# Automate 24/7 Stream for a scheduled Playlist



## ledaouk (May 22, 2018)

Hi,
What is the best workflow to automate obs streaming a scheduled playlist
Hi,

What is the best workflow to automate obs streaming a scheduled playlist that will be managed by an in-house application, I did a workaround by adding a scene with vlc source form a directory and I tried to drop files in this folder continuously but it seems the vlc source will play only clips located when starting, does creating multiple scene and trying to auto switch them will help in this case?
Or any better ideas, I’m able to create dynamically xml, json or any kind of playlist files, but how can obs read these playlist after updating them?
And is there any way to make playlist with specific time? Os it ca run a specific file at a specific time?
One more doubt what about automating some overlay graphics or some alsfa .mov files on a specific time?
Thank you for your advices.
Regards.

that will be managed by an in-house application, I did a workround


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## Dihelson Mendonca (May 28, 2018)

Complete automation playlists would be the BEST professional add-on to OBS. I run a TV channel, and I need to play commercials from time to time, like a playlist of commercials, choosed randomly inside a major playlist of the program videos. A scheduled playlist that would fit time exactly would also be a dream. How to do that in VLC ? We could automate VLC and send it to OBS.


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## bihproduction (Dec 19, 2018)

ledaouk said:


> Hi,
> What is the best workflow to automate obs streaming a scheduled playlist
> Hi,
> 
> ...




Hi,
Did any one has idea or video tutorial for this question. I have same problem how to schedule time to time video advertising to play with OBS.
Thank you


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## Tormy (Dec 27, 2018)

Dihelson Mendonca said:


> Complete automation playlists would be the BEST professional add-on to OBS. I run a TV channel, and I need to play commercials from time to time, like a playlist of commercials, choosed randomly inside a major playlist of the program videos. A scheduled playlist that would fit time exactly would also be a dream. How to do that in VLC ? We could automate VLC and send it to OBS.


I'm also waiting something like that.
On the radio side, I use SAM Braodcaster. 
But on video side, it' harder without an automation that enables this.
Any news for an upcoming plugin?


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## ColinP (Jan 14, 2019)

Just adding my name so the devs know its a popular addition


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## rail5 (Jan 16, 2019)

Adding my name as well, I run an Internet TV project and we haven't been able to do 24/7 broadcasting so far because OBS is lacking this feature.


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## dodgepong (Jan 16, 2019)

Can someone describe what featureset they are looking for in such an addition? What are the different things you want to be able to do?


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## rail5 (Jan 17, 2019)

dodgepong said:


> Can someone describe what featureset they are looking for in such an addition? What are the different things you want to be able to do?


Well personally I'm looking for what the OP described, being able to select some kind of either folder or dynamic playlist, which I could update as the stream is still running. At the moment selecting a folder loads the folder's contents into memory, and doesn't notice when new files are added

If I could dynamically update a folder or (even better) a playlist, I'd be able to run scripts which could automate specific re-runs, as opposed to repeating the same playlist from the beginning in the same order, and I could intervene when there's new material to broadcast


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## DrRW (Feb 7, 2019)

I'm adding my name to the list as well. This would be a huge addition to the abilities of OBS. If this feature could allow for the adding of videos for scheduled play-out, a person could have episodes separated by ads, etc. Thanks for considering this.


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## parminder (Feb 25, 2019)

add me on list as well.


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## retropixelshow (Feb 26, 2019)

There might be a solution, but it would require some work to set up. Let me try to explain:
One Scene for Game Footage
One Scene for Ads
Both use their own VLC.
You need to know how long your segment of ads is.
You need to know how long you want to show Footage.
If you want to change the length of footage or ads shown, you can do so.

You can capture a VLC Window directly, using it like a camera for the shown footage. you can flexibly edit your playlist from inside VLC and VLC will play it. In addition, you can use all the controlling interfaces VLC has to offer, one could eventually be used by your in-house application.

Switching between the Scenes can be done inside OBS using Advanced Scene Switchers capability of Sequences. It will keep switching to the Scene you told it after the time you told it. 

Another possible way to switch is to use the OBSCommand Tool. This is a way of controlling OBS over the command line using OBSWebsocket Plugin. When you have these set up (its really easy, they are well documented) you can use the Windows Task Scheduler to create Tasks to have OBSCommand switch the Scenes, Sources, start/stop recording or streaming at the time you want it. Windows Task Scheduler is Command Line controllable, too, which can be used to change, add or delete Tasks. Maybe your In-House Software is capable of doing this. If not, Z-TaskHelp as another GUI for the Windows Task Scheduler can possibly help.


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## Kaian32 (Feb 26, 2019)

I created a account just to add my name on this thread, I spent days and days searching for a good free automation software for Radio and TV, for the radio side I use PlayIt Live, and I use obs just to stream the video to restream.io, but PlayIt Live only works with audio files, so for video I have to manually switch between ads and videos, the only solution that I have found is to render the videos with the Id`s, ads and all of that stuff. If OBS have a automation plugin, with the abilities to put a specific file in a specific time, for example, run a interview program at 10 pm, put ads and Id`s between parts, and then, at the end change to a waiting scene until 11pm to broadcast a Sports program, and then run random programs with breaks, that would be awesome! I think this is a feature that will help some part of the entire stream community and make other people want to start making 24/7 streams!


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## cameradoppia (Feb 27, 2019)

I’ve signed up for that too :)


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## Tormy (Mar 1, 2019)

Kaian32 said:


> I created a account just to add my name on this thread, I spent days and days searching for a good free automation software for Radio and TV, for the radio side I use PlayIt Live, and I use obs just to stream the video to restream.io, but PlayIt Live only works with audio files, so for video I have to manually switch between ads and videos, the only solution that I have found is to render the videos with the Id`s, ads and all of that stuff. If OBS have a automation plugin, with the abilities to put a specific file in a specific time, for example, run a interview program at 10 pm, put ads and Id`s between parts, and then, at the end change to a waiting scene until 11pm to broadcast a Sports program, and then run random programs with breaks, that would be awesome! I think this is a feature that will help some part of the entire stream community and make other people want to start making 24/7 streams!


Right. I just looking for a kind of SAM Broadcaster but with video.
It will be nice to:
- Create categories and assign videos to them
- Events: at certain date/time a playlist or a live, starts
- Clockwheel Rotation base on files/categories/playlists


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## Re-Aktor (Mar 3, 2019)

Hello everyone, I also need a playlist plugin with playing files at the right time. Perhaps a playlist that will show how much one or another video or scene will play is suitable. I would like the playlist to embed the playback of videos over time using one or another scene. For example, I need to play commercials without specific elements (chat, donations), and with use certain video elements. Indeed, the playlist plugin is very much in demand.


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## rajivdvd (Mar 6, 2019)

Please Donate To Make Sam Broadcaster like video Program


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## zxxma (Mar 6, 2019)

Count me in too ! Same as you guys,
Cheers!


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## Re-Aktor (Mar 6, 2019)

To donate?


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## beni mor (Mar 12, 2019)

I need a program scheduler and willing to pay the right guy to build to my spec.
thank you


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## beni mor (Mar 12, 2019)

dodgepong said:


> Can someone describe what featureset they are looking for in such an addition? What are the different things you want to be able to do?



I need the plugin to schedule programs according to a simple adjustable text table.
My system is on Linux.
Thank you
Beni Mor


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## Boscox (Mar 19, 2019)

I'm in too, Sam Broadcaster like video features is badly needed


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## jbjimbo (Mar 20, 2019)

I'm sure glad you guys created this thread. I've used SAM in the past and that's exactly what I envision is needed too. At least with regards to the logic, scheduler and fallback autoplay. I'm currently looking for a solution to let us schedule shows, commercials, and promos for a 24 hr channel, with something that will also fill if we're short in a particular hour.


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## nwatv (Apr 16, 2019)

Signed up to post. A scheduling feature or add-on would be incredible, and SAM Broadcaster is a great blueprint. I work in community TV and an OBS-based system to schedule and play-out video would _change the game_.


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## Re-Aktor (Apr 19, 2019)

I propose to reset the developer SAM Brodcaster or OBS STUDIO on the implementation of this function. You can make the module paid.


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## Tormy (Apr 20, 2019)

Re-Aktor said:


> I propose to reset the developer SAM Brodcaster or OBS STUDIO on the implementation of this function. You can make the module paid.


I'm quite expertise with SAM due daily activity.
I can give them full indications on how it works in order to get these functionalities on OBS as well.
SAM is NOT free and you pay the license to use it. SAM and OBS are two worlds apart.
This, doesn't forbid to implement similar policies for video management.


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## mercatus (Apr 20, 2019)

now which one is better ?


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## Tormy (Apr 20, 2019)

mercatus said:


> now which one is better ?


SAM is for RADIO automation.


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## nwatv (Apr 23, 2019)

Something that is free is _CasperCG:_ It's an open-source broadcast automation system—a somewhat daunting program, but one that works very well. There's a fork of it called RedCast OnTime that's _nearly _there in terms of scheduling functionality and might be worth looking into for some.

Edit: Found some helpful videos:

RedCast OnTime Livestream
Redcast W Live Lab


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## dwot (Apr 24, 2019)

I've been tinkering with automating a stream using the websocket plugin and javascript.  It's in an extremely rough proof of concept state but it's working.  At this point you supply it with websocket connection info, names of 2 scenes/sources in OBS, an M3U playlist of main programs and an M3U playlist of "insert" programs to be played in between the main programs.  These techniques could be modified to play inserts as ads at set intervals during main programs as well as in between them or to play multiple insert files per rotation or to shuffle playlists more randomly.  At this point it's just dead simple interweaving 2 looping playlists and automating OBS scene / source loading / switching.

The code can be found at: https://github.com/dwot/obs-autopilot 
The actual interface at this point is just dead simple HTML - https://dwot.github.io/obs-autopilot/websocket.html 

It's definitely not professional broadcasting software and it doesn't aspire to be.  I was simply looking to string up some proof of concept automation for OBS driven as simply as I could.


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## Norbak (May 13, 2019)

yes! I need the automation system too.


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## Shapebuster (Aug 24, 2019)

Hello everyone,
Im writing from Portugal, and i came across this post because i need to play a 10h long video footage (images and video) in a cowork space, that changes within hours of the day, in order to present more about the people or startups that are having a scheduled meeting, so that their clients or people attending to the meeting see more of their presence in the broadcast, than others...
How can i do this?
Thanks in advance, and best regards from Portugal!


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## Dihelson Mendonca (Aug 25, 2019)

dodgepong said:


> Can someone describe what featureset they are looking for in such an addition? What are the different things you want to be able to do?



Just to play specific files at specific times would be the first thing to development of a scheduler on OBS.


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## Dihelson Mendonca (Aug 25, 2019)

ledaouk said:


> Hi,
> What is the best workflow to automate obs streaming a scheduled playlist
> Hi,
> 
> ...



Just adding my name also, so that developers know that we are a legion of people interested in this feature. Playing specific files at specific times and intervals would be the first step.


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## FirebirdTN (Dec 5, 2019)

Old thread, but I was researching something similar, and while obs at some point may incorporate these features directly, in the mean time the closest I could come up with is vlc scheduler.  You can pipe the output of vlc into obs.

I have not tested this (yet), and I have no affiliation with its creator.  Just trying to pass along some info that someone may find useful:

https://github.com/EugeneDae/VLC-Scheduler

-Alan


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## Ocid12 (Feb 24, 2020)

Dihelson Mendonca said:


> Complete automation playlists would be the BEST professional add-on to OBS. I run a TV channel, and I need to play commercials from time to time, like a playlist of commercials, choosed randomly inside a major playlist of the program videos. A scheduled playlist that would fit time exactly would also be a dream. How to do that in VLC ? We could automate VLC and send it to OBS.


I have found a solution. Do it with Radioboss Advanced, this is radio automation software, but install codec k-lite with all video formats. Then you can make full video playlist, ads, video with subs(srt) automation and more. Use OBS to brodcast,capture screen. The best is that you dont need a good computer to run it. Tested with old computer works great.


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## Tormy (Mar 10, 2020)

Ocid12 said:


> I have found a solution. Do it with Radioboss Advanced, this is radio automation software, but install codec k-lite with all video formats. Then you can make full video playlist, ads, video with subs(srt) automation and more. Use OBS to brodcast,capture screen. The best is that you dont need a good computer to run it. Tested with old computer works great.


Yeah, I did with another similar program, made for TV Stations ... however it will be great if there is something integrated into OBS, rather than 3rd parties.
P.S. RadioBoss is not free,neither the software I did use (I just used the trial period)


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## pashkal (Jun 7, 2020)

Hi folks,

I'd like to share a project I've been working on for a while.









						GitHub - pashkal/obs-video-scheduler: Library and web application for managing pre-recorded videos playbacks in Open Broadcaster Software broadcasts.
					

Library and web application for managing pre-recorded videos playbacks in Open Broadcaster Software broadcasts. - GitHub - pashkal/obs-video-scheduler: Library and web application for managing pre-...




					github.com
				




It's an OBS plugin and web application for managing video recording playbacks during broadcast. Plugin itself is pretty solid, web app might be a little raw, but we've been using different versions of it for a while in our broadcasts (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDBXshZdICEHr0HSVsLrydA) and I'm curious if anyone else will find it useful.

Lmk if you try it out!


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## IliasGR (Jul 4, 2020)

pashkal said:


> Hi folks,
> 
> I'd like to share a project I've been working on for a while.
> 
> ...


It looks great but i would like to ask if its possible to play videos from an external source.Like from a different server for example.


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## pashkal (Jul 5, 2020)

IliasGR said:


> It looks great but i would like to ask if its possible to play videos from an external source.Like from a different server for example.



So currently it only supports playing videos that are visible as a local file on the server that’s running OBS.

We usually have the following setup during our broadcasts:
- files are all stored locally in the directory on the machine running OBS - this way there’s no network latency involved when playing videos
- this directory is synced to some cloud service (we’ve used Yandex.Disk, but I’m sure that Dropbox or Google Drive will also work) and so directory content be managed from anywhere
- the directory with files is also network-mounted to the server running scheduler


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## Tryitplease (Sep 11, 2020)

Hello, I just came accross this thread and have been trying to find a solution to this issue.  If OBS can only be able to start and stop the (Start Streaming) command this would be a solution that would change everything.  Using OBS in combo with a service like restream, if OBS can just activate by its self on a timer than the signal is sent to resream and tranmited to the media networks.  We have figured how to set up our video player, but we still have to manually activate the broadcast schedule .  This really seems like a easy plugin for a skilled programmer.  Our station broadcast on Facebook, twitter, YouTube, but we have to do it manually. via remote control.  It works fine but must have someone who will start and stop OBS or it runs a black screen until it is stopped manually.  Thanks


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## jbjimbo (Sep 11, 2020)

I can't speak to a scheduled start and stop, but for anyone looking to now schedule a 24/7 stream based on time, the plug-in Advanced Scene Switcher was updated this summer to include triggers based on your system time. I haven't tried it just yet but I'm hopeful it's exactly what may of us have been looking for:





						Advanced Scene Switcher - Updates
					






					obsproject.com


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## bcoyle (Sep 13, 2020)

My Question is: What is the cheapest PAID app/program that will do the job?


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## bcoyle (Sep 13, 2020)

Seems to me that this is not possible with a plug-in. Too complicated. My impression that this is a full blown app out side of OBS that uses OBS as a front end. I've seen other examples (not OBS related) by googling and they seem to be a big job, many hours of effort by a team of people. Another problem is when you have a 24/7 station, you need a lot of material to keep it fresh, also a TV guide so people would see when their favorite program is coming up at 8pm, etc. I have noticed that most of the programs I've seen are pretty complicated and require a large amount of YOUR time to keep up. Need something as easy as possible on the user, i.e. as automatic as possible. Even thinking about this hurts my head.


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## IliasGR (Sep 13, 2020)

Well a ndi based automated software ll make the things much easier.


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## Freedoms Corner (Sep 18, 2020)

I talked with the creator of the plugin and he made a version that goes based on day and time


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## Xorcist (Oct 6, 2020)

So sadly until someone makes something, do this. Capture a desktop that's empty. Black screen. Now, use Windows Task Manager (sorry mac peeps) to start VLC videos according to time. Uncheck the OSD option in VLC and under playlist choose QUIT when done. Finished. You stream black (or a desktop graphic of "STAY TUNED"), then VLC spawns your videos and OBS just streams that screen (and your audio). Done. For now. Kludgy but waddaevs lol.


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## bcoyle (Oct 7, 2020)

While looking over the forums, I noticed (Duh) that most people want gadgets to enhance their video DJ activities, games, docs, etc. How many people at our level really are interested in a 24/7 broadcast automation program (any or obs related) 
It seems like most people want a fancy playout plugin that does basic switching  but not a real TV station level app. What does everyone think? Am I getting this all wrong. So are there a few or many,many,many that wants their own tv station?


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## IliasGR (Oct 8, 2020)

bcoyle said:


> While looking over the forums, I noticed (Duh) that most people want gadgets to enhance their video DJ activities, games, docs, etc. How many people at our level really are interested in a 24/7 broadcast automation program (any or obs related)
> It seems like most people want a fancy playout plugin that does basic switching  but not a real TV station level app. What does everyone think? Am I getting this all wrong. So are there a few or many,many,many that wants their own tv station?



I think thats the 2nd is close to the reality.Everyone wants to run a tv channel-no matter the content-


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## bcoyle (Oct 8, 2020)

IliasGR said:


> I think thats the 2nd is close to the reality.Everyone wants to run a tv channel-no matter the content-


So, what do you want to do for your station?


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## IliasGR (Oct 9, 2020)

bcoyle said:


> So, what do you want to do for your station?



Nothing more than i ve already done.I ve got an automation software and via ndi im sending the picture to obs.


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## bcoyle (Oct 9, 2020)

IliasGR said:


> Nothing more than i ve already done.I ve got an automation software and via ndi im sending the picture to obs.


So is it like a real tv station? Do you have scheduled programs i.e. like Hogans heros at 9pm on monday thru friday. Maybe a TV guide with schedule programs for the week. Anyway would like to look at your "Youtube" channel. Could you give me info to find it?
My story is that I was a volunteer producer for a public access station here in Minden Nevada. It was defunded in june. It only appeared on ch 193 on spectrum cable so was not widely available to all residents. You can find me on youtube using "DCCATV" for search. Currently I just play directories of past programs from the station and a lot of my own stuff. It really hurt me to see everything dumped when the station closed. So I inherited lots of programming. Also looking for people that would like to have a time slot or contributed their material  specially after I get a real station going.


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## IliasGR (Oct 10, 2020)

bcoyle said:


> So is it like a real tv station? Do you have scheduled programs i.e. like Hogans heros at 9pm on monday thru friday. Maybe a TV guide with schedule programs for the week. Anyway would like to look at your "Youtube" channel. Could you give me info to find it?
> My story is that I was a volunteer producer for a public access station here in Minden Nevada. It was defunded in june. It only appeared on ch 193 on spectrum cable so was not widely available to all residents. You can find me on youtube using "DCCATV" for search. Currently I just play directories of past programs from the station and a lot of my own stuff. It really hurt me to see everything dumped when the station closed. So I inherited lots of programming. Also looking for people that would like to have a time slot or contributed their material  specially after I get a real station going.




I checked your channel! Its great! Just a notice.Firstly put a logo on the stream.Secondly stream on multi-platforms-not only youtube.There are a few viewers watching from set up boxes-iptv boxes and similar machines thats not that friendly/familiar or a fan of youtube and they are using other apps for viewing those kinds of channels like mine or yours.A good platform is Wowza-wowza streaming engine that you can set up on your server-vps(so you have to pay for this feature/service) and you have the 100% of the control-no copyright stuff and b...shits.I own a small web-tv channel (netmaxtv.com) broadcasting 24/7 some movies/documentaries with audience(greeks) from all around the world.Its about a month thats down due to some issues(tech) but i may bring it back on 15 days from now.I have a scheduled program.Im using the automation software "easy on air ndi" with the ndi plugin on obs.


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## bcoyle (Oct 10, 2020)

IliasGR said:


> I checked your channel! Its great! Just a notice.Firstly put a logo on the stream.Secondly stream on multi-platforms-not only youtube.There are a few viewers watching from set up boxes-iptv boxes and similar machines thats not that friendly/familiar or a fan of youtube and they are using other apps for viewing those kinds of channels like mine or yours.A good platform is Wowza-wowza streaming engine that you can set up on your server-vps(so you have to pay for this feature/service) and you have the 100% of the control-no copyright stuff and b...shits.I own a small web-tv channel (netmaxtv.com) broadcasting 24/7 some movies/documentaries with audience(greeks) from all around the world.Its about a month thats down due to some issues(tech) but i may bring it back on 15 days from now.I have a scheduled program.Im using the automation software "easy on air ndi" with the ndi plugin on obs.


Thanks for the advice. I have determined that if you can't make the equivalent of a tv guide that no one knows when to watch. I do have logos on some of my outputs but am merely testing equipment by broadcasting big directories of material. If interested, I'm streaming some singer-song writer performances from our local cafe. Quite good. Anyway, what did the software cost and also the streaming service. I've seen the easy on air on google before but thought it a playout software. I've found that if you want something good, you get what you pay for. At this point I have no audience and haven't been actively trying to get some. Just testing equipment. Some of my streams do have a logo, just haven't bothered to put in all. 
You said with wowza, that there is no copywrite issues. Does that mean that you don't get flagged or blocked. And if so, can't you still get in trouble for sending out copywrite material. I know on youtube that they identify copywrite stuff, but pay royalies so that you don't get in trouble.  I figure later when I  am ready to be real serious then I would figure out different playforms. Here in nevada, people are very computer/youtube/streaming illiterate. 
Gotto go for now


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## Bart at work (Oct 11, 2020)

A solution to make playlists could be Qlab: https://qlab.app/ (it's Mac-only though). I used it to create playlists for conference workshop streams. Qlab is not free, but very affordable if you need it for a project: only $4 per day (video license). Output can be a Syphon stream, which OBS can see as input. And besides playlisting, this app can do much, much more!


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## bcoyle (Oct 11, 2020)

Up to now, I've been a video guy mostly. If interested, my youtube personal channel is "mrhidefguy"    ie Mr Hi Def Guy. Most of videos are ones I shot and edited. Some family stuff on the channel. You'll find some airshow stuff also. I'm a windows guy, so mac won't help me, but thanks for the thought. It's nice talking to people that have some of the same goals and more important, experience. One of the big questions for me is: what do people want to watch. I figured that gamers would like game stuff, while older people might want Lawrence Welk (LOL). So, what in your experience is the favorite programs you send out?

I do stream youtube now because I figured I could leverage off of my other content. I wasn't worried about streaming to other platforms until I could learn more about them. OBS can stream to a lot of platforms, so would cross that bridge when I got there. You can tell I'm new to obs. I'm don't know about m3u, seem to remember, it is some kind of standardized playlist, but will investigate and find out more.

Does easyonair actually generate a tv show like what you normally see on air and how easy it to use?

I know about github because I got a few pieces of programs off there. It's really amazing the amount of open software available. I saw redcast on google but it did not look like it was ready for use.

Enough for now, Best Regards


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## IliasGR (Oct 12, 2020)

bcoyle said:


> Up to now, I've been a video guy mostly. If interested, my youtube personal channel is "mrhidefguy"    ie Mr Hi Def Guy. Most of videos are ones I shot and edited. Some family stuff on the channel. You'll find some airshow stuff also. I'm a windows guy, so mac won't help me, but thanks for the thought. It's nice talking to people that have some of the same goals and more important, experience. One of the big questions for me is: what do people want to watch. I figured that gamers would like game stuff, while older people might want Lawrence Welk (LOL). So, what in your experience is the favorite programs you send out?
> 
> I do stream youtube now because I figured I could leverage off of my other content. I wasn't worried about streaming to other platforms until I could learn more about them. OBS can stream to a lot of platforms, so would cross that bridge when I got there. You can tell I'm new to obs. I'm don't know about m3u, seem to remember, it is some kind of standardized playlist, but will investigate and find out more.
> 
> ...




Well,if you mean about graphics or titles,it can generate easily.I get what you are saying about youtube,you have right.I would like to ask how you connect your camera to your pc.Have you got a capture device?


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## bcoyle (Oct 12, 2020)

IliasGR said:


> Well,if you mean about graphics or titles,it can generate easily.I get what you are saying about youtube,you have right.I would like to ask how you connect your camera to your pc.Have you got a capture device?


No capture device. With video work, My cameras have sd chips. I edit with premiere pro. I do have some capture devices that I brought for future use. Tried them out on my 4k camera. Worked ok. MY station is really about streaming already created videos and not a video blob with my ugly face talking to people. I don't think I'm that interesting. I've had opportunities to be a interviewer, but find I like being behind the camera better. I have a 4K game video capture hdmi adapter with feed thru hdmi. it was about 50$. From china of course. By the way, where do you live. Seems like you are on a different time zone than me


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## bcoyle (Oct 12, 2020)

Sorry, You are talking about web cameras? I actually just brought ond from costco yesterday. It's a avermedia camera. Tried it this morning on OBS and works perfectly.  I have heard that some cameras when using the same model in a 2 camera scene doesn't work because the cam id is the same ton both cameras. Haven't tried recording or anything so I do get a picture on the screen, so that's as much as I can say for now.


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## IliasGR (Oct 13, 2020)

bcoyle said:


> No capture device. With video work, My cameras have sd chips. I edit with premiere pro. I do have some capture devices that I brought for future use. Tried them out on my 4k camera. Worked ok. MY station is really about streaming already created videos and not a video blob with my ugly face talking to people. I don't think I'm that interesting. I've had opportunities to be a interviewer, but find I like being behind the camera better. I have a 4K game video capture hdmi adapter with feed thru hdmi. it was about 50$. From china of course. By the way, where do you live. Seems like you are on a different time zone than me




Very nice,thats what im doing currently,streaming recorded stuff.I live in Greece,Europe.



bcoyle said:


> Sorry, You are talking about web cameras? I actually just brought ond from costco yesterday. It's a avermedia camera. Tried it this morning on OBS and works perfectly.  I have heard that some cameras when using the same model in a 2 camera scene doesn't work because the cam id is the same ton both cameras. Haven't tried recording or anything so I do get a picture on the screen, so that's as much as I can say for now.



I can confirm that .I ve done it in the past and i hadnt any issue.


