I'm using Video SL with a unibody Macbook Pro, 2.8Ghz , 4 gig ram, 250Gig 7200 hard drive with the Nvidia 9600.Everytime I use the software after about 4 hours the video freezes and within seconds the audio stops too (usually for about 10 seconds).
The software does not crash and i can start the next track on the opposite deck eventualy after a delay and the audio stopping and starting for a few seconds before everything returns to normal. After this happens I have carried on djing for at least 2 more hours without the problem re-occuring.
The unusual thing is runs perfectly until around the 4 hour mark and then the problem happens.I have updated osx to 10.5.7 , updated quicktime, turned off screensavers, power saving settings and hard disk sleep in the setup and by using the Caffeine software.

Oh and I'm Using the 57SL Mixer...

Hi A.D,

Does your computer "beachball" when the video freezes? Is your computer overheating? Also if you open Activity Monitor when you get the freeze do you see anything consuming a lot of system resources?

Hi Michael,

Yes I did get the beachball for a bit.The computer is not overheating as I have the tempereature dispalyed in the taskbar and it stayed a constant 65 degrees C the whole night.
I will try and replicate the problem today with the activity monitor open.

do you have any antivirus software running on the app.

No, the next things down that are running after scratchLive and Video SL are
Kernel_task
WindowServer
Activity Monitor
Finder
Coreservice SD
System UI Server
Dock
...and a lot of smaller stuff

this is in the order of Rsize and seems to be in the same order for cpu usage also

OK, I just managed to get the fault to happen again.

I timed how long the mac was booted for and it seems to happen pretty much exactly on fours hours.As soon as the macbook was booted i ran serato and videos on autoplay, but the problem happened about 4hrs 1min from me pressing the on switch for the MacBook.

I watched activity montor and nothing unusual happened, all the procesesses stayed the same and no extra memory or cpu usage was used.
First the video froze, then about 10 secs later the audio, silence for about 10 secs then it all carried on as normal.
Its still running now so i'll see if it happens again on 8 hours.
Any Ideas!?!

Anyone from Searto Support there!?
Could really do with some help with this please...

for kicks. What happens if you uninstall caffeine and try running SSL. This sounds more like a system issue since it happens exactly 4hr 1min after bootup. you can try updating to 10.5.8. just make sure you make a backup first. Here is a thread of people using it without issue.
www.scratchlive.net

Also why are you using caffeine?

AD, How new is your system, is it a mid-2009 system?

A.D., im having the same problem you are having, happens within about 2 hours tho, and then everything goes back to normal.. i wonder whats causing it? my friend on saturday also had one of those 'anomolies' happen.

Thanks for the replies.Interesting that i'm not the only one having the problem.
I was using caffiene as a one click way to stop the screen saver kicking in and any other stuff that might happen.

I'm not 100% sure what my exact system as it is a refurbished macbook pro and it seems to have slightly different specs than standard, but the specs are as follows.

2.8 GHz Unibody Macbook pro (5.1)
4 gig ram
250 gig HD 7200 Rpm
9400 and 9600GT graphics
Also it doesnt have the SD card slot but has the Express Card slot instead.

Funny thing is,it seemed to be locking up on four hours but yesterday and today i ran it on auto with videos on both decks and it ran for 5 hours plus twice with no problems and I have made no changes to the setup!

Hi A.D,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I would suggest you try not running Caffeine and turn off all screen savers/sleep modes in the System Preferences.

Another thing you can try is to download movieinfobatch (this is a debug application we've made), you can get it here -> www.serato.com (click link)

When you run movieinfobatch the window opens and in the bottom right hand corner you will see a check box that says "Video-SL Debug Panel Enabled" - check this box and close movieinfobatch.

Now open Scratch Live and Video-SL, you'll now see the debug panel to the right of the Video-SL control panel. Click the "buffer view" button in this panel. Now when you play your videos you'll see two coloured bars - one at the top for the left deck and one at the bottom for the right deck.

As the video plays you will see the bar split in two colours - dark blue and light blue. The dark blue is frames that Video-SL has buffered and are yet to be played, light blue is frames that Video-SL has played.

As the video starts to get slow then freezes can you please tell me what you see in these bars - do you see bits of dark blue appear in the light blue area? or perhaps black or light blue bits in the dark blue area? These do mean something (I'll explain it to you ;) so please let me know what happens!

Ok , will give that a go,
Thanks Michael

Well , I've now run Video-SL on two different sets at 6 hours each and had no problems.
I removed caffiene and increased the buffer to 2gb so maybe one of those things fixed the problem.
Also I installed the debug app but the freeze up hasn't happened since it was installed so nothing to report on that front!
Hopefully it will now behave itself.

caffeine has nowt to do with freezes me thinks....most people i know are using it and have been forever without issue...

When i first got VSL, I had buffer issues (ie didnt use enough) and it all ok ever since.... i found running a small buffer (i thought it would put less stress on the mac) gave me more probs than i needed... anything from majorly jittery waveforms, to glitchy vids and eventually freeze.

Gonna DL the debug app tho looks interesting to see a little more of what is going on when your running vids...

AGHHHHHHH!!!
I was wrong.
Saturday night, packed club and the whole thing froze for about 30 seconds before it carried on playing again.
I tested it at home with debug mode on - fine, did a Friday night gig for 6 hours without any problem, then on Saturday night ,after about an hour it happened.
Begining to think I wasted a lot of money as a got a Macbook Pro just to run Video SL and its not working!
Also I l now know its not happening only after four hours use either.Another strange thing was the day before i was scanning in my files in offline mode and it seemed to freeze for about 30 secs and then carried on with the scanning.
Would like to see the problem with debug mode running but i cant use it while playing out as having the buffer bars up on screen won't look good!
Anyway need a few answers to some questions..

1- I have my macbook drive partitioned 3 ways , 2 partitions with osx, (one for serato only , one for general use and one for my audio and video would that cause a problem?

2- I have a 250gb 7200rmp hard drive , do they have any issues?

3- My running temp is around 75-85 degrees average is that ok?

I'm thinking of re-installing everything as i'm getting desperate.
Please help!!

