If your scheduled video files are not playing, here are some things to check.
Scheduling Issues
Was the schedule successfully sent to the unit and sent before the event was scheduled to occur?
- When you send the schedule (File/Send), you should receive a "success" message. Note: the schedule won't start an event "in progress." An event will start only at its scheduled start time.
- Make sure you are scheduling on the correct day tab at the bottom of the schedule. For example, an event intended to take place on Monday must be scheduled within the Monday tab.
Correct Date and Time
Are the date and time correct on your NEXUS/UltraNEXUS?
- You can check this on the front panel or in the Controller Window (Tools/Controller). If the date and time are not correct, you can set them in the Controller Window by clicking the Set button to the right of the PC time (provided the PC is correct). Otherwise, you can set the time below that and click the Set button there.
Storage Hard Drive Issues
Is the external hard drive the video files reside on connected to the NEXUS/UltraNEXUS and visible in the Storage Manager window?
- To find the hard drive, look on the back of the NEXUS/UltraNEXUS to see what is connected to its USB ports. If nothing is connected to the USB ports, this would be the problem.
- Check the Storage Manager window in WinLGX (Tools/Storage Manager), where you should see the storage volume devices on the right side and the list of video files.
- If you do not see any video files, the hard drive has problems.
- If you do not see any devices listed, the hard drives are either not connected, not powered on, or have problems.
Video File Issues
Make sure the NEXUS/UltraNEXUS can play the video files.
A video file needs to have the following format specs:
- Resolution of 720 pixels by 480 pixels or less.
- A video bit rate of 10 Mb or less.
- Have a video codec of MPEG 2, and have an extension of ".mpg."
- Have an audio codec of Layer II MPEG audio.
You can check the resolution of a video file by queueing it up in the WinLGX Control Panel (Tools/Control Panel).
- To Queue up a file, select one of the Mpeg player icons in the device column,
- Click the Queued file button (…) in the video player interface. This will open the storage window.
- Select the desired video file and click OK. You should now see the resolution and video bitrate in the player interface.
Check the Events Log
Look in the NEXUS/UltraNEXUS events.log and compare the time a file was scheduled to play with what the events log states at that time. (You can view the events log from the web interface's Logs page).
- If the log indicates the video file was not found, it could be the file was renamed or deleted. Or, there may be problems with the external hard drive storage.
- If the log shows entries at that time that it stopped decoding, it could be the file has a bitrate higher than 10Mb or a resolution greater than 720 x 480.
- If the log has an "Error 1117" (I/O device error) for a video file, that video file may be corrupt, or the hard drive storage may be having problems or having communication issues.
- Try rebooting the NEXUS/UltraNEXUS and see if that clears up the communication issues.
- If rebooting fails to fix the issue, the hard drive storage unit may need maintenance or replacement.
Black Video
It could be that the file being played is actually a black video. Possibly a recording was done with the record input set to the wrong input, and it recorded a black video. If the Events.log indicates a file played with no problems at that time, try playing the video on the PC to see if it is black.
Related Articles:
How to Retrieve The Events Logs
USB Hard Drive Maintenance