nickb12345 Posted October 9, 2007 Share Posted October 9, 2007 Hi All I am looking for a software package to play back AVI files for shows. We currently use DVD but dont find it reliable enough so we play backing tracks from minidisc and sync the dvd up manually using pitch control - a very long way around it! I have spend a fair few hours trawling the net and the forum looking at demos of all sorts of VJ software and the likes but they are all over complicated for what I want. VLC media player is the closest I have found so far, however I have a problem. I need it to work in the style of a Minidisc player with Auto-Pause. When one file in the playlist ends it needs to stop playback (I can do that no probs) but it needs to select the next one automaticlly so when the user presses play it goes onto the next track. I cant find the option for this in VLC. Anyone got any ideas? It needs to: Play AVI files with Audio; be VERY reliable; have a seperate video output (on second monitor with controls on the primary monitor); have "auto-pause" functions; and an easy to use playlist; and the ability to rewind, fast forward, skip tracks etc. The software will be used by people who can use a minidisc player - but their computer skills may not be fantastic. Ideally I am just looking for a way to make VLC advance the track as well as pause it. Budget of around £500-£800 is available for it but I expect something like this is available on the freeware market. Thanks Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henny Posted October 9, 2007 Share Posted October 9, 2007 powerpoint????? on the right pc powepoint will cue as you have asked fine. also allows you to place stills in the gaps if you wish. also whats the problem with a dvd , correctley edited with the pauses in the disk (use menus ect) it will run fine , ive done a number of push go type presentations on dvd with out a probelm , simpliest control envolved a £20 tesco dvd player , gutted the romote and fittied the the remains inside a proect box with a big go button on the top, the button was just connected to play, as I said its all in the editing of the dvd. ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickb12345 Posted October 9, 2007 Author Share Posted October 9, 2007 On 3 of our parks we have Nuamrk DVD01 players - at about £500 a pop they are a total waste of money but they were put in before my time. They are no where near reliable enough for show playback. They have about a 3s delay after pressing play, they skip and jump with brand new discs and take ages to cue up. However on our 4 new parks I am specing the installation so can suggest good dvd players - but if I would rather not have two systems across the 7 parks, if everything can be the one system it makes my job a hell of a lot easier! Powerpoint does not have the level of control we need. It needs to look, work and think like a MiniDisc player. It has no FF, RW etc. Also you cant pause it and then resume from the same point etc. We do use powerpoint a lot, simply because its easy and can be edited quickly. Thanks anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukemh Posted October 9, 2007 Share Posted October 9, 2007 not my neck of the woods but have you tried Dzine? make v. useful boxes along those lines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted October 9, 2007 Share Posted October 9, 2007 Does it have to be software based - reliability seems important here. My pantos have a need for video file playback. DVD, as said, was rubbish - cue time just not predicatable, instant one time, 3 secs next time. Last year we used a Doremi system and the year before a nNovia hard drive unit. Hundreds of cues all 100% accurate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted October 9, 2007 Share Posted October 9, 2007 We've recently started using QLab. It's absolutely fantastic and very easy to use. However - it's only Mac I'm afraid but it's well worth the price of a bottom end machine to run it on.We're currently using a G4 iBook with no problems.Q-Lab Link T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olie Posted October 10, 2007 Share Posted October 10, 2007 I have to say that I agree that a software solution is unlikely to give you exact cue points but it can be 99% reliable. The problem is that the software never has complete control over the playback. You can get fast machines though to improve this. I thought it might be worth mentioning the next version of Screen Monkey will have the Auto-Pause capability you mention and it is suposed to be easy to use for video cueing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted October 10, 2007 Share Posted October 10, 2007 If you are doing parks then you probably should be using theme park equipment, rather than reinventing solutions. Theres plenty of this type of kit about, but most folks here will have had limited or zero exposure to that marketplace. The obvious products (both hardware) for shortlisting would seem to be this or this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickb12345 Posted October 11, 2007 Author Share Posted October 11, 2007 Thanks for the suggestions. It does not have to be software based, I am open to suggestions for hardware players. But as I said we have had bad experiances with DVD players. We are not looking for automatic playback devices. This is for normal shows with a sound Op to run it. We are not talking pre-packaged shows that run themselves. I have been looking at the Pioneer DVD V8000. Its a tad out of the budget but if it works I expect we could stretch to it. Does anyone have an input on this model? Anybody used it in anger with any feedback? ThanksNick EDIT: Another question for you all. I have been reading up on syncing Audio from MD to seperate video playback. If I add a timecode track to one side of the Minidisc and run that into a DVD or HDD player that can accept timecode they will sync up yes? If we need to skip a track for any reason if we click the MD player on and then press play will the video player realise and skip to the correct part of the video? If so this could be ideal for me. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhammar Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 The video severs from Doremi can do this, I had a project a year ago where it was crucial to get video playback in sync with audio and the doremi player performed flawlessly.It's very easy to set the timecode offset and then it will play and skip with very high precision.Standard LTC can be recorded on to an audio track but I don't know how well it will do on a minidisc since it uses a destructive compression algorithm. Doremi /J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 Video playback syncing to timecode; good hard disk video players to look at include the Rosendahl Bonsai and the tiny nNovia (the posh model A2D I think they call it) Set it up right and the video will stay frame locked to your audio, and if you jump your audio, the video jumps too. The modern hard disk players are so much cooler than doing it with tape, where a jump causes the umatic to go into fast forward for a while whilst the music plays on, perhaps thats why they call it "chasing timecode..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfmjohn Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 Back to the software side of things JetAudio7 from Cowon is a freeware download, plays music/video/dvd and most important in the Repeat menu it has the option to Stop after current track, and then when you press play, it moves on to the next one in the playlist Jet Audio Download Basic edition should do everything you need and you can put your £500-800 into more fun things :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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