1) No
2) Not that has been reported
3) Yes

Since this is partitioned nicely, have you done a reinstall of the Serato partition. I only say this because you had some other programs in there (that you removed). This would take you about 45 minutes to get everything back up to speed.

Go under the Apple menu (upper left) and select "about this mac", select the "more info" button. The hardware section will be highlighted. Under that select Serial-ATA . You should see a 12 digit/alpha number there, starting with ST perhaps. What is that number.

Also, how full are your drives, the Serato one and the audio/video one?

Thanks for the quick reply Justin.

The Serial ATA number is ST9250421ASG
The Serato partition is using 16gb out of 29gb
The Audio/Video partition is using 93gb out of 141gb

There has been an issue with some BTO drives of 500GB using the ...ASG drives, but I have not heard of any issues with the 250GB drives. Apple is working on a fix for this and hopefully it will be out within a week. Once again, there have been no issues of this happening with just the 250GB drives.

Here is a continuation of a very long thread. You might want to read i, and the original one if you have some time

discussions.apple.com


On the partition sizes, they look like you have enough room left there, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks again , will check the thread

Hey A.D,

When you are having this problem is it always at the same venue? Just wondering if it's something to do with the power supply at the club...

Hi Michael . No, well to be exact, it happened on fri 7th at one venue after about 4 hours , sat 8th (another venue) i rebooted mid set and had no probs, then midweek if happened at home after about 4 hours, fri 14th did a 6 hour set with no probs and sat 15th it happened after about an hour.
The short answer is its happened in 3 different places.

Thanks for that, just wanted to clarify that the location wasn't an issue.


Were you able to use the buffer view when this happened?

no, I found out about the debug app after that happened.
I've just done a complete re-install of osx and updated to 10.5.8 also I've done a few tweaks that I found here
www.cma-aug.com
The link that Justin posted had a few mentions of the same freeze problem I am having (although none were using Serato).I am going to run the Macbook for 12 hours today (with debug mode) and see what happens...

I just saw this exact same issue last night for the first time. I got a spinning beach ball in stand-alone mode while going from one video to another. I could not repeat this again.

If it happens again, I'll open up my own thread, but I really think that this is an OSX, machine issue and will get fixed with an update.

Hmm this is concerning if it is an OS X issue :-/

A.D, can you please let me know how you get on with your next test? Thanks :)

Did over 4 hours yesterday and 2 hours so far today (on autoplay) with no problems so far.
Will keep you posted

Spoke to soon,
2 hours 20mins in its just froze. The decks in serato carried on spinning , activity monitor went flat (on cpu) , then about 20 secs later the cpu load jumped up and it all started off again.
The way it is at the moment I can't risk playing out with it...

I think there might be other issues with drives especially 7200 take a look at the thread below.

discussions.apple.com

The problem in the above post seems to mainly affect the 500gb 7200 drive, I have a 250gb 7200.
Also it mentions a "beep click" issue, which i've never had, so I dont think its the hard drive.
Thanks for the post though.

Well its now been running 7 hours 30 mins and froze at 2hrs 20 but been fine since.
Can't work it out!!

Did you have the buffer view on when the video froze? If so what did it show?

no, stupidly I forgot to put in on today, will try again tomorrow

Ah rats ;) Yeah it would be good to see what the buffer view shows :)

AD if you are feeling brave Apple just released a patch for the hardware drive issues. I think your problem might be solved by using this, but that is 100% a gut feeling.

I will be applying this patch myself tomorrow.

support.apple.com

Thanks Justin, will give it a try, not djing til Friday so will give it a good test out.

Oh! I got a "this computer doesn't need this update" message, so thats a no go.

Oh well it was worth a try. Back to step 1 :p

Yep it was definitely worth a try, thanks for your help Justin :)

After running for just over 7 hours I finally got to see a freeze with debug mode running.
The Serato software freezes, when I try and click I get the beachball.
I had 2 videos playing,
The top buffer froze on light blue, and had no dark blue
The bottom buffer slowly got smaller on light blue and again no dark blue.
There were no lines in any of the buffer colours.

Hope this helps!

Any update here. I am having the same issue now and so are many others who have purchased a new system (june 2009 version)

I have an appointment to see someone at an Apple store later today.
Had another 30 seconds freeze while djing to a packed room.
Actually I'll think I'll just throw the Macbook through the Apple store window!

AD,

I was reading some support threads and came across this. Try it out and I will tomorrow (encoding tonight). I am really frustrated because the first big gig (2000 plus) I was going to use Serato with is this Wednesday and now I am not comfortable using Serato at all.

Let me know if this helps you out

-Open finder> Macintosh HD> System>libary>cache...
or you could use the finder/search bar to get there.

Then Drag the cache folder to the trash can(or just select to send to trash).
after this RESTART.
After the restart the Osx should create a new cache folder that is infact uncorrupted by whatever is creating this issue, either after the start up or when you open safari.


ALSO TRY THIS

verify permission
repair permissions
verify disk
repair disk(if possible)
clear out all caches for all users, including system
clear out trash can

Thanks very much Justin.
I've done most of the disk permission tweaks but not the delete cache thing you mentioned so will give that a go.

What hard drive do you (or anyone else with this problem) have?

I met one of the Apple "genius" guys today to try and find out what my options are.
He seemed to think it was most likely to be the hard disk,although the problems are more well known with the 500gb 7200rpm drive (there is a patch posted in this thread).

Anyway he still seemed to think that was the most likely reason for my freezes, even though I have the 250gb 7200 version (there is no patch for this drive).
He also said theres not much point in fully testing the macbook as he was pretty sure it would come back with no errors.
I'm going to call apple on monday to see what they suggest I do, meanwhile i might try and remove an HD from a pc laptop and try that in the Macbook (if possible).

I have come up with a sort of work-around so i can still use the Macbook at gigs.
I run it for around 2 half hours then reboot.As most of my freezes have been between 4-6 hours rebooting possibly helps.
Also I have an ipod plugged into the AUX channel on my 57SL ready to go if theres any problems.I forgot about th 3rd (aux) channel on the 57 and its very handy to have it on standby.

Will write an update when I speak to Apple on monday and meanwhile if anyone with the freezing problem could list what hard disk they have it would be helpfull..

