Serato Video General Discussion

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Serato Video / Macbook Pro blacks out to login screen

neilsak 5:06 PM - 15 March, 2017
This must be the weirdest thing I have ever seen, but then again, this is my first time prepping my MacBook Pro for a video show (and am nervous it will crash). I have already gone thru the optimization process. I am in the process of loading videos one by one to set markers on each song. As soon as I use the finger scroll at the top of my Numark NS7, the whole screen goes black and then displays my login screen. Once I sign back in, Serato comes back up, and I am able to continue using it for audio, but the video portion remains black (both the queue and main video windows.

Anyone else see such a thing ?? Perhaps it is unique to the Numark NS7 controller. I have yet to test the whole setup for a lengthy period of time WITHOUT touching the finger scroll bars to see if that is what is causing the issue, but will do so shortly after I finish setting all of the markers. I have a funny feeling it is NOT related to the scroll and might just black out on me at any time. How embarrassing that would be at a live event.

I have invested so much in terms of time and money to get my video setup ready for the event, I just hope I can get this issue worked out in time.

Should I create a ticket for the Serato folks ?? Will they see this post ??

Thanks
Neil
neilsak 5:08 PM - 15 March, 2017
BTW, forgot to mention that when the "crash" happens, not only does the laptop screen blackout, the video and audio stop too, I lose everything. Only when I log back in from the main login screen, Serato comes back up and I can continue to feed audio to it, but no video. Serato has to be shut down and restarted for video to work again.
neilsak 5:19 PM - 15 March, 2017
Problem is even worst than I thought. I decided not to touch the scroll bar on the NS7, and continue to set markers per song manually, and if I hit play and the song is too far in, I would just rotate the jogwheel backwards to get the marker point. As luck would have it, approx 5 minutes into it, the screen blacked out, audio cut out, and I was back to the login screen. It is as if the MacBook is automatically locking me out irrelevant of what is running (Serato).

I have a funny feeling this won't be an easy one to fix. But since I have a couple of weeks before my video event, I am hopeful that the good people on this forum, and Serato, can help me get this issue worked out in time.

Going to cry now....

Neil
neilsak 5:28 PM - 15 March, 2017
To add to this discussion, I have looked at the crash post from Serato, and I cannot use a crash log, since the Serato software does not crash. It is as if the MacBook just logs out on it's own, which cuts the video and audio, and once I log back in, Serato is back up and running, but the video windows remain black.

And as mentioned above, I am going thru my video files one by one to set markers, and all of my video files are good, since they come from Xtendamix. So I am doubtful that I have corrupt files or a corrupt database (but am willing to rebuild if it becomes necessary).

Since I am in the process of setting markers, I will continue to do so until all my video files have markers set, and then I will attempt to do a live set for an extended period of time, to see if the same thing happens (auto logout), which happens about every 5-10 min.

Neil
neilsak 6:09 PM - 15 March, 2017
Well, another reply by me, definitely a video "handling" problem. Once I was back into Serato, after being kicked out to login screen, I decided NOT to start Serato over, and see how it will handle me continuing with the audio portion of the video files, without any video playing. No problem whatsoever. Was able to use the scroll bars on the NS7, scratch, jog wheel control, the whole nine yards. So the laptop is fine with audio files, and audio portion of video files.

One more test left, to not be setting markers, and just load up video files and mix with them, to see if Serato kicks me out to the login screen again.

I doubt it is a VRAM issue, cause I have 1.5GB allocated (i7, 2.8GHz, 8GB RAM).

Perhaps a buffer issue ??
neilsak 8:42 PM - 15 March, 2017
OK I think I may have gotten it all figured out, MAYBE. And this might prove useful for others who run into the same issue as me (doubt it though). When I was loading my videos one by one for the sole purpose of setting cues/markers, I did not have the laptop hooked up to my home projector or monitor, BUT I did have the display port adapter plugged in. Now, I did manage to see my queue and main display windows on my laptop screen, but I think there might be a chance that by having the display port adapter plugged in without any video display device attached to it, that might have sent the MacBook into a weird state. Who knows.

After I finished with setting all my cues, I plugged in the projector (at home), got my main video screen up on that output and began more testing. While the main video was playing properly, all of my queue windows in Serato were blacked out. New video loads changed nothing, no video queue, even though I was able to queue the audio portion, and when mixed in, the video showed up on the main screen.

So at that point I decided to reboot the laptop, with projector connected to the display port, and everything came up working fine including the video queue windows.

So my takeaway from this entire exercise, if you show up for a gig, and after all optimization is done (incl disabling WiFi), make sure to reboot the laptop one last time, WITH THE PROJECTOR(S) CONNECTED, this way the laptop knows where to send all the video feeds and there is communication/data passing over the HDMI bus......

Neil
popnwave 12:33 AM - 16 March, 2017
That's actually not the oddest thing I've heard. There's a lot of wonky HDMI matrix/switchers/splitters out there and often that, along with whatever adapter you use to push HDMI out of your macbook, makes for funky behavior.

Of course if every club/bar was using nice high end eq like Extron, you'd probably never get a hiccup but I think we all work with what we get.
DJ Tecniq 6:08 PM - 16 March, 2017
What are your laptop specs? Def starting to sound like a graphics card issue or possible defect with your mac?