Jump to content
Light-O-Rama Forums

Playing Music Before Light Show (free software)


Recommended Posts

Posted

[align=left]I wanted to begin playing random Christmas music 30 minutes prior to the light show and then stop playing right before the show began. I couldn't find any software that did just that (that I liked) so I decided to write my own. I started writing it on the 5 hour trip to the inlaws for Thanksgiving and just about had it done when we arrived. I wanted to test it in production before making it available to everyone. It's been running for a week now without any hiccups so it's now available if anybody wants to use it. I'm not going to promise there aren't any bugs but it's been running very well.

The software works in conjunction with Windows Media Player...I haven't tested it on any versions less than 10 and I am currently using version 11. You use WMP to create a playlist (you need to save the playlist...I save mine as 'Christmas') of the songs you want. Then you run the "Light Show Primer" software and it will display a list of saved playlists that it gets from WMP. You then specify begin/end times...I specify the end times to be 5 seconds before the LOR scheduled start time. Placing check marks next to each day enables it for that day. The "Enable Show" check box enables/disables the entire playing of the show. Checking "Shuffle" will shuffle the playlist and checking "Repeat" will repeat the playlist once it concludes.

You can download the software from http://PennLights.com/Sequences. I also have posted all of my sequences for this years show on the same page if you are interested.[/align]

[align=left]
LightShowPrimer.jpg[/align]

Posted

Now that's the ticket, gonna have to give it a try. Already thinking of doing a voice over for the last thing before the show starts.Always someone out there finding these great products to share with us. Thank you. Scott

Posted

I installed it on my XP Pro system with Media Player 11 and I get an error when it is time to start to play the songs:

error2.JPG

Let me know if you have any ideas on this problem.

Thanks,

Mark

Posted

Why didn't you just creat a LOR music sequence with and not have it turn on anything?

Posted

You need to run .Net Framework v2.0.50727 and this can be found on the Microsoft website.

Hope this helps.

Ken Gelinas

Posted

Ken Gelinas wrote:

You need to run .Net Framework v2.0.50727 and this can be found on the Microsoft website.

Hope this helps.

Ken Gelinas


I already have this version installed. Any more suggestions?

Mark
Posted

Posting the resolution for the benefit of others who may run into this problem...

The problem turned out to be an invalid playlist. I added some more error checking to the program and also posted the source code for those interested.

Also, some people reported the inability to download the sequences from my pages. I changed the files to Zips and it now works.

http://PennLights.com/Sequences

-Dan

Posted

Great timing! I finally got my shows working right after upgrading from the buggy LOR Schedule Editor 1.5.0 a few days ago and was looking for any simple s/w to play random Christmas music. The PC and FM Xmitter are running anyway right? I'll fire this sucker up and broadcast 24/7. Thank you Dan!

Posted

I use Winamp and the windows scheduler in addition to a small suit of command line based programs. It is a little bit complex and non gui but it gives you infinite control and is very stable since nothing runs 24x7 except windows.

1. setup schedule in LOR
2. setup m3u play lists in winamp.
3. calulate the running time of the m3u list
4. build a schedule in the windows scheduler that runs winamp
5. build a schedule in the windows scheduler that kills winamp with process.exe
http://www.beyondlogic.org/consulting/processutil/processutil.htm

6. run LORMonitor.exe (kick off the LOR schedule)

7. kill LORMonitor.exe (if needed/wanted)

I would really like to have the ability to run the lights with LOR in some form of auto visualization from winamp...... now where is the LOR SDK so we could build a winamp plugin......

Jerry

Posted

Dan,

With my show up and running now, I didn't know what to do with my newly found free time. So, I decided to download your program today. Before I knew it, my LOR show was starting up. Seems that I have found something else to fill my time now. Thank you very much. Installed without any problem and runs as advertised. Been going through all my Christmas music and putting it on a playlist. Thank you again for sharing that.

Denny

Posted

Downloaded but can't get it to work or open. I'm using windows 2000 professional, any ideas?

Posted

danpenn, I downloaded your first version and it didn't work with WMA 10, .net version 2. This second one you posted I downloaded and it works great. I created a playlist, named it, found it in your program, set the time and away it went. It shut off at the right time and my show started. Now I want to add in some voiceovers to see if they will play in the playlist. They are wav files so they should.

Thanks. Good job!

Bret

Posted

Now Getting Error message: Windows Media Player SDK C# sample has encountered a problem and needs to close?????

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...