be dedicated to you video card. As you have 1 gig, you should set it to 256 (some newer boards will allow more but this tends to be the cap). This might not help much, but I would at least look at those video settings.

I don't have any trouble with the Live card (per se). When you say you have the latest DX drivers, you are on version 9? or 8?

Also, what are your video settings? And refresh rates... I couldn't imagine these would have much effect, but it doesn't hurt to try anything.

Is this video glitch happening on the PC and the TV?

I would seriously consider adding the ram issue in the bios. Also, I would try running the program in a lower resolution, try 1024x768 and use 24bit instead of 32bit if you have that option. If you can't do that or you are already using 1024x768, take it down to 800x600. If your video card is making your ram "hiccup" you surely could get a pause. Now that I think of it, last night I was playing some songs on my test system that has a lessor amount of video ram and it was pausing (ever so slightly, but in my shows it would be unacceptable) I will try some of the suggestions I have made here on that system and see if I can find a remedy. You say Pop Hits Country... I will look and see what I've got. Now I am intrigued.

Wasn't there more to this? Anamolies on the screen as well? Like if a disk skipped on a real machine? or are we just now on the sound issue?

[gduns - with the Lord]

it is pop hits monthly nashville. I am running in the 1024x768 mode, but have tried all modes. the version of direct x says 7.????, but the computer is less than 2 months old, and has a new operating system with service pack 1 and all the updates on it so I am thinking this is all the latest direct x drivers if not where can I get newer ones. Doesnt windows update update these also?

[pcgumshoe]

Do this,

Start Menu, Run type in "dxdiag" the screen that pops up will be on the system tab. You will see towards the bottom of that list of system info "DirectX Version:" what is THAT version... not the files. If that version isn't at least 9.xx (xx equals a number and maybe a letter) then I would update Direct X. If you truely have direct x version 7, you may have installed something that would have downgraded you. This doesn't make sense because Direct X 8 was pre-installed with XP and I didn't think you could downgrade below that... but maybe.

to update directx go here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx

then install the newest version... I see that they are now on DirectX 9.0b!

I will be away from my computer for 3 hours, so I will check back on your progress around 4:30 PST. Good Luck!

[pcgumshoe]

No, Windows Update doesn't automate an update of this type of file... It only updates security patches and maybe some drivers.... DirectX is seen and an optional component that you would want to download when ever you thought it appropriate.

Just like if you wanted to upgrade from Internet Explorer to the next version, not automated... neither was SP1 now that I think of it...

Go to the windows update page and scan your system for updates... you will be surprised to see what you may have overlooked... but don't go overboard, I mean, when do you plan on converting the Euro?!

[gduns - with the Lord]

What Is the euro? I will check back in when I get home and check it all out. I am leaving work now. let you know tomorrow what happened. Thanks

[pcgumshoe]

A Euro is the new monitary system for Europe. It replaced the currency in many of the countries... it is an available upgrade.... Sorry, I was just making an example of things you might NOT want to be automatically updated. (no offense to those of you in Europe!)

[gduns - with the Lord]

I tried an ati radeon 9000..... and an audiology board last night, but no help. I suppose pop hits monthly nashville are among the brands I just wont be able to use on hoster, because of the graphics.

pcgumshoe, When you start up windows AND AS THE SECOND MONITOR STARTS UP, does it flicker as it Initiates? do you get any audio flickers as it does this? BTW thanks for the help!!!!

[pcgumshoe]

Right now, I am in the testing portion of the Hoster program. I have someone importing my 560 disks. Thats not so easy as I only had 450 when he started. I was having trouble too with Hoster and found the nero drivers solution. Now, we are moving full speed on importing the songs, after that I will build a PC to my specifications for my show. The PC I am using now, I wouldn't trust in a show (too old and too slow).

So, much of my assistance is drawn from working in the Computer industry for nearly18 years. Also my past experience with MTU (please, those of you who have been working with them for years, don't laugh at this statement). I have always worked with computers and find that snooping around and solving problems to be very rewarding.

As to the dual video thing. I have used the duel video in other applications over the years, and I do know that when the second monitor is plugged in, once Windows initializes, there is some flickering. For example, when I first turn on the computer, I get the boot screen... then up to the windows logo and then it shuts down (unless I have the system set up to run with a dual display)

Did you find out about the DirectX? the version that is?

[gduns - with the Lord]

I am running 9.0b direct x. I ended up reimporting the CHMN songs at 192kbps and it is much better. I to build computers, I am an Instrument & Electrical Designer. We Build DCS's & PLC's to control Plants. So I am not a stranger to hardware & software...
Sometimes this trial & error to get the right combination is frustrating.

I built the computer I am running hoster on. It is in a 4u rack case and rack mounted with the rest of the system. I prefer to roll in the whole unit, pulg in the monitors and speakers and start playing. as opossed to Taking 2 hours doing a setup. I built the rack and everything is on rollers.

If you need to know which component combinations I end up with keep in touch. Right now I have a separate raid card. But I wish I had used the epox board with the built in raid controller.

Thanks for all the help.

[gduns - with the Lord]

VIDEO GLITCH FIXED.......
I finally figured it out after trying several video cards, I went from a geforce 440 to a msi 5600 ultra..... and the problem went away. But the problem wasnt the card. The glitch problem was caused from using the digital video converter-> standard monitor adapter on the main monitor and video out as the second monitor. When I used the standard computer video out and the s-video out the problem went away. Using the adapter and the digital video with the new card will still cause the problem. I think the 5600 card was made diffrent to be able to use either display with the s-video out. anyways I'm fixed, and happy now. Everything works as expected. Thanks everyone for the help this one was a bear.