Playlists

When will you allow playlists to be loaded in the TVUBroadcast software? This will may a lot of people happy and the job of broadcasting 100 times easier.

Thanks

There actually is an undocumented playlist capability built into TVUBroadcast. It's pretty clunky, but it works. What you do is create a text file with the suffix ".ply" (uncertain if that suffix is actually a requirement) that contains the full path/file name of the files you want to broadcast, with a pair of " signs before them for some obscure reason, one file per line. Example: you have 3 files you want to broadcast, a.wmv, b.wmv, and c.wmv, and they're all in your C:\ root directory. You would then create a text file, let's say you call it "list.ply", that contains the following:

""c:\a.wmv
""c:\b.wmv
""c:\c.wmv

Then, in the TVUBroadcast application, instead of pointing to a .wmv file, you point to your "list.ply" file instead.

Apart from the clunky interface, there is one known problem with this, which is that a few seconds gets cut off at the beginning and end of each file.

Our plan is to release a "real" file-based TVUBroadcast that directly allows you to specify files. Best guess for a release date is early October.

Thanks for broadcasting on TVU!

Sorry, forgot one crucial detail: the WMV files in your file list MUST be in the exact same format (aspect ratio, bitrate, etc.).

Thank You

Has anybody managed to get this to work? Its not happening on my system.

I've tried .ply .txt .pls etc and no file format. check video bit rates and aspects etc.

Is the update done yet or a beta avaliable?

I've made playlists since the reply post was made and has worked for me everytime. Do you have an example of how you are making yours?

This is a drect copy and paste from the file.:

""c:\ply\01.wmv
""c:\ply\02.wmv
""c:\ply\03.wmv

all files are in c:\ply all files run independantly.

I've used .ply .txt .pls and no ending. Used Notepad .

Dear TVU team ,

list.ply doesn't work!

I made a new dir named broadcast on c drive.
Moved 6 wmv files there.

Typed out a ply for it, the following...

""C:\broadcast\MovieNumber1.wmv
""C:\broadcast\MovieNumber2.wmv
""C:\broadcast\MovieNumber3.wmv
""C:\broadcast\MovieNumber4.wmv
""C:\broadcast\MovieNumber5.wmv
""C:\broadcast\MovieNumber6.wmv

saved it as testlist1.ply

Set source in broadcaster to testlist1.ply via the browse button, etc., and will not show in test window.

I tried "testlist1.ply" by running it from C:\ and it wouldn't work.

I tried "testlist1.ply" by running it from C:\broadcast\ and it wouldn't work.

I then renamed it as plain "testlist1", with no extension and again tried it from C:\ and from C:\broadcast\, and again it did not work. Broadcaster is working as I can load into test window a regular *.wmv file, or I can run a list from Windows Media Encoder (Which by the way WME Sucks big time, and a way to load play lists directly would be much appreciated!!!)

Any help or response would be appreciated. Am I missing something? Or does a play list (*.ply) not work with this version of broadcaster?

P.S. all my wmv are the same format, bit rate etc.so that's not it either. Also see fresh posts of others having problems with this too, and yet others aren't... very odd.

make sure that when you go to save your notepad file into a ".ply"
that the "save as type" is set to "all files" not 'text files'.

if you don't change this option -- then your computer will automatically
save to a .txt file.

b

I already made sure that it was saved to a *.ply file and not text (Save as all: "All Files"). And when done I opened the directory, I checked to see if file was .ply, and it was.

Also I do cross platform programming with euphoria, have numerous software programs that I've written, and know this stuff about text files. However I was wondering this...

Would possibly saving to file and using ANSI encoding instead of unicode, unicode big endian, or UTF-8? I saved it to any file .ply, but used ANSI encoding, which is pretty standard. Would saving it to unicode or utf work? (Maybe I'll try this.)

My last thought is this... do those who can run a ply file on their system also run a firewall? I, and many others, run firewalls. I personally use zonealarm security suite (love it!) And I thought possibly that when calling a *.ply file, the broadcaster software might call forth some sub-routine that might call forth a system file (like a dll or mfc, or whatever file) that my firewall won't allow access to. This probably isn't it, but thought it a remote possibility?

ditch the trash, that playlist method is garbage at best.

The undocumented playlist causes more problems than it corrects.

The new broadcast software has a playlist funtion built right in, but I used to create ASX files and they worked a treat!

All you do is open up notepad and paste in this, then save as .ASX

<ASX version="3.0">

<Entry>
<ref href="C:\Video-1.wmv" />
</Entry>

<Entry>
<ref href="C:\Video-2.wmv" />
</Entry>

</ASX>

Open up the old TVUBroadcaster and browse for your ASX file.

The question is though, does it cut up beginning and ending of files like the .ply list does?

A useful feature would be the acceptance of Windows Media Player playlists. This way you could audition the play sequence, make adjustments and then export the playlist and import it into TVU broadcast.

I have found my own work-around for this. The TVU broadcast application creates an ini file in the:

C:\Documents and Settings\Edit1\Application Data\TVU Networks\TVUBroadcast

directory.

If you open it up you will see the path and file names listed. You can replace that text with your updated information. Make sure to save it as the ini file. This works flawlessly for me- no inter-program delays.

Additionally, You could create a generic sequence and then replace the media files themselves with the updated material, ie:

C:\BROADCAST\stationID.wmv
C:\BROADCAST\promo1.wmv
C:\BROADCAST\ad-insert1.wmv
C:\BROADCAST\ad-insert2.wmv
C:\BROADCAST\ad-insert3.wmv
C:\BROADCAST\showopen1.wmv
C:\BROADCAST\FEATURE1a.wmv
C:\BROADCAST\ad-insert2.wmv
C:\BROADCAST\ad-insert3.wmv
C:\BROADCAST\FEATURE1b.wmv
C:\BROADCAST\stationID.wmv

Then just name your new media files to match the location in the sequence.

P.S. Off topic: Are you guys losing your download bandwidth while broadcasting? Why or why not?