I'm going round and round looking for a BD player that will actually play a movie over and over until the end of time. This is to play movies in a workout room. If it had analog stereo out, that would be a plus.

I'm sure there's some Hollywood answer behind why this is so difficult.

Thanks,
Tom

It may not be the BD player that you need to look at. But rather the movie itself. As it maybe the movie that will allow or not allow a title repeat.

KOT

Does it really need to play Blu-ray or just standard DVD?

If the latter, then you need to look into the commercial / digital signage realm such as Videotel.

[Link: videoteldigital.com]

If you need Blu-ray look into the pro series from Denon such as the DN-500BD

Yeah, I kind of get that feeling too....

They actually have the HD2600 in place now. I would just feel bad saying here's your new $Xthousand projector and your 90's DVD technology, but I may have to. I did not realize that the 2600 had component and HDMI for outputs. Maybe I can make that work... It looks like they are only running composite.

That Denon looks nice! I will keep that on the short list .

For my halloween display, i had to rip the dvd video and delete all the menus, then burn it to a disc. Then the repeat function worked in the samsung bluray i was using. Probably not very legal in a commercial environment.

Perhaps an A & B repeat might work. Of course it would require some more user input than a simple title repeat.

KOT

I'd be concerned about how many times this would work before the thing glitched. I don't think consumer product is appropriate for the task...

Do they ever have to manually change videos? Doesn't sound like it from your description. In which case, the proper technology solution is likely to rip the movie to a file, and then use a digital signage player (or some robust media player) to loop it forever and ever. Legal? Who knows. But considering how pretty much every video in existence also says not for public performance, keeping it on a disc may not be any better.

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More a matter of using the right tool for the job. The least expensive BrightSign player is $250 MSRP, solid state, no constantly moving parts to fail, has HDMI and the analog audio output you want. Many, many other options if you don't like BrightSign, but there is a reason why they are so popular.

oppo

We have used them in Sales Offices with a quick intro film on infinite repeat.

+1

Can't beat the capabilities of Brightsign, especially if you're just looping 1 video file. Set a schedule and done.

The only issues I have with them is the lack of control drivers for integrating into 3rd party systems.

There is no lack of control, just doesn't really use "drivers." You set up an interactive playlist program in your logic and external triggers/feedback as you build it. Model dependent, obviously, but you can control via 3rd party devices via RS232, Ethernet/UDP, GPIO, or USB. Can't get much more flexible than that.

I believe you confused what i was saying. I know fairly well the capabilities of the Brightsign players themselves and their own control options for 3rd party gear.

i was more or less saying the players themselves don't have an API for control into our systems. Example, change a playlist on the fly with a button push, etc. from our touchpanel.

I know there are ways to come full circle to get what i want, but its too involved for something simple.

Yeah, I'm not sure what you are trying to do that you can't. I'm not sure what you mean by "change a playlist." No, you can't completely reprogram the Brightsign with a single button press on touch panel without logic defined for what you want to happen on both ends, but you can switch between playlists you've already created, go to a specific place in a playlist, play a specific file, etc. You just have to define the logic. Usually when I hear people say there is no API, it is because there isn't like a specific command for "Play File 1". You define that when you set it up and make it as simple or as complicated as you want it to be, i.e. set up the BrightSign to play File 1 when it receives a "1" on the COM port or a contact on pin 1 on the GPIO and then have your touch panel button trigger the control system to send a "1" from it's COM port or close a relay or whatever you programmed the Brightsign to respond to. Most people I find are confused because it is just simpler and more wide open than they expect. For a device that does as much as it does, they really couldn't have made it much simpler. Think of it almost as programming a control system. If you want to do something simple, it's pretty simple, if you want to do something complicated, it can be complicated.

If I'm reading too much into it, I apologize, but based on the term "driver" I'm assuming you are working with one of the more configurable than programmable control systems, which is probably more why you are having trouble or finding it complicated. What I would suggest is just use a driver for a different device you like and program the BrightSign to respond to that, i.e. if you have an RS232 driver for a DVD/Bluray player you like, have your control system send it's command for "Play Track 1" and just paste that command into your event trigger on the BrightSign. If your control system has a USB HID/keyboard driver, it's even easier. Just trigger from keyboard events, i.e. "1" key plays video one, "K" key plays video 2 or whatever you want. Heck, use a display driver and use it's "HDMI Input 3" command to trigger the player to play video file 17. The BrightSign doesn't care what the command is as long as you define it.

That being said, you don't need a control system to have a button on a touch panel trigger a BrightSign to do something. Obviously check the list of touch panels they support, but you can drive a touch panel right from a BrightSign Player, another integrated BrightSign player, etc. No, it's not a configurable driver that does all the work for you, but not difficult either.

Not really the most friendly programming environment for it, but you could in theory replace your control system with a BrightSign player and control a whole room with it if you really wanted to. You won't find drivers per se, but the tools are all there.