[QLab] video devamp, fire next cue

[william reynolds]

hi

apologies if this gets through to the list twice, i'm not sure i sent it properly yesterday!

i'm trying to loop a video until the next cue is fired, then immediately play the next video.
just like the 'fire next cue when the target's loop ends' setting in the audio devamp cue type.
the effect i'm after is to loop the first part of a video file an unknown number of times, then on cue stop looping and just play out to the end of the file (see attempt 4 below)
any suggested fixes to any of my methods below/better methods that
actually work would be hugely appreciated - the show i need this for
is next week!
will

so far i've tried a few different approaches, but with no success so far - can anyone think of a clever way to do this?
attempt 1:
Q1 - play video A, then auto-follow to
Q2 - goto Q1 (auto-continue to immediately fire Q1 again)
-this doesn't seem to work, with Q1 not firing again after Q2, instead everything stopping with Q1's green progress bar stopping at 'full' and going yellow if i could get this part to work, i would try a  target cue to change Q2 to goto Q3, to play video B.

attempt 2:
Q1 - play video A (infinite loop, no-auto advance)
Q2 - goto cue - points to Q3 - auto-advance
Q3 - script cue - sets Q1 to play once only (ie not infinite loop) and to auto-follow - then auto-advance
Q4 - target cue - set Q2 to point to Q5 - then auto-advance
Q5 - play video B
-the start of this sequence works, Q1 loops until you fire Q2 (and Q3, 4 automatically) and then stops at the end of the current loop as it should, but of course Q5 is also fired automatically at the same time, because of the auto-advances. and i want Q5 to fire when Q1 finishes.
if i make Q4 auto-follow or no auto advance then the rest of sequence orks, Q5 loads (little yellow spot) but the black tear-drop disappears, and pressing GO does nothing (i have to manually click on Q5 to highlight it before i can fire it)

attempt 3 (this feels like the closest i've got!):
main cue list:
Q1 - play 'cue list 2, Q1'
Q2 - script cue - set cue list 2 Q1 to uncheck infinite loop, and to auto-follow
cue list 2:
Q1 - play video A, autofollow, no auto-advance
Q2 - play video B
-running Q1 from the main cue list works fine, video A is played fine. running Q2 from the main playlist also works - cl2 Q1 is altered, it stops at the end of the current loop and is set to auto-follow. but the black teardrop is still in the main Q list, so cl2 Q2 is loaded (yellow dot) but not is not fired.
EDIT:
I then added a line to cl1 Q2's script, to set the playback position in cl2 to be Q2. this didn't fix things though, but did leave the black teardrop on cl2 Q2 after running everything. it didn't fire cl2 

Q2 though, just left the teardrop there when i looked back into that cue list.

-my script, in case that's the problem - cl1 Q2 ("jess" is my 'cue

list 2', and the numbers are different!):
tell front workspace
       set Qno to "5"
       set current cue list to first cue list whose q name is "jess"
       set infinite loop of the first cue whose q number is Qno to false
       set continue mode of the first cue whose q number is Qno to
auto_follow
       set playback position of current cue list to cue "6"
       set current cue list to first cue list whose q name is "Main Cue
List"
end tell

attempt 4:
Q1 - play video A (infinite loop, end time set part way through the file)
Q2 - script cue - sets Q1: uncheck infinite loop, rest end time to end of file
-running the script cue (and so resetting the end time) stops Q1.

[Rich Walsh]

On 23 Jun 2011, at 10:20, william reynolds wrote:

i'm trying to loop a video until the next cue is fired, then immediately play the next video.
just like the 'fire next cue when the target's loop ends' setting in the audio devamp cue type.
the effect i'm after is to loop the first part of a video file an unknown number of times, then on cue stop looping and just play out to the end of the file (see attempt 4 below)

As you've discovered, changing a cue's start/loop/end times whilst it is playing causes it to stop - and even turning off infinite loop on a running Audio Cue will cause it to hiccup (unless you use Devamp). You can probably do what you need using a variation on this: http://wiki.figure53.com/QLab+Hints+and+Tips#x-Quantised%20stopping%20&%20starting%20of%20cues.

Make two video cues, one that loops and one that plays from that point on. Start the first and at the same time start a looped sequence of cues that keeps trying to stop the first cue and start the second cue - looping as often as the video cue loops - BUT with the Stop & Start cues disarmed. On your next cue, arm those two cues, wait for the length of the loop and then disarm the cue that causes the loop (this makes sure the loop comes round once more). When the loop next comes round it is finally allowed to stop the first video cue and start the second one. You'll need a bit of housekeeping at the start to arm/disarm the right bits - and you may want to start the second video on a layer above the first one before stopping the first one in order to soften the transition (you may even need to crossfade). WIth a bit of jiggery pokery you can offset the different events within the length of the loop, or not start the loop until later in the cue - and so on.

It's easier to do than describe, and John Leonard taught me how to do this in ShowMan back in 2002. I'd never have figured it out on my own…

Rich

[william reynolds]

brilliant, and thanks for your quick response rich.

in case it's useful for anyone else out there - this solution worked brilliantly. took a few minutes to get my head round it though!

and i hardly had to alter anything to get what i wanted (based on the cues in the pics in rich's link below):

Q1.4 - i made this a pause instead of a stop, so that the first (looping) video froze on the last frame rather than cutting out. this solves a tiny glitch when swapping from looping to not looping.

Q1.45 - armed/disarmed as for Q1.4 (the stop/pause cue above) - start cue to play my 2nd video

Qs 1.15 & 2.15 - arm/disarm cues for Q1.45 (the same as Qs 1.1 & 2.1)

and then a stop Q auto-continuing from my 2nd video, to stop the 1st video (which by now is paused, and just needs to be stopped to save resources)

hope that helps someone else!

will

[Steve Lalonde]

Maybe I didn't understand the goal of this but here's how I usually do it. 

Infinite loop silence w/ same duration as video. 

-- 

450 541 7482

www.stevelalonde.com

2012/11/15 Andrzej Goulding <andrzej...@mac.com>

I still can't get my head around this even after reading through. It really seems overly complicated when when the audio version is so simple.
Can anyone post a screen grab of the setup for doing this with two video cues. One that is the looping one and one that follows on after being cued.

I had this working on one of my shows where the sound and the video were running off the same qlab. The sound designer had set up a Devamp for his audio and I think the video just piggybacked that rather than having a setup as described above.

Would that be an easier setup if I made an audio loop that could use the devamp and then target the video loop to that?
Many thanks

A

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