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## msschwartz (Oct 15, 2020)

Not sure if anyone is still interested in a 24/7 video playlist manager type plugin but I just finished a quick prototype. I will continue adding features and enhancements so let me know and I'll get make the plugin public.


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## bcoyle (Oct 16, 2020)

msschwartz said:


> Not sure if anyone is still interested in a 24/7 video playlist manager type plugin but I just finished a quick prototype. I will continue adding features and enhancements so let me know and I'll get make the plugin public.
> 
> View attachment 62083


Very nice. Yes, interested. What are some of the features? Does it take a file to schedule or do you enter manually. Also, do you have enough material to run 24/7? I'm working on a public tv like program, but it looks like you already have something going. Also, do you have a good source of material, i.e. where are you getting your videos? I'm in the same boat. It takes a lot of videos to keep your channel fresh. Are you streaming now?  eager to hear from you.


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## msschwartz (Oct 16, 2020)

Current features are just basic playlist building such as drag n drop video files, insert custom urls, import/export playlist. We can play/pause/stop/skip videos in the playlist while playing. Special "triggers" in the playlist to do certain things like adding logo or lower third. 

We are a small broadcasting company with many hours of content so keeping it fresh is not a problem. All our videos are saved on a NAS connected to the local network. If you notice my screenshot you'll see the drive label is "W:\...". That is the mapped network drive. 

Technically the videos can be hosted anywhere such as http, rtmp, etc. 

In our situation we can build playlists on any computer since the interface for the plugin is a web app and all computers use the same mapped network drive for our NAS. 

Once I have something more concrete I'll upload to a public repo in github with a demo so you can check it out.


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## bcoyle (Oct 16, 2020)

Wow. It sounds like you have delivered on a lot of wishes. I've been working on my own. I'm a X visual basic, C++ programmer and of course thought I could do this faster than it's taking.  I was a volunteer producer/camera guy for the local public access tv station DCCATV here in Minden Navada. It got defunded, which is sad. We filmed a lot of local talent that normally would not get coverage. We did community interviews etc. What was really sad was that we broadcast a lot of nevada history and I was afraid that that would get lost forever when things were trashed as station closed. So I inherited all the old content and am trying to establish a online version. Current streaming vlc directories in a random manner. But found that people really want to know when their favorite program is streaming, i.e. hogons hereos at 8pm. I noticed from your content a lot of bible videos. I'm streaming some of our churches sunday services on Sunday. You can find me on youtube - search for DCCATV.

Could you tell me a little about your code. Any suggestion would be appreciated. My flow is Visual Basic -> websocket- sharp ->obs_web_socket plugin -> OBS.

Would also like to hear about your station.

Thanks in Advance.


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## SDItoHDMI (Oct 18, 2020)

msschwartz said:


> Current features are just basic playlist building such as drag n drop video files, insert custom urls, import/export playlist. We can play/pause/stop/skip videos in the playlist while playing. Special "triggers" in the playlist to do certain things like adding logo or lower third.
> 
> We are a small broadcasting company with many hours of content so keeping it fresh is not a problem. All our videos are saved on a NAS connected to the local network. If you notice my screenshot you'll see the drive label is "W:\...". That is the mapped network drive.
> 
> ...


Looking forward to the continued development of this, and I would hope it leads to something in master that we who do not have your level of coding skills could easily use. Keep it up!


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## bcoyle (Oct 18, 2020)

SDItoHDMI said:


> Looking forward to the continued development of this, and I would hope it leads to something in master that we who do not have your level of coding skills could easily use. Keep it up!


Hi SDI to HDMI. Sounds like you are a camera guy. Our cameras at the church run SDI up to a hdmi converters before going into the switcher. LOL


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## tedbragg (Oct 20, 2020)

msschwartz said:


> Not sure if anyone is still interested in a 24/7 video playlist manager type plugin but I just finished a quick prototype. I will continue adding features and enhancements so let me know and I'll get make the plugin public.
> 
> View attachment 62083


I’m VERY interested! We’re putting together a local online tv station and need a schedulIng plugin. Also looking for a slideshow generator that can be dynamically updated. Lee thought PowerPoint could do it but—-yeah, we thought wrong :-)


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## bcoyle (Oct 20, 2020)

tedbragg said:


> I’m VERY interested! We’re putting together a local online tv station and need a schedulIng plugin. Also looking for a slideshow generator that can be dynamically updated. Lee thought PowerPoint could do it but—-yeah, we thought wrong :-)


Me too. Am trying to start the same thing. If I may ask, can I have some details about of your future TV Station. There is scheduling software out there, that you can buy. Don't know the price, but if you can generate sponsers, it might be the way to go. For Me, no sponsers and can't justify the expense. 
I've found, probably like you, that whenever you start a slideshow, it never looks AGAIN in the directory to see new dropped in files.
Maybe I should start a group with individuals that have or are going to do a tv station. The idea being we share a common goal and maybe want to talk about the goal, i.e. the station itself. What do you think?
The simplest playlist would schedule a mp4 at 9.00Pm and at 9:28 when the mp4 is done to shedule your choice of a slide show to continue for 2 minutes to end at 9:30. I think if you did that and chose a different slide show each time and alternating between 2 different slideshows, one at 9:28 and a different one at 10:28, you could probable drop in new slide show jpegs and it would pick them up because it is reloading the directory info. Don't know if that would work, but easy enough to try.


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## painteau (Oct 21, 2020)

I'm really interested by that plugin. Looks great


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## SDItoHDMI (Oct 22, 2020)

msschwartz said:


> Current features are just basic playlist building such as drag n drop video files, insert custom urls, import/export playlist. We can play/pause/stop/skip videos in the playlist while playing. Special "triggers" in the playlist to do certain things like adding logo or lower third.
> 
> We are a small broadcasting company with many hours of content so keeping it fresh is not a problem. All our videos are saved on a NAS connected to the local network. If you notice my screenshot you'll see the drive label is "W:\...". That is the mapped network drive.
> 
> ...


Is there a possibility that you could add automated pans and zooms over still images into what you've developed? One of the downsides of current OBS is (if I am not mistaken) the inability to throw a bunch of still images into a folder and have OBS not only cycle through those images but insert an automated pan and/or zoom to give life to the images so that something is moving on screen. I have looked for a plugin for it, but without success. If what you have coded does not have it, would it be possible to expand it to include images and automated pans and zooms on still images? I would SO love that!


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## SDItoHDMI (Oct 22, 2020)

bcoyle said:


> Hi SDI to HDMI. Sounds like you are a camera guy. Our cameras at the church run SDI up to a hdmi converters before going into the switcher. LOL


I did have SDI cables connected to a Blackmagic 1 M/E 4k switcher via SDI (if you are looking to buy a used one, I have not yet posted it to eBay), but the noise of the switcher was so much that I moved to the ATEM Mini Pro. That would sacrifice resolution, but I can then have physical switcher buttons right below frame and thus switch cameras without a viewer seeing me do so, and that does not require me to have the ATEM software control panel in focus nor use Companion software for getting commands to that switcher via a Stream Deck. I don't have a helper for ministry work that I do, so having those physical buttons right there at hand (and out of frame) for recording evangelistic videos would be important.


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## bcoyle (Oct 22, 2020)

SDItoHDMI said:


> I did have SDI cables connected to a Blackmagic 1 M/E 4k switcher via SDI (if you are looking to buy a used one, I have not yet posted it to eBay), but the noise of the switcher was so much that I moved to the ATEM Mini Pro. That would sacrifice resolution, but I can then have physical switcher buttons right below frame and thus switch cameras without a viewer seeing me do so, and that does not require me to have the ATEM software control panel in focus nor use Companion software for getting commands to that switcher via a Stream Deck. I don't have a helper for ministry work that I do, so having those physical buttons right there at hand (and out of frame) for recording evangelistic videos would be important.


I just watched a video on atem-mini and it is awesome. Our church is fairly large enough to have 3x 4k cameras/SDI to a new switcher and 3 camera guys and a director. On Youtube, you can look for lifepoint church in minden nevada. One man shows are a hero's job. Isn't there some obs plugins that do panning,movement etc already available?


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## msschwartz (Oct 30, 2020)

Sorry for the delay folks. Been really busy with work so haven't had much time to circle back to this. Things will be calming down soon so I should have time to work on this again and get it published.


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## Tormy (Oct 30, 2020)

msschwartz said:


> Sorry for the delay folks. Been really busy with work so haven't had much time to circle back to this. Things will be calming down soon so I should have time to work on this again and get it published.


What you are doing is just great! 
I would like to try it to see how much is closed to the automatic TV system, so that I can give some feedback.


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## bcoyle (Oct 31, 2020)

Tormy said:


> What you are doing is just great!
> I would like to try it to see how much is closed to the automatic TV system, so that I can give some feedback.


Hi Tormy
I'm working on something similar and would like your comment on what you think is automated tv. I.E. what is your dream list. It's much easier to design something in from the start. msschwartz is much further alone than me, but would still appreciate your input.


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## methodman120 (Nov 6, 2020)

A nice auto scheduler would be able to load the show (you select the files and import them) if there are multiple clips or episodes it would automatically sort them (in order, randomly, alphebetically, etc..). It would allow to insert commercials or other clips at set interval times or AUTO detect when a commercial is needed in the clip (such as when it fades to black) it can trigger the commercials to start playing at a desired time and for the duration of the time set. A way to add filler clips as well would be nice, so there would be something playing when there is no program to stream. Of course an option for lower thirds and to add a station "bug" on the side of the screen, such as on a timer and for a set duration (10 seconds, 1 minute, 5minutes,always displayed on that one particular clip so it is not displayed during commercials etc..) You can make the bugs from image files and video files. Perhaps another method is to have the ability to add bumpers, before and after breaks...so viewers know when your breaks start and end and go back to program.


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## bcoyle (Nov 7, 2020)

methodman120 said:


> A nice auto scheduler would be able to load the show (you select the files and import them) if there are multiple clips or episodes it would automatically sort them (in order, randomly, alphebetically, etc..). It would allow to insert commercials or other clips at set interval times or AUTO detect when a commercial is needed in the clip (such as when it fades to black) it can trigger the commercials to start playing at a desired time and for the duration of the time set. A way to add filler clips as well would be nice, so there would be something playing when there is no program to stream. Of course an option for lower thirds and to add a station "bug" on the side of the screen, such as on a timer and for a set duration (10 seconds, 1 minute, 5minutes,always displayed on that one particular clip so it is not displayed during commercials etc..) You can make the bugs from image files and video files. Perhaps another method is to have the ability to add bumpers, before and after breaks...so viewers know when your breaks start and end and go back to program.


Hi. See you are new. I'm also, maybe a month. If I may, can I ask if this is a goal of yours, i.e. you want to set up a iptv or are you just being helpful. I appreciate your answer either way. My background is I'm a retired engineer/programmer and a video producer at the local public access cable tv channel. It went defunct this last June. I have a lot of material that I am streaming right now. I determined that you need to have a scheduled version with a tv guide. That means your have to have a schedule at least a week out. I'm doing some of what you sugguested, but am trying to make it even more automatic. At the top level view, I want to be able to create models that contain the look and feel of a normal braodcast tv program. I want to be able to schedule ahead a week, to create programs automatically so that a series might be in a directory and it plays a different one each day of the week and automatically chooses from the series directory. It then fills in the rest using a timeline model with station bumpers, fills, psas, ads as desired. It would automatically create these programs. And if you didn't have enough programs scheduled for each day, it would automatically create and fill in the 1/2 and hour time slots. This is doable.


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## methodman120 (Nov 8, 2020)

bcoyle said:


> Hi. See you are new. I'm also, maybe a month. If I may, can I ask if this is a goal of yours, i.e. you want to set up a iptv or are you just being helpful. I appreciate your answer either way. My background is I'm a retired engineer/programmer and a video producer at the local public access cable tv channel. It went defunct this last June. I have a lot of material that I am streaming right now. I determined that you need to have a scheduled version with a tv guide. That means your have to have a schedule at least a week out. I'm doing some of what you sugguested, but am trying to make it even more automatic. At the top level view, I want to be able to create models that contain the look and feel of a normal braodcast tv program. I want to be able to schedule ahead a week, to create programs automatically so that a series might be in a directory and it plays a different one each day of the week and automatically chooses from the series directory. It then fills in the rest using a timeline model with station bumpers, fills, psas, ads as desired. It would automatically create these programs. And if you didn't have enough programs scheduled for each day, it would automatically create and fill in the 1/2 and hour time slots. This is doable.




Hello, Yes I am new here as well, but have been lurking the forums awhile now. Yes this is a goal of mine if there is a way to make it available. Something user friendly if possible. Most people are not tech savvy and do not like doing multiple steps with various software, usually they get confused, frustrated and give up. Hopefully there can be a way the average person can have an IPTV channel they can watch, and share with others to watch on their tv's, computers,phones,etc...  Something that can easily find or stream from an app like roku or similar that most people have. Again, 95% of users are not tech savvy and do not like all these various steps. 

I can understand there may be some steps in order to run it and set it up...but the viewers want simplicity.

Right now only professionals and people with lots of money can create IPTV channels, but if this can be available to everyday users it would change the game, the way mp3 files changed music and optical media 20-22 years ago. What was very little know became a mainstream thing, and it happened within a few years to the point the big giants, such as Sony was not able to keep up and now they are no longer as relevant as they were.  

Plex is another platform that is popular, but no longer supports M3U files, which would help people broadcast, they became greedy and did not see a profit in it so they removed that feature. As a result people are not using Plex as much. But if I want to stream my tv channel so my friends and family can watch it 24/7 whenever they want, they should be able to do that with todays technology!


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## bcoyle (Nov 8, 2020)

methodman120 said:


> Hello, Yes I am new here as well, but have been lurking the forums awhile now. Yes this is a goal of mine if there is a way to make it available. Something user friendly if possible. Most people are not tech savvy and do not like doing multiple steps with various software, usually they get confused, frustrated and give up. Hopefully there can be a way the average person can have an IPTV channel they can watch, and share with others to watch on their tv's, computers,phones,etc...  Something that can easily find or stream from an app like roku or similar that most people have. Again, 95% of users are not tech savvy and do not like all these various steps.
> 
> I can understand there may be some steps in order to run it and set it up...but the viewers want simplicity.
> 
> ...


Yes, I'm finding that there is a core of developers that know what they are doing and non techies that just want to get things going, have there video blob etc. Do you think there is much of a demand for this type of programming. There isn't too many people that have 24/7 material. I can see schools and churches wanting this, but really haven't had too many people that  seem interested in this. Are you a programmer? I've found that there is a lot of foundation work to be done before you can start on the really interesting stuff.


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## bcoyle (Nov 8, 2020)

bcoyle said:


> Yes, I'm finding that there is a core of developers that know what they are doing and non techies that just want to get things going, have there video blob etc. Do you think there is much of a demand for this type of programming. There isn't too many people that have 24/7 material. I can see schools and churches wanting this, but really haven't had too many people that  seem interested in this. Are you a programmer? I've found that there is a lot of foundation work to be done before you can start on the really interesting stuff.


oh, if you want to see some of my material, i'm on youtube. search for DCCATV. That's short for douglas county public access tv. Just playing some nasa stuff. What do you want to stream?


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## methodman120 (Nov 8, 2020)

bcoyle said:


> Yes, I'm finding that there is a core of developers that know what they are doing and non techies that just want to get things going, have there video blob etc. Do you think there is much of a demand for this type of programming. There isn't too many people that have 24/7 material. I can see schools and churches wanting this, but really haven't had too many people that  seem interested in this. Are you a programmer? I've found that there is a lot of foundation work to be done before you can start on the really interesting stuff.



I am interested in this because I want to have access to my film and television library. I want others such as my family and friends to be able to have that access as well. I am not a programmer but have been reading various forums about these things. It started with me trying to find software that could easily do the job so my friends and family could watch my content on their tv's basically.

I also just saw your YouTube video channel, I noticed you have tv streaming live. Good religious content you provide! Is it run on a platform you created to automate the scheduling?  I have not tried YouTube live yet, but I often see various users posting episodes of tv shows and movies on there live and wonder how they do it as they are not a network affiliate.


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## MidiaNinja (Nov 9, 2020)

bcoyle said:


> oh, if you want to see some of my material, i'm on youtube. search for DCCATV. That's short for douglas county public access tv. Just playing some nasa stuff. What do you want to stream?


Hi, i've see your channel, whats your workflow to keep it live 24/7?
I have a lot of original content, and searching for solutions of 24h tv for lives news and scheduled edited content.


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## MidiaNinja (Nov 9, 2020)

msschwartz said:


> Not sure if anyone is still interested in a 24/7 video playlist manager type plugin but I just finished a quick prototype. I will continue adding features and enhancements so let me know and I'll get make the plugin public.
> 
> View attachment 62083


Hi, i'm interested in a 24/7 video playlist manager.


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## bcoyle (Nov 9, 2020)

methodman120 said:


> I am interested in this because I want to have access to my film and television library. I want others such as my family and friends to be able to have that access as well. I am not a programmer but have been reading various forums about these things. It started with me trying to find software that could easily do the job so my friends and family could watch my content on their tv's basically.
> 
> I also just saw your YouTube video channel, I noticed you have tv streaming live. Good religious content you provide! Is it run on a platform you created to automate the scheduling?  I have not tried YouTube live yet, but I often see various users posting episodes of tv shows and movies on there live and wonder how they do it as they are not a network affiliate.


Hi: At this point in time, I'm basically using OBS to Stream. On Sundays, I stream about 10 years of our church videos. I'm part of the video team for our church. I put everything in a directory and use a scene that has a vlc source. I give it the directory in which I stored all the videos and set the scene for shuffle loop and tell it to go. On you tube, I have an ordinary you tube account set up for stream (easy to do). As long as I keep streaming, it stays live 24/7. If for some reason (like maintenance) I stop the stream, then youtube will close the stream after a few hours. If that happens, I have to restart the stream, no big deal, but the stream now has a different URL and you have to search again. You can't basically embed them because at on point, the url will change. You have to tell everyone about the new url or have them research for your youtube tags again to find it. Not too bad.
What would you like to see in a 24/7 manager?


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## bcoyle (Nov 9, 2020)

methodman120 said:


> I am interested in this because I want to have access to my film and television library. I want others such as my family and friends to be able to have that access as well. I am not a programmer but have been reading various forums about these things. It started with me trying to find software that could easily do the job so my friends and family could watch my content on their tv's basically.
> 
> I also just saw your YouTube video channel, I noticed you have tv streaming live. Good religious content you provide! Is it run on a platform you created to automate the scheduling?  I have not tried YouTube live yet, but I often see various users posting episodes of tv shows and movies on there live and wonder how they do it as they are not a network affiliate.


Your question about content. Basically you tube detects if you are streaming copy write material and pays the owners to play them and them make their money on ads. To test whether youtube likes this or not, you should do a normal upload and see what you tube thinks about it. I've only had trouble with one video. I played "Victory at Sea" and got block on the stream. I then uploaded and found it was blocked in certain countries, so you tube will block for everyone, if even one person block it. Disney and Micheal Jackson do blocking also.

So even if you see a someone else's video on you tube, it may be blocked in certain countries but is still allowed to be played. But when streamed, it blocks everything. Hope that answers your question. This is my experience once, so as always, take things with a grain of salt.


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## methodman120 (Nov 10, 2020)

bcoyle said:


> Hi: At this point in time, I'm basically using OBS to Stream. On Sundays, I stream about 10 years of our church videos. I'm part of the video team for our church. I put everything in a directory and use a scene that has a vlc source. I give it the directory in which I stored all the videos and set the scene for shuffle loop and tell it to go. On you tube, I have an ordinary you tube account set up for stream (easy to do). As long as I keep streaming, it stays live 24/7. If for some reason (like maintenance) I stop the stream, then youtube will close the stream after a few hours. If that happens, I have to restart the stream, no big deal, but the stream now has a different URL and you have to search again. You can't basically embed them because at on point, the url will change. You have to tell everyone about the new url or have them research for your youtube tags again to find it. Not too bad.
> What would you like to see in a 24/7 manager?



So basically OBS is only good for streaming original content?

To answer your other question for a 24/7 manager I would like the following (I had mentioned some of this earlier in the forums as well so it might sound repetitive...   

- a scheduler that can organize program names alphabetically, randomly, or in the desired order by user topic "such as comedy, movies".

- the software would also allow adding commercials, or other clips at interval times...such 5minutes,10 minutes, 20 minutes, etc... after the program starts. Or it can auto detect when to insert the commercial when the content fades to black. It auto detects it and adds the commercial break for the duration you set it for. I think most commercial breaks are 2.5 minutes now, 4-5 minutes if it is a movie.

- Another bonus would be the ability to add a filler clip if needed (such as time when there is no other content but you want to the station to still broadcast something"

- the auto scheduler would load the show (you select the files and import them) and the scheduler sorts the episodes out in order, or randomly, etc...

- The ability to add lower thirds during programs, and to also add a station logo "bug as it is called in the industry" on the side of the screen, the bug could be still or animated using a photo file or a video file. It can run on a timer such as appearing every 10 minutes for 10 seconds, appearing once per hour, a set duration (such as 5 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, or to always being displayed during the duration of the clip playing)...but the ability to make the bug not display during commercials as an option.

- ability to add bumpers before and after commercial breaks, or in the middle of commercial breaks.

- ability to plan out far in advance the episodes, shows played on the schedule. Same with ads, but a way to also shuffle the ad order so the commercials are not repeated in same sequence each time.

Here is another example of all that...
I will use your example from a previous post mentioning Hogan's Heroes at 9pm....If I want Hogan's Heroes on at 9pm the scheduler starts the episode, It can either play the entire episode and add the commercials/fillers after the episode ends, or it can go to a commercial on a timer...(example...Hogan's Heroes intro theme starts and finishes...the commercial clips take over for 2.5 minutes, then it goes back to resuming the Hogan's Heroes file where it left off, which was right after the into theme song. It would pad the episode to basically being 30 minutes, like a real tv station does. So it would be Hogan's Heroes at 9pm, Another Show OR episode of same show at 9:30, etc...

Is something like this possible? That is what is like in a 24/7 manager.


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## bcoyle (Nov 10, 2020)

methodman120 said:


> So basically OBS is only good for streaming original content?
> 
> To answer your other question for a 24/7 manager I would like the following (I had mentioned some of this earlier in the forums as well so it might sound repetitive...
> 
> ...


Hi Again. What I said about obs is that when played on youtube, you can basically stream copy right material unless it is blocked. The same material uploaded to you tube will play okay but be blocked in the countries that block them. So you seem to be able to stream almost everything because youtube pays royalties to the copyright owner and then makes it up on ads. I image you have seen regular movies on youtube. Older movies have less trouble. I have a lot of videos on youtube where they have copyright claims, but youtube  just tells you that you can't monetize them because they basically don't belong to you. This is mostly music. So you can stream old movies, but it is better to upload them first and see if youtube will block in some counties. If not blocked, and usually okay to stream. Does that answer your question?

I have been thinking along the same lines as you. You are constrained by what obs can do. Luckily for commercials, the scene that uses vlc can pause when not visible, play your commercial and resume where it left off. A another nice thing is that vlc can be put into a always play mode, you switch to you ad scene run it for 2 minutes and when you come back, the original program has continued to play and you start the video 2 minutes later, skipping over embedded commercials and replacing them with yours.

All that you ask is possible, but not with any of the tools currently available, as least as far as I know. There is a thing called advance switcher but it is not a automated tv station. Stream Labs has some sort of automated tv options, but you have to pay for them and I don't know much about them. Stream labs is build on obs and offers a free and advanced payed version.


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## methodman120 (Nov 10, 2020)

bcoyle said:


> Hi Again. What I said about obs is that when played on youtube, you can basically stream copy right material unless it is blocked. The same material uploaded to you tube will play okay but be blocked in the countries that block them. So you seem to be able to stream almost everything because youtube pays royalties to the copyright owner and then makes it up on ads. I image you have seen regular movies on youtube. Older movies have less trouble. I have a lot of videos on youtube where they have copyright claims, but youtube  just tells you that you can't monetize them because they basically don't belong to you. This is mostly music. So you can stream old movies, but it is better to upload them first and see if youtube will block in some counties. If not blocked, and usually okay to stream. Does that answer your question?
> 
> I have been thinking along the same lines as you. You are constrained by what obs can do. Luckily for commercials, the scene that uses vlc can pause when not visible, play your commercial and resume where it left off. A another nice thing is that vlc can be put into a always play mode, you switch to you ad scene run it for 2 minutes and when you come back, the original program has continued to play and you start the video 2 minutes later, skipping over embedded commercials and replacing them with yours.
> 
> All that you ask is possible, but not with any of the tools currently available, as least as far as I know. There is a thing called advance switcher but it is not a automated tv station. Stream Labs has some sort of automated tv options, but you have to pay for them and I don't know much about them. Stream labs is build on obs and offers a free and advanced payed version.



Have you also tried Dizque TV/Pseudo TV? I have not used VLC other than to play indivual files on my computer, never tried any playlists or broadcasts before...don't know how to do that.

As far as OBS and YouTube, I can try it out. So far I have just used Dizque TV as a test, it still has bugs and it's not perfected yet, but still learning it and need a way to have my TV read the M3U playlist stream...and I have used plex to play my media files, but Plex seems to no longer let you use plug-ins.

OBS seems nice, but it seems to not work on Plex, or Emby, or XTeve.

How far along are you on the software project you are working on?


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## Tormy (Nov 10, 2020)

bcoyle said:


> Hi Tormy
> I'm working on something similar and would like your comment on what you think is automated tv. I.E. what is your dream list. It's much easier to design something in from the start. msschwartz is much further alone than me, but would still appreciate your input.



The ability to load the show or film sequentially as in a playlist, however with the possibility to quickly reorder them in case one is cancelled or one is added.
Adding also stingers for ADS and Commercials playlist
The ability to declare a playlist ad Random and other ones sequential.
In case of the random one (used more for videoclips time) do not repeat the same video within X hours or X minutes form its first play
During episodes, the possibility to add commercials flag where at the specific time (from the beginning of the episode or at hh:mm:ss a comercial playlist starts, preceded by episode fade out and followed by episode fade in (fade in-out time should be setup
Those are the most important ones that are popping up in my mind. If other ones, I will certainly write here


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## bcoyle (Nov 11, 2020)

methodman120 said:


> Have you also tried Dizque TV/Pseudo TV? I have not used VLC other than to play indivual files on my computer, never tried any playlists or broadcasts before...don't know how to do that.
> 
> As far as OBS and YouTube, I can try it out. So far I have just used Dizque TV as a test, it still has bugs and it's not perfected yet, but still learning it and need a way to have my TV read the M3U playlist stream...and I have used plex to play my media files, but Plex seems to no longer let you use plug-ins.
> 
> ...


