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Current Release/Bug Lists
Last Updated: 23rd July 2010
Current Releases
Freeware release
OAS Playout, Version 3.31
Retail Release
OAS Playout, Version 3.44
OAS Playout Manager, 3.44
Beta/Test release
OAS Playout, Version 3.5 (Beta 2)
OAS Playout Manager, 3.5 (Beta 2)
Which release have I got?
Selecting the 'About' button from the 'Help' menu of Playout or Playout Manager will display the version number. To simplify matters, from version 3, both applications will have the same number, more recent versions of Playout also display the release number on the main title bar.
Supported Operating Systems
This package has been designed to operate on the following platforms:
- Windows 98*
- Windows ME*
- Windows 2000
- Windows XP
- Windows Vista/Windows 7**
*OAS Playout v3.22 is the last supported release
for these platforms.
**There are a few issues which can occur which are specific to Windows
Vista, this page covers
the issues which are known about when using Playout under Vista.
Bugs,
Improvements
Please send bugs, improvement suggestions to:
beta@onasticksoftware.co.uk
Development status & latest bug fixes are being
maintained here.
Microsoft DirectSound (p/o DirectX)
The DirectSound component of DirectX is utilised
for audio playback by OAS Playout.
DirectSound is the Windows sound system utilised for audio playback by
OAS Playout.
1. Short sound bursts may be heard when a track is paused, cued elsewhere
then resumed. Occuring on the main player and cue points dialog. The same
bursts can aslo be heard by using MS Media Player by moving the seek bar
and resuming playback hence it is a fault of DirectX itself not Playout.
This problem does not occur
if using the ASIO drivers.
This affect appears to be OS/DirectX/hardware dependent - in short a given
combination of all three may alleviate the problem.
DX can be freely downloaded from
http://www.microsoft.com.
An alternative is to utilise the ASIO driver if your soundcard supports
it. See the online help for more information.
Known Issues
The following provides a summary of known problems/issues with OAS Playout. It is organised by version number, with the most recent versions presented first. Unless otherwise stated, you should expect issues present in versions newer than your current release to be also present in older versions. For example, if you are currently using OAS Playout v3.22, then the issues listed for both v3.2x and v3.3x would be pertinent for your release. When a problem has been fixed, the applicable release is identified after the problem in bold.
Significant issues are highlighted in red.
1. Load Dialog: If Artist/Title
search box has focus, the next time a selection is made on the listview,
the box is not updated with the new contents.
2. ShoutCast Track Lister may populate the 'last 10 tracks played'
with the current track. This can occur if your communication with the
Shoutcast server goes through a proxy or web cache (since v2.5, Playout
utilities Internet Explorer's proxy/connection settings). At least one
version of the Squid web cache
has exhibited this problem.
Workaround: If possible, set IE to bypass any proxy or cache for Shoutcast
servers.
This problem appears to be related to the Shoutcast protocol for updating
track details to the server in that it does not reply to the HTTP request
used to perform this update. As such Squid (and possibly others) retry
the request a number of times causing the details to replicate in the
track history.
3. Launching a second instance of Playout or Playout Manager (on the same
computer) generates the error message 'File Damaged'.
4. Sporadic program crash may occur when exiting Playout if using ASIO drivers.
Fixed in v3.41
4. In the event of a re-occurring error, excessive message dialogs may be generated which are impossible to "ok" requiring a forcible termination of the application via the Task Manager or other means.
5. In automation (or just "auto" mode), in rare occassions the following may occur: A track begins playback, then within 5-20 seconds the next track cue'd up starts playback effectively fading out the initial track early.
6. v3.42: If the station logo bitmap is not exactly 300x140 pixels, the displayed image may appear to be badly stretched in one axis.
Workaround: Use a bitmap editor to ensure your image is exactly 300x140 pixels
Fixed in v3.43
7. v3.4x: You may experience an application crash when Playout is exiting if a Failover playlist is not defined.
Workaround: Set an existing playlist as a Failover list in the Playlists, Setup menu.
Fixed in v3.43
8. v3.4x: You may experience an application crash when exiting from automation mode.
Fixed in v3.43
9. Pressing 'Start' on an empty jingle console will cause any currently playing jingle to stop.
10. v3.4x: Voicetrack programmes may not execute properly.
Fixed in v3.44
11. v3.4x: Voicetrack programmes will always attempt to enter automation mode on completion.
Fixed in v3.44
12. Keyboard start keys ('1' and '2') are still enabled during automatic modes and will disrupt automation and voicetrack modes of operation if pressed.
Playout Manager v3.4x
1. Batch operation 'Path Update' can sometimes
introduce an extra backslash at the start of the pathname eg. 'c:\\music'
(instead of 'c:\music'). Has no functional impact. Under investigation.
2. Search of RuleList will always be performed in the original rulelist
order such that if the order is changed (by clicking on a column eg. "Title"
the search will jump all over the list still following the original sequence)
on each consecutive pressing of the 'Next' button.
3. When adding tracks to a rulelist, if the default sort order is changed
they appearto be added randomly in the list. This is because insertions
are made according to the original sort order, restoring the sort will
show the tracks in their "correct" order.
4. Cue points editor may not allow track/cue position to be set at or
near the very end of a track.
The track duration for audio is rounded _down_ to the nearest second ie.
if a track is 34.8s it will be displayed as 38s. This is in line with
many other popular MP3 players and should not pose a real problem in normal
usage. Whether track durations should be rounded up is pending investigation.
5. The 'Revert' button on the Playlist Management page does not discard
all edits & reload from the database - specifically any PlayList name
modifications or deletions remain.
