Broadcast Solution (1 Viewer)

[DisabledVet]

First, I apologize if this thread is somewhere else in the forum...

I am trying to find a solution for a Veteran's Hospital to schedule and play videos on an internally broadcast TV channel...I've found a free (closed source) broadcast automation system, but it's difficult to use (and not open source).

MediaPortal has a much cleaner and easier to use interface...and could be an open source contender for this type of solution...

Here's how my system is set up...I have WinXP on a Dell GX620 with integrated video (Intel 82945G Express Chipset), and a PCI nVidia GeForce MX 4000 with TV out as a second card. I would like to set up MediaPortal to do the following:

Schedule and Play Videos
Schedule and Show Still Images (with background music)
Schedule and Display Weather Information
Keep the menu, controls, and a preview screen on the integrated video card and pipe the full-screen video/image display to the nVidia display...

For sample functionality, you can look at www.deltatrax.com.

We have a seperate video editing system and a Lacie 1TB NAS for the videos, and all of the broadcast equipment to run 2 more channels.

I've downloaded the SVN, and I already had Visual C# Express, but I have to admit I am not a programmer...

Can this be done?

I shot this over to MythTV as well, and they pointed out some things. I don't really need broadcast automation - I am not going to control video decks through RS232, I just want to play digital videos/audio/images...

 

[DisabledVet]

Refinement

Someone on the MythTV mail list pointed out that I don't actually need a "broadcast automation system," just a playout system...I'm not controlling video decks through serial ports, and I'm providing static playlists.

I need MediaPortal to do exactly what it does, but I need it to send the video (full-screen) to a second monitor with the controls on the first monitor.

If possible, I would like to be able to schedule the weather to play, but at this point, we just need the video...

 

[mzemina]

DisabledVet - What about looking at the controls not coming from the same computer but from a PDA. There are a couple of different developers working on PDA (also smartphone & java based phone) control of MP. I don't think you will see same computer based controlled on two monitors where the video (full-screen) is sent to a second monitor with the controls on the first monitor all on the same computer. I could be wrong, maybe there could be a developer out there is working on such a solution now.

 

[DisabledVet]

Hmmm...

In general, that would work...however, I am trying to build this solution with in-house equipment, and PDAs are something the VA frowns on right now...

No laughing now, but I want to learn how to work on software like this...my background is in IT support, networking, etc., and I need to expand my skillset to cover programming - since I have an interest in this, seems like a good place to start.

Any recommendations for learning Visual C#?

 

[mzemina]

Regarding learning Visual C#, you can pick up some tutorials online, just google search for "C# tutorial" remove quotes. Also check out MSDN (::MSDN - Learning C#:: ). Then if you get into the development threads here on MediaPortal's forum you can look at some of the others who have come before you and look at their questions, along with answers. You can also find some simple tutorials here on developing your first plugin. It will be challenging, but keep at it and ask questions. There maybe times when you can go on the IRC chat (check timezones) to ask questions. But it is a matter of just plugging away and asking questions where you don't understand. Google also can help you in addition to MSDN in learning C#.

 

[DisabledVet]

Well..in the interim (until I learn programming) I found a solution for our needs - it doesn't display still images or the weather, but I'll work on that...

http://www.jakeludington.com/downloads/20050418_windows_media_professional_exhibitor.html

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/utilities.aspx