A.D.

my friend had the drop out today 3 1/2 hours into his gig right before he was finished, he says he gets them about 1 a night now. he has a new pro, 2.8 ghz, 4 gb ram, 5400 rpm 500 gb hd. version 1.91

i had a drop out 4 hours into my gig tonite, 2nd night in a row. im using 1.83 with video.. i did the patch fix (7200 rpm 500 gb hd), using 1.5.8 OS, video buffer at 1.5gb, and the other buffer at 10. i had 4 gigs error free, and now 2 in a row. i feel like it progressively gets worse. im not sure what to do... and i dont know if the serato guys know whats going on either.

what i did notice with the 20 second dropouts, you can manually click on the full wave form like 5-7times.. and the song will replay for about 3-5 seconds each time, if you click from before the drop out. if you click after the drop out, it'll come up empty. very weird. then the song eventually comes back on. sucks, but decent work around so u dont have dead air at the club.

Here is the new thread on Apple discussions about this issue. This is an offshoot from the original 177 page thread that had this issue and the hard drive clicks and beeps that the firmware update fixed. At the time everyone thought they were related.

The beach ball thing that we are having seems to be for new systems and not just hard drive size related.

discussions.apple.com

vj justin

thanks for the info.. will try the delete cache.. and try it out at gigs this week. let us know if you still have problems and we will do the same. what do you think the cache has to do with it tho?

also, how do you do this
"clear out all caches for all users, including system"

is that the same as deleting the cache folder?

Justin
How often do you get the freeze say during a 6 hour period?
After reading the mac forum, most of the people on there seem to have freezes more often then me.I usually get one in a 4-7 hour period. Makes me think I may have a different problem to most on that forum.
Also in reply to DJPHLIPZ post I have sort of done something similar by hitting a cue button or playing the track on the other deck but it still only gives a few seconds of music before freezing again.

AD I am going to run 3 4 hours test session in the next 2 days here at home. So far all of my beach balls have been in itunes and in reviewing the newly encoded videos in the standalone player. After almost 3 months of solid encoding with 2 different machines (seriously it was going on 24 hours a day!), I am finally finished with everything today, so I can start beating up on the system and looking for flaws.

As to the cache, yea it is. I grabbed from 2 different replies.

I am having a beachball drop out as well. Thanks to Philipz he say my post and pointed me to this thread. I have no idea what it is. Brand new Mac pro with a seagate 500 gig 7200 rpm drive. all updated etc. Happened to me twice at 2 different clubs. Just about to install 1.9.1 from 1.9 - hoping it fixes the problem. Never seen this on my old macbook.

If you have no dark blue this means that there is no video buffered, hence why you would be getting freezes. I know you've used Activity Monitor before but I'd be interested to see what the CPU percentage values used are.

Just to double check what buffer size do you have set in Video-SL?

Also what format are your videos encoded to? If they are very high quality they will be a bigger load on your CPU.


If you think this may be the cause, try Activity Monitor again. Click the "disk activity" tab at the bottom of the screen and see if there are spikes in the data read/written activity.

The CPU usage dropped down and was flat.
My buffer size at this time was 1gb , its also had the same problem on 2 gb.
My videos are encoded to
MP4
H.264
3500kbps
640x480
Audio 256/48000

I tried cleaning the cache yesterday and tested serato for 5 hours afterwards and had no problems, but sometimes it does run ok for that long so I dont know if that worked or not.
Will carry on testing, would be interested in finding out how Justin gets on with his testing too..

well deleted the cache, and deleted and turned off some random stuff like sudden motion, restarted the comp and then got a dropout/ball while using the stand-alone player in 1.83. its gotta be the computers. also while re-analyzing 2000 vids.. i noticed the process would stop for like 20 seconds and smcfancontrol would drop from 150 degrees F to 130 degrees F, then jump back up when everything started back up again. hopefully it doesn't F me tonite at my gig.

Hey A.D,

What do you have the output quality set to in Video-SL?

Also it might be a good idea to run a hardware check to make sure everything on your computer is working fine, there's an article on how to do this here -> support.apple.com (click link)

Hey DJPHLIPZ,



It's possible that overheating may be causing your issues. Does the fan turn on when you get your freezes?

Something to consider about the temperature readout from SMC Fan Control that many people overlook... Obviously the temperature it displays is that of the CPU and you can think all is "cool" within your mac when in reality it is the GPU which is burning up..

I have found that running videos non-stop for just 1-2hrs the heat shoots up and caused anything from jerky waveforms on SL to jerky video output and in 3 seperate cases the dreaded FREEZE. To compensate for this when running VSL for any length of time i have set up several presets on SMC fan control to deal with the different situations.

I cant take credit for this idea, as I only got various info from peoples posts around the board here, but here's what I do and how i set up my 17" Macbook Pro.

Default = Macs Default Fan settings (I can easily leave it on this if i do an audio only show for 6-8hrs no problem.I never see the fans rise above say 2900-3000.

Serato MEDIUM = set at 3000rpm constant. I use this if i am playing the odd video here and there

Serato VSL = set at 4475 (i couldnt get a straight 5k) I use this for when i am video output intensive, ie maybe 3,4,5 hrs straight.

CoolDown = set at Max settings 6000rpm. I use this primarily at the end of a set to cool the mac down while i'm packing away but also as an easy way to shoot the fans to max output should i see a worrying jump in temp (which i never have using my above settings)

I was seeing very similar problems to those that have been described in this thread and others, but can honestly say that heat hasn't caused me an issue since - and neither have the resulting video ouput problems. I'm not saying it would fix your problems but as a process of elimination, deal with the heat issue first, you may be lucky.

(my specs 2008 MBP 17'' 2.5ghz 4GB Ram Nvidia 8600mGT 512ram)

Try setting this to medium, do you get the same problem?

will give it a go,
I ran the full lengthy mac test and it came up fine..

Yo AD,
I've had the same problem for 8 months now. The funny thing is that it never happened for the first 5 months I used my notebook and VSL with the TTM57. Long story short... I read this article and used the advice of clearing the cache in my drive. I played for 5 hours last Thursday and had no problems. I'll keep giving it a go and try to lock up the tracks again but clear the cache for a start. I hope that's the answer cause it really sucks when the tracks stop in the middle of a set. Oh BTW, the only time the problem will occur is when I use VSL never with just SL.

