Jonas Dannert

Hangam, What Panasonic projector is it, specifically? To me it seems like it ought to work. As I and JFK said in this recent thread on the forum: Jonas: http://forum.dataton.com/topic/1421-internal-dowsing-tcp-commands/?p=5698 By searching the Forum for "Panasonic", "PJlink" and "Panasonic control", I found this: http://forum.dataton.com/topic/1249-pjlink-from-watchout-crashing-projectors/ http://forum.dataton.com/topic/491-how-to-close-a-tcp-output-connection/ http://forum.dataton.com/topic/40-pjlink-protocol/ http://forum.dataton.com/topic/815-remote-controlling-with-watchout-problems/ JFK: http://forum.dataton.com/topic/1421-internal-dowsing-tcp-commands/?p=5700 And specifically, my post #7 under the topic - Remote Controlling with Watchout Problems is a "how to" for setting up and controlling the dowser of Panasonic projectors using the PJlink protocol. Hope this helps, /jonas

Mattiam, This is primary a "hardware at hand" type of question, there is no set limit in WATCHOUT, to my knowledge. /jonas

There is no specific WATCHOUT answer to this question. We rely on standard network hardware, and it's associated standard, that is your limitation for stable connectivity, from our point of view. If you want to try outside the limits of that, you'll have to test and verify. /jonas

Also, keep in mind that looping a video clip in WATCHOUT', means it plays twice ie consumes more resources. /jonas

Motherboard? Last BIOS installed? It's a longshot, but I wonder if it would help with 32GB of RAM, due to the graphics card has 16GB itself? Sounds like a more than capable system, from the hardware specs point of view. I would recommend to use the Tweaklist as the starting point: http://dataton.com/forum/topic/288-mpeg-settings/page__view__findpost__p__2369 What is you're source signal/signals here? Progressive or interlaced? Slot used on the motherboard? Capture settings in WATCHOUT? In theory you have a capable system, but in practice you'll need to find the bottleneck of the system. 4GB of RAM is not surprising, WATCHOUT is a 32-bit application, it can not use more than that for itself. But capture card and graphics card drivers (64bit) can make use of more memory on a 64-bit OS. No. I don't think so, but if you do, maybe turn that off? If possible, that is.

I'll suggest you try using URL-based images or Image Proxy. From the 5.5 Release Notes: URL-based images In addition to loading images from a file on disk, or from the Dynamic Image Server added in WATCHOUT version 5, you may now also load an image from a URL. This is similar to loading images through the Dynamic Image Server in that the image will be loaded afresh each time it's displayed, allowing images to be easily updated. The URL you specify may refer to an actual website on the Internet (e.g., a weather map), or may point to an in-house web server used only for serving images to WATCHOUT. To use this feature, first determine the URL of the image to be used. This can be done using a web browser by right-clicking the image and choosing "Copy Image Location", or similar command. This gives you the image URL. Open a new browser window and paste in the URL (which typically ends in .jpg or .png) to make sure you get just the image. Determine the dimensions of the image, in pixels, by dragging the image onto your hard drive and opening it using an image editor. In WATCHOUT, choose "Add Image Proxy" on the Media menu, paste in the URL of the image, and enter its dimensions. If the image contains transparency, select the type under "Transparency". Click OK, then use the image as usual in WATCHOUT. Each display computer will load the image from the URL every time it's displayed. NOTE: Unlike images served by the Dynamic Image Server, URL-based images won't update on screen if the original file changes while they're displayed. You need to close the image and re-display it using a new cue in order to update it on screen. /jonas

Yes, to me it is. Straight, short DVI cable to monitor = EDID info to graphic card works 100' fiber to Display over fiber = EDID seems not to work I'll suggest a separate EDID Manager, like TMB's DVI Parrot, per output. /jonas

Jean-Luc, To me, this is how to do it: Add a shortcut to WATCHOUT Display in Autostart folder Start WATCHOUT Display software Ctrl + W/File/Edit Startup Script Create a script like this (WATCHOUT 5.2 Users Guide/Display Cluster Protocol/P259) authenticate 1 setLogoString "The show will begin shortly"delay 5000load "MyShow"waitrun Also mentioned here on the forum 19 Sep: http://forum.dataton.com/topic/1433-display-edit-startup-script/?do=findComment&comment=5791 http://forum.dataton.com/topic/1127-watchpax-autostarttxt-script/ /jonas

Maybe look into this thread below: http://forum.dataton.com/topic/943-best-practice-for-redundant-show-playback-aka-backup/ /jonas

I have only seen this when a PCIe x4 slot defaulted to x1, ie a bandwidth issue. Your X79 motherboard seems capable enough. Are you running a non-standard BIOS? Version of WATCHOUT? Version of Datapath driver? /jonas

Not exactly, but Ctrl + J and then copy the position time to the duration box works. If the Timeline in question is empty after where you at. /jonas

