Greetings all. The aquisition of the MovieNow app software and new dev team is complete and we now are moving forward with new features, new products, and a new community. So first off let me just say that no one that has paid for the MovieNow app from the previous company will lose anything. We will continue to support the MovieNow 5.0 app and get a stable build out to all that have purchased it. With that said our primary focus will now be to take the MovieNow platform and build it into an all new Unified-OS for all our products, as well as for digital download versions. This new Unified-OS will come in different versions for specific products. They are (planned) as follows:
Lite version for pre-installation on our basic Digital Movie Poster Board ( not the Ultimate Movie Board).
Digital Download version for download and to be used by the DIY community.
Digital Movie Banner version to be used with our soon to be released Digital Movie Banner.
Digital Media Player version to be used with our soon to be released Digital Media Player.
(Eventually) A replacement for our Ultimate Movie Board software.
The Unified-OS software eco-system is an ambitious idea. When complete all of our products will be able to communicate with each other and also be able to sync with one another. This will add so many possibilities with how you interact with your Digital Movie Boards products. Imagine having several movie boards installed in your gameroom, a Digital Movie Banner installed above the entrance to your home theater, and are watching movies on your Digital Movie Boards Digital Media Player. Right now you have to have several instances of the app open for each product because you access them via their IP address. Our Unified-OS will simplify this by listing all Digital Movie Board products in 1 app for you to control. Think of the SONOS eco-system. 1 app to control all your devices. This feature will also give you the ability to sync all poster boards to display the same, but random, content on all the boards. Basically everything will just talk to each other. This is the Unified-OS in a basic condensed explanation.
The Lite version and the Digital Download version will be the same version. This will start with a whole new version 6.0. It will play only movie posters with correct banners, correct ratings listings, will work with Kodi and Plex, and will be a yearly licensed software. More on this later.
The Digital Movie Banner version will be a version designed for our new Digital Movie Banner and will be optimized to work in a 1920 x 400 resolution format. It will display both static and animated movie banners that the user can purchase, download, and install from the store.
The version for our upcoming Digital Media Player will be optimized for content playback of NAS stored movies, music and will seamlessly connect to and send the proper poster and information for display on the movie poster board and on the movie banner automatically.
Eventually we will make the move to replace our current Ultimate software with a clone based on this Unified-OS software when we release our Gen 3 touchscreen based movie boards next year.
We know that not everyone will need or want to purchase all our products, and many enthusiasts are fully comfortable building their own boards and only need the software. So we will continue to offer a version as a digital download for the DIY community. But there are also many other people who do not know, care, or have the time to research, build their own hardware. They just want something finished, programmed, and working. We will have options for everyone.
Pricing. Yes....there will be a cost involved. No more free lunch. Let's face it....we all know what a $20 a year product looks like. We have all dealt with buggy software that has no support, no further development team (if ever), and takes endless hours and days of google searching and testing just to get 1 feature to work. This will not be us. Yes....we are a business. And we are a for profit business. We spent a lot of money building this business and we spend a ton more to keep it going. Software development is not cheap. While I do not have at this time any pricing figures for the software I want to be transparent in saying the digital download will have a yearly price to be paid. Pay to play. If you want a product that is professionally developed and supported then you must support us by paying for the software. I promise we will not be gouging anyone's eye's out and it will be affordable. But it will NOT be $20 a year donation. We all know what that gets you.
We will also be selling content for your new Digital Movie Banner, Digital Movie Poster Board, Ultimate Movie Board, and Digital Media Player. Some versions of the software allow you to upload and use your own images, while other version will only be used with our purchased content. We hope this keeps the look and feel of all our products consistant and polished. Remember we are a business.
So now that you have all read the basics of our roadmap I'd like feedback and suggessions. Please...no more whinning about what was. Let's keep the topic about what can and will be. Remember that we can only continue to make these very niche software and products with the help of the community. I want to build a large community where we can all share tips, tricks, and content with each other. Let's keep things civil.
Thank you all.
Greetings everyone.
DMP....or what is now known as Digital Movie Poster is now out as a early release version .7 and available now only on our pre-made movie boards and DIY Upgrade Kit. All specs and features are available on the website. This is a early release with 4 planned quarterly updates scheduled this year. This new version has an official Kaleidescape ready plugin, as well as Kodi and Plex integration. User selectable upper and lower banners with your choice of fonts and colors. The strongest feature is the built in movie poster editor and tagging features. Plenty of experimental features for techies like YouTube streaming movie trailers, screen rotation, and more. Plenty of features still need to be added via the automatic update system but it's about 95% stable at this time and fully usable for most. During the next few weeks I will create a detailed user video as well as an instruction guide to post on the site. Currently we are extremely busy building and shipping movie boards and are planning another company expansion very soon so fulfilling orders and builds are a priority first.
Keep an eye out on the website and social media pages for more updates. Also watch for us at CEDIA in Colorado this year!
More news to follow soon.
Been very soon for almost 2 months any updates?
October 29, 2022
Our new MovieNow Poster Board and Digital Download software is about to be released in just a few short weeks. I've decided to lay out our pricing models, features, and roadmap.
