TV's That Sync Well

[Luna Bliss]

Can anyone recommend a TV that syncs well so that many people can watch at the same time?

[LittleMe Jewell]

25 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

Can anyone recommend a TV that syncs well so that many people can watch at the same time?

A lot of that is going to depend more on everyone's internet connection.

[Quistess Alpha]

It's a bit buggy last I checked, but you can set media on a prim to the discord web-client and have everyone watch through someone casting their screen that way.

The problem is, SL doesn't pass through media itself, it just hands off the URL for people to look at themselves. most "good TVs" seem to rely on an external server to forward to everyone , and media streaming is very expensive server-side which equates to more RL cost than can be recouped from the sale of SL tv's.

It might be possible to sync everyone with old parcel media commands, but that requires access to raw video files hosted somewhere. most streaming sites nowadays have made it impossible or technically difficult to rip the raw file rather than going through their proprietary player, so a TV that worked on that principal wouldn't have much content available to view.

Edited February 4, 2023 by Quistess Alpha

[Love Zhaoying]

@Luna Bliss - now that I see it is you asking the question (and not a random "new" person) - just checking, were you aware that in general, "synching" in-world video is a challenge?

 

[Love Zhaoying]

Some streaming services have a "watch together" mode now, I don't know if any of those work in this context better than normal "shared media".  But if it did, each user would need to be logged into the streaming service as I understand.

[Nalates Urriah]

1 hour ago, Luna Bliss said:

Can anyone recommend a TV that syncs well so that many people can watch at the same time?

It depends on what you watch as to whether SL TVs will sync. 😎

YouTube TVs in SL depend on when each person clicks start/play. Most on-demand videos are that way.

Something like Pluto TV has live and on-demand, a mix. All the live stuff will be in sync.

The easy way is to have everyone over and watch one TV. But, you have to pay attentions to how the TV is setup. Some TV's make individual instances for each person watching. Others display an image in the region and everyone sees the same thing at the same time... or close enough it doesn't mater. The way to tell is start the TV playing. If someone with you can see it too without having to click, then you have one that will work for a group.

[Quistess Alpha]

I haven't tested it extensively, but this should work:

 

[Zennessa]

On 2/3/2023 at 1:09 PM, Luna Bliss said:

Can anyone recommend a TV that syncs well so that many people can watch at the same time?

Second Life Marketplace - HiVid Smart TV - Watch Movies in sync. with your friends

 

[Winter Silversmith]

In SecondLife? HiVid is the only one I know. YouTube does not sync well in SL, even on a HiVid TV (as they clearly state). That's an SL issue not a service inworld issue. But with over 8,500 movies available at very low price each there's no reason to stream YT - your friends will want to watch a movie with you. I even run a public cinema inworld using a HiVid TV, one of a few from what I hear. The TVs also stream the internet, so when I'm not watching movies I load the internet and play mytuner music streaming. 

Edited February 19 by Winter Silversmith
updated

[animats]

HiVid seems to have that working well. I think they route the video through their own streaming server, so every user of a TV sees the same thing.

Note that the viewer inside the browser will not play DRM content, so you can't watch most pay per view stuff.

Does anybody in SL operate a movie theater where everybody sees the same thing, and they regularly run movies on a schedule? That would be fun. There are many theaters, but few actually work.

[Vzlenscu]

I would love to hear more experiences.  I attended my first Hivid experience, and of course there were subtle differences in timing among users.  But there were two major things that came up.

 

1)   The host stopped the video and restarted it.  However for one user it played continuously through two restarts.   For that user, she was ten minutes ahead in the film and there seemed to be no way to "bring her back" to where everyone was

2)   I was having weird noises and wondered if they were on the Media stream, so I stopped Media and restarted it.  Big mistake.  Suddenly I was back at the start of the film.

Wondering if there is a "resync" option, where the host can toggle everyone back to the same point in the movie?    Obviously stream rates, etc, being what they are, there will be up to 60 seconds difference in delivery.    But is there a way to bring everyone to approximately the same point?

[Quistess Alpha]

10 hours ago, Vzlenscu said:

Wondering if there is a "resync" option, where the host can toggle everyone back to the same point in the movie?

Not to toot my own horn, but the tv script I wrote (see above) is a minimally viable example of doing exactly that (pause/restart, or skip back/forward all resync everyone.). As for how to do that with any other specific product. . . do they have a support group or anything?

[Love Zhaoying]

"Vaccum tube" TV's should not sink quite as well as modern LCD flat panels. I imagine they'd float for a minute, unless their sheer weight dragged them under the water..

 

[Bubblesort Triskaidekaphobia]

I experimented with a lot of TVs in SL, and IMHO, the AVEN SX Smart TV is the best.  I use it to watch movies from my google drive with friends in SL.  I have to change them to .mp4, because google drive doesn't seem to like variable frame rates, but it's an easy conversion in Premiere.