Howto: Multimedia on displays...

[Silva Mak]

Originally Posted by beautygal

Think of all those who bought screens, only to find out later that they can't drop them on the walls unless they repair them almost fully. Was an instant money-maker for MA, with all those repair PEDs going straight to MA and not in the lootpool if I'm not mistaken.

Oh but you asked for a 'valid' point! Nop, I'm afraid I have none of these, unless you count lining MA's pockets as valid. Guess not. Meh...

For MA to make even more money, I suggest they take an axe1x0, paint it brown, then go on a screen-breaking spree with it. What's left of them can be finished with the opalo... then all screen owners would have to pay full repair for them once again.

All a very clever way of squeezing more peds from players. Players would not have bought them if the total price was initially shown. Also I found (only after I uploaded 3 images that cost about 150ped so was wasted) that if you want a landscape dimensioned image rather than a portrait one it will stretch the small dimension and distort the whole thing, regardless of which way round u have the screen on the wall. You have to rotate ur initial picture by 90 degrees b4 saving it to the archive file. So with lack of info or being able to change from portrait to landscape setting in game, more free peds for MA!

Serious lack of info/instructions/data for all the different types of screens. I have no idea what the difference between them all is and the cost comparrisons.

Can anyone enlighten me?

[Moonfish]

Great thread this,

Unfortunatly it took me 10 mins to find, it needs moving to the art section really & alot more people would read it... + rep

Moonfish

Originally Posted by BlueBoy

Search words: display kbp video rate stream music movie multimedia sign

Hi ladies and gents!

I’m really not sure if this is the place to put this thread but I hope so. I have been searching the forum for some tips on the new “display” signs but never saw a any so now when I have experimented some on my own I just put what I was learning here. Please feel free to correct or add experience.

The final result is too be watched at The House of Lords HQ at Billton Tower 3, 6B.

Screen of use: Reon-W Display (PC) (it is a 1:2 ratio)

Movie info
Size: 512x256 px
Fps: 12 fps
Sound: 22khz, 32bit
Filesize: 40MB
Format: AVI cinepak compression, keyfram every 3rd frame.

The journey
First thing I did was downloading the Bink software from http://www.radgametools.com. Although I have been working with video a long time a go I it was not exactly clear too me what to do when I first opened the program. But I recommend opening the radvideo.exe file. From there you can find the file you wish to convert and then you press the Bink Video button with the label “Bink it””.

Since I already in the movie creating stage had the ratio and size adapted to my sign size I didn’t had to use that much settings here. So my tip is to make as much preparation as possible before entering the Bink program.

Settings I used was “Compress to a data rate” which made a nice quality when put to 80 000 bytes. Allong with the “Compress audio settings” 16-bit/Stereo it was still a little too big (14MB). But very nice quality though. The downside was the price for upload that was about 507 ped. Since it was my first try (and more of a test) I didn’t want to put that much ped in it. But if you want quality that was the settings.

Instead I used “Compress to a data rate” 30 000 bytes and the 8bit/Stereo settings. I make no secret of the lack of quality on the video but on a little sign it was not that bad. And the cost for the upload then went down to 217 ped. 43.32 ped from that price is the value of the video and will return to me if/when I delete it.

Now I repaired my sign to the 90% TT value (on my sign it was 316 ped TT) that is needed for making changes on it (note that the content still will play under the 90% TT value just that no changes can be made.)

I now putted my sign on the wall (it took 15 items places) and activated it. It works like any other sign or commercial add terminal. The movie will show under the backgrounds. And NOTE that I think you have to place sequences that match your movies length so the whole movie is shown! I put in three alike sequences (one was not able to over the whole movie length for some reason) with the soc internet address on it (in a very small font size tho).

When done I pressed the ok button and was notified a 17,6 ped fee was charged.. but not from the ped card but from the TT value of the sign. So I got some money “back” on that one.

To sum up the hardest work was making the movie and then convert it too a nice format that was acceptable but not to expensive. Now when I know how to do I can use a better compression in the Bink software.

Cost:
Sign: 120 ped
Repair of sign: 311 ped
Upload fee: 217 ped
Sign fee: -17.6 ped (since it was taken of the repair of the sign)
Total: 630,4 ped

The final result is too be watched at The House of Lords HQ at Billton Tower 3, 6B.

And again please feel free to correct me or post your own experiences from multimedia signs here!

Over and out!
/OZ

[EyeContact]

Could someone please fill in these numbers?

Standard upload fee: xx ped (this is a one time fee to enable uploading?)
Dynamic upload fee: yy ped / MB

[Lieska]

If you think about it, theres expenses for MA for broadcasting that video but prices or the pricing system arent quite there where they should be :P Like me, I want to use display in my apartment. Repair cost is high but it's ok because I can sell that display later. But paying 200-500peds for content that wont have many watchers which translates to less bandwidth expenses for MA. Nice thing though is that you get unlimited bandwidth traffic for your video as long EU exists but downside is that probably not so many want to be watching same video over and over again and then the uploading fee steps in play again. (Maybe reduced fee for the second upload? )
Better explanation for fees is needed, I was also fooled how fee system works with them. If sign/screen/display info says that upload fee is x peds it should be it and not more. So MA fix the ingame info of fee system, please!

[Jamhot]

Free TV Channel for all 'Reon-W Display(pc)' 'Plasma Display(pc) and 'Megaview Display(pc)' owners! Thats right over 50mins of video content can be yours for free with new content every couple of months! Simply click on my signature for more details.

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ntopic:

Nice thread Blueboy me old mate!

All the best.

Jamhot

[SeanJohn]

nice thread i would really like to try if i ever HOF

[Legends]

Thanks Blueboy, I was not sure how to get my video into .bik format but you just solved it for me

Now the only thing I have left to work out is to find software I can use to "record" my screen while I'm playing in-game, if you can recommend me one in particular that would be great

+rep

[Joat]

Originally Posted by Legends

Thanks Blueboy, I was not sure how to get my video into .bik format but you just solved it for me

Now the only thing I have left to work out is to find software I can use to "record" my screen while I'm playing in-game, if you can recommend me one in particular that would be great

+rep

Fraps maybe? FRAPS show fps, record video game movies, screen capture software

[BlueBoy]

Yeah... should be a good program. I mostly use SnagIT though. But I guess that is only cause I work with it in my othere projects.

[Legends]

Fraps seems to be a good one, unfortunately it only allows me to record 30 seconds at a time (trial version).

Still looking for a better one I guess.

Thanks anyway guys