So let's start from scratch. We have 3 Digital Movie Boards in our inventory..... The Ultimate Movie Board, The Arcade Game Board, and the MovieNow Poster Board. The Ultimate Movie Board is the big one. It plays movie posters, movie trailers, motion posters, videos, and more. The Arcade Game Board plays 900 original coin-operated video games from the 80's. The MovieNow Poster Board plays movie posters but no videos. So let's concentrate on the MovieNow Poster Board. We have been working the last several months in cleaning the code of the MovieNow app and building new features on top of the software. The goal of this MovieNow Poster Board and the Digital Download version is to have a premium, polished app that just works, is easy to use, and has features that are usefull while not bloating or overcomplicating operation. I believe we have a massive winner here! The current list of features are as follows ( some features may change before final release):
* The MovieNow Poster app will be available on our MovieNow Poster Boards as a complete all-in-one solution just like our Ultimate Movie Board, as well as a Digital Download version for users to purchase on-line, download, and install on their hardware.
* It will play movie posters, movie artwork, custom artwork, and all other static media from our website. The MovieNow Poster App does not play video content. That part is handled by our Ultimate Movie Board.
* The MovieNow Poster App will have user selectable upper and lower banners. These banners will also be defeatable when you want to display full screen 9:16 content.
* The MovieNow Poster App webcontrol will be completely revamped and updated and will be very modern looking and easy to use.
* You will now be able to rotate the software for different screen orientations.
* You will be able to create and name many folders for new content, and you can easily delete folders as well.
* You will be able to purchase content from our store to use on your MovieNow Poster App. Content includes posters, art paks, movie art paks, comic book paks, banners, and more. Easily drag and drop.
* You will be able to connect USB thumb drives for additional storage, as well as using most NAS drives.
* The MovieNow Poster App will be able to point to certain URL's for displaying on-line content. The URL's will point to our content as it will have to be optimized for the boards. This feature will become extremely powerful as we can now stream content to your movie board that is optimized and will not take away storage space. FANTASTIC!
* Kodi and Plex movie poster sync will be standard but will always remain as "experimental". This is because KODI and Plex are very dependent on your hardware, devices, and operating systems.
* Kalaidecape poster sync will be a built-in addon that will need to be purchased to be unlocked.
* A beautiful and easy to use webapp will allow for control of your movie board.
* An "Info Bar" will show various info like IP Address, memory usage, and a bit more.
* The MovieNow Poster App will have direct SONOS music integration allowing for a Now Playing screen to show what music you are listening to on your board when you have a SONOS music system in your home. FANTASTIC!
* Apple iWatch smartwatch control of your board is included. Control basic functions and playlist selection from your wrist. FANTASTIC!
* Built-in wifi and direct LAN connection built in with an all-new easy to use wizard to connect the board to your wifi.
* The MovieNow Poster App will run only on a Raspberry Pi 4. It may work on other models but we will only support and warranty the software when installed on the recommended hardware.
Pricing:
The complete all-in-one MovieNow Poster Board will sell for $1700.00 and will come with a coupon code good for 3 months of free content for your board.
The Digital Download version will cost $150.00 and will come with a 3 month subscription for free downloads valued at $150.00 thereby zeroing out the cost of the board.
If you are a owner of the older MovieNow app you will get a free upgrade and a coupon code for 30 days free downloads.
The Kalaidescape plug-in will cost $100.00.
So that is pretty much it. More info will follow in the coming days and weeks so stay tuned to our social media pages and here on the Digital Movie Boards forum.
JD
October 21, 2022 Today I invested in a new software called GigaPixel A.I. This is simply mind-blowing software that uses computer A.I. to upscale images and videos....and it does it extremely well. From today forward most all the content I provide will have some form of GigaPixel A.I. goodness done on it. This will translate to incredibly beautiful 4K images and videos playing on your movie boards regardless of how low def the original content is. This is a game changer for us because now every Digital Movie Board owner is going to get the best looking movie posters, movie trailers, and more content in the highest resolution and detail. Look for the GigaPixel A.I. logo on the content. Just another reason to join the Digital Movie Board club.
Any ETA on software only download? Probably going to go another direction if not anticipated in immediate future. Thanks.
August 27, 2022 Every custom movie trailer, every banner, every video we create or customize in order to get great content out to our awesome movie board owners. Currently I use the Corel line of video editing and photo editing software. It's nice, powerful, and easy to use. But it's not without it's limitations. Today I invested in the Adobe line of Pro grade photo and video software. Adobe ain't cheap, and not for the faint of heart. Their software is used by many film companies and is pretty much the standard in professional grade video editing tools. But I want to continue to improve my skills so that I can continue to give you pro quality content that you will be excited about. The learning curve is frightening and I certainly won't be able to take advantage of it any time soon but rest assured I'm on it. I'm excited to start to use it and can't wait to see what kind of trouble I can get into with content. Stay tuned and keep an eye out. JD
August 25, 2022 Much improvement has been made to the Movie Poster "Lite" app. It is basically finished other than some cosmetic upgrades. We have it running 24/7 on 2 boards in our showroom without any glitches, reboots, or freeze ups. We'll keep you guys updated.
Been a while just seeing if you have ETA for the download of this? Thanks.
Hello Folks,
Is there a way to add a Now Showing or Coming Soon banner?
I currently have MovieNow 4.1 with a raspberry pi, what are my options going forward to maintain the function of my DIY digital movie poster?
Yep....working on it.
will emby/jellyfin come to be supported there a big empty list for us emby/jellyfin user with poster support. right now i have to have a emby docker that i use daily and and plex docker just for the feed for movienow. and i cant take advantage of play time/state. also i love to see a mode to switch to show time slots of whats showing a fake list like at the real movies. back to the future showing at 1:00pm 3:20pm and 6:50pm in movie theater 2. with banner art pulled for plex/emby/jellyfin/kodi as a backgound with times overlayed on top of it or just below it.
also a ad showing would be great. like a ad saying dont forget the popcorn. or be sure to stop by the concession stand for all your goodies. just cute general apply to anyone fake ads.