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[mojave]

I'm organizing the Omaha Home Theater Tour on October 27 (I go by desertdome at AVS). I've been to 3 of the other theaters in the past two weeks and am very familiar with the 4th. It is interesting to see the different software used for video playback and I've been checking into some of it (XBMC, MediaBrowser). I've also been working on what I am going to do while the guys are at my home.

A few years ago (actually 5  ) I discussed trivia slides and trailers before a movie. I recently saw that XBMC has a feature called Cinema Experience that lets you put trivia slides, trailers, DTS/Dolby logo videos, and other stuff as part of watching the movie. You place these in various folders and when you select your movie it will choose content from the folder to play before/after the movie.

I thought that would be a neat addition to JRiver that some might like for the bling. Instead of folders, there could be a "At the Movies" tag in which we could tag media as trivia, trailers, demo, intermission, logo videos, or other such stuff. If "At the Movies" was turned on, then selecting a movie would pick so many trivia slides, trailers, demos, etc. to play before the movie or playlist if multiple movies were selected. If more than one movie was selected, then the intermission content could be played between movies.

[MrC]

This is a pretty cool idea.  I used to host a movie night many, many years ago, and had some trivia games before the movie.  It really got folks into the spirit and was a lot of fun.  How nice it would have been to have the content on the screen.  I just couldn't figure out a way to burn a new laserdisc.  :-)

[mojave]

If there was a feature like this I think my wife would want me to set it to show random photos of the kids or family vacations or something like that so we get to see our photos on a more regular basis, but don't have to pick them or setup a playlist. If your child has friends over to watch a movie for a birthday party, 40 random photos tagged with the child's name could play before the movie. Here are some more ideas to show before the movie:

-home videos
-YouTube videos
-website pages
-random song(s)
-clips from previous sporting events - (If you are hosting a big Sunday Night Football game you could start the game, JRiver would time-shift and play random particles from previous games you recorded or YouTube clips or other team stuff before it starts playing the the game a few minutes behind live. It would be even neater if you could schedule the game to start live and JRiver would then provide 10 minutes of other content before the game)
-Windows Startup sound

You could choose from several "At the Movies" themes which would allow for a keyword or formula. Each theme would choose differently tagged content for the stuff before the movie or show.

-Birthday (enter in a name to use for the pictures)
-Movie
-Family
-Football (or other sport)
-TV Show (This could show actor photos before the show starts, particles you have setup from other episodes, or YouTube clips)

An additional companion idea is to have a "Bathroom Break" mode that starts showing trivia slides or pictures when you pause the movie. Unpausing then continues the movie.
 

[fitbrit]

Great idea. I currently have a playlist that I update called Movie Night. It comprises a THX demo, a DTS-HD MA demo and then the main feature. It would be cool to have additional features available. Trivia stuff while music plays would be fun, as long as the trivia content could be downloaded form somewhere; I have enough issues finding time to tag my media, let alone create trivia questions.

[mojave]

Great idea. I currently have a playlist that I update called Movie Night. It comprises a THX demo, a DTS-HD MA demo and then the main feature. It would be cool to have additional features available. Trivia stuff while music plays would be fun, as long as the trivia content could be downloaded form somewhere; I have enough issues finding time to tag my media, let alone create trivia questions.

I just found a good list of sources for content in this thread.

[JustinChase]

First, I love the idea, and hope it can be added.

Second, too bad I don't live in Omaha anymore.  I'd love to come over and see your theater in person. 

(childhood memories ensue)  My step-brother went to Elkhorn High School, back when it was still a bit of a drive from Omaha.  Last time I was back visiting my parents, I think Elkhorn was 'connected' to the city now.  When I moved there as a child, the land OakView Mall sits on was all motorcycle trials, and I used to see red fox all over the place.  Everything west of that was all cornfields back then.  Oh how times have changed!

Good luck with the theater tour!!

[mojave]

My theater is actually just a living room. Three of the other guys have dedicated theaters with full sound isolation. 

