dmd videos are not able to be played in windows nor in pbx

[bpjacobsen]

I recorded dmd videos (over 200) using the game manager recorder function but even with shark codec installed, they will not play at all in window, thumbnails, or pbx. PLease help!

Also is there a way to stop it from recording if you need to check to make sure the videos are right before recording hundreds of tables? seems like I have to shut down to get it to stop and it's very annoying.

 

[Draco1962]

 LAV codecs are preferred over Shark007.

We have a few PinballX gurus that will likely lend assistance. Hang in there!

In the meantime, please attach copies of your pinballx.ini and log.txt files along with your game manager xml file for review. Thanks!

[bpjacobsen]

log.txt PinballXini.txt Visual Pinball.xml

[bpjacobsen]

FYI, I installed the LAV codecs after removing the shark codec but the dmd videos still don't work.  Also, if someone can please tell me how to stop the recording after one table records so I can test it before doing all of them. Right now, I have to shut down to get it to stop or try to kill it in task mgr but that doesn't always work either b/c it just keeps recording.

[bpjacobsen]

FYI, I installed the LAV codecs after removing the shark codec but the dmd videos still don't work.  Also, if someone can please tell me how to stop the recording after one table records so I can test it before doing all of them. Right now, I have to shut down to get it to stop or try to kill it in task mgr but that doesn't always work either b/c it just keeps recording.

 

 

[Mike_da_Spike]

Youcan record 1 table as well, by clicking the record button per table. This will record all media for the specific table.

If you do a bulk record, just press your exit emulator key that you defined in pbx

[scutters]

A couple of things in the log for the ffmpeg command;

1. How are your screens setup in windows? I'm not sure where pinballx is getting the DMD x position "-offset_x -994" (the minus part looks odd)
2. "-video_size 985x575" - i don't think ffmpeg will like the 985, it likes width divisible by 2. Try changing your DMD width in settings.exe to 986 and try a record for 1 table to see if that helps.

[bpjacobsen]

11 hours ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

Youcan record 1 table as well, by clicking the record button per table. This will record all media for the specific table.

If you do a bulk record, just press your exit emulator key that you defined in pbx

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Also try  PinballX Database manager as an alternative way for gamemanger

Hi, what is the record button per table? Is that configured in pbx settings? I feel like I tried that a while back and nothing happened but not sure if I did it right. 

[Mike_da_Spike]

2 hours ago, bpjacobsen said:

Hi, what is the record button per table? Is that configured in pbx settings? I feel like I tried that a while back and nothing happened but not sure if I did it right. 

It is in gamemanager.  

But I use Databasemanager (that also has the same record options, but more other options )

[simbamame]

On 11/29/2020 at 5:31 PM, Mike_da_Spike said:

+1 for this  :-)

But I use Databasemanager (that also has the same record options, but more other options )

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[bpjacobsen]

21 hours ago, Mike_da_Spike said:

Youcan record 1 table as well, by clicking the record button per table. This will record all media for the specific table.

If you do a bulk record, just press your exit emulator key that you defined in pbx

• Hide Mike_da_Spike's signature
• Hide all signatures

Also try  PinballX Database manager as an alternative way for gamemanger

Hi, what is the record button per table? Is that configured in pbx settings? I feel like I tried that a while back and nothing happened but not sure if I did it right. 

[bpjacobsen]

OK so I have the video working now. However, I realized that when the dmd videos play in pbx, they are filling the screen and not displaying the way they do in game. I have them sized and positioned similar to a real dmd pm the bottom half of my dmd monitor. But I have hundreds of tables that don't use a dmd so they use custom images I created that more or less do fill the screen. How can I ensure that the dmds display correctly AND the images  also display correctly?

[Mike_da_Spike]

Not sure what the real question is, but you have videos and images and you want to display the correct one (some needs custom images and some not ?)
I think you need to check table by table in Gamemanager/ Database manager and check what you want to show during game play or not.
Database manager can maybe handy to search on words/tables/types etc, so it is easier for you.
And yes, I also have around 800 VPX tables and sometimes I need to change some settings and need to go to every table to get it working correctly.
That's the beauty of you own cabinet. You never finished with it   

[scutters]

3 hours ago, bpjacobsen said:

OK so I have the video working now. However, I realized that when the dmd videos play in pbx, they are filling the screen and not displaying the way they do in game. I have them sized and positioned similar to a real dmd pm the bottom half of my dmd monitor. But I have hundreds of tables that don't use a dmd so they use custom images I created that more or less do fill the screen. How can I ensure that the dmds display correctly AND the images  also display correctly?