Hi: From your comments, I can tell that you haven't really tried OBS. In Short, OBS lets you connect to different platforms like Youtube. It consists of scenes that use a variety of sources, i.e. like vlc. In OBS, you can add a vlc source and tell it to run a file or directory in shuffle/loop mode. There are a number of useful plugins that many people have contributed. As far as I know, there is no automated tv plugin. There are scene switchers that sort of let you do things manually. Right now, I have the obs server streaming 24/7 with a variety of directories full of programs to stream. Currently it just streams out random files with no control on time. You should search on youtube or google to learn more. 

I looked at dizque tv, but don't understand it yet. I'm a newbe to social media like plex. I've been learning a lot and am amazed at what's out there. 

Project schedule : 1/4 to 1/2 done


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## Freedoms Corner (Nov 12, 2020)

Cool beans, I really looks forward to this. Thanks a tone. You should check out zara radio scheduler. I know its radio but its format for scheduling is really nice. Thanks


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## Freedoms Corner (Nov 23, 2020)

Any word on how the project is going?


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## bcoyle (Nov 23, 2020)

It's coming along. I have to do a lot of foundation - bottom layer code. It's a lot harder and a bigger project than I thought. I am enjoying myself. What else do you have to do when you're staying home dodging that nasty bug.


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## PingWin (Nov 24, 2020)

Hi to everyone. I#m from germany, so i'm sorry if my english is a bit hard to unterstand. 

Some time ago I searched for a way to create a 24/7 Channel. I tried even vmix with an Playlist Plugin. But somehow it was not the right thing. The complexety of the software was to high to use it as a Playout Server only. So the Project went under my desk. Last week I tried to combine OBS and VLC connected by NDI as it works very well together. The build in Playlist function in OBS gave me the Idea to work with the Playlist Files of VLC. Especially the XSPF file and its XML format gave me the clou to build an light tool for the functions I miss in OBS and VLC. I talk about the ability to calculate the end or the start time. As for prototype I wrote the tool in HTML with JavaScript. As limitation it works only in the Edge Browser because Edge do not care of the CORS policy.
My plan is to rewrite the script/tool in VB.net. But as html&js it can be used ob every OS, even on mobile phones.


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## bcoyle (Nov 24, 2020)

PingWin said:


> Hi to everyone. I#m from germany, so i'm sorry if my english is a bit hard to unterstand.
> 
> Some time ago I searched for a way to create a 24/7 Channel. I tried even vmix with an Playlist Plugin. But somehow it was not the right thing. The complexety of the software was to high to use it as a Playout Server only. So the Project went under my desk. Last week I tried to combine OBS and VLC connected by NDI as it works very well together. The build in Playlist function in OBS gave me the Idea to work with the Playlist Files of VLC. Especially the XSPF file and its XML format gave me the clou to build an light tool for the functions I miss in OBS and VLC. I talk about the ability to calculate the end or the start time. As for prototype I wrote the tool in HTML with JavaScript. As limitation it works only in the Edge Browser because Edge do not care of the CORS policy.
> My plan is to rewrite the script/tool in VB.net. But as html&js it can be used ob every OS, even on mobile phones.


Hi There. Nice to see another vb.net programmer. There are some hurdles with vb when applied to obs. But if you are just modifying a vlc playlist, it is a much easier task. If you would like to talk vb, I'm game. Name is Bill


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## PingWin (Nov 25, 2020)

hey bill!  From a technical point of view, I think we can intervene in the functioning of OBS and control a playlist with a web interface via websocket.  But!  From a security point of view, we should separate OBS and the 24/7 playout function.  The reason is that if OBS crashes it can simply be restarted without pausing the playlist or resetting how currently it is.  I think VLC should remain our playout player over NDI and we can develop a plugin for it.  We could also write our own player based on VLC with the desired functionality.  I think this would be limited in VB, but it is intended for Windows.


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## PingWin (Nov 25, 2020)

I go one step further. There is a web interface in VLC. This is compiled as a LUA script. I looked at the interface and saw that all functions and time information are available there. One could try to adapt the source code with Javascript and instead of working with XSPF as is now my case, work directly with the playlist.

What do you think about this?


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## bcoyle (Nov 26, 2020)

Well, Don't know. My Thoughts: It depends on what you think of as a play list. If obs crashes and you bring it back up and are streaming to it with ndi, yes, obs would then just continue on. If vlc crashes, then you are back in the same situation as a obs crash, program interrupted. With vlc you are limited to a playlist of videos or mp3 music. You lose what obs can do for you because you are just using it as an encoder.  You lose the transisions, overlays and scenes. From my point of view, you can have a more powerful playlist via vb -> websocket -> obs. Its very easy to use the obs websocket to control one scene and just have the software change the source. A problem is that you can have obs go down, come back up and your vb apt would have to restart the vlc video and get out of sync or play a "please be patient jpeg" until you can start with the next video in the playlist at the correct time. Its also very easy to turn logos on or off. A problem with talking direct to obs is that the obs websocket variables have a - (dash) in some of the names of variables you use which are illegal in vb, so a obs json decode has problems. Another problem of course is that a standard vb app is limited to windows and is not like a web interface which is useful everywhere. As you can tell, I know very little about web programming. I worked for a electronic company and wrote UI's for test equipment testing. So I have a tendency to go with what I know, which may not be the optimal solution, whereas a web based app might be better. Do you have a first name?


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## PingWin (Nov 26, 2020)

My name is Denys. Hi! :)
Okay Bill, you are right about VLC. If VLC crashes, the stream is not interrupted, but NDI passes the last frame from VLC to OBS in a loop until the NDI stream is available again.

In order to avoid the synchronization problems we have to work with an RTC in milliseconds. In principle it does not matter whether OBS or VLC crash. The video stream has to start again where it would normally have been in real time. Otherwise the program planning gets out of hand. That means we need some kind of system - maybe in VB - that stands above OBS and VLC and monitors the actions.

Scenario 1:
A VB application gives OBS a playlist via websocket and says - if possible directly in a .m3u8 playlist - with which time code (start position) the first video will be played. We use this to give the video a gap in the event of a crash so that we are right again with the total time.

This means:
VB gives OBS a playlist, in the playlist position 1 is a trailer with a length of 2:30 minutes. The stream starts at 14:00:00.
OBS crashes at 14:01:00 and comes back online at 14:01:30. The VB application notices the crash and that OBS has re-established a connection via websocket and can be reached.
VB automatically gives OBS a playlist again with the same video. This time the start position is not at 00:00 but at 01:30.
This means that the sequence is continued where it should now be in real time.

Scenario 2 would be similar but with VLC and NDI with LUA in the event that the OBS websocket causes problems.


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## bcoyle (Nov 26, 2020)

Hi Denys
I guess I need to ask what is your vision and what do you mean by "Playlist". In general, everyone knows what a playlist is. In the simplest terms, you can drop a directory into OBS vlc screen and it will play them all. Basically at this point, I'm doing that. I have a bunch of directories and I have scenes with my logos, etc in them. Unfortunately, people don't know that at 8pm, i'm playing hogen's heros. So as you go on, you start thinking about tv guides. Also, I agree with you on the complexity of the tv station like programs, you end up having a career at scheduling.  So the path to writing an app is for you to create a list of specifications and to storyboard your program, i.e. what the UI (User Interface) looks like and how you would interact with it. So it becomes important to know what you are attempting. With your reference to RTC (Real time Clock), it seems you want to have programs start/stop in time slots, i.e. 9am to 10am for the history show and it is important that you do everything on time. Keep in mind that in a 30 minute show, you normally have some sort of video or bumper that is squishy and can expand or contract to make the time slot come out correctly. Current, OBS doesn't have the ability to start a file under your control starting at a offset into the file. In youtube, if you go off the air, it just shows your thumbnail and a off air message. Another consideration is how easy it to program/edit the app. In vb, it's easy enough to drag / drop a bunch of files into your UI. I have found that OBS will rrun for hundreds of hours with no problems if you are just showing videos, so am not worried about losing the connection or having obs go down. So anyway, please tell me your vision. Hear from you soon, Bill


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## bcoyle (Nov 26, 2020)

I reviewed your screen shots, but it sounds like you want more. Are the screen shots working examples of your web app? Are you typing in the run time for each file or is your app figuring it out. It took me a while and a lot of google searching to have my program go and get the info and it is only good to the second on length. Did you find a good way to get fractional seconds? My current stream is "DCCATV" on youtube.


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## bcoyle (Nov 27, 2020)

Question: If you have some video clips/files that you want to automatically import, there is information that you would need. Such as series name, episode, name of clips etc. Is there a naming convention that everyone uses that would convey this info?


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## PingWin (Nov 29, 2020)

Hi Bill, I have included the prototype in the post as a file. The prototype only works correctly in Microsoft Edge, since javascript cannot access local data in Chrome and Firefox.

I checked my approach to OBS and the m3u8 playlist.
The m3u8 specification defines tags for the start and end positions. For example:
#EXTVLCOPT: start-time = 50
#EXTVLCOPT: stop-time = 98

OBS also understands this playlist if the VLC plugin is used. In that case, OBS actually starts at the point as specified in m3u8. So you could also put inserts / advertising or whatever between the videos.
- An example playlist is attached in the package. So you can see what I mean.

To have a functioning, unmanned mini-home 24/7 TV station, all you currently need is OBS as streamer, VLC as playout software and playlist planner and my web application to calculate the end time of the playlist.

First, a playlist editor would be nice. As a playler you can then use OBS or VLC.
The user can decide for himself. The following functions should be included:
- Drag & Drop video files,
- Display of the running time of the video files
- Possibility to determine the start and end time.
(Example: run time 90, start 15, end 65)


My vision would be a software that have:
- The playlist editor
- A player based on libVLC
- Output via NDI
- The possibility to change the playlist in real time like in VLC
- A log with the time when the playout was started
- A planner that shows the total time of the playlist and when the last video ends. So you can plan your playout combine it with a live event.
- Automatic resynchronization of the playout based on a log. The playout will continue where it should be now.

I still have to think about how to do the resynchronization.
In any case, the software must save the start time in ms since 01.01.1970.


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## bcoyle (Nov 30, 2020)

Hi Denys 
Hmm. Interesting. Our concepts are totally different, but each fill a niche. You might think about your player talking to vlc or obs or vlc on obs but commanding it to do one operation at a time. I.e when its time to start a new video, send a command to do that. It does not have to be full playlist. it might allow more control and you can do the tricky stuff in real time. OBS has a new NDI in and Out plugin which would fit one of your requirements. you might want to save you command list in a date time format so that instead of running for 1.5 minutes , it actually starts at 9:01 Pm and is 1.5 minutes long. That way you could look at the time (time of day function), see where you are in the time list, figure out the current file that should be playing and then send the command to play it starting at some in-point  using a m3u8 command that makes the time come out correctly. ???  It took me a while to figure out how to get the file duration and easy enough to load duration for each clip in your list to get the total time. I've been using datagrid but have switched to list view, seems easier. Each has it's quirks. Your example looks like a listview control. I use JSON files a lot to store information as well as it is the main transport structure for talking to obs. Another thought: If you chose to go thru vlc instead of obs, you will miss out on the opportunity to, in addition to having it play videos, to having triggers like turn on/off logos in the playlist. You could have a list of videos, but also a different item in your list to trigger events. Just a thought. Gotta go, its 11pm here. Bye for now


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## Freedoms Corner (Dec 3, 2020)

This is great, thank you guys so much. I plan on launching an online sports network a few months after the software comes out.


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## ACSOBS (Dec 7, 2020)

I'm praying every day for your help!!!


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## ACSOBS (Dec 7, 2020)

msschwartz said:


> Not sure if anyone is still interested in a 24/7 video playlist manager type plugin but I just finished a quick prototype. I will continue adding features and enhancements so let me know and I'll get make the plugin public.
> 
> View attachment 62083


how can i try this ? :)


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## bcoyle (Dec 8, 2020)

ACSOBS said:


> how can i try this ? :)


So tell us about yourself and what you want to do!


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## bcoyle (Dec 28, 2020)

msschwartz said:


> Not sure if anyone is still interested in a 24/7 video playlist manager type plugin but I just finished a quick prototype. I will continue adding features and enhancements so let me know and I'll get make the plugin public.
> 
> View attachment 62083


Haven't heard from you in a long time. SO how is the software coming.


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## loatoday (Jan 4, 2021)

msschwartz said:


> Not sure if anyone is still interested in a 24/7 video playlist manager type plugin but I just finished a quick prototype. I will continue adding features and enhancements so let me know and I'll get make the plugin public.



I am very interested. Is this still under development, or is it publicly available?


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## bcoyle (Jan 4, 2021)

loatoday said:


> I am very interested. Is this still under development, or is it publicly available?


Haven't heard from him in a long time. Anyway, what is your story. Why are you interested. We talk about the why on this channel also, not just the how.  So Spill


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## bcoyle (Jan 10, 2021)

loatoday said:


> I am very interested. Is this still under development, or is it publicly available?


Hi. I have the same interests. What are you trying to do?


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## bcoyle (Jan 14, 2021)

Well - Any news on the 24/7 front?


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## SonicEngineer (Jan 14, 2021)

Any word on this Program/Plugin? 

I've found a few ways to achieve what we are all looking for but nothing in one program. Essentially I am using AutoHotKey, Task Scheduler and Touch Portal. Like most things in automation you have to know what you want to do first. Second is execution. I'm super new to programming, but have spent a decade in broadcasting so I'm familiar with traditional broadcast software. 

My workflow goes by the hour. I build the Scenes as the hour trying to time it out as well as I can by building the VLC playlist for each 60 minutes. Each playlist is linked to a Hotkey in OBS. I write a simple program with AutoHotKey to virtually press the corresponding OBS hotkey. Then Task Scheduler fires off the program. When we are live for the hour I turn off the Scheduler for that time or switch to an NDI Scene fed from another studio or RTMP. I use Touch Portal for Scene flow and back up if Task doesn't fire off. 

That's my way to skin this cat. And thank you @bcoyle for keeping this thread together.


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## bcoyle (Jan 15, 2021)

SonicEngineer said:


> Any word on this Program/Plugin?
> 
> I've found a few ways to achieve what we are all looking for but nothing in one program. Essentially I am using AutoHotKey, Task Scheduler and Touch Portal. Like most things in automation you have to know what you want to do first. Second is execution. I'm super new to programming, but have spent a decade in broadcasting so I'm familiar with traditional broadcast software.
> 
> ...


You're very welcome. I'm trying very hard to keep people interested. I've been over on the discord obs community server, but they don't seem very interested. Also no known official effort to do a 24/7 station. So if I understand this correctly, you create a series of 1 hour scripts to run vlc. 24 scripts for 24 hours. You would have obliviously more than 24 scripts, so over a period of time you might have hundreds that you periodically change. It sounds like it works, but is a lot of work, but free. You can go back over this forum to see what I up to. You might think of what I am doing as a automatic script generator and a program that follows the scripts and talks to OBS to tell it what to do via a web socket.


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## bcoyle (Jan 15, 2021)

It's very flexible but lots of work to write. Have been working on it for a long time.


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## bcoyle (Jan 15, 2021)

Also the plugin you are talking about is from another guy


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## bcoyle (Jan 15, 2021)

So what are you trying to do? i.e. what are you going to broadcast. It takes a lot of material to keep a 24/7 channel fresh


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## SonicEngineer (Jan 15, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> So what are you trying to do? i.e. what are you going to broadcast. It takes a lot of material to keep a 24/7 channel fresh



I currently run a few shows on our Twitch. www.AAMP.tv Nothing 24 hours yet. 

building the hours by hand is a common Broadcasting Traffic Practice. That is usually why you have a FT Traffic Director. But the work flow is pretty similar. There are a few practices that really help. First is Hard Timing your segments. Coming up with a scheduled break times makes it easy for Production, Replays, and Terrestrial Syndication, because the station can put in their own spots in a barter deal. That means all my breaks and all my content are essentially the same time every time. It is more about building each show as an hour. once you have a few done you can use task scheduler to fire off your program. if you have 3 hours you just set different times to start each hour. Frankly for a 24 hour station you really only need 6 hours too keep it "fresh" You just play those same 6 hours 4 times and replace them as the production comes in. You can even Overwrite the files so you don't have to rebuild your clocks every day. 

Like I'm sure you know the less money you spend on the system the more money you have to spend on experience. Operation and Equipment go hand in hand. Sure I can build a house with just a hammer. It will take me longer and I may need to use some unconventional methods but I can do it. lol.

Where most broadcasters get in trouble is they don't know what their station should look like, so it is hard to build the automation. If I know my shows have four twelve minute segments I know I can put three minute breaks in between. Or I ask some of my shows to send in a full 60 minute file. That is how most of my shows are terrestrially syndicated; I just send what we call a "long" file. I'm building this system to integrate, 2 Studios, 2 Radio stations, 2 RF Towers, 1 primary Roku channel, and like 30 some High School Sports Teams. For the Radio Station I am bighting the bullet and buying a radio automation from BSI that I have used before (we have to stay FCC compliant. That means ASCAP/BMI Affidavits and Top of the hour IDs and all that). It also has com-ports and relay closures (with a Broadcast Tools Switcher) I can use elsewhere in that system. But the TV Stations are all Digital so there is a bit more wiggle room. What I plan on doing is pulling the NDI from the studios when we want to go live, and then the pre-recorded when we don't. Audio goes to the Radio, Video goes to the Stream. With VoiceMeeter I'll be able to pull the Radio Feed into the Video Station too. I'm really only needing the AutoHotKey to fire off the trigger on time so I don't have to have a Board monkey press it every hour for us. I was even thinking about a mechanical solution, like a drinking bird. lol. Again many ways to skin this cat. I'm just hoping I don't have to hire some one to sit around a push 1 button for me every 15 to 60 minutes. Pretty cushy job, but an unnecessary fire watch...


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## SonicEngineer (Jan 15, 2021)

To simplify my workflow: I build a VLC playlist in OBS for each hour. Then have that Scene/Playlist set as a hotkey. Then Task Scheduler and AutoHotKey fires off the Hotkey. (Example Script: Send F9) Super simple! The Scene switches at the top of the hour and the next playlist fires off. A bit of Time Math involved but it accomplishes the task. 

With that Task Scheduler becomes my Time manager. I just have to build a full hour then tell OBS what hour to play. With Voicemeeter Macros you can Hotkey the Audio Routing too.


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## SonicEngineer (Jan 15, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> It sounds like it works, but is a lot of work, but free. You can go back over this forum to see what I up to. You might think of what I am doing as a automatic script generator and a program that follows the scripts and talks to OBS to tell it what to do via a web socket.



What you are looking at building is a Traffic Program. Like Natural Grid or Natural Log https://nat-soft.com/ This builds the script and the schedule then that log is sent to the automation system. (I can only speak for Radio, I've spent the last 10 years with it) Then the Automation Program executes. I know that RadioDJ and some of the others you have to build the show clock in the actual system. 

I'd be happy with an OBS plugin that just switched the scene or turned on and off sources based on a clock. The right Traffic Director could work wonders with just that. Once built you are looking at 2 hours a week tops to fill your station with new content and spots.


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## bcoyle (Jan 15, 2021)

Very interesting! It actually seems easier than what I am doing. Also easier to understand and most important, it works now. I think a lot of people would be very interested in your method. Maybe you could summit some of your demo scripts including the task scheduler scripts. There are at least a half dozen people that could use it right away. Sometimes simpler is simpler. Maybe I set the bar too high when I could have saved myself a lot of time. With covid and being at home, I do have a lot of time. My program does a lot of nice things, at least so far.


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## bcoyle (Jan 15, 2021)

I think it would take quite a bit of work on your part to prepare a install package for everyone to use. Also a User manual.  I know you would not personally benefit from doing the extra work but you would make a lot of people happy. You could also start a new forum thread and have a number of people working to improve your scripts and methods.


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## bcoyle (Jan 15, 2021)

It takes a lot of time to actually write a full blown scheduler. My program does things like auto fill, keeping track of how many times a file is used, Controls the sequence of videos and also controls desired overlay timing. Also can schedule out months, i.e. you have a directory of some series, you can tell it to look at the titles, looking for episode information then to create a schedule that will play at 9pm every day / also specify which days of the week to play.  Since I use a web socket command method, it can be on a different computer on the network. But, yours is working now and I have a ways to go. So is there any chance you might make this available? If so, you are the guy


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## SonicEngineer (Jan 15, 2021)

@bcoyle You're doing all the heavy lifting! I'm glad I can give you a little peak behind the Traffic Curtain. If it helps, the industry uses what is called "carts" It is a folder or a simple playlist mostly full of Commercials "Spots." We group these together by time mostly, then by message and voice ect. So as I build the hour I say, "This Segment is 12 minutes, if I add 3 minutes of Spots I'm back to the quarter hour and back to easy Time Math." So in a normal Show clock I would add the segment file then the three 1 minute Carts behind it. The Cart when it is played picks a random file and fires it off. As long as that file equals 60s it fits. So most traffic directors will set a floating play this then this playlist with a few Hard Time triggers to keep the station on schedule. 

It has taken me a while to solve this puzzle. That once some one figures how to hard time OBS actions will make obsolete. However once I work out the bugs and the "got ya's" I will make a video. It's amazing what you can do with just a few hotkeys and planning. 

BTW cool Station! I run a daily show on KIOF in Vegas just up the road from you.


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## bcoyle (Jan 15, 2021)

I use a concept called blocks which is maybe the same as carts. I use two template editors, one for the timeline and one for the overlays. A timeline consists of at min 4 blocks, S,P,F,E (start,program,fill,end) and 20 custom blocks (or carts). The P block only has 1 file in it - the main file for the time slot. The F block has on directory in it will fill videos etc in it. Any Block that has only one entry in it can have multiple inserts in it. So in the main program P Block, after 10 minutes, it can play another block (insert) and then resume where it left off


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## bcoyle (Jan 15, 2021)

Above is a tree printout of an individual schedule. You can see the blocks (Carts?). Also at the bottom, you can see the overlays schedule. In This example, we are running S (start), block 1, then Block P, then F -Fill and E end. In the P block you see that I have inserted another copy of block 1 into the p  block and it breaks up the p block into before and after block 1. In the overlay schedule at the bottom,  the g block is "global" and is time from the start of the time slot while block s and 1 start from the start of those blocks The numbers at the left are the time in seconds from the start + duration. I told it to make a program 30 minutes long , so it did - 1800 seconds = 30 minutes.


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## bcoyle (Jan 15, 2021)

KIOF is a radio station , so is your scripts for mp3 audio or are you doing videos?


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## SonicEngineer (Jan 16, 2021)

KIOF uses a Web based Automation system I up load to their FTP every day. 

You are on the right track. You make a base for the show, because that is going to take the most time out of the hour. Then you fill in the rest. For a good reference check out Simian from BSI (BSIUSA.com) It uses "+" is play/do next "@" is at this time do this regardless. and blank is wait for the trigger. Stations use Relays and Tones to trigger the local breaks for syndication. Then there is Play at this time only after the current file is done. With those 3 operations, you can program your OBS with Scenes and Playlists. All I am doing is slaving them to Hotkeys then having AutoHotkey fire those Key Strokes off Task Scheduler to set hard times. Once My full 24h is up I'll post a link and make a video on how I programmed it. I'm not at the level you are with Any form of Codes so I have to use training wheels, but I'm still riding a bike!... lol


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## bcoyle (Jan 16, 2021)

SonicEngineer said:


> KIOF uses a Web based Automation system I up load to their FTP every day.
> 
> You are on the right track. You make a base for the show, because that is going to take the most time out of the hour. Then you fill in the rest. For a good reference check out Simian from BSI (BSIUSA.com) It uses "+" is play/do next "@" is at this time do this regardless. and blank is wait for the trigger. Stations use Relays and Tones to trigger the local breaks for syndication. Then there is Play at this time only after the current file is done. With those 3 operations, you can program your OBS with Scenes and Playlists. All I am doing is slaving them to Hotkeys then having AutoHotkey fire those Key Strokes off Task Scheduler to set hard times. Once My full 24h is up I'll post a link and make a video on how I programmed it. I'm not at the level you are with Any form of Codes so I have to use training wheels, but I'm still riding a bike!... lol


Just because I can code, does not mean that I am not learning also LOL. I have training wheels also. Thank god for google and on line doc to help me do a task. Thousands of people have generously offered their pain to spare my pain. Please remember that I am writing using a public access channel model which is totally un-attended. Doesn't mean there aren't hooks for future capabilities but the main drive is to get it up (phase 1) and start scheduling. One of the features I want to do is to have a scene where you get a what's coming up next scene, either with just words (easy) or words and a small window in window of the next main program. You can do lots of thing if you are outside of OBS. As you say, a traffic director. I do like the term "TRAFFIC DIRECTOR". In my traffic director, it cues up the next show to run while running the current program. So I have access to a ready to run (next) scheduled program, from which I can extract all sorts of info.


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## bcoyle (Jan 16, 2021)

I do really want it to look like a real tv station


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## SonicEngineer (Jan 16, 2021)

Got ya! Traffic Director is mostly the position but I do like it in terms of the Program too. Hell it does most of the work for me might as well get the title too! 

OBS has a lot of tools baked in too. If you were looking at "Up next" then maybe putting the Title/Info into a Notepad and have OBS read that. Once you save a notepad, OBS auto updates the words. I don't mind having to step outside into a 3rd system/program if I am using it with the rest. Kida like using a Christmas Tree Timer to "Automate" your Evening Lamps. I've had to use IP plugs to automate things before. It is a very Rube Goldberg way to look at it, but it works.


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## bcoyle (Jan 16, 2021)

What I am working on now is metadata. In the video file name, I'm setting it up like this "20100112 [title = dawd,genre = pets,author = dave famous] - ep 10 my dog story.mp4. In obs I have sources named OVERLAY_METADATA_genre or _title or _author. These text will show up in the obs sources and be scheduled dynamically.  If you want to invent your own source metadata, you just create a source called overlay_metadata_XXXX and put a XXXX= something in the file name. Cool?   For larger texts, will just use a text file. I do plan on putting tv guides and up next info in files that are updated dynamically. When writing a full blown program, you can do all sorts of custom things. Where there is a WANT, there is a way.


