Play videos in a fullscreen window that sits on top of everything else. Great for facial animations or user messages.
Get
Version
8
How to add the Full Screen Video Player robot skill
- Load the most recent release of ARC (Get ARC).
- Press the Project tab from the top menu bar in ARC.
- Press Add Robot Skill from the button ribbon bar in ARC.
- Choose the Display category tab.
- Press the Full Screen Video Player icon to add the robot skill to your project.
Don't have a robot yet?
Follow the Getting Started Guide to build a robot and use the Full Screen Video Player robot skill.
How to use the Full Screen Video Player robot skill
Play videos in a fullscreen window that sits on top of everything else. Excellent for facial animations or user messages.
Use ControlCommands to specify videos to play fullscreen. The ESC key can be pressed while a video is playing to cancel the video. Once the ESC key is pressed, this robot skill will not play another video until the Pause New Playback checkbox has been unchecked.
Robot Skill Main Window
This checkbox will be checked when the ESC key is pressed during video playback. This feature is to prevent emergency loops that continually play videos. When ESC is pressed, this checkbox is checked. No further video playback can be done until this is unchecked by either ControlCommand or manually.
The logging information for errors and activity
Javascript Example
This example will play a video and demonstrate the ControlCommand syntax.
// Begin playing a full video screen
ControlCommand("Full Screen Video Player", "Play Video", "C:\\Users\\dj\\Videos\\Screen Recorder\\637427907140785293.wmv");
// wait for 3 seconds while the video is playing
sleep(3000);
// Start playing another video
ControlCommand("Full Screen Video Player", "Play Video", "C:\\Users\\dj\\Videos\\Screen Recorder\\637430717372916488.wmv");
// wait for 2 seconds while the video is playing
sleep(2000);
// Pause the video
ControlCommand("Full Screen Video Player", "Pause Video");
// Wait for 2 seconds while the video is paused
sleep(2000);
// Resume playing the video
ControlCommand("Full Screen Video Player", "Resume Video");
// wait for 3 seconds while the video has been resumed
sleep(3000);
// Stop the video and close the video player window
ControlCommand("Full Screen Video Player", "Stop Video And Close");
What videos formats are acceptable?
What did you try that didn't work? It should play everything you can throw at it.
Ok sounds good! Thanks!
There seems to be a problem with the upload - it's working on my dev machine but not my laptop. I'll need a bit to sort it out
Okay - it's updated and fixed.
When you get an opportunity can you check the Pause code on your non-dev machine...I can't seem to get it to work.
Works fine - here's the code i tested with...
Huh..thats the same..let me try again..I like the idea of being able to pause a screen and then resume...very useful
Tested Full Screen Video Player:
first in the java script you presented, then in ez scrip - all went well, works, thanks
It was syntax forgot the double ""
Even without the double , you didn't get an error stating the file was not found? Should have hmmmm
Yeah I got that message, but I couldn’t figure out why. I kept moving it around thinking it had to be in a certain place.. not that I needed a double \ for proper location. I’m used to messing in EZ Script, don’t have any experience in JavaScript. It will take some time getting used to it!
My employer gives me access to a bunch of online training, so it looks like I need to do the Javascript course. As an old time VB (VB 5 and 6) devoper, I was pretty comfortable with EZ Script, but if Javasript is going to be the future of ARC I need to get up to speed.
@DJ I know you also support Python, do us old folks a favor and stick with one language for your samples. My brain can only squeeze in so much more before I start losing older critical skills
I only post Javascript. I'll never post python because i don't like python. Let me know where you saw a mix-up and I'll fix it. But I'm 100% certain I've never posted python as an example.
When I try to use the Full Screen Video Player, it displays only a quarter of the video - the rest is white - see image. The second image is what it should display. What might be the problem here?
Hmmm, I just tested it with a .mp4 file in Windows 10, 1920x1040 resolution, 30fps, and it displayed in full screen as expected. I also have 2 external monitors connected.
Have you tried different resolutions and/or file types?
Just tested it with SD and HD and same result - quarter screen only. Tested with MPG, MP4, WMV and same result. Very puzzling. Might try it on a different device.
Hmmm. It almost looks like windows wasn’t able to render the whole video - as if it stopped part way while drawing the video box. Let me see if there’s something I can do on our end.
I tried playing a jpeg image and got a quarter screen also. Interesting.
I tried playing a jpeg image and got a quarter screen also. Interesting. Also tried reinstalling the plugin.
I’ll be looking at it this weekend. There’s no staff during the weekend so I’ll get it running for ya
See if this new update v6 resolves the issue
I noticed the plugin had been updated. But the problem remains. In the meantime, I am utilising the DisplayPopup plugin as I can display Emoji using the GoogleEmoji font.
Oh, can you tell me what the value is for your display scaling? It’s where the video resolution can be set. It’s a number as a percentage.
we will get to the bottom of this - although it’s a real puzzle!
