Video clip software?

[Jay Ashworth]

I thought either Cue Player or Multiplay did video in their free versions, but I see I'm wrong.

Dress tonight (yes, I'm an idiot; the world has been much with me lately, sorry), and I have *one* projection cue I need to feed to a projector, sending it black whenever it's not. Finale number, video is a 10 minute loop of a sign with chase lights.

Any suggestions, folks? "Play on the secondary output" and "stay in black when not playing" will be the hard parts, I know. I wouldn't object to paying for something to do this, I just don't have the cash this month ($300 refrigerator repair, and $300 worth of new eyeglasses will just murder your budget).

 

[Jay Ashworth]

UPDATE: I figured out a way to manhandle VLC into doing this that will get me through Dress.

 

[Amiers]

Any laptop and VLC, drag the play bar over the the laptop screen and have 5 secs of black ahead of your video file and leave your cursor on the play bar so it doesn't go away, if it happens to go away then just cursor over to the project screen and back to the laptop screen. Free and easy.

 

[dbaxter]

Drop me an email and I can extend the Cue Player free trial for a couple weeks until the budget recovers.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Well, turned out VLC was unreliable and blew the cue in dress (and got me my head handed to me by my LD)

But it also turns out that my projector's idling black is too bright, and can be seen on the white cyc during blackouts & I don't have a body available to pull a dowser before the scene.

So I may have to cut the cue anyway.

Sent from my SPH-L720

 

[Joshualangman]

The free QLab does this. Go to Tools > Black out desktop backgrounds. Patch your projector. Drag in the video. Hit GO.

 

[dbaxter]

You don't say the model of your projector, but on most there is a 'User' setting that will allow you to adjust the brightness. I have one of ours set so that it's not as bright displaying a picture, but when black it can't be seen as that big rectangle on the wall. You just have to dim it until it blends in. It's a compromise.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

No, Josh: /in black/, there's too much light leaking through the panel...

Sent from my SPH-L720

 

[Jay Ashworth]

I will check to see if I can yank it down far enough...


Sent from my SPH-L720

 

[Jay Ashworth]

But remember: my problem is /in blackout/...

Sent from my SPH-L720

 

[Amiers]

Is this a one off video shot. If so you could turn it on and off before and after video clip but you would need something more then VLC at that point to remember what screen playback happens.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Final scene. But powering it on gives me a blue logo screen, too.

Sent from my SPH-L720

 

[Amiers]

You should be able to remove the splash screen from the menu in the projector. If that doesn't work it looks like you will have to make a homemade dowser. They are fun and a PITA all at the same time.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Yep. Didn't see an option for that...

Sent from my SPH-L720

 

[ruinexplorer]

Does this projector have a dynamic contrast? The very bright video black is due to low contrast ratio. While this is acceptable in brighter environments, as you mention, it is quite annoying during blackouts. I have external dowsers just for that reason (which I realize you don't have the time for).

For playback, I agree with trying the free version of Qlab if you have a Mac available. If you have PowerPoint, you can have it start in a black slide, advance to the movie that automatically plays full screen, then automatically advance to the next black slide at the conclusion of the video slide.

 

[Amiers]

Yep. Didn't see an option for that...

Sent from my SPH-L720

So did that work for you. Also when you you turn it off I know with mine a screen comes up for a short sec when I have to repeat the button command.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Ok, now that I have recovered a little bit of the facial hair that my LD burned off last night...

I figured out how to make VLC do something I could use, after having to manhandle a big ol' bunch of the parameters hidden in Preferences->Show All. Alas, while this worked perfectly in tests, and on-site before the Dress, it screwed up *during* Dress, getting the aspect ratio of the projection really whacked. The render is 16:9, and the projector size 1024x768, so right away I got a problem. And yet, it worked twice; on a 4:3 test monitor, and on the projector.

And then it broke, when I cared.

Worse, no one in the house is in a position to see the projection; the catwalk blocks the booth.

I can probably adjust the projector brightness down a touch; it's one of the big Proximas; the sort with the interchangeable lens, like the big old Sanyo and Eiki's -- probably made by or for them. Same control panel on top and everything.

But I still need to know the output will be reliable.

Dave: For Premium Plus, then? That would be really cool; thanks. PM coming.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

FTR: I ended up using the trial of Dave's Cue Player Premium Plus, which worked perfectly and reliably everytime, and a manual box-flap dowser pulled by a stagehand.

 

[dbaxter]

That's good to hear. Glad it worked out for you. (psst: tell others )

 

[Jay Ashworth]

What do you think I just did...?

Sent from my SPH-L720