-----------------------------------Possible Fix---------------------------------

Hi Bassick. thanks for the post
I have done the last 3 nights (@6 hours each) and tested serato last week for 6 hours with no problems.
I think clearing the cache may well be the answer, although i'm not 100% sure.
First I deleted the cache folders but still had the problem but then I used the Leopard Cache Cleaner software and ran most of the utils including repair disk permissions and some other tweaks.
I'd already tried disk permissions in the osx software although leopard cache cleaner seems to do more stuff.
Anyway since using LCC last week, i havent had any freezes so I really hope I've found a fix.

I have had this exact same problem. I have a new mac book pro I bought about 1 month ago, OSX cersion 10.5.8, 2.66 intel core 2 Duo, 4GB 1067 DDR3 RAM, Hitachi 300GB HD, Geforce 9400 and 9600GT graphics card. When using video SL randomly throughout the night the video will freeze, and the audio will drop out for about 20 seconds, the wave forms that display just go into grey as if just hit the end of the track, then it will just kick back on and start playing again. If I go up and click to move to a different part of the song it will play for a few seconds then drop out. It would happen to me once or twice a show. I tried a lot of things, V sync on/off, buffer size 2GB-200MB, video output medium, etc etc and never any luck on fixing it. So I was told to try using mix emergency to output the video. I bought that, worked great for 2 seperate 4 hr shows, no problems, then did the same thing last week. One show I had my laptop off all day, turned it on at the show, then on the first song after 5 mins of a 7 min song had the drop out?? Then never again for the rest of the night.

I am going to try deleting the cache folder, I have a show tomorrow so we will see if it works!

I did a 4 hour show last week, deleting the cache folder and had no issues. That doesn't mean much, but it's just more data.

mmm looking good then :-)

Can we get some "how to's" on the "Cache Folder deleting" if this is helping some people resolve the issue?

What i did was download Leopard Cache Cleaner (works fine in unregistered demo mode)
and just go to the delete cache section.
I did try deleting the cache manually as in the instructions previously in this thread but that didnt fix the freezes.

This is very interesting, so it seems that clearing the cache may be the solution? Please keep me posted if you start having the freezes again, but this does look like a good sign so far :)

For those lurkers which may be following this topic with interest here is the link from Apples Download page for the Leopard Cache Cleaner
www.apple.com

ok.. so reformatted my mac pro last week. ONLY put 1.83 on w/ video. I did 4 gigs (all video, all internal, and 2 regular ssl). today i got one of those drop outs! so i guess it isn't a 1.9x issue and its probably a computer issue. will try leopard cache cleaner to see if it fixes the issue.


A.D. any more problems since you used it? and how often to clean the cache?

Clean the cache before you open Serato for a gig everytime.

Yeah thats what i've been doing, running LCC before I start..

thanks guys.

AD

"ran most of the utils including repair disk permissions and some other tweaks."

what utilities and other tweaks did you do? dont want to miss out on anything.

This is where it gets difficult because It seems I have managed to stop the freeze problem but i'm not sure what part of LCC fixed it! (although my money is on the cache cleaning)
Originally I pretty much ran everything.Now I've just been doing all the stuff on the "maintain" tab and doing medium cleaning on the "caches" tab with all boxes ticked.
Each time I play i'm trying to do less stuff with LCC before I start Serato, so maybe i can find out what part is stopping the freezes.

followed the steps above. 4HR live show last night, no problems :-)

Great!
Def looking like a fix then.
If anyone else could post if the Cache Cleaner fix works for them too, would be helpful..

Yes please do let us know! If it fixes this problem we'll put up a how-to on the website :)

dag.. waited a day and now only 'snow' leopard cache cleaner is available. ha. hope it works the same.

AD,

when you do the maintain and the caches tab, do you restart "twice" or just hit cancel and do the caches and restart one time?

DJPHLIPZ
I've stopped doing the maintain to find out if cleaning the cache is whats fixing the freezes,
So I tick all boxes unders caches, with medium cleaning with one reboot.
I'm still testing what works though, in a couple of weeks i'm doing a load of nights in a row so I guess I'll only know whats working then (unless anyone else tests LCC over a few nights before).

Have a show tonight and tomorrow, so far so good, I will follow up saturday!

used cache cleaner before last nights gig, 4 hours no problem. usually after i see the first drop out, i get them about one a gig. so 1 for 1 no problems, have a gig tonite where i got 2 drop outs the last time i was there. (crossing fingers)

Let us know how it goes,
I have a 5 hour gig later so will see what happens...

No problems after last nights 4 hr gig, one more tonight, 3 for 3 so far

dj sIck

are you doing the maintain AND the cache cleaning, or just the cache cleaning?

Just got home from a 5 hour set without any problems,
cleaned the caches on medium setting before and nothing else, got another 5 hours tomorrow so will report back..

Played last night. 5HR set and no problems. Cache cleaner on medium w/1st box checked. Looking promising!

BTW... that was the second Thursday in a row!

I have had a few sessions as well with no issues. Doing a 5 hour gig tonight so I'll report on that.

I figure after next weekend with all of us trying this we should be able to call this a fix maybe?

1) Do we all have new (mid 2009) systems?
2) Are we all running 10.5.8?
3) Internal or External drives?

My set-up
mid 2009 2.8GHz, 4gb memoey, 7200 rpm 500GB internal drive
10.5.8
Internal

same set up as justin allen i think.. jun 09 pro, same specs. internal also.. no problems tonite. next gig on tuesday!

Mid 2008 w/ external firewire 800
Check my specs on my profile

using a late 2008 unibody MacBook pro
Another 5 hour set and no problems , cache cleaned as in the previous post. I think we have a fix!

Bassick's model is the off one. I'm surprised at that as I thought this issue just affected the newer units.

Serato Tech Support, what do you guys think?

Mine and AD's are both mid 2008 models. I have actually had this problems since late Dec early Jan. I think we should all make a list of all possibilities to this problem and then start to check each off one at a time. Anyone up for that?

alrighty..

so last tuesday had a drop out doing "video" which made me decide to use LCC

did the leopard cache clear (maintain+cache) before thursday gig (only mp3, video plug in turned off) no problems

did the leopard cache clear (maintain+cache) before friday gig (only mp3, video plug in turned off) no problems

so tonite, tuesday, did leopard cache cleaner (only cache this time) did video AND mp3, and 2.5 hours in to my set got a 20 sec drop out. talk about a buzz kill..

will try maintain and cache again before thu gig.. could it be a video issue? since i had 2 gigs of just mp3 no problems?

