Thomas Leong
Forum Replies Created
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Just a word of caution re turning plasmas on its side (or facing upwards, downwards, etc) for a long period of time. The caution is HEAT!
Most, if not all, plasmas are designed to dissipate heat upwards when oriented horizontally. So the vents are at the horizontal top edges. Orienting the display sideways will likely redirect the heat back into the casing and may have adverse effects on the unit when operated over a period of time. When orienting the display in a position for which it is not designed, try to operate with the covers/casing off. That would be best.
Thomas Leong
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“…but it was like $300 to buy the plugin from Canopus…”
It has been free since about year 2000 soon after I bought my DVStorm…had to register to get the free CD of the plug-in.
In any case, in answer to the original question, it seems that the AE plug-in is part of the PPro plugin download at Canopus’ site (a huge file), and also with the Edius downloads. Both need registering with Canopus, but AFAIK, just register your DVStorm card and software at their site to get to the relevant download pages. No serial numbers are required, if I recall correctly.
AE7 works with DVStorm’s analog out (composite or S-video). Reference the following Forum thread at –
Forum thread re AE7 and DVStormThomas Leong
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As long as the show is pre-programmed to a timeline (even with pauses, jump to cues, or switched in and out between Live Video IMAG coverage overlayed on a background, etc), then have a look at Dataton’s Watchout and AVStumpfl’s Wings Platinum (rental/sub-contract out should be possible). These 2 handle multidisplays (beamers, monitors, plasmas, whatever) arranged/spaced out however you want.
There are also event-based hardware controllers, but I’m not familiar with those. Look through a few posts back by Bob Bonnoi in this forum.
Thomas Leong
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Additionally you may want to check out/contact Arcstreamav to see if they can adapt their ‘interactive poolsystem’ to project on a wall instead of onto the floor.
Their system has been briefly described as having XY sensors mounted near the projectors overhead which would trigger a preprogrammed event when a person does a particular action very near the projected image, eg. steps near, and the animated projected fishes would swim away. Perhaps they could adapt the sensors to aim at the two oval seats, or use mechanical sensors instead. Their Technical Director, Tony Clynick, would be the one to speak to as he has eons of experience installing/troubleshooting/problem-solving at numerous World Expos over the years. Be warned, however, that their system is not cheap.
I am familiar with Stumpfl’s Wings Platinum, and except for a couple of possible gotchas, what you describe/require could be done with Wings Platinum software using their Show Control Module and Mix Group function. The two possible gotchas are multidisplay video loop, and alpha-channel videos. During production, both may not be a problem. But on playback, they may need a workaround.
Suggest you contact Avstumpfl USA Office for further exploration for your project.
Thomas Leong
Yahoo Group Multidisplays Forum -
Generally, I find that the freeware from MS called “Powerpoint Viewer 97” is the most compatible Powerpoint player regardless of Office version used to produce the powerpoint. Some may say one has to ‘Pack and Go’ the original for compatibility, but I have not found this to be the case. I usually just re-associate .ppt files to be opened by PPTVIEW.EXE (or use Right-click > Open With…) and that seems to work for me.
Handy utility to store permanently in one’s USB flash drive.
Thomas Leong
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I agree, digital signage solutions are the way to go to achieve what you want. Some allow you to choose a screen layout where designated portions of the screen/plasma are reserved for, eg. ticker tape live feed, live clock, video playback, etc. There are cheap and expensive solutions and most of the software are tied to proprietary hardware solutions, from the main server to each playback station. Most run via CAT5 Networking so cabling is cheap.
The initial design and setup would be the most time-consuming, but once the thing runs based on a playlist, updating or modifying the playlist daily or weekly as the case may be, is a breeze. Just do a google for ‘digital signage’ and if you are familiar with Canopus stuff, they have their Media Edge which is one option which is reasonably priced, or so I understand.
Thomas Leong
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My error.
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The resolution for Outdoor LEDs is not very high – probably about 640×480 since the LEDs are big in order to be bright enough to compete with the sun or other outdoor lights, and can only be spaced so far apart. So DVD’s PAL resolution of 720×576 should be fine. Just encode at the highest possible datarate that the playback device will play without hiccups.
If it is Indoor LED instead, then the res could be higher since the LEDs are smaller and not as bright as Outdoor, and can be spaced closer together. Only the supplier will know what his LED’s resolution is, so you should work together with the supplier before outputting.
Thomas Leong
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MPEG-2 (DVD presets) with about 7000 bitrate would look pretty good full screen…assuming the playback PC has enough muscle for MPEG-2 and an installed codec to playback since MPEG-2 is not native to Windows Media Player which Powerpoint inherently uses.
Additionally, Powerpoint itself is a bit quirky starting the playback of videos from within itself. It tends to stutter at the start of play. Best solution I’ve used is to edit with the first frame of the video as an image rather than black. Set the video up in Powerpoint with a ‘click mouse to start play’ command or equivalent. On presentation, the first frame of the video would come on screen like a freeze frame, give it a couple of seconds or more to introduce the video, then hit the spacebar, and the startup will be smoother…it’s like giving Powerpoint a few secs to prefill its buffer before playing.
Thomas Leong
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I don’t know of any cheap/free Mac stuff, but I know, with Windows, if you want the highest possible resolution to display your high-res good work on the plasma with little to no compression, I would suggest you look at the free version of Wings Platinum called Wings Basic from AvStumpfl.
This is what it says from the Help Files for Wings –
If you have used digital pictures in designing your show, you can output EXE presentations via the integrated player. An EXE presentation can be started by double-clicking it and runs on virtually every up-to-date computer with Windows operating system. For presentation of high-resolution images Wings Platinum uses 3D graphics cards hardware acceleration. The images contained in the file can be copy protected to prevent unauthorized usage of images by third parties to the largest extent possible when passing them on. Password protection can also be enabled additionally. See Creating an EXE presentation. in the Help Files for the ‘how to’.Wings Basic comes with one track of Audio and one Picture track (for stills only). You can dissolve between pictures on the same track merely by overlapping them. The dissolve rate can be adjusted manually if required. For further help, you can ask at https://groups.yahoo.com/group/multidisplays but you would have to send in a request to join first. Just mention your interest in Wings in your application to join and it should be approved within hours.
Before you start creating your project specs in Wings, I suggest you first find out what the native resolution of the plasma is that you will be renting. There are 1024×768 (XGA) plasmas for rental out there that are not expensive at all. This is definitely better than the usual video res which is near SVGA (800×600). Alternatively, just go ahead and create a XGA project and then hire a XGA plasma.
Obviously, you will need a Windows PC to present/run the EXE show. If I’m not wrong, you could write a very basic DOS code in an autoexec.bat file to loop the file, or ask someone here or at the multidisplay forum aforesaid to do it for you free. If you are from London, I have a good friend in London who may be willing to help you source a plasma, write the loop code for you, etc…since you are a student. He uses both Mac and Windows PCs. Contact me off-line at ‘tlsc at pc.jaring.my’ substituing ‘at’ with u-know-what.
Thomas Leong