Brecht Posted March 27, 2018 Report Share Posted March 27, 2018 Hi all, How doable is this? https://imgur.com/a/70GX8 I have 4 server with 6 outputs each at my disposal so hardware is no issue. All the screens (LCD) are supposed to show different videos (so far nothing special) but somethimes they should be showing one big picture. The client is aware of the difference in quality between the two setups, but I'm not sure of the how-to. Is the fact that some screens are in portrait a big isue or do I just rotate them? Do I just load all these screens in my stage and 'throw' the media over it? How do I counter the difference in size is? All the screens are 1920 x 1080 but going from 10" to 65"... I'm not expecting a complete manual, but if someone who did this kind of setup before could just give me some 'tips and tricks'? Thanks in advance! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dataton Partner RBeddig Posted March 27, 2018 Dataton Partner Report Share Posted March 27, 2018 My internet does not allow me to follow your link right now but I guess I know what you want to achieve. You'll find the information in the manual on pages 76 and 77. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator jfk Posted March 27, 2018 Moderator Report Share Posted March 27, 2018 1 hour ago, Brecht said: Hi all, How doable is this? https://imgur.com/a/70GX8 Very doable. 1 hour ago, Brecht said: I have 4 server with 6 outputs each at my disposal so hardware is no issue. All the screens (LCD) are supposed to show different videos (so far nothing special) but somethimes they should be showing one big picture. You will need to perform the math to scale them in the WATCHOUT stage so that a single image placed across all of them comes out the same size on each display. You will need to know the resolution of each display and the exact width/height of each one in order to perform the math. (Yes, you know the diagonals, but it is not uncommon to encounter two displays with the same diagonal that are slightly different when the actual measurements are compared. It would also be useful to know if any of the displays are overshooting (not displaying some of the pixels), as this is common with consumer grade panels (or at least it was). You will also need to know the exact distances between the visible area of each display (bezel sizes will vary - measure to the visible area). With all that information in hand, you can accurately lay out the WATCHOUT stage to accomplish your task. 1 hour ago, Brecht said: The client is aware of the difference in quality between the two setups, but I'm not sure of the how-to. Is the fact that some screens are in portrait a big isue No 1 hour ago, Brecht said: or do I just rotate them? Yes, you rotate them in WATCHOUT (do not rotate them in graphics card settings) 1 hour ago, Brecht said: Do I just load all these screens in my stage and 'throw' the media over it? Sort of, with the caveats above - yes. 1 hour ago, Brecht said: How do I counter the difference in size is? All the screens are 1920 x 1080 but going from 10" to 65"... To scale for the different sizes, in the display dialog, you uncheck the Width and Height same as Display Resolution setting, and with the proper math, you will compensate for those differences by adjusting the stage resolution. 1 hour ago, Brecht said: I'm not expecting a complete manual, but if someone who did this kind of setup before could just give me some 'tips and tricks'? Thanks in advance! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brecht Posted March 27, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2018 26 minutes ago, jfk said: To scale for the different sizes, in the display dialog, you uncheck the Width and Height same as Display Resolution setting, and with the proper math, you will compensate for those differences by adjusting the stage resolution. Ok wow that's what I was looking for! Thnaks guys! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zackboyd Posted March 27, 2018 Report Share Posted March 27, 2018 To add to JFK - I would recommend using virtual displays in case you have scenes where the displays are one big canvas, and other scenes where they're used as traditional displays... I've made the mistake before of locking myself into one big canvas, only to have the director ask for individual screens and having to scale the media down into the canvas size. Z 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member matkeane Posted March 28, 2018 Member Report Share Posted March 28, 2018 Assuming the forum moderators have no objection to blatant self-promotion, I built an app to help with display layouts like this. Enter the screen resolution and dimensions, the offset between screens (use a negative value for the overlap), and the app works out the stage size calculations for you, ready to paste into Watchout. You can download it from my website: https://matkeane.com/project/watchout-display-builder-softedge-calculator The version currently online only supports display rotations in 90 degree increments, so there's one display in your layout you'd have to tweak by hand. Also working on supporting virtual displays as well as 2D displays. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brecht Posted March 29, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2018 On 3/27/2018 at 4:19 PM, jfk said: You will need to perform the math to scale them in the WATCHOUT stage so that a single image placed across all of them comes out the same size on each display. Do you mean that I can't (or shoudn't?) scale my image but rather make all the displays smaller (a lot!) so that they fit the resolution of the image? What is the best way to do? Scale the displays or scale the image? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator jfk Posted March 29, 2018 Moderator Report Share Posted March 29, 2018 6 hours ago, Brecht said: Do you mean that I can't (or shoudn't?) scale my image but rather make all the displays smaller (a lot!) so that they fit the resolution of the image? What is the best way to do? Scale the displays or scale the image? Not sure I understand the question. When you say "scale the image" do you mean pre-scale it to compensate for magnification differences before bringing it to WATCHOUT? No need. You are free to scale the images you wish to place across multiple displays, of course. If set up correctly, you do not need to scale them for each display, that is done globally by the proper stage setup. My response is valid for versions 4 & 5 & 6. I agree with zachboyd, with v6, doing this with virtual displays adds some flexibility. The math is the basically same either way. As for which displays you run native resolution and which displays you run scaled, - it is a personal choice Just keep in mind the impact on hardware demand. i.e.WATCHOUT can do it either way - you can run the largest displays native and scale up for the smaller displays (lowest hardware demand), or you can run the smallest displays native and scale down for the larger displays (much higher hardware demand). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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