I know for sure that it's a video problem. Every time get a drop out I try again and again. The night will only go smooth until I unplug my external HD with all my videos and stop using the video portion of VSL. Note... VSL will still be running though I do not use it. I have the club put on some generic visual via DVD and I just continue to play through the night. Sorry to hear about the crash but the info is greatly needed. Just FYI - I haven't used the maintenance part and I've done it twice now. What level do you clean the cache and do you clean the LOCAL, SYSTEM or ALL USERS?

On another note. Video SL just crashed while I was playing and edit new videos in the offline mode (no TTM57). Bummer and it wont quit or force quit. I have to restart my notebook.

Bassick, I think you may have a different problem as yours sounds more severe, might be worth trying another internal HD.
I've been just cleaning the cache for the last 4 gigs (cleaning all caches at medium setting) and have had no problems.
Got 3 nights in a row from tonight so will see how it goes..

oh yeah also forgot 2 things did happen before the drop out.. i added new songs to my comp, and when i was building the overviews for them i pulled the usb drive out and that froze my computer for about 20 secs. also during my set before the drop out, i changed my usb buffer from "10" to "7". i wonder if those could have been issues.


AD

what do you have your usb buffer and video buffer settings at?

no problems last night running video, ran maintenance and cache cleaner before.. moved buffer back to 10, and also set fan control to 5000rpm.. i noticed i didnt change it on tuesday and my comp was running at 160 degree fahrenheit at 3500 rpm.. changed it to 5000 and ran at under 130-140 degree fahrenheit the whole night

Anyone here try updating to Snow Leopard in an effort to see if this fixes our issue?

I haven't yet,waiting for serato forums to give the all clear, I read there were some problems.
just done another night with no freezes.
I'm cleaning the caches on medium with all boxes ticked, and thats all.Stopped doing the maintenance.
I'm pretty sure this is a fix (well for me anyway)

I have 3 big shows coming in the next 3 weeks, 5 hours each...we'll see for me :)

nice.. no problems last night running just mp3 (no video)

AD

sorry to ask again, what do you have your USB buffer on serato and your video buffer set at? thanks!

TRAINWRECK again last night FML! Same effing problem, ran snow lepord cache cleaner before the night, first time in 5 shows its happened. Thought we had a fix :-/

dj sIck

are you doing maintain AND cache clean? or just cache clean?

I have done the disk permissions and repair, and ive just been doing cache clean on deep clean with all three options checked

I havn't done anything under the maintain tab, just through the disk utilites

DJPHLIPZ,
My USB Buffer is on 3 (was also fine on 2), and my video buffer is half way, can't remeber how much that is!

3 weeks with no problems going on last Thursday. I have been using LCC on Medium with all three options checked. That's all, no maintenance.

----> DJ Philpz... can you check your console log and post what was listed about the time of the carsh? It will specifically say SCRACTHLIVE with info. Thanks!

----> A.D... I don;t believe my issue is isolated. I have actually be working with Matt from Serato on this issue since the beginning of the year. The HD that I have is my 3rd (second for this reason).

I do have a question for everyone though. Does anyone have bad or lost files that just will not delete? Every time I load VSL there are a bunch of red files that keep appearing. I'll delete them and then they'll reappear on next reboot.

BTW, If anyone wants to take a look. Here is the initial posts of my events with this problem.

scratchlive.net discussion/134163
scratchlive.net

There is private discussion as well but I do not think that links will work with that.

3 weeks with no problems going on last Thursday. I have been using LCC on Medium with all three options checked. That's all, no maintenance.

----> DJ Philpz... can you check your console log and post what was listed about the time of the carsh? It will specifically say SCRACTHLIVE with info. Thanks!

----> A.D... I don;t believe my issue is isolated. I have actually be working with Matt from Serato on this issue since the beginning of the year. The HD that I have is my 3rd (second for this reason).

I do have a question for everyone though. Does anyone have bad or lost files that just will not delete? Every time I load VSL there are a bunch of red files that keep appearing. I'll delete them and then they'll reappear on next reboot.

No bad/lost files for me

AD - You never have any files written in red at anytime?

I have no bad files either

No, no red files

no bad files for me..

I am from the UK and it happened to me for the 1st time since I installed 1.9.1 a month ago. I think it has happened since I last updated my macbook. I bought my unibody macbook Oct 2008.

Okay everybody try this. I just got off the phone with tech support for over an hr. Put in your mac install disc, turn off your computer. press C while booting up and it will load you up to a menu. Go up to the top tab, run the disc utility. Repair, disc, and repair disc permissions like you normally would, only this time it will do it more indepth because some of the files are not being used since you are not in your operating system. My computer had to repair one key file, it was a quick time decoder file which is what decodes and process video. So it was a sign something was out of place in that aspect. I just did it, havn't had time to test it out yet, if some of you guys are having the same problem, I would be curious to see if that same file needed permissions repair on your systems as well. Let me know thanks!

hey guys check out this thread

discussions.apple.com


it looks like people who are having beachball and 10-20 freezing issues are downgrading their EFI firmware to 1.6 and are not having problems.

i assume most of our computers came with 1.7, and then we've upgraded 1.8?

what do you all think of that fix? i may try it tomorrow.

after reading through the last 8 pages of the forums, it looks like a lot of people with the new mid-09 pro's and firmwares above 1.7 are having these freeze/drop out problems.. it has something to do with the new 1.7 firmware not being able to handle SATA-2..
i dont know anyone else other then 2 of my friends who have got the new pros that are having these drop out issues.

ok, just successfully downgraded to 1.6... going to STOP using leopard cache cleaner and see if this fix works. i only use my MBPro for djing purposes so the downgrade shouldnt affect too much. will let u guys know how it goes!

Just downgraded to 1.6 as well going to try it out

no issues yesterday using video with 1.83.. did NOT use cache cleaner before gig.. computer ran under 130degree F the whole night with SMC fancontrol at 5000rpm.

