hello, i make new Movie options (movie channel?) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNDUYIi-tAw (polish game version)

thank you

Alright I followed the steps and I'm trying to get the TestVID Coffee uploaded to work.

The channel name and everything appears on my TV, but I still get the blue screen...
My EP:
-Sims2
-Pets
-Seasons
-OFB
-Nightlife

I also have University but its NOT installed.
I can't seem to get my game to work with University even without custom content.
It's probably because its the DVD edition and my other ones are CD edition.

i am having a problem my channel was working then it does not it just plays commercial after commercial please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Windows Movie Maker or game itself
Set to low size and low quality ingame

Wow! Thanks for the tutorial, now my Sims will have more programs to watch.

i got my tv channel working and with out the blue flashing screen and it works on all tvs sims 2 tvs and mod tvs and full screen and i have all the EPS and SPs too

I followed all the steps and it doesn't even appear as in the popup menu for me when trying to change channels.
I'm using the sims 2 ultimate edition downloaded through origin, and I'm modifying the broadcast.ini file in the Apartment Life folder.
The game detected the package file and told me to activate it, so I did.

Origin downloaded my version of the sims in Swedish without asking me (I would prefer it in English).
Could that cause any problems? I even added a swedish translation for the popup menu in the package file.

Edit: I got it to work but having the blue flashing screen glitch. I'll look back in the thread for a solution

doesn't work with sims ultimate collection .. not sure what to do broadcast ini keeps being over-written.. channel changes to what you want .. but no folders work .. just a blue screen.. do I mess with the additions ( expansions ) because those are all in packages no files exist to keep the broadcast ini. connected to folders..

To make it work edit Broadcast.ini in The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSData\Res\UserData\Config and delete Broadcast.ini from C:\My Dokuments\EA Games\The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection\Config

How you made it?

I hope you don't mind, but I converted this Tutorial to PDF for folks to Download or Print, who don't always have access to the Internet.

Confused, what do you change the 0x1DBEE13A to?

This entire “tutorial” is a headache and an utter mess. Despite following this tedious tutorial to a T this is the end result. I’ve tried multiple things written in this “tutorial” and all I’m getting is not even blue screens, but no screens at all.

Which makes no sense as it’s obviously not a codec issue as if I place the video files into other folders, the video works. But if I use this mod? No chance

What exactly do you mean by that? Do you put the video files into the folders of other TV channels, such as TvChildren or TvMusic, and they play fine there?

I have gotten custom TV channels to work and I'd love to help you get them working for your game, too.

Hey first of all, thank you so much for being willing to help me. I was not expecting that and I’m genuinely touched

Yes! So when I put the AVI video files into the maxis made regular tv channels or movie folders, they work perfectly fine. However when I make this mod following the tutorial, whenever I put the movies into the new custom channel folder (in broadcasts), edit the broadcast file in mansion and garden (program files), load up my game and switch the tv channels on, I end up with the issue of the screen being invisible, and not even playing sound. It’s mega frustrating because I’m obviously missing something that’s not well pointed out in the tutorials I’ve been looking at, but I just don’t get this!

If you would like, I can upload the mods I have made, and you can take a look yourself and let me where I’m going wrong with this please?

My main ambition with this project is to eventually have all the tv shows & movies from sims 3 + 4 in the sims 2 so that there is a constant variety on TV.

Then it's definitely not the video clips, as you correctly deduced.

The error must lie either in something that went wrong with the .package file for the custom TV channel, or the Broadcast.ini being set up wrong.


I'd appreciate that, yeah. Then I'll be able to compare against my working ones.


That's a good ambition! I like the Sims 3 ones in particular because, fun fact, these use footage from Sims 2, so it feels very "intended".
Sims 4 TV clips were filmed in Sims 3 instead.

I completely agree with you 100%, like sims 3t2 is my main focus in regards to the television situation.
I managed to figure out what the issue with the screen was, turns out one simple character mistake in the broadcast file makes it freak out. After some combing i managed to get the channels to work. However I have now come to another issue haha. Okay, so I managed to get the Vampire movie to work perfectly fine, mod is set up - everything works. But when i add the zombie movie, the vampire movie now no longer shows up in the Tv pie menu in game? i've attached a rar file with the mods, video files and broadcast file to see if you notice something I'm not? honestly, thank you so much btw

Argh, that's super annoying! Glad you found it, these are hard to track back to.


Congratulations, you have created your first own mod conflict!

The Group instances of both movies are identical, so when both are in the game, you only see the one that loads last in load order. In this case, that'll be zombiemovie since z comes after v in the alphabet.
The tutorial does do it but fails to bring it up as an important thing to keep in mind - there is a Group instance that Maxis reserved for custom content: 0xFFFFFFFF.
Normally you can only have one object of a Group instance in your game, but if your custom object uses this specific group, then you can have as many as you want, and instead you can get GUID conflicts within that reserved Group instance if you're not careful.

Check the image in this spoiler to see everything I found that's either completely bonkers to be there in this form, or just not needed to have:

What I also noticed, but probably isn't all that bad, is that the GUID for the Vampire movie is not in line with the rest, you probably used SimPE's own Hash Generator to generate them, I'm assuming? Since the Zombie movie's GUID lines up with the word "zombiemovie" in the Hash Generator, you'll want to make the GUID for the Vampire movie 0x003EABF3. At the moment it's the same GUID used for the NREF resource in both movie packages.

There are a few other things I changed as well.

• Firstly, I emptied all the language strings except for US English to avoid issues if people want to ever use your movies and play in different languages than US English. I did add UK English and a free translation to German for you
• Secondly, I deleted all resources that are unnecessary to get your movies to work. Those were: the second Object Functions resource (this is a relic of the whole Group instance thing, you really only need one per object usually), the completely empty "User Defined" resource, and the five Audio References (these are never used in the final game).
• Thirdly, I went to the "CT - Get Like Value" BHAV resource and changed it so then Sims will dislike, like or love your movies based on their Paranormal Interest, and not based on their Active personality. XD
• Finally, I went to the Broadcasts.ini and made sure your movie material names were all lower-case. I'm not sure if it plays a role but I'd just like to be 100% safe.

I hope you enjoy spooking your Sims with these movies!

First of all I want to say thank you and you are a legend, you really didn't need to use your time to help me so much, let alone help build the mod. If there is anyway I can buy you a drink for doing this for me, please let me know. That was really kind. The mod is now working perfectly and I've also now managed to have a look at the changes you have made and made similar changes to an action movie file I was also working on. Thank you so effin much. You have honestly saved me from so much brain rot, and have ultimately inspired me to continue to mod and build up my knowledge of simpe. thank you thank you thank you!