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Daniel,
The solid state media player options would be the best and simplest.
The HD units we sometimes use also have basic time scheduling, and button inputs ( in case you want to jump the "show" to something different ( perhaps during a tour ?).
so asking about what options are available in the states would seem to be the way to go.
However, while hacking technology isn't always cheaper or sensible, it can be fun.
You can get small card extension sockets that bring the sd cards out of their sockets ( normally used by folk developing/testing/hacking SD of CF cards or interfaces. These come with small connectors that allow you to break the power and data lines to and from the card.
putting a small delay circuit or timer relay across the power line to the card would allow it to power up after the monitor, and be seen as having been inserted, and so auto start.
The cards are about $120 so this would only be a cheaper option if you had access to a tame tech that was prepared to tinker.
But It would be good to go back to the reps and let them know you have a solution available for all the screens that you can make available for a small fee.
cheers
Stuart Kohlhagen
Manager Research and Development
Questacon.
The National Science and Technology centre
Canberra Australia
-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network on behalf of Daniel Zevin
Sent: Sat 14/03/2009 3:59 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Tech Advice Needed: Input for Plasma Monitor HD Slide-Show
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************
Hi All,
Wondering if any media/av tech or just clever person out there has some
possible fix to a problem we're having. We've mounted multiple
Panasonic plasma monitors (model # TH50PZ85U) to a long hallway in order
to continuously run a slide show of hi-res astronomical images. Plan
was that each morning when the monitors powered up they'd start playing
the slideshow from internal SD drives. But we discovered that doesn't
work, you have to physically insert the SD card into each drive to get
the show going. We then tried an external SD card reader which fixed the
start up problem, but the image quality was poor, probably because the
reader's output resolution is too limited. Anyway, the Panasonic tech
rep we called said what we want to do can't be done, but we hate to give
up now considering our investment in this project. (And yes, we could
just leave them on 24/7, but we're not going there.) We currently
looking at buying small laptops (with HDMI lines out) for each monitor,
but that idea makes aesthetic mounting on the walls rather challenging.
Those with ideas they're willing to share can send them direct to
[log in to unmask]
Thanks much!
Dan
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Dan Zevin
SEGway Project Manager
Center for Science Education, Space Sciences Laboratory
MC 7450, Office: 233, SSL Addition
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-7450
(510) 642-8326
(510) 643-5660 [fax]
[log in to unmask]
http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/segway/
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