LSP Problems

chicken

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Is anyone else having as many problems with Lightshow Pro as us this year? It just seems so unstable, messes up channel orders constantly, the scheduler is buggy to the point of it not being usable, cutting and pasting completely blows up channels and timing marks, etc. On top of this support has been pretty poor. We have posted a few different questions with no answers back and it seems like others are having the same issues and no answers back for them also. All while LSP keeps coming out with new features like Midi and Wii support. Where is focusing on making a stable product? We are almost at the point of saying screw it this year and just unplugging all the controllers and going back to a static display. Just venting... thanks for listening.
 

Beacy

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At the rate I'm going I am going to have a very expensive static display that is not much better than last year but about 20 times more expensive and a 100 times more time consuming.

Couldn't give a stuff about Midi or Wii just want Christmas lights nice little add ons but KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID

I will be looking at Vixen next year
 

dowdybrown

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Yeah, I was scared off by some of the postings in the LSP forums this year. So I decided to use LOR (was an Aurora user in 2009). I wrote and posted in the Aurora forums an Aurora to LOR export utility earlier in the year -- which I used to convert all of my 2009 sequences to LOR format. Wrote some quick jscript scripts recently to generate rgb channels and tracks for me (it's so easy to manipulate the XML). And then went into the LOR sequencer for the final tweaks. Scheduling will be done using xLights, which does the LOR to DMX conversion on the fly without an iDMX. I have 1000+ channels this year and was concerned about performance. Running xLights on WinXP produced some choppy playback, but using the same computer, everything is smooth under Win7.

If you have a copy of LOR, I would try exporting from LSP to LOR. Use the LOR sequencer to make sure everything came across ok, then use xLights to run the show. Might be a better option than a static display. (xLights doesn't support ECG's yet, so that might be show stopper) Good luck!

Matt
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xlights/
 

fasteddy

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It saddens me that there are a few people who cant get their shows running with LSP. I have been able to work my way through the issues to create a great looking RGB show that could only have been done with LSP but this has only happened with many hours of testing and sequencing which for me started back in March. Once you are set up and working in LSP it can be very quick and easy to create extra sequences. My second sequence took only 5 hours, my first sequence took me well over 100 hours

I wish you guys the best of luck.
 

Mike

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LSP has given me problems too.

In saying that most have been config issues or something along that description. I noticed that it needs to be set up pretty much exact to work properly.
This means complete all the wizards, configs for controllers , codecs etc.

Now from a new guys point of veiw, with this being my first time I tried Vixen and didnt like it. Too complicated to do anything or so I felt. Also didnt like that I couldnt preview unlike LSP. LSP just seemed so much more user friendly.

LSP I got on with really easy. I know im only using 32 channels unlike a lot of you guys but my first sequence (wizards in winter) took 8 hours to do. After I figured out what I was doing Extra sequences I could get done normally in 3 or 4 hours.

Yes the cut and paste needs work and a few other bugs need to be sorted I agree.

One thing I did notice was the change to the latest version. It stopped some of my sequences working and the scheduler would not load either.
Reloaded the older version and re run the wizard program for the scheduler and everything was fine.

I have now been running since the 2nd and everything is good. The scheduler gave me grief for the first 2 nights and now I dont even touch it. Comes on and goes off exactly as it should. I am happy with it.
 

dmoore

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I'm with you - I'm pretty much stuck since I put all my eggs in the LSP basket this year. I've got nearly $10k worth of lights and time into this display and it doesn't even look like I will be able to get static lights working since the sequencer (I can't even get the scheduler to run by shows at all) can't even run a sequence for more than an hour or two before it completely locks up.

