By CharlotteV - 10/15/2014
Hi, we use a task with movies and included a script that refers to different files for mac and win users. Everything used to work fine on both mac and win, but now someone who has a new version of OS X encountered problems. The answers moved over and around the movies or something like that. With older macs there are still no problems. Any ideas on how we could solve this? Could it be because we are still using .exp files and could it be solved by using the extension associated with Inquisit 4? Or is this not expected to change anything? Thanks!
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By Dave - 10/16/2014
> someone who has a new version of OS X encountered problems.
Which OSX version are you referring to specifically?
> The answers moved over and around the movies or something like that.
Sounds more like an issue with the respective elements' positioning rather than something directly related to the OS version. Not sure how to answer that without the actual code, though.
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By CharlotteV - 10/16/2014
It was about Mac OS 10.9.5. And one version earlier also gave problems. I add a screenshot of the problem. What happens is that particpants see a cross first, then a 10 second movie and after the movie they see instructions. What happens with OS 10.9.5 is that the cross does not in fact disappear so that the text (Dutch) is not visible. This problem did not occur with windows or earlier OS versions, so that's why we thought that the most plausible cause was incompatibility with newest OS versions rather than elements positioning, since that would give problems in other versions as well right? Since we did not develop this task ourselves but merely adapted it to our own eeds we are not suren whether the makers would like us to post it publicly, but I will send you the code in a private message. Of course any suggestions are welcome!
What do you think is the problem? Could it be about new OS versions? Could it be helpful to use Inquisit 4 files rather than exp (Inquisit 3) files?
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By Dave - 10/16/2014
Thanks for the additional details, the screenshot (very useful!) and the code (via PM). I do not think the issue is directly related to those particular OSX versions (10.9.4 / 10.9.5) -- Inquisit 4 generally has been tested and plays nice with both.
File extensions (*.exp vs *.iqx) can also be safely ruled out.
We have seen a few (very few) roughly similar issues in the past, i.e., screen not being updated properly, stimuli not being displayed according to what's specified in /stimulustimes or -frames. In all of these cases the problem was caused by a defective / buggy graphics card driver. Certain Nvidia cards / drivers seemed to be particularly error-prone. In all of these cases, the problem was ultimately resolved by obtaining / installing an upt-to-date driver from the card's manufacturer.
Please try that and let me know if it helps!
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By CharlotteV - 10/16/2014
Thanks for your quick reply! I asked the owner of the macbook and he says that he does not have a nvidia card and that the drivers are always updated with the OS version. So can you think of another solution? We already tested hundreds of people and the problem really only occurred with new OS versions...
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By Dave - 10/16/2014
> he says that he does not have a nvidia card and that the drivers are always updated with the OS version
The driver versions included with the OS are not necessarily the latest and greatest, so I'm afraid that doesn't rule out the broken driver possibility. Also, I did not mean to suggest that such issues *exclusively* occur with Nvidia cards. They merely make up the majority of cases I've seen. So, if you could have him check if any more recent driver for his card is available from the card's manufacturer, that would be great. Thanks!
Also, could you please ask him to provide the exact make / model for his graphics card?
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By erikb - 10/17/2014
I work for Sean as a developer on the Mac port of the software. It would be helpful if I could get access to the videos in question. I can try and do some quick tests to try and determine if I can spot a problem with them or our support of them.
Thanks and Enjoy,
Erik
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By CharlotteV - 10/19/2014
I will send you one of the movies (both in the original .wmv version and in the converted .mov version) by pm. We borrowed them from another research team, so please do not share.
Thanks for your help!
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By CharlotteV - 10/21/2014
Hello erikb, did you already find time to have a look at the movies I sent you by pm? Thanks!
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By erikb - 10/21/2014
I'm wondering if you could give me any more details about the machines you are seeing the problem on? I've looked at your videos and run your experiment under 10.9.5 and 10.10 both with and without Flip4Mac installed.
- How are you converting from wmv to mov format?
- What type of Mac hardware are you seeing the problem on?
- How much memory is in the computers in question?
Thanks and Enjoy,
Erik
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By CharlotteV - 10/22/2014
As also sent by PM
The anwer to your first question is: we used Prism video file converter by NCH Software
Info about the computer:
MacBook Pro13 Inch, Mid 2012 Processor 2.9GHz IntelCore i7; Memory 8GB 1600MHZDDR3; Graphics Intel HDGraphics 4000 1024 MB; Software OS X 10.9.5(13F34).
Thanks again!
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