Adding a 5 second section to my sequences

[scuba]

I need to add a 5 second front end to my sequence to help the FPP sync up with the controllers....I've tried  several "fixes" but the best advice I've gotten is to add 5 seconds of silence to the front of each sequences to help the Pi load and play the next sequence.

What's the easiest way to add 5 seconds of silence to each sequence?  I've made a 5 second sequence with audio.

BTW: I've tried several fixes, faster flash drive, turnoff this or that, nothing has helped solve the problem.  A fellow FPP user tried the 5 second silent front end to each sequence and it worked!

[danj]

Bump so I can find this at a later date.   I want to do this exact thing--I want to use my sequence info from the original MS studio version of "God rest ye merry gentlemen" on the 1997 live version (next year!)....

[Gilrock]

I find it hard to believe the problem always induces an exact 5 second delay between the audio and the light data.  Would be shame to do all that work to modify sequences and then the delay changes.  If you want to fix it just alter the audio to be longer and then drag select all the effect and move them over.  I had to do the same thing last night because I had audio that had extra stuff in front of a sequence someone shared so I selected and moved all the effects.  It took 3 steps because the rows didn't fit on one screen.

[danj]

Thanks Gil.

[scuba]

thanks guys...I've got 35 sequences...better get started..

Is there a way to select all of the model sequence data in one lift?  3 steps seems to be a bit much..did you need the resolution to be fine enough to align the effects with the true start go the audio?

[Gilrock]

Would probably be easier for us to add a time shift feature.  Would only take like 15 minutes to create a routine that iterates through all effects and adds a time offset.  We wouldn't be shifting audio though.

[scuba]

That would be great...There are several folks who could benefit from that..Sorry, I'm not a programmer..unless it's fortran

[scuba]

BTW: in comparison, the time it takes to do a 5 second shift in Audio is very small.... I takes about a minute to make the change..

[Bruiser]

Before doing all that work, you should try what I did. I just created a 5 second sequence (no audio) and placed it in front of the sequences that were not working correctly. My issue was with a lor controller that controls my 2 singing elements. Something happened after Halloween that doesn't allow the lor and fpp to work properly. Any new sequence I create (or old) does not work unless I place that 5 second sequence in front. It could be less than 5 seconds, I did not try. Once I got it working, I quit playing with it. I used 2.5 seconds on and 2.5 seconds off as suggested in another thread. My falcon controllers are working fine and all my sequences I uploaded before Halloween work fine. I  improved some older sequences but I don't want to update the .fseq so I don't have to place more dead air in my show.

[scuba]

I tried the suggestion....not working...The FPP will not load the data sufficiently quick enough to make a smooth transition to execution....we see no issue with the Laptop running the schedule with the sequences...

Gil's suggestion that a 5 second 'in sequence' delay would allow the FPP to "catch up" seems to be valid, a few others have made the change..Because of the large amount of sequences, I'm looking to write a notebook++/Python script to add 5000ms to Starttime and Endgame throughout the XML files..

Slow going!  mostly because a stink at scripting in Python!

[Gilrock]

The whole idea doesn't make sense.  If you add 5 seconds to the sequence there is 5 more seconds of data so there is no "catching up" that FPP can do.

[scuba]

The real issue is why the delay in the first place. 

Let me describe what the FPP playing of the Sequence does: The audio comes on, the lights don't blink; then the lights appear to rapidly flash, in sequence with what was programed-- catching up with the audio; then all is sync'd between the audio and the lights and the rest of the sequence plays without any issue.  Next sequence: same behavior.

Up on FalconChristmas, one guy had the same problem and put a 5 second "silence no lights" on front end on his sequence and the problem went away.  BTW: When running the show on the Laptop, no problems.  The 5 seconds "allows" the FPP to catchup without any lights blinking and sync up for the rest of the sequence.  no one see's the funny behavior.

"The whole idea doesn't make sense"

[Gilrock]

Ok I get what you mean now.  I couldn't figure out how the FPP could "catch up".  So what I'm hearing is after a few seconds the data is all in sync.  So I would suspect some kind of network issue.  Are you sure there is no unicast controller the FPP is having trouble communicating with?  That's the kind of thing that can cause lag.

[scuba]

All the communication is Multicast thru a 3com 100 mbps switch full duplex..should be fast enough.  The controllers are all E68X's (latest firmware)..never had an issue before.   And with the xlights scheduler there is no issue.

[Gilrock]

What model Pi is it?