Play video out via FireWire

[peternewman]

I'm looking to play video files out from a computer, ideally via FireWire as it's a bit neater than using a scan converter/TV out, it also frees up a monitor as I've got a DV bridge. So I was wondering, apart from Arkaos, does anyone know of any relatively low priced FireWire output alternatives. I did find someone who was working on developing something for VLC a while back, but of course I can't find it now. Equally has anyone tried Arkaos on higher quality stuff, or have people only used it for small low res stuff? I'm ideally looking at building a cuelist based playout PC for an awards ceremony and as mentioned FireWire would have some benefits.

[Olie]

I have seen quite allot of talk about a DV output video driver but as yet no one seems to have made one.

 

If you think Screen Monkey could do what you want then it would be quite simple for me to write a plugin that could output Video to DV. It would only work for videos and DVDs at the moment though, would take a bit longer to implment images. Let me know if you are interested.

[peternewman]

That could be quite interesting, not necessarily for this event, but to have in my armoury for future use. Ideally for this I'm looking for a more cue stack based thing, so one operator can play off a series of nominations and winners by hitting spacebar or similar, while also running sound, tension beds and walk on/off and riding a fader, and possibly doing some lighting transitions too. I guess also if the software allows loops that would be a workaround for images.

 

Out of interest, and drifting a little off topic, what are you writing it in, Direct X? I did also find Simple Video Out from Apple, but it looks to be Mac only.

 

Moderation: Topic split and a small bit of now irrelevant discussion removed, as the other one is now being resolved, thanks to the bump, but the two interlinked topics were getting hard to follow. See the other topic here

[Olie]

Out of interest, and drifting a little off topic, what are you writing it in, Direct X?

 

Yes Screen Monkey uses DirectX.

 

I can certainly make Screen Monkey output DV and I had already been planning to do cue lists but I doubt it will ever do lights. There are plenty of very good consoles out there for this.

[peternewman]

Sorry I didn't make that very clear Olie, the video stuff would only need to do video, although if it can be triggered by MIDI that would be a plus. It's more that our current solution for such tasks involves someone cueing up and running files in FCP/Quicktime. With the inherent clumsiness, and the risk of playing the winners clip instead of the nominations. Also as soon as it's running from a cuelist we can use one op to do that, hit go for lighting if required and sort out sound. I'm currently looking at PC Stage, which is looking very promising for the job, subject to being able to get decent video playback from it.

 

Anyway if you can add DV output and cuelists to Screenmonkey it would be very cool and I'd imagine I'd end up using it quite frequently for various jobs.

[dbuckley]

That could be quite interesting, not necessarily for this event, but to have in my armoury for future use. Ideally for this I'm looking for a more cue stack based thing, so one operator can play off a series of nominations and winners by hitting spacebar or similar, while also running sound, tension beds and walk on/off and riding a fader, and possibly doing some lighting transitions too. I guess also if the software allows loops that would be a workaround for images.

 

Yeah, been there, done that.

 

It did all the visuals in powerpoint, and then ran it and PCStage on the lappy, with projector on ext VGA. PCStage does all the audio and drives the lighting, and also controlled powerpoint. So, right hand on the 'go' button, left hand on the audio fader. All from cue list. [fx: football crowd] Eeee Zeee! Eeeee Zeeee!![/fx]

[peternewman]

PCStage does all the audio and drives the lighting, and also controlled powerpoint.

Going slightly OT, I assume you used your PowerPoint control plug in on your website for this.

[dbuckley]

I certainly did.

 

Based on what I learned about making multiple PowerPoint shows work with that tool, I'm doing a redevelop and repackaging of the underlying control technology in a much more comprehensive tool, that will take a big swipe at everything else out there.