scheduler ?

FYI:  Michael is not kidding about the uninstall, reboot, reinstall, reboot sequence.  I know the temptation exists to ignore that and "hope for the best" in order to save a couple of minutes of reboot time and avoid the inconvenience of reopening all your other applications that were already open before you upgrade, but don't do it.  While unlikely (yet still possible), if anyone does experience an issue after the upgrade, the "Did you properly reboot?" question will be the first one asked, and if the answer is a sheepish "Well, no", then you will be directed to uninstall, reboot, reinstall, reboot, so you all might as well just get it out of the way now.  Not that anyone here would ever do that. 

Edited by Jonathan - 07 Nov 2011 at 1:58pm

Sorry, I am having a conversation by myself but hopefully this will help others as I am literally troubleshooting this right now and talking/typing out loud.  So I was able to find on an external hard drive a back up of my old computer files.  I uninstalled Aurora and loaded up an old version of it and viola now the "black screen of inability to use my computer while scheduler is running" has disappeared.  I loaded up a few songs into scheduler and pressed start and unlike before, the show started but my screen did not black out and in fact the show is still running right now while I am on the internet typing this.  So I have to think it is something in the software that was changed that makes the screen go black during playback.  When the screen goes black the show still runs and the lights outside the house are fine(that is what I ended up doing for halloween show) but I just was getting frustrated with the loss of using my computer when the show was running.

So the old version that I installed said 1.0. build 32(scheduler).  This is the version that works fine.
The version that shows the black screen is the current version out 1.0 build 68(scheduler). 

I am having the same problems with Scheduler too.  I am using sequences that I used last year and am getting the same problem...black screen when the scheduler starts.  Last year I could do other tasks on the computer while scheduler was running...I am wondering if it is related to Windows 7.  I am using a new computer this year than last year and that is the only thing that has changed that I can think of...well Win7 64 bit vs. last year on vista 32 bit so 64 vs 32 is also the other difference.  Any additional thoughts?  Anyone else running a show on Win7 64 without the black screen?  So I can at least eliminate that?

Does your computer have dual-display capability? If so, try deactivating the secondary display.

Because there are so many mp3 encoders (and not all are created equal), it is recommended that you use only .wav files as they are uncompressed and thus not prone to the same issues some mp3's have.  Aurora can read most mp3's, but there have been issues in the past.  If you need a .wav encoder, Audacity can export out .wav files and is also great for editing audio (and it's free too).

I do recall a few users having the black screen even though they are not using any video files.  This may have been caused by using a shared sequence that at one time had video, but some sequences created from scratch seem to trigger the full screen window.  Simply press ESC and the screen will return to normal, with the black screen reduced to a floating window that can then be tucked off to the side.

As you are still learning the ropes and testing what Aurora can do, you might benefit from reading the Unofficial Beginner's Guide and tutorial videos that ChrisL and I put together.  It's a tad dated now, but the information is still useful.