I guess it's the risk you take for the possiblity of a really amazing display, it's just that my risk didn't pay off this year. :(

I have a real love hate releationship with LSP. It is, without a doubt, the most advanaced scheduling application on the market today and when it works, it works well. That said, it doesn't really matter becuase it's completely chocked full of bugs that make every step of the way a a painful and near impossible task. If there was just the focus on the BASICS, it could be THE program for sequencing. What I think amazes me most is that David (the programmer) uses the same program - doesn't he think, "hey this really sucks that I just lost my sequence that I've been working on for 4 hours, I'm going to fix that"?

If there are no major improvements in software for 2011, I'm done with Christmas lights.
 

dmoore

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dowdybrown said:
Might be a better option than a static display. (xLights doesn't support ECG's yet, so that might be show stopper) Good luck!

Matt

I really wish xLights supported e.131 which is what I must have to do my show this year. Maybe next year?
 

hbomb341

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dmoore said:
dowdybrown said:
Might be a better option than a static display. (xLights doesn't support ECG's yet, so that might be show stopper) Good luck!

Matt

I really wish xLights supported e.131 which is what I must have to do my show this year. Maybe next year?

They are saying it will be there next year - I am running it with a Lynx dongle and it is running GREAT!!!

Harrison
 

lightshowpro

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dmoore said:
I'm with you - I'm pretty much stuck since I put all my eggs in the LSP basket this year. I've got nearly $10k worth of lights and time into this display and it doesn't even look like I will be able to get static lights working since the sequencer (I can't even get the scheduler to run by shows at all) can't even run a sequence for more than an hour or two before it completely locks up.

I guess it's the risk you take for the possiblity of a really amazing display, it's just that my risk didn't pay off this year. :(

I have a real love hate releationship with LSP. It is, without a doubt, the most advanaced scheduling application on the market today and when it works, it works well. That said, it doesn't really matter becuase it's completely chocked full of bugs that make every step of the way a a painful and near impossible task. If there was just the focus on the BASICS, it could be THE program for sequencing. What I think amazes me most is that David (the programmer) uses the same program - doesn't he think, "hey this really sucks that I just lost my sequence that I've been working on for 4 hours, I'm going to fix that"?

If there are no major improvements in software for 2011, I'm done with Christmas lights.
Hi David,
if you have any inclination, as an LSP beta tester, it would help to log the issues that you are having with your display in the bug tracker to get them fixed for your display and others.

thanks,
David
 

dmoore

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lightshowpro said:
Hi David,
if you have any inclination, as an LSP beta tester, it would help to log the issues that you are having with your display in the bug tracker to get them fixed for your display and others.

thanks,
David

David -

Now, it's not your fault that I (and others) took risks by taking on such new technology this year (e131, transitions, heavy RGB, high channel counts, etc) and you've done well to support the additions to LSP to make these possible. What frustrates me the most is the basic stuff - it's things like this: http://www.screencast.com/t/KwluTjMt that just drive me nuts. Some issues can understand to be things I've done incorrectly but most issues are clearly bugs. All the e131, transitions, high channel counts and all isn't worth anything if I can't sequence (and not in 100 hours like FE has done) even some of the most basic sequences.

I've reported 36 bugs, in the LSP bug tracker and I will say that you've done an excellent job of resolving them as they were reported - at this point in the year there is no possible way to fix the quanity of issues that are outstanding as it takes me a minimum of 20 minutes to document and record a single bug, sometimes hours to nail down through testing. But some of these issues are so basic, I'm amazed they just don't get noticed through casual use of the application - are you not seeing these issues myself and others see?

I am one that doesn't think that software should be free - it's clear that in these advanced displays, which will only become more and more common, that software will be as much, if not more important than the thousands of dollars worth of lights it will be running. So, as I've said many times before, I am happy to pay more (again) for LSP (or whatever application there maybe) that handles these high-end displays with the reliability I'd expect from a product such as Madrix. How much is that? I'd be happy to pay $300-$500 (maybe even more for super high channel counts.) I want you to feel it's worth the huge investment in time to get the level of quality people expect.

