Programmable stand-alone Slideshow player?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hillbilly
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Hillbilly

Has Microsoft or some other 3rd party developed a programmable Slideshow
player? The application is digital signage and other presentations that need
to be integrated with other media rather than "just a slideshow."
 
PowerPoint can incorporate multi media, and many other formats. There is a
free viewer program available. I do not know of any 3rd party software that
will allow you to use PowerPoint files as part of a loop.

However, you can export all the slides as JPG (or other image format) that
should be able to be used by almost anything.

What other types of media need to be used in this signage project?
What version of PowerPoint are you using?
What software do you want to run this signage loop?

Bill Dilworth
 
I'm just getting into the market of "digital signage" so there are a lot of
media players that for the most part are built on Windows Embedded and have
proprietary playback of image files as you point out.

In large part, its PowerPoint that is being used to create the content for
many applications but the paint programs can be used to create large format
like 30" x 42" files noting I'm referring to what CAD markets call D size
format for convenience. As you've likely observed there are many sized of
LCD screens and TVs being used as display platforms.

The animation PowerPoint supports would be nice to reuse but that requires
Microsoft supporting a light-weight player that is programmable --or--
releasing its player as open-source so developers can reuse it in these
emerging markets which is where many of the new jobs are being created.

Don't slap me for saying so but I'm compelled to look at what the OpenOffice
has to offer in this context. AFIC the more Microsoft drags its feet the
more I and others are compelled to abandon their platform and its software
products as they continue to make it impossible to achieve contemporary
goals.

Meanwhile, I hope to continue to learn PowerPoint never having thought
before I would actually need or want to become a SlideMaster :-) so thanks
for your interest Bill...
 
Typical resolutions vary depending on the display manufacturer. Some common
formats are:
(l)andscape
(p)ortrait

1920 x 1080 l
1366 x 1080 l
1366 x 768 p
866 x 668 l
720 x 480 l

I'm posting at asp.net forums to start an inquiry regarding programmable
control of the PPT slideshow.
 
Having PPT run locally on the server is unacceptable though as it has been
for those hoping to automate Word and Excel.
 
Would you happen to know of any developer or development group that has
something going on in this context?

What is needed is programmatic control of PPT slide shows being used on
digital signs and the emerging interactive TV markets. There is a need to be
able to start, stop, fast-forward and so on through a PPT slide show
including the retention of as much PPT animation as possible so the PPT
slide shows can be used with other digital media that are run and controlled
by some type of media player. On our platform, most likely a WPF or
Silverlight media player for example.
 
Hello Chirag, yes, thank you for joining this conversation. There are some
issues we are trying to deal with. The vendor you referred to is just
another wanna-be vendor like dozens and dozens of others trying to do
business in the emerging digital signage markets. My partner and I too by
the way but we like to think we have a different business model we hope to
be successful with as we believe it will be more useful to customers and
especially people who use Power Point.

//what is digital signage?

To simplify, a "digital sign" is nothing more than a web application running
on a PC with a large LCD screen. Things can get complex when scaling out a
"network" of "signs" which requires using digital media players and other
networking issues like any other network that has cabling and other hardware
required.

//what are a few current issues?

A.) I've been into this for almost two years and still --ALL-- of the
current dozens and dozens of digital signage product and service vendors are
being dishonest by telling the customer "lies of omission" when claiming
they support RSS but the truth is they will only support RSS for "news and
weather" omitting the truth and the facts that both RSS and AtomPub are
agnostic standards for rich media messaging and transport across the network
that are used to transport all of the audio, video, PPT and any other type
of digital media not "just the' news and weather which are generally ho-hum
and no longer what people are mostly interested in.

In other words, when this stuff was brand new some proprietary software
applications had to be developed as there was nothing else to do the job but
this has changed and continues to change very rapidly as very little to none
of their proprietary software is actually needed when all we really need is
a PC with an application server like IIS, a web application and one or more
large LCDs.

I've even made a "digital sign" out of a 7" digital photo frame!

B.) People who actually use Power Point create and publish --a lot-- of
"information." Developers need more power to control the PPT slides and
slide shows and to be able to integrate with other applications like WPF or
Silverlight on our platform (sorry to repeat myself). When developers get
more power to programmatically control the slides and the slide shows the
people who use Power Point become more important and powerful as their
skills become more valuable. <yea! />

I'll be studying OfficeOne PowerShow today. Ar first look it sounds very
useful. We'll see... maybe we'll be working closely together eh?
 
I'll do some poking around at Codeplex today. Thanks for bringing it up.
Yes, I'm certain Flex can be used to control Flash playback and can manage
interstitials. Flex is ~2-3 years ahead of what we can do with WPF or
Silverlight as I understand things at the moment.

However, the problem as I think I know it continues to be occurs during
conversion which remains an all or nothing process when converting to Flash.
Even more important for Microsoft to open up here as Power Point is
everywhere and can easily become the defacto standard application to create
and generate media for digital signage, digital menu systems and all kinds
of markets emerging on the digital display platforms.

Its becoming huge business which can be learned be delving into where the
analysts say the money is headed and currently there are only two growth
sectors they are reporting: out-of-home ("digital signage") and Internet
advertising, marketing and promotions, product awareness, education and on
and on: what I call digital display platforms.
 
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