update on programmersguide ?

[ActiveHouse]

Hello everybody,


I'm currently in the progress of writing some plugins for Vixen.
(one of them, is a video-plugin, to start/stop video fullscreen with an animation, so I can use vixen, synced to my projector)

Is there a new programmers-reference available ?
The current one in the /files section, is for Vixen 1.1 ...
I allready downloaded the VB .NET framework, and I have something
working, but I need to find a way to retrieve the current sequence-time/location, from the currently playing sequence, to get the video in sync.


P.S. Sorry for my bad English, my native language is Dutch

Thank you,
Kris

[lboucher]

I am also looking for this?

[animal]

I don't think it would be that hard. Just have vixen reconise windows media format not just mp3. Then create your video and export it to vixen, (or import it, what ever) like you would an audio file, then sequence. You would just have to have a dual video card and set up your video software acordingly. You can do it thru windows also for dual monitors (seperate). I just don't know if something in vixen would have to point to the video source. This would be great if you can make this happen.


animal

[Warlock]

Is there a way you can do this for anything playing on windows media player ??? Like a plug in for running video as well...Sync the video (like for example a running loop of video of TSO wizards in winter so when my leds video boards are ready I can sync it up to vixen and have it control all of it)..Just an idea to take this a bit further...

[A Marchini]

Hello everybody,


I'm currently in the progress of writing some plugins for Vixen.
(one of them, is a video-plugin, to start/stop video fullscreen with an animation, so I can use vixen, synced to my projector)

Is there a new programmers-reference available ?
The current one in the /files section, is for Vixen 1.1 ...
I allready downloaded the VB .NET framework, and I have something
working, but I need to find a way to retrieve the current sequence-time/location, from the currently playing sequence, to get the video in sync.


P.S. Sorry for my bad English, my native language is Dutch

Thank you,
Kris

I believe time is synchronized to the fmod audio player .dll . I don't think the linkage you want is available. The plugin spec only gives you a time reference through the "Event" call back function.

There is probably a way to start a movie but it will probably not stay time synchronized.

Personally, I don't understand the concept. If you are watching a video, how can you watch a light display?

Tony M.

[Aurbo99]

If I read this right,

I believe Warlock is looking for a way to turn Vixen into a responsive color organ so his channels will sync with the video music being played.

Its already there in audio and its not automatic, you have to set it up manually.

As for Kris, I think there might be a way to do what he's trying to do with the scripting/trigger area of Vixen.. In a similar fashion to how a few guys are updating the RDS stream in real time to reflect the current song/sequence played. Its also being used with LedTriks.

Instead of the RDS software triggering, he wants an on/play/pause/off style script or trigger that can control his projector. If his projector is software driven, it may be possible, if its manually controlled via buttons or remote, perhaps a solenoid module

[rlilly]

Personally, I don't understand the concept. If you are watching a video, how can you watch a light display?

Tony M.

That was my first impression, then I saw the work of Wayne Kremer last year (http://www.nevadachristmas.com/Medley2008Video.htm).

[kychristmas]

I never wondered about it. Many members have huge displays that you can't possibly watch all of at one time either. So I see the Video as just another display element such as Megatree, Leaper, Wireframe, etc..

Thanks for posting the Link to Wayne's. I came across that before, but didn't save the link. His video element is well-done and nicely integrated.

[Aurbo99]

http://www.nevadachristmas.com/Megawreath.htm Here is the details on how he did it..

Very interesting concept. Kudo's for pulling it off. It does look good.

While I do like the effect, I'm not interested in inviting my neighbors into my front yard to watch TV..

I'd rather let them enjoy the lights and music and hopefully reminisce.

If you thought RIAA was on your case now, wait til you start broadcasting "public TV" especially now that the US is going Digital to protect the copyrights.

my 2 cents..

[WireWrap]

...
If you thought RIAA was on your case now, wait til you start broadcasting "public TV" especially now that the US is going Digital to protect the copyrights.

my 2 cents..

No, that's not the reason for the switch... (despite RIAA's insatiable hunger)

Digital TV signals can take up about a third of the RF spectrum that an analog TV signal occupies, or they can broadcast up to three digital channels within that 6 MHz space. Broadcasters LOVE having more broadcasting advertising potential. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has mandated the conversion to conserve spectrum space, while also freeing up channels 52-69 for auction (108 MHz of spectrum). This can bring in hundreds of millions of dollars. The government is far more interested in money than it is in RIAA's whining.

[animal]

Getting back to video. Why couldn't you just create your video what ever it is incuding audio then save it to a format that vixen could reconize like windows media. Now you have the audio from the video in place you just need to sync your lights as you would normally. The audio is part of the video already. We just want vixen to play it. That's where it would get tricky. Vixen would have to call windows media to play it. Then just add a 2nd viedo card set up windows for 2 monitors (seperate) and bingo vixen on one, and windows media on the other playing your video on the projection screen.


animal

[A Marchini]

Getting back to video. Why couldn't you just create your video what ever it is incuding audio then save it to a format that vixen could reconize like windows media. Now you have the audio from the video in place you just need to sync your lights as you would normally. The audio is part of the video already. We just want vixen to play it. That's where it would get tricky. Vixen would have to call windows media to play it. Then just add a 2nd viedo card set up windows for 2 monitors (seperate) and bingo vixen on one, and windows media on the other playing your video on the projection screen.


animal

I don't believe vixen can "play" a video in sync like it does with audio files because the coordination is handled by the audio library fmod. So the ability to hit the play button or extract the frequency display wouldn't be available, or hitting play and tapping out extraction points or slow down by a 1/2 or 1/4. I guess what I am saying is that vixen can't play video. It just can't directly in its current form, I am pretty sure of this, but then K.C. could chime in around this point and say otherwise.

Now you can start a video externally with vixen calling media player, but synchronizing it would be a matter of luck because it would assume the media player launches at the instant you expect.
Now you could extract the audio from the video (if it has audio) and then design the lights to be "close" and allow for some slop.

Of course I am making an assumption the video has an audio track, I mean it could be a sideshow or something, in which case this effect of having vixen start media player before the light show would probably work pretty well.

Tony M.

[animal]

That's kinda what i'm thinking. If you use the audio from the video to sync your lights and have vixen call wm to play. The slop should be minimal. Your just looking for some visual on video not and exact sync like the lights are. If you check out this video it's not really perfect. I know lor supports it. But I don't think we would have to get to complicated about it. I think it could be kept simple. Just my thoughts . I would really like to get into this video thing.

http://www.nevadachristmas.com/Medley2008Video.htm


animal

[awhaley]

I was pondering a similar task a while back, but for a few reasons, I was going to make it a little more 'universal' than just a vixen plugin.

My thoughts were to write a free and open source media server that could be controlled both via dmx. The software would run on a second computer (possibly with higher specs than the normal Vixen dinosaur) The vixen plugin would add 3 channels to your show...

1. A 'heartbeat' channel that helps keep video synched

2. A 'media select channel' that selects one of the up to 255 stored media clips

3. A control channel that gives the command to preload a video (an important step if you want synched playback) play, stop, preload the next clip while this one's running, etc.

For a first pass, that would be about all it did. Commercial media servers add all sorts of image manipulation tools (the ability to rescale, color shift, apply video effects, overly multiple images, etc) that I wouldn't worry about the first time around.

Art