Playlists not closing

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Kalem
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Joined: 12 Sep 2022 06:29
Playlists not closing

Post by Kalem »

Hi,

We are having an issue where a scheduled playlist isn't closing at the time when it is supposed to. What happens then is if another playlist is open it will automatically begin to play, meaning two things are playing at once.
When a schedule is supposed to end the playlist isn't closing so both are there.

Attached are some pictures of the scheduler and a script we have set up.

Regards,

-Kalem
Attachments
Scheduler Program Editor.PNG
Script.PNG
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radio42
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Re: Playlists not closing

Post by radio42 »

Why have you defined the program as ‚Overlay: Overlay One Cycle‘?
This setting actually prevents the previous playlist from being closed - as this means, that this program should overlay the previous one. On top you did not check the ‚Pause‘ option.

To resolve your issue: Clear the Overlay option and set it to None.
For more info click on the ‚?‘ icon at the top right to get more help about these settings.
Kalem
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Re: Playlists not closing

Post by Kalem »

We have set it to one cycle specifically because if a playlist is longer than the required time it would play out through to the end without cutting off.
We experimented with some settings and this is what we found.

Here are the findings from yesterday's Overlay Settings experimentation:

No Overlay:
Keeps loading the same playlist over and over again, ad nauseam. Impractical to broadcast a show before returning back to regular programming.

Overlay One Cycle:
It plays the playlist once in its entirety before closing itself and returning to regular programming. Seems most optimal. Yet the issue we have is that it sometimes doesn't close and we get two things playing at once.

Overlay Until End Soft/Fixed:
Plays the playlist, looping it if necessary, until the specified end time. Can allow for either the completion of the current track before closing (Soft) or immediately cuts it off at the specified end time (Fixed). Potentially more convenient than Overlay One Cycle in some rare cases.

The "Pause" option recommended we experimented with makes seemingly no change, as our scheduled tracks are set to "Soft" start. This means the current track will not be cut off regardless, rendering the pause setting useless. Programming will always resume at the start of the next track.
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radio42
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Re: Playlists not closing

Post by radio42 »

You might have misunderstood the concept.
What you experience is a kind of side effect, but not a solution to your initial issue.

Your initial issue is, that your playlist (1st script-line) loops, in case it is too short. And this behavior is by design.
BUT there is a very simple solution to it (which is also by design).
You simple add more script-lines (at least one) to your script and set the Loop-Line option in the script to 2.
This means, that the script, if it has to loop, will only loop starting with script-line 2.
I.e. it will skip the first script-line.

For the overlay options (which are not needed in your case), pls click on the ‚?‘ icon at the top right of the dialog.
Kalem
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Joined: 12 Sep 2022 06:29
Re: Playlists not closing

Post by Kalem »

Hello Bernd,

Apologies for the late reply, we've been testing your suggestions over the last week. Here are our findings:

Outside of station hours, when there's no broadcaster manually selecting tracks, the station will automatically load tracks randomly from a specific Library. We want the scheduler to interrupt this, load a pre-recorded show, play the show its entirety (usually 2-4 hours), then close and return to its automatic broadcasting.

Using a script with a single "Load Playlist" line set to Overlay One Cycle has normally allowed us to do achieve this. ProppFrexx will broadcast music, automatically open the show at the allocated time, play for its entirety, then close itself and resume automatic broadcasting. However, on certain occasions, the playlist will not close itself and remain open (we're unsure what causes this phenomenon). Multiple playlists being open at once often causes the automatic broadcast (uses 'detect silence') to Auto Play the pre-recorded show again at the incorrect time.

We've tried your suggestions, setting the overlay setting to "No Overlay", but all this does it play the LoadPlaylist on repeat. We tried to add another line, and select "Loop Line: 2" as you suggested, but all it does it continue to loop whatever we put at line 2 until we manually close the playlist - it doesn't automatically finish and close the show's playlist. We even tried using "Placeholder" and all it did was infinitely load Placeholders until we stopped the scheduler and manually closed it.

We believe there could be a control-command we can enter in as a "Command" line in the script that would end the script and close it, but we were unable to locate such a command on the ProppFrexx manual. Does this sound like a viable solution?

Any further feedback on how we can achieve our desired result would be greatly appreciated Bernd, thank you.
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radio42
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Re: Playlists not closing

Post by radio42 »

A program/playlist plays, until a new/next program starts.
So have you defined a next program in your Program Scheduler?
For example your DJ Show runs from 15:00 to 17:00, you need to define a new program at 17:00 to start your automatic program again.
E.g. can you show how you defined your programs in the scheduler?
Kalem
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Re: Playlists not closing

Post by Kalem »

Hello Bernd,

We only use the program scheduler for shows. Outside of show hours (this might be 18:00 to 07:00, for example) we use the AutoPlay function set to <MediaLibrary> to automatically load tracks into the player. AutoPlay activates automatically via the detect silence function. This is why we want playlists scheduled via LoadPlaylist on the Program Scheduler to stop themselves, so it can detect silence and return to AutoPlay.

Hopefully this clears up some possible confusions.
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radio42
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Re: Playlists not closing

Post by radio42 »

So is now all working as expected and fine for you?
Still, you should not use the Overlay function.
If you have no Next program to be scheduled, you can set the Scheduler to the non consecutive mode (in the general settings). In this mode a program/playlist stops at the defined End Time of the program, instead of with the start of the next program.
Kalem
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Joined: 12 Sep 2022 06:29
Re: Playlists not closing

Post by Kalem »

Greetings Bernd,

We've experimented turning the "Continuous Mode" setting off under the Scheduler settings. This did bring up the countdown and forcibly stop playlists once they arrived at the set "End Time" (even if a track was currently playing) but after the program ended ProppFrexx would permanently freeze. We tried this multiple times and every time ProppFrexx would freeze/crash when the program finished. We have no clue what's causing this error.

Any help is, as always, appreciated.
Thanks
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radio42
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Re: Playlists not closing

Post by radio42 »

I just tested it here and all is working as expected without any issues, freezes or crashes.
So please post your program and script as screenshots, so that I can try to reproduce it here - else I have also no indication of any possible error.

But if ProppFrexx freezes or crashes, please also check, if there are any errors reported within the ProppFrexx Error.log file?! You’ll find it eg. in the Tools ribbon tab Show Log Files…
If no related entry is found in the Error.log file, also check the Windows Event Log for any System crash issues.

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