Message profusion alert.
You could use a web-page and javascript / style sheets etc. I think if
would be helpful if you supplied more details about exactly how you
want to display the info.
i.e. moving, a single stable page of text, etc.
Simon.

Tim Mitchell wrote:
Well it's kind of DIY

I am trying to make a simple message display system which has a number
of video monitors run from the TV-out of a PC.

I was convinced someone must supply some simple software to run on the
PC to actually output the messages, but though I have googled long and
hard, I can't find anything.

Powerpoint would possibly be OK, but I was looking for something simpler
- really just a few pages of straight text display. With a bit of time I
could write something in visual basic, but it seems a shame to reinvent
something which already exists. Anyone know of anything to do this?

I don't think VB is the right tool for the job. It may well be suited
to prototyping interactive GUI applications, but that's about it. Then
again, I don't think Windows is the right tool for the job either.

"Tim Mitchell" wrote in message
...
Well it's kind of DIY

I am trying to make a simple message display system which has a number
of video monitors run from the TV-out of a PC.

I was convinced someone must supply some simple software to run on the
PC to actually output the messages, but though I have googled long and
hard, I can't find anything.

Powerpoint would possibly be OK, but I was looking for something simpler
- really just a few pages of straight text display. With a bit of time I
could write something in visual basic, but it seems a shame to reinvent
something which already exists. Anyone know of anything to do this?

Tim Mitchell

Would a screen-saver compiler do this for you? I think you can get freeware
proggies that also build screenshots and savers with all different kinds of
effects.

Try www.snapfiles.com/freeware for a load of graphics effects and screen
image type proggies. You're bound to find something there that'll do this
for you.

In article ,
Tim Mitchell writes:
Well it's kind of DIY

I am trying to make a simple message display system which has a number
of video monitors run from the TV-out of a PC.

I was convinced someone must supply some simple software to run on the
PC to actually output the messages, but though I have googled long and
hard, I can't find anything.

Powerpoint would possibly be OK, but I was looking for something simpler
- really just a few pages of straight text display. With a bit of time I
could write something in visual basic, but it seems a shame to reinvent
something which already exists. Anyone know of anything to do this?

There's certainly someone who produces software to do this
on a Solaris sparc system (I don't remember the name, but
could probably find out). However, situation is probably
slightly different from yours, as it's done by having some
30 or more video cards in the system, and each can be
displaying something completely different. Typically used
for multi-panel display walls, flight simulators, etc.

--
Andrew Gabriel

In article .com,
writes
Message profusion alert.
You could use a web-page and javascript / style sheets etc. I think if
would be helpful if you supplied more details about exactly how you
want to display the info.
i.e. moving, a single stable page of text, etc.
Simon.


Just wants to be a few pages of static text changing once every 10 sec
or something. A bit like teletext.

All monitors will have the same text. It is for a university dept who
want to display stuff like "10am 2nd year lecture cancelled", that sort
of thing.

The problem with powerpoint is that the system has to be operable by the
hard of thinking. Making up a power point slide and then making it
display it could be too difficult.
--
Tim Mitchell

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
.. .
In article ,
Tim Mitchell writes:
Well it's kind of DIY

I am trying to make a simple message display system which has a number
of video monitors run from the TV-out of a PC.

I was convinced someone must supply some simple software to run on the
PC to actually output the messages, but though I have googled long and
hard, I can't find anything.

Powerpoint would possibly be OK, but I was looking for something simpler
- really just a few pages of straight text display. With a bit of time I
could write something in visual basic, but it seems a shame to reinvent
something which already exists. Anyone know of anything to do this?

There's certainly someone who produces software to do this
on a Solaris sparc system (I don't remember the name, but
could probably find out). However, situation is probably
slightly different from yours, as it's done by having some
30 or more video cards in the system, and each can be
displaying something completely different. Typically used
for multi-panel display walls, flight simulators, etc.

--
Andrew Gabriel

For a non DIY option - http://www.oview.co.uk/marquee.htm - it is a $15
shareware package scrolling screensaver that reads its messages from a text
file, so the user would only have to know how to edit a message in notepad
and then set the srreensaver running.

A more DIY option would be to use a web page with a DHTML or java script to
produce the scrolling text. There are loads of scripts out there, some free,
some commercial [
http://www.codejunction.com/scripts/...ext-scrolling] The script
could read the text from a file. If the web page has a Meta-refresh tag you
can set it to reload itself every five minutes or so, and you could put the
source file somewhere on the network - update the source file and the
message will update. The display PC then runs a web browser in 'kiosk mode.
An added bonus of this approach is that you can incorporate other web
content, ie logos, web cams, cricket scores etc without much effort. The
down side is that any self respecting student will hack into the system
within minutes to cancel the boring lectures!