You're welcome! Nice that it works now, seems like a nice projector. /jonas

You're welcome! You can use either green or blue for background, or selective for any pure color. From the manual P40/P185: Using Transparency P40 In order to include transparency information in the movie file, you must choose the QuickTime Animation codec set to use “Millions+” of colors. The “+” at the end stands for the transparency information. This is sometimes called “Millions+Alpha”. You must also use an application that’s capable of repro- ducing and/or generating transparency information, such as Adobe After Effects. Key (Green/Blue) P185 Makes a green or blue background transparent. This is sometimes referred to as a “green screen” or “chromakey” effect, and is typically used with live video, although it can be used with any kind of image. Adjust the Threshold and Contrast parameters for best effect. ◆ HINT:For non-rectangular video playback, you can often use a pure green or blue background, combined with this tween track, as an alternative to a true alpha channel. This allows you to use to use more efficient video codecs than QuickTime Animation, such as MPEG-2 or H.264. Key (Selective) Makes any specific, pure color transparent. This can, for example, be used to make a black background transparent (sometimes referred to as a “luma keyer”). Select the color using the color swatch, then adjust the Threshold and Softness parameters for the desired effect. ◆ HINT: Use this feature to display Powerpoint slides, fed through a capture card Live Video or a Computer Screen media item, on top of a background produced in WATCHOUT. Specify a suitable background color in the Powerpoint presentation, which is then made transparent using this effect. /jonas

Disappear how? What content is used in these Auxiliary Timelines? /jonas

Seems capable enough. If this means 209 Mbps for a 1920x1080 file, I would say that here is your problem. Instead of Animation codec, try use a h264 with green, blue or black background and apply a Keying tween track on the file. It will save you valuable resources. Seems normal. /jonas

Specs on these computers? (Processor/graphics card/SSD etc) Specs on the video content used? (File-size in pixels/Bitrate/Codec used etc) It might be due to a mismatch between the PC hardware at hand and content used, see above. Yes, that's exactly what will happen. If an output is lost in Windows, there is nothing WATCHOUT can do about it. Yes, it might, in this case. This is the only way to be sure that an output stays consistent. Yes, the content spec vs your hardware at hand, see above. /jonas

No, the "Edit Startup Script" is not only for WATCHPAX. It's empty in WATCHOUT, but not in WATCHPAX. It's free to add there yourself, exactly as before. If you want add autostart in the script, either copy the same info as used in WATCHPAX from here: http://forum.dataton.com/topic/1127-watchpax-autostarttxt-script/ Or create a text yourself, with only what's needed, as described in the WATCHOUT 5.2 User Guide. P259 in the Display Cluster Protocol chapter. To run the Main Timeline from a show named "MyShow": authenticate 1 setLogoString "The show will begin shortly"delay 5000load "MyShow"waitrun To run an Auxiliary Timeline named "MyAuxTL", from a show named "MyShow": authenticate 1setLogoString "The show will begin shortly"delay 5000load "MyShow"waitrun MyAuxTL "setLogoString" is not necessary, but will show at startup as a confirmation that the script is used. /jonas

Your'e doing it correctly, if you're using WATCHOUT 5, that is. But to begin with, you'll need an ACTIVE DP/MiniDP->VGA-adapter, I think. Preferably one uses digital outputs, rather than analog. Are there any other outputs available on the card? (and what graphic card is it?) http://forum.dataton.com/topic/93-wo5-multi-output/ No, you should not do that. See above. /jonas

I did not mean that a M2 drive does not work. M2 x2 is more or less similar to SATA Express or SATAe which replaces SATA3 (6 Gbps) and doubles the theoretical speed possible to 12 Gbps. It means without NVMHCI you're not reach the full potential of M2 at x4. And RAID two M2 x2 or x4 drives makes then no sense without NVMHCI. NVMHCI is only natively supported by Microsoft in Windows 8.1. This was my only point. There are also other bottlenecks in a media server system that has to be considered. There are only so much hardware power you can throw at a problem, and get a proper return on investment, without looking at the system as a whole, including WATCHOUT itself. /jonas

And the next step will be NVMHCI, to make things easier...and faster! Not too far away, though, needs Windows 8.1, at the moment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVM_Express http://www.nvmexpress.org/ http://komposter.com.ua/documents/NVMe-and-AHCI-as-SATA-Express-Interface-Options.pdf Still confused, at a higher level... /jonas

Martin, This older post might be of help: Edge blending with more than two projectorsStarted by Sebastian, Nov 01 2012 06:19 PM http://forum.dataton.com/topic/703-edge-blending-with-more-than-two-projectors/?p=2556 "- avoid high brightness/dynamic modes, opt for natural/video/cinema instead." /jonas

Here's a bit more, from Anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8480/matrox-to-use-amd-gpus-in-their-next-generation "The announcement states that "key features of the selected AMD GPU include 28nm technology with 1.5 billion transistors; DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.4 and OpenCL 1.2 compatibility; shader model 5.0; PCI Express 3.0 and 128-bit memory interface." From that we can surmise that Matrox will be using a variant of the Cape Verde GCN core, which is one of the lower performance GCN parts from AMD. In fact, Matrox may actually be using AMD's FirePro W600 cards, only with custom Matrox-developed software applications" And KitGuru: http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/matrox-to-use-amd-radeon-graphics-chips-for-next-gen-graphics-cards/ "The new generation of Matrox graphics solutions will be based on AMD’s code-named Cape Verde graphics processing unit (GCN 1.0 architecture, 640 stream processors, 40 texture units, 16 raster operating units, 128-bit memory bus) that powers AMD Radeon R7 250X/AMD Radeon 7700-series graphics cards. Thanks to support for DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.4, OpenCL 1.2 and other new technologies, Matrox’s graphics adapters will finally be able to offer modern features and capabilities already