LivePro and Windows Media Player

[Insanity]

I have a show tomorrow night and the headline DJ wanted a lasershow synchronised to his first track. As the show involves 3 lasers I decided to design and rehearse the show using the preview window in LivePro rather than set all the lasers up in my living room. It was at this point I discovered that Windows Media Player and LivePro don't get on very well.

The Preview window in LivePro was painfully slow and jerky, not exactly helpful when programming a synchronised set of cues and when using Enhanced Reality Preview it was almost at a standstill. I closed Windows Media Player and all was fine again, reopened it with no music file and LivePro slowed right down again. I ended up burning a CD of the music and playing it on a separate sound system and got the job done.

I am running Windows 7, you know, the one that's errrrr, good at multitasking.... Apparently!!!!

The machine is a Toshiba laptop with 2Ghz Dual core T4400 CPU and 4GB of RAM. I can only assume the Intel graphics card is the problem here, but wondered if anyone else has the same problem? Had the laptop around 6 months and it does everything perfectly, I have removed all the gadgets, disabled wireless printer coms and all unnecessary windows junk such as UAC etc. Just wondering if its one of the many floors with Windows Media Player... Damn you Microsoft...!!!

Mark

[allthatwhichis]

Why don't you use Wimamp? Or even make a show in showtime to the song and then go to LivePro after the track.

[Insanity]

Good point, but that opens up a whole new can of worms

The reason I didn't use showtime is that I need to do this live. The lasershow starts with this particular track and then goes on for pretty much the rest of the night (1hr on, 1/2hr off to be exact). But more importantly neither I or the DJ knows what BPM the track will play at, as this is dictated by the last track played by the DJ proceeding him. So if I sync the whole thing up at 130 BPM in Showtime and he drops the track at 135 BPM, it will be out of time.

As for Winamp, grrrrr

I have tried on several laptops to run winamp with the LivePro audio plugin and winamp either locks up or freaks out in one way or another, so I ended up giving up testing different versions and binned the idea. I do all my synching with the speed faders in LivePro now. Which after a bit of practice is actually a very flexible way of doing things. You can have an image running with the beat and an effect running with the rhythm for example.

So the short answer is, yes I should have run it in Winamp, but I knew if I did that I would then start messing with it trying to get that plugin working which would have distracted me from what I should be doing One of the traits of being a perfectionist I guess, and of course, easily distracted

But you are right, Winamp would have probably been the answer if only I was disciplined enough not to start fiddling...

Mark

[allthatwhichis]

Isn't there a way to run a showtime show as a que in LivePro; couldn't you change the BPM once you had it in LivePro? I also only meant use showtime for the one track and then jump to LivePro after that track.

I would also think you would not need to run the Winamp plugin, just the Winamp itself and change the BPM yourself. You only need some type of music player correct?

[blowfly]

Sounds like some unexpected DirectShow filter is getting loaded into the graph in windows media player. You might try uninstalling any non-laser related media programs like dv players, ripping tools, music players, etc.

Mike

[Doc]

No problems with the Winamp + plugin + LivePro on Win7 laptop (i3) here.

You need Winamp 5.5, no later, no newer.

I don't like bastardising Windows with Winamp, but so long as you don't let it take ownership of anything during install there's no problem. At least you will be able to sync your track then switch to line in for the rest of the show.

[flecom]

try using VLC?15 BILLION CHARACTERS!!!!!

[Insanity]

Thanks for all the great tips guys.... I ended up doing the intro live and it worked very well...

I will try Winamp again when I have a bit more patience... Just want to get it working, I hate it when things don't work I'll probably never use it as I do all my beat synching using the speed controls...

Mark

[mccarrot]

Windows 7 and pangolin got a issue when use together with media streams

there is a workarround/fix available. You should contact bill about it or send me an email.

[Insanity]

Windows 7 and pangolin got a issue when use together with media streams

there is a workarround/fix available. You should contact bill about it or send me an email.

Aha, that explains a lot..., Thanks for the tip, I'll drop Bill a mail...

Cheers
Mark