Mine didn't freeze last night but jeeze was my computer laggy

Hmnn it was because somehow after i downgraded to 1.6 my graphic settings were turned down as well. All better now

no problems tonite. 4 hour video set, didn't use cache cleaner either. will be happy if i can go 5+ gigs with no issues. 2 gigs so fars since downgrading to 1.6 firmware

I ran yet another week with no problems at all. Still just using the cache cleaner.

I've ran two gigs with no problems using only cache cleaner. One thing I should mention, I'm using Perian instead of the native quicktime codecs and drivers, could this also be helping out? From the Mac thread it seems the EFI firmware has something to do with quicktime. Just a thought.

no issues last night, just mp3.. did NOT use cache cleaner.. hows everyone else doing?

Have a video show tonight. Will use cache cleaner...it's no harm and can only do good. Let you all know tomorrow.

yeah cache cleaner is a great tool.. i was just suprised when dj s|ck said he got a drop out again. i want to be able to dj without having to do all these extra things before a gig

4 HR video gig last night, no problems! Have another video gig tonight so we will see!

Still all good here with the cache cleaner fix, I have a late 2008 macbook pro and have different firmware so I don't think thats my problem.
I did have a freeze yesterday but that was while trying to play a video I shot on a camera from a memory stick, I won't be doing that again soon!

4 hour gig tonight, did the cache cleaner on medium, all boxes checked. No problems, 100% video.

4 hour gig last night, all video no issues.. NO cache cleaner before.. looks like the firmware roll back might be good for us mid-09 guys and also the cache clear. (cross fingers)

dj s|ck,

are you also doing the cache cleaner? or just did the 1.6 rollback and seeing how far it goes?

Yo S|ck, I can almost guarantee that this is only a cause while playing VSL. You shouldn't have to worry when playing MP3's unless you use VSL for background visuals.

I have the same model and my problems have been non-existent ever since using LCC.

Yeah i have late 2009 model. Havnt been using cache cleaner at all, just 1.6 rollback, 3 video gigs so far and no problems, 5 more gigs this week, will be the true test!!

sounds good s|ck! let me know how it goes. im 4 for 4 (3 video, 1 mp3) so far with the roll back. i have 4 gigs this week. the true test.. havent gone 5 gigs in row since i got my new pro in june (crossing fingers)

5 for 5 tonite all video.. im gonna disappear guys unless something else comes up! thanks for all the help AD, Justin Allen, s|ck and Bassick!

I'm 5 for 5 too...excellent

im back! haha so im like 6 for 6 no dropouts.. however tonite my 1.83 just straight crashed! got the "scratch live has unexpectedly quit".. it crashed literally right when i loaded a song an hour and a half into my set. i just cant win. haha

Hey DJPHLIPZ,

I'd say a crash would most likely be a seperate issue. If you could start a new help thread describing what happened and attach the crash log we can take a look at it for you :) Also it will keep this thread from becoming cluttered :)

dj s|ck, how you doing since the rollback?

I had a very weird freeze last night!
I noticed the video on the screens had frozen (but the music carried on), looked at me macbook and the video window on Serato had dissapeared, It was just blank where the little video screens should be.
I restarted Serato and it was fine, anyone else ever seen this??

dude!!!!! that happened to me on tues... video screen froze, VSL plug in crashed but the sound didnt go out, the bubble that says it crashed unexpectedly came up, then i hit restart and VSL just restarted automatically and went on like nothing was wrong.. i had two dj friends in there that saw it happen too.

Happened again tonight, then about an hour later the waveform dissapeared and the whole thing stopped.
Had to switch over to my iphone!
Looks like a whole new set of problems, will be formating tomorrow..

AD

i know this might be random, but i wasn't having problems until i move my usb buffer from 10 to 2 or 3.. and now im getting crashes left and right. gonna move it back to 10 and hope for the best

I've just done a complete format and repartition of the whole drive and it all seems to be ok again.
I think it might be because I used the file optimizer on cahe cleaner

DJ PLIPZ - I have seen this a few times and other DJ friends have as well. You should just be able to click relaunch and it fires back up w/o skipping a beat.

AD - I think you are right on the file optimizer. I wouldn't suggest using that. I only used LLC cleaner maintenance on medium w/all boxes checked. It has worked every time.

dj s|ck

how are you doing since the firmware rollback? what setting do you have you usb buffer at for serato? thanks!

Hey sorry guys i have been off the forum because mine has been runnin like a champ. I dont run any cache cleaner, just the 1.6 rollback. I just turn off airport and blue tooth before the gig, do a quick restart, and 0 problems since the rollback. I have probably done 30 or more shows since the rollback and no problems. That was the fix for me! As far as you guys have the "unexpected error" on VSL, it could be because that video file is corrupt, see if it always happens on the same video. Let me know if I can be of anymore help...

thats awesome man! what do you have your usb buffer setting at? when i have it at 10, no problems whatsoever.. when i move it to 2 or 3 i get a crash. so im leaving it at 10. just did 6 gigs in a row no problems for the first time in like 5 or 6 months with the rollback fix.

I had a drop the other night. It was weird. The same type of thing when it just disappears but this time the second track never cut out. Serato wouldn't shutdown and I had to hold the power button down. Luckily I had another track beat-matched and just through it in. I just played the rest of the night the audio form my videos but no VSL launched. It worked fine for the rest of the night. I still think that I have pinpointed what the error is but I have no clue what these codes mean in console.

Dumb question, how do I downgrade to 1.6? My macbook pro has been freezing every Saturday for the last month during videos. I wanna try to downgrade to 1.6.
Thanks,

Downgrade ScratchLive?

Here is the link to 1.6.1
www.scratchlive.net

I would suggest that you keep two version of SL to see if that is actually the problem. Let me know if you ned help installing a second version.

I think pinedam was referring to the firmware in the MacBook Pro. This is the thread that DJPHLIPZ linked to earlier -> discussions.apple.com

I'd strongly recommend against using Scratch Live 1.6.1 - it's nearly 4 years old and won't work with Video-SL.

