Do you have a plan to establish a movie house business? I will share to you common methods of setting up a movie house audio/visual system which are commonly applied in the Philippines.
A. DVD Method - This is very popular which most of the movie houses existing today have started this kind of method. The setup requires DVD players with at least two analog video output, the common RCA composite video port (Yellow) and the RGB or component RCA video ports (Red,Green, Blue). RCA cables are used in this setup both the composite video port (Yellow) and the component video ports (Red, Green, Blue) and the Digital Audio ports (Black) or the stereo ports (Red,White). A VGA cable can be used also as replacement to RCA cables used for component or RGB ports and a VGA to RCA converter is used between a DVD player ports and the VGA cable if the DVD player does not have a VGA port.VGA connection is widely used in computers, monitors, media boxes, and projectors. A projector mounted on the ceiling is the most popular way of screening a movie. Today, some movie house use wide screen plasma or led tv. A signal selector hub and a monitor screena are use to monitor movies that are being played in movie rooms. Aside from discs, some DVD players support other media file types that can be played through Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports.
Some movie houses use portable DVD players with built in monitor. This way of setup omits the use of external monitor and video signal selector hub. Sometimes a video signal amplifier is connected between a portable player and the RCA cable to projector or tv that is far away from the reception area. Composite video signal gets weaker as the cable length extends and easily gets interference.
Below are the images of items/components I mentioned here:
B. Media Server Method- This method is widely used in movie houses today. The use of analog cables are minimized. Movie houses can play various types of media files on desktop or android platform. The setup requires a media server computer or NAS (Network-Attached Storage), desktop computers, android media boxes, laptops as media players, projector or tv for screening, a network router, a network switch/hub, LAN cables and a sound system, either digital or analog. To create a media server, you will need to install and configure a media server application in your desktop computer or NAS. I suggest to use Universal Media Server. It is a free to install software that can create home media server and it performs well. The best media player software so far is VLC Media Player. It supports various audio, video and even photo file types. It performs well with network media playing and can be installed on Windows, Android and Apple operating systems. You must have an advance knowledge in creating Local Area Network for windows, apple or cross windows- android/apple format. Audio ports from media devices are usually 3.5mm audio jacks. Audio connectivity can be done through RCA cables. It may require phone plug to rca plug conversion cables. Make sure the projectors you are going to use, have built in audio output jacks. This will make audio connection simplified and reduces cable length to audio amplifier.
Here is the link to Universal Media Server:
Link to VLC Media Player:
B1. HDMI and Laptop Setup- This setup requires a media server, laptops with HDMI (High- Definition Multimedia Interface) ports, projectors or tvs with HDMI ports, HDMI cables, network router and hub and sound system. HDMI connection includes video, data and audio signals. Aside from laptops, smart tablets,and mobile phones with HDMI and LAN or Wifi connectivity can be used as media players in this setup.
B2. Direct Media Server To Media Players Setup- This the simplest setup of all, in terms of cable connections. A media player (desktop computer or android device) is placed inside a movie room. Customers can access the media player where they select movies from the menu through mouse clicks. Usually keyboard and some folders are disabled to prevent customers from accessing settings and other files. To save LAN cable lengths, the LAN switch/hub is located near the movie rooms. It only requires a single LAN cable from media server to LAN switch/hub.The movie house usually offers an hourly usage rate to customers. Customers can access files from media server through LAN connection. Some may offer online media streaming like Youtube app, as long as the router has internet connectivity.
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