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Topic:
Digital Movie Posters, Theater Signs, and Now Playing Media Display Stands
This thread has 42 replies. Displaying posts 1 through 15.
Post 1 made on Sunday August 14, 2022 at 10:22
gwstudios
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Added something new to the website today if anyone wants to check it out.



[Link: blackmancustoms.com]

A lot of you know me from being on RC for the last couple decades. I do mainly graphical work for home automation / touch panel templates. A while back, someone posted about about digital movie posters, and I spent a while coming up with a simple solution that requires no PC / Raspberry Pi, etc...

I added a whole new section to my website dedicated just to digital movie poster solutions if anyone would like to check it out.

[Link: blackmancustoms.com]



Quick edit: I created a video too:

Last edited by gwstudios on September 2, 2023 14:30.
Post 2 made on Monday August 15, 2022 at 10:49
Redbiker98
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This is amazing, Thank you.
OP | Post 3 made on Monday August 15, 2022 at 11:57
gwstudios
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Thanks, I looked at all the other options. The PC program is OK, but it still requires a PC and setup. That program is also no longer supported and hasn't been updated since 2016 or so. Other options rely on Raspberry Pi, but also need constant internet for streaming posters from various sources.

The issue with that is the posters are all different sizes and resolutions. Sometimes they fit OK, other times they are stretched and get pixelated from the resize. I took it upon myself to collect all the poster images, properly size & crop them, then add the top / bottom footers and rotate all of them.

All you do is select the photos button from the IR remote, select a folder and hit play. If you want music, you bring up the menu, select background music / on, and close the menu. Literally less than a minute. There is a digital only option where you download a smaller collection of poster (no music), and you can use a USB stick or your own media player. USB has the drawback of having to cue it up every time you turn your poster on / off as the power shuts off the port on all TVs on power down.

Pulling posters requires bandwidth from sites like IMDb, and like the Weather Channel, finally banned accessing JPEG weather maps from outside sources, such as home automation touch panels. All those current weather maps on all platforms went down a while back.

If IMDb does the same, anyone using the PC program or Pi that is streaming random posters will have no images to display. I also didn't want just random movies showing up, so by curating the collection myself, I can weed out any adult / offensive content.
Post 4 made on Monday August 15, 2022 at 12:06
tomciara
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Fabulous effort!
There is no truth anymore. Only assertions. The internet world has no interest in truth, only vindication for preconceived assumptions.
Post 5 made on Monday August 15, 2022 at 14:24
drewski300
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Amazing!

Are there any monitors/TV's that can be dimmed through IR commands? Thinking it would be nice to have this setup in a theater but have the monitor/TV dimmer while watching a movie. Of course, you could just shut them off but dimming them would be cool too.
"Just when I thought you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself!"
Post 6 made on Monday August 15, 2022 at 14:46
lippavisual
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On August 15, 2022 at 14:24, drewski300 said...
Amazing!

Are there any monitors/TV's that can be dimmed through IR commands? Thinking it would be nice to have this setup in a theater but have the monitor/TV dimmer while watching a movie. Of course, you could just shut them off but dimming them would be cool too.

Most commercial panels allow the control protocol for dimming and/or brightness. Never seen it on the consumer models but never really looked either.
OP | Post 7 made on Tuesday August 16, 2022 at 02:35
gwstudios
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On August 15, 2022 at 14:46, lippavisual said...
Most commercial panels allow the control protocol for dimming and/or brightness. Never seen it on the consumer models but never really looked either.

It's funny you mention that. My personal digital poster is adjusted to look like an actual backlit movie poster box. I turned the backlight down to 10, from 50, increased the contrast a bit to enhance the black levels. It is not very bright at all, but the colors are very vivid.

That would be a cool feature, like some AVRs have the ability to toggle / dim the displays with one press of a buttons.I know my Pioneer has it, but I've never used it. I think it's called "midnight".

What if you split the output into 2 different HDMI ports, and have one normal, and the other automatically adjusted to be very dim?
Post 8 made on Tuesday August 16, 2022 at 09:19
lippavisual
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Depending on the panel, some offer the ability to change picture controls per input. So technically, yes, you could split the hdmi and have different settings on each input.
OP | Post 9 made on Tuesday August 16, 2022 at 10:42
gwstudios
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On August 16, 2022 at 09:19, lippavisual said...
Depending on the panel, some offer the ability to change picture controls per input. So technically, yes, you could split the hdmi and have different settings on each input.

Exactly. Every LCD / plasma I have owned had different adjustments for each input. Even my old Toshiba DLP rear projection had that feature.
Post 10 made on Wednesday August 17, 2022 at 10:16
drewski300
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Next question, can you make the "Coming Soon" more custom? i.e. "Johnson Family Cinema" or something like that?
"Just when I thought you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself!"
OP | Post 11 made on Thursday August 18, 2022 at 12:30
gwstudios
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On August 17, 2022 at 10:16, drewski300 said...
Next question, can you make the "Coming Soon" more custom? i.e. "Johnson Family Cinema" or something like that?

I can, but that requires me to run the whole collection through a special script to change them, and future updates would be very hard to handle, so I am figuring out how customized posters could work.

I did add a third option to the site last night where you can purchase a pre-loaded USB drive with all 10K current posters and music, but no updates as a few people asked for it already.

Customized could probably only work for physical media options, but without updates. The current collection already goes into 2023 and even has some 2024 movie posters, and already contains every popular ever released up until now.
Post 12 made on Thursday August 18, 2022 at 16:45
drewski300
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On August 18, 2022 at 12:30, gwstudios said...
I can, but that requires me to run the whole collection through a special script to change them, and future updates would be very hard to handle, so I am figuring out how customized posters could work.

I did add a third option to the site last night where you can purchase a pre-loaded USB drive with all 10K current posters and music, but no updates as a few people asked for it already.

Customized could probably only work for physical media options, but without updates. The current collection already goes into 2023 and even has some 2024 movie posters, and already contains every popular ever released up until now.

Would it be easier to just leave it blank? I'm sure any photo editing tool will allow you to add text. So just have them be all "coming soon" or nothing. That way you aren't fielding requests from guys like me! ;)
"Just when I thought you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself!"
OP | Post 13 made on Thursday August 18, 2022 at 23:03
gwstudios
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On August 18, 2022 at 16:45, drewski300 said...
Would it be easier to just leave it blank? I'm sure any photo editing tool will allow you to add text. So just have them be all "coming soon" or nothing. That way you aren't fielding requests from guys like me! ;)

Well, adding your own text to 10K posters could be a challenge, plus, I pre-rotate them both clockwise and counterclockwise. That means you would have to rotate them to be upright so you can add your own text, then rotate them back.

The background areas where I put the top and bottom headers are pure black "000000" so you could use a fill tool / paint bucket set to color match to quickly fill them in.

It would still take a very long time to change them all, however. I am going to have a special page for customized sets where you can choose your own top / bottom header eventually. It will add the cost because it is custom, and updates would still be hard to handle.
Post 14 made on Friday August 19, 2022 at 09:48
drewski300
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Makes sense! Regardless, thanks for putting amazing effort into this! Pretty cool!
"Just when I thought you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself!"
OP | Post 15 made on Saturday August 20, 2022 at 14:20
gwstudios
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On August 19, 2022 at 09:48, drewski300 said...
Makes sense! Regardless, thanks for putting amazing effort into this! Pretty cool!

I may add a custom option sooner than I thought. Getting about a dozen different top and bottom header options together right now.
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