I downgraded to firmware 1.6. I'll try this Saturday and see if my mac locks up. I'll keep you guys updated.
Thanks

Apple has just released a fix for our issues

www.macworld.com

That's great news :)

I'd be interested to hear if this does indeed fix your problems.

Apple discussion reports so far have been favorable. I will update my machine later today and work with it over the weekend.

quick question. Should i upgrade back up to firmware 1.7 after installing the performance update 1.0 fix? Or stay with firmware 1.6?

My understanding is that the Performance Update 1.0 is a fix for the Firmware Upate 1.7. Is that right guys?

That is my understanding as well.

Good to know. Thanks for the link Justin.

Yeah nice one,
I really hope this works on the dissapearing waveforms freeze last night (after using cache cleaner) . Not good..

yeah keep us up to date.. ive been fine since i did the 1.6 firmware roll back, no issues at all except a random video crash (sl kept playing)... dont want to try a fix that "might" fix the problem.. if it aint broke... maybe dj s|ck will try it?

I have played with it twice since the performance update. (my firmware is up to date as well)

No problems yet.

Has anyone researched the specific videos being played during the crash. I have been having this same issue for a few weeks, and noticed the last crash happened on a video that had keyframes of 164. I think Serato recommends 15-25? I don't know enough about the video tech stuff, but maybe it's something to look into.

Another thing, maybe it is a specific program and it's prefs or something...Adobe CS3? Microsoft office? I am going to slowly remove some programs if the cache cleaner doesn't work.

its not a video issue, i was getting the drop outs just playing mp3's

Hi djtj21,


A crash can be caused by many things, it's best if you start your own help thread so we can look into it more thoroughly for you.

ok. so i did the update fix and i'm running serato 1.9 and firmware 1.7. Video mix for 7 hours straight. So far, no glitches.

did both fixes.. got 2 gigs this wknd.. crossing fingers.. and running 1.92.

Looking good so far....

no problems last night doing video.. other then the comp running hotter than normal.. set smcfancontrol to 5500 rpms and it got back to normal.

Crashed Tonight. Bummer... Did cache cleaner prior to show. I guess it's back to square one. Hey Michael. Can I send you a script of what I think is causing the proble,? Maybe you and the tech team can have a go at it. Also, if anyone has the crash explained in this thread. Can you please make a copy of the log from "Console" and send it to me? Thanks!

bassick


did you download the performance fix for ur comp? ive had no dropout issues since.. havent used cache cleaner in like a month. everything (video/mp3) is running smoothly now (crossing fingers)

I did all updates and didn't see that listed. I don't think it affected my model or maybe I had that update installed previously and did not know. As soon as it crashed, I ejcted the track and had to reboot SERATO from hitting (OPTION, APPLE, ESC) force quit and relaunch the program. I then just decided to not use VSL for the rest of the night. Just SL alone always is solid as this problem is only VSL related.

I'm fairly confident the update is the fix for the problem, cache cleaner seems to make things better but freezes still happen (altough a lot less frequently).

I'd love to agree with you on that but that update wasn't an option when I checked. Unless I did a previous update and never noticed it. You did just "check for updates" through your MAC right? I will say that the LCC did keep the system running smooth for a month or so. I'm just so sick of this that I'm ready to buy a new MAC. I'm pretty sure that I know what the error is that is causing it I just need someone else to pull the report from "Console" when it happens. There is a specific time when the crash happens that a message changes in a chain of commands in "Console" if I could just find someone from Apple or Serato that can figure out what the code is or why it happens. I think it will be the answer. I've asked a few times to Serato for help and haven't gotten a reply.
SO HERE IT IS AGAIN....
Michael R. - Can you please contact me via PM so we can do a quick chat? Many Thanks!!!
Apple doesn't have a clue because their Genius Bar doesn't really have geniuses. LOL. That's actually what they told me.

Hey Bassick,

Sorry to hear you're having problems. I'd suggest you start a new help thread rather than a PM, that way other users can see any solutions that get found :) (also I'm going to be out of the office the next two days and your PM may go unanswered ;)

WOW Thanks! That really helps us out! I don't see why I would start a new thread on something that is directly related to this topic. That really doesn't make sense. What would be nice is if someone from Serato could look at this info that I have and see what they think. If your out of the office, it would be nice if you could have someone else on your team assist. Two days is vital seeing how we all have weekly gigs. You guys are the developers and know more than we do. So, if you could... pass this along to whomever it would be appreciated. Also, anyone that has the problem occur please run the log in "Console" and copy it to a word document and post it please!

This is what I have noticed when the crash or (loss of file) occurs. These are the commands listed in "Console". I'll break it down in 3 sections.
___________________________________________________________________

This first section is just the prequel and what I think is normal with the MAC and Serato
___________________________________________________________________
10/8/09 10:08:31 PM [0x0-0x13013].com.Serato.scratchvideo[224] changed to device 69673088 with refresh 0. Using beamsync: 0
10/8/09 10:08:31 PM [0x0-0x13013].com.Serato.scratchvideo[224] changed to device 69673088 with refresh 0. Using beamsync: 0
___________________________________________________________________

This second section is where the crash happens. There is a change in the "refresh" and the "beamsync".
_________________________________________
10/8/09 10:08:31 PM [0x0-0x13013].com.Serato.scratchvideo[224] changed to device 69681665 with refresh 60. Using beamsync: 1
___________________________________________________________________

The last section is me forcing my MAC to "shutdown" by holding the power button down.
___________________________________________________________________

10/8/09 11:09:15 PM com.apple.launchd[112] ([0x0-0x10010].com.serato.scratchlive[218]) Exited: Terminated
10/8/09 11:09:16 PM com.apple.loginwindow[24] Shutdown NOW!
___________________________________________________________________


So my question are;
1.) What is the refresh and beamsync?
and
2.) What does it mean when it says "change to device" and uses a different number?

I'm assuming that the "refresh 60" is the long pause that is occurs while we play and the file disappears. The beamsync... I have no clue and the same for "change to device".

Any thoughts peeps???

Bassick,

you shouldn't be so sarcastic.. but im wondering if you're getting the same issues most of us on this thread are getting. is your serato actually crashing? like beachball that won't go away/sound goes out... and thats why you have to re-start? OR are you getting the 20 sec audio drop outs and the music comes back on? i think all of us on here (except for u) were getting the drop outs but our situation has been fixed by the performance update or the firmware roll back. thats why no one is really posting on here anymore.

also, i read that you're using an external drive? maybe thats the issue? a lot of us have internal drives.

