[Imc-birmingham] [Fwd: [Imc-uk-video] useful gizmo for doing screenings]

Sat Jun 23 13:22:48 PDT 2007

I think some type of media box made using an second hand mini-itx with an
onboard graphics adapter and a custom chassis would be better. Its upgradeable,
plays all the formats you want and can be retrofitted with all manner of
external hard drives and mejiggies :-). With onboard graphics you may only need
a sound card and that could be fitted flat against the chassis with a PCI
extender instead of using up space. It would also be quite cheap as you could
blag a network and sound card off freecycle and pickup the mini board on ebay.
The most expensive thing would be the chassis!..but i reckons it wouldnt be
much different in price from those things below (and you wouldnt need a screen
as you had the projector...obviously). See you monday!

Quoting phunkee <phunkee at aktivix.org>:

> 
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: 	[Imc-uk-video] useful gizmo for doing screenings
> Date: 	Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:06:00 +0100
> From: 	kriptick <kriptick at beeb.net>
> Reply-To: 	uk indymedia video subgroup list 
> <imc-uk-video at lists.indymedia.org>
> To: 	imc video <imc-uk-video at lists.indymedia.org>
> References: 	<20070619172208.5jojncj6hw8wwow8 at mailzone.onetel.net.uk>
> 
> 
> 
> Those of you doing screenings of films for audiences are most likely lugging
> a heavy paving slab laptop around with you to play the material from.
> Regularly having your expensive laptop sharing space with drinks on a small
> table in a bar setting can be nerve wracking - well I always worry about
> mine in such a situation. It's even more worrying when you know that there
> are loads of cables connecting to it and snaking across the floor and plenty
> of  less than sober people blundering around it in the dark. There's also
> the wear and tear factor - laptop DVD drives are notoriously flimsy and not
> designed for really frequent use. Just catching the very exposed and
> delicate lens with your fingernail while changing a disk in the dark can
> spell instant death for it.
> 
> Maplin have on special offer at the moment for 40 quid a gizmo that could be
> very handy for regular screeners.
> http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=97124&doy=22m6#overview
> 
> It's an external USB connected hard drive box that also has the intelligence
> to play videos stored on it's hard drive without requiring a computer. It
> has both a VGA socket and compo video for connecting to the projector. As
> supplied it comes as an empty box without any HDD so you fit whatever size
> drive you can afford into it which is really easy - 5 mins. At present the
> best byte/buck ratio for HDDs is around the 300 gig size. I've just bought
> 320 gig for 42 quid. Now 300 gig + means that you can use it to carry your
> entire collection of docus in Xvid format etc around with you - not just for
> screenings but also it's useful for file exchange sessions when you're
> meeting up with other video people. It plays MPG1,2, Xvid, DivX, VOBs, and
> the collection of VIDEO_TS files that can be ripped from a complete DVD.
> Also can be used for unattended playing of collections of music and JPGs -
> useful for background wallpaper at public events etc. The main thing about
> such a device is that it stores much more than any lappy, is more portable
> and there's no screen to smash when someone sits on your backpack. For
> anyone travelling around rough places like festys etc it could be ideal as
> you'd just spend a few hours copying all your fave films onto it via a
> computer beforehand and you'd then be setup for whatever you or the
> audience want to see. Also at 80ish quid versus 300+ quid for a lappy it
> won't hurt so much if it gets nicked or whatever, though you should still
> factor in the value of all the films you lose if you didn't have backups.
> 
> There are of course disadvantages which I should list too.
> It'd prob be a bit harder to power it from a 12 Volt system in a field as it
> requires both 12V & 5V that come from a separate supplied power brick so
> you'd prob need an inverter. It's not as versatile as a properly set up
> lappy in that it won't play .WMVs, .ASFs, quicktime, real, .MP4s and any of
> the obscure video formats that open source fundamentalists want to foist on
> us. It's also not as spontaneous as a lappy in that if someone turns up at
> the last minute with a DVD or USB stick containing a
> hot-from-the-protest-line vid then you'll only be able to get it onto the
> media drive by connecting with a computer. Remember too that as with
> anything containing a hard drive, it mustn't be jolted or dropped especially
> when it's spinning or you'll lose the lot. The built in video menu can be
> hard to find video files with as it insists on showing 4 simultaneous
> previews/page with no directory names shown when you're browsing for a
> particular file amongst dozens. This takes ages & I was cursing the idiot
> who wrote the gimmicky firmware until I found that by using File mode from
> the main menu instead of Video mode it was much quicker and more obvious -
> just like a standard file browser window.
> 
> There are also other such devices. IMC London have recently bought a similar
> media player device from Freecom that can also be connected directly to
> ethernet - useful for video exchange sessions but this costs 88 quid.
> http://www.freecom.com/ecproduct_detail.asp?ID=2637&CatID=&sCatID=
> 
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