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## bcoyle (Jan 17, 2021)

FYI - Command line args for OBS

Launch Parameters
OBS Studio supports the following launch parameters for automation and portable use

Parameter    Description
--help, -h    Get list of available parameters.
--version, -v    Get OBS version.*
--startstreaming    Automatically start streaming.
--startrecording    Automatically start recording.
--startvirtualcam    Automatically start virtual camera.
--startreplaybuffer    Automatically start Replay Buffer.
--collection "name"    Start with given scene collection.
--profile "name"    Start with given profile.
--scene "name"    Start with given scene.
--studio-mode    Start with Studio Mode active.
--minimize-to-tray    Start minimized to system tray.
--portable, -p    Use portable mode.
--multi, -m    Don't warn when launching multiple instances.
--always-on-top    Start in 'always on top' mode.
--verbose    Make log more verbose.
--unfiltered_log    Disable log filter (do not suppress repeated lines).
--disable-updater    Disable built-in updater (Windows/macOS only).
--allow-opengl    Allow OpenGL renderer on Windows.
* = Not available on Windows

' What I use a lot - bring up 2 instances of obs, one on port 4444 and one on 4445

These are two different short cut icons

Z:\Video\OBS\obs-studio\bin\64bit\obs64.exe --multi, -m --profile "STANDARD_YOUTUBE_PORT_4444"     <-bring up port 4444
and
Z:\Video\OBS\obs-studio\bin\64bit\obs64.exe --multi, -m --profile "STANDARD_YOUTUBE_PORT_4445"     <-bring up port 4445

A profile file contains the port address and scene collection name

What that means is to allow multiple obs instances without complaining and use profile "STANDARD_YOUTUBE_PORT_4445"
In that profile, it contains the port number 4445. I use "STANDARD_YOUTUBE_PORT_4444" for port 4444

Note: When the last obs running instance exits, it saves that information for the next startup. So can't depend on the default  settings if not the 4444 one
The profile also contains the youtube setting and key

Anyway - you can run more than one instance of obs





You can see in the titles the different profiles


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## pashkal (Jan 24, 2021)

Hi folks, really inspired by your discussion here :)

I've recorded a video walkthrough for the installation of OBS video scheduler I've mentioned somewhere above in the thread: https://youtu.be/nvNznDg5yh4

It is nowhere close to the real TV station management portal, but maybe it would be helpful to someone.

As we're all still locked down due to pandemic, I'll be open to suggestions on how I can make it more usable, so don't hesitate to reach out!


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## bcoyle (Jan 24, 2021)

pashkal said:


> Hi folks, really inspired by your discussion here :)
> 
> I've recorded a video walkthrough for the installation of OBS video scheduler I've mentioned somewhere above in the thread: https://youtu.be/nvNznDg5yh4
> 
> ...


We have a couple of discord discussions going on in parallel. Interested?


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## pashkal (Jan 24, 2021)

Sure; how do I join? I only see several generic channels on the OBS discord server


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## pashkal (Jan 24, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> We have a couple of discord discussions going on in parallel. Interested?


Sure; how do I join? I only see several generic channels on the OBS discord server


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## bcoyle (Jan 24, 2021)

pashkal said:


> Sure; how do I join? I only see several generic channels on the OBS discord server


Trying to figure out whether the server admin needs to invite you or do I just give you the link


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## bcoyle (Jan 24, 2021)

Here's a link to obs community: https://discord.com/channels/348973006581923840/374636084883095554 ' these are very intents guys. Our little group has a couple of small discord discussions going. They are mostly about running tv stations. Needs etc. When I get the answer from the admin, they will give you a invite or I'll just give you a link.


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## bcoyle (Jan 24, 2021)

Viewed you video. Wow. From writing my own code, I know how much work is involved. Earlier in this thread, I discussed a lot of what I am doing. If you haven't read previous messages, you might want to. I do sort of explain what I am doing. Anyway, Welcome to this discussion and thank you for your work. I moved from the bay area (San Jose) about 5 years ago to nevada. Love it here.


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## bcoyle (Jan 24, 2021)

Quicky FYI. My program is a windows app written in visual basic talking thru websocket-sharp talking to obs_websocket talking to obs.


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## bcoyle (Jan 24, 2021)

I just started a conversion with you - has the links


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## bcoyle (Feb 6, 2021)

Well, Good Morning. Haven't heard from any of you 24/7s lately. Thats what I am calling ourselves lately, great nick name, LOL. Anything new? I've been thinking about dynamic programming. So far, I've talked about static or handling pre-recorded material, i.e. braodcast tv, public access. But what about time sensitive material?

Like what: Maybe adult commerials at late night or a different type of program based on time. So how would you do this?? The answer is meta data. What pray-tell is metadata. If you have a video file, such as "my dawd.mp4", what does that name tell a computer program? Well nothing. But what if the name is "[title=my Dawg,subject=pets].mp4.

Well, right away, the computer program knows what the title and subject is.  A sort of poor man's database. Many commerial programs do have database bases and a means of creating metadata. But this way, the info is carried with the video file.

So back to time sensitive videos. We add the metadata token "TOD" or time of day. So our file becomes "[TITLE=My Dawg,SUBJECT=pets,TOD=1800]. That tells the computer to only play this video after 1800 or 6PM.

I've talked about metadata before and asked for suggestions. So what are your suggestions?

Mine so far are:

Artist       - Tex Ritter
Author    -
Song       - Paint it black
Loc     (Location)
TITLE      - My Dawg
GENRE   - ie Western
Who
What
DATE      - 20210102 = jan 2, 2021
TOD        - Time of Day - 0900,1800 etc
DOW      - Day of week, - SUNDAY etc.
SERIES - John Wayne - Westerns
TYPE    - Commerial
EP        -  Episode #
The metadata has [ and ] surrounding them and each pair of metadata names and value are separated by commas.

[TITLE = My Dawg      ,     DATE = 20210206    ]

You can see with DOW, that you might only select church videos,
but with TOD of 0100 (1am), it might be horror films. All based on when your program is scheduled to run.

So here's your chance to standardize on video file metadata names. This also gives you a chance to search for 'tags'.

So think about this. Also the metadata does not have to be in the filename, but can be part of the folder structure.

Example. G:\Shows\[TYPE=Commerials]\[DOW=SUNDAY]\[TITLE=Local Church Service,DATE=20210206,TOD=900].mp4

Time to Suggest is NOW.


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## bcoyle (Feb 6, 2021)




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## bcoyle (Feb 6, 2021)




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## bcoyle (Feb 6, 2021)

In the above example, I could have put the [ARTIST= in the preceding folder name, but decided to duplicate it many times to  make sure if the video ever got separated from the folder name, you would know what it was about.


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## bcoyle (Feb 15, 2021)

Out there: DO you understand the difference between scheduling and compositing?


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## bcoyle (Mar 5, 2021)

Any body still out there and interested???


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## Freedoms Corner (Mar 11, 2021)

Yes defiantly just waiting for some programs. Keep up the good work folks


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## RockNRollGeek (Mar 12, 2021)

Weird to see this thread more or less trying to reinvent the wheel, definitely not what obs was designed to do, the term for what you're looking to do is 'playout' or more specifically, playout software. Playout software / systems exist and are already designed to do exactly what this thread started around. Nebula Broadcast being one such example that utilizes other existing more technical playout systems (like casparcg for example, which also can use obs for it's encoding if you wish).


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## bcoyle (Mar 12, 2021)

RockNRollGeek said:


> Weird to see this thread more or less trying to reinvent the wheel, definitely not what obs was designed to do, the term for what you're looking to do is 'playout' or more specifically, playout software. Playout software / systems exist and are already designed to do exactly what this thread started around. Nebula Broadcast being one such example that utilizes other existing more technical playout systems (like casparcg for example, which also can use obs for it's encoding if you wish).


Interesting. I didn't actually start this thread, but joined later. I was part of a public access station here (nevada) that got defunded. I inherited all their old programming and wanted preserve some of the heritage here. OBS in terms of playout does a fair job just with a VLC scene and a directory with a bunch of videos in it set to shuffle and loop. But to get anyone to watch it, people need to know when their favorite program will happen, i.e. hogans heros at 9pm. so 24/7 scheduling. Yes, there are commercial programs available that aren't horrible expensive and if I hired myself even at minimum wages , I could have payed for a few copies. 

What a lot of people fail to realize is that OBS is a good compositing program. So picture this. You're a gamer and have gamer friends and you want to start a 24/7 broadcast tv channel, whether on youtube or your  own IPTV channel. Ok, So you either do some editing and stick on a bumper on the front and back or each video and render it out. You could use obs and hot keys or a decklink to help you. You then use your playout software to schedule it. You put in a lot of time each week do this. (48 different 30 minute shows per day).  So what if you could take 100 such files and run a compositing scheduling system to create 100 30 minutes segments with ads, PSAs, filler material, handling in-out point and meta data based on the file name in 5 seconds, paying attention to day of week etc and then have it play out..  Please read my past posts on meta data.

Here is an example of the project I am working on. See attached youtube links. 









						2021 03 10 13 43 41 DATE=19680404,EP=s6ep23, EndPoint=21s46,TITLE=Lucy and Sid Caesar
					






					www.youtube.com
				




This is a lucy show composite automatically created.









						2021 03 10 14 25 12 title = trialer show
					






					www.youtube.com
				




This is a test case with a bunch of trailers, also automatically created. 

The titling comes from the file name using a metadata format. (see previous posts)

What do you think

Best Regards, Bill


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## bcoyle (Mar 12, 2021)

From my previous post, you can see it isn't live and uses pre-recorded clips. I'm not trying to re-invent a live tv station, but more of a public access station with minimum daily work. This is sort of a niche project that I'm doing for myself. I'm an ex programmer, with plenty of time during covid to work on this. Think of this as a clip scheduler/ program creator and also overlay scheduler.


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## RockNRollGeek (Mar 12, 2021)

Yep, (I mean this well and am not trying to sound like a jerk, but..) sounds like you're trying to spend more work making OBS do something that CasparCG, RedCast, Opencaster, etc have done easily out of the box for free for years with less work :) Like you said, OBS is built to be a simple compositer (but a switcher first and foremost), where as various playout systems have existed for years built around exactly what you're trying to accomplish. 

Not to say there isn't benefit to some sort of scheduler that is a little more powerful than a simple 24x7 VLC playlist, but even then, playout systems can be set up to also account for render delays to keep everything on schedule rather than it slowly slipping off-time over time due to render delays that may happen on occasion.


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## bcoyle (Mar 12, 2021)

RockNRollGeek said:


> Yep, (I mean this well and am not trying to sound like a jerk, but..) sounds like you're trying to spend more work making OBS do something that CasparCG, RedCast, Opencaster, etc have done easily out of the box for free for years with less work :) Like you said, OBS is built to be a simple compositer (but a switcher first and foremost), where as various playout systems have existed for years built around exactly what you're trying to accomplish.
> 
> Not to say there isn't benefit to some sort of scheduler that is a little more powerful than a simple 24x7 VLC playlist, but even then, playout systems can be set up to also account for render delays to keep everything on schedule rather than it slowly slipping off-time over time due to render delays that may happen on occasion.


No, you are not a jerk. You haven't said anything that I have thought about before. I did look at redcast and they themselves said they are not ready. I did find that I am a coder addict even after being 5 years away from it. As all programmers do, you underestimate the work required. I do enjoy the work and with covid, had plenty of time to work on this. I originally entered this forum to see if there were any other people that were interested in either this type of program or just making standalone apps, talking about solutions to problems. A lot of the people that were interested talked about their efforts and desire to set up 24/7, which eventually became my interest in this forum. A big problem is that most people do not have enough material to actually want or need 24/7. 

So basically, I'm doing this for myself and enjoying the coding and conversation with people that do want to set up a channel. 

I have found that my app is specially good for compositing. I don't have a graphics design in the program, I just use whatever OBS can do. In a way, the program is very much switcher driven. When working with youtube, the rules for live stream are different than just uploading. When uploading, YT just forgives you for copyright claims (LOL) but with streaming they don't. They block your stream with a shaming message, so you have to be very clean about coyrights. So I can composite/render/record the programs if I want , upload to test them for Copyright and then even play those files if I want or do straight to stream if my fillers are safe. I'm learning alot. 

Anyway, again, you are not a jerk. I actually welcome your comments. A few of the earlier people have already gone to "easy on air" and found it works fine for their application. Part of the forum is "what would you want if you could custom design a 24/7 "full blown application" and also, how you actually run a station, YT or IPTV, servers etc.. A niche but for a small group of people, interesting.


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## RockNRollGeek (Mar 13, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> No, you are not a jerk. You haven't said anything that I have thought about before. I did look at redcast and they themselves said they are not ready. I did find that I am a coder addict even after being 5 years away from it. As all programmers do, you underestimate the work required. I do enjoy the work and with covid, had plenty of time to work on this. I originally entered this forum to see if there were any other people that were interested in either this type of program or just making standalone apps, talking about solutions to problems. A lot of the people that were interested talked about their efforts and desire to set up 24/7, which eventually became my interest in this forum. A big problem is that most people do not have enough material to actually want or need 24/7.
> 
> So basically, I'm doing this for myself and enjoying the coding and conversation with people that do want to set up a channel.
> 
> ...



Not sure if you checked it out when I previously mentioned it, but look in to Nebula Broadcast - https://nebulabroadcast.com/ , they even have a demo channel that is up as a 24x7 scheduled tv station demo complete with 24 hrs of content, a demo ticker running on top, etc, at https://nxtv.cz/


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## bcoyle (Mar 13, 2021)

Yes, I looked at it. seems complicated but needs more research. I've spent a lot of time on my own stuff and will probable stick with it. But you never know. My app does a lot of different stuff.

Did you look at my youtube examples? These are completely automated.


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## benubikim (Mar 17, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> Yes, I looked at it. seems complicated but needs more research. I've spent a lot of time on my own stuff and will probable stick with it. But you never know. My app does a lot of different stuff.
> 
> Did you look at my youtube examples? These are completely automated.



Hello,
I am also a radio steamer. I have started streaming one year ago and last month I have started YouTube stream by using OBS. Old radio station powered by radioking.com platform. It is still working. My Youtube live stream link is

Cihan Radyo - Youtube

Now, in my stream I use "browser vlc source" for audio input and a "vlc video source" for backround filler. I organize my playlist and schedule them in radioking.com platform and this platform sen my audio data to my website which is "cihanradyo.com". I use same audio data to "browser vlc source".

Radioking platform is only for audio files. I want to add also videos for my stream.

What I need;

1) Automation
2) Scheduling

I want to play my playlist in an order. Every playlist should play only one file and switch to another. If the all playlists are ended, second files will play for each playlist one by one. I need to schedule each playlist. For eg;

1. Playlist - Time 00.00
2. Playlist - Time 01.00
3. Playlist - Time 02.00
.
.
24. Playlist - Time 23.00


All time durations of my files are different but less than one hour. When the selected video file of scheduled playlist ended, a filler playlist will begin to play untill next scheduled time. I have different filler playlists, For eg;

1. Filler Playlist - Artist Name 1
2. Filler Playlist - Artist Name 2
3. Filler Playlist - Artist Name 3
.
.
8. Filler Playlist - Artist Name 8

Filler playlists should play in order too. (sequential)
Filler Playlist 1 -> Filler Playlist 2 -> ... -> Filler Playlist 8 -> Filler Playlist 1

I thing what I want is similar with  @bcoyle. My English is poor, forgive me please. I have read all thread. I have tried to use CasparCG, Redcast, Insta Playout, Easy on Air but.... they are uncapable of these basic futures. If I miss something, please inform me.

I am not a expert programmer but if I can not find a solution, will try to create my own :)
I appreciate your efforts they look very promising.


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## bcoyle (Mar 17, 2021)

benubikim said:


> Hello,
> I am also a radio steamer. I have started streaming one year ago and last month I have started YouTube stream by using OBS. Old radio station powered by radioking.com platform. It is still working. My Youtube live stream link is
> 
> Cihan Radyo - Youtube
> ...


Hi. So glad you decided to join the conversation. Was a little unclear as what you mean by a playlist. Are you referring to directories filled with video files or an actual file with a list of things to play. I'm not a radio guy, but know that the playlist concept usually involves a database or a file of things to play. You can then choose a friday playlist. So It would help me to understand if you explained this a little more. Maybe a screen shot of some of your playlists/directories.


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## benubikim (Mar 17, 2021)

I have lots of directories. Each directory for a specific radio program. For example, "Poem" is a program name. There is directory named "Poem" and all of its episodes are located inside of it. 

As I said, I am using Radioking.com platform. I upload my files there and It gives me its own playlist solution. I put all playlist in an order and they play. If I have enough time, I can individually schedule each playlist. But it takes very long time. 

In my disk, all my files located in the directories.


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## benubikim (Mar 17, 2021)




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## bcoyle (Mar 18, 2021)

benubikim said:


> I have lots of directories. Each directory for a specific radio program. For example, "Poem" is a program name. There is directory named "Poem" and all of its episodes are located inside of it.
> 
> As I said, I am using Radioking.com platform. I upload my files there and It gives me its own playlist solution. I put all playlist in an order and they play. If I have enough time, I can individually schedule each playlist. But it takes very long time.
> 
> In my disk, all my files located in the directories.


Hi Again. Are these files(episodes) in these directories playlists like m3u or are they mp3 audio files. So in your example, what kind of file is DIRLIS_KERVAN-11.


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## bcoyle (Mar 18, 2021)

Hi All


----------



## benubikim (Mar 20, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> Hi Again. Are these files(episodes) in these directories playlists like m3u or are they mp3 audio files. So in your example, what kind of file is DIRLIS_KERVAN-11.



Hi again. They are ".mp3" audio files. 
Later I want to make this radio station to TV station :) There will be also ".mp4" files.


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## bcoyle (Mar 20, 2021)

benubikim said:


> Hi again. They are ".mp3" audio files.
> Later I want to make this radio station to TV station :) There will be also ".mp4" files.


So you basically want to go thru a directory of mp3's or mp4's and when finished with playing each entry once, go on to another directory and continue until you have finished the hour. The names in your example don't have any info about what they are about, like "the bee gees sing the blues". So you would would be blindly be playing a song with maybe some slide show as background? The mp4's would not need a slide show so you would just be playing them. The automation part would just play your mixes on the hour with pop at 9am and jazz at 10am! Is this what you need?


----------



## bcoyle (Mar 20, 2021)

RockNRollGeek said:


> Not sure if you checked it out when I previously mentioned it, but look in to Nebula Broadcast - https://nebulabroadcast.com/ , they even have a demo channel that is up as a 24x7 scheduled tv station demo complete with 24 hrs of content, a demo ticker running on top, etc, at https://nxtv.cz/


Many of the apps that people work on can be done in stream labs or vmix. Some are one-off app's that don't have the expense or overhead or complexity of these large programs. My project is different. I asked if you looked at my demo and you didn't answer so I don't know if you understand what I'm trying to do.


----------



## benubikim (Mar 20, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> So you basically want to go thru a directory of mp3's or mp4's and when finished with playing each entry once, go on to another directory and continue until you have finished the hour. The names in your example don't have any info about what they are about, like "the bee gees sing the blues". So you would would be blindly be playing a song with maybe some slide show as background? The mp4's would not need a slide show so you would just be playing them. The automation part would just play your mixes on the hour with pop at 9am and jazz at 10am! Is this what you need?












Goes like this...





All files are unique.

Some of my scheduled audio files are 20 minutes, some of them 50 minutes. I also have filler folders. Large amount of data.  If a scheduled file ends, untill the next scheduled hour, I want to use fillers. "One by One".

I dont want to share my archieve data pictures for long time :) When you read, please inform. I am gonna delete.


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## benubikim (Mar 20, 2021)

benubikim said:


> View attachment 69139
> View attachment 69140
> 
> Goes like this...
> ...



Post can stay here, no problem :)


----------



## bcoyle (Mar 21, 2021)

benubikim said:


> View attachment 69139
> View attachment 69140
> 
> Goes like this...
> ...



OK, i SAW THEM. You can delete if you want. Are your main mp3 files really 20 to 50 minutes in a single file? Also you were talking about video mp4. Are these standard short 2-5 minutes video? Also for these mp3s, what do you plan to show video wise while playing?


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## bcoyle (Mar 28, 2021)

benubikim said:


> Post can stay here, no problem :)


Hi - Still there?


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## benubikim (Mar 29, 2021)

Hi!

I write a python code. I have 6 different scheduled folder.

Hours a/pm    vlc dir source
-------------------------------------
00.00 --------> stage1
02.00 --------> stage2
04.00 --------> stage3
06.00 --------> stage4
08.00 --------> stage5
12.00 --------> stage6

It can handle some basic features like
1) Printing General Information for scheduled programs
2) Matching each stage with selected radio show
3) Handling filler radio show integration (musics etc)
4) Copying one episode of radio show to matched stage folder and erasing it.


It has some problems now. Not ready yet. But,
started to code at least :)

Scheduling things handled by an obs plugin,





						Advanced Scene Switcher
					

This plugin will allow you to automate various tasks using "Macros". Macros consist of a list of conditions under which a list of actions will be performed.    Currently supported condition types are:  Audio Cursor position Date and time File...




					obsproject.com


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## bcoyle (Mar 29, 2021)

benubikim said:


> Hi!
> 
> I write a python code. I have 6 different scheduled folder.
> 
> ...


Hi - Sounds good. I don't know python code, but am writing my app in visual basic. I don't know if there is overlap but I've handled a lot of problems in my app. If you have a problem, feel free to ask for suggestions.


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## Freedoms Corner (Apr 13, 2021)

Hey, so I have a question a little off task but here we go. I have a 24/7 stream on twitch and I also want to stream on roku. How do I go from twitch to roku?


----------



## bcoyle (Apr 13, 2021)

Freedoms Corner said:


> Hey, so I have a question a little off task but here we go. I have a 24/7 stream on twitch and I also want to stream on roku. How do I go from twitch to roku?


Hi don't know much about either, but there was this in a discord thread that I am on;

--------------------------------------------------------------------

just get a roku device, setup online account at www.roku.com.. then head over to developer.roku.com setup a developers account. then goto https://developer.roku.com/docs/direct-publisher/getting-started.md Shouldn't take more then an hour to a channel setup (about 15 minutes of configuration and 45 minutes making the graphics..) Stick to the direct publisher until you get a grasp on how the system works then if you get adventurous and feel like coding in brightscript you could try building a channel with the api.. The hardest part of the API is setting up your roku in developers mode.. pain in the ass and never ever lose the password or you lose the key to all your work.. But with the direct publisher Roku takes care of all the coding and updates and keeps you compliant with the ever changing standards. An frankly it meets most peoples needs.. All you have to do is write the json file indexing all your content. there is plenty of help on that in the forums.. 

------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry, can't help you more than that.


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## bcoyle (Apr 24, 2021)

Hi All - This is very interesting. https://caliope.eu/onair-tv/


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## bcoyle (Apr 26, 2021)

I guess, very interesting, but not to buy unless you have deep pockets like NBC


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## bcoyle (Apr 26, 2021)

fodell said:


> merci pour les informations ,Je voudrais que la liste de lecture intègre la lecture de vidéos au fil du temps en utilisant l’une ou l’autre scène.


Not Sure which of us you are talking too. If you make it a "reply" it would be helpful and the person you are talking to, would get a notification.


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## VictorM (Apr 27, 2021)

Hi everyone! I've been watching this thread for quite a while, and I can't believe that no one has found any program/app solution for this! I'm desperate and would buy anything that could help me simply play thousands of video clips according to the time of day, see them in a calendar-type fashion and generate the playlist automatically, while also manually being able to change things.


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## bcoyle (Apr 27, 2021)

VictorM said:


> Hi everyone! I've been watching this thread for quite a while, and I can't believe that no one has found any program/app solution for this! I'm desperate and would buy anything that could help me simply play thousands of video clips according to the time of day, see them in a calendar-type fashion and generate the playlist automatically, while also manually being able to change things.


I like your "quite a while" since you joined only 5 hours ago. LOL. So tell us about yourself and why so desperate. A few of us now use easy-on-air. There are commercial solutions available. I guess it depends on how desperate and how much you can afford. So please tell us about your situation. Have you read all of this thread?


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## VictorM (Apr 27, 2021)

Hey there :). Well I didn't register until today, but I've been lurking for the past 6 months.
I intend to stream music videos (all licensed by owners) to a Youtube channel, non-stop, but the playlists need to be played according to the time of day, not interrupt abruptly when a certain hour starts, and work on Mac. I also need access to the generated playlist, in order to be able to add ad-breaks. Easy-on-air looks alright but I can't switch to Windows.. 
I can stretch the budget to 1000$ if the solution is rock solid and meets all criteria.
Any tips are welcome!


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## bcoyle (Apr 27, 2021)

VictorM said:


> Hey there :). Well I didn't register until today, but I've been lurking for the past 6 months.
> I intend to stream music videos (all licensed by owners) to a Youtube channel, non-stop, but the playlists need to be played according to the time of day, not interrupt abruptly when a certain hour starts, and work on Mac. I also need access to the generated playlist, in order to be able to add ad-breaks. Easy-on-air looks alright but I can't switch to Windows..
> I can stretch the budget to 1000$ if the solution is rock solid and meets all criteria.
> Any tips are welcome!


Hi Victor/Lurker (lol): There have been a few users on this thread that have had web based solutions which would work on mac/windows and of course obs works on all but not for what you want. What you want is actually a super playlist/24/7 broadcast TV front end. I think streamlabs has a 24/7 solution that probably works on mac/windows. Don't know for sure. Of course not free, but supported. The solution that i'm working on would probably work for you but is windows only. Bootcamp maybe???? Anyway, my app is not ready yet.  It's getting there. My program is more a broadcast tv/public access solution. It can work as a playlist but is designed to work in 30/60/90 etc minutes program blocks with auto fill, ads, psa etc. My goal is similar to yours in that I have or will collect tons of old tv shows, whatnots and be able to generate custom programs, to take advantage of obs compositing

I guess you haven't found what you want or it is too expensive?

So it sounds like you are doing a serious 24/7 channel. May I ask details about your channel and the videos you are playing, your goals?