When I moved to Elkhorn eight years ago there were about 4-5 miles of cornfields between it and Omaha. Now a lot of it has filled in with housing, stores, strip malls and much many more lanes of traffic. In the past few weeks three stop lights were added on one of my main roads to work. It used to be 55 mph, then it dropped to 45 mph, and now they have added 3 stoplights to a 3 mile stretch of road. By the way, Elkhorn now has two high schools.

[fitbrit]

I just found a good list of sources for content in this thread.

Very cool. Thanks! It would have been even better had MegaUpload not been their repository of choice for most things.

[_mulder]

This is one feature I miss from when I was using Mymovies and TMT in windows media center. Ability to play some trailers that my htpc downloads automatically in a folder. It was really nice to have some upcoming movie trailers playing before my ripped movie.

You can add me to the list of people who would be really interested in that kind of feature.

[mojave]

Here is a thread on how to automatically download trailers:  Movie Trailer Support.

[drmimosa]

In the meantime, Hulu has a trailer menu that comes up in Theater view. With a few clicks before a playing movie (while the popcorn cooks), you can browse movie previews from the Hulu menu.

[HTPC4ME]

i'd like to see trailer be clickable, and once clicked where cover is now it would play the trailer.

[raym]

I used to tee up a couple of trailers before playing the feature film on 'movie night'. That was until the SELECT option was removed for videos in theater view. That decision still baffles me.

[mojave]

I wonder if ZoneSwitch can be used to help create this feature? It could be called ZoneConnect. One could make a zone called Trailers and condition the zone to play 3 random trailers. The ZoneSwitch Wizard allows you to use a rule to modify results. Can that limit playback to 3 random trailers? If so, one could setup zones to playback certain content - trailers, trivia, pictures, home movies. The zone would have to be able to start playback upon selection.

The new ZoneConnect feature could allow you to basically create a playlist based on zones. One could create a Pre-Movie Zone, * Zone, and Post-Movie zone and connect them in this order. This ZoneConnect would be call "At the Movies". Files would probably need a ZoneConnect tag. If I start playback of a movie with the "At the Movies" ZoneConnect tag, then the Pre-Movie Zone would start playback. The second zone would start based on my zone criteria for the movie. That is why I used the asterisk. If the movie is DVD it might use the DVD zone or Blu-ray would use my Blu-ray zone. Once the movie was over, the third zone would kick in and take you to News > JRiver Interact so you could see any posts you missed during the movie. 

Instead of a tag, maybe just a global turn on/off should be used. Maybe ZoneConnects could be listed below zones. Selecting a ZoneConnect and then starting playback uses that ZoneConnect's rules. If no ZoneConnect is selected, then the file just plays in the single zone.

[raym]

I wonder if ZoneSwitch can be used to help create this feature? It could be called ZoneConnect. One could make a zone called Trailers and condition the zone to play 3 random trailers. The ZoneSwitch Wizard allows you to use a rule to modify results. Can that limit playback to 3 random trailers? If so, one could setup zones to playback certain content - trailers, trivia, pictures, home movies. The zone would have to be able to start playback upon selection.

The new ZoneConnect feature could allow you to basically create a playlist based on zones. One could create a Pre-Movie Zone, * Zone, and Post-Movie zone and connect them in this order. This ZoneConnect would be call "At the Movies". Files would probably need a ZoneConnect tag. If I start playback of a movie with the "At the Movies" ZoneConnect tag, then the Pre-Movie Zone would start playback. The second zone would start based on my zone criteria for the movie. That is why I used the asterisk. If the movie is DVD it might use the DVD zone or Blu-ray would use my Blu-ray zone. Once the movie was over, the third zone would kick in and take you to News > JRiver Interact so you could see any posts you missed during the movie. 

Instead of a tag, maybe just a global turn on/off should be used. Maybe ZoneConnects could be listed below zones. Selecting a ZoneConnect and then starting playback uses that ZoneConnect's rules. If no ZoneConnect is selected, then the file just plays in the single zone.

It might work but geez this is a lot of effort when u consider we had a simple/straight-forward system of cueing up videos with SELECT.

I'm clearly never going to win the argument for the return of select for videos in theater view and I still maintain we've lost some significant functionality since it was pulled, and for no apparent reason!