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.

There are three playback engines available to SCS users and you should select the one that works best for you in the Video Playback which is under Permanent Options / General. Here are the options with their pros and cons:

Video Playback	Pros	Cons
DirectShow (default choice)	Seems to handle most formats.	Fades not supported.
xVideo	Fades supported.	Some formats do not play correctly or may even crash the program, typically in quartz.dll.
SCSMM	Similar to DirectShow - handles most formats.	Fades not supported.

As shown above, the default choice is DirectShow, but xVideo supplies more functionality as it supports video fades. It has not been made the default choice because it can fail with certain file formats. However, we recommend you choose xVideo due to that extra functionality. If neither handles your videos, try SCSMM.

Only xVideo supports the fading in and fading out of video images. So if your video image doesn't fade when you expect it to, then change the Video Playback option to xVideo. If you already have this set to xVideo then see the following paragraph for more troubleshooting tips regarding xVideo.

Currently there are two issues that may occur with files played using xVideo. If you are fading in or fading out a video and the video is being played to your second screen or video projector, then during the fade the video image may be shown somewhat smaller and in the top left of the screen. The second issue, as already mentioned, is that with some formats SCS may crash.

If you encounter either of these problems then try 'converting' the file using the NCH Prism Video Converter Software. Although Prism is designed for converting video files to another format, eg AVI to WMV, you can also use it to 'convert' to the same format, eg WMV to WMV. It seems this can clean up a file that doesn't play properly if at all. You can download Prism from the NCH web site link given above. The software is free for private use so you can try it without obligation. A license for commercial use costs just $US24.99, or $US34.99 with MPEG2 included. (These prices are current as at 14 April 2011 - check the NCH web site for the latest prices and terms and conditions. Show Cue Systems has no affiliation with NCH so you cannot obtain or purchase Prism from us.)

If you have trouble playing H.264 videos then try installing the Haali Matroska Splitter. Use the default installation settings.

· Reduce the video acceleration in Windows Media Player (WMP 11, that is). Go to WMP, Sync, More Options, Performance, and move the video accelerator slider to the mid position.

· Similar to the previous dot point, but if you don't see a "video accelerator slider" then this may be relevant: Using Video Overlays should be switched off in Media Player in order to project image with SCS and Nvidia Quadro FX cards. (To be found in Extra... Options... Acceleration... Advanced.. Use Overlays.)

· Also similar: if you don't see either the "video accelerator slider" or the "Acceleration" panel, but you do have a checkbox labelled Turn on DirectX Video Acceleration for WMV files, then make sure this checkbox is clear.

· Something else to check is the bit rate. A variable bit rate can cause problems, particularly when playing two cues back to back. Seems like the bit rate is set from the first cue and stays that way. Easiest solution is to encode everything with the same fixed bit rate.

Thanks to Boes Diertens, Malcolm Gordon, Dee Ireland, Peter Jackson, Richard Jordan, Mike Moloney, Martin Norris, Richard Rew, Martin Stevens and Andy Terry for contributions to the above and for video testing in general.