Playing Video for a projection mapping

[Scott]

Sorry for the dumb question. I have a very small show that I run with Xlights.  I'm thinking of adding a projector on one side of my house.  Searching through these forums, it looks like most people recommend using FPP when doing this. Is there any way to do it just with Xlights?  I don't know how to use FPP and I don't know if I have time to learn.

[keithsw1111]

Sure. Xlights or more correctly xschedule can do this.

[Scott]

Thanks! Is it better to play the video through Xschedule? Or can I use Xlights to just play the small snippets of video at the times I want to? If it is better to use Xschedule, any recommendations on programs I could use to sequence my snippets of videos into one long movie?

[keithsw1111]

If you do it in xlights you will forego a lot of resolution.

X schedule let’s you offset the start time of the video.

I use da Vinci resolve for video editing but there are much simpler options which will likely better fit your needs.

[Scott]

Thanks for the help! So I will do it in Xschedule instead of xlights.

Dumb question, I can't figure out how to play a video in xschedule. I just see a place to add FSEQand Video, but not a place to add just a video. Can you please point me in the right direction or where to look for help (video or manual)?

[keithsw1111]

Use an advanced playlist to gain access to additional playlist items. All of the xschedule into videos go over this.

[Scott]

Thanks. Hopefully one last question. So I got Xschedule to play my video, but it puts it on my laptop screen instead of the projector. How do I tell it (xschedule or windows) to play the video on my projector instead of my laptop?

[keithsw1111]

You click the button on the properties to place the player window in the right location

[Scott]

Thanks. Don't know how I missed that.

[Scott]

Sorry, more questions. If I play my small show without the movie file, it is fine (well, it is fine after I stop and restart it a couple times). When I try to play my show with the movie file, nothing works (the movie freezes, the lights don't work and the stop all button in xschedule is greyed out.)  Any advice?

My first thought was that the movie files was too big (~288 megs). So I rendered it at 15 fps instead of 60fps, it got the size down to ~150 megs but I still have the same problem.

[keithsw1111]

Do you have video caching turned on.

[Scott]

I assume you are talking about the cache video option in xschedule. No, I don't have that on. I will try running it again tonight with that on. Thanks for the quick response!!!

[keithsw1111]

I also have an experimental version of xlights using hardware decoding of video you could try out.

[Scott]

So when I turn on video cache, the rest of the show (lights, sound) plays fine, but the projector just puts out a blank screen. (i.e. Before I start the show the projector shows my desktop. Now it is just showing a black box instead of my video) Is there something else I need to do to load the video into the cache (am I even saying that right?)

Thanks. I don't know what the hardware decoding of the video means.

[keithsw1111]

Hardware decoding of the video offloads some of the work to your graphics card which should improve video playback.

Turning on video caching just starts a background thread which reads ahead in the video and tries to keep the video flowing smoothly. If your machine is struggling this may not help. What type of machine is it?