OT - DVD Music Video Projection

randy-stewart wrote on 11/17/2004, 4:18 PM
I couldn't find another forum to post this question to so appologize in advance as it's pretty far off topic. What I want to do is show DVD music videos at a party using my projector and a DVD player. Easy enough if everything is on one DVD and in the order you want. However, if you want to pick one or two from several different DVD's and play them without huge breaks in the music and on screen selecting, some kind of mixing and source selection capability is going to be required. Right now, I'm thinking I can hook my DVD player up to one "in" source and my laptop up to the other and just switch input to project the right music video. During songs I can que up the video I want using the other source (not in use). However, I won't be able to see what I'm selecting on the DVD player source (other than a track indicator) to get the video in the position I want before hitting play and switching to that source input. There's got to be a better solution that doesn't cost $1,500 (for a DVD mixer) that I can use. Anyone else had experience with this? Appreciate any ideas.
Thanks in advance,
Randy
P.S. These are all commercial DVD's that I wouldn't try to break the copy protection on and run them through Vegas to build a new DVD.

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 11/17/2004, 5:21 PM
Put everything on the laptop as MPEG-2 or WMV files. Use Windows media player which lets you create a list of all the files. You can move these in any order you want, and re-order the list while others are playing. I am not a heavy user of the current media player, but I think it lets you group things into various playlists. Then, hook up the projector, either via VGA (probably the best output) or via composite video (S-video would be slightly better), set the player to full screen output, and then enjoy.
randy-stewart wrote on 11/17/2004, 5:45 PM
Johnnymeyer,
How can I get them on the laptop if they are copy protected? Also, will WMP play MPEG-2 consistently? I've had some problems in the past. Thanks for the idea. I'll try it tonight if I can figure how to get them onto the laptop.
Randy
Liam_Vegas wrote on 11/17/2004, 5:52 PM
You could buy a couple of cheap DVD players (with LCD displays) for less than $500. That's below the $1500 limit you mentioned :-)
randy-stewart wrote on 11/17/2004, 6:03 PM
Thanks Liam. In fact, I have a portable DVD player with display but was worried about quality of input that would be displayed on a 7 1/2' X 10' screen. Also, I'm running RCA out to the sound mixer so not sure about quality there also. My projector is a Mitsubishi XL8R 2000 lum's. One other solution I'm looking at is a switch box that I can hook two commercial size DVD players up to with small TV monitors and just switch between them. Thanks for your advice.
Aloha,
Randy
Spot|DSE wrote on 11/17/2004, 6:07 PM
No worries about the quality, Randy. they'll look just fine. I'd use the switcher to go back and forth. The RCA cables will be fine to the mixer UNLESS you're running longer than a couple dozen feet. Then you'll start to acquire noise. I'm sure Rob has a balancing box/DI you can use for this.
randy-stewart wrote on 11/17/2004, 6:26 PM
Thanks Spot. Feeling better now. Rob is trying to help. A friend, Craig, has the switcher box so looks like that is the way to go. I'll test over the next couple of days. The event isn't until 17 Dec (unit Christmas Party). I have an audio engineer friend that is providing the audio setup using some high end stuff. Should be a cool gig.
Thanks again.
Randy
johnmeyer wrote on 11/17/2004, 6:39 PM
Another quick and dirty trick for long runs is to use a device that accepts unbalanced audio and video RCA connectors on one end and then does a passive unbalanced to balanced conversion to a Cat-5 connector on the other end. You can then run standard LAN Cat-5 cable between these devices. I use them here and have one run of over 100 feet, going through a very noisy (electriclaly speaking) closet.

Very cool gadget for home theater installers, as well as anyone else who has to run audio and video over long distances for presentations. The one I got is made by Unicom and is called a "Video/Audio Adapter" part number VAA-U501-VA. This one does two channels of audio and composite video. There is also a model that does two channels of audio and S-video.
ken c wrote on 11/17/2004, 7:12 PM
Wouldn't it be great if it was ok with the RIAA for you to just use smartripper to grab the vobs off the source DVDs, then render your own custom mix DVD in Vegas, out to your own new "party mix DVD" for your own personal use?

Some day, hopefully when we buy music we will be licensing the songs on a per-user basis, not tied to the media itself (how many times have I bought the same album/cd/dvd when one is lost? at least 5 copies each of pink floyd DSOM, bob marley legends etc).. so it would be great if once I buy the personal rights to a song, the record company doesn't care how I use the media, eg in cd or mp3 format or whatever .. and I could re-download the media from some central rights/licensing library as needed.

One can hope.

Ken
Spot|DSE wrote on 11/17/2004, 8:54 PM
The RIAA has nothing to do with the MPAA. Not relevant. I hope this thread doesn't turn into a debate again, but gotta keep things clear.
And, if the DVD isn't encryped, it IS legal to rip the media and create your own "party mix" of video if it's only for yourself. The only thing illegal is to decrypt the copyrighted copyright protection scheme. (CSS/Macrovision) MPAA has nothing to say about the Macrovision/CSS copyrights.

As a side note, the MPAA filed an undisclosed number of lawsuits against pirates that up loaded movies. They also released software that corporations and schools can access for free that searches computers for illegal movies and/or peer-to-peer network activity/software. An unnamed spokesperson said that they'd filed over 100 lawsuits against online movie pirates.
randy-stewart wrote on 11/17/2004, 10:27 PM
Okay back at home and have a workable solution for my problem. I ran down to Radio Shack and bought an $18.00 audio/video selector with two inputs and one output, all RCA jacks. I can select either input (A or B) and my projector will get that signal. Haven't tested it on the fly yet but logically, it should work fine. Of course, I'll have to use two DVD players with two monitors (probably 13 inch TV's) to select the right song, hit play and pause, until ready to project. I'll run the right and left audio (white and red) cables from the main output (from the selector box) directly into the mixer board, and the video line into my projector. This will work. Instant poor-boy VJ. Ha! Bring on the dancers! Thanks to everyone for your ideas and advice.
Randy