joshualeeginsburg

i want to use the dialog object to inject a file path to load movies in a live patch but when i bang the dialog object the movie that is playing (and it seems the whole patch) freezes. how can i get around that?

i have seen this question before (Momentarily freeze when I read in a quicktime file to jit.qt.movie) but it wasnt answered properly.

dialog-object-freezes-movies

You might be asking two different questions.

Caution in reading my response -- These are solutions based on lots of trial/error from a while ago (as far back as v4). There might be more up-to-date solutions.

I'm not sure what the right answer is for using [dialog]. I wrote a surrogate dialog patch many years ago that I still use with no problems. You'll have to adjust it for your purposes.

It's Max v4, so hasn't been tested in a while, but I'm using its descendent in v5 with no problems.

You can alos pre-populate [ubumenu] objects with path/file information and use it to load movies. Means you need to know your directories in advance (though there are ways to use [ubumenu] to first select a path, then populate another [ubumenu] based on that path). I can't post an example, the patches I've written aren't self-contained enough.

In my experience, this is unavoiable the first time a movie is loaded (maybe other people know how to resolve the issue).

If I reload the movie later (e.g., load movie 1, then movie 2, then go back to movie 1), it won't stall the patch because enough of it has been cached somewhere.

Consider loading/unloading all movies prior to actually working with the patch. You can write a patch that will do that if you know all your target movies in advance. Doing it manually has worked for me.

Caution in reading my response -- These are solutions based on lots of trial/error from a while ago (as far back as v4).  There might be more up-to-date solutions.

I'm not sure what the right answer is for using [dialog].  I wrote a surrogate dialog patch many years ago that I still use with no problems.  You'll have to adjust it for your purposes. 

http://www.hellbender.org/ikehmope.html and download ike.dialoger  

It's Max v4, so hasn't been tested in a while, but I'm using its descendent in v5 with no problems.    

You can alos pre-populate [ubumenu] objects with path/file information and use it to load movies.  Means you need to know your directories in advance (though there are ways to use [ubumenu] to first select a path, then populate another [ubumenu] based on that path).  I can't post an example, the patches I've written aren't self-contained enough.

In my experience, this is unavoiable the first time a movie is loaded (maybe other people know how to resolve the issue).  

If I reload the movie later (e.g., load movie 1, then movie 2, then go back to movie 1), it won't stall the patch because enough of it has been cached somewhere.  

Consider loading/unloading all movies prior to actually working with the patch.  You can write a patch that will do that if you know all your target movies in advance.  Doing it manually has worked for me.


Consider pre-loading all your videos to RAM of that fits your workflow.

The link in my post should be http://www.hellbender.org/ikehmope.php


How about using the asyncread message for jit.qt.movie?


if you really want to type the filepath you can use [textedit] which won't freeze things like [dialog]. But the auto-populate for [umenu] is much better IMO.

True about [textedit]. My dialog-replacement patch uses it.

I haven't tried asyncread for a while, but in my experience, it never got rid of the momentary freeze. YMMV.

True about [textedit].  My dialog-replacement patch uses it.

I haven't tried asyncread for a while, but in my experience, it never got rid of the momentary freeze.  YMMV.


dialog object freezes movies?