The sarcasm was just a little frustration cause this thread was started in August but I have had this problem since January. And had a previous thread that never was solved. Hence why I feel this keeps getting tucked under the carpet. Anyway, if it did fix the issue for ya'll. That's great! I think it will come back few and far apart but still exist.

The issue that I have is during a set the audio and video will just disappear. The track time is still there but no waveform or anything. I can't load a track until this goes away. There is usually a beach ball for that amount of time. I have gotten accustom to restarting rather than waiting because it's usually a bit. I thought about the external drive thing. This will be my third drive but ya never know. So, I guess I'll buy another drive tomorrow and use it for a month. Thanks for the look out Phlipz. I just wish I knew what those codes meant and could see someone else log when the freeze happens.

no problem man, trust me i know how you feel.. especially when they keep saying stuff like "analyze your files and delete corrupt ones" when ive done that about 30 times since june. here's what i think the issue may be.. since you're using an external, maybe your firmware (i assume 1.7) cant handle what ever external drive you're using to its full capacity.. which is the same issue we were having. when i downgraded to 1.6 i had no more issues because the computer wasnt working as hard to keep up. thats why apple made the performance fix. did you try the 1.6 firmware downgrade from earlier? i think the main difference with using it is that we we're not getting the full use of our SATA-2 internal harddrives than using 1.7 firmware. i think its worth a try.

I haven't done the down grade yet. I put all of my videos on a second hard drive and am gonna run it today tomorrow and the next. If by Wednesday it doesn't fail. I'll call it the drive. If it fails, I'll do the downgrade. I don't think I have a SATA II drive. Is there a way to check? Sorry for the novice question.

Ive always had problems with xvid videos causing freezing. now i only use mpeg4, mov, or avi. last freeze was last saturday, it was the worst ever had to reboot. never had to reboot before. embaressing. someone offered me their macbook to finish the set. it was painful. and it was when i was dropping an xvid video into the right side.(Thought i had got rid of them all.) Also thinking cache and only having 2gb memory attributed to this. but def can get more out of my show when using apple based vidz. i have noticed a difference.

and i use a 2.4ghz 2gb memory 1067 bus 250gig 3mb cache dual nvidia with 256mb in each one (9400M AND 9600GT.) Thinking my MBP upgrade will be coming up sooner than later perhaps.

I hear ya on the pain. I had a girl in the crowd yell "See!!! MACS do crash!" Fuckin' bitch. It wasn't the computer that crashed. Grrr.

Hey Bassick,


The reason I suggested you start a new thread is:

A) You were going to PM the info and I figured it would be better to have it in the open for other users to see. Also if you PM me no other support staff can see that message.
B) This thread originally was about Video-SL freezing after multiple hours of running and over the past few months has begun to accumulate a whole lot of other Video-SL problems. I was hoping to split some of the other problems out from this thread :)
C) If anyone else having the same issue as you came to this thread they'd have to read over 100 posts to get to your issue. A new thread would tidy that up and encourage other users to post :)

But it's no biggie, it was only a suggestion. We can continue it here :)

The info you've collected from Console isn't from the crash, but is from the recovery process - so they relate to Video-SL restarting.


Refresh is the refresh rate of the video device. The device you're using hasn't got a published refresh rate, so we assume 60.
Beamsync is a type of VSync (see here -> www.serato.com(click link)). As Video-SL had to guess the refresh rate it can't use Beamsync, so Video-SL will then emulate Beamsync itself.


This means you've moved your output window from one device to another (ie. from your internal monitor to an external one).

If Video-SL is crashing (not hanging) you can find the crash report by opening Finder and going to Username -> Library -> Logs -> CrashReporter and locating the most recent Video-SL crash. You can attach this log to this thread for us to review :) [Note: Username is the name of the account you are logged in as]

If the program is hanging and you have to force quit then I'm afraid we can't get much info from a hang report as they're quite vague and don't highlight the cause. With Video-SL general causes of freezes are:
1) Overheating. If the freeze happens after a long-ish period of time this may be a cause. A good way to check this is to download the Temperature Monitor Widget (www.apple.com) and see how hot your computer is when this freeze happens.
2) Faulty RAM. If one of your RAM modules is faulty you can experience freezes. A way to test this is to download Rember (www.kelleycomputing.net) and test your RAM. It will tell you if it encounters any faults.
3) The hard drive is stalling. This is the issue mainly discussed on this thread. You can download and get more info on this here -> support.apple.com


Trust me, that's not what we want to do! Our goal is to get everything working 100%, stability is one of the main assets we pride ourselves on :)

Thank you Michael! That is probably some of the most straight forward answers I have gotten. Seriously, thank you. I didn't want to start a new thread because I have the same as everyone else. I play for a few hour and and all the sudden the video file will "dropout" (for lack of better terms. It does happen randomly. I have had it drop out as early as an hour and as many times as 3 in a 5 hour set. It never really crashed VSL. I just choose to power down and restart fresh or reboot Serato fresh because it's usually quicker for the crowd and in hopes that it will help the issue.I posted a link to a previous thread that I had and Matt from Serato was helping me. It's listed above. As for the issue at hand. I don't believe it's a temperature issue as I have check that and monitor it with iStat Pro. I have purchased yet another HD to test as well. This time I am going with a USB powered Seagate Freeagent. We will see if this helps. Lastly, I have downloaded Remember and ran a test. The RAM tests out fine with no problems. "All tests passed!" I'll let you guys know after the tomorrow night if it fails again.
Michael - I sure this is a dumb question but your team hasn't been able to replicate this problem, correct?

We were able to reproduce it on one machine (MacBook Pro) but this was fixed with Performance Update 1.0.

Are you able to try playing a set off your internal hard drive only? This would be great to determine whether the external drive was at fault.

I'm going to try and do the downgrade that you all have tried. I did buy a new external drive and played a show with no problems. That could be a coincidence or could be a fix. IDK. I'll still do the downgrade and keep a eye on this forum. Question though, will Apple do an update that we have to watch out for and not update?