Workaround: Select another tab & switch back to the Playlist tab to
ensure database settings are reloaded.
5. Component Editor: You may find after performing a series of updates
on a page that attempting to delete "core components" with the editor
- invoked by pressing the 'e' button next to items such as Playlist Names,
Artists - will fail when you update the database.
Workaround: Either use the 'Revert' button to refresh the page,
then perform the delete or toggle to another tab then back again.
6. Import of non-ASCII (US-English) filenames does not work properly.
The import appears to succeed however the file will not play and the system
reports 'file inaccessible'. On closer inspection, the non english characters
will have been replaced.
Support for non ASCII filenames (or metadata) ie. Unicode
is not available in Playout. You will need to rename the file to include
only ASCII characters.
7. It is not possible to cut/paste a voicetrack programme in the Playlist
Edits tab.
8. v3.4 only: Music Import can crash or not parse data correctly when application is running on a multiprocessor PC. To check if you have a multiprocessor capable machine proceed as follows: Whilst logged in, press Ctrl-Alt-Del. Choose the 'Task Manager' option. When the dialog appears, select the 'Performance' tab. If you have more than 1 graph under the 'CPU Usage History' box then you have a multiprocessor PC.
A patch is available via the registered users download area to address this issue.
Fixed
in v3.41
9. v3.4 only: When you install Playout on a new machine, on first run the package attempts to perform an update which fails. The package then terminates.
A patch is available via the registered users download area to address this issue.
Fixed in v3.41
10. The cue start point calculated during import a track import appears incorrect, either truncating the start of the audio or leaving a noticable gap at the start of the track. In addition, if the cue points editor is used to attempt to manually set the start cue, the graphical waveform does not appear to be correct with regard to audio playback eg. for the cue to be actioned correctly it is nowhere near the start of the waveform.
Fixed in v3.42 - also see the section on Variable Bit Rate (VBR) files
11. "Reassign" function does not work in Core Editor if you use the edit box to search for the replacement item.
12. Music Logs text export can export the incorrect columns and include an additional (unselected) column at the end of the report.
Playout v3.3x
1. Windows XP/Vista:
In Playout v3.2x & v3.3 Enhanced screen mode (1280x1024) not working
properly with standard the default XP/Vista display schemes or the new
"aero" profile. In this mode, the message alert section is permanently
scrolled off screen - see the information on Vista
issues.
A workaround is to revert to Windows 'classic' colour scheme.
Fixed in v3.31
2. Windows Vista: 'beep' from PC speaker
when selecting a track in Playout. This is a known Vista issue, the cause
and workaround is here.
Fixed in v3.4
7. The 'Enter Automation
on completion of a voicetrack programme' may not be actioned correctly
eg. automation may be entered when it is not required and vice-versa.
Fixed in v3.4
4. If a jingle/advert list is defined as part
of the automation sequencer "advanced" settings which has no entries defined,
during playback Playout will inject "garbage" entries into the playlist
possibly leading to a program crash.
Fixed in v3.4
Playout Manager v3.3x
1. Playout Manager may crash when viewing Music
logs. This problem can arise if a playlist has been deleted whilst Playout
is still executing tracks from the list and as a result erroneous information
is entered into the music log.
A utility is available to 'fix' the music log within a database, please
email
if you encounter this problem.
Fixed in v3.31
2. v3.2x, v3.3 only: Import from another Playout database truncates
the first part of the filename of tracks being imported resulting in a
corrupt import.
An updated set of DLLs is available to address this issue, please email
us if these are required.
Fixed in v3.31
3. v3.3: Potential deadlock (program freeze) when searching for
artist/album/genre in Music Edits page.
Fixed in v3.31
4. v3.3x: Potential crash when searching for albums in Music Edits
or Playlist Management pages.
Fixed in v3.32
5. Windows Vista can erroneously
indicate Playout Manager has stopped responding during periods of
intensive activity eg. a large music import.
Playout
v3.2x
1. v3.2 and v3.21
only: When loading tracks into a Player from a playlist/jingle list,
the next time the 'Load' button is pressed, the original playlist may
not be re-displayed, instead another one is displayed in it's place.
Fixed in v3.22
2. v3.2 and v3.21 only: If a button
wall file is not accessible, Playout gets stuck repeatedly generating
"Audio File Not Available" messages.
Fixed in v3.22
3. First few entries in an automation sequence keep being played. Playlist,
button wall changes & profile changes all fail with an error message.
The root cause of this behaviour is that the Playout database can only
be accessed as 'read only', as such all updates (required for the functionality
that fails) will not work properly. This condition normally arises if
the database has been located onto a network server but the file permissions
have not been setup to support writes in the network share HOWEVER Playout
does not report this in a user friendly manner.
Fixed in v3.21
4. 'Help' buttons do not work if a Playout database/error
warning dialog is displayed when the package is first activated.
Fixed in v3.21
5. v3.2: Volume/speed controls not updating
if scrolled with arrow keys.
Fixed in v3.21
6. End cue points may trigger 1 second earlier
than required.
Fixed in v3.3
7. Tracks of a sample format other than 44khz
used with the ASIO driver are played in mono and may distort.
Fixed in v3.3
Playout Manager v3.2x
1. ID3v2 tags may not update correctly, resulting
in duplicate fields being stored in the file - this seems to be isolated
to the 'Track Duration' field only and causes ID3 comparison checks to
always fail.
Fixed in v3.3. This problem occurred within the 'id3lib' tagging library
which is no longer used in v3.3 and later.
