I am always running automation with DB, automatic loading a new playlist every top of the hour.
Almost every top of the hour I am getting the message, 0X:00:00: Playlist 0 ran empty.
The playlist are not running empty at exactly 0X:00:00
I can see in the log that the playlist are rarely running empty earlier.
It became extreme visible when I enabled an action to play a specific song when the playlist runs empty. The same song are now triggered almost every top of the hour and not only in the rare situations where the playlist really runs empty.
Can anyone give me an explanation why I am getting this triggered many times per day? I can say for sure that the playlist do not run empty and it is often triggered in the middle of a song, when the new playlist are loaded?
Do I do something wrong?
Hi Kierby,
I only have seen this in a real underrun siuation.
Do you have more than one playlist configured? Can you let us know a bit more about your config of mAirlist?
Also I wonder, if anything in the playlist (e.g fix-time element) or an event is causing to skip a file.
Do you just load the new playlist and append it or do you “load and play” the new playlist? Does it start with a fix-time element?
What kind of environment are you running mAirlist on? Sounds like a headless server or virtual server?
I am running mAirList on a standard Windows 10 environment. I load and play a new playlist every top of the hour, starting with a fixed time element at XX:00:00.
I am only having one active playlist. Can there be a playlist 0 active without being visible on the screen?
No, there is no hidden playlist but computers start counting on 0, so Playlist 0 is your one and only playlist.
What is a standard Windows 10 environemnt? I assume you are running Windows 10 (What edition? What Version?) on a standard Desktop Computer?
Are you playing out on a sound card/ Mixer, are you playing directly to the encoder? Are you using the encoder at all?
Do you hear any drop out/ silence if you get this message?
Do you get this message on every TOH or only on a few?
Hi Malte,
It just confuses me when it reports the warning on playlist 0 and every place in the system, where I have found to configure what playlist to use, I can only select between default and playlist 1 (which seems to be the same).
Yes, I am running Windows 10 (latest version) on a standard Desktop computer (I7 with 16BG ram and SSD drive for OS and seperate SSD for music).
I am using USB sound cards as interface to my mixer and I am using the encoder for streaming.
There are no dropout in the music when the warning occurs, but it seems like the first (fixed time) element on the mew playlist are started at the same time as the following element (music) on the list, when this warning occurs.
It is not every TOH it happens, but there do not seem to be any system in when it happens. It looks like random, when it happens.
It confuses me that it seem to be random and that I cannot find any system in it.
Hi Martin,
thanks, the picture of your environment is getting more clear now.
What Version of mAirlist are you using? 6.2?
Did you upgrade recentely or is that a fresh installation?
If you are on 6.2, can you downgrade to 6.1.12 and double check if the same problem ocuures?
I have recently upgraded to 6.0 (latest build), but I saw the same issue on 6.1.X, before the upgrade.
It just became very visible when i added the action to play a specific song when the playlist runs empty, to make sure that something is played in the rare situations where the playlist really runs empty prior to TOH.
I have also just recently been aware that there seems to be a link between that warning and the first two items on the new playlist seems to be started simultaneously. You can clearly hear that they are started at the same time but number two item seems to win.
OK, that info is important. I recently had some more warnings on my system (after running 6.2 for a couple of weeks) but I’m pretty sure, that this was a true underrun, occuring xx:59:55 to xx:59:59. I don’t use fixetime on all playlist, only for syndicated shows and replay of shows. So I guess that I had a different problem than you have.
As you saw the same on Version 6.1.x before, I’m pretty sure it is not a mAirlist bug. It seems something in your playlist or with the cue-points of certain elements.
We now need to find out what is causing this. I hope @UliNobbe, will jump in here, he is much better in finding such quirks than me.
OK, I have to bring up this thread again.
As I now have the same problem, since a while. On a regular basis, loading a playlist with a hard fix-time element at it’s beginning, results in an eMail notification, that the playlist ran empty.
I first thought that it might be some random problem, but it appears over and over again.
I did not figure out, it it appears on every fix-time element or a few only.
To me it seems like there is a small time gab between end of hour marker and start of hour marker, and sometimes the gab is large enough to trigger the playlist ran empty warning.
I have found a solution for me that have completely eliminated this problem.
I have created a mp3 file at 1 sec. duration with completely silence and are loading this file in the end of hour marker. This secures that this gab are filled with something (silence), which you cannot hear, since the new (pop of the hour) item are starting on top of it.
It works for me and I have not seen any of these errors in more that a month.
I try to set up a configuration that this problem will happen to my test system. This will take a while.
From my private mAirList I have a standard rotation playing like a normal daily playout for my internal office radio. This is running without problems 24/7 on v6.2.2.
However, a) my hour is usually planned for more than 60 minutes and b) there is a kind of news opener connecting both hours.
No empty playlist ever.
OK, it seems it does not happen, on each Fixed-Element. This morning we had a recorded show playback, that worked without any error message.
Fading out the running file and sarting on time 10:00:00.
That happend because there is the Hour Start marker and the Connand the runs some script, at the same time.
We will kick out the Hour Start Marker and see, what it does.
Never the less it did not happen on older Versions of mAirlist. So I wonder, what was the change, from 6.1 to 6.2, that causes this.
