Scheduled Playlist Problems

rickmoon

New Member
Has anyone had any problems with Centova Cast v3 scheduled playlists on AutoDJ ? I had a standard rotation playlist enabled and 2 scheduled playlists enabled, one scheduled to interrupt the other. The first scheduled playlist cut in fine but when the second one was due, the server played a track from the standard rotation playlist. Unfortunately the track was an hour's section of a pre recorded programme and everybody had to wait an hour for the new programme (which played successfully). The first playlist was set to interruptable. This has happened on both v2 and v3 servers.
 

More Support

Level 2 Support
Staff member
Hi Rick

Its likely that the hour long track started before the interrupt so therefore had to play to completion as Centova Cast (2 & 3) won't interrupt mid track. See the guide here :

Note that for technical (and aesthetic) reasons, Centova Cast cannot interrupt individual tracks while they are still playing, so the new playlist will be started at the next available opportunity (i.e., when the current track finishes).

http://www.centova.com/doc/cast/user_manual/02_reference_manual/12_playlist
 

rickmoon

New Member
Hi, all understood (I've read this section of the reference manual) but I can't see a reason why it should have fallen back to the general rotation. The 1st scheduled playlist had enough tracks in it to take it way past when it was due to be interrupted. The interruption happened at the correct time for the 2nd scheduled playlist to cut in but instead, a track from general rotation was played. I don't believe this should have happened. I've also emailed support directly with more details and I wonder if you could have a look at it.
 

Support

Level 1 Support
Staff member
I've had the same problem. Can you please tell me how have you resolved this?

Do you have a server account with us? What is your accounts username please so that we can take a look at your settings.

Could you also clarify some more on what exactly was / is happening. Cheers.
 

t0nchica

New Member
Do you mean Centova account username? It's "arajkovi"

I have several playlists scheduled for an evening. The first one starts with a delay of few minutes. For example, if a song starts at 7:59 and lasts for 4 minutes the list shuld start at 8:03 but it doesn't...Auto DJ plays one or two more songs and then starts the playlistlist. I've found a temporary solution for this by scheduling the playlist to start at 7:55 and that way it starts at 8 plus minute or two.
After the first playlist Auto DJ plays a few songs from general rotation, sometimes only one, sometimes more, and only then continues with the schedule. A few times the next scheduled list didn't start at all. It makes no difference if the list consists of multiple tracks or just one hour-long file.

All my general rotation lists are set to play from 12 AM to 12 AM with weight 16 and scheduled lists are set to start at 7:55 PM, 8:55 PM and 9:55 PM, stop after 60 minutes, repeated every week, can be interrupted.
 

Support

Level 1 Support
Staff member
Oh right ok, so you do not host your station with us. We wont be able to have a look over your account settings in that case we are afraid.

It sounds like you are doing everything correctly. Its possible that there is perhaps some corrupt (or incorrectly encoded) files in your playlists that the AutoDJ cannot play and is therefore skipping them, or they are messing with the playlists?

It might be worth you making a post in the Centova Cast forums about your issue: http://forums.centova.com/
 

t0nchica

New Member
I've already posted on their forums but they take a long time to answer. I stumbled upon this post via Google search and wanted to try my luck out here.
All the files are OK...they do play after a while, just not when they are supposed to.
Anyway, thank you for your answer!
 

t0nchica

New Member
No, that did not help. :(

It looks like when a song starts the software decides which song will play next and that doesn't change no matter what. For instance:a 4 minute song (A) started at 7.58 at the same time the software decided which will be the next song (B), there was a scheduled list at 8.00, at 8.02 song A ends and song B starts, so the list starts only after the song B is over.
 

Support

Level 1 Support
Staff member
That's a shame. And no problem, you're welcome. :)

We hope that you figure it out in the end, please keep us posted on it. It is a bit of an odd one?
 
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