2. Search (by Artist) on Music Edits and Playlist Management can fail
to select an entry matching the search criteria if the initial matching
artist held in the database has no track currently by said artist 'in
view'. In most cases this means that the artist has no associated track
in the database however when applying Playlist filters this becomes more
noticeable and may well not function at all.
Fixed in v3.3
3. MP4 encoding information is always marked as Variable Bit Rate (VBR).
Fixed in v3.3
4. Attempt to perform any database updates will always fail. This is due
to the Playout database can only be only be accessed as 'read only' This
condition normally arises if the database has been located onto a network
server but the file permissions have not been setup to support writes
in the network share HOWEVER Playout does not report this in a user friendly
manner.
Fixed in v3.21
5. 'Help' buttons do not work if a Playout database/error warning dialog
is displayed when the package is first activated.
Fixed in v3.21
6. When viewing Music/Ad logs with 'Filter Duplicates' checked, some items
meeting the filter criteria are not displayed.
Fixed in v3.3
7. A Music/Jingle import may fail with an error or crash when importing
directory structures & filenames in excessive of 128 characters.
Fixed in v3.3
8. Playout Manager may crash on completion of a
voicetrack segue edit session.
This is an ongoing investigation. The symptoms appear to be that on
pressing 'OK' on the Segue Editor, the dialog is removed and the Playlist
Edits page redisplayed but it 'hangs' for around 5s before crashing with
an exception.
Fix introduced in v3.3
Playout
v3.1x
1. Sound card setting change does not affect
'floating' button wall until it is either closed/re-opened or the assigned
player is toggled.
Fixed in v3.2
2. Enhanced mode only: The display of the Speed
Control slide bar is not restored if the control is hidden then reactivated
again.
Fixed in v3.2
3. Program crash when starting a playlist
(from the Playlists, Start) menu.
Workaround: From the Playlists menu, choose Setup then press the Advanced
button. Ensure all the options are unchecked then click OK. Restart the
playlist. Note that this problem will only occur once (if at all) as it
is due to a damaged configuration file created after initial installation.
Fixed in v3.2
4. Playout enters FailOver mode if an automated
playlist is started which has no entries it AND the playlist is set to
loop.
Fixed in v3.2
5. Windows Media (.wma) files will not seek correctly
on long (>7 minutes) tracks.
Fixed in v3.2
Playout Manager v3.1x
1. If a clip is deleted from a Custom Audio
Cliplist (but not yet updated to the database), the player can play the
wrong clip in the list.
Fixed in v3.11
2. MP4 metadata for composer is incorrectly stored as lyricist in the
database.
Fixed in v3.2
3. There is an important step missing in the help documentation regarding
the automatic generation of playlists - prior to invoking the playlist
generator all changes (particularly to the rulelist) must be saved to
the database by pressing the Update button otherwise they will
not be applied.
Fixed in v3.2
4. Windows Media (.wma) files will not seek correctly on long (>7 minutes)
tracks. Setting End Cue Points will also behave unpredictably.
Fixed in v3.2
Playout v3.0x
1.
Audio tracks may skip at random intervals. This problem has only been
seen on high end processors where the MP3
decoding time is very fast.
This problem applies to all Playout releases prior to v3.1. This problem
can be rectified by upgrading the
audio core to the latest version.
Fixed in v3.1
2. Playout only supports stereo, 44khz audio
files - attempting to utilize files which do
not correspond to this format will generate an error dialog of the form:
v2.x: "OAS Audio system failed to execute cmd 0, error
code 1"
or
v3.0+: "Whilst executing the command 'Input Open', OAS
Audio generated the following error: Input Open Error -
file not found or unsupported file format"
By default OAS Playout Manager will not import unsupported file formats
however this may be overriden and can also
be experienced using the freeware/trial version.
Fixed in v3.06 - this error may of course still be generated when encountering
an unrecognized/unsupported file format however as of this release the
full range of audio formats are supported
3. If the 'Disable Playlist Updates' checkbox
is enabled (Settings, Preferences menu), Playlist automation mode will
not work properly - the first few tracks in the list will be repeated
continuously.
Fixed in v3.06: Playout will now not enter automation mode if this setting
is enabled, instead a warning dialog is displayed.
4. Playout may not migrate v2.x soundcard
settings when upgrading to v3.x - they will be reset back to the default
'Primary Sound Driver'.
Fixed in v3.02
5. v2.61+: If
button wall playback is stopped whilst in 'auto-fade' the main player
volume level is never restored, it is left at the decreased volume level.
Fixed in v3.02
6. Voicetrack
scheduler will execute programmes at incorrect times if system time is
is NOT set to GMT (or UTC).
Fixed in v3.03
7. If voicetrack programme is the first playlist
(or only playlist) in the system, the scheduler will never automatically
execute the programme.
Fixed in v3.03
8. v3.03+: 'Hotkey' buttons (instant
launch '1' & '2' plus Button Wall selects) not working in enhanced
mode.
Fixed in v3.06
9. Playlist/Advanced Settings, duplicate
artist check can filter out jingles, adverts etc.
Fixed in v3.06
10. v3.06+: 'Speed Controls' (Enhanced
display mode only) do not work correctly if using audioformat other than
44khz.
Fixed in v3.1
11. Excessive event notifications are generated
if Playout cannot enter FailOver mode.
Fixed in v3.08
12. Track lister updates may stop working
for no apparent reason, they may often then resume normally sometime later
(this was previously noted in the 'proxy/web cache server issue' (5) but
is now confirmed to be a distinct
problem.