Do you mean as shown in settings - see below...
Yeah, that's what I'm looking for. Thanks - I'm wondering if the scale has something to do with it. Let me run a few more tests and see if I can reproduce it. I'm not sure what to fix if I can't reproduce it. But as usual, we'll figure it out.
I am able to reproduce it. Turns out my guess was correct about the scaling value. The video library that this skill uses does not scale correctly. I’m not certain how to fix that, however.
But, the workaround at this time is to set the scale value to 100%
Yes, the scaling is the problem The Full Screen Video Player works properly when set to 100%. This setting on my 10" Surface Pro tends to make text too small to read. But at least I know the cause. Thanks.
Well still look into it. But for the time being that’s a good workaround
Hi, I am using this skill since long time ago and it was working well but recently, I started to have this error message every time. The screen turns black.
Application Exception: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at FullScreenVideoPlayer.FormVideoPlayer.ProcessCmdKey(Message& msg, Keys keyData) in C:\My Documents\SVN\Developer - Controls\In Production\Full Screen Video Player\MY_PROJECT_NAME<a href='//FormVideoPlayer.cs' target='_blank'>FormVideoPlayer.cs:line 29 at System.Windows.Forms.Control.PreProcessMessage(Message& msg) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.PreProcessControlMessageInternal(Control target, Message& msg) at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.PreTranslateMessage(MSG& msg)
Thanks in advance for your support.
Sorry to hear about your problem, I am sure DJ will address that
I Changed Window's scaling resolution to 100%, --- this works
I use 125% all the time, so I just change it to 100% for this
tried asf, mp3, mp4, jpg, gif, all work
no text files, rtf, doc, txt...
Nice app, thanks
What’s the code command that you’re sending to it?
This is the code command:
The estrange thing is that if I open an empty ARC file and I just include the script (python) and the skill, it works, but when I put exactly the same script in my main ARC file with the other skills the problem happens.
Just to complement I am working now in WIN 11.
What if you remove the robot skill from your main ARC file. Then re-add it. Does that fix it?
it almost looks like a corrupted configuration file somehow
Yes it seems a corrupted configuration file, I did it multiple times but without success, is it possible that any other Skill can interfere with this one?
Can you try this
remove the skill
save the project
load the project
add the skill
Ok I will do it and let you know. The results Thanks.
HI, I made the suggested steps but still unfortunately it is not working.
In Ez script
ControlCommand("Full Screen Video Player", "Play Video", "C:\Users\ATOM X\Documents\ATOMX\faces\3Atom_bravo.mp4")
or your directory is wrong where the 3Atom_bravo.mp4 is located
Mine works fine
Thanks! . Yes when I try with a fresh ARC file It works, but doing the same with the ARC file with the rest of my Skills it stops working. I will try to rebuild my full ARC file (merging the skills) by parts to see when it starts to have the problem.
V7 updated. We have updated this robot skill to capture and handle this error. We don't know how to replicate the error. However, we are now capturing it.
Thanks. Here is the error message.
I hope this helps.
I can't quite understand what's going on with this 3rd party library error. Are you sure the same file plays with a new empty project? The error appears that the robot skill is unable to play the video file.
Hi, yes and I tried also with mp4 and avi formats. It is very strange.
Not sure if it is something related with WIN 11 as it worked well when i had Win 10.
We use win11 as well so that’s not it. Are there multiple copies of this robot skill in the project?
No just 1 instance. But te ARC file has a lot of skills. I was also ensuring that any other script was not running during the test.
Is there a way that I can see your project to test with?
Yes , please let me know how do you want I share it. I will be available in a couple of hours to do that.
You can share it via the cloud. Save jt to the cloud and tell me what the project is named.
Hi D.J. The name is ATOM test. Thanks
Hi, did you have the chance to check the file? Thanks
Is there a way you can share the video file as well? Maybe drop box?
HI DJ, I was testing with different type of videos with the same result so it seems it is not a problem of the file. I found something that could help and is that I started with an empty ARC file and merging the skills and testing each time. When I merged the skill for Speech synthesis and Speech synthesis Settings, I started to have the problem. Also I noticed that the Smart Variable Watcher generates a problem in the Camera skill when trying to track something.
I hope this helps.
Hi, I could play some videos but I am now receiving the following message:
I am using the same script that worked before. The only change is that I included in the project the Speech Synthesis and bing speech recognition skill. Thanks in advance.
Have you tried deleting the plugin folder and trying again? You'll have to close ARC first. I can't imagine the issue because it can't be replicated.
Look in C:\ProgramData\ARC\Plugins
And remove the folder labeled ca1d424d-485d-4639-9eda-5e15be335115
Ok thanks, I will do it.
Nice I have been waiting on a "face animation" tool for synthiam, I am glad it is available to tinker with now.