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Video on Matrix/ Pixel Tree


dibblejr

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I thought I read here that you cannot put an entire video on a matrix. So I figured I would share what I found.

My boys love the Minions so I was playing around on YouTube with the 54 second Minion Christmas song.

I wanted to put it on my matrix so I thought "what if I can convert the entire video to pixels"? My first thought was to screenshot every second and save the pics and then convert them to GIF's. I decided to do a little research first.

I googled MP4 to GIF conversion and there is a free online program that does this for you in 20 second segments. In my case 20 seconds of the 54 second video became just over 800 GIF slices. I got the 800 into SS and saved it. The timing looks great and I will not adjust it until I see it on my matrix to see just how close it is.

It is painstaking and about 1 hour per 100 images but my boys will love the results.

JR

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The biggest thing about videos on a matrix is the insanely LOW resolution on the matrix.  Even a really low resolution video is going to be 200 pixels in the shorter dimension (and do you remember how bad CGA looked on video?).  To get half way decent video at least double that.  Analog TV was about 480 lines vertically (525 lines really, but some are not seen).  By comparison, how big is your matrix?

 

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24X50

On the vis it looks comparable to other vis sequences. I am comparing to one of my SS sequences that played on large projector at the OKC mini. Only time will tell but it is just as clear as that comparison video. (at least in the vis)

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Its a shot, at least it can be done.

JR

Edited by dibblejr
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47 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

JR, you mention that your matrix is 24x50 is that the abs 4'x8' board from Holiday Sequences?

Yes, IMO cant be the price. By the time I would have used PVC and drilled the holes and tied it all together would have been close to that price. Not counting my time.

I went to a metal warehouse (there is one in Atlanta) and they used 3/4 AL square tubing and they built the frame and installed it for another $75. Total cost without RGB's and controllers $150.

I can send you a pic if you like.

JR

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5 minutes ago, dibblejr said:

Yes, IMO cant be the price. By the time I would have used PVC and drilled the holes and tied it all together would have been close to that price. Not counting my time.

I went to a metal warehouse (there is one in Atlanta) and they used 3/4 AL square tubing and they built the frame and installed it for another $75. Total cost without RGB's and controllers $150.

I can send you a pic if you like.

JR

I was considering one but the shipping is as much as the matrix. I might just bite the bullet if I can't find something else.

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Hey JR- Jim is correct about the resolution issue you run into, but you can use a .AVI formatted video in PE.

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3 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

I was considering one but the shipping is as much as the matrix. I might just bite the bullet if I can't find something else.

I had it shipped to AL and didn't think it was high, $46. However you my ask HS to ship via Greyhound. They are really cheap but might take 1-2 weeks. I have shipped car hoods, tires, doors and a lot of large stuff with Greyhound. Just had my Hummer door shipped about a month ago from San Bernadino CA it cost $32

If you build yourself and need the jig for pvc pipe I will gladly let you borrow it.

JR

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8 minutes ago, Little_b said:

Hey JR- Jim is correct about the resolution issue you run into, but you can use a .AVI formatted video in PE.

It looks pretty darn good in the vis, though. I know you are the man when it comes to this so I'm just gonna take my chances this time. I sent my first segment to Don so he can test it on his 12X50 matrix. Until then I'm not adding the other 1200 gifs.

One thing I did note is that the 20 second video was reduced to just over 12. At 15 second intervals the timing is pretty tight. I originally did the first 100 in 5 seconds and it was way off. This is all new to me so I am just experimenting.

I have only used PE to create one prop. Really hoping this works.

Do you have tutorial on using an .avi?

Thanks for the insight much appreciated coming from you.

JR

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If you have created your matrix in PE just use the Movie Effect option.  Now you do have to convert it to .AVI first.  I use a program called VirtualDub All in One to edit the video.  There are options to convert it to the .AVI, but you can also reset the pixel canvas to match yours.  (Again scaling down loses good resolution.)  Here are a couple of other threads talking about it:

http://forums.lightorama.com/index.php?/topic/39680-effect-generater/#comment-364770

http://forums.lightorama.com/index.php?/topic/41029-movie-effect-problem/

I use a method similar to your method of multiple Pictures for shorter segments, but I'm not patient enough to draw out dozens.

I've just started playing with SS again, so I'm not as versed as to whether or not you can do this in SS.

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10 minutes ago, Little_b said:

If you have created your matrix in PE just use the Movie Effect option.  Now you do have to convert it to .AVI first.  I use a program called VirtualDub All in One to edit the video.  There are options to convert it to the .AVI, but you can also reset the pixel canvas to match yours.  (Again scaling down loses good resolution.)  Here are a couple of other threads talking about it:

http://forums.lightorama.com/index.php?/topic/39680-effect-generater/#comment-364770

http://forums.lightorama.com/index.php?/topic/41029-movie-effect-problem/

I use a method similar to your method of multiple Pictures for shorter segments, but I'm not patient enough to draw out dozens.

I've just started playing with SS again, so I'm not as versed as to whether or not you can do this in SS.

Thank you. .AVI is not on the dropdown for anything in SS. Only images that's why I am toying with this. I'm really not wanting to learn PE just because most of what I do is singing faces and that takes up the majority of my time. A couple months ago I started getting into SS but really have not had the time to dedicate to it, just been importing gifs that I may want in the future. And then this video conversion.

JR

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21 minutes ago, Little_b said:

I've just started playing with SS again, so I'm not as versed as to whether or not you can do this in SS.

SuperStar does not have any capability to import a video file - only still images.

 

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1 hour ago, Mr. P said:

I was considering one but the shipping is as much as the matrix. I might just bite the bullet if I can't find something else.

Use deer fence. You can't beat the price and 12mm pixels fit into the holes perfectly. I bought mine from home Depot. I purchased a pixel net a few years ago and if I knew about deer fence before then I would have never bought the net. The only thing that will need to be made with deer fence is a PVC frame or something similar.

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1 hour ago, k6ccc said:

SuperStar does not have any capability to import a video file - only still images.

 

And GIF's (animated pics)

JR

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