Fixed in v3.07
13. Auto scheduled voicetrack programmes
will run erroneously if 'Disable Playlist Updates' (Settings, Preferences
menu) is checked.
Fixed in v3.1 - auto scheduling will be disabled if this option is
enabled
14. If button wall category lists
are filtered to exclude certain lists, changing the contents of unassigned
buttons may not work ie. the button remains blank and no error is reported.
The net effect is that the button change will have been applied to another
button wall category list.
Fixed in v3.09
15. When dragging the scrolling message
bar on dual monitor systems, if you "drag" the mouse cursor
from one monitor onto the other the scrolling message freezes and will
never move again.
Fixed in v3.09
16. aac files (raw, not m4a) will
not play with ID3v2 tags present.
Fixed in v3.09
17. The order of clips loaded into
a button wall may randomly change ie. not the order they are presented
in Playout Manager. A temporary workaround is to perform a 'Compact' of
database which should restore the order.
A patch for v3.09 is now available to rectify this issue, please email
for details.
Fixed in v3.1
18. v3.09 only: The new audio
core included with the 3.09 release can truncate the final second of playback
early (noticeable in auto/automation mode).
This problem may be rectified by upgrading the oas-audio.dll to the previous
release which can be downloaded from the OAS
Audio page. Simply copy the dll into your playout installation folder.
Fixed in v3.1
23. v3.09 only: If a button
wall file is not accessible, Playout gets stuck repeatedly generating
"Audio File Not Available" messages.
Fixed in v3.11
1. If an item is deleted through the 'Component
Editors' - Artist, Album, Category etc. & then attempted to be
added back in (without first performing a Database Update) an error dialog
is generated indicating the update failed. Workaround is to perform the
Update then re-try the add.
Partially fixed in v3.03 - the editor will flag this up rather than
indicating a database update error
6. Playlist may not display in Playout Manager tool immediately after
Playlist generation has completed. Reselecting the list will re-display
it correctly.
Fixed in v3.05. A slight delay has been introduced to the code
to allow the database driver to 'catch up' - this appears to have resolved
the issue.
11. Voicetrack Segue Editor allows "track 2" start point to
be positioned prior to "track 1" start which can cause an erroneous
voicetrack programme to be produced.
Fixed in v3.01
12. Voicetrack track start times may not be recalculated correctly
if you delete an item then insert another one directly after it without
performing a database update.
Fixed in v3.02
13. Cue Points Editor: Whilst setting 'Cue End', audio playback of
the track may not start if the editor is displaying audio near the start
of the track. Typically this condition may arise if setting cue points
for short audio clips.
Fixed in v3.03
14. Copy/Paste of voicetrack lists does not transfer all voicetrack information
and in addition will have unpredictable results with regard to maintaining
database consistency.
Paste is disabled in v3.03 until a suitable fix can be implemented
15. Database entries for voicetrack segues are not removed when a voicetrack
list is cleared via the 'Clear List' button (or manually deleting entries).
Once the segue editor is re-invoked, they are still listed
although unusable because the files have been removed.
Fixed in v3.03
16. If file access difficulties occur when invoking the segue editor (voicetracking)
the programme will hang indefinately.
Fixed in v3.04 - error dialogs are generated under these conditions
17. v3.04, 3.05: Voicetrack: When recording
and saving a new segue, the error message 'Error adding new segue to the
database' is generated.
Fixed in v3.06
18. Playout Manager will not import or recognize
ID3 tags stored as Unicode. Attempting to update an existing unicode tag
is liable to corrupt the ID3 header.
A patched ID3 tagging library which may be incoporated into any release
of Playout is available here. Download
and unpack the DLL into Playout's installation folder. Note that since
v3.09 of Playout this DLL is included as standard so this update need
should not be applied.
Fixed in v3.09
19. 'ReAssign' button doesn't work in core editor.
Fixed in v3.09
20. Crash can occur when Playout Mgr tries to report a database import
error during music import.
Fixed in v3.09
21. v3.09:
Attempts to write ID3v2 tags to files which do not already have a tag
will fail with the message 'Error -
unsupported ID3v2 revision'.
Fixed in v3.1
22. In Playlist generator 'Automation Sequencer', cannot select the same
categories to be classed as 'Jingles' and 'Adverts', if they appear in
both 'Jingles' will take precedence.
Fixed in v3.1
23. Playout log view does not update fully following a database change
leading to likely crash.
Fixed in v3.1
1. The OAS Playout Change
Monitor fails to start in the v3.3x release of Playout.
An updated version is available via the registered users download link.
Seeking within VBR MP3 files can be troublesome as there are issues in determing accurately where to begin playback within the file. This manifests itself notably with the setting of the automatic Cue Start points but also when manually using the seek bar in Playout (and Playout Manager). The problem may also be noticeable when using the Cue Points and Voicetrack editors in Playout Manager where a graphical waveform is displayed which does not appear to line up with actual audio playback. For example, the start cue appears to be correct on the waveform but when the track is played, the track either has silence at the start or more likely clips the beginning of the track.
You can assertain if you are dealing with a VBR file by examining the Encoder Info column in Playout Manager (scroll the listview to the right to bring this column into view). It will say something like 44.1khz, VBR stereo.
The root cause of this problem is that there is no standard mechanism in place for seeking within VBR files. To date, there are several optional headers which may be included in VBR files - the most prevelant being the Xing VBR header which is fully supported by Playout (the less common VBRI header is also supported). These include tables which assist in the seeking process however even these are not that accurate (for a 3min track, expect an accuracy of >1 second). If you encounter a file which has no header, the accuracy is likely to be significantly worse.
