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Title: Best Choice For Live Event HD Video Playback
Post by: Richard-John Vida on June 17, 2014, 04:42:28 PM
We are currently using media shout for our hd video playback however we are currently looking for a better solution.

Although mediashout allows you to fire off videos instantaneously it does not have any type of buffer which often leaves artifacts in the video. It also tends to choke with full HD files.

We are looking for a solid state player or something software based that is solid and won't choke.

Title: Re: Best Choice For Live Event HD Video Playback
Post by: Jonathan Kok on June 17, 2014, 06:10:36 PM
We are currently using media shout for our hd video playback however we are currently looking for a better solution.

Although mediashout allows you to fire off videos instantaneously it does not have any type of buffer which often leaves artifacts in the video. It also tends to choke with full HD files.

We are looking for a solid state player or something software based that is solid and won't choke.


I have to admit, I'm curious as to why you'd blame the software for choking on large files, rather than the machine it's running on. I suppose it depends on how you define 'choking'. Which also has much to do with what else is running.

We use ProPresenter. Can't promise it won't choke; like I said, that's largely dependent on the hardware it's running on. With high-resolution files, playback will 'stutter' on our five-year-old Macbook Pro, and the software will be slow to respond. Same file runs fine on the new iMac, of course. Free trial available. www.renewedvision.com
Title: Re: Best Choice For Live Event HD Video Playback
Post by: Mac Kerr on June 17, 2014, 08:10:34 PM
We are currently using media shout for our hd video playback however we are currently looking for a better solution.

Although mediashout allows you to fire off videos instantaneously it does not have any type of buffer which often leaves artifacts in the video. It also tends to choke with full HD files.

We are looking for a solid state player or something software based that is solid and won't choke.

The standard for playback on the corporate events I work is Playback Pro (http://dtvideolabs.com/PlaybackPro.html).

Mac
Title: Re: Best Choice For Live Event HD Video Playback
Post by: Sean Hayes on June 17, 2014, 08:33:34 PM
The standard for playback on the corporate events I work is Playback Pro (http://dtvideolabs.com/PlaybackPro.html).

Mac

+1 Playback Pro
Title: Re: Best Choice For Live Event HD Video Playback
Post by: Jordan Wolf on June 18, 2014, 09:33:43 AM
The standard for playback on the corporate events I work is Playback Pro (http://dtvideolabs.com/PlaybackPro.html).

Mac
+2 for Playback Pro  I use it almost exclusively for single cue content playback.  It cannot play multiple cues simultaneously, which is annoying at times, but there are other programs for that...(see below)

I also use Qlab from time to time; it has a "load" feature that pre-loads the particular cue into RAM so that it's ready to fire when needed without worry of lag, etc.

As for your method of HD playback, can you give us some description of your system?  Make/model of computer? Computer specs?
Title: Re: Best Choice For Live Event HD Video Playback
Post by: Jonathan Kok on June 18, 2014, 10:24:17 AM
I have to admit, I'm curious as to why you'd blame the software for choking on large files, rather than the machine it's running on. I suppose it depends on how you define 'choking'. Which also has much to do with what else is running.

We use ProPresenter. Can't promise it won't choke; like I said, that's largely dependent on the hardware it's running on. With high-resolution files, playback will 'stutter' on our five-year-old Macbook Pro, and the software will be slow to respond. Same file runs fine on the new iMac, of course. Free trial available. www.renewedvision.com
I should clarify - we chose ProPresenter as we needed options not available with QLab or Playback Pro. If all I needed was straight playback, I'd probably go with one of those instead.
Title: Re: Best Choice For Live Event HD Video Playback
Post by: Jordan Wolf on June 18, 2014, 12:15:01 PM

I should clarify - we chose ProPresenter
Good choice! I use that one a lot at church and also for my job.  As long as the hardware can keep up with the demands, I've not head any issues.
Title: Re: Best Choice For Live Event HD Video Playback
Post by: Richard-John Vida on June 18, 2014, 02:27:45 PM
The machine we use is pretty beefy. Just doesn't like video files over a gig.

As per the Mediashout rep the program is designed to play the files immediately, so there is no buffer. My argument is if I play a video through windows media player vs Mediashout there is a clear difference in the images quality. They told me it is because windows media player buffers the video.
In defense of MediaShout the new version is very much like ProPresenter if not even easier. But still not 100% sold.

I have recently used Playback Pro. I liked it. Simple and it works! I will be looking into it again.

Thank you for the feedback!

Title: Re: Best Choice For Live Event HD Video Playback
Post by: Richard-John Vida on June 18, 2014, 02:32:32 PM
+2 for Playback Pro  I use it almost exclusively for single cue content playback.  It cannot play multiple cues simultaneously, which is annoying at times, but there are other programs for that...(see below)

I also use Qlab from time to time; it has a "load" feature that pre-loads the particular cue into RAM so that it's ready to fire when needed without worry of lag, etc.

As for your method of HD playback, can you give us some description of your system?  Make/model of computer? Computer specs?

We use a few different machines but typically our video playback machine is a Lenovo I7 with 2.30ghz 8 gb of ram and an NVidia GeForce GTX660M
Title: Re: Best Choice For Live Event HD Video Playback
Post by: Jordan Wolf on June 19, 2014, 09:55:02 AM
We use a few different machines but typically our video playback machine is a Lenovo I7 with 2.30ghz 8 gb of ram and an NVidia GeForce GTX660M
Alright, cool - thanks for the info.  You also may want to look into a solid state HDD if things lag a bit; they're getting cheaper every day, and will make an appreciable difference.  Also, is this a dedicated machine, or is it handling other tasks (recording, web streaming, etc.)?  Video playback (especially HD and higher) is very taxing on a system, and resources can run out quickly.
Title: Re: Best Choice For Live Event HD Video Playback
Post by: Steve Kennedy-Williams on June 19, 2014, 02:07:29 PM
Alright, cool - thanks for the info.  You also may want to look into a solid state HDD if things lag a bit; they're getting cheaper every day, and will make an appreciable difference.  Also, is this a dedicated machine, or is it handling other tasks (recording, web streaming, etc.)?  Video playback (especially HD and higher) is very taxing on a system, and resources can run out quickly.

Software playback we use PlaybackPro

Our dedicated hardware solution. Grass Valley - T2 iDDR
Title: Re: Best Choice For Live Event HD Video Playback
Post by: Ian Mansfield on July 28, 2014, 01:31:21 PM
Arkaos Grand VJ gives great playback options, runs stable and is not that heavy on hardware. With something like the APC 20 from Akai, triggering tracks is easy.