There seems to be an issue sort of like the workshop sound issue with these. It’s not a new thing.
People complain that the tapes don’t work when thrown at the screen (custom uploads, not YouTube/Soundcloud), They’ll say nothing happening, or sound but no picture. If I come and turn the screen on for myself, it starts working for everyone watching. Don’t know if this can be addressed or not.
This only happens for tapes, not saved playlists on screens, so it seems to be specifically an issue with the physicals loading.
I’m not sure if this is related to Non-Media admins not being allowed to add custom links since that’s what’s on the tape, though this problem has popped up before that system was in place.
Has nothing to do with media rights, the screens aren’t restricted.
It doesn’t seem to be a consistent problem that players can reproduce, either. I have a few theories to try out when it happens to someone again, but so far we haven’t been able to identify a pattern with it being so erratic.
Okay so methods to reproduce didn’t work. It seems for some reason the tapes route through the host, so if the host isn’t accessing the file, sometimes people won’t get video. As soon as I come over and turn the screen on myself, they get picture. Again only with physical media, saved playlists work fine.
This leads me to believe there’s something in the code for how the physical media tapes load media onto the screen that’s different than the normal saved method.
Okay finally got a BIT of useful information. The issue is screen specific.
Example: You’ve seen our lounge area, with the 2 smaller screens for private and special screenings. So a player was in Screen 2 and the video wasn’t working, so I turned that screen on and it turned on the video for him. I had him take the same VHS tape to Screen 1, and that screen had the same issue as Screen 2 until I turned THAT screen on individually as well.
I’m unsure if it’s an issue with the Physical Tapes, or and issue with the screens going into some kind of idle mode when nothing’s loaded on them from the host not using them and not recognizing custom video links from clients.
If he puts a tape on a cold screen (nothing loaded onto it). Audio only and the “No Media Playing” screen.
When I enter the area and the screen turns on for me, he gets video.
Me manually turning the screen off and on again with nothing on it beforehand doesn’t help.
If I fix it he clears the screen with a skip vote, leaves the media area (for too long it seems) with nothing loaded on it, the problem returns.
If I fix it, he queues a second tape while the first one is playing, then skip votes, the second one seems to load fine.
If I fix it for 1 person, and a new person joins the server, it works fine if they join the first guy watching already. The issue only happens when the screen is “dead” and someone besides me tries to load a custom url tape onto it without me watching the screen.
Here’s what’s baffling me… for this next part, Screen A is in lounge room 1 attached to a Media Volume, Screen B I put in the lounge lobby for testing, same screen types used for both as a control.
He put the tape on B, it worked, left the same tape playing on B, tossed it on A, and it was still broken on A.
Tested above with B attached to a media volume as well, same results, worked on B, not on A.
I stashed screen A and put a new one in it’s place, mixed results it seemed, and went back to the same error after being attached to the Media Volume, but B was still working with a media volume, so the theory it’s a Media Volume issue had holes poked in it.
We could replicate the issue on A, but literally couldn’t get it to do it on B.
Skip voting & the size scale of the screen don’t seem to play a factor. Literally the ONLY difference I can find between the two areas where A and B were set up is that Screen A that’s erroring is in a Location Volume with Voice & Hear Voice disabled. I’ve tested and rules this out.
This issue doesn’t happen on any of the 24 screens with playlists saved on them, so it’s directly related to the Physical Media Tapes.
UPDATE: This isn’t just for Custom links, it’s doing it for YouTube videos as well for some people. I think there are 2 separate issues, one somehow related to how Media Volumes work with Physical Tapes, and another related to webm files loading off tapes for clients.
It seems to happen to other people as well from what I’ve had told to me, even non-physical media where they just put their own links on a screen.
I THINK it might be something similar to the nightclub player bug where the pool room screen wasn’t syncing right due to them being in a different location. It might be related to the fact that the host isn’t in the same location volume as them. If I remember correctly, this issue popped up in Flashback Megaplex around the time Location Volumes came into existence.
This issue is still persisting, with or without Media Volumes. I’ve been building a new condo focused around physical media tapes and friends joining seemed to be doing fine until I made a location volume in the room they were using, then the issue popped up again. I don’t know if coincidence or Location Volume plays a part.
It’s been happening so long that I can’t remember if this bug started back when location volumes came to be. The bug popped up in the Megaplex, which was my main condo back when locations were added.
This light will remain on for me as the host even if the file ended and nothing’s playing on it. The light will only go out if I turn the TV on to see nothing on it, then turn it off again.
It SEEMS that if the light’s green on an empty screen, it works fine, where as the completely idle screens seems to be giving the problems. Unable to 100% confirm.