OAS Playout v3.42 and newer has significantly improved the seek accuracy of Xing VBR files (the most prevalent). Any auto detected cue points will now be correct in this release however if you have manually adjusted the cue to compensate for seek issues in earlier releases, the cue will now be wrong. You will need to use Playout Manager's Cue Pointer to reset the cue back to it's "correct" position.
In the future we may include further updates
within Playout to improve on this issue particularly as VBR tracks become
more prevelant.
Support
is available within Playout to utilise two alternative database platforms
(MySQL & PostgreSQL) over the stock MS-Access based solution. Hosting
on one of these offers a number of advantages & disavantages, for
more information see the 'readme' files under in the relevant 'Engines'
sub-folder of the Playout
installation folder.
Development
is considered to be at a late 'beta' state of testing, notably having
been successfully used on the recent Hastings Rock RSLs.
The following are known issues/problems using Playout with MySQL:
1. Logging of time stamps between 12am and 1am are corrupted - this has
been seen with the 3.51.6 MySQL connector.
Fixed in connector 3.51.13
2. Playout does not work with connector versions between 3.51.7 and 3.51.12.
In addition, Playout v3.01 is required in order to use connector 3.51.13
and later.
Fixed
in connector 3.51.13
3. Entries in the music
log are always associated with a playlist even if the track is
picked from outside a list.
Fixed in v3.02
4. 'Compact Database' menu item crashes Playout Manager.
5. There is a possibility of inserting invalid data into the database
if Playout utilises an item which has been deleted by Playout Manager
- the obvious area is in music or advert logging where the system can
log an
'invalid' advert or song. This will then crash the log viewer in Playout
Manager.
Fixed in v3.11
6. During database creation, MySQL may generate an error on line #403
'ALTER TABLE PlayLists ADD COLUMN Trigger INT ;'. You can rectify
this by replacing the word Trigger with StopPoint then deleting
line #413.
You'll need to do a drop database and retry the creation again.
Fixed in v3.3
7. Voicetrack segue editor settings are not saved.
Workaround: In the MySQL monitor issue the following commands:
use audio ;
INSERT INTO Registry ( KeyValue, KeyName ) VALUES ( "", "VTrackSeguePath"
) ;
Then use Playout Manager to re-enter the segue folder.
Fixed in v3.3
8. Imports may fail reporting a MySQL error on duplicate information held
in the database.
See the section below on Language and Character Set Support.
9. When you activate the dialog for selection of a new database, the dialog
becomes "detached" from the main application. This means that
you can easily loose the dialog (if Playout for example becomes the primary
window) and can even launch another selection dialog. Ultimately this
causes the application to crash.
Workaround: Make sure that if you activate the dialog, close it
before
doing anything else
Fixed in v3.4
You need to ensure that the character set &
collation used by the MySQL server matches the language code page used
by the Windows PC hosting Playout otherwise you may run into import problems.
In western Europe the default MySQL language is 'latin1' (which is comparable
to US/UK-English) however the collation is 'latin1_swedish_ci' which isn't
the same as used by Playout. The collation setting refers to how the server
compares characters, specifically those it deems identical to each other
- the following table:
http://www.collation-charts.org/mysql60/mysql604.latin1_swedish_ci.html
demonstrates this. Consider then the following:
Maxïmo Park - is the strict name of the group (note the accented 'i')
but could equally be:
Maximo Park - with a straight forward 'i'.
If two tracks were imported with these alternate spellings, Playout Manager
performs a basic case-insensitve compare and would deem them two different
artists. MySQL on the other hand would treat 'ï' and 'i' as
identical and therefore wouldgenerate an error when you performed the
import.
A closer collation match for Playout is to use 'latin1_general_ci':
http://www.collation-charts.org/mysql60/mysql604.latin1_general_ci.html
From Playout v3.31, the script used to create the database will
utilise this character set/collation, if this needs to be altered then
the script can be opened up in an editor and line 3 adjusted appropriately
eg:
CREATE DATABASE audio default collate latin1_general_ci default character
set latin1 ;
to:
CREATE DATABASE audio default collate latin2_general_ci default character
set latin2 ;
Furthermore, this syntax is ONLY SUPPORTED WITH MySQL v4.1 AND NEWER,
older versions onlysupport a single character set/collation (ie. that
invoked when the server is started)in which case the script needs to be
edited to simply read:
CREATE DATABASE audio ;
This was the case with the creation script in older versions of Playout.
Altering an existing database is more tricky as the collation is held
for each text field in the database and this needs to be changed in every
table. The script 'sql170-collate.txt' will perform this translation to
'latin1_general_ci' and may be used as a template for other languages/collations.
PostgreSQL
Work is significantly less advanced than the
MySQL variant and has not been used in anger - deemed more at an 'alpha'
stage of development and tends to lag the current Playout builds in terms
of releases.
1. No table locks or database locking scheme is implemented with these
drivers - this means multiple instances of 'Playout Manager' (or other
applications) may access & modify the database simulataneously with possible
erroneous or even disastrous results.
2. The 'Backup' and 'Compact' Database menu options in Playout Manager
are not implemented for this database engine, they will fail if invoked.
3. Newer versions of the ODBC connector fail with Playout.
Workaround: From the Start menu, choose Run and in the dialog box
enter 'Regedit'. Navigate to the key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\On A Stick Productions Inc.\Playout
and locate the string 'PostgreSQLConnectDB'. Double click the string to
edit it and change the DRIVER field as follows:
DRIVER={PostgreSQL};.....
to
DRIVER={PostgreSQL ANSI};
Close the registry editor down.
