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Forum: VirtualDJ Technical Support

Topic: Beachball & Live feedback
DJing a wedding last night and, after a couple of hours into the gig, I had the dreaded beachball kept appearing for 30 seconds or so. Luckily it handed back control before the end of the current playing song. The mousepad was not responding although I could still scroll with the MC6000 MK2 Controller. It would not do any other actions until the beachball stopped and handed back control.

I also noticed during these episodes that I had a message displaying 'Downloading Live Feedback' even though it has been disabled in the Options since the first release of VDJ 8. I checked and it was still disabled. In the Options it also showed live feedback providers 'Local', I clicked on it and it switched to 'Online' even though it was still disabled but still displaying the message above.

This is the first time this has happened during a gig. This was with VDJ build b6535, I see that VDJ build b6541 has gone public so I will update for tonight's wedding and see if the problem reoccurs.

Anyone with any other ideas?

P.S. Incidentally, I did weddings last Friday and Wednesday this week and this problem did not occur at either event, only last night.

System Specs;
MacBook Pro 15” 2017 (Touch Bar), 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3 Memory, Radeon Pro 560 4096 MB, Intel HD Graphics 630 n1536 MB, macOS Big Sur 11.4, 500gb SSD Bootcamped with Windows 10 x64bit. External WD Passport Ultra 2Tb HD containing Music & Video databases and is formatted NTFS, I use the Paragon plugin with NTFS for Mac.
VirtualDJ 2021 b6535 and Controllers - Denon MC7000, Denon MC6000 MkII.
 
Inviato Fri 02 Jul 21 @ 8:01 am
The above situation occurred again twice at last night's wedding with the same message 'Downloading Live Feedback'. Live feedback is still disabled in the Options. This was with VDJ build b6541.
 
Inviato Sat 03 Jul 21 @ 11:29 am
Might be better rolling back to an older build in the meantine.
 
Inviato Sat 03 Jul 21 @ 12:12 pm
djles.co.uk wrote :
The above situation occurred again twice at last night's wedding with the same message 'Downloading Live Feedback'. Live feedback is still disabled in the Options. This was with VDJ build b6541.


This happened again at Saturday's wedding. It was near the end of the gig and I had the beachball and the same message 'Downloading Live Feedback for a time. Feedback is still disabled in the Options.
 
Inviato Sun 04 Jul 21 @ 7:56 pm
Are you connected to the internet when you're workng?
 
Inviato Sun 04 Jul 21 @ 8:13 pm
Yes, always. But the Hotel has a weak wi-fi signal at my location since re-opening last week. Last night I had to switch to use my iPhone hotspot to access Deezer. It was for those odd requests you get at weddings, the wi-fi was too slow to download but much better through my iPhone. It's the 'Downloading Live Feedback' that puzzles me.
 
Inviato Sun 04 Jul 21 @ 8:54 pm
Might be worth having a search of your settings.xml to see if anything stands out.

As you say it shouldn't be an issue if live feedback is turned off.
 
Inviato Sun 04 Jul 21 @ 9:42 pm
I can't show the beachball as it only happens after several hours of gigging. I've got another wedding tonight, so, if it happens again I will try and get a video of it.
 
Inviato Mon 05 Jul 21 @ 6:21 am
Maybe something specific to the Mac side. I've had no issues but I'm windows only (on my Macbook Pro ... never ever been in MacOS)

Guess we'll have to wait for someome more experienced to chime in.
 
Inviato Mon 05 Jul 21 @ 6:23 am
AdionPRO InfinityCTOMember since 2006
Downloading Livefeedback was shown while the beachball was showing?

It looks like the livefeedback setting was only affecting the display of livefeedback in the browser, not the actual lookup. Will fix for next update.
Still the lookup mostly happens in the background so should not be any problem with no or bad internet connection.
The only thing done locally which I could think may cause this is looking through the local library for a match of the result.
Even this should only take a fraction of a second even with a huge library though.
How many tracks are in your library?
 
Inviato Tue 06 Jul 21 @ 5:40 am
*** Solved ***

I've just started back doing weddings 12 days ago. On my first night I had an intoxicated punter who leaned over my flight case and disturbed the USBc and broke the connection to my 2tb hard drive. I ended up with lots of red Xs in the database when I knew the track was there. When I noticed the USBc was 1 or 2 millimetre gap I pushed it home and everything was OK after that.

