How to get a video on a USB to loop on a TV?

Hey all,

My client wants the finished video on a USB stick, and for it to play looping (once we set it to do that, not necessarily autorun or autoplay, though that would be nice). It's for a trade show, so ideally the USB would carry the promotional video, and once at the show, the client would stick it in the flat screen TV display, and be able to loop that footage for whatever duration they desire.

There was an old thread on here on this, but no real resolution except someone suggesting to burn a looping DVD and then burn an image of that onto the USB.

Any tips? Suggestions? Ideas? I have a lot of time to do this, so I'll be able to experiment. I would appreciate some feedback.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Erik,

No clue yet. I'm just beginning research on this. Is a player necessary? There are players like this: http://bit.ly/qrZvQh What would you recommend?

Thanks!

As Erik implied, it's a player thing. As long as your player supports looping playback, it doesn't matter where the video is stored.

If you need an AUTOMATIC looping playback, e.g. the user inserts a USB stick and the video starts playing back automatically in a loop, with little or no user input - that's a bit more complex, and depends on the computer configuration: is the codec installed? Is auto-play enabled? What is the default player and does it support looping playback? This is why there is no simple solution: the behavior of a USB stick is unpredictable on any given computer, even if all you want to do is start a browser window.

This is also why a DVD programmed for looping playback is a better idea: its behavior is near-guaranteed on nearly any DVD player.

HTH.

Alex (DV411)

Research digital signage - a ton of options.

I use Brightsign. The media is on SD cards and there's an authoring app that allows you to set up loops, add slides, etc. The small players can be mounted on the back of the display for trade shows.

http://www.brightsign.biz/

I'm curious exactly how you got the video to loop play on the Samsung TV. I just unpacked a Samsung 40" model 5000. It played my high bitrate MP4 file perfectly, moved on to the next file and played that automatically, but then at the end of the second movie (only two on the USB for testing), it jumped back to the Media Play menu. I'm not seeing any place to set a loop or auto repeat.

any help appreciated!