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## bcoyle (Apr 27, 2021)

here is two examples of the type of videos that my app can produce by compositing:








						2021 03 10 14 25 12 title = trialer show
					






					www.youtube.com
				



that is a 1 hour bunch of movies trailers.
This is an example of a standard def video customized lucy show:








						2021 03 10 13 43 41 DATE=19680404,EP=s6ep23, EndPoint=21s46,TITLE=Lucy and Sid Caesar
					






					www.youtube.com


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## VictorM (Apr 28, 2021)

It is intended as a 24/7 channel, we're testing a feed with Streamlabs OBS now and everything is working fine, except we can't have the in-depth playlist triggering and access required. Bootcamp is not available as we're running the whole thing on dedicated Mac Mini M1 (which in its defense, is doing an awesome job!).


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## bcoyle (Apr 28, 2021)

VictorM said:


> It is intended as a 24/7 channel, we're testing a feed with Streamlabs OBS now and everything is working fine, except we can't have the in-depth playlist triggering and access required. Bootcamp is not available as we're running the whole thing on dedicated Mac Mini M1 (which in its defense, is doing an awesome job!).


Well, sounds like my solution is not going to fit (hardware wise) . That's life I guess. Most people in this thread  have gone on to their own solutions even if not perfect or optimal. I guess you are stuck with web based solutions or streamlabs (which is supported), which isn't that bad, normally because they work across hardware and on many workstations at one time. Think Windows, lol. Once a mac guy always a mac guy. Guess the same thing applies to windows people. oh, my app can work across the lan to obs running on a different computer, but requires either a common NAS drive or all content to be mirrored on each computer. I haven't looked at share drives which would allow one copy of the video content. The program can also handle multiple broadcast tv stations and multiple copies of obs. It can generate a 1000 video custom play list with station bugs, insets,fills and ads in about a minute (if the videos in the same directory). It can keep track of episodes and whats been played before.


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## Tim_F (Apr 29, 2021)

I am currently porting my project for a 24/7 Weather Channel from CasparCG to OBS. Everything seems to be working but a few hiccups in playing video. What is the correct way to start/stop a video file? I am using Visual Basic .NET with obs-websocket-dotnet, video seems to start fine when update the source. But, every now and then it will not play even thought the source has been updated in OBS when I look at it. I don't see anything out of line in the log files.


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## bcoyle (Apr 29, 2021)

Tim_F said:


> I am currently porting my project for a 24/7 Weather Channel from CasparCG to OBS. Everything seems to be working but a few hiccups in playing video. What is the correct way to start/stop a video file? I am using Visual Basic .NET with obs-websocket-dotnet, video seems to start fine when update the source. But, every now and then it will not play even thought the source has been updated in OBS when I look at it. I don't see anything out of line in the log files.


WELL,WELL,WELL! You are the first visual basic .net guy other than me that I have found on obs. Welcome Tim. It would be nice to talk vb with another vb person. It's gets a little lonely (LOL).

Anyway, the simple thing to check is whether the scene is set to restart-on-visible, stop on not visible. This just restarts the video when the scene becomes visible. 

There is a "RestartMedia" command in the new interface that you might want to try. I've had trouble with rerunning a video that is already there and was played before or is still playing. I send the restartmedia command followed by the behavior command to restart-stop, then make the scene visible. That seems to make the video play from the start.

So, why the change from casperCG? I assume that you had a working weather 24/7 channel on that?


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## Tim_F (Apr 29, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> WELL,WELL,WELL! You are the first visual basic .net guy other than me that I have found on obs. Welcome Tim. It would be nice to talk vb with another vb person. It's gets a little lonely (LOL).
> 
> Anyway, the simple thing to check is whether the scene is set to restart-on-visible, stop on not visible. This just restarts the video when the scene becomes visible.
> 
> ...



Yes, I still have a working channel on the air. CasparCG consumes a lot of resources, and I would like to live stream the channel on our website, so that is why I am looking at OBS.

It look like it may be a timing issue at this point. After the media starts playing I query the duration of the clip from OBS and set my duration counter using that so I can get an accurate duration before calling the next clip.

I am updating the current scene so the other elements keep playing on the ticker I have built into the scene. I am using the RestartMedia method now in the program. I have it coded to RestartMedia after I update the media source then have a slight delay before I query the duration thinking OBS could not keep up with the commands being sent.

I am going to comment out some of the other code blocks tomorrow to see if I can get a consistent playout.


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## bcoyle (Apr 30, 2021)

Tim_F said:


> Yes, I still have a working channel on the air. CasparCG consumes a lot of resources, and I would like to live stream the channel on our website, so that is why I am looking at OBS.
> 
> It look like it may be a timing issue at this point. After the media starts playing I query the duration of the clip from OBS and set my duration counter using that so I can get an accurate duration before calling the next clip.
> 
> ...


I deal a lot with the same type of things. Sometimes takes a second or two for vlc to load in a new video. If I'm playing a video in a scene, then loading in the next video in the same scene starts the video as soon as vlc gets ready. If you have two different scenes, you can run scene 1, video 1, and after it starts, preload scene 2, video 2. if behavior is set to start on visible then  scene 2 , video will start correctly and you can use the fades transitions to fade between scenes nicely. If you try to have scene 1 be a black(1 second duration)  and you preload during that, if the black scene is too short, like 1 second, you might catch the end of the previous video(1), before vlc has a chance to run the preloaded video.

I started my project before the media controls were available, so I go to  the file system directly and get the media lengths from the file headers. That way I can plan out my playlists without dealing with obs at all.

I also ping obs to make sure it is ready for a new command. In the message ID , i set a number and a command that obs doesn't like. it sends me back an error message. I just wait for that (number in message-id) to come back before proceeding.

How about some screen shots and examples of what you are trying to do with your playlists.


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## bcoyle (May 3, 2021)

Tim_F said:


> Yes, I still have a working channel on the air. CasparCG consumes a lot of resources, and I would like to live stream the channel on our website, so that is why I am looking at OBS.
> 
> It look like it may be a timing issue at this point. After the media starts playing I query the duration of the clip from OBS and set my duration counter using that so I can get an accurate duration before calling the next clip.
> 
> ...


So how did it work out?


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## Tim_F (May 4, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> So how did it work out?



Well I have worked out most of the bugs. I have went back and forth on using VLC and the media player.

I connected one of my Decklink cards to it to see how it looks on final output. Not quite happy with the quality of the video output compared to CasparCG.

Will have to mess with the video settings to see if there is any improvement. 

But at least I do have a 24/7 working channel using OBS.


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## Tim_F (May 4, 2021)

Still trying to get the video loads/plays sorted out, just may be the way OBS handles it. With that said the channel seems to be working fine. Will have to let it run on my development PC for a few days then decide whether or not to move it to the live server.

Here are a few YouTube videos of what it currently looks like.
Test 003
Test 004
Test 005

The playlist for the channel are handled by a custom scheduler I created a few years ago. New playlists are generated daily so new content and AD's can be updated.


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## bcoyle (May 8, 2021)

Tim_F said:


> Still trying to get the video loads/plays sorted out, just may be the way OBS handles it. With that said the channel seems to be working fine. Will have to let it run on my development PC for a few days then decide whether or not to move it to the live server.
> 
> Here are a few YouTube videos of what it currently looks like.
> Test 003
> ...


Could you change the test videos to unlisted. They are private and I can't play them. Thanks.


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## bdluna (May 19, 2021)

@bcoyle Greetings!  I've been reading this thread and watching for sometime in hopes of a solution appearing sooner than later.  I started a 24/7 local weather channel for Southern Tennessee and North Alabama last year.  We've grown leaps and bounds and have even been picked up on a couple of local cable companies, all with by using a combination of OBS and Wirecast.

So here's my setup for "Tennessee Valley Weather" (www.tnvalleyweather.com)... Wirecast has been running as my primary "log" on a continuous loop unless there's severe weather, then we break in and go wall-to-wall. I've got Wirecast's form of a playlist, called "shots" set up in this fashion... Our Recorded Weather Show, Spots, Promo, Spots, Current Conditions, Spots, Forecast Images, Spots, all on the aforementioned loop. From there, the programming leaves via NDI to another machine running OBS and joins with our "L Bar" and then goes out to Restream.

This has worked "ok" for us but we're outgrowing what we've got, but still on a budget, and OBS is a really reliable too. It also handles our live weather cams really well, most are RTSP while others are brought in via M3U8 or YouTube for some national feeds we've got rights to or pick up from public sources. 

I would LOVE to be able to schedule things hourly or, better yet, just be able to enjoy the reliability of OBS and have a good rundown for our various inputs. So I've been watching this thread religiously. haha. :D 

Check out what we've got and let me know what you think. We built this out from a radio station I manage. We've been blessed... use a Baron Lynx backbone and even have our own app and doppler radar... yes, it's a real doppler that serves our area. But our streaming backbone is OBS and the devilish Wirecast which I'd LOVE to move on from. Any tips or suggestions are WELCOME! 

Thanks everyone!


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## bcoyle (May 19, 2021)

bdluna said:


> @bcoyle Greetings!  I've been reading this thread and watching for sometime in hopes of a solution appearing sooner than later.  I started a 24/7 local weather channel for Southern Tennessee and North Alabama last year.  We've grown leaps and bounds and have even been picked up on a couple of local cable companies, all with by using a combination of OBS and Wirecast.
> 
> So here's my setup for "Tennessee Valley Weather" (www.tnvalleyweather.com)... Wirecast has been running as my primary "log" on a continuous loop unless there's severe weather, then we break in and go wall-to-wall. I've got Wirecast's form of a playlist, called "shots" set up in this fashion... Our Recorded Weather Show, Spots, Promo, Spots, Current Conditions, Spots, Forecast Images, Spots, all on the aforementioned loop. From there, the programming leaves via NDI to another machine running OBS and joins with our "L Bar" and then goes out to Restream.
> 
> ...


Hi Ben. It's actually nice to talk to someone that is willing to say who they are and what they are really interested in. I've been very busy today and haven't had much time to look at your channel, but from what I can tell, pretty nice. Your channel is pretty sophisticated. If you look back thru the thread, you will see that my app is more of a public access tv model where it programs shows with big segments and then fills,ads and psas to flesh out the 30/60 desired program length.  All this is automated and designed to produce 24/7 schedules that can go out months. Yours is real time mostly, so have to talk with you more.    Time for bed, so will talk to you tomorrow. 

See you tomorrow, Bill


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## bdluna (May 19, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> Hi Ben. It's actually nice to talk to someone that is willing to say who they are and what they are really interested in. I've been very busy today and haven't had much time to look at your channel, but from what I can tell, pretty nice. Your channel is pretty sophisticated. If you look back thru the thread, you will see that my app is more of a public access tv model where it programs shows with big segments and then fills,ads and psas to flesh out the 30/60 desired program length.  All this is automated and designed to produce 24/7 schedules that can go out months. Yours is real time mostly, so have to talk with you more.    Time for bed, so will talk to you tomorrow.
> 
> See you tomorrow, Bill



Thank you for your kind words.  We are working hard to make it professional, informative, and enjoyable all while keeping it as *simple* as possible to operate behind the scenes.  Everything, from our live stream, to when we have to break into programming for severe coverage was designed and built around the concept of a one man operation.  You never know when/if you may be short handed for whatever reason, so I wanted a setup that was simple enough that one person could come in and start the process to go live or conduct general channel operations.


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## bcoyle (May 19, 2021)

bdluna said:


> Thank you for your kind words.  We are working hard to make it professional, informative, and enjoyable all while keeping it as *simple* as possible to operate behind the scenes.  Everything, from our live stream, to when we have to break into programming for severe coverage was designed and built around the concept of a one man operation.  You never know when/if you may be short handed for whatever reason, so I wanted a setup that was simple enough that one person could come in and start the process to go live or conduct general channel operations.


Hi Ben. Was looking at your station a little more. I labeled a screen capture of your station. Could you tell me about where the individual elements come from. Am trying to picture, how my app would (could?) duplicate this


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## bcoyle (May 19, 2021)

I looked at wirecast. Seems pretty good. How come you don't like it. It seems cheap enough.


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## bcoyle (May 19, 2021)

Ben - What part of all this to do imagine native to OBS and my App?


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## CharlieV (May 21, 2021)

Hello,

I have been using  DPO-100 playout free Software. Features include multiple playlist, schedule time to play playlist, video clip, picture or ip input, loop playlist. DPO-100 is HDMI output only, so you would need a second monitor or a HDMI terminator (depending on your video card output). That second window output is captured and added in OBS and goes on air. I also use a Decklink Duo Card for OBS output to broadcast. (install Decklink Plugin). Hope this helps and may simplify your setup a bit. I was using VLC and adding saved playlist but I didn't get the control I get with DataVideo DPO-100.


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## bcoyle (May 21, 2021)

CharlieV said:


> Hello,
> 
> I have been using  DPO-100 playout free Software. Features include multiple playlist, schedule time to play playlist, video clip, picture or ip input, loop playlist. DPO-100 is HDMI output only, so you would need a second monitor or a HDMI terminator (depending on your video card output). That second window output is captured and added in OBS and goes on air. I also use a Decklink Duo Card for OBS output to broadcast. (install Decklink Plugin). Hope this helps and may simplify your setup a bit. I was using VLC and adding saved playlist but I didn't get the control I get with DataVideo DPO-100.


Hi Charlie. Welcome to our thread. As you can tell, we are a bunch of people interested in 24/7 automation. The great thing is that everyone brings a little more knowledge to the the table. If you have a SDi output card, I'm assuming you aren't broadcasting over the internet? Anyway, tell a little about what you're doing.


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## Vine (May 28, 2021)

anyone found video scheduler for obs


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## bcoyle (May 28, 2021)

Vine said:


> anyone found video scheduler for obs


I'm working on one. You should read the whole thread, there is a lot of information


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## bcoyle (Jun 5, 2021)

I've decided to call my project "the Caster Project"


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## benubikim (Jun 8, 2021)

Sounds good. I am waiting your project :)


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## bcoyle (Jun 8, 2021)

benubikim said:


> Sounds good. I am waiting your project :)


Tell me about yourself


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## EndoSkull (Jun 9, 2021)

Hey Bcoyle,
Looks like your project is exactly what I've been searching for. I run a gaming channel for a niche building game - been looking to do a sudo tv station for the game itself.

Any idea when you'll release an alpha/beta version?


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## bcoyle (Jun 9, 2021)

EndoSkull said:


> Hey Bcoyle,
> Looks like your project is exactly what I've been searching for. I run a gaming channel for a niche building game - been looking to do a sudo tv station for the game itself.
> 
> Any idea when you'll release an alpha/beta version?


HI. Have you read the complete thread. This is more a public access tv app. It really isn't live at all. What did you have in mind?


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## EndoSkull (Jun 9, 2021)

I was under the impression that it allowed me to create a schedule of content run it and then allow obs to stream it.
My use for it was to create content revolved around different builders - patch news - and the in-between go to an audio-only mode

I'm getting tired - but I thought based on your demos - I could set up content with both video - still images and text.
Thanks


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## benubikim (Jun 9, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> Tell me about yourself



I am the radio guy. We have talked before, maybe 2 months before. My radio still on 7/24 live stream on Youtube.








						Cihan Radyo 7/24
					

Bu Sesi Herkes Duymalı!Özlenen sesler dünyanın her yerinde. Cihan Radyo, internet sitesi cihanradyo.com'un ardından artık kendi YouTube kanalında! Yoldayken,...




					www.youtube.com


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## bcoyle (Jun 9, 2021)

benubikim said:


> I am the radio guy. We have talked before, maybe 2 months before. My radio still on 7/24 live stream on Youtube.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Sorry. I have a lot of people asking questions , then never continuing the dialog. So figure, that they are not interested. Currently, I just tell them to read the whole thread first. Probably my fault. I should probably make a video showing what it does currently, to get a little more excitement going.


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## bcoyle (Jun 9, 2021)

EndoSkull said:


> I was under the impression that it allowed me to create a schedule of content run it and then allow obs to stream it.
> My use for it was to create content revolved around different builders - patch news - and the in-between go to an audio-only mode
> 
> I'm getting tired - but I thought based on your demos - I could set up content with both video - still images and text.
> Thanks


Hi. I was shutting down my computer last night at 11 so was tired too. I'm an old guy, so please define "builders", "patch news" and whether the goto audio-only mode means you wish to shut down the automated program, break in and just talk. Once I figure out what you are doing, I'll have a better chance at seeing if there is a fit.

I would not hold my breath for a release date. I have a few IOUs and keep finding End case / corner bugs. It's a big program, so lots of testing to do. I find that as I try to add a new program type to my list, (example - The Lucy Show), I have to add new features.

An example is that many videos have sound levels that vary a lot, some down at -15db. In the filename metadata, I've added a volume metadata type called "VOL". So a filename might be "[DATE=20211001,VOL=-15,TITLE = Lucy builds a Shower].mp4.   I use this to adjust the volume of the video to come out at -3db, so that all the videos I play have the same sound level. For -15, I add 12 db of volume gain to the obs source to make it louder and end up at -3 peak.

So am discovering new requirements as I go along.

Anyway, please describe your needs in a little greater detail, Bill


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## EndoSkull (Jun 9, 2021)

Okay, let me try to explain it by making something up :) 

Imagine a youtube channel with a live stream setup as a 24/hr news program with music breaks.
News and information about a game would run on the hour
In between news and music, there would be pre-recorded videos that would run (possibly at certain times of the day)
As the week progressed there would be a certain time slot where a new episode/video would be added to the programming list.

based on your lucy demo here is what I picture as content formats:

- News and Information - would feature a video and possibly screenshots that would be displayed to the right
- Music - audio would be played with various screenshots or collage videos taking up the screen - possibly with an up next banner
- Episodes - episodes would likely be full screen - but it would be nice to inset the video with PNG image to allow information for donating or channel info, etc. With the video playing within the transparent portion of the png or something along those lines.
- New episodes - Not sure how your system works - but it would be nice to add a new video(s) into time slots and click update without having to restart the currently playing content.

Anyway, this is just random thoughts - nothing solid just how I thought your system kind of worked and what I was looking to try to do.
Hope this helps
-Endo


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## bcoyle (Jun 9, 2021)

EndoSkull said:


> Okay, let me try to explain it by making something up :)
> 
> Imagine a youtube channel with a live stream setup as a 24/hr news program with music breaks.
> News and information about a game would run on the hour
> ...


Hi again. Question: How familiar are you with working with obs and designing screens? Also, this is a windows 7 program . Are you a Mac person?


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## EndoSkull (Jun 9, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> Hi again. Question: How familiar are you with working with obs and designing screens?



Not sure I understand the question. 
If you mean do I know how to use the various features to build out scenes by using what OBS calls sources with elements such as video - game capture - text - and various plugins - it's all pretty straightforward - So I guess I'd say I'm very familiar? 

Before I came upon your thread here is as looking at the Advanced Scene Switcher - as I noticed it has an ability to use system time - but - when I saw this thread where you were building (I think) a scheduler - I was more excited than trying to force the Advanced Scene Switcher to accommodate my use case.
-Endo


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## bcoyle (Jun 9, 2021)

EndoSkull said:


> Not sure I understand the question.
> If you mean do I know how to use the various features to build out scenes by using what OBS calls sources with elements such as video - game capture - text - and various plugins - it's all pretty straightforward - So I guess I'd say I'm very familiar?
> 
> Before I came upon your thread here is as looking at the Advanced Scene Switcher - as I noticed it has an ability to use system time - but - when I saw this thread where you were building (I think) a scheduler - I was more excited than trying to force the Advanced Scene Switcher to accommodate my use case.
> -Endo


Ok, Just wanted to be able to talk to you as a scene designer, not a newbe.

 Are the episodes random or must they be of your choosing? Also is the news segment changed every hour. i.e. do you generate a news file very often. Is it a video or text?


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## EndoSkull (Jun 9, 2021)

Likely news would change only a couple of times a week - most of the content would be setup to be more static - while adding new content here and there - hopefully to build out a week worth of content with only major changes in news and possibly a few "spotlight videos" which might highlight a specific content creator etc.


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## bcoyle (Jun 9, 2021)

EndoSkull said:


> Likely news would change only a couple of times a week - most of the content would be setup to be more static - while adding new content here and there - hopefully to build out a week worth of content with only major changes in news and possibly a few "spotlight videos" which might highlight a specific content creator etc.


Why I asked about your news being text or video is that if you have text on a screen and then use an editor on the txt file, It will be automatically be updated in obs, where a video may have a different length if overridden.


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## EndoSkull (Jun 10, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> Why I asked about your news being text or video is that if you have text on a screen and then use an editor on the txt file, It will be automatically be updated in obs, where a video may have a different length if overridden.



Right, that makes sense.
I'm thinking all my content would be video and possibly a mix of images and audio (if possible) I really don't know exactly how your system is working and the workflow - So I'm just making mine up :-P


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## bcoyle (Jun 10, 2021)

EndoSkull said:


> Right, that makes sense.
> I'm thinking all my content would be video and possibly a mix of images and audio (if possible) I really don't know exactly how your system is working and the workflow - So I'm just making mine up :-P


As I said before, the app is targeted on a public access tv model which means you have tons of pre-recorded material and you use that. 

I guess, i've have to break down and do a write-up or at least the start of a manual. It's different than any playlist program, you have ever seen. Basically it's template driven and makes up the slot programs on the fly at the time they are run. I can take a directory of I love lucy shows and tell my composer to create 200 shows starting now at 9am with 2 shows in a row and make 2 more the next day and so on until you do 200 shows which is 100 day in the future , one at 9am and one at 930 for a hundred days. It will create different shows each time and if desired do it in episode order.  It create 200 files with info about the program. This allows me to do next up.  Each filename has metadata in it. So a file might look like: "[EP=0001, ....].mp4" or  "[EP=12e09,...]" , the last meaning season 12, episode 9. It can be anything in alpha order. 

So I use the filename for a lot of things. I have a metadata type called TOD or time of day. The idea being to maybe have adult level stuff after 10pm. Your need doesn't match my public access model, but there are ways around it using TOD.


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## bcoyle (Jun 11, 2021)

EndoSkull said:


> Right, that makes sense.
> I'm thinking all my content would be video and possibly a mix of images and audio (if possible) I really don't know exactly how your system is working and the workflow - So I'm just making mine up :-P


Been playing with file structures to see how I'd handle your problem. People giving me examples of their application helps me to make my app more capable. Thank you


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## EndoSkull (Jun 14, 2021)

I just spent a couple days installing different playouts - Sofie - RedCast - Folderplaylist - CMD (I think was the name) (all using Casper CG server) and I also installed the one from the front of this thread OBS Scheduler & of course Advanced Scene Switcher.

After having had a heck of a time getting Sofie installed and the others - they all turned out to be too geared toward broadcast TV and were a pain in the butt to setup (sofie especially)

Also most if not all the interfaces were created by programmers so they pretty much look like someone threw up the interface after having an all-night bender.

So after all that I stumbled across RadioBoss - which as its name implies is for creating a radio broadcast playlist -it appears to have recently added Video output and after testing it works perfectly with OBS game capture - and I'm able to schedule everything as I wanted. Ads -Jingles- Scheduling  - it's all laid out with a clean inteface.

For overlays I'm using ADVANCED OBS SCENE Switcher (need more testing) - But this combo appears to be the easiest solution currently available. Just thought I'd share my findings.
-Endo


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## bcoyle (Jun 14, 2021)

EndoSkull said:


> I just spent a couple days installing different playouts - Sofie - RedCast - Folderplaylist - CMD (I think was the name) (all using Casper CG server) and I also installed the one from the front of this thread OBS Scheduler & of course Advanced Scene Switcher.
> 
> After having had a heck of a time getting Sofie installed and the others - they all turned out to be too geared toward broadcast TV and were a pain in the butt to setup (sofie especially)
> 
> ...


Hi Endo. Thanks so much for this input. I've heard of radio boss before and knew that it was a radio scheduler , and I think I heard about the video but not sure. If this works as well as you say, this would be great news for everyone. I started the other day to record a demo of the current state of my program. I've found that hand waving doesn't really cut it when trying to explain it to others.. My first cut at the video turned out making me look like I was half asleep. LOL. I'm an ex programmer and know how hard it is to make a good interface. Basically since I'm trying to start a public access station, I've written the program for all the things I want, specially to make my life easier. I've always told everyone to not wait for me, specially if you have something that works, even if not optimal.

One of the problems that I had with your design was the requirement to edit the schedule without interfering/stopping the current playing program. I did work out that I could do this with links (.lnk). Using shortcut-links (my program understand links), I could get my program to find the real filename, get it going and then you could add or destroy links without problems.

I mentioned using TOD as time of day metadata tag. This is how I planed on using it. Essentially I would have a file system that had directories with TOD in the name. When I created the templates, I would refer to one of them. When actually "PLAYING" the scheduled program, I would navigate through the  directory tree, using the TOD to find the valid contents for the current run time. If the time was 9am, it would use the contents of the directory marked with TOD=0900. This directory might have the title of the program for 9am in a text file. In obs a label can be read from a file. So the same templates could create 200 different shows using all the correct time based titles and programs. Of course, there would be a TOD directory for every hour or even half hour. Anyways, that's how I was going to do it. Push one button and create the schedule for the next year. Just change links as you added different videos next week/real time. The "RAW" directory would have the real videos in them. Cool!


----------



## bcoyle (Jun 14, 2021)

EndoSkull said:


> I just spent a couple days installing different playouts - Sofie - RedCast - Folderplaylist - CMD (I think was the name) (all using Casper CG server) and I also installed the one from the front of this thread OBS Scheduler & of course Advanced Scene Switcher.
> 
> After having had a heck of a time getting Sofie installed and the others - they all turned out to be too geared toward broadcast TV and were a pain in the butt to setup (sofie especially)
> 
> ...


Hi Endo. Took a look at radio boss and it is powerful. Glad it's working out for you. I can see how you would automate videos to run at certain times on a 24/7 basis, but how do you plan to automate scene-switcher over a week or more?


----------



## bcoyle (Jun 19, 2021)

Anybody Still out there?


----------



## Freedoms Corner (Jul 7, 2021)

This place was booming a few weeks ago. Everyone still alive?


----------



## bcoyle (Jul 8, 2021)

Freedoms Corner said:


> This place was booming a few weeks ago. Everyone still alive?


Well I'm still here, but you are right, people don't seem that interested. Maybe they just come in waves! Have found that at least half leave if we have no solution for them (at this time). Some have already found a solution that works for them and are kind enough to tell us their experience, giving everyone more options. The 24/7s are actually a minority compared to gamers and video djs. This forum is great for tricks, tips and some of the clever apps, that people have contributed. One thing I thought of the other day was education. If high school/colleges had a good app that they could use so that students could take a course in creating/running a 24/7 station, that would be a worthy application. I know, I have talked to you before, but it's been a while.


