I can't seem to get the Media End to recognize the end of the mp4 file and transition to a new state (the home mp4). Right now the triggered files just repeat forever after button press. Here's a screen shot of my project:
If I change the Media End to "return to prior state" everything works fine. However, I'm trying to link to another zone so "return to a prior state" is not an option.
What am I doing wrong? Thank you for any help you can provide.
Brian M.
Program flow does not cross between zones.
What you can do, is send messages between zones, or manipulate a zone by show/hide, or resize.
All of that would be done under the advanced tab of an event or a state, by adding a command.
What is it that you want to happen when the video ends?
Thank you for the response. Yes, I understand that. At the moment, I've turned off all of the zone links.
I want this to simply play flicker_1.mp4 until button press, then play the appropriate video. At the end of that video, play flicker_1.mp4. I can address the zone stuff once I get the basics working.
Currently it plays flicker_1.mp4 until button press then plays the appropriate video. Instead of returning to home, it repeats the selected video forever. The Media End event doesn't seem to do anything.
Here's a shot of how I have it set up:
Instead of returning to flicker_1.mp4 it just repeats MeetJohnWise_FINAL_1080.mp4 until power off.
Thanks again for any help.
This is pretty basic and should work without a problem.
To eliminate any hardware/GPIO issues, try to test with keyboard event first, and disconnect the push button wiring from the player.
It is possible that the program does go back to home, but then immediately goes back to MeetJohnWise...
Also, make sure that you are running the latest firmware available for your player, and the BrightAuthor version that is compatible.
Sometimes you are doing everything right, but things do not make sense. You can start over by unplugging power from the player, and turn on again. If that doesn't help, format the SD card, and publish again.
Yes, my Brightauthor and player (LS422) are both up to date.
Got the basic playback to work with the Media End commands responding. I'm also using a keyboard input for now.
You are right, the playlist is briefly going back to the top then repeating the video . . .endlessly
Through some troubleshooting, I've narrowed it down to the presence of a Link Zones command in the triggering event. Here's a shot:
If I remove that command, the videos do not repeat. If it is there, they do. I have disabled all "listening" events in the other zone for now.
I feel like I'm doing everything in the demo video and still getting this repeat.
I have never used the zone link feature, and totally forgot it existed :)
I've successfully used zone messages though.
Are you simply synchronizing two zones that are visible at the same time?
What does the second zone need to do?
Ah, maybe I'm using the wrong link command.
The second zone is an overlay of an image that turns off (ie a transparent png) when the triggered video is playing.
I tried the Send Zone Message, but that doesn't seem to work. Though it doesn't make the video repeat.
You could try this:
hide the overlay zone upon startup.
Show the overlay zone when the corresponding video starts to play. (Entry command)
Hide the overlay zone when the video is done playing. (Exit command)
Zone hide/show is under the Other set of commands.
That seems like an elegant solution. Sadly, that didn't work.
The commands just don't seem to be working or are being ignored because of some other reason.
Next week I will try a different LS422.
This has been frustrating, but thank you for offering up a variety of solutions.
BrightSign programmers don't give up that easily :)
Try resizing the zone instead of hiding it.
You can effectively hide a zone, by shifting it out of the screen.
Normally a full screen zone would position as:
x: 0
y:0
Width: 1920
Height: 1080
By changing x to 1920, you effectively hide the zone.
To show the zone, you would need to shift it back with x: 0
Also make sure that your zones are in the correct order.
You would need your overlay to be placed over the video zone.
Temporarily position your zones so everything is side by side and not one over another, so you can troubleshoot better.
ha! Thanks for your tenacity.
I inserted some zone size commands in and can get the overlay to disappear. However, it does not reappear after the media ends.
After tinkering around a bit with the resize command, I don't think it is responding to any commands after the media ends. To prove this I made it so that a keyboard input was required to make the overlay appear and pay the flicker video; the video plays but no overlay after key press. .
Is there a more aggressive reset I can do to the player? I feel (and it's just a feeling) that something is fundamentally off if none of these commands work. Or maybe a naming issue with the media files themselves?
This is just a baffling issue around a, what I would consider, a simple task.
It is my pleasure, and thank you for presenting challenges that keep my sharp :)
Just for trouble shooting, try to position your zones, so the overlay is not in front of any other zone.
You may be running into a layering issue, where your overlay content is being covered.
Also, instead of resizing the overlay out of the screen, try to only shift it to the side by a few pixels, so you get a better understanding of what happens.
Media end event is so fundamental to the functionality of most programs, that it is unlikely to not be working.
Try to send a message over serial port to the terminal, from the media end event, and see if it is showing.
Logging can help you in tracking states and events activities.
I set the layers up so that they are visible at the same time. The overlay is set to move to the right a bit when the video is triggered. Instead of that it disappears completely and does not return. If I run a presentation so that no commands are given, both the video and image display ok; the video doesn't appear to cover it.
I'm not sure how to get serial commands to the player. I don't have the player connected to a network. And it may be beyond my expertise.
Can you zip everything and put a dropbox link here?
I would then examine your project and hopefully help you make some progress.
The LS422 doesn't have a serial port, so ignore that part.
With that said, connecting the player to a network, so you can publish from BrightAuthor, without ejecting the sd card, is a better workflow I found...
Thank you, here is a link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vy25j0rx0v6gw7x/Brightsign%20Project.zip?dl=0
I send the original file of what I was trying to do with Zone commands.
Looking into that now.
The zip is missing a few assets, so I'm using placeholders.
Generally before packing a project, you would want to use the BrightAuthor export feature, to collect all the media assets that the project is using.
Which firmware version do you have on your player?
Ah, ok. Thank you for that. I didn't know it was a feature.
I'm using 6.1.76 on my LS422.
Hide/show is working with 6.1.76.
I couldn't get the resize to work though. The image goes away, and never comes back...
The LS422 can be a little hard to tame, but I got it to work.
Here is a link to the project that works with both keyboard, and GPIO.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28179252/Digital-Signage/BrightSign/Forum/brian-collect.zip
The programming is different from what you'd expect, but it is working.
Are you publishing through the network now?
GPIO 1, KB key 1 -> Video 1
GPIO 2, KB key 2 -> Video 2
etc...
GPIO 0, KB key 0 -> Return to loop (just for development)
It is working great on my end. Thank you.
It isn't what I expected but I can learn from it. In these situations, I'm always curious why it didn't work as described in the Brightsign's instructions/tutorial videos.
Thank you again for all of your help.
My pleasure :)
The type of programming I used, makes it very easy to add a video, or remove one.
Glad I could help.