I have the original USBa cable and also short Apple converter cables. Putting them together gives a longer cable. I put the 2tb HD in my flight case out of sight and used it that way. I noticed that clicking in the search box that's when the beachball appears. I also noticed that the cursor in the search box was not the normal text cursor. I'm thinking it was an Apple converter cable that was causing the issue. So, in the buffet break I switched the cable back to what I have always used, and, no more problems, no beach ball and faster searches. I'm thinking of sourcing a longer cable without Apple's converter. Oh, since changing it back I no longer see the beachball, there must be something in the Apple converter cables and the 'Downloading Live Feedback' has stopped showing. :-)

@ Adion, 40,000 ten thousand are music videos.

This is how I normally use the HD (for the last 3 years), but, I feel it's vulnerable and a security risk.


This is the offending cable I was trying to use with the HD hidden below in the flight case.
 
Inviato Tue 06 Jul 21 @ 8:20 pm
AdionPRO InfinityCTOMember since 2006
Ah that could explain it. I did actually found a possibility with live feedback. When it retrieves the results it looks in the database to see if you have any of the results locally, and it also checks if a possible result actually exists. Normally this would be very fast but I guess with a bad cable it might take much longer.
Next build will also actually fix this so that this happens completely in the background and would not stall other parts of vdj
 
Inviato Wed 07 Jul 21 @ 4:08 am
Excellent. The white cables on the left of the top picture are the Apple power supply and the other is a USBc printer cable connected to my Controller. Hopefully, I can source a longer cable for the HD so that it can be hidden from prying eyes.

I have to say I do not like these USBc connections. when I bought this Mac 3 years ago, I sourced several cables to go direct from USBc to whatever was needed. At home, I have a USBc to HDMI cable to use my 42" TV as a laptop monitor. It is always losing the connection at the slightest touch, very annoying.
 
Inviato Wed 07 Jul 21 @ 8:00 am
It depends on the cable and laptop I guess. I used a Samsung SSD for probably a couple of years with USB C to USB C cable and it never had any connection issues at all.

How big is your collection and would it fit on a SSD rather than those horrible mechanical drives?
 
Inviato Wed 07 Jul 21 @ 8:09 am
Hi Keith, it's 1.35tb of a 2tb drive. I have been planning to get a 2tb SSD when the price comes down to something reasonable, haven't checked the latest prices for a while. The drive contains 40,000 tunes, 10,000 of them are Promo Only music videos.

This WD Passport Ultra has been an excellent drive. I've used it for around 5 years without any issues, I also have a newer one for backup and clone it every week.
 
Inviato Wed 07 Jul 21 @ 10:20 am
Ah, OK. I easily fit my collection on to a 512gb SSD, and it's mostly video.

I don't think there's a need to have a massive collection any more, especially with the Deezer plugin. I just have a well looked after set of music and if anything else comes up Deezer generally has it.
 
Inviato Wed 07 Jul 21 @ 10:34 am
Funnily, I've just started using Deezer (Premium free for 3 months). But, the Hotel where I work has a really crap wi-fi connection in the Ballroom. There's a wi-fi extender box in the walk-in cupboard right next to me, but, it's unusable and needs to be fixed. I can walk 50 yards into the lounge and it is over 40gbits download in there.

I've nagged at the Manager about it and explained it would be great to use Deezer and also Ask The Dj especially now with Covid-19. But, he's not interested. I'm currently self-isolating due to having close contact with someone who has tested positive. I've done 6 weddings in the last 10 days and it was probably someone asking for a request. Why do people that have tested positive still go out and mix with others??? They obviously know. Grrrrr....
 
Inviato Wed 07 Jul 21 @ 10:58 am
You could always use the hotspot on your phone if you get a decent signal there. That's what I do as wifi can be unreliable. Many hotels port block too so you can't access streaming services.
 
Inviato Wed 07 Jul 21 @ 11:09 am
That's what I did for the odd tune. But, it's not consistent enough to advertise 'Ask The DJ'.

It's all academic now as I have received my Covid-19 results today and I have tested Positive and have to self-isolate for 10 days. Because I have another 77 weddings before New Year and they currently have 130 weddings confirmed for next year with the expectation of more to add by next year, I have decided to throw the towel in at the Hotel. My health is more important than the crap money I get. With that number of weddings, how many times could I catch the virus again, I just don't think it's worth it, I'm vulnerable as I'm 70 next month. I've DJed for 45 years, I was hoping to get to 50 years but, hey ho, it's just a number.
 
Inviato Wed 07 Jul 21 @ 4:27 pm