hitting play does nothing

[CCash]

This was a tough one to do a search for. Here's the problem: Hit play, and Pro Tools will seem like it's going to go, then stops at the insertion point. Seems to be happening at certain areas on the timeline. This is a very large session, lots of automation, with a small quicktime movie for reference.

Even though a logical explanation might be that the system is maxed, looking at the System Usage Window I still have a full DSP card left and only half of the Time Slots are being used. My drives are not fragmented and have plenty of free space.

Machine control is not on. PT transport = PT.
No improvement after deleting movie.
Tried different hardware buffers of 512 and 1024.
Tried DAE buffers of 2, 4 and 8.
Tried deactivating plug-ins to reduce DSP.
Tried making groups of tracks Inactive.
Trashed all prefs, Digisetup, databases.

Video playback is jerkey (holds then catches up). Timecode Window is "lumpy", as is Insertion curser/bar while scrolling (this is not unique though). Oddly, the session will play when online chasing TC.

G5 2 GHz, 2.5 GHz RAM, PT 6.9, OS 10.3.9 (not with Quicktime 7)
PT HD4 Accel + 2 Process cards
Pro Control, SyncIO @ Video Reference (house black)
888/24 attached to 192
Playback of audio spanned over 4 FW drives
Mini reference video on system drive

[tj_davies]

Have you tried deleting the movie?

Maybe the film is corrupt.

Or check video playback priority. Medium works for us here best. When on high, the session plays, but you don't see anything!

Maybe this helps.

Tim

[Stuart P.]

Hey Curt,

I was recently seeing some of this too, but with 6.9.2 and Tiger 10.4.1. I wasn't able to play sessions that normally wouldn't be too crazy, so it surprised me. What I found was that I had to remove plugs from the plug-ins folder to finally get that transport moving again. Which you may have tried already, but I know your systems so that probably won't be an attractive option. Try creating an "Unused Plug-Ins" folder and give it a shot, if you've got the will and some time and you can afford to lose a few plugs.
Problem is, of freakin' course', with my machine was that it was the Altiverb 5 and Waveshell that were preventing playback. My guess is that there has been a change in the system memory and processor allocation at startup (of recent versions of PT, not the machine) and that these resources are not being properly distributed with large sessions. The other plug that seemed to stop me, sadly, was the new EQ3 but I can't confirm that until I've got a bit more time. In other words, if that plug has made it into your template, try removing it and see if it improves performance.



S.

[CCash]

Like I said, deleting the movie didn't help. I played with playback priority as well. The problem remained even after removing the movie.

Thanks Stuart... I'll look into that. As usual, it sounds like pretty solid advice from you. I'll give you a call soon.

Curt

[CCash]

Found a workaround to get us moving again: When the session is Online it seems to play OK. It doesn't matter if it's online to chase or generate timecode.

This is the only thing that works after many hours of experienced troubleshooting. Can't try Stuart's idea of removing the plug-ins from the Plug-Ins folder. Automation has already been written to them, so they need to stay.

[autopilot]

Digi please listen. This is a bug that I have found in 6.4.1 CS7 as well.

When I hit apple+1 to open the transport this will usually resolve the problem -- every time.

Also, if I advance a frame using my C24 and then hit play it will work.

[CCash]

this will usually resolve the problem -- every time.

So is it usually or every time?

I will try just showing the Transport. If it's that simple...

Updated to 6.9.1 -- no change. Might try the cs1 update -- deals with disk activity -- who knows.

I'd really like to get this figured out. Called tech spprt but we'd already done all the troublseshooting steps he suggested.

Our current fix of going Online and generating timecode wouldn't be a hassle, except that this a multi-mixer situation, and the guy who usually chases now has to drive the bus.