----------



## bcoyle (Jul 18, 2021)

We are all interested in 24/7. But we know that that requires a lot of material to keep from repeating yourself. What do YOU think about creating a group/network/archive of material that we can use for fill material. For example, local basketball games from  around the country, travel videos, local community events (even if not your community). Sort of mutual support. I realize that two people in the same area, might not want to share hard earned material, but most of us are separated. Any thoughts?


----------



## bcoyle (Jul 29, 2021)

What do you think of the music video my app made? I used a cartoon as background, but could be anything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yclNCXG3Hzo


----------



## TBO1981 (Jul 31, 2021)

Watching this thread lol


----------



## bcoyle (Aug 1, 2021)

TBO1981 said:


> Watching this thread lol


Heres an example of an actual program instead of a music video








						The Jack Benny Program    Fred Allen Show
					

The Jack Benny ShowThe son of a saloon keeper, Jack Benny (born Benny Kubelsky) began to study the violin at the age six, and his "ineptness" at it, would la...




					www.youtube.com


----------



## thedarkcocoman (Aug 3, 2021)

Hello just read a few of the pages(its late at night after a hard days work) but I kind of understand what is being done. After I read through all the other pages ill hopefully have a better understanding.
But from the 2 videos I have seen from @bcoyle especially the Jack Benny Program was something I could use. Even though ill be using OBS primarily for music but when I'm not streaming I would want to broadcast my music 24/7 with self edited videos. If it cant be edited live that's ok with with me. The live broadcast can be the simple overlays where I and making the music will be the focus. But when I am not on this can be a good way to keep things going.
So I'll be getting to bed and hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to read through all this.


----------



## bcoyle (Aug 5, 2021)

thedarkcocoman said:


> Hello just read a few of the pages(its late at night after a hard days work) but I kind of understand what is being done. After I read through all the other pages ill hopefully have a better understanding.
> But from the 2 videos I have seen from @bcoyle especially the Jack Benny Program was something I could use. Even though ill be using OBS primarily for music but when I'm not streaming I would want to broadcast my music 24/7 with self edited videos. If it cant be edited live that's ok with with me. The live broadcast can be the simple overlays where I and making the music will be the focus. But when I am not on this can be a good way to keep things going.
> So I'll be getting to bed and hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to read through all this.


were you able to read it all? What I am doing is a bit different. As you can see, the first video is a music video. You can run these real time or / and record for later use.


----------



## bcoyle (Aug 9, 2021)

Anyone want to talk 24/7?


----------



## gblixen (Aug 16, 2021)

Hi there !
regards from uruguay ...
We start a TV chanel bassed on our old radio.
We also searching a PlayOut. Actualy we use Insta-Playout on a DELL notebook .. but we dont like the scheculing capabilites.
We love RADIO BOSS and the magic he can do with automatization of Audio ... I realize that it can play videos in a Window .. but it dont have NDI support to comunicate with our local network and OBS ... So in OBS we must capture the RadioBoss window .. but it happened at the window size !! .. if the window is to small .. the transmision sucks !!
But if we put the RadioBoss on other HiRes monitor and we capture that window .. we can do very well ...
Its only an idea .. but not a final solution ...
We still search a good PlayOut or a GOOD PLUGins to schedule programs for OBS ...


----------



## bcoyle (Aug 17, 2021)

gblixen said:


> Hi there !
> regards from uruguay ...
> We start a TV chanel bassed on our old radio.
> We also searching a PlayOut. Actualy we use Insta-Playout on a DELL notebook .. but we dont like the scheculing capabilites.
> ...


Hi There
Good to hear from another 24/7er. If you go back in the thread, you'll find another 2 people that are using radio boss and if you contact them, they may have some ideas for you. Me, myself am writing a 24/7 app. Not done yet


----------



## gblixen (Aug 17, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> Hi There
> Good to hear from another 24/7er. If you go back in the thread, you'll find another 2 people that are using radio boss and if you contact them, they may have some ideas for you. Me, myself am writing a 24/7 app. Not done yet




Writing? ... amazing!
We´ll be expected you finish ... or maybe you want beta testers !!
Thank you the feed, I´m going search about radioBoss !!
SeeY


----------



## bcoyle (Aug 17, 2021)

gblixen said:


> Writing? ... amazing!
> We´ll be expected you finish ... or maybe you want beta testers !!
> Thank you the feed, I´m going search about radioBoss !!
> SeeY


You can see examples of some of the work if you read this whole thread.


----------



## bcoyle (Aug 18, 2021)

gblixen said:


> Writing? ... amazing!
> We´ll be expected you finish ... or maybe you want beta testers !!
> Thank you the feed, I´m going search about radioBoss !!
> SeeY


So what kind of station are you running. How about a URl so we can go see it.


----------



## daw654 (Aug 24, 2021)

Is this a thing yet? If not please add it, developers!


----------



## next007apple (Aug 24, 2021)

I Created Small App that Get Video from Excel (I mean play video from excel based on time)
you just need excel file

you can stream video whole year automation!
if you are interested then contact me > unitedzon.com (talk to jennifer)


----------



## next007apple (Aug 24, 2021)

(some minor bugs, but i'm working on it)

will complete in 2week (for radio broadcasting and video broadcasting )
when project complete i will post reply here!


----------



## next007apple (Aug 24, 2021)

ledaouk said:


> Hi,
> What is the best workflow to automate obs streaming a scheduled playlist
> Hi,
> 
> ...


I Created Small App that Get Video from Excel (I mean play video from excel based on time)
you just need excel file (some minor bugs, but i'm working on it)

will complete in 2week (for radio broadcasting and video broadcasting )
you can stream video whole year automation!
if you are interested then contact me > unitedzon.com (talk to jennifer, don't worry that's my site)

when project complete i will post reply here!


----------



## bcoyle (Aug 28, 2021)

Every once in a while, I'll pose a question for discussion, keep the interest up. I know why I want to do a 24/7 channel (broadcasting 24 hours a day), but why do you people on the channel want to that and what will you broadcast for 24/7. I know some just want a playlist and may not actually broadcast 24/7. So what do you think. So lets talk less tech and more mission.


----------



## WiredCanuck (Sep 2, 2021)

ledaouk said:


> Hi,
> What is the best workflow to automate obs streaming a scheduled playlist
> Hi,
> 
> ...



one dev on my team did something like that using a python script.  the script reads a schedule, locates the MP4 files for the next 5 videos to stream, downloads them locally if they are not already locally cached and plays them in order with a custom transition in between.  once a video has finished the script deletes it from the local cache and restarts itself.


----------



## EndoSkull (Sep 2, 2021)

I went with Radioboss.
Haven't had time to add the "tv" part of the show - but for the most part all the DJs and OBS screens are automated






						- YouTube
					

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.




					www.youtube.com


----------



## daw654 (Sep 9, 2021)

I found the Advanced scene switcher plugin, but It doesn't do it on the time but the number of seconds you specify.


----------



## bcoyle (Sep 9, 2021)

WiredCanuck said:


> one dev on my team did something like that using a python script.  the script reads a schedule, locates the MP4 files for the next 5 videos to stream, downloads them locally if they are not already locally cached and plays them in order with a custom transition in between.  once a video has finished the script deletes it from the local cache and restarts itself.


There are so many interesting solutions. A lot of them fall into the "Good Enough" category. Sometimes I wonder if the app I am working on is just overkill. Too late to stop now. Maybe should have concentrated on good enough.


----------



## bcoyle (Sep 9, 2021)

daw654 said:


> I found the Advanced scene switcher plugin, but It doesn't do it on the time but the number of seconds you specify.


There is a reason why you don't find full blown obs solutions. 24/7 automation is a big job. There are commercial solutions out there, but they have a staff of dev's to make it work. Streamlabs is an example (which actually uses obs). Hard to compete with that.


----------



## durwildchild (Sep 17, 2021)

Hello everyone, so i have a question and sorry for my bad English ^^
I have a 24/7 Gaming Stream and i will do a automatic scheudle like this Picture, im using the VLC Plugin in OBS.
Everyone has a idea ?


----------



## bcoyle (Sep 17, 2021)

durwildchild said:


> Hello everyone, so i have a question and sorry for my bad English ^^
> I have a 24/7 Gaming Stream and i will do a automatic scheudle like this Picture, im using the VLC Plugin in OBS.
> Everyone has a idea ?


What are you asking?


----------



## durwildchild (Sep 17, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> What are you asking?


I need this feature from the Picture with the playlist.
With previous current and next game.


----------



## bcoyle (Sep 18, 2021)

durwildchild said:


> I need this feature from the Picture with the playlist.
> With previous current and next game.


Sorry, don't know how to do that.  Maybe someone else?


----------



## ComedyHub (Sep 20, 2021)

Hey everyone, lots of good information in this thread. Thanks for all the work you guys are doing. Long time lurker looking for similar solution.


----------



## bcoyle (Sep 20, 2021)

ComedyHub said:


> Hey everyone, lots of good information in this thread. Thanks for all the work you guys are doing. Long time lurker looking for similar solution.


Welcome - Sounds like by your name that you want to stream comedy. So anyway, introduce yourself and tell us what your dream is.


----------



## Gagan99 (Sep 25, 2021)

need something like this in obs           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrFBOtMT714&t=1s


----------



## bcoyle (Sep 26, 2021)

Gagan99 said:


> need something like this in obs           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrFBOtMT714&t=1s


Thank you for the link. I was blown away by it's flexibility. I do think if you need something like this, you probable have a big studio and will need lots of money. OBS has lots of little plugins and ways of doing things, not nothing that integrated. And if they did, you would have to probably pay for it. Can you imagine the number of hours to make something like this. OBS seems to be dominated by people doing videos with them in it. There are lots of stuff available to help you become a video blogger, dj ,youtube channel creator, but nothing on the level of Mozart. So tell us what you are trying to do? Anyway, mosart is very cool.


----------



## from1975 (Sep 26, 2021)

There are plenty of TV scheduling software.






						VIDEO 5 MF PLAYOUT – Video5 Technology in Broadcast Automation
					






					video5.tv
				








						Playdeck – Professional Video Playout Software for Windows
					

Your Professional Video Playback and Editing Software for Windows. Made in Germany.



					playdeck.tv
				








						3D Storm - LiveMedia Server
					

3D Storm, Official Master Distributor of NewTek and LiveXpert products, is a leading player in the convergence of IT & the Broadcast industries. Member of the NewTek Developer Network, LiveXpert solutions for Sports scoring and statistics, graphics management and social media integration, round...




					www.3dstorm.com
				











						Ventuz Director the playout control application
					

Ventuz Director is the Control Application within the Ventuz ecosystem used for Live Events or Broadcast projects.




					www.ventuz.com
				











						OnTheAir Video Express - Open and powerful playout solution for the Mac | Softron
					

An affordable playout solution for live productions




					softron.tv
				








						DELTA-stadium, Live graphics platform for stadium and arena displays - DELTACAST
					

DELTA-stadium is the DELTACAST software suite for stadium/arenas tenants and sport clubs that elevate the stadium experience for fans. DELTA-stadium  creates fan engagement and a vibrant culture around the game in the stadium by triggering audio visual effects for main match events and manage...




					www.deltacast.com
				




And in most cases, the "live" part (ie. sending live video from OBS or VMix via NDI) is just a part of playlist. The main purpose of the sotware is to play interrupted playlist scheduled for days,weeks, even months.

The cheapest one is Uniplay One, $55. 





						UniplayOne TV Playout Automation and Live Streaming  Software
					






					www.uniplay.tv


----------



## from1975 (Sep 26, 2021)

And a few others:






						PLAYOUT AUTOMATION SOFTWARE, playout automation, video playout, video playout software, TV playout, CG, branding
					

PLAYOUT AUTOMATION SOFTWARE, playout automation, video playout, video playout software, TV playout, CG, branding




					goplayout.tv
				











						Professional Playout Software • JB Playout Professional
					

Loaded with features, and renowned for its stability and workflow, JB Playout Professional packs everything you’ll need to create a professional-grade channel. Explore more.




					justbroadcast.com
				











						Axel XPLAYOUT Software licence TV-Automation SD/HD/4K/8K
					

TV Automation Software out of the box PLAYOUT




					broadcaststoreeurope.com
				








						Playout Software - Broadcast Playout, Playout MagicSoft
					

Playout software is an intuitive and powerful solution for tv stations NDI and Decklink all codecs H264.



					magicsoft.tv
				











						Playout software | Best playout automation software for Cable & Web TV
					

Logosys Playout Software is one of the best Cable & Web TV playout software. Get Best Playout Software to run your own television channel without hassle.




					logosys.in
				











						OnTheAir Video - Open and powerful playout solution for the Mac | Softron
					

An affordable playout solution on the Mac for live and 24/7 operations




					www.softron.tv
				








						EMS | PLAYOUT | CG | MAM | INGEST | ENCODER | IP MULTIVIEWER
					

EMS is Playout, Media Asset Management, Live CG, Character Generator, Ingest, IP Multiviewer, IP Recorder, DVB Mosaic, Transcoder and more solutions.




					www.easymediasuite.com
				











						Amagi CLOUDPORT Cloud Playout
					

Our award-winning cloud-based broadcast playout platform, backed by the best media asset management systems, helps deliver linear channels with broadcast-grade quality.




					www.amagi.com
				




Check also this "Free Broadcast Automation Software" page: https://free-broadcast-automation-software.peatix.com/


----------



## bcoyle (Sep 26, 2021)

from1975 said:


> There are plenty of TV scheduling software.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thank you for all the links. I've seen some before, but will take a look at all.


----------



## bcoyle (Sep 27, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> Thank you for all the links. I've seen some before, but will take a look at all.


If you go back thru the messages, you'll see that I'm not trying to do a playlist, but a composited - template driven standard 30/60/90 minute public access tv stream. Otherwise, I'd just buy one of the available playlist programs.


----------



## dipsondolphin (Oct 3, 2021)

Dihelson Mendonca said:


> Complete automation playlists would be the BEST professional add-on to OBS. I run a TV channel, and I need to play commercials from time to time, like a playlist of commercials, chose randomly inside a major playlist of the program videos. A scheduled playlist that would fit time exactly would also be a dream. How to do that in VLC? We could automate VLC and send it to OBS.



I am looking forward to this solution also.


----------



## bcoyle (Oct 3, 2021)

dipsondolphin said:


> I am looking forward to this solution also.


I'm the only one that I know of, that is working on anything close to this. I would love to hear from anyone else doing this with obs. I always ask, what are you using now and what do you like it about it or not. Sometimes, I use the these answers to make my app better and more flexible.


----------



## Designer-Solution (Oct 10, 2021)

Wondering if someone could help me.

I have a 24/7 stream, and simply want to divide it into 1 minute slots synced to UTC time. So the first .mp4 plays at 00:00 UTC, second at 00:01 UTC, etc. But a mix of video and static JPGs.

Thought the image slideshow feature would work perfectly until I realized it doesn't support video. If it did I could just sync it to 00:00 UTC manually and let it run.

The VLC playlist would only work if every video was exactly 1 minute, and I would also have to convert all the static images to 1 minute videos as well which is annoying.

Seems like my needs are super simple but can't be done without using expensive automation software, which would be overkill anyways. Anyone know of there's a decent solution?


----------



## bcoyle (Oct 10, 2021)

Designer-Solution said:


> Wondering if someone could help me.
> 
> I have a 24/7 stream, and simply want to divide it into 1 minute slots synced to UTC time. So the first .mp4 plays at 00:00 UTC, second at 00:01 UTC, etc. But a mix of video and static JPGs.
> 
> ...


Can I ask "Why 1 minute intervals" ?


----------



## Designer-Solution (Oct 10, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> Can I ask "Why 1 minute intervals" ?


The stream is essentially a clock. So photos and videos need to be equal time and synced to UTC.


----------



## bcoyle (Oct 11, 2021)

Designer-Solution said:


> The stream is essentially a clock. So photos and videos need to be equal time and synced to UTC.


Hard to get videos and slideshow to come out at exactly one minute. jpegs are a little easlier than movies. If its a clock, do you have to start it "EXACTLY" on the minute tick, or on the minute mark +-  some amount of seconds????


----------



## TVEngineer (Oct 11, 2021)

Having been in the broadcast and TV production world for many years I know that there already exists free software to do this task and it is quite complicated. If you are considering taking on the task of creating code you may want to take a look at one of the most popular existing freeware tools used for radio and TV.  https://openbroadcaster.com   Programming for TV is done to the nearest second with blackout points for commercials. When content is submitted to the network it is accompanied with a timecode list for commercial insertion points. Each network may specify different requirements for content length. Typically, 30 min show is about 22 mins and 1hr show is about 44 mins.


----------



## bcoyle (Oct 11, 2021)

TVEngineer said:


> Having been in the broadcast and TV production world for many years I know that there already exists free software to do this task and it is quite complicated. If you are considering taking on the task of creating code you may want to take a look at one of the most popular existing freeware tools used for radio and TV.  https://openbroadcaster.com   Programming for TV is done to the nearest second with blackout points for commercials. When content is submitted to the network it is accompanied with a time code list for commercial insertion points. Each network may specify different requirements for content length. Typically, 30 min show is about 22 mins and 1 hr show is about 44 mins.


Thank you for your reply. I started my project during covid because I needed to fill in my time. I'm a ex- test engineer/programmer with a lot of experience. I did underestimate the time required, the curse of the programmer. What I'm trying to do is a little different than a typical playlist and am not trying to duplicate big professional software, no single person has the time to do that. Also as you said, there is plenty of free stuff out there. Without  repeating myself, you might want to go back thru the thread to see what I am doing.  You might find it interesting.

Think "automated" public access station. ( I was a volunteer at our local station before it got de-funded).

My app already does commercial insertion, but currently it breaks in without knowing insertion points, just a start offset programmed in the template.  I have thought about how to use a time code type of list, but down on my priority list. It can do time of day commercial programming whee you put your commercials in folders labeled with TOD info in the folder name from which it selects it's random commercials, or by a folder with a sponsors files

Another item on my list is electronic program guide. My app can insert next program coming up type of segments already, it is self-editing (self compositing). Think of small organizations like libraries,churches, public access over iptv, small scale, 1 man operations.

By the way, when I speak of templates, I mean "GENERIC" templates where a single template can describe many types of programs and when used on 100 different files will generate a hundred different scheduled programs or recordings.


----------



## petjo10 (Oct 28, 2021)

daw654 said:


> I found the Advanced scene switcher plugin, but It doesn't do it on the time but the number of seconds you specify.


----------



## Freedoms Corner (Oct 29, 2021)

petjo10 said:


> View attachment 76549


It does do it on time, and the specific date. Its a pretty cool app, but you have to load all your videos on a specific scene.


----------



## bcoyle (Nov 18, 2021)

You know , the little things get you. One of the annoying things about scheduling videos is that unless the videos have a good fade in and out, you get very  sharp - unpleasant transitions when you just turn them on. I've added a smooth dynamic fade-in and out of each video. It's harder than you think. There is a new MOVE filter that is pretty cool. It lets you ramp a value in another filter. So it's possible to ramp from visible to black. I did it a little differently and am sending commands directly from my app to a color correction filter to control opacity. I have to work on the same thing with audio fade-in-out.


----------



## dmemphis (Nov 20, 2021)

dodgepong said:


> Can someone describe what featureset they are looking for in such an addition? What are the different things you want to be able to do?



Minimal play list automation lets you create the playlist of files, showing the start times and 
duration for each entry in the list. There would be the ability to set a specific play time for a
entry and the idea is you can have your files play at specific times. The time of day might
also include day of week too, so that a week of day specific material can be prepared.
You have to be able to modify the play list on the fly without impacting the currently running
material. One thing I have not seen done well anywhere is if you have to restart the player,
it actually jumps into the middle of the scheduled program at a reasonably close point it
should be at- at the time. Systems I've looked at fall apart here and just start the scheduled
program at its beginning and it gets cut off at the end with the next scheduled event.
If you pm me, I can send you links of some playout programs to look at.


----------



## bcoyle (Nov 22, 2021)

dmemphis said:


> Minimal play list automation lets you create the playlist of files, showing the start times and
> duration for each entry in the list. There would be the ability to set a specific play time for a
> entry and the idea is you can have your files play at specific times. The time of day might
> also include day of week too, so that a week of day specific material can be prepared.
> ...


Hello - Thank you for your comments. I've been working on a automated broadcast program for more than a year. I've had a some negative comments, the gist being : "why bother, there are plenty of cheap supported commercial playlist programs out there, why dup the effort to just get a free one?". I actually agree. The difficulty is that it takes a lot of time to develop so complex a program, I know. So the effort, if desired, is to develop something different, that actually does things, other programs can't and that can add value to the obs community. This is what, I'm trying to do. I was a volunteer at a public access station that got defunded. I inherited all the historical programs and want ed to not lose the local history. Being an ex programmer, decided that I would write a public access type of program. This program uses the compositing capabilities of OBS to  create (and of course schedule) flexible programs using templates of how a program should be designed, sort of a automated video editor. It is designed to handle a tv like scheduled programs, ie 1/2 hour, 1 hour etc, but can handle random time videos as a playlist. Without repeating myself, you might want to read my messages in this stream. The following is 2 examples of template driven videos, one is a music video, the labels used in the song come from meta data captured from the actual file name and matched up with text labels in the obs scene (automatically). The other is a SD program with bio info and a slide show in addition. The scheduler not only plays video blocks but also programs overlays in each block as well. Also does autofill to flesh out to a standard length. It can schedule as far ahead as you want, ie years.








						2021 07 28 16 33 45 ALBUM=THE BEST OF REMGROUP=REMARTIST=REMTRACK=8,SONG=ORANGE CRUSH
					






					www.youtube.com
				



[








						The Jack Benny Program   Gracie Bit 1952
					

The son of a saloon keeper, Jack Benny (born Benny Kubelsky) began to study the violin at the age six, and his "ineptness" at it, would later become his trad...




					www.youtube.com
				



Please tell me about what you are doing.


----------



## bcoyle (Nov 24, 2021)

One thing that hit me in developing a timed automation app or even a playlist version is that it is hard to make it scheduled and come out to the correct times. ie. if a video is played at 9:00am and is 3 minutes long, there is overhead in getting everything started. It's really apparent when scrubbing to a inpoint. You expect the video to be outpoint - inpoint, but if it takes the cpu 3 seconds to scrub, you are already 3 seconds late in your schedule. AND the delay might be longer for slower cpus and also slower for longer scrubs. It's no problem in a playlist where you run one after another, because you don't care about slip, unless you want a tv guide to tell people when to expect the video. If the next video is scheduled for 9:03:00, it might actually start at 9:03:03 and slip for every additional scheduled video.  If you have 15 - 3 minutes videos in a hour with inpoint, you might slip 3*15 seconds every hour, i.e 45 seconds per hour and 24*45 seconds in a day.  Any ideas?


----------



## bcoyle (Dec 1, 2021)

QUESTIONS:
How many of you out there, want to have a 24/7 broadcast? 
How many already do it?
If you are already live, what are you using?
What kind of 24/7 streams would people bother with watching and what you might consider important?
What purpose would it serve for you? What would you broadcast?
Why not just upload a bunch of videos to youtube and let the users pick what they want, instead of doing
the TV thing (24/7 stream)?
Would a hybrid approach work, half live and half pre-recorded (maybe fill) between  live casts? 
Is it important to have "scheduled" time slots?

I can see "local sports channels", "Church Broadcasts", "Cable regional today shows/advertising" - like "tahoe today","local school student broadcast and training", "social issues", "country centric injustice", "Local talent open mic/ demos/showcasing new talent', compositing videos for later replay. What would you do to make it worth while for you to do the task of scheduling, picking out what to play and when to play it?

Would you do this for free or is this a business model, i.e. advertising?

Would you want a tv guide for your schedule? How would you get this info into a users hands. Promos during the broadcast, web sites, email?

Are you already using OBS? 

If you are already broadcasting, how much work do you put in every week for each channel? More than 1?

How much work is it to get material? (Takes a lot for 24/7 without repeating too much). Where do you get it?

I'm asking these questions for a number of reasons. Mostly because there is a small group of people using OBS/ streaming and I want to know who is interested and what they want. I was thinking of starting a new discussion for people that want to share their problems in this arena, maybe tips/tricks, maybe discord? This takes bandwidth, so wanted to know if any of this is worthwhile?

I know a lot of this discussion thread is about what sort of features people want in a app, but it's just as important to know what they will use it for. OBS and any automation is just a tool: a carpenter can use a hammer(tool) but a architect builds/designs a house. 

Thanks for listening.


----------



## Laczkó (Dec 10, 2021)

bcoyle said:


> QUESTIONS:
> How many of you out there, want to have a 24/7 broadcast?
> How many already do it?
> If you are already live, what are you using?
> ...


Some answers to your questions:

I'm working at a very small local TV channel. We're using a very old software (from 2002) called InfoCaster for playout, but now testing a new computer with OBS. (If you're not familiar with InfoCaster, don't try to search for it! We tried to find them, because we thought it's a good idea to get an up to date version of their software that meets today's expectations of broadcasting, but now there is not even any sign of somewhen that company made playout software.) Nowadays most of industrial standard playout softwares are costs thousands of dollars (per year) what is way more than what fits into the budget of a little eastern-european television, and ironically OBS (with Advanced Scene Switcher) is better in automation, than the commercial softwares (however OBS not a software without compromises too — more about that later).

I think the only advantage of 24/7 (or not continous, but scheduled, regular, frequent) broadcast over constantly available, searchable content is the capability of break through information bubbles. I mean you can find everything on the internet, but you will find only what you search for. So maybe there are many things that would interests you, but you don't even know that those are exists, so you never search for it. But if you follow a channel, that channel can provide such informations for you, so I think the target audience of a streaming/broadcasting channel should be the people who are open for completely new things and the content of these channels should be present various, little-known things in an easily understandable, no prior knowledge required way. This type of content obviously doesn't really work with a one person staff, as it only can reveal topics that is in that one person's information bubble, this require a team. As a local television, we try to find small, exciting local communities, peoples, upcoming events and present them in our programs. It takes three full time job and a few people who help us occasionally to produce all the material for our broadcast, also we get a small part of our programs in broadcast ready state from other creator teams. All these together covering all the tasks at our channel from discover topics to shooting, edit videos, to put everything into the playout software, maintance of equipment, manage YouTube channel. Higlighting from this the need for time to feed the daily programs into the playout software is take about 20-30 minutes. Now it seems OBS can reduce it to max. 15 minutes when we will start using it in live.

