Fatal Error and video freeze.

[PeterP]

I often get a crash and the "Fatal Error" message box when switching between videos on an external USB HDD.

The video freezes but the 3d/VR environment and the UI is still sort of responsive. No new videos can be started and if I take off the headset I see a dialog box with "Fatal Error" in Windows. Closing it shuts down the program.

I guess it's the OS giving a file open/read error of some sort.

It would be good if the error box could have a bit more information. And maybe the file handling could be a bit more error tolerant and try to recover from those errors.

[PeterP]

For comparison the same behavior in DeoVR and SkyBox usually freeze for a bit when switching between videos as well, but they do recover after a few seconds.

[HereSphere]

Could be windows is turning off your USB HDD after a while. Can you try this:
https://www.ghacks.net/2009/05/18/prevent-power-saving-mode-of-external-hard-drives/

[PeterP]

I tried that but it didn't help unfortunately.

The easiest way for me to provoke that error is to quickly switch to a new video while one is already playing. After 2-4 switches, about 5 seconds apart I get that error.

[HereSphere]

Oh, I think there might be a bug where the player will crash if you try loading a video while another video is trying to load. I guess it's a more noticeable issue when using slower HDDs. I'll see if I can reproduce the error and try to find a fix. Thanks.

[PeterP]

Thank you!

[Kildren]

I'm getting the same error, the thumbnails go blank (turns gray) and videos are unplayable :/ Sometimes it takes multiple restarts for it to go back to normal, it's frustrating... I've tried deleting the AppData for HereSphere, and clear the thumbnail cache with Disk Cleanup, but it still crashes.

It seems to crash less, if at all when I use list view instead of grid thumbnail view.

[HereSphere]

Originally posted by Kildren:

I'm getting the same error, the thumbnails go blank (turns gray) and videos are unplayable :/ Sometimes it takes multiple restarts for it to go back to normal, it's frustrating... I've tried deleting the AppData for HereSphere, and clear the thumbnail cache with Disk Cleanup, but it still crashes.

It seems to crash less, if at all when I use list view instead of grid thumbnail view.

Can you provide details about your computer? The type of storage drive you're using, operating system, GPU, etc. And whether there are reproducible conditions that cause the issue. Thanks.

[Kildren]

Originally posted by HereSphere:

Can you provide details about your computer? The type of storage drive you're using, operating system, GPU, etc. And whether there are reproducible conditions that cause the issue. Thanks.

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 6-Core Processor 3.80 GHz
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 Gaming, 11GB GDDR5X
32GB Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 3200 MHz DDR4 DRAM
MSI B350M Gaming PRO AM4 AMD B350 SATA 6Gb/s HDMI Micro ATX Motherboards

Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB NVMe M.2 Internal SSD
14TB WesternDigital easystore external hard drive
8TB Seagate BarraCuda (5400RPM) - ST8000DM004-2CX188
8TB WesternDigital RED NAS Hard Drive (5400RPM) - WDC WD80EFZX-68UE8N0

Edition Windows 10 Pro
Version 21H2
OS build 19044.1865
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4180.0

I'm using a gamepad (xbox one controller) + HP Reverb G2.

Not sure about the reproducible conditions. I just use the app normally, nothing fancy lol
I play a SBS video, while it's playing I open the main menu to look at the file explorer, sometimes the thumbnails work fine, sometimes it's just gray. The video I initially opened continues to play no problem. If I select one of the gray thumbnails, the video title at the bottom changes but the resolution shows 0x0.

This "crash" can happen as often as every 5 minutes, depending on how often I switch video. SteamVR doesn't let me restart HereSphere after the crash because HereSphere still runs in the background (seen in task manager). So I'd have to end the task through task manager before restarting.

I guess I could try storing the videos on the NVME drive instead of the slower 14TB/8TB drives.

[HereSphere]

Can you try using the SSD exclusively for a couple sessions and see if you still get the issue? It might be related to one of your HDD's, because it sounds like the app is waiting on a read process with one of the drives. I wonder if you can force Windows to generate thumbnails for all of your videos ahead of time.

[PeterP]

I've never seen the problem happen when the videos are on SSD, only when it's on external slower HDD. And it's the same with several different external HDDs I've tried.

[Kildren]

Originally posted by HereSphere:

Can you try using the SSD exclusively for a couple sessions and see if you still get the issue? It might be related to one of your HDD's, because it sounds like the app is waiting on a read process with one of the drives. I wonder if you can force Windows to generate thumbnails for all of your videos ahead of time.

Seems like you're right, it doesn't happen on my SSD. Is there no way to make it wait for thumbnails to load instead of immediately crashing? Or some kind of "refresh/reload" button?

VR videos take up quite a bit of space, the last thing I want is to store media on my precious NVME SSD lol

[HereSphere]

Originally posted by Kildren:

Originally posted by HereSphere:

Can you try using the SSD exclusively for a couple sessions and see if you still get the issue? It might be related to one of your HDD's, because it sounds like the app is waiting on a read process with one of the drives. I wonder if you can force Windows to generate thumbnails for all of your videos ahead of time.

Seems like you're right, it doesn't happen on my SSD. Is there no way to make it wait for thumbnails to load instead of immediately crashing? Or some kind of "refresh/reload" button?

VR videos take up quite a bit of space, the last thing I want is to store media on my precious NVME SSD drive lol

It's difficult to debug without having access to the actual hardware that's causing the issue. One of my HDD's is getting pretty old, so maybe I can debug this issue once it starts having issues.

In the meantime, a possible workaround could be xbvr, which creates a local http server for you and scrapes sites for thumbnails and tags. You access the xbvr video library in HereSphere by going to http://127.0.0.1:9999, then pressing the web api button to the left of the url input box.

[PeterP]

> It's difficult to debug without having access to the actual hardware that's causing the issue.

Seagate and WD both have very cheap external USB harddrives for as little as $50 if you want something to test with.

[Kildren]

Originally posted by HereSphere:

It's difficult to debug without having access to the actual hardware that's causing the issue. One of my HDD's is getting pretty old, so maybe I can debug this issue once it starts having issues.

In the meantime, a possible workaround could be xbvr, which creates a local http server for you and scrapes sites for thumbnails and tags. You access the xbvr video library in HereSphere by going to http://127.0.0.1:9999, then pressing the web api button to the left of the url input box.

I just made a batch file to restart HereSphere, so I don't have to take off my headset every time it crashes lol That, or I just use it in list view so it doesn't crash at all. I'm too lazy to setup a whole server streaming thing at this point.

Like PeterP said, it would be great if you could get a cheapo hard drive. There's a lot of WD Red 1TB on the used market because they're meant for NAS (people upgrade/throw them out in bulk). Right now, there's a 1TB WD Red on ebay for $25, free shipping to US. I suggest Red just because that's the one I'm using, other colors are probably even cheaper.

[Slickstream]

Originally posted by BitWizrd:

I was doing a search for this issue, and I also have this problem, but my videos are actually stored on a Synology NAS, accessible over the network via mapped drives.

I have exactly the same problem, also with a Synology NAS featuring 9 Seagate Ironwolf's in Hybrid RAID.

The NAS / my network is quite performant and stable on all other software, but Heresphere really doesn't like it (same problems as mentioned ITT, freezing videos, slow loading, "Fatal Crash", thumbnails not loading ect).

On a local SSD, no problems what so ever.