[QLab] Video output background turned blue...

[Jon Ares]

So.... using QLab (latest build) with projectors on the 2nd output of
a Mac Mini. Background set to black in the Mac preferences... cues
run fine, but all of a sudden, part way through running cues, the
background turned dark blue. Anyone else run into this?

Rebooting the Mini took care of it, but of course I'm worried it will
happen again in performance (as this is Final Dress).....

--
Jon Ares
www.arescreative.com
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[Christopher Ashworth]

Was this possibly a "the projector is getting no signal" kind of blue?

On Dec 3, 2009, at 7:47 PM, Jon Ares wrote:

> So.... using QLab (latest build) with projectors on the 2nd output of
> a Mac Mini. Background set to black in the Mac preferences... cues
> run fine, but all of a sudden, part way through running cues, the
> background turned dark blue. Anyone else run into this?
>
> Rebooting the Mini took care of it, but of course I'm worried it will
> happen again in performance (as this is Final Dress).....

________________________________________________________

[Jon Ares]

> Was this possibly a "the projector is getting no signal" kind of blue?
>

That was my first thought, but it would run the cues just fine....
then go back to dark blue (maybe purple - these Dell projectors aren't
the most accurate for color and contrast). It wasn't "Dell" blue.

--
Jon Ares
www.arescreative.com

[Kevin Faulhaber]

On 12/3/09 8:05 PM, Jon Ares wrote:

>> Was this possibly a "the projector is getting no signal" kind of blue?
>>
>
> That was my first thought, but it would run the cues just fine....
> then go back to dark blue (maybe purple - these Dell projectors aren't
> the most accurate for color and contrast). It wasn't "Dell" blue.

What is the desktop background for that display? I'm guessing dark blue.

Kevin

[Søren Knud]

Do you use quartz composer files?

Den 04/12/2009 kl. 01.47 skrev Jon Ares <jon...@arescreative.com>:

> So.... using QLab (latest build) with projectors on the 2nd output of
> a Mac Mini. Background set to black in the Mac preferences... cues
> run fine, but all of a sudden, part way through running cues, the
> background turned dark blue. Anyone else run into this?
>
> Rebooting the Mini took care of it, but of course I'm worried it will
> happen again in performance (as this is Final Dress)....

[Jon Ares]

As I wrote in the original post, we confirmed it's black.

--
Jon Ares
www.arescreative.com

--
Jon Ares
www.arescreative.com

[Matt Otto]

I’m know video guru, but sometimes you can set the projector bg color to black. The projector might not see a single when its not running cues and will just default to its blue screen. 

Matt Otto
(609) 707-2978
Off List: motto...@gmail.com
http://www.mattottosound.com

On Dec 3, 2009, at 7:47 PM, Jon Ares wrote:

[Jon Ares]

Hmm.... it was a decidedly Mac-based problem, not the projector's.
(We could move the mouse over the blue background.) Rebooting and
restarting QLab made the gremlins go away - at least for the
performance. We'll see what new curve is thrown our way tonight.

--
Jon Ares
www.arescreative.com

[Christopher Ashworth]

On Dec 3, 2009, at 7:47 PM, Jon Ares wrote:

> Background set to black in the Mac preferences... cues
> run fine, but all of a sudden, part way through running cues, the
> background turned dark blue.

On Dec 3, 2009, at 8:05 PM, Jon Ares wrote:
>
> it would run the cues just fine....then go back to dark blue

On Dec 4, 2009, at 6:28 PM, Jon Ares wrote:

> Hmm.... it was a decidedly Mac-based problem, not the projector's.
> (We could move the mouse over the blue background.) Rebooting and
> restarting QLab made the gremlins go away

That's bizarre. When the cues ran did you see any tinting? I once
half-killed a video card (with static electricity) in a way that gave
me some crazy hue changes on my monitor...

-C

[Dan Scully]

I only ask this because I have screwed it up before:
When you set the desktop to black, was it on the projector display, or
just the control display?

Also, is the cursor color shifted, or is it "normal" in color? Does
the local monitor do anything weird? If you plug in a "standard"
monitor, can you recreate the behavior?

If you are running VGA, funny things can happen if part of the cable
comes loose, etc.

ds

[Jon Ares]

On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 5:34 PM, Dan Scully <dans...@mac.com> wrote:
> I only ask this because I have screwed it up before:
> When you set the desktop to black, was it on the projector display, or just
> the control display?

The 2nd output/projector display was set to black.... the QLab monitor
has the b&w lightning background, so we know which is which. :)

> Also, is the cursor color shifted, or is it "normal" in color?  Does the
> local monitor do anything weird?  If you plug in a "standard" monitor, can
> you recreate the behavior?

The running video clips were fine in color. (Well, in the realm of
"fine," when dealing with a Dell projector.) Upon completion/stopping
the video cue, the screen went dark blue. As soon as we start/
restart a cue, it would go back to correct color (black). One cue has
QLab bringing the image up from the bottom of the screen, and the
background was black for that, until the cue was stopped/unloaded.

> If you are running VGA, funny things can happen if part of the cable comes
> loose, etc.

I certainly know that one... have had cables where one pin broke, and
all sorts of funny things happen with the imagery. :) But this was
only the one evening.... everything held its own after rebooting....
though it does scare me that it might happen again with a paying
audience.
>

--
Jon Ares
www.arescreative.com

[Andy Dolph]

I wonder if the safe answer for now is to add a Q at the top of the
show that puts up a full screen black .jpg and leaves it there till
after the end... then there's always a cue running.

Andy

[RJ Givens]

Thats not a bad idea,   just hope you dont have to hit escape during the performance.   I would also change the computer background to black,  and set the background in Q-lab to black.  

On Dec 5, 2009, at 4:29 AM, qlab-r...@lists.figure53.com wrote:

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 23:23:08 -0500
From: Andy Dolph <acd...@gmail.com>
To: "Discussion and support for QLab users." <ql...@lists.figure53.com>
Subject: Re: [QLab] Video output background turned blue...
Message-ID:
   <7c43d480912042023t127...@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I wonder if the safe answer for now is to add a Q at the top of the
show that puts up a full screen black .jpg and leaves it there till
after the end... then there's always a cue running.

Andy

=

[Jon Ares]

On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 8:23 PM, Andy Dolph <acd...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I wonder if the safe answer for now is to add a Q at the top of the
> show that puts up a full screen black .jpg and leaves it there till
> after the end... then there's always a cue running.
>
> Andy

That's a terrific idea! Thanks!

--
Jon Ares
www.arescreative.com

[sam kusnetz]

* wrote:

> I've helped local schools get computers to run both
> Qlab & SFX. Their ops are always kids. Mostly middle school age. Do you
> think that show can benefit from a few safe guards?

while i certainly see what you mean here, i see it in quite a different light. i think middle school is exactly the right venue for operators to learn their tools and understand the situations that lead to mistakes, and appreciate the consequences of those mistakes.

unless we teach those middle school kids how to be superb sound operators, they'll grow up to be lousy operators and proceed to make the same mistakes as this poor fool that ra byn is currently dealing with.

i'm not advocating deliberately making student operators' lives harder, but let them be a little hard. let them learn a lot while the stakes are still low.

sk