bgarrett

I am trying to control a IDK MSD 502 matrix switcher from Watchout using RS232. IDK tells me that the code to make this happen is @EXC,1 @EXC, 1 will trigger a shutter command that is stored in the switcher. I was able to make the switcher work in a terminal software, but when I hook it up to WO nothing happens. I tried to add $0D to the front and back of the code. I have the settings correct. Baud rate 9600, no parity. I will take any suggestions. Thanks, Bg

I did purchase some nice cable that is cat6a with good shielding. Here is the link: http://pub.tmb.com/ProPlex/CAT6a/pdf/ProPlex-CAT6a-A4-web.pdf Do you think radios will be able to interfere with good quality shielded cat6a cable?

Does anyone have any experience with Lightware products mentioned above and HDbaseT in live productions. I am getting ready to purchase the gear and sure could use the advice.

Does anyone have an update on this topic. We are getting ready to use HD BaseT with a quad server and would like to know if anyone has some advise.

Thank you all for the responses. I was able to make both ways work with Mike's suggestions. I have a Datapath Vision card that I was able to use as a second display and I also was able to install Photoshop on the display computer in order to use the remote computer. Thanks again. Brent

Hello, I recently had a project that I projected on two organic shaped projection screens. Projection surface #1is a piece of spandex like materiel that was stretched out to look like a flower blossom with the center coming to a inner point. Projection surface #2 was a group of white umbrellas that were group together to make a large projection surface. Both projectors over shot the projection surface, bleeding light onto the wall behind it. I wanted to make a black mask to make sure the light that overshot the the projection surfaces was black and not content. My question is what is the best way to do this? Have other WO users found a good way to build masks? I am currently using WO 5. I am looking to upgrade to 6 at some point. Right now I use Photoshop with a touchscreen monitor with a stylus. I make marks in PS and then save, switch over to WO, refresh media, then update WO. It becomes somewhat of a guessing game on where my marks go in PS. The bouncing back and forth from WO and PS gets tedious. Is there a way to draw a mask right in WO so that I can see what I am drawing in real time? Can I do this somehow in WO 6? I saw there was a mask tool in 6. I can post an image but I couldn't figure out how to upload an attachment. Thanks, Brent

Hello, I am getting ready to purchase four Panasonic RW630 laser projectors. I am planning on sending HDbaseT to the projectors through the Lightware DVI-HDCP-TPS-TX210. I own a ShowSage ShowServer Core R4 server with an AMD Firepro W5100. Has anyone used the Lightware DVI-HDCP-TPS-TX210 HDbaseT extender with Watchout? After talking with Lightware I felt the DVI-HDCP-TPS-TX210 looked like a great solution. It has advanced EDID configuration and is powered off its own power supply and not the graphics card. I wouldn't need an additional EDID emulator. I will also be sending either PJ Link for RS232 commands to the projectors for powering on/off and shuttering. If anyone has experience with this equipment I would greatly appreciate your opinion. I would rather find out now instead of during load in. Thanks, Brent

So does that mean a version 6 dongle will work with a version 5 project? Thanks.

Has anyone had a good experience with the Blackmagic mini recorder? Did BMD update the drive to accept an RGB signal in the HDMI input? How well does the SDI input work?

Hello, I currently use PJ Link to control my Eiki X85 projectors. I use a TCP/IP string out of WO to shutter and power on my projectors. It works most of the time. I edge blend the projectors and I need them to shutter simultaneously. Sometimes that happens and sometimes it doesn't. One projector might lag behind. In the past I have controlled my projectors through the serial ports-rs232. It was solid. I had no issues with the serial ports on the display computer and the projector. I have seen the serial over ip converters and was wondering if they are as reliable as the standard rs232 with WO. Can anyone comment on that? What brand and model works best? Also now that computers are much more powerful and can output to multiple displays simultaneously, I want to know how WO users are able to control multiple projectors, individually, from one computer. The production computer sends out the TCP/IP output strings unlike rs232 which comes from the display computer. I have read that the serial over ip devices create virtual com ports and I was under the impression that WO can only send commands out of com port 1. Do the virtual com ports confuse the computer and WO? Can someone please explain this to me before I purchase a serial to ip device? I found this converter online. I believe it will allow me to control the four projectors individually. Do you think it will work? http://gridconnect.com/usb-to-serial/serial-to-ethernet/ethernet-tcp-ip-controller-with-4-serial-ports-rs232-rs422-rs485.html# Thanks, Brent

Hello, I have been working with Rob on this issue. We have seemed to figure out a work around with the projectors not shuttering on a consistent basis through TCP/IP and PJ Link. We figured out that if we send a command moments or seconds after the port has closed the projector doesn't seem to receive the command. Watchout will give us an error. We figured this out with Wireshark. So we set up an Aux timeline that sends a carriage return every 35 seconds to the projectors. That keeps the port open and we seemed to have good results. The issue that we are still having is that sometimes the projectors don't always shutter at the same time and sometimes they do. In the theater we need them to shutter at the same time during blackouts. I have been looking at serial over IP devices. Do you think this will be more reliable than what we have going with PJ Link? If I have one quad output server can I assign four projectors their own com port and be able to control them individually? I thought Watchout can only be used on Com port 1 and it looks like the serial over IP devices take up additional comm ports. If someone has a good suggestion on what brand and type of serial to IP converters to purchase for controlling projectors, I would appreciate it. Thanks, Brent

Hi Mike, Thanks for the reply. I am using a tween track. When you say external control. Do you mean through a video switcher. Thanks, Brent

