[RESOLVED] Attract Mode Hangs or occasionally crashes with error

[buzz880]

I've seen others with similar, but not identical, problems though I have not seen a fix that works for me.

Even if someone can give me a starting direction I'd appreciate it, at the moment I am thinking it is Codec related. That said, I have the same issue with both Shark007 and Windows 8.1 standard Codecs. The only difference between Shark and standard Codecs is I do get a crash with an error more often with the Shark ones, whereas the standard package Hangs without error more often. I'd say the failure rate by one means or the other is about the same.

I have Backglass, DMD and Table Videos all running.

It seems to be fine if I remove all DMD videos except the PinballX default one.

If I use my full DMD collection it might go 10 minutes, even 30 minutes before it hangs or errors. When it hangs it is totally non-responsive. Sometimes it comes back in 4 or 5 minutes, sometimes it does not.

At first I thought it was a corrupt video file so each time I would remove the last video accessed. This did not seem to improve the outright failure rate. It certainly does not happen on the same video every time.

PinballX 1.95

Windows 8.1 x64.

Thanks!

[Draco1962]

Anything showing in the Windows Event Viewer for the date/time that the hang is occurring? You may need to poke in there a bit to find something.

[tthurman]

Welcome to the PinballX forums buzz880.

Always a good idea to furnish some info so everyone can get a peak at your config.

[buzz880]

Sorry was at work when I posted that. Here are the ini and log files attached.

log.txt

PinballX.ini

[buzz880]

Anything showing in the Windows Event Viewer for the date/time that the hang is occurring? You may need to poke in there a bit to find something.

This is where I started. There is nothing in event viewer that I see. Its a fresh Windows 8.1 install on a dedicated machine and I've been careful about what I let schedule itself. The thing is it doesn't seem to happen if I use the PinballX default DMD video exclusively so that would tend to rule out other processes being a factor I think.

[buzz880]

Update:

I'm not quite ready to say it is totally resolved but it is significantly improved, here is why:

- I Figured it was Codecs so I downloaded a freeware called Mediainfo

- When I looked at all my video files in MediaInfo, 15 or so of my DMD Videos reveal themselves to be AVI, even though the extension was MP4. These will play in PinballX just fine if I run them alone but it seems like when combined with PF and BG eventually things get wonky.

- I took those files out of the directory and am now 3-4 hours without a complete lockup or crash. I do think it still hangs briefly a little here or there but that is nothing compared to what was happening.

So fingers crossed for now.

Also, if anyone knows a good freeware to re-encode these DMD video files, let me know? I tried Super and a couple others but even on HQ settings I'm getting a much lower quality result.

Thanks!

[Carny_Priest]

Check this thread:

http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/15207-capture-videos-to-pinballx-media-table-backglass-and-dmd/

[buzz880]

Interesting.

I'm actually trying running PINMAME inside the PINBALLX Frontend right now but I can't seem to get it to scale right so maybe yours is the answer.

I'll try it later. Thanks!

[buzz880]

Check this thread:

http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/15207-capture-videos-to-pinballx-media-table-backglass-and-dmd/

This was great. I Have all my videos created, hopefully this will reduce my attract mode issues simply by having everything 100% on the same Codec. I was thinking though I should have used a codec that is native to windows 8.1 so I can get rid of Shark 007 completely. SO that might be the next step if I have more issues.

Thanks!