How To

Video Engine Logging

April 11, 2024 by

This article will show how to setup Video Engine Logging.

1. Setup Logging

Start PLAYDECK, open Settings, and select the APPLICATION tab. At the bottom of the page, you will find the configuration options.

Output Folder: Choose your destination directory. This can also be a shared network folder.

Storage Warning: Logs can easily consume up to 1 GB per minute (at Verbosity 0 with all modules enabled). Ensure you have sufficient free disk space based on how long it might take for the issue to occur.

Verbosity: Always start logging with 0 – trace. This ensures the Video Engine developers receive all necessary information.

Modules: Select all to begin with. If the log files become too large, you can reduce their size by focusing on specific modules:

The first thing to setup is your Output Folder for the Log Files. This can be a shared Folder on your Network. Logs can easily consume up to 1 GB per Minute (on Verbosity 0 and all Modules). Plan enough free disc space, depending on the estimated time until Bug occurrence.

The next setup is Verbosity: Please always start Logging with 0 – trace, so the Video Engine Devs have ALL information.

With the Modules setting we pick all to begin with. If Log Files get to big, we can reduce the size by focussing on specific modules:

  • all: Logs everything.
  • playlist,file,codecs: Covers playout, file decoding, and clip loading/playing errors.
  • writer: Covers streams, recordings, and encoding.
  • network: Covers streaming protocols.
  • renderer: Covers device output and NDI.
  • live: Covers live inputs.
  • device: Everything related to hardware devices.
  • blackmagic: Everything related to Blackmagic Design hardware.


Split Option: This depends on how many channels you are running, as every channel operates on its own process. If you use more than 2 channels, we highly recommend enabling the Split option.

2. Start / Stop Logging

To catch a bug on the fly, you will need to start logging, reproduce the issue, stop logging, and then send the files to the development team.

Timing: You can START and STOP logging at any time. This allows you to prepare your playlist or devices beforehand. Minimize the time between starting and stopping to keep the overall file size manageable.

Session Folder: Once you click START, a new subfolder named after the current timestamp (e.g., 2026-05-16__01-20-00) will be created in your designated logging path.

Stopping: Once the bug occurs, click STOP. Wait at least 10 seconds to ensure all active log processes finish writing to the disk.

Compression: Open your logging path and locate the session folder. Right-click the folder, select Compress to…, and choose 7z (preferred) or ZIP. Compression may take some time depending on the file size.

Now we need to ZIP the contents of the session folder. Identify your session folder by START time. Then right-click your session folder, select Compress to and pick 7z File (if available) or ZIP File. Now lean back, compression could take some time.

3. Uploading Logs

Please upload your compressed log files using our official download portal:

https://download.joy-event-media.de

  1. Drag and drop your ZIP/7z file into the browser window or use the file browser.
  2. Click UPLOAD.
  3. Once complete, click COPY to copy the generated download link to your clipboard.
  4. Send an email to [email protected] and paste the download link into the message.

Note: Without this specific download link, our team cannot access your files due to data protection policies.

4. Cleanup

Make sure to delete the original log files and session folders after successful compression and upload to free up disk space. PLAYDECK does not automatically delete or clean up old log files.


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