4. The 'server' box in the PostgreSQL connector is always greyed out when
attempting to change databases.
Workaround: Follow the steps above to open Regedit and locate the
'PostgreSQLConnectDB' string. This time delete the key and retry the connection.
Change History
This section provides a summary of all the changes & bug fixes made
to Playout since the version 3.0 release. You can find a copy of this,
including all changes since the original v1.0 release by viewing the "Changes"
file held with your installation of Playout.
OAS Playout v3.42 ----------------- * Improve seek accuracy on Xing VBR MP3 files. * Add ability to display cover artwork in place of station logo * Allow station logo bitmap to be any size (will be resized to fit) * Minor bug fix: logo not drawn when Playout running in "widescreen laptop mode" * Position player in centre of screen for displays which are larger than Playout's nominal window size. OAS Playout v3.41 ----------------- * Bug fix: Sporadic program crash on exit when using ASIO layer * Internal change: list sequencer moved to C++ ready for v3.5 OAS Playout v3.4 ---------------- * Support XP/Vista themed controls, restyled controls when in a themed mode. * Optimise music dialog load times * Enhance HTML track lister to convert reserved characters into either HTML entities or PHP escape sequences based on file extension * Differeniate between automation & voicetracked modes of operation - affects OAS Request Manager only. * Add option in playlist sequencer to prompt for selection of desired playlist to run * Bug fix: Automation mode on exit from voicetrack programme not actioned correctly. * Bug fix: If a jingle/advert list is defined as part of the automation sequencer "advanced" settings which has no entries defined, during playback Playout will inject "garbage" entries into the playlist possibly leading to a program crash. * Include additional tokens into web based track lister to allower more information to be included on website bar just title/artist information. OAS Playout v3.31 ----------------- * XP/Vista: Enhanced screen mode (1280x1024) not working properly with standard Vista display profile or "aero" profile OAS Playout v3.3 ---------------- * Enhanced interface for track lister modules. * Fix Track History menu to work when running from Playlists. * Update lib/vorbis libraries to 1.2.0 (20070622) * Additional file format support through optional libsndfile library * Support main volume setting with ASIO outputs * Bug fix: End cue points may trigger 1 second earlier than required. * Bug fix: Sample rates other than 44khz played through ASIO driver are in mono and can distort. OAS Playout v3.23 ----------------- * Add Track History menu item to Load dialog popup. * Include option for user defined playlist parsers. * User Manual update OAS Playout v3.22 ----------------- * Bug fix: Last selected playlist, category not restored in Main Player 'Load' Dialog. * Replace debug version of audio core which generated large log files on hard drive * Bug fix: If a button wall file is not accessible, Playout gets stuck repeatedly generating "Audio File Not Available" messages. Restore default bwall mouse operation to 'fire on release'. * Add configuration option to select bwall 'fire on press' or 'fire on release'. OAS Playout v3.21 ----------------- * Bug fix: Volume/speed control updates not actioned when using arrow keys (broken in v3.2) * Report (and handle) erratic effects caused if playout database is opened read only * Bug fix: Help buttons not working if database error/warning dialogs displayed at startup * Add help for license activation and extension, include Help button & Send Codes button on license dialog. * User manual update. * Allow all category content to be selected for bwall even when filtered by profile. * Keyboard volume auto-drop functionality. OAS Playout v3.2 ---------------- * New 'User Profiles' to allow individual presenters to customise the selection of audio available to them. * ASIO driver support integrated fully into software. * Support for semi-enhanced display mode on widescreen laptop displays. * Access to soundcard master volume controls now available (enhanced mode only) * Bug fix: Sound card setting change does not affect 'floating' button wall until it is either closed/re-opened or the assigned player is toggled. * Bug fix: Enhanced mode only: The display of the Speed Control slide bar is not restored if the control is hidden then reactivated again. * Support for playback of FLAC audio files. * MSN "Now Playing" Track Lister. OAS Playout v3.11 ----------------- * Bug fix: Post v3.09, if a button wall file is not accessible, Playout gets stuck repeatedly generating "Audio File Not Available" messages. This fix also undoes the 'button down' change implemented in v3.09 which proved unpopular. OAS Playout v3.1 ---------------- * New 'Search Mode' available for flexible searches of main audio. * Improve diagnostic information logged in event of database failures (event logs only) * Improvde handling of failed database updates during automation including prevent previously failed tracks continuously being re-queued. Automatic failover mode execution after 50 database updates failed. * Bug fix: Track listers can miss updates on slow on non-responsive servers * Bug fix: A significant pause (>1s) may be noticeable at odd intervals between tracks when running in auto-seq mode. * Fix: Speed controls working for all input sample formats. * New: Playout Recovery Tool, allows Playout to automatically resume operation in the event of power loss OAS Playout v3.09 ----------------- * ASIO support via optional DLL * Button wall fires on mouse button down rather than (usual) mouse button release * Bug fix: When dragging the scrolling message bar on dual monitor systems, if you "drag" the mouse cursor from one monitor onto the other the scrolling message freezes and will never move again. * Bug fix: If button wall category lists are filtered to exclude certain lists, changing the contents of unassigned buttons may not work ie. the button remains blank and no error is reported. The net effect is that the button change will have been applied to another button wall category list. * Add URLs for Playout homepage on 'Help' menu * Bug fix: Reversionary mode never entered on repeated file access failures. OAS Playout v3.08 ----------------- * Reduce excessive event log