User`s guide

32 Scheduler

Scheduler

The DVMHD has a down-to-the-minute scheduler based upon its internal real

time clock. According to the time of day and date of year, the DVMHD can

start a video or playlist at 3pm on January 1

2005, for example. This

functionality is built into a feature called the Scheduler.

The Basic Idea for Commands

All commands available to the Serial, UDP, and Playlist interface are available

to the Scheduler interface as well. Though there is a list of example commands

in the event table later in this section, please see the

General Command

Summary

section for a complete table of commands. The following section

describes how you format these commands for use in the scheduler.

File Format / Tutorial

The Scheduler uses a text file loaded in the SCHEDULES folder of the

DVMHD. The text file can be edited in a text editor, like notepad.

A schedule is composed of a list of events. An event is some sort of action that

must happen at a given time, whether it is changing to a new video or changing

the font.

An event has a variety of parameters that can be applied to it, in order to

customize the DVMHD’s control for your show. In order to understand how

you define an event in the DVMHD, let’s take this simplest example and build it

to the most feature-rich example.

Example 1: T:13:46 D:01/1/2000 E:COMMAND 1:1PL

An event exists on one line. It is made up of several fields. Example 1 shows

the minimum number of fields you need to define an event, which are an Event,

a Start Time, the first data field, and a Start Date. Each field begins with a

delimiter.

Here is a table of delimiters for your reference:

Delimiter Field

Starting time (hh:mm) (military time)

Starting date (mm/dd/yy or mm/dd/yyyy . You can use periods,

slashes, or dashes to separate dates)

Ending time (hh:mm) (military time)

Ending date (mm/dd/yy or mm/dd/yyyy . You can use periods,

slashes, or dashes to separate dates)

Event – always COMMAND for the DVMHD