I think you're saying the DMD's are recorded ok but not full screen? not sure what your settings are now in PinballX. - but i think in PinballX you should set it to use the full visible screen (and record that area which contains a smaller DMD window) and then control the actual DMD size  in freezy or vpinmame settings.

But i may have misunderstood entirely..  examples/screenshots and updated/current ini file will help if so

[bpjacobsen]

I spoke to soon. For some reason, it is now recording a black screen. this is driving me nuts! I set my dmd size/positions in pbx settings to match what I have set globally in my dmddevice.ini file (freezy) which is working fine, but now  I"m getting blank recordings. I just don't understand why this would not work if pbx is set the same as the working dmddevice.ini?

[bpjacobsen]

so freezy, and b2s dmds are all working now. but I continue to frustratingly struggle with getting pbx to record my screens. I have installed the lav filters. is there any setting I should be checking within the lav filters? why is recording not working? I have the b2ssetup for LED section setup same as dmd setup in pbx settings.  I am at a loss here.

[scutters]

Please attach a new log file after trying to create a dmd video.

Please also confirm if other videos can be created ok (backglass etc) and just to be clear, a video file is created for the dmd but it just can't be played in pinballx (attach a copy of one of those too if you can)?

Thanks.

[bpjacobsen]

Tried recording all videos for 24 and it sorta hung up a while but did create a table video. blank dmd video and the bg video was not the bg, but the desktop. then recorded using the record button for all and it just hung and I killed it and nothing got created. then I ran just dmd and per attached, I get an error saying it can't open do to unsupported format.

log.txt

[scutters]

Do you have a vpinmame dmd window running offscreen and freezy/external dmd running in the pinballx dmd area?

Unless you've changed some other config i can't see where the x offset used in the log is coming from for the DMD (-offset_x 3360), same with the area size being captured (900x225) which also doesn't match your screenshot.   If you ALT+TAB with 24 running  are their two DMD displays windows?    (pinballx will record the vpinmame window if found running regardless of your config for dmd location)

If there's only one DMD window please post a new/latest version of your pinballx.ini and let us know your screen set up in windows, what screens are where and what resolution (maybe then the 3360 offset will make sense), and it might be the be the capture size that needs changing to even numbers for both x & y (so make dmd 900*226 or something).  If there's two DMD displays then you need to choose which one you want freezy or vpinmame, move that to the dmd area and turn off the other.

[bpjacobsen]

I confirmed 24 is only enabled to run the external/freezy dmd and not the vpinmame one. attached screenshots of my  nvidia setup, dmddevice.ini showing the dmd size/position section, b2ssetlup which I believe only effects size and position of b2s dmds, not pinmame or freezy so the b2s setup should not be a factor here. anywhere else it could be pulling the numbers from per the log file?  I"m confused.

PinballX.ini

[scutters]

Screen 3 in windows is the DMD, not as B2S setup screenshot?..  just trying to make sense of the numbers. 

16 hours ago, bpjacobsen said:

anywhere else it could be pulling the numbers from per the log file?

I thought pinballx only grabbed vpinmame location if that window was found running i maybe wrong, maybe it's grabbing those settings anyway if pinmame itself is active. I forget the registry key but if you're familiar with regedit you can search for vpinmame and find values under it for each rom (dmd_x, dmd_height etc or something like that). What do the x,y,w,h values for show for the 24 rom?  if no entry for a 24 rom name then check 'default' key values. If you're not familiar with regedit then the SetDMD utility can set vpinmame dmd location too.

If the values are from the vpm registry then I'm guessing at some stage screen numbers/positions have changed, and vpinmame was originally configured to use a different location. That might also explain screen numbers. 

 

edit - just replied to your post on vpforums about pbx recorder. That will be a good alternative if we can't get pinballx recording to work right for you, but i'm pretty sure we can get both methods working.

[scutters]

Just noticed you have an x offset for dmd in pinballx ini as well;

[DMD]
Enabled=True
monitor=1
x=1405
y=350
width=980
height=260

Try setting x and y to 0. Does the dmd screen display in the right place when running pinballx (in the front end)?

Why the numbers in your screen shots confuse me;  If screen 3 is backglass then why is the freezy/dmddevice x offset value 2240 as i assume that is meant to run on screen 2?

You also say pinballx dmd is set to match freezy/dmddevice settings, but freezy has w=600, h=150. Pinballx has h=260, w=980?

 

Summary,

1. Check the registry vpiname values for position
2. Confirm what number screen is what in windows
3. Remove the x y offsets for dmd in pinballx config, and confirm screens are positioned correctly when running pinballx (and also in game)

Let us know the above, post a new copy of log and ini file, screenres.txt and dmddevice.ini files too. Hopefully then the numbers for your setup might start making sense!