# Show programming questions



## NickWaka7 (Aug 10, 2013)

Last year I created a preshow room for my haunted house where guests would walk in, and once I pushed play, the show would begin. It was a simple show run off of my laptop using Vixen to program and a Lynx Express as the physical control unit. I got tired of constsntly pushing the play button, so this year I would like to make a few modifications. 

This year I would like the new show to be completely looped. I am going to build a set, and guests waiting in line will watch the show before entering the actual attraction. The part that confuses me is to what products I need to use to pull off the looping of the show and how to add a tv to the show. 

I would like to program a show that utilizes a tv behind a two way mirror, talking skull, audio, and multiple animated lights, but im not sure how to set up everything and what to use that will loop the show. My show last year consisted of animated lights and the talking skull, but no tv and no looping of the show. 

Any help would be great!


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Vixen does have a loop feature where you can just loop the show in a continuous play mode. The TV / DVD player can be controlled by either hacking the player control buttons to outputs on the lynx or the Picaxe chip can output Sony remote control infrared codes that can control your Sony player (if you have one). you can then connect the Picaxe to an output of the lynx to trigger it.


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## NickWaka7 (Aug 10, 2013)

hpropman said:


> Vixen does have a loop feature where you can just loop the show in a continuous play mode. The TV / DVD player can be controlled by either hacking the player control buttons to outputs on the lynx or the Picaxe chip can output Sony remote control infrared codes that can control your Sony player (if you have one). you can then connect the Picaxe to an output of the lynx to trigger it.


Thanks for the help! Do you happen to have any links to how tos for the dvd player hack?


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## brd813 (Nov 29, 2012)

Just saw this discussed on another forum Amazon has them:
Micca Speck 1080p Full-HD Ultra Portable Digital Media Player For USB Drives and SD/SDHC Cards
Amazon link:
http://tinyurl.com/mdbzrkd
I have not used them so I cannot comment on the quality but it may be a solution for you.

Good Luck

Bill


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

Those little media players are great, you could put your video file on a USB thumb drive and have the media player run it. However, it's a bit more work...you'll need to use a microcontroller (like an Arduino) to decode the signal from the remote and then play it back to control the media player.

Here's a link to a tutorial on how to do that:
http://learn.adafruit.com/ir-sensor

However, since you're using Vixen, I suggest you ask on their forums - there's probably someone who has already solved this problem.
http://www.vixenlights.com/


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## beaver state rich (Jan 25, 2014)

If you are running off the laptop, why not just have the TV act as a 2nd monitor (or find a cheap/free monitor) and run the video from your computer directly? 

I have not used Vixen but I believe it should have similar abilities to the Light O Rama software which I use to run my show. I am using a projector but a monitor would work the same way. Just set your screen saver to all black and when the video is not playing it is just dark/off. The video is part of the show file and starts up automatically. 

This may save you some $$ on hardware. 

Have you thought about programing your show times to start on a short cycle say every 2 minutes between shows? Just hold people out of the "theater" until next show time. Add a chime/bell/wolf howl/owl hoot etc. sound to the start of the show as a signal to you to open the door. Add another 30 second delay to get folks into the room and it should just auto fire. 

This way the entire show would be automatic without any additional hardware. Just control the crowd at the start and it will run itself.


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