MediaLab Version 2008.1

[jarvis24]

Release date: October 5th, 2007.

Changes, updates and bug fixes included in v2008 that are now considered stable are documented here as they evolved during the v2006 release:

http://www.empirisoft.com/Support/showthread.php?t=41
http://www.empirisoft.com/Support/showthread.php?t=937

Most of the changes listed have proven to be stable and are now carried into the first release of v2008. As we continue to add beta-updates to v2008, all licensed users will have free access to them. Announcement of new releases, feature additions, bug fixes and other updates will be regularly posted here.

Feature requests can be posted here (and we do read them!)

http://www.empirisoft.com/Support/forumdisplay.php?f=6

[jarvis24]

This isssue is fixed. On some site licensed machines, after installing MediaLab v2008, when starting for the first time with the code 99999, a message would appear "Not a valid license no.". If the application were closed and then opened again, MediaLab would start.

See also www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?p=3213

[jarvis24]

The font size used for "online rating" items was looking really small on larger screens. Now if you add an s (size/spacing) parameter to the online item you can set the font size--e.g., adding s16 to the parameters of an online item will make the labels appear as 16pt. The default font was also changed to Arial Bold.

Modifed the installation package to create appropriate permissions for all users to remedy an occasional licensing issue where administrators could use the software but not regular users.

[jarvis24]

Improved MediaLab's video playing capability on Windows Vista.

In response to www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?p=5082 you can now run a custom item at full screen (i.e., avoiding the usual MediaLab black border) by adding a (w-1) parameter. This is akin to using (w-1) to run a video at full screen.

Improved installation package to minimize licensing issues as a function of permission and admin vs regular user problems.

In response to www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=1432 and www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=424 you can now check an option on the MediaLab Preferences menu to "Disable Secret Keys"

In prior versions, the SPSS .sav data file had a 50 character limit on string (alphanumeric) variables. This has now been increased to 255 characters but will only take effect on newly generated .sav files. Note that, as before, the .csv and .txt data file formats have no limitation to the length of the data strings. Those wanting full text values in their datafile can use the .csv file in Excel, or importing the .csv file into Microsoft Access or other database program.

In prior versions, variables collected from custom items were written to the regular MediaLab data files. You now have the option to save the collected data to external files in the same manner as essay item data. To do this, simply add the following line to the form section in the HTML of your custom item:



That will cause MediaLab to create (or append to) an external data file dedicated to the current variable. If multiple form variables are being captured within the current MediaLab custom item, a separate external file will be created for each. These external text files will be of an identical structure to essay item data files.

[jarvis24]

Note that MediaLab v2008.1.33c will appear as v2008.1.33 when installed. The is because the main program itself (medialab.exe) was not altered in this new release. Only the installation package was changed (i.e., ml2008.1.33.exe). To determine if you have the old or new release of 2008.1.33, check your C:\Windows\System32 folder for a file named EVideo.ocx. If it is version 1.0.0.11 dated October 7th, 1999, then you have the older version of 2008.1.33 and would benefit from the newer installation package.

Issues resolved with new installation package ml2008.1.33c:

Resolved memory issues associated with Windows 7 and Vista compatibility. Some users were finding an (approximate) 150 item limit when trying to run experiments or questionnaires in MediaLab. This revised installation fixes this issue. This issue has been a long outstanding issue on the forums. It was fixed with promising success in 2008 on Vista but returned upon the release of Windows 7. Fix relates to threads such as:

http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=1013
http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=4726
http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=4752

Improved video playing capability across all versions of Windows, especially Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Screen flicker experienced between items on some Windows 7 and Vista systems has been fixed.

Some Windows 7 systems produced a message indicating that, after downloading, the install package could not be found. The error message would read something along these lines:

InstallShield
Unable to save file: C:\Windows\Downloaded Installations\{53CE6DA4-...Research Software v2008.1.msi
The system cannot find the path specified.

Although clicking through the message or running the package as an Admin could resolve this, the newest release package eliminates the problem altogether.

On some systems, this new install package will generate "Error 53: Project not found" after the install has fully completed. As far as we know, this implies no functional consequence but will continue to look into the cause of the message.

[pmor4272]

Hi,

To the best of my knowledge I have installed the 2008.1.0.33c version (that is what it the file is named in my downloads folder). However, I have encountered the freezing problem as well. I'm not sure after how many items it occurs as I'm not sure how to gather this information. However, when I encountered the problem, I would Cntrl Alt Delete and it would occur after I ran my experiment a second time (a different condition with the same amount of questionnaires and items, just different information).

Thanks

[jarvis24]

pmor4272, see if this thread helps:

http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?p=15660

It discusses different releases of v2008.1.33--some "lettered", some "non-lettered". The lettered versions came later and tended to work better on Vista and XP. The downside was that these newer install packages included a newer version of a file called evideo.ocx (typically written to one of the Windows system folders). It was the newer version of this file (1.19 instead of the older 1.11) that caused trouble for some XP users. Consequently, we have now made both the original ml2008.1.33 package available for XP users and ml2008.1.33e available for Vista and Windows 7 users.

See also: www.empirisoft.com/download_old.aspx

Note that as of January 2011, Version 2010 is also now available and so far seems to work very well on XP and Vista and Windows 7. We got rid of the evideo ocx file and reworked a lot of code from scratch to handle media and to avoid memory issues that were causing these problems for some users with v2008.

If this is at all confusing, please contact us at sales@ or service@ empirisoft.com with questions.

[jarvis24]

PS. Note that even the ml2008.1.33e package had some issues for Windows 7 users. These issues were occasional freezing (usually during larger experiments where memory leaks could grow) and in some cases where videos were interrupted. If you are a MediaLab v2008 user and a Windows 7 user and think this may apply to you, these issues have been resolved in MediaLab v2010 (specifically, in v2010.2.19)

See: www.empirisoft.com/download.aspx

For some initial comments regarding the impact of v2010, see also:
http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=5500
http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=5503
http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=5506