I personally think that LSP should forget about the "low-end" of the market - LSP has such strong features that nothing on the market can compete...except for in the area of reliability. Bring LSP up to the "Lexus Standard" and charge at that level and release a product that is second to none in quality - you'll then reduce your support base (less people = less hassles) and with a polished product, support will be only a training issue.

Thanks,
David
 

chicken

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David, I think you hit it on the head. I could understand if the problems we were having are with some of the new crazy features we were thinking of using this year (high RGB channel count, etc) but its not. We are having just pure reliability problems running a stripped down display with just two Renard 24s at this point. This is something that should just work, period.
 

chrisl1976

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It always seems to me that too much time has been spent on the fluff features like Ipone, Wii, and midi support that like what 5% of the users will ever touch and issues like copy and paste, transitions, ect that 100% of customers use are pushed to the back of the priority list.
 

fasteddy

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Guys, i must say that LSP does work and is working great now for me since Saturday night, there are some bugs but by no means they are show stoppers. When dealing with new technology and software, you must expect a bit of a bumpy ride, thats part of the challenge with DIY.
So for some of you guys you may have to step back a bit and not be so ambitious with the sequencing if certain features are causing you difficulties. I compare LSP to autocad in many ways, very hard to master but once mastered it opens up a whole world of new possabilities and makes sequencing thousands of channels a much easier task. It would have been impossible for me to do what ive done with LOR or Madrix, so my hat comes off for the great work that David at LSP has done. There is more work to do but this really is the first year that LSP has taken on the large RGB pixel channel count and there was always going to be some issues for a few.

LSP does work with the ECG and RPMs dongle and does work with over 2000 channels and you are able to get great effects out of LSP, as shown before my display proves that. Most of my issues were hardware issues or setup issues and not actually related to LSP, i have got rid of any flicker which was a dodgy network cable and my show now runs pefectly.

So the best of luck guys with getting up and running
 

dmoore

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fasteddy said:
LSP does work with the ECG and RPMs dongle and does work with over 2000 channels and you are able to get great effects out of LSP, as shown before my display proves that. Most of my issues were hardware issues or setup issues and not actually related to LSP, i have got rid of any flicker which was a dodgy network cable and my show now runs pefectly.

So the best of luck guys with getting up and running

Take a moment and look at the video link I posted - how do you "work around" this? In that sequence I was only 6 seconds in and had spent several hours, the majority of which were just "working around" issues. I can’t spend 100 hours on my first sequence working around issues.

I'm pretty competent with hardware and software, not perfect but competent. I can narrow down a problem and understand the relationship between different systems and use troubleshooting to narrow down problems. At some point you use all the tricks in your bag and you are left with the simple conclusion - something is wrong with the hardware or software and there isn't anything you can do to "work around" it.

I don't have hardware problems (I’ve confirmed everything to be working via external applications), or even hardware setup issues within LSP - my issues are:
* It's just not reasonable to work around the number of issues that exists within cut-n-paste, timing marks, transitions and various other areas within LSP while sequencing.
* The scheduler just doesn't work. But without any "real" sequences it is a mute point.
* I figured...if I can't schedule a simple sequence (much like a static display), I figured I would just run a sequence in a loop.... nope, it hangs LSP hard after 10 minutes to 2 hours depending on how complex the sequence is.

My luck has expired and I've told my wife that for the party which she scheduled for people to come to our house to see the lights (which I of course hyped up), just won't work this year. There are worse things that could happen and this isn't it - this is just christmas lights - life shall go on.
 

mmulvenna

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Hi Guys,

Like Eddy my show is running just fine. I have no cut and paste issues and with more than 30 sequences.
the scheduler has not burped even once due to a software issue


Chicken;

You indicated in an earlier post that you have asked questions and received no answers. I can not find a single post that you made on the LSP forum other than the one you made today about reliability. Did you make them perhaps with a different user name?

As I indicated on the LSP forum, if you could provide some greater detail on you issues, perhaps a video and a sequence I would be happy to take a look at them for you
 
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