We're upload a part of our programs to YouTube after them were broadcasted, but some of our programs quickly losing actuality so those can get most of the views in them scheduled playing time. Some other programs are not own produced and we don't have rights to share them constantly, we get them just for broadcast.

Currently we don't have live programs, but there were many years ago. We have the technical capabilities for it and we want to keep it in order to a live program would only depend on decision, not on technical capabilities. Also a live like recording (when everything is done as would be a live broadcast except broadcasting it) require live capable equipment and it could speed up the workflow of the production.

We don't have real 24/7 playout, we have only 3 to 4 hours of programs a day, in the rest of the time we broadcasting photonews (I'm not sure if it's the right english word for it, basically it's a slideshow with advertisements and information of public interest on the pictures). Because of this program structure we don't have to worry of the small delays caused by processing times when changing files on playout, however I think it's much smaller problem than you presented. The three second is unrealistically long time. I've tried OBS on a lot different computer with very different computing power, but I never experienced more than one second delay on a media change. It is possible that very weak machines needs more time, but very weak machines are incapable for any kind of broadcast managemant at all. Moreover take into account that OBS doesn't know in advance when it will have to change between souces as it try to react immediatly to the users interaction, or the scene switcher pay attention if a condition is true and if it is, than change immediately (not looking in advance, when it will be true), so OBS doesn't have time to get ready for the change, while a time scheduled/playlist software has the opportunity to do that, as it knows the changes in advance, because new medias have exact starting time given by the user, or calculated from the current time and the remaining time of the currently playing media. And if it knows in advance when it will have to change between medias and which file will come than it can prepare for it before the change (e.g. decode and load the firs few frame into RAM). (OBS also has the opportunity to it with programmed changes, but as I know it doesn't take it.)

Our only major problem with OBS as a 24/7 playout software that it cannot provide a list of what and when will played with the current setup. It provide much more effective automation tools than industrial standard softwares for a rigid program structure as ours (when same type of programs come in the same order on every single day or week, however it much less usable for constantly changing structures), that's why it can speed up the work so much for us, but the missing of a list of what it will do let make mistakes easier. And it is enough to set up only one thing incorrectly and it won't start a media when we want to start it or start other than we want and it'll result that nothing after that in the chain will start. A little mistake could make a complete disaster, because we can't check on a simple list: is everything correct that we setup?


----------



## bcoyle (Dec 11, 2021)

Laczkó said:


> Some answers to your questions:
> 
> I'm working at a very small local TV channel. We're using a very old software (from 2002) called InfoCaster for playout, but now testing a new computer with OBS. (If you're not familiar with InfoCaster, don't try to search for it! We tried to find them, because we thought it's a good idea to get an up to date version of their software that meets today's expectations of broadcasting, but now there is not even any sign of somewhen that company made playout software.) Nowadays most of industrial standard playout softwares are costs thousands of dollars (per year) what is way more than what fits into the budget of a little eastern-european television, and ironically OBS (with Advanced Scene Switcher) is better in automation, than the commercial softwares (however OBS not a software without compromises too — more about that later).
> 
> ...


Hi: I really appreciate you answering my questions. I do get a little depressed by the lack of people that are interested in this subject, but there are a few of us around. I've been writing an app for this past year during covid to create a regular 24/7 broadcast worthy application., more later

Anyway to clarify a few points: Obs has a few quirks. Of course, when just changing a video in a scene/source, it happens pretty fast and the viewer doesn't know or care about how long it takes. But if you are broadcasting 30 minutes programs where there are many scene switches and say you use scene "MAIN_SCENE" (at 9pm) to show your main video, you play it and then when the next program comes (9:30pm) up and you have switched away from main scene and then when you come back to it, you start a different video in that scene, the darn thing show 4-5 frames from the last video shown. You have to black that out while running. Also you need to have the video loaded and ready for play at the correct time (less than a second off). Another problem is in-points. If you want the video to start at 48 seconds into the video to skip over something, you need to enable the scene,enable the source (it starts running at the start) and THEN scrub to the inpoint, keeping it black until you get to the in point and knowing when it's there and then un-blacken it. Also you need some fade for videos that don't have a black intro. A lot of this is how professional and smooth the videos look.

Back to the app. Not a plugin, but a 3rd party app talking to obs over a websocket. Written in microsoft visual studio. I haven't advertised the program much, because it's still alpha and answering a lot of questions takes time and bandwidth, which is why I appreciate you answering with more than a few sentences. You can backtrack thru this thread for examples of the program. I did make a video earlier to answer a few questions that I shared with a few of my friends on discord., i.e. a video is worth more than a thousand words. If you are interested, please PM me and I'll send a youtube link. If you watch the whole video, you will see that I do more that answer your problem, way more.  Unlike scene switcher, it's very automatic and you can give it a directory full of videos and it will create scheduled programs in time slots as far ahead as you want, based on things like episode number, dates, titling etc, it keeps track of loop,shuttle and least used videos. It can do time of day selections, it can do fill to make program come out to the correct length. I put everything that I wanted in it to run my own station. It handles shortcuts and best of all it does compositing.
Could you give a link to your broadcasts and tell me where you are located. I'm here in Gradnervile, nevada, usa.


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## bcoyle (Dec 11, 2021)

Laczkó said:


> Some answers to your questions:
> 
> I'm working at a very small local TV channel. We're using a very old software (from 2002) called InfoCaster for playout, but now testing a new computer with OBS. (If you're not familiar with InfoCaster, don't try to search for it! We tried to find them, because we thought it's a good idea to get an up to date version of their software that meets today's expectations of broadcasting, but now there is not even any sign of somewhen that company made playout software.) Nowadays most of industrial standard playout softwares are costs thousands of dollars (per year) what is way more than what fits into the budget of a little eastern-european television, and ironically OBS (with Advanced Scene Switcher) is better in automation, than the commercial softwares (however OBS not a software without compromises too — more about that later).
> 
> ...


I do agree with you about local programming. The station, I'm setting up is local and some retro stuff. Our community has a lot of retirees. When I watch youtube, I get a lot of recommendations inside my interest sphere. Even "new to you" is advertising. It's sort of like listening to a DJ on the radio, you could listen to you own cd's but let a dj expose you to his tastes, you might discover something new. Oh, the app does a tv guide, where the next scheduled programs ends up in a file that you can use as text:read from file.

Sort of like this :
5:19 PM - The Jack Benny Program - How Jack Met George Burns
5:49 PM - The Jack Benny Program - Nat King Cole Show
6:19 PM - The Jack Benny Program - Jack Goes To An Allergy Doctor
6:49 PM - The Jack Benny Program - Bobby Darin Show


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## bcoyle (Jan 9, 2022)

Added a new feature to my program. In the program schedule , I added (keyboard) control up and down arrow to move a scheduled program up in down in the schedule. In the following jpegs, I move "Love is all around" from 17:00 to 17:30 using control down arrow. What Fun!


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## Freedoms Corner (Jan 9, 2022)

Looks great! Cant wait to see it in its beta testing phase for the public


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## Deaglos (Jan 19, 2022)

Very interested in this as I am currently setting up a new stream for our SHRL-tv peg channel for roku-fire-appletv.
We have gone to a telvue stream model and looking to setup a full schedule to stream from computer in library.

BTW I am from VC Nevada originally so glad to see someone from area.


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## bcoyle (Jan 25, 2022)

Today, I'm running a live test on youtube for the app





						- YouTube
					

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.




					www.youtube.com


----------



## Lamo (Feb 15, 2022)

Dude, I just need to know if I can create an Amazon movie playlist; or movie playlist of any kind, that I can program to start casting from my chromebook to my neighbor's tv (already have access) at a certain time every morning.  My neighbor has dementia, and I live onsite, so I'm default caregiver from 8pm to 8am.  Her life does not exist without a movie on, and I've created a playlist on Cox Cable Contour that consists of 9 movies, which should get her through the night, and into the morning until the hired caregiver comes.  But, contour suddenly added a cursed screen saver situation that can, only at its farthest stretches, keep this screen saver mode at bay for 5 hours of inactivity.  So if she wakes up, and the stupid screen saver has kicked in, then I get a the dreaded knock.  We're talking no sleep here - 2am-6am - is fair game.  I'm desperate.  So, if I can figure out a way to program a playlist from anywhere; on any application, to start casting from this stupid, piece of crap chromebook at a predetermined time, I would be far less likely to yell at random people on the street because I haven't slept in like a month.  Please help


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## bcoyle (Feb 15, 2022)

Lamo said:


> Dude, I just need to know if I can create an Amazon movie playlist; or movie playlist of any kind, that I can program to start casting from my chromebook to my neighbor's tv (already have access) at a certain time every morning.  My neighbor has dementia, and I live onsite, so I'm default caregiver from 8pm to 8am.  Her life does not exist without a movie on, and I've created a playlist on Cox Cable Contour that consists of 9 movies, which should get her through the night, and into the morning until the hired caregiver comes.  But, contour suddenly added a cursed screen saver situation that can, only at its farthest stretches, keep this screen saver mode at bay for 5 hours of inactivity.  So if she wakes up, and the stupid screen saver has kicked in, then I get a the dreaded knock.  We're talking no sleep here - 2am-6am - is fair game.  I'm desperate.  So, if I can figure out a way to program a playlist from anywhere; on any application, to start casting from this stupid, piece of crap chromebook at a predetermined time, I would be far less likely to yell at random people on the street because I haven't slept in like a month.  Please help


I don't have a good answer for you. Do you have the movies themselves on your computer or are you just linking to somewhere else. I don't know anything about contour.


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## Tomasz Góral (Feb 22, 2022)

Hello, i prepared very simply video scheduler.



			Scheduler for OBS
		


Two parts, one web site to control list video file, second must be run in browser source as local file, to play video file.

Now i test only in 27.1.3 with this params: --autoplay-policy=no-user-gesture-required --allow-file-access-from-files --enable-local-file-accesses

In 27.2.x not working.


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## bcoyle (Feb 23, 2022)

Tomasz Góral said:


> Hello, i prepared very simply video scheduler.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


What do you have in mind
Tried your page, but required a password????


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## Tomasz Góral (Feb 23, 2022)

bcoyle said:


> What do you have in mind
> Tried your page, but required a password????


yes, you see two button, one for login on for register.
put your email as login and put password in second (remember this passowrd), first time must register.


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## Mo_Nipple (Mar 16, 2022)

Hey, I figured I'd throw my solution in here for anyone else scouring through this 4 year old thread. There is some good stuff in here so I suggest you read through it but for me this is what I landed on.

I am the editor for https://www.youtube.com/lolcoach and had the idea of having a 24/7 stream of reruns as a fun project, an extra way to get the channel onto the youtube algorithm, and an extra place to for sponsored ads.

These were the things I wanted the stream to achieve

I wanted it to pick a random video from a list and play it
I wanted the ability to automatically add new videos to the pool of selectable files
I wanted to be able to queue ads or special videos like adult swim style bumpers either manually or automatically
I did NOT want to have to schedule these videos whatsoever. Completely Random.
I wanted to be able to automatically update the scroller/lower third to the name of the video currently playing
I wanted to update the description with a link to the current video playing
I want to be able to interrupt the feed with an actual live broadcast
I want chat to be able to vote on the next video
I want videos to smoothly transition from one to another
That's a lot to figure out and I haven't quite got the last five down but what I found was literally the answer to almost everything.









						GitHub - EugeneDae/VLC-Scheduler: Basic automation & scheduling for VLC media player. [Currently not actively maintained].
					

Basic automation & scheduling for VLC media player. [Currently not actively maintained]. - GitHub - EugeneDae/VLC-Scheduler: Basic automation & scheduling for VLC media player. [Currently n...




					github.com
				




The github does a pretty good job of explaining what it does and how to set it up so i won't type it in here. I'll just say that I have VLC-Scheduler running with VLC set to automatically start in full screen with no controls visible (just the video), in OBS I have a window capture of VLC and an audio device capture of a virtual cable (https://www.4kdownload.com/products/videodownloader/8) that VLC audio output is being pointed to. I have 4k-video-downloader (https://www.4kdownload.com/products/videodownloader/8) looking at the youtube channel and downloading new uploads to the directory that vlc scheduler is using. That's it.

I'm starting as simple as possible for now and as I come up with solutions I'll be replying in this thread.


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## bcoyle (Mar 19, 2022)

Running my station right now - for at least a couple of hours





						- YouTube
					

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.




					www.youtube.com


----------



## bcoyle (Apr 15, 2022)

Mo_Nipple said:


> Hey, I figured I'd throw my solution in here for anyone else scouring through this 4 year old thread. There is some good stuff in here so I suggest you read through it but for me this is what I landed on.
> 
> I am the editor for https://www.youtube.com/lolcoach and had the idea of having a 24/7 stream of reruns as a fun project, an extra way to get the channel onto the youtube algorithm, and an extra place to for sponsored ads.
> 
> ...


Hi. Sorry I didn't see this earlier. It seems you have spent a lot of effort on your solution with a lot of nice features. I think the feature that everyone wants is : automation with little or no manual interaction. My app is more like a network tv station. I felt it important that the viewers have a EPG ( tv guide) and could expect "hogans heros" or "nevada history" to start at specific times. In your case that would be "coaching with Joe" -  monday to friday at 9pm and "the best of gaming" at 10pm. After working on my solution for a while, I would not want to give it up and switch to another, but I think we can talk features and solutions. Thanks for the pointer to downloader. If you wish to PM me or just continue here, please let me know.


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## hammerheaddown (Apr 16, 2022)

Mo_Nipple said:


> Hey, I figured I'd throw my solution in here for anyone else scouring through this 4 year old thread. There is some good stuff in here so I suggest you read through it but for me this is what I landed on.
> 
> The github does a pretty good job of explaining what it does and how to set it up so i won't type it in here. I'll just say that I have VLC-Scheduler running with VLC set to automatically start in full screen with no controls visible (just the video), in OBS I have a window capture of VLC and an audio device capture of a virtual cable (https://www.4kdownload.com/products/videodownloader/8) that VLC audio output is being pointed to. I have 4k-video-downloader (https://www.4kdownload.com/products/videodownloader/8) looking at the youtube channel and downloading new uploads to the directory that vlc scheduler is using. That's it.
> 
> I'm starting as simple as possible for now and as I come up with solutions I'll be replying in this thread.


it says it is not maintained,  ar eyou the person who created this?


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## hammerheaddown (Apr 19, 2022)

hammerheaddown said:


> it says it is not maintained,  ar eyou the person who created this?


any reason this is waiting for moderation?  seems like a very valid question to the poster who posted the information


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## bcoyle (Apr 22, 2022)

@hammerheaddown ,@Mo_Nipple . Seems like a very good question. I see the github post is a year ago.  But I do realize that this thread is about ideas. Personally I enjoy hearing what other people think about the subject. Some align with what I'm doing, some don't. But no one has really done a 24/7 yet , because  it's basically a big job. Even providing documentation for other people to use is a time sink.


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## hammerheaddown (Apr 22, 2022)

I have been working on streaming a 24x 7 RTMP playlist, that in essence can be fed into OBS


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## bcoyle (Apr 23, 2022)

hammerheaddown said:


> I have been working on streaming a 24x 7 RTMP playlist, that in essence can be fed into OBS


Tell me more about it!


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## hammerheaddown (Apr 23, 2022)

well i have actually  converted it to using SRT streaming since it is less than a second of latency in most cases..




__





						Wiki - Streaming With SRT Or RIST Protocols | OBS
					

_**SRT requires OBS Studio 25.0 or newer.**_ _**RIST requires OBS Studio 27.2 or newer.**_ *** ### Table of Contents: * [General Overview](#general-overview) * [Can SRT or RIST be …




					obsproject.com
				




SRT Streaming can be be ingested directly from the  FFMPEG streaming playlist

still working out some kinks in the playlist  but it will use FFMPEG and it's Concat Demuxer.  working on creating the playlist into a csv file and then reading that csv into ffmpeg.


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## bcoyle (Apr 25, 2022)

hammerheaddown said:


> well i have actually  converted it to using SRT streaming since it is less than a second of latency in most cases..
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Seems like you are having fun.


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## bcoyle (Apr 26, 2022)

hammerheaddown said:


> well i have actually  converted it to using SRT streaming since it is less than a second of latency in most cases..
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I'm always interested in what people will do with their tool after they finish it. i.e. what is the dream? Mine is a type of community public tv station.


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## hammerheaddown (May 10, 2022)

Been working on this a lot and tweaking it..

basically a whole new rewrite of the code, adding a lot of error handling too.

I will have tow available,  one that is working with the current time to choose to play video etc and one that is just a looping streamer, complete with playout log that shows times of played files.

you will be able to create a file in google docs or excel and save as a  comma separated text file  and load it up.

Just completed today that you can update that playlist as needed as well,it will check for updates to the playlist

just a quick update and should have something together soon for testing


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## bcoyle (May 10, 2022)

hammerheaddown said:


> Been working on this a lot and tweaking it..
> 
> basically a whole new rewrite of the code, adding a lot of error handling too.
> 
> ...


I like that you have created something useful in a short period of time. My app is taking so darn long, that I think people give up on it.


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## hammerheaddown (May 13, 2022)

so many things that can go wrong using the timestamp version

what i have found is that you lose about 4-6 seconds between fade out and fade back in...  but it looks much better with the fades... FFMPEG has some overhead i cant do anything about.  I have to check the next time and calculate when to start the fadeout and the length b4 next video .

it is all the code to check times that causes about 2-3 seconds of delay.  this method does make sure your shows start at 12:00:00 it will start at 12:03 and end at 12:57  making sure the next starts correctly.  it also seeks ahead 2-3 seconds just to be safe 

The alternative is just do all the work and be sure all videos are exactly as you want, load them up in playlist and get about 2-3 seconds of delay.  this does ZERO calculations just plays it as is so you could have stuff that runs over the  time you'd like  so if you want to have a show start at 12:00:00  this method could have you starting at 12:03 and throughout the day have you 1-2 minutes out of whack.    no seeking of time and if its 60 long the next video would start at say 13:06 and next hour  at 14:12

the timestamp version sticks with the 12:03 start/fade-in and end at 12:57:00 fade out . EVERY hour or how ever you shows run

so I have two versions...  1 less work 2-3 seconds extra between videos and 1 that is more work to be sure all videos are EXACT times you want


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## bcoyle (May 13, 2022)

hammerheaddown said:


> so many things that can go wrong using the timestamp version
> 
> what i have found is that you lose about 4-6 seconds between fade out and fade back in...  but it looks much better with the fades... FFMPEG has some overhead i cant do anything about.  I have to check the next time and calculate when to start the fadeout and the length b4 next video .
> 
> ...


I've encountered some of the problems you are seeing. My app is a windows standalone program talking/commanding OBS thru a web socket
. In the player, I know what is coming up next. I'm using object oriented programming so, I create a couple of instances of objects that contain all the info to run a program/time slot. After starting the current running program, I have my program get the next scheduled instance/program/video ready to go. this includes video length etc.

 In the scene, I have the a ffmpeg or vlc source ready to go. Above it in the scene list is another source loaded with a black jpeg. This I can send commands to, to get it to fade to black and back out again. I set the black source to  opacity to 100 to block the source I wish to run. I then start the running video and wait 1/2 second and the start the black source to full transparency. There is a plugin that you can use to do this. I just send the commands myself. I also mute the running video for 1/2 second so as to not get annoying startup clicks and noises.

I know when the video will end, so schedule the black jpeg to fade to 100% opacity over about a seconds time timed to hit the video end correctly. Basically, I'm loading and starting a vlc source but controlling fade in/out myself using the black jpeg source.


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## dbath (May 26, 2022)

msschwartz said:


> Not sure if anyone is still interested in a 24/7 video playlist manager type plugin but I just finished a quick prototype. I will continue adding features and enhancements so let me know and I'll get make the plugin public.
> 
> View attachment 62083


How could I get a copy of the Playlist Manager plugijn


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## bcoyle (Jun 3, 2022)

dbath said:


> How could I get a copy of the Playlist Manager plugijn


I'm not this guy, but the original post is more than a year old and haven't seen any more from him. You might try a PM. You might want to go back and look at some of my posts, because I'm working on a 24/7 myself.


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## Tomasz Góral (Jul 13, 2022)

Hello everyone,
i want add new solution to scheduler, my first version work as html page, i'm not satisfied.
Now i got version as program on windows.

What you need:
OBS
OBS WebSocket (version 4.9.1)
https://weblive.pro/scheduler_for_obs.exe (zip file, selft unpack).
https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/6.0        version .NET Desktop Runtime 6.0.7






Very simply app.
In OBS need 3 scenes.
Stop scene - after play last video, program switch to this scene
Scene 1 - first scene with first Media Source 
Scene 2 - second scene with second Media Source

In this scenarion, program check time, if start time is exacly same load video to Media Source and run (first time Scene 1), on Start End on last file system switch to Stop scene.


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## bcoyle (Jul 14, 2022)

Hi, lots of work, isn't it. What program language are you using, i.e vis basic, C++ ?. I can see that this is just the start for you. What are your plans for more features?


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## Tomasz Góral (Jul 14, 2022)

bcoyle said:


> Hi, lots of work, isn't it. What program language are you using, i.e vis basic, C++ ?. I can see that this is just the start for you. What are your plans for more features?


Yes it's VB.net, not lots of work only 6h.
Plans for features, i think about play from folder 'playlist', folder will be as 'one' file on the grid.
Folder can be played as sorted from A to Z or random, i think about play from folder with maximum time e.g. in folder i got 10h video, but use rand function to play only first 2h, video will be played to the end file and go to next position on list.
- folder with self refresh , before play first position from folder, program refresh files from folder, you can add new file to play


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## bcoyle (Jul 14, 2022)

Tomasz Góral said:


> Yes it's VB.net, not lots of work only 6h.
> Plans for features, i think about play from folder 'playlist', folder will be as 'one' file on the grid.
> Folder can be played as sorted from A to Z or random, i think about play from folder with maximum time e.g. in folder i got 10h video, but use rand function to play only first 2h, video will be played to the end file and go to next position on list.
> - folder with self refresh , before play first position from folder, program refresh files from folder, you can add new file to play


That's an amazing amount of work for only 6 hours. I am also using vb.net because it's an amazing development language. I know that it is not strict typed, which is why I like it. Concentrate on the project and not on dotting all the i's. Let vb do all the casting. It has bitten me in the past, but well worth the speed of development. 

When you mention 10 hour files, it seems like it may be recorded games???  What kind of channel are you trying to develop?

Anyway, nice to have another vb programmer around. 

I assume your name is Thomas, mine is Bill.


----------



## Tomasz Góral (Jul 14, 2022)

I got small update.

Now you can select folder with video files.

System sum all duration time of file.
Now you can sort file
- Sort A-Z
- Sort Z-A
- Random 
- Random with Stop time - before use this option, on first change 'Stop time'

Link still the same.


			https://weblive.pro/scheduler_for_obs.exe


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## Tormy (Jul 14, 2022)

Tomasz Góral said:


> I got small update.
> 
> Now you can select folder with video files.
> 
> ...


Where should be put the automatic generated folder and its content, please?


----------



## Tomasz Góral (Jul 15, 2022)

Tormy said:


> Where should be put the automatic generated folder and its content, please?


On the same computer where OBS has access you need same path e.g. c:\myvideo
In next update i add auto refresh file in folder, recalculate duration time main playlist.


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## Tomasz Góral (Jul 15, 2022)

And new update.

Now you can sort file
- Sort A-Z
- Sort Z-A
- Random
- Random with Stop time 
- Sort A-Z with Auto Refresh
- Sort Z-A with Auto Refresh
- Random with Auto Refresh

if you Select Folder in Add Source you got this:



Now you can choice add to folder new content and system add file, change duration of all next video materials.
Auto Refresh onyl works with unplayed material.

Link still the same.
https://weblive.pro/scheduler_for_obs.exe


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## bcoyle (Jul 15, 2022)

what is your vision for this app. i.e. how would the average user, use this in a daily/weekly  schedule


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## Tomasz Góral (Jul 16, 2022)

bcoyle said:


> what is your vision for this app. i.e. how would the average user, use this in a daily/weekly  schedule


For me is almost done, i will only add loop daily, week, month.
I can set for whole day scheduler, it's my primary goal.
Program is very simply and working, I am proud of the program, especially if it is useful to someone.


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## bcoyle (Jul 16, 2022)

Tomasz Góral said:


> For me is almost done, i will only add loop daily, week, month.
> I can set for whole day scheduler, it's my primary goal.
> Program is very simply and working, I am proud of the program, especially if it is useful to someone.


I am proud of you too. There is so many people that just want other people to do work for them with no thought of helping others. There is a core of passionate people being creative and helpful to others. This is really a community. Congrads.


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## Tormy (Jul 17, 2022)

bcoyle said:


> I am too. There is so many people (users only)  that just want other people to do work for them and there is a few hard core people actually doing anything, like you. This is really a community. Congrads.


Sorry if I'm not able to actively contribute in programming, being not C++ programmer


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## bcoyle (Jul 17, 2022)

Tormy said:


> Sorry if I'm not able to actively contribute in programming, being not C++ programmer


I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. There are lots of ways to contribute to the community. I've been helped a lot with ideas, suggestions etc. I really should not have used the word "user". I meant it in the people context type of thing, where people USE other people to get what they want and don't care about giving back, not the user of a app. or whatever someone has written. Maybe it's my hot button. I've been burned by people that are users. I think it's wonderful that there is a obs community with a huge number of people willing to share. I try to answer questions and help people as much as I can. Sometimes, I stick my foot in my mouth.

When I joined this forum, my purpose was not to write an app, but to join a community of people that was interested in 24/7. What to do, how to schedule, how to make a success, obstacles overcome, share experiences. 

It's funny, you are the type of person, I really wanted to talk to. 

Anyway, I apologize again.


----------



## bcoyle (Jul 18, 2022)

Tormy said:


> Sorry if I'm not able to actively contribute in programming, being not C++ programmer


Hi Tommy. I rewrote my comment and again apologize for any misunderstanding.


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## bcoyle (Aug 18, 2022)

Tomasz Góral said:


> For me is almost done, i will only add loop daily, week, month.
> I can set for whole day scheduler, it's my primary goal.
> Program is very simply and working, I am proud of the program, especially if it is useful to someone.


Haven't heard from you in a while. How's it going.
I'm still plugging away on my own version.


