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Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Dvd's are now not worth the maintenence.   There are solid state  
players (<$200!) that store the video on a compact flash card and they  
can be synched easily, using a separate controller that you will also  
have to buy if you want perfect synch.  A one gig card stores about 30  
minutes of decent quality normal tv footage (not High definition).  I  
have a 17 TV's all synched together in my A Garden of Gizmos traveling  
exhibit piece "As The Year Turns"   
http://www.scienceinteractives.com/ex_garden_as_year.html
and I was very glad to get rid of the $10,000 of synched DVD players  
when these solid state players came out.

I'm sure there are other vendors, but I got mine through    
http://www.technovision.com/  The item is the DV-66, under Digital  
Video Players.

Clifford Wagner


On Jun 4, 2005, at 9:19 PM, Stuart Kohlhagen wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology  
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related  
> institutions.
> *********************************************************************** 
> ******
>
> Sharon,
>
> there are many ways this could be done.
> The most common way this has been done recently is to use 2 industrial  
> type DVD players ( typically pioneer 7400 series DVD players). These  
> have a serial ( rs232) interface and the play/pause/seek functions can  
> be controlled via simple serial commands. These commands can come from  
> either a computer running a small utility program, or you could get  
> the commands from a small micro-controller if you have someone that  
> can program these. This technique is often used to run the left/right  
> image sequences in 3d theatre systems ( so the sync achieved this way  
> is very good). The dvd players are around $1700 ( australian) each. It  
> is also possible to link a couple of base grade pc's together, run the  
> video off their harddrives and achieve the sync with a bit of  
> programming and hand shaking over an ethernet or serial connection.  
> These systems can provide signal for either computer screens, or video  
> with the right graphics cards. Most multiscreen systems in big venues  
> are run using one of a range of "show control" software/hardware  
> systems, and while these are powerful and flexible, they are  
> expensive.
>
> if you would like any more details, feel free to contact me off list.
> Dr Stuart Kohlhagen
> Manager New Concepts
> Questacon
> The National Science and Technology centre
> Canberra
> Australia
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Informal Science Education Network on behalf of Sharon Yanai
> Sent: Sat 6/4/2005 10:50 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Play 2 mpeg videos sync
>
>
>
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology  
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related  
> institutions.
> *********************************************************************** 
> ******
>
> Hello all,
> For one of our exhibits we need to play two mpeg2 videos on two  
> monitors one
> next to the other and would like to play them in full sync.
> Do you have any experience on that? Can you recommend a  
> player/solution?
> Least expansive solution will be appreciated.
>
>
> Sharon Yanai
> Head of IT
> Israel National Museum of Science
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ***********************************************************************
> More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
> Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at  
> http://www.astc.org.
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> ***********************************************************************
> More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
> Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at  
> http://www.astc.org.
> To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
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