Andy M

Tim Mitchell wrote:
Well it's kind of DIY

I am trying to make a simple message display system which has a number
of video monitors run from the TV-out of a PC.

I was convinced someone must supply some simple software to run on the
PC to actually output the messages, but though I have googled long and
hard, I can't find anything.

Powerpoint would possibly be OK, but I was looking for something simpler
- really just a few pages of straight text display. With a bit of time I
could write something in visual basic, but it seems a shame to reinvent
something which already exists. Anyone know of anything to do this?

Have you considered html?
I would just set up a browser, in fullscreen mode (I'd do it in linux, but
there should be a way in windows) set to start on a default page.
Then just edit the page.

Ian Stirling wrote:
Have you considered html?
I would just set up a browser, in fullscreen mode (I'd do it in linux, but
there should be a way in windows) set to start on a default page.
Then just edit the page.

Mozilla's kiosk mode works on windows as well as linux. You often see
powerpoint error messages or BSODs on windows displays doing this sort
of job. I would use a scrap PC (e.g. early pentium) linux, mozilla and
meta refresh. You could either change the page on the local machine or
over a network.


--
Spamtrap in use
To email replace 127.0.0.1 with blueyonder dot co dot uk

Tim Mitchell wrote:
Well it's kind of DIY
I am trying to make a simple message display system which has a number
of video monitors run from the TV-out of a PC.
I was convinced someone must supply some simple software to run on the
PC to actually output the messages, but though I have googled long and
hard, I can't find anything.
Powerpoint would possibly be OK, but I was looking for something simpler
- really just a few pages of straight text display. With a bit of time I
could write something in visual basic, but it seems a shame to reinvent
something which already exists. Anyone know of anything to do this?

1) Irfanview does a screenshow, so if you have a collection of jpegs it
will show them in order. You can load the screenshow from a .txt file of
image filenames usign a command line switch.

2) Opera browser has a kiosk mode. If you write your collection of pages
with a meta redirect tag, so that on page 1 it has a redirect tag to
page 2 after 10 seconds, on page 2 it has a redirect tag to page 3, etc,
(lastpage.html redirects back to firstpage.html) then you can put Opera
into full-screen/kiosk mode (which also gets rid of the adverts), set
page1 up as the browser home page, and away you go.

Once you've got your layout set up in a CSS file or template, quite easy
to whack out new text.

Opera and Irfanview both free.

3) DVD or VideoCD authoring packages can be had for under £30 and would
let you burn a slideshow to DVDR or CDR, then you can run it from a £30
DVD player and not need a PC at all.

Option 3 is not so useful if you want to change the text on the fly.

Option 2 would auto-update if you have a meta tag for no-cache (I think
it's called pragma) and your external software writes .html to the disk
from which Opera is running, then if you update page14.html Opera will
display the new page14.html when it gets round to it in the cycle.

Option 1 will autoupdate if you are using something like GIMP to create
the .jpegs that Irfanview is readign. See cooltext.com for an example of
driving GIMP

For your university application you can use a PHP backend to a web-based
interface to actually set up the text. You can also use the same script
to produce a 'linear' page (non slideshow) of current announcements,
that students can view on the intranet.

Heck, if you're using Active Desktop you can display it as the
background to every terminal on campus.


Owain

In message ,
Tim Mitchell wrote:

In article .com,
writes
Message profusion alert.
You could use a web-page and javascript / style sheets etc. I think if
would be helpful if you supplied more details about exactly how you
want to display the info.
i.e. moving, a single stable page of text, etc.
Simon.


Just wants to be a few pages of static text changing once every 10 sec
or something. A bit like teletext.

All monitors will have the same text. It is for a university dept who
want to display stuff like "10am 2nd year lecture cancelled", that sort
of thing.

The problem with powerpoint is that the system has to be operable by the
hard of thinking. Making up a power point slide and then making it
display it could be too difficult.

Lateral thinking:

Do it on a BBC Master computer with floppy disc. There's bound to be one
knocking about somewhere and even though 20 years old it's very likely
still to be working. There's tons of old software for the beasts, and
with a colour composite video output and dedicated teletext chip
onboard, all you need to find is the appropriate carousel creation
program.

The slight difficulty (if you are getting stuff from the net) is that
you'll have to find a way to get the data onto whatever kind of floppy
the machine might have attached, but if you can find one with a 3.5"
drive there are ways and means I think, even if you don't have access to
one of the modern Acorn-originated machines (these can, of course, read
most of the old format discs, as well as DOS discs).

Big advantage is that it's almost bomb-proof and not at all hackable
unless you are sitting at the machine itself. Real teletext looks pretty
cool too, in a retro kind of a way.

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... Famous Quotes: "...and tits doesn't belong on the list!" - G. Carlin

Martin Angove wrote:

Lateral thinking:

Do it on a BBC Master computer with floppy disc. There's bound to be one
knocking about somewhere and even though 20 years old it's very likely

Even an old Eelctron will have mode 7 IIRC. Quite a bit smaller than a
BBC Master or a model A/B...

