Playback advice for budget-limited exhibitions

[Carsten Kurz]

My current obstacle on the Tech side of things is my playback method. Currently, I'm able to run a slideshow on my projector prior to showtime, and then just clumsily back out and play the film.

So, HOW do you actually play 'the film', and on what type of equipment?

[Joshua McGillis]

So, HOW do you actually play 'the film', and on what type of equipment?

Preferably film (h264 mkv) and slides (png) are on a USB drive plugged directly into the projector, then actual playback is just done from the projector OS / menu (LG hu810pw). Bluetooth out to a receiver (mine), and RCA into the house soundboard.

Sometimes it's just (optical) HDMI in from another device, laptop, player, whatever.

[Carsten Kurz]

Why don't you just use VLC (or some other player solution) for everything? You can have a mixed playlist of slides and videos.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Why don't you just use VLC (or some other player solution) for everything? You can have a mixed playlist of slides and videos.

Certainly doable. Often VLC users don't realize there are ways to force it to hide all the interface and UI and dedicate the output to a second video out, while using the playlist as a control on the primary display. If done on a 2nd monitor that has all the OS elements hidden and a black desktop background... it's a decent free solution.

Realizing it can get there is not intuitive though.

Joshua lost me at "bluetooth out to a receiver" though... are you sometimes driving audio over bluetooth to some kind of wireless adapter to connect to the house sound system? That sounds like a nightmare if true.

[Scott Norwood]

For those who are playing "movies" with something like VLC player, how do you deal with multichannel sound? Do you just say "screw it" and run the two-channel mix through a Dolby matrix decoder and call it good, or do you have some way to get discrete 5.1/7.1 to the auditorium?

[Ryan Gallagher]

For those who are playing "movies" with something like VLC player, how do you deal with multichannel sound? Do you just say "screw it" and run the two-channel mix through a Dolby matrix decoder and call it good, or do you have some way to get discrete 5.1/7.1 to the auditorium?

When we are using VLC or other playback software it is not typically for a "film". Though it can happen if they insist on playing back off their machine, but typically we'd just make a multichannel DCP and show it in the cinema system if the content arrived with time to do so. I've been meaning to "confirm" the backup approach of at least routing the HDMI through our processor. I suppose a multi-channel audio device via USB could also get you there if you don't mind repurposing your discrete inputs and dealing with any headaches that arise from that.

[Joshua McGillis]

Certainly doable. Often VLC users don't realize there are ways to force it to hide all the interface and UI and dedicate the output to a second video out, while using the playlist as a control on the primary display. If done on a 2nd monitor that has all the OS elements hidden and a black desktop background... it's a decent free solution.

Speaking only for myself, I did know that I could hide the VLC UI elements (etc), but I did not know that I could put slides/images into a playlist. It definitely could be a good interim solution while I assess some alternatives. At the very least, that could facilitate stuffing some dosh away to 'upgrade' if/when needed.

Anyway, Mitti and JRiver both look like compelling options to explore as a step-up from VLC.

Joshua lost me at "bluetooth out to a receiver" though... are you sometimes driving audio over bluetooth to some kind of wireless adapter to connect to the house sound system? That sounds like a nightmare if true.

Ha! Yes, that is the case. It's actually been performing a lot better than I was expecting. The projector has a Bluetooth module onboard, so I've been connecting to an adapter, which then connects to house sound (via some kind of conversion box, I think, RCA-to-XLR). I haven't had any A/V sync issues, signal dropout/degradation, compression artifacts, etc. But, working the Mac Mini (or something else) into the chain will probably remove BT from the picture and offer some more connectivity options.

(Can't really speak to Scott's question, we're not equipped for a true multi-channel system AFAIK, so I do my best to make sure I have a two channel mix available. I'm a bit removed from the sound side of things, though.)

[Juan Jose Garcia Calvo]

Take a look on a BlackMagic ATEM mini pro.
Awesome device for it's price...

[Joshua McGillis]

Take a look on a BlackMagic ATEM mini pro.
Awesome device for it's price...

Looks like another good option too, thanks!

I've seen some folks recommend various BlackMagic devices like the UltraStudio line, but it wasn't immediately clear to me the exact role the UltraStudios fill.

[Ed Gordon]

For those who are playing "movies" with something like VLC player, how do you deal with multichannel sound? Do you just say "screw it" and run the two-channel mix through a Dolby matrix decoder and call it good, or do you have some way to get discrete 5.1/7.1 to the auditorium?

When playing movies from a PC, the player software decodes multichannel audio, or you can bitstream the audio to an amplifier which decodes Dolby/DTS.

[Joao Lopes]

For those who are playing "movies" with something like VLC player, how do you deal with multichannel sound? Do you just say "screw it" and run the two-channel mix through a Dolby matrix decoder and call it good, or do you have some way to get discrete 5.1/7.1 to the auditorium?

Very simple and cheap, but with high quality: External USB Sound Card (like ASUS XONAR U7 MKII) + (optional, but highly recommended) multichannel DI (like BEHRINGER DI800 V2). From those XLR's outputs you can connect to any XLR or BD25 input you have. Be prepared to use a lot of cables and connectors! You can ad a switch to switch from 5.1 to 7.1 in the back amplifier or processor input.