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## Blutch (Sep 4, 2022)

Tomasz Góral said:


> Hello everyone,
> i want add new solution to scheduler, my first version work as html page, i'm not satisfied.
> Now i got version as program on windows.
> 
> ...


Hello, your shedluer is interesting, but you can run only 2 scenes ?


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## Tomasz Góral (Sep 4, 2022)

Blutch said:


> Hello, your shedluer is interesting, but you can run only 2 scenes ?


Why you need more?


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## Smart Net (Sep 17, 2022)

Hello,

The best way for 24/7 list proramming is to use Adwanced Scene Switcher - with TIME part.
+ create Scene, +create VLC/File or Browser (youtube list) and you good to start.

If you need to made changes... easy change timing at ASS (sorry for abriviation) or use Source to change content

Personally using that way for the year. Briliant result.


----------



## bcoyle (Sep 17, 2022)

Smart Net said:


> Hello,
> 
> The best way for 24/7 list proramming is to use Adwanced Scene Switcher - with TIME part.
> + create Scene, +create VLC/File or Browser (youtube list) and you good to start.
> ...


Thank you for the info. I've seen adv scene switcher and admire it's flexibility. I've been working on my own program , that is a complete playout,24/7 scheduler. It can generate automatically content, months in advance. It uses all of obs composite /overlay abilities. I'm in the alpha test stages now. Doing general cleanup and test.


----------



## Smart Net (Sep 17, 2022)

bcoyle said:


> Thank you for the info. I've seen adv scene switcher and admire it's flexibility. I've been working on my own program , that is a complete playout,24/7 scheduler. It can generate automatically content, months in advance. It uses all of obs composite /overlay abilities. I'm in the alpha test stages now. Doing general cleanup and test.


Thanks for reply, would be great to test it with our tv channels and good luck with the development!


----------



## bcoyle (Sep 17, 2022)

Smart Net said:


> Thanks for reply, would be great to test it with our tv channels and good luck with the development!


I'll be looking for beta testers in a while. Tell me about what you are doing.


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## Guidos (Oct 31, 2022)

bcoyle said:


> I'll be looking for beta testers in a while. Tell me about what you are doing.


I'd be pleased to beta depending on what you need bcoyle. I'm looking for a way to stream pre-recorded videos (my own productions) to YouTube (initially) from (at least) a playlist playing in order listed, or (desirable) scheduled by time of day (not necessarily different each day of the week or even month as yet). I'm also hoping to host this somewhere/how. 
The nearest so far that I've found is to use VLC integration to create the playlist of media to play in OBS but am also going through the posts here looking at other people's ideas.

Many thanks for creating this thread.


----------



## bcoyle (Nov 1, 2022)

Guidos said:


> I'd be pleased to beta depending on what you need bcoyle. I'm looking for a way to stream pre-recorded videos (my own productions) to YouTube (initially) from (at least) a playlist playing in order listed, or (desirable) scheduled by time of day (not necessarily different each day of the week or even month as yet). I'm also hoping to host this somewhere/how.
> The nearest so far that I've found is to use VLC integration to create the playlist of media to play in OBS but am also going through the posts here looking at other people's ideas.
> 
> Many thanks for creating this thread.


Hi. please tell me about yourself and your what kind of things you are trying to do. You can PM me if you like. fyi: this is a windows program,NOT MAC . 

 I am running stability testing now on my youtube channel. : https://www.youtube.com/@dccatvnv. Take a look. at the live channel there. I'v programmed 3 days worth of a old program called the silent service. I limited it to 5 minutes each with commerial inserts and a 1 minute  coming up guide. The program works off of templates (created and edited with a GUI - no coding or scripting necessary) which allows inserts, PSAs etc. 

 Making sure it can run for days on end without crashing or eating memory. The app can do playlists,scheduled playlists,full 24/7 scheduled tv broadcast style programming  Anyway , take a look at the live channel going on.


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## bcoyle (Nov 1, 2022)

Smart Net said:


> Thanks for reply, would be great to test it with our tv channels and good luck with the development!


Please PM me and tell me about what you are trying to do and about yourself


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## bcoyle (Nov 9, 2022)

Smart Net said:


> Thanks for reply, would be great to test it with our tv channels and good luck with the development!


Please PM me and tell me about what you want to do. I'm in beta test now


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## Sanjeewa (Nov 13, 2022)

Hi, I just need some script to get the currently playing video, display it, and save it to the file. I can modify the lua script, but I need some help to getting the index or video name of the currently playing video from the playlist that I use as a source. ex- VLC Video source..etc Please...


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## bcoyle (Nov 13, 2022)

Sanjeewa said:


> Hi, I just need some script to get the currently playing video, display it, and save it to the file. I can modify the lua script, but I need some help to getting the index or video name of the currently playing video from the playlist that I use as a source. ex- VLC Video source..etc Please...


sorry, Id like to help you, but I don't have any experience with scripts. if a video is playing, you could just push the record button and then change the record file name late. I assume it is not as simple as that.


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## Danny Teunissen (Nov 16, 2022)

Hello bcoyle.

We are a small tv Broadcaster in the Netherlands.  We have the need of a good scheduler for broadcasting . We looked around and find out that the software costs are annoying High in terms we want. 
This is what we want to do..

**Schedule of news located on a ftp server (always the same file name )  so we have always the latest news on screen.

**Schedule a rtmp stream 

**Schedule a pre recorded video

** Schedule advertising. 

**Our main screen is a rss file showing the latest news in Text. (With the sound of our radio channel) 

We are a broadcast TV channel that Lives on financial donations . 

I hope we can work together and maybe if you want I can test your Beta schedule together with you. 

Best regards Danny


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## bcoyle (Nov 16, 2022)

Danny Teunissen said:


> Hello bcoyle.
> 
> We are a small tv Broadcaster in the Netherlands.  We have the need of a good scheduler for broadcasting . We looked around and find out that the software costs are annoying High in terms we want.
> This is what we want to do..
> ...


Hi Danny.. You sound like a dot com. If not , please explain. Could you please send me a URL so I can see it? Thanks. You can see my running test channel on youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y-_5D5CfVk 
Also the main youtube channel is youtube.com/@dccatvnv


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## Danny Teunissen (Nov 17, 2022)

bcoyle said:


> Hi Danny.. You sound like a dot com. If not , please explain. Could you please send me a URL so I can see it? Thanks. You can see my running test channel on youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y-_5D5CfVk
> Also the main youtube channel is youtube.com/@dccatvnv


Hey bcoyle
What do you mean about a dot .com ?
I saw you channel looking good 
Here is the link of the broadcast 








						Kijk IdeaalTV
					

Bezoek het bericht voor meer.




					rtvideaal.nl
				




It's a Lokal tv channel but  not nice. 
We gonna build it up from the ground. 

Best regards Danny


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## Tomasz Góral (Nov 17, 2022)

Danny Teunissen said:


> Hey bcoyle
> What do you mean about a dot .com ?
> I saw you channel looking good
> Here is the link of the broadcast
> ...


dot com - big IT firm 

Check my sheduler (working with version websocket 4.9.1): https://weblive.pro/scheduler_for_obs.exe


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## bcoyle (Nov 17, 2022)

Tomasz Góral said:


> dot com - big IT firm
> 
> Check my sheduler (working with version websocket 4.9.1): https://weblive.pro/scheduler_for_obs.exe


Sorry, You talked about a main page and I did know if you meant to have my scheduler do all or weather obs outputs a rtmp stream to your web widget. I just needed your .com link  to see what you are doing.   I'm going on vacation for a few days start today , so will be off line. 

A few things, I have to investigate, like how to handle the ftp text. I f you would ber so kind,  could you give me the ftp url and also infomation on your rtmp url for me to play with.


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## bcoyle (Nov 17, 2022)

Before you send me any sensitive information, we should take this off-line. So if you wish, please PM me.


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## Danny Teunissen (Nov 17, 2022)

First off all let me explain in detail how the setup of the channel must look like.  

We have a main Static page (scene)  With now working text news.( Not online yet) . Under the main page you can hear the music from our Broadcasting Radio station.

Here is why we need a good scheduler:

Our news source upload a news bulletin video when available in our ftp server. A program running on the pc looks if there is a new available video and replace that video with the same name. Like news.mp4 . 
I can give you that link in privet.

A scheduler must plan that video "video.mp4" at the whole hour.  (Important with the correct length) because every uploaded video have different lengths.
And start the news video in Obs

Now we have also advertising . That must be scheduled. And some videos. 

The most difficult part is not planning exiting videos but the one that comes from the frp server. 

Hope you understand how the channel works. Btw nice YouTube channel works nice .

Best regards Danny


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## RockNRollGeek (Nov 19, 2022)

Wild to me that 3 years later people are still trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, trying to make a video switcher into a playout system when plenty of free/open source/commercial playout solutions exist, while obs's focus is being a solid video switcher & compositor.  To each their own I suppose, but it's the equivalent of trying to force excel to perform as a large database, or use a motorcycle to tow a trailer. Could you use these things for this purpose? Sure, to an extent. Should you? absolutely not. Right tool, right job is the way to go, but best of luck to those still trying to hack this together still years later (and best of luck having it perform as stable and able to error correct/adjust it self to the degree proper playout systems for broadcast and similar do.)


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## bcoyle (Nov 20, 2022)

RockNRollGeek said:


> Wild to me that 3 years later people are still trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, trying to make a video switcher into a playout system when plenty of free/open source/commercial playout solutions exist, while obs's focus is being a solid video switcher & compositor.  To each their own I suppose, but it's the equivalent of trying to force excel to perform as a large database, or use a motorcycle to tow a trailer. Could you use these things for this purpose? Sure, to an extent. Should you? absolutely not. Right tool, right job is the way to go, but best of luck to those still trying to hack this together still years later (and best of luck having it perform as stable and able to error correct/adjust it self to the degree proper playout systems for broadcast and similar do.)


So little faith


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## bcoyle (Nov 20, 2022)

RockNRollGeek said:


> Wild to me that 3 years later people are still trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, trying to make a video switcher into a playout system when plenty of free/open source/commercial playout solutions exist, while obs's focus is being a solid video switcher & compositor.  To each their own I suppose, but it's the equivalent of trying to force excel to perform as a large database, or use a motorcycle to tow a trailer. Could you use these things for this purpose? Sure, to an extent. Should you? absolutely not. Right tool, right job is the way to go, but best of luck to those still trying to hack this together still years later (and best of luck having it perform as stable and able to error correct/adjust it self to the degree proper playout systems for broadcast and similar do.)


You should encourage people to use obs in new ways. A full blown 24/7 does take a lot of work to create. I'm running beta testing on my app and it's pretty stable. It's been running and "COMPOSITING" 24/7 program schedule and streaming for 20 straight days now. Once set up, it can schedule programs months or years in advance and do it in a way that uses Fresh videos years out if desired. You may not be interested in 24/7 but there are people that are, especially if the app reduces station management to one man instead of a crew. I've studied some of the free stuff available and found it tedious to use and the better it is, the more it costs.  I suggest that since you have used some of these software products, that it would be of great value that you tell us your experiences and  recommendations. That would add value to the obs community.


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## bcoyle (Nov 20, 2022)

OBS does make a good encoder,switcher and compositor. Using OBS  standalone as a 24/7 + plugin would not work, because it's way too complicated for OBS to handle. But as an encoder engine controlled via the websocket by an outside app, 24/7 is very do-able


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## Danny Teunissen (Nov 22, 2022)

I personally think this will work great for Broadcasters with a very limited budget.  
 Can't wait for version 1.0 it looks very promising.


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## bcoyle (Nov 22, 2022)

Danny Teunissen said:


> I personally think this will work great for Broadcasters with a very limited budget.
> Can't wait for version 1.0 it looks very promising.


Thanks Danny for the kind comment


----------



## bcoyle (Nov 22, 2022)

Smart Net said:


> Thanks for reply, would be great to test it with our tv channels and good luck with the development!


Please PM me with details.


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## bcoyle (Nov 22, 2022)

Tomasz Góral said:


> dot com - big IT firm
> 
> Check my sheduler (working with version websocket 4.9.1): https://weblive.pro/scheduler_for_obs.exe


Would love to see a video of your app in action or a url of your working station.


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## RockNRollGeek (Nov 23, 2022)

bcoyle said:


> So little faith


has nothing to do with 'faith' - hit a nail with a rock hard enough for long enough you'll eventually get somewhere....


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## RockNRollGeek (Nov 23, 2022)

bcoyle said:


> You should encourage people to use obs in new ways.


I'd rather not, and instead focus more at helping someone excel at using things even better for the purposes they are designed for, whether that be a software switcher like obs, or any of the many existing playout systems for 24/7 station management. It so happens these forums are for the former, not the latter.


> A full blown 24/7 does take a lot of work to create.


I don't think anyone is disputing that? Another reason to use systems built for those tasks - more time executing instead of building.


> I'm running beta testing on my app and it's pretty stable.


That's excellent, congrats!


> It's been running and "COMPOSITING"


not sure why you threw compositing in caps and quotes here?


> You may not be interested in 24/7 but there are people that are,


I at no point ever said I wasn't interested in 24/7 and that no one was...


> especially if the app reduces station management to one man instead of a crew.


again, that's why I've said time and again 'right tool, right job' - there are existing playout / management systems who's focus is literally 24x7 station management to create a one-man band scenario. Their sole focus and development is on that goal, not being a software video switcher being retooled for a use case it wasn't initially designed around.


> I suggest that since you have used some of these software products, that it would be of great value that you tell us your experiences and  recommendations. That would add value to the obs community.


I've shared those recommendations many times before. The 'value' has been added. It's far more valuable to speak to / assist with / make recommendations on the product this forum is devoted to and the use cases it's primary usage and development focus is centered on.

As I said previously in the post you were quoting from, I was literally just surprised people are trying to square-peg-into-a-round-hole this solution still after 4 years of this thread (that started from people not knowing what playout systems and schedulers are or that they existed and looking for that solve), rather than use the many that have existed for years and kept everything from decent sized stations all the way down to no-budget free ones going for many years, and I wish those still trying to hammer away at this all the best.


----------



## bcoyle (Nov 23, 2022)

RockNRollGeek said:


> I'd rather not, and instead focus more at helping someone excel at using things even better for the purposes they are designed for, whether that be a software switcher like obs, or any of the many existing playout systems for 24/7 station management. It so happens these forums are for the former, not the latter.
> 
> I don't think anyone is disputing that? Another reason to use systems built for those tasks - more time executing instead of building.
> 
> ...


thank you for your comments


----------



## bcoyle (Nov 24, 2022)

this a forum for all people with diverse interests, a safe place. Constructive criticism is ok.   I've looked at your other posts and have seen that you have helped many people. People do projects all the time that you may feel a waste of time. I also get the feeling you would like this thread to disappear. Do you really think ,I'd waste a lot of time duplicating some "free" commercial or amateur software.  Obs is not just the property of youtubers. When I mentioned "compositor", I thought you might just be a little curious about what I meant. Most people think of 24/7 as  playout software, not as a full IPTV.  What I'm doing is 24/7 IPTV , Playout , prototyper , recorder and other purposes. It's getting late. Here is my current IPTV TEST channel on youtube. 









						DCCATV - DOUGLAS COUNTY PUBLIC ACCESS TV
					






					www.youtube.com


----------



## bcoyle (Nov 24, 2022)

I see that there were some people checking it out. Have to say sorry. I run this on my laptop and am doing stability checks. I had only programmed it until midnight last night and didn't notice. So I scheduled  another 4 days (24x4 half hour programs) . Took my app 6 seconds to do that.


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## RockNRollGeek (Nov 28, 2022)

> I also get the feeling you would like this thread to disappear.


Incredibly weird assumptions after I've now wished you luck twice in addition to very clearly stating in my last post that the old one was purely stating surprise that people were still trying to reinvent the wheel, nothing more. Maybe third time is the charm, but I wish you luck on your project...


> I've looked at your other posts


... as well as your other extracurricular activities.


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## bcoyle (Nov 28, 2022)

RockNRollGeek said:


> Incredibly weird assumptions after I've now wished you luck twice in addition to very clearly stating in my last post that the old one was purely stating surprise that people were still trying to reinvent the wheel, nothing more. Maybe third time is the charm, but I wish you luck on your project...
> 
> ... as well as your other extracurricular activities.


thanks for your well wishes


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## Gary0318 (Dec 13, 2022)

I’m trying to establish a 24/7 broadcast of my music and other content. It isn’t critical for it to be up 24/7 just yet as I’m not promoting it yet. If you need someone to alpha or beta test, I’d be happy to oblige.


----------



## bcoyle (Dec 13, 2022)

Gary0318 said:


> I’m trying to establish a 24/7 broadcast of my music and other content. It isn’t critical for it to be up 24/7 just yet as I’m not promoting it yet. If you need someone to alpha or beta test, I’d be happy to oblige.


Hi Gary, tell me a little more about yourself and what you are trying to do. Also how much and what kind of content do you have. it takes a lot of content to fill up a 24/7 channel?  youtube, twitch,facebook? Just music, not music video?


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## Gary0318 (Dec 15, 2022)

bcoyle said:


> Hi Gary, tell me a little more about yourself and what you are trying to do. Also how much and what kind of content do you have. it takes a lot of content to fill up a 24/7 channel?  youtube, twitch,facebook? Just music, not music video?


The content will be repetitive. It’s intended to just be the good old-fashioned “broadcast” concept rather than “on-demand” because lots of people still gravitate towards that. I intend to be doing regular podcasts and interviews in the near future. But, while the machine isn’t being used for podcasts, I want OBS to run a continuous livestream of my music compositions and related documentary content. Once a day I would switch parts of the programming out… one song for another, one documentary for another. 

I also want to be able to schedule prerecorded events that will be special interviews that I have produced, and perhaps air them on a periodic basis (ie, once daily, once weekly, etc.

Music videos, not just music…

I’ll be traveling the country in an RV, doing many interviews with people from all walks of life. I will also regularly assemble photographic and video productions from past and current shooting. The content will grow rapidly and become less repetitive.

For now, assembling a few hours of content, looping it, and modifying (changing content) it daily will suffice for all audiences that want to tune in on occasion at their liesure will suffice. Live chats will probably be employed to make it interactive. As the content grows in volume, I’ll adapt and end up running a 24 hour cycle to repeat. We shall see where it leads.

Now that I have retired from computer  programming it is time for me to create and share prolifically as I have wanted to do all my life.

Obviously I have a server with a couple gigabytes of bandwidth to send my productions to.

This is content from before retiring… it’s going to start growing rapidly:



			https://m.youtube.com/@Gary0318LFN/playlists
		


Thanks, so much, for getting back to me.


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## bcoyle (Dec 15, 2022)

@Gary0318
Let me understand this:
1. You have a server (in the cloud?) similar to restream to send to youtube and also anyone else that has the server rtmp url?
2  You have a local machine (this is WINDOWS ONLYy) .
3. You will have a running obs able to stream to your server.
4. you have some other app for your podcast . not using obs and deckllink. or you want to use obs for the podcasts.
5. you want my app to be able to schedule obs for different programs at scheduled times. (half hour bounties for example)
6. you want obs to stop streaming at certain times? automatically or with your finger on the stream on-off button
7. you want to schedule on fixed times , like hogans hero at 9pm. and 9:30
8. if your content is shorter than the timeslot, do you want to fill in the extra time with content.
9. Are you doing PSAs or Ads?

Mostly the question is, when you want to do a podcast, what do you want my program to do when you go live?

here is my current TEST  24/7 broadcast








						DCCATV - DOUGLAS COUNTY PUBLIC ACCESS TV
					






					www.youtube.com


----------



## Gary0318 (Dec 16, 2022)

bcoyle said:


> @Gary0318
> Let me understand this:
> 1. You have a server (in the cloud?) similar to restream to send to youtube and also anyone else that has the server rtmp url?
> 2  You have a local machine (this is WINDOWS ONLYy) .
> ...


1. right now I am using the multiple stream plugin to broadcast to services like rumble and youtube. I will end up using restream.io later.
2.  My local machine running obs 64bit is windows 10.
3. yes
4. I will use obs for the podcast.
5. correct
6. when I do the podcasts I can manually stop the schedule. No need to automate for that.
7.  correct. But. it won't always fall on half hour or hour mark. It can vary.
8. It would be enough to fill the extra time with a 60 second looped video, or image.
9. It will be PSAs. I won't likely have advertising unless I get quite popular. LOL

I would like to be able to hit a button to disable the scheule when I do a podcast. When I finish the podcast, I would hit the button to start the scheduler back up. I think maybe the easiest thing to do here, is have the scheduled material on one particular scene in obs, so that the scheduler could actially continue to update that scene, even if during the podcast, I am on other scenes. Perhaps, the idea of "disabling the scheduler" would just mean disabling the scheduler's auto-switch to that scene. Once I reenable the scheduler, the scheduler would just auto-switch to its designated scene,. I don't know what you have programmed so far... this is just how I visualize it. But, at it's simplest, I would just need to be able to do my podcast live and then turn the scheduler back on.

I'm not sure if you intended that youtube link for me.


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## bcoyle (Dec 16, 2022)

Gary0318 said:


> 1. right now I am using the multiple stream plugin to broadcast to services like rumble and youtube. I will end up using restream.io later.
> 2.  My local machine running obs 64bit is windows 10.
> 3. yes
> 4. I will use obs for the podcast.
> ...


yes the link was for you to see the stream in action. My app (it's called Cast-tor) is not designed to pause, stop yes but not pause. You can stop the schedule but when restarted must restart from the beginning to get the timing down right. You can have obs send to a NDi link over to your copy of yourtube and then you can do anything you want. You can schedule lets say at 9pm to stop streaming for 30 minutes and then turn on again. You could use decklink during that time to do your thing. Or you could stop the scheduler, do your thing for 40 minutes, then put the scheduler in the run this for me now mode and when near the hour mark schedule it back to full station run mode.  I suppose in the future i could add a "don't SEND COMMANDS MODE FOR LIVE PODCASTs mode. It would continue to think it was sending but wasn't. Have to think about it, it's more hybrid in it's mode. But would add more capibility to live programing. Casttor could do everything else you mentioned, no problem.  
oh what time zone are you in?


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## bcoyle (Dec 16, 2022)

In the station mode, you can just not have a program scheduled for your podcast time slot and it will just do nothing for the hour or so that you set. You then run you podcast, make sure you fill up the hour and you're good to go. I think that is easiest. it's probably hard for you do understand my comments, because you don't know the program. RU RV'ing currently?


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## bcoyle (Dec 16, 2022)

Since you are planeing on doing music videos, here is an example of a mp3 with titling with a cartoon overlay video. I hope you realize that this is all composited by my program using obs. It's not pre-rendered.









						2021 07 28 16 33 45 ALBUM=THE BEST OF REMGROUP=REMARTIST=REMTRACK=8,SONG=ORANGE CRUSH
					






					www.youtube.com


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## Gary0318 (Dec 16, 2022)

bcoyle said:


> In the station mode, you can just not have a program scheduled for your podcast time slot and it will just do nothing for the hour or so that you set. You then run you podcast, make sure you fill up the hour and you're good to go. I think that is easiest. it's probably hard for you do understand my comments, because you don't know the program. RU RV'ing currently?


I get it. That does actually sound easier and more obvious. I think that if I was sitting in front of the software, I would probably have intuitively done just that. Not currently RVing. I've filled 7 trunks with audio/video and music gear, and am now trying to figure out what Class A to get, and whether or not to customize a studio desk in it.


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## Gary0318 (Dec 16, 2022)

bcoyle said:


> yes the link was for you to see the stream in action. My app (it's called Cast-tor) is not designed to pause, stop yes but not pause. You can stop the schedule but when restarted must restart from the beginning to get the timing down right. You can have obs send to a NDi link over to your copy of yourtube and then you can do anything you want. You can schedule lets say at 9pm to stop streaming for 30 minutes and then turn on again. You could use decklink during that time to do your thing. Or you could stop the scheduler, do your thing for 40 minutes, then put the scheduler in the run this for me now mode and when near the hour mark schedule it back to full station run mode.  I suppose in the future i could add a "don't SEND COMMANDS MODE FOR LIVE PODCASTs mode. It would continue to think it was sending but wasn't. Have to think about it, it's more hybrid in it's mode. But would add more capibility to live programing. Casttor could do everything else you mentioned, no problem.
> oh what time zone are you in?


I'm EST


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## bcoyle (Dec 16, 2022)

Gary0318 said:


> I get it. That does actually sound easier and more obvious. I think that if I was sitting in front of the software, I would probably have intuitively done just that. Not currently RVing. I've filled 7 trunks with audio/video and music gear, and am now trying to figure out what Class A to get, and whether or not to customize a studio desk in it.


What is a class A?


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## Gary0318 (Dec 17, 2022)

bcoyle said:


> Since you are planeing on doing music videos, here is an example of a mp3 with titling with a cartoon overlay video. I hope you realize that this is all composited by my program using obs. It's not pre-rendered.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Awesome!


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## Gary0318 (Dec 18, 2022)

bcoyle said:


> What is a class A?


The largest of motor homes. around 40 to 45 feet, 600 horsepower, lots of storage space.


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## bcoyle (Dec 27, 2022)

Gary0318 said:


> The largest of motor homes. around 40 to 45 feet, 600 horsepower, lots of storage space.


if interested, dm me and i'll invite you to several discord channels you might find interesting and we can talk off topic also.


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## bcoyle (Dec 30, 2022)

The current casttor beta program is now under test by BETA user #1, Danny. This is going to be a fun ride., LOL, wish us luck.


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## bcoyle (Jan 3, 2023)

Gary0318 said:


> The largest of motor homes. around 40 to 45 feet, 600 horsepower, lots of storage space.


are you still around???


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## onetvng (Jan 5, 2023)

msschwartz said:


> Not sure if anyone is still interested in a 24/7 video playlist manager type plugin but I just finished a quick prototype. I will continue adding features and enhancements so let me know and I'll get make the plugin public.
> 
> View attachment 62083


Yes please i am so desprate for one now
mac , linux or even windows


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## bcoyle (Jan 5, 2023)

onetvng said:


> Yes please i am so desprate for one now
> mac , linux or even windows


tell us about yourself and what you are trying to do


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## BlitzK (Saturday at 3:27 PM)

A Sam like plug-in for OBS would be awesome!   Looking for a good video playback solution


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## bcoyle (Saturday at 6:22 PM)

BlitzK said:


> A Sam like plug-in for OBS would be awesome!   Looking for a good video playback solution


hi. you're not one tv but what is SAM. What I'm working on is a external windows app talking to obs.


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