notifications under failure conditions OAS Playout v3.07 ----------------- * Bug fix: Track lister updates may stop updating * Audio core update: Correctly recognize and play aacPlus (HE) files (with suitably built libfaad2.dll) OAS Playout v3.06 ----------------- * Include new audio core which removes 44khz/stereo import restriction * Prevent entry into automation/vtrack mode if playlist updates are disabled * Bug fix: Incorrect track details displayed on entry into FailOver mode * Bug fix: Hotkeys not working in enhanced mode (broken in v3.03) * Bug fix: Playlist/Advanced Settings, duplicate artist check can filter out jingles, adverts etc. * Support transparent event log email (MAPI) dispatch for MS-Outlook OAS Playout v3.05 ----------------- * Improve ability to handle failed database/music stores * Update event log details to include more detailed information in event of system problems * Update help to provide more detailed information on crash/error recovery situations * Add event log dispatch capability OAS Playout v3.04 ----------------- * Add ability to auto-schedule playlists. OAS Playout v3.03 ----------------- * Minor bug fixes in automation sequencer, fix some initialisation defaults * Bug fix: Voicetrack sequencer only working in GMT time zones. * Bug fix: Voicetrack sequencer will not action 'first' (or only) list in system OAS Playout v3.02 ----------------- * Bug Fix: "Filtered" playlists not accessible in playlist automation sequencer (Playlists, Setup). * Tighten cue point accuracy from quarter second to exact figure held with track * Bug fix: Volume levels of main player not restored when button wall 'stop' is pressed * Add drag 'n drop support for tracks between main players (interim) OAS Playout v3.0 ---------------- * First release of "Enhanced Mode" Playout supporting 1280x1024 display with twin button walls, text alerts and speed controls * Inclusion of voicetracking scheduler and playback engine * Add time remaining counter to button wall * Enhanced auto sequencer engine now available. * Bug fix: VBR files with partial Xing headers will not play back correctly. * Bug fix: Playout sequencer enters failover mode if final playlist completes and is not set to loop. * Bug fix: Playout may assign different sound cards to the players after sound card settings have changed - ie. if a new card is added or removed. * Bug fix: When playing a WAV file, a small burst of noise may be heard at the end of the track. * Fix: Playout will not run as a 'restricted user' it terminates with dialog 'Error 00005' ****************************************************** OAS Playout Manager - v3.x --------------------------- OAS Playout Manage v3.42 ------------------------ * Improve seek accuracy on Xing VBR MP3 files. * Minor change to tag extension ordering (check for custom file extensions first) * Minor bug fix: Importer rejects directories manually entered which do not include the trailing backslash '\'. OAS Playout Manager v3.41 ------------------------- * Bug fix: Crash/erroneous activity during music import on multi-processor machines. * Relink against modified runtime libraries to avoid heap issues * Restore normal heap calls in music log viewer OAS Playout Manager v3.4 ------------------------ * Speed up 'select all' functions in Music & Jingle Edits * Enable themed controls (XP/Vista), restyle controls * Optimise loading times for all listviews * Change code to resolve sporadic program crash when viewing large music logs (BCC realloc issue?) * Bug fix: Multiple tag updates do not update the 'Tag State' column (& associated details) to reflect latest status * Add 'Copy' menu command to Music/Jingle Edits tab to allow files to be transferred to given folder * Allow a scheduled playlist or voicetrack programme which is set to enter automation mode, to specify which playlist(s) to execute when in automation. * Add a 'Restore Database' menu item to allow recovery of database backups. * Improve pattern matching used during import process to look for similar/identical tracks (based on RequestManager logic). Add ability to abort pattern match if desired. * Parallel threading on pattern matching (on multi-cpu cores) * Updates to 'busy' processing logic to prevent Vista from thinking Playout Manager has stopped responding. * Support meta data on .WAV files when using optional linsndfile. * Stop MySQL selection modaless dialog from losing focus and allowing a 2nd instantiation which causes errorneous conditions to arise. OAS Playout Manager v3.31 ------------------------- * Optimise music log viewer load process. * Bug fix: Playout Manager crash when viewing music logs if linked playlist no longer exists. * Bug fix: Import from another Playout database truncates the first part of the filename of tracks being imported resulting in a corrupt import (bug appears in v3.3 only) * Bug fix: Potential deadlock when searching for artist/album/genre in Music Edits page. * MySQL: Set collation/character set for database to latin1/general_ci instead of defaulting to global server setting OAS Playout Manager v3.3 ------------------------ * Replace non-maintained id3lib tagging library with taglib * Provide a "cleaner" tagging interface for all file formats: remove ability to choose ID3v1 vs. ID3v2 and parsing of Playout 'special' frames only * Write comments as a 'standard' Id3v2 comments frame rather than a dedicated Playout frame * Provide tag writing capability for all supported audio formats * Provide tag checking capability for all supported audio formats * Provide user definable file tagging support through taglib. * Bug fix: Id3 tags could be written to .wav files in batch update mode * Translate Ogg/Flac comments field "DESCRIPTION" into Playout Notes field in line with taglib writer * Bug fix: Pathnames >128 characters can cause an array overflow (crash/import error) if said filenames are flagged as 'identical/similar' * Action paint requests during import * Enhanced search options in Music Edits & Playlist Management (search by Album, Genre) * Bug Fix: Search (by Artist) on Music Edits and Playlist Management can fail to select an entry matching the search criteria if the initial matching artist held in the database has no track currently by said artist 'in view' * Voicetrack segue engine optimised for multi-cpu architecture machines. * Add 'actions' menu to voicetrack segue editor for fast positioning of segues * Bug