MovieStim - Wait to play until a button is pressed

Builder
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1

PsychoPy (v2022.2.1)

Hello :slight_smile:
I am trying to play a movie stimulus for an experiment, but I want it to start playing after I press a play button. Specifically, I want the movie to appear on the screen paused and then play after the button has been pressed. I preferably do not want a key press though.

a. The movie stimulus (VideoPres) is set to start at – time(s) 0. I do not want to use a condition (although it works), because that means the stimulus will appear when the condition is met.
b. My ‘play button’ is basically an Image with a mouse component.
c. I have a code:

Begin Routine

if VideoPres.status == PLAYING:
    VideoPres.pause()

Each Frame

if PlayMouse.isPressedIn(PlayButton):
    VideoPres.play()

What have I tried:

I tried using VideoPres.autoStart(False) and other possibilities of the VideoPres.status and functions, which I do not clearly remember right now, because I have been trying different things for the past day.

With an if/else statement, it seemed to work, but only if the mouse is being pressed continuously.

What seemed to work:

I eventually went to the python script, and changed the code here. Specifically, I changed VideoPres.play() – to – VideoPres.pause(). That worked perfectly when I was running it as a py file, but I have no idea how to run it in Pavlovia, without using the Builder. I tried syncing the file with the Pavlovia project, but when I ran it it looked like nothing was synced.

 # *VideoPres* updates
        if VideoPres.status == NOT_STARTED and tThisFlip >= 0-frameTolerance:
            # keep track of start time/frame for later
            VideoPres.frameNStart = frameN  # exact frame index
            VideoPres.tStart = t  # local t and not account for scr refresh
            VideoPres.tStartRefresh = tThisFlipGlobal  # on global time
            win.timeOnFlip(VideoPres, 'tStartRefresh')  # time at next scr refresh
            # add timestamp to datafile
            thisExp.timestampOnFlip(win, 'VideoPres.started')
            VideoPres.setAutoDraw(True)
            VideoPres.pause()
        if VideoPres.status == FINISHED:  # force-end the routine
            continueRoutine = False

Any ideas/help is greatly appreciated! I have run out of options :frowning:

2

At present, what I think of is that you can use mouse, and then put a Button to control the video playback time by setting the time

3

Hey, thank you for your suggestion. That is what I am trying to do. I have a mouse and a button component. What I am trying to do is, when the button is clicked (mouse.isPressedIn(button), the video plays. I am having trouble understanding what you mean by ‘setting the time’ though?

4

Hi Danae! Were you able to get this to function? I’m having the same issue and would love to see how you solved this if so!

5

Hey :slight_smile: I ended up writing this code:

if frameN == 0:
    VideoPres.pause()
    
if PlayMouse.isPressedIn(PlayButton):
    VideoPres.play()

where VideoPres is the name of your video component, PlayMouse the name of your mouse component and PlayButton the name of your button component.

I hope this helps!