I have a Show*Server CUBE: Intel i7 Quad-core CPU (i7-4770K), 16GB RAM, 128GB OS SSD, 512GB WATCHOUT/Media SSD, Quad-output 2GB Graphics Card (FirePro W4100). I have a Datapath Vision SD4+1s video capture card installed in the PCIe x4 slot of the Show Server. The capture card requires a PCIe x4 slot. So I don't think the capture card will steal bandwidth from the graphics card in the computer. I am trying to capture four standard def camera signals that I can use as live inputs on four outputs going to projectors. The cameras look great and have very little delay. I was very impressed with the quality and the ease of hookup. As I continued to test this system I did see some issue with cross dissolving from a movie/video to the live camera video. You see a little stutter in the movie/video just before the dissolve to the live cameras. Once the dissolve has happened everything seems to run smooth. Just wondering what could be causing the bottleneck in making the video stutter. Is it the video card, the computers processor or the ram that would make it stutter? Are there any tricks to possibly make this run more smooth or am I asking too much out of this computer? If I only used two display outputs instead of the four would the computer and the video card handle the four live inputs better? Or does the video card even know that I am only using two outputs? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, B

My video card has four mini displayports. I need two dvi outputs and two vga outputs out of the card. The resolution for all outputs will be 1024x768. Can I use two active vga adapters and two dvi active adapters from the same graphics card?

How do I setup the iMac to not require HDCP handshake? I have a Blackmagic decklink card and I couldn't get Watchout to see the iMac. I would see the iMac flashing on the Watchout display computer but I couldn't get it to stay a solid image.

Hello, Does anyone have experience capturing DVI video and sound into Watchout? I am looking at purchasing the Datapath Vision AV/F capture card. I have video and audio that has to come from an iMac. I was going to come out of the iMac via thunderbolt to DVI, then into a Watchout display computer through the Datapath Vision AV/F. I was going to take the audio out of the 1/8" jack on the iMac and into the Datapath Vision AV/F card. Will the audio and video be in sync? Is this even possbile? Any suggestions would be great. Thanks, Brent

JFK, Thanks for the reply. I am looking at purchasing a four output WatchCube from Show Sage for a high school theater that I am consulting on. I want to use the HDBaseT to run from the rack that the WatchCube will be living in to the stage. Which is 250' away from the rack. Do you think the graphics card in the WatchCube might have some issues with this.? For instance the EDID information. Thanks, Bg

How about Watchout with HDbaseT? Has anyone used that with Watchout?

Hello, Has anyone used Watchout with Panasonic's Digital Link? If so please share your opinion. Thanks, Brent

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s239/sh/3452ba5b-3dd0-46a1-b537-050885b5ed8b/58451eb3feda5648b783ea0532745bdf Here is a link to settings we used for controlling a Panasonic projector through PJ link. I hope it helps. You might need to download Evernote to view the link. Brent

Hello, I am looking for an active male display port to male HDMI adapter/cable. All I can find is an adapter with a female HDMI adapter. Is that the only way to make it active. With a female HDMI end, that is another connection point that can come unhooked. Thanks, Brent

Thank you for the responses. I am concerned about the extra brightness in the quadruple overlap. How does the pt dz21 correct for this? Is that part of the brightness and color matching that the projector has? And please explain how I would be sacrificing general blacklevels? My original plan was to put the projectors is portrait mode, which would work great, except I read that you only get 1000 hours out of your bulb life in portrait mode. The bulbs should typically be able to last 3000 hours in its standard orientation. This setup is going into a high school theater that needs to have very little maintenance and very little maintenance cost. I did look at the short throw lens also, but I don't think it will work for this application. My boss is also concerned about using the panasonic projectors. He has always been a Eiki guy, but Eiki doesn't have a projector that can be used in portrait mode. Does anyone have an opinion on that? How reliable is panasonic. How is the customer service? Thanks for you responses. I really appreciate it. Can't wait to take a look at WO6. Brent

Hello, I am a WO user that is looking to use four Panasonic PT-DX100 projectors to create a large edge blended image. The projector has its own edge blending capabilities too. I have 16' of depth and I am projecting rear screen. I want the four projectors to be configured two over two with them all edge blending. I think I can get the all the blends to look good except the blend where all four projectors overlap directly in the middle of my image. That would be the brightness of four projectors overlapping creating a bright hotspot in the middle of my large image. Has anyone dealt with this and if so could you give me some advice on the situation. Thanks, Brent

Hello, Has anyone used the NVIDIA Quadro K4000 video card? The one I am looking at is 3GB. It has 2 DP and 1 DVI-I. I am looking at getting two outputs out of this video card. The computer I am looking at purchasing is listed below. Dell Precision T3610 Win 7 1 TB Samsung SSD 8gb Ram NVIDIA Quadro K4000 video card Thanks, Brent

Hello, I need to update my computers and I was looking at some Dell computers. I would like to be able to output 2 1920x1080 HD signals out of one display computers with tweens and other effects/warping involved. Due to tight budgets I will have to keep my production computer and just update the display computers. My production computers are Dell Optiplex 960 3.17 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo with 4 gig of ram and 7200 rpm hard drive. Will this computer and card work for the display computer: Dell Optiplex 9020 Mini Tower Intel® Core™ i7-4790 Processor (Quad Core, 8MB, 3.60GHz Windows 7 Professional English/French 64bit 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Memory 256GB 2.5inch Solid State Drive AMD Radeon™ R7 250 , 2GB, Full Height, (DP and DVI-I) Here are the details on the graphics cards: Up to 2GB GDDR5 or DDR3 28nm DirectX® 12, Mantle, OpenGL 4.3, OpenCL PCIE 3.0 No Video Codec Engine (VCE) (with H.264, MPEG-4 ASP, MPEG-2, VC-1 & Blu-ray 3D) Clock speed Up to 1.05GHz 2 AMD CrossFire® Support (Maximum number of GPUs) Memory Bandwidth-Up to 72 GB/s Thanks, Brent