There's more expensive ways, but with less than €/$ 200 you get high quality 5.1 and 7.1 sound from any source or media player from your PC. If you have any consumer processor with SPDIF input, you can use that digital connection (from the sound card) and save many cables.

NOTE: There's no driver for ASUS XONAR for Windows 11. Works flawless with any other Windows.

[Ed Gordon]

Most PC's today come with HDMI or Displayport outputs. Just connect via HDMI/Displayport to a multichannel amp. The only other thing you need is software that supports bitstreaming. An HDMI connection is required for Dolby/DTS Master Audio.

[Joao Lopes]

Most PC's today come with HDMI or Displayport outputs. Just connect via HDMI/Displayport to a multichannel amp. The only other thing you need is software that supports bitstreaming. An HDMI connection is required for Dolby/DTS Master Audio.

That solution works best in a TV or sound bar. In this case there's no HDMI Arc (sound only).

In a Booth, the HDMI (PC output) should connect directly to the projector and the sound output should connect directly to a sound processor or alternatively to an consumer pre-amp or processor.

The Christie SKA-3D is/was a good solution for both worlds.

[Ed Gordon]

That solution works best in a TV or sound bar. In this case there's no HDMI Arc (sound only).

In a Booth, the HDMI (PC output) should connect directly to the projector and the sound output should connect directly to a sound processor or alternatively to an consumer pre-amp or processor.

The Christie SKA-3D is/was a good solution for both worlds.

The HDMI cable and your amplifier must support HDMI version 1.3 or later. I had to upgrade the firmware is my amp to do this.

Unlike the DTS Digital Surround format, DTS-HD Master Audio (either un-decoded or decoded) can't be transferred by digital optical or digital coaxial audio connections. There is too much information, even in compressed form, for those connection options to pass DTS-HD Master Audio signals.

Source: https://www.lifewire.com/dts-hd-master-audio-1846891

If you rip a bluray to disc and remove DRM/HDCP you have more options

HDCP content protection is a system designed to safeguard high-quality digital video and audio content from being illegally copied or intercepted during transmission between devices. It ensures that only authorized devices can receive and display protected content. HDCP devices, such as Blu-ray players and streaming devices, use unique encryption keys to verify compliance and secure content during transmission.

Source: https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/what-is-hdcp

At home I connect my HTPC and Bluray/UHD player to my amp via HDMI, and connect the amp to my projector. Windows users must configure the displays to Duplicate (not extended). I think Unix is not a fussy as windows. Windows 10 handles HDCP far better than previous versions.

[Joshua McGillis]

VLC “can” do everything if you can get all your sources unto a video clip or more, but can get cumbersome in a hurry when content updates start arriving late etc.

I’d second the notion that a budget switcher still gains you some features even when dealing with a single source machine. Fade to black, Still-Store/Static slides you can ditch to while switching apps etc.

But note that all the budget friendly swichers will demand all sources be the same format/rate etc. They are affordable because they lack a scaler per input like the fancy ones.

Qlab is great once you get familiar, as is PlaybackPro. We use OBS here a lot cause it is free and we are on PC, and it can be forced to do most things. Where you run into problems is it will not “mix” audio during transitions using the audio monitor outputs. It only mixes on program, which is by defacto the stream/record outputs. Not designed for live in that regard.

Mitti is one you did not mention, and was an alternative to playback pro during the period it was not updated for Apple silicon.

Tons of ways to tackle this, much of it determined by your film source format and what OS you prefer, and how ready you need to be for late changes.

Just wanted to follow up on this. You never know when someone else with a similar ask might come lurking and -- having been in the position myself -- it's always a drag to find an applicable thread only for it to go dead without an update!

Anyway, first, I think I completely misunderstood the trial length(s). I thought it would a one-time twenty minutes, not a time limit for each session. Took some of the pressure off as far as testing and prepping goes!

Mitti is definitely what I'm looking for, so thanks! It's still expensive for someone in my position, but their rent-to-own option is good and easy to justify (especially when the weeks align right and I can get two showings out of a single month rental ). QLab's single day rental is nice on a budgetary line, but also a little... granular, in my opinion.

Side-by-side with QLab, I felt Mitti was way more intuitive and doing what I wanted right out of the gate, while also having useful feedback as part of the main window/pane defaults. Very easy to set a 1-5 cue loop and then skip onto the next cue(s) when time. Very slick setting the Video Output once identified and configured. Other things like having audio and web sources, Blackmagic support, and/or scaling/resizing visual sources are great too. I could probably mimic the absolute basics in VLC, but Mitti could actually elevate the production value to another level.

QLab looks more robust but is more expensive (not too much more just for Video, but way more expensive when you include all Audio or Lighting licenses too). I didn't spend as much time with it, but I thought Mitti's default interface was obvious and intuitive, whereas with QLab I didn't know where to start (and didn't want to start looking around to enable things like preview panes, wave bars, etc.). I might revisit in the future if I hit a limitation with Mitti.

I haven't really dived into JRiver Media Center more, though. On the surface, it looks more like a video/media player instead of a playback solution. I might still check it out, but so far I think Mitti will be hard to beat.