fix: When viewing Music/Ad logs with 'Filter Duplicates' checked, some items meeting the filter criteria are not displayed. * Bug fix: Voicetrack segue editor settings not saved when using MySQL database. OAS Playout Manager v3.23 ------------------------- None, version number update only. OAS Playout Manager v3.22 ------------------------- None, version number update only. OAS Playout Manager v3.21 ------------------------- * Bug fix: Database opened read only is not always reported and Update controls disabled * Bug fix: Help buttons not working if database error/warning dialogs displayed at startup OAS Playout Manager - v3.2 --------------------------- * Increase minimum zoom limit for voicetrack segue editor * Add menus to voicetrack segue editor for navigation and zooming. * Bug fix: m4a metadata for composer incorrectly stored as lyricist * Support for playback of FLAC audio file format and import of metadata from these files. * Improve support for using Audacity audio editor with Voicetrack segues. * Bug fix: Configuration save is corrupting playlist settings due to structure mis-alignment. OAS Playout Manager - v3.11 --------------------------- * Handle 'orphaned' log and custom clip list entries which can be generated on non MS-Access databases * Bug fix: Jingle Edits audio player not playing CList entries correctly after an entry is deleted from list. OAS Playout Manager - v3.1 -------------------------- * To allow for easier updates, artist, album & genre selections now update to reflect the currently selected track in the 'Music Import' tab * Bug fix: In v3.09, attempts to write ID3v2 tags to files which do not already have a tag will fail with the message 'Error - unsupported ID3v2 revision' * Bug fix: Possible memory overrun/crash in automation sequencer when processing adverts * Enhancement: Automation sequencer previously did not support use of same categories in both jingle & advert selections. * Bug fix: Playout log view does not update fully following a database change leading to likely crash. * Add additional Select All/None buttons to playlist filters (Playout logs) OAS Playout Manager - v3.09 --------------------------- * Bug fix: Playout Manager will not import or recognize ID3 tags stored as Unicode. * Add support for reading UTF-8 formatted ID3 tags * Add support for reading (but not writing) ID3v2.4 tags * Minor colour scheme update on Custom List editor * Add database importer for Custom Lists * Highlighted Custom List entries may now be played via inbuilt player * Bug fix: Crash can occur when Playout Mgr tries to report a database import error during music import * Bug fix: 'ReAssign' button doesn't work in core editor. OAS Playout Manager - v3.08 --------------------------- * Add audio player to log window OAS Playout Manager - v3.07 --------------------------- Identical to v3.06, version number change only. OAS Playout Manager - v3.06 --------------------------- * Include new audio core which removes 44khz/stereo import restriction * Flag up during import if bitrate/sample falls below minimum broadcast levels * Preserve listview settings of major views * Bug fix: Cannot create segues in voicetrack view (broken in v3.04) * Updates to 'Additional Stats'- stats not always updated when adding new items, change functionality to exclude current playlist from stats OAS Playout Manager - v3.05 --------------------------- * Additional stats available in playlist management view OAS Playout Manager - v3.04 --------------------------- * Database 'read only' checks not enforced in various places, has no impact on MS-Access based systems since the DB is opened in read only but is now flagged correctly in S/W. * Bug fix: Database importer not transferring segues correctly (voicetrack only) * Bug fix: Voicetrack exchange set importer could crash if performing segue renames during import process * Help file update: Voicetrack import/export not documented, include playlist generator examples * Bug fix: Segue editor could lock package if audio core throws error on processing a file. Reconstruct logic on waveform viewer to prevent redundant file open/close(s). * Bug fix: Segue editor could spuriously fail to process a segue waveform display (audio core fix). * Add ability to create segues in MP3 format. * Add ability to auto-schedule playlists (in addition to voicetrack programmes) OAS Playout Manager - v3.03 --------------------------- * Add search bar to Jingle Edits page * Allow custom clip list order to be changed (addition of Up/Down buttons) * Bug Fix: Core editor detected deleted items and does not allow re-addition. * Copy/Paste ops now transfer all information for voicetrack programmes * Database imports now tranfer all information for voicetrack programmes * Add voicetrack import/export options * Bug Fix: whilst setting 'Cue End', audio playback of the track may not start if the editor is displaying audio near the start of the track. * Bug Fix: Database entries for voicetrack segues not removed when voicetrack contents are deleted. * Paste feature disabled for voicetrack mode. OAS Playout Manager - v3.02 --------------------------- * Add elapsed time indicator to playlist page * Some controls not painted correctly to system colours * Bug Fix: Voicetrack track start times may not be recalculated correctly if you delete an item then insert another one directly after it without performing a database update. OAS Playout Manager - v3.01 --------------------------- * Vtrack Segue Editor: Prevent user positioning track2 start before track 1 - generates an error condition * MySQL Database Engine: Fix GP fault when navigating to new database with v3.51.13 ODBC connector. OAS Playout Manager - v3.0 -------------------------- * Version numbers sync'd with Playout * Voicetrack engine: Ability to create voicetracked programmes from playlists, segue editor * Updates to Cue Points editor * Formal release of Text Alerts editor * Add text file (tab delimted) importer engine. * Bug fix: Cue points track slider not working properly. * Bug fix: Automation Sequencer playlist generator did not work with Playout v1.51 * Bug fix: Unable to invoke a playlist generator for a playlist which has been filtered out of the Main Player selection * Bug fix: With the Playlist Management tab selected, changing to another database (via the Settings menu) causes duplicate columns to be displayed in the Music & Jingle list views