Playlist Software for Drive-In Theatre

[Jake Sinn]

Hi all,

I'm looking for software (Preferably Mac, but can be Windows), that can allow us to play a sequence of video PSA's (such as "Tune In to Channel ()", Stay In Your Car, etc.), and then automatically switch over to the media source (DVD/BlueRay Player).

TYIA

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Why not use one of the free DCP creator programs to make actual DCP's out of them? That way they can play straight off the server with all the other content. There is "Free DCP", and DCP-O-Matic. Both are free downloads and both work great..

[Jake Sinn]

Because the projector is not DCI Compliant. It is just a regular projector.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Oh... I thought you were a real Drive In....

[Jake Sinn]

Please respond if you have actual suggestions.... thank you.

[Benjamin Ruder]

Rip the content from the disc. Play in VLC.

[Jake Sinn]

Looking for a solution to connect DVD player to laptop.

[John Thomas]

I hope you're not talking about running your content from the Blu-ray player into your computer, and then back out to the projector/audio. While technically possible, there is potential for HDCP and audio format issues, saying nothing of CPU lag to stutter up your show. If you insisted on capturing from the player, you might achieve what you're talking about using OBS Studio and this device (and probably something to strip HDCP):

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...0_powered.html

But again, this approach would be far from elegant.

As previously mentioned, you should rip the Blu-ray/DVD using MakeMKV and then drop that feature into a VLC playlist after all your preshow stuff. No source switching required. VLC is very customizable.

For a more robust approach, rip your feature using MakeMKV, convert to ProRes 422 using DCP-O-Matic, and then run your playlist in Playback Pro on a Mac.



No matter what you pick, don't forget to adjust your computer's power settings so it doesn't go to sleep mid-show

[Jake Sinn]

Thank you.

Is there a better playlist software than VLC?

[John Thomas]

VLC isn't bad, but it's not meant for professional playback. You could certainly get away with using it for this application.

On a Mac, Playback Pro is the ideal playback software for this type of application. The downsides are: it costs money, and your content *should* be in ProRes422 format. Performance will suffer if your videos are in any other format, meaning potential for choppy playback.

[Marcel Birgelen]

For alternative playback in our screening room we currently use a Linux machine running Debian (but could be any common flavor you like) and we use "mpv" (an mplayer derivate) to do the playback. We've got a dedicated video card installed as secondary card which does the playback. We manually edited the "xorg.conf" files in such way that the output spawns its own xserver. We make sure "mpv" uses that xserver as output using the "DISPLAY" variable. We're able to do 4K content without glitches, as long as we use the hardware acceleration features present on the graphics card.

I've made a simple piece of playlist software that controls MPV. It also is able to send some macros over our network, for stuff to dim lights, set the fader on the CP850, etc. It's written in python and so dirty, it's not for public use. If I find tons of time and nothing to do, I always thought about building it into some more sophisticated playout software, as this kind of simple video-bound "show control" software seems hard to come by...

About 10 years or so ago, we've used MediaPlayer Classic for some "road shows" on non-DCI equipment. It was a dirty hack and sometimes, after a system reboot, it would swap screens and boot up with the Windows desktop on the "main" screen... fortunately, it only happened once with a limited public...

[Darryl Spicer]

What I would try to do, so long as you have some sort of internet connection, a computer, and a Roku device or similar. I would try and download the Plex server application onto a decent computer and link your files to the Plex server. Just create the files as an MP4, MKV or M2TS extension. Then in plex you can create a playlist with the order that you want to play the files. Then using the Plex app on a Roku or other supported device, you can play back the playlist you created. The only reasons you need the internet connection is so the Plex service recognizes the devices that the server is going to communicate to and for updates. The files you would be playing would just play across your network. Just plug the server and the Roku to the router. Just something to think about..

[Jake Sinn]

Thank you for the suggestions.

VLC should work for now.

[Jim Cassedy]

I'm a big fan of Playback Pro. While you can't schedule a show to start at a particular time, it is hard to beat when it comes to composing playlists. You can mix formats, program adjustments for varying aspect ratios & sound levels, insert pauses (intermissions) and even pick custom in-and-out points on a video. (For example, a film-maker gave me the wrong copy of his movie that had an expired web-link at the end. He asked if I could have picture & sound fade out right before it came on screen.) It's also pretty easy to re-arrange or make changes 'on the fly'', even while a show is in progress, Yes, it's very expensive. But in the type of work I do, I found it worth every penny. In fact, I bought two copies (licenses), so that I could be running a show on one computer, and creating playlists on another. My first exposure to using PBP was at big "dog-&-pony" trade show conferences for Apple, Oracle, Salesforce, etc- - and if it was good and reliable enough for them, it was good enough for me.

[Jake Sinn]

Any other FREE software?