If you want something with a bit more multimedia capability look for an
old Amiga A1200/A4000 - that can knock out bog standard PAL video modes
(including overscan and interlace). It has the advantage of decent pro
spec software for the task as well, like Scala.

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
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|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Owain wrote:


2) Opera browser has a kiosk mode. If you write your collection of pages
with a meta redirect tag, so that on page 1 it has a redirect tag to
page 2 after 10 seconds, on page 2 it has a redirect tag to page 3, etc,
(lastpage.html redirects back to firstpage.html) then you can put Opera
into full-screen/kiosk mode (which also gets rid of the adverts), set
page1 up as the browser home page, and away you go.

You can achieve the same result in any browser (that supports
JavaScript), using the "timeline" capability in Dreamweaver.

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Go to the grand-daddy of them all (as regards shareware/freeware etc -
where it all started)

www.simtel.net

enter 'message display' in the search


sure you'll find something in there...loads of results...

I would agree with 'Owain', in trying out IrfanView. Just had a play
with v3.97 and it will read text files and display these in a
slideshow.

Just fiddle about with the settings. This is one classic piece of
freeware.

Regards
Darren

In message ,
John Rumm wrote:

Martin Angove wrote:

Lateral thinking:

Do it on a BBC Master computer with floppy disc. There's bound to be one
knocking about somewhere and even though 20 years old it's very likely

Even an old Eelctron will have mode 7 IIRC. Quite a bit smaller than a
BBC Master or a model A/B...

Nah, the Mode 7 was an addon you only got with the Plus1 or Plus2 or
somesuch interface :-) Come to that, any of the newer model Acorns would
also do the trick, though the teletext mode is done on a bitmapped
graphics screen rather than with a real chip. A3010/3020/4000/5000

If you want something with a bit more multimedia capability look for an
old Amiga A1200/A4000 - that can knock out bog standard PAL video modes
(including overscan and interlace). It has the advantage of decent pro
spec software for the task as well, like Scala.

Good point. Nice machines. Unfortunate there are not so many of them
available second hand though.

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... DOS Tip #3 : Don't use DOS.

In article ,
Martin Angove wrote:
Nah, the Mode 7 was an addon you only got with the Plus1 or Plus2 or
somesuch interface :-) Come to that, any of the newer model Acorns would
also do the trick, though the teletext mode is done on a bitmapped
graphics screen rather than with a real chip. A3010/3020/4000/5000

You'll get A5000 for free these days, and they must be one of the most
reliable computers ever made. I know of two going at the moment.

--
*What hair colour do they put on the driver's license of a bald man? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In message , Martin Angove
writes
In message ,
John Rumm wrote:

Martin Angove wrote:

Lateral thinking:

Do it on a BBC Master computer with floppy disc. There's bound to be one
knocking about somewhere and even though 20 years old it's very likely

Even an old Eelctron will have mode 7 IIRC. Quite a bit smaller than a
BBC Master or a model A/B...

Nah, the Mode 7 was an addon you only got with the Plus1 or Plus2 or
somesuch interface :-) Come to that, any of the newer model Acorns would
also do the trick, though the teletext mode is done on a bitmapped
graphics screen rather than with a real chip. A3010/3020/4000/5000

If you want something with a bit more multimedia capability look for an
old Amiga A1200/A4000 - that can knock out bog standard PAL video modes
(including overscan and interlace). It has the advantage of decent pro
spec software for the task as well, like Scala.

Good point. Nice machines. Unfortunate there are not so many of them
available second hand though.

I have a 2000

It makes a nice telephone table beside the bed

--
geoff

Martin Angove wrote:

If you want something with a bit more multimedia capability look for an
old Amiga A1200/A4000 - that can knock out bog standard PAL video modes
(including overscan and interlace). It has the advantage of decent pro
spec software for the task as well, like Scala.


Good point. Nice machines. Unfortunate there are not so many of them
available second hand though.

I those of us who have decent ones are hanging on to em ;-)

(but for video basic video work almost anything would do with a suitable
genlock - which was dead easy to do on a miggy)

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In message ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:

In article ,
Martin Angove wrote:
Nah, the Mode 7 was an addon you only got with the Plus1 or Plus2 or
somesuch interface :-) Come to that, any of the newer model Acorns would
also do the trick, though the teletext mode is done on a bitmapped
graphics screen rather than with a real chip. A3010/3020/4000/5000

You'll get A5000 for free these days, and they must be one of the most
reliable computers ever made. I know of two going at the moment.

And there was a nice extolling of CableNews in this month's Archive...
could be just what the OP ordered :-)

http://www.xat.nl/en/cablenews/index.htm

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... "Bother", said Pooh, as received his telephone bill