Errors running two movie objects back to back (white screen and audio problems for 2nd video)

Tue Apr 1 02:18:59 UTC 2014

Thank you very much for these suggestions. I had downloaded the latest
version of DivX (http://www.divx.com), selected create default mappings,
and rendered the first two files (video1 and videos2 of the first trial)
and received no errors. This lead me to believe that my problem was not
related to the codecs.

To confirm that the problem originated from my task, and not the video
files, I made a simplified version of the task that included just 1 trial
(fixation, intro slide, video1, and video2). When I ran this simplified
version with just 1 trial, video1 ran fine, but video2 had the same errors
(no visual, audio problematic). Next, I switched the name of the specific
files listed in the trial proc so that the videos that originally played
for video1 now played for video2, and visa versa. Again, only video1 worked
and video2 had problems. This lead me to believe that the video files were
not the problem, and the problem was the script (or script properties)
which effected how video2 played.

I took your advice and made a simple script (tester 1) which had 1 object
(movie object video1) that played videos one after the other with a set
duration of 12000ms (keeping the prerelease 5000ms). Each video played,
starting at the beginning of the video (0s), but each video cut off after
~6000ms. Since the duration was set to 12000ms and the prerelease was set
to 5000ms, could the pre-release, or how the video is loaded, be the
problem?

I made another simple script (tester 2) which only played videos one after
the other (same as above), but this time I kept the attribute VidDur1 to
specify the duration of each video (keeping the prerelease 5000ms). Similar
to the above, each video played, starting at the beginning of the video
(0s), but each video cut off after ~6000ms. The only difference between
this simplified script with a duration attribute and the above simplified
script with a set duration of 12000ms was that instead of immediately
moving onto the next video, the preceding video cut off and froze for
~5000ms before moving onto the next video.

Next, I investigated if the problem was caused by the prerelease setting. I
used the tester 2 script (which included the duration attribute) and
changed the prerelease for the movie object to "0". This resolved the
problem- all videos played back to back correctly (good visual, good
audio). However, when I changed my original script (2 movie objects back to
back in the same trial) to have the prerelease set to 0 for video1 and
video2, I continued to have problems playing video2. So, it seems like the
problem is related to how video2 is loading/playing after video1 plays,
when 2 movie objects are presented consecutively in the same trial.

Would it be helpful to attach my script?

Thank you for your assistance

On Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 4:34 AM, David McFarlane <mcfarla9 at msu.edu> wrote:

> Movies make life difficult for any experiment software I know.  Often the
> problem comes from the movie files, not necessarily the experiment
> software.  Remember that how a movie file works in Windows Media Player or
> any other software tells you nothing about how that file will work in
> E-Prime.  So first you need to find out whether the problem pertains to
> your movie files, or to E-Prime.
>
> I would start by making a simple E-Prime program that does nothing but
> play my movie files, in Sequential order.  Then I would try running in
> Random order.  If all my movie files succeeded under those conditions, then
> I would incrementally change my test program (or actually, a copy of my
> test program) to make it more and more like my experiment program, hoping
> to sneak up on the culprit that breaks my experiment program.
>
> Oh, I would also use the Codec Config utility that comes with EP2.
>
> Just some general troubleshooting advice there.
>
> -----
> David McFarlane
> E-Prime training online:  http://psychology.msu.edu/
> Workshops_Courses/eprime.aspx
> Twitter:  @EPrimeMaster (https://twitter.com/EPrimeMaster )
>
> /----
> Stock reminder:  1) I do not work for PST.  2) PST's trained staff take
> any and all questions at https://support.pstnet.com , and they strive to
> respond to all requests in 24-48 hours, so make full use of it.  3) In
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> PST staff, please extend the courtesy of posting their reply back here for
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> \----
>
>
>
> At 3/31/2014 04:35 AM Monday, Katie Jankowski wrote:
>
>> I created an EPRIME task for an fMRI scan (timing is sensitive) but I am
>> having troubles running my video stimuli. In each trial, participants view
>> a fixation cross (text slide, 12000ms), a block introduction (text slide,
>> 2400ms) , video1 (movie object, ~12000ms), and video2 (movie object,
>> ~12000ms). Since I am using a block-design fMRI task, not event-design, I
>> want to treat Video1 and Video2 as 1 block. Thus, they are displayed back
>> to back.
>>
>>
>> Each video stimuli includes both audio and visual information. The
>> durations of each video are variable (approximately 11000ms-14000ms, some
>> 11500ms, others 13500ms, others 12000ms, so I included a duration attribute
>> [VidDur1] and [VidDur2] for video1 and video2. respectively). The the final
>> "block" (video1 and video2 combined) is always 24000ms.
>>
>>
>> I am having several issues running the movie files. Video1 runs well, but
>> video2 has both visual problems (blank white screen) and audio problems
>> (starts about 2s into the clip, then after about 2s starts from the
>> beginning at 0s, then runs through the audio but ends early). I think my
>> problems might be related to preloading the stimuli, but I don't know what
>> to do. I have been emailing support for about 2 weeks without coming to a
>> solution, so I thought I would ask the google group. I have also looked on
>> the knowledge base, but I have not found a solution.
>>
>>
>> Currently, pre-release for video1 is set to 5000ms and pre-release for
>> video2 is set to 0ms (but I have also tried 5000ms for video2 with similar
>> results). Start and stop position are 0, stop after is set to "yes", stop
>> after mode is set to "nextonsettime", end movie action is "none", duration
>> is "[VidDur1]" and "[VidDur2]", and timing is "event". Under experiment
>> properties, "flip enabled" is selected and both "display" and "sound" under
>> "devices" are selected.
>>
>>
>> I would greatly appreciate any advice!
>>
>>
>> (As an aside, if I set "duration" to 12000ms for video1 and "duration" to
>> 12000ms for video2 (instead of relying on an attribute to represent the
>> duration, I have the same problems. If I set the duration to "infinite" for
>> video1 and "infinite" for video2, only video1 runs, regardless if "stop
>> after mode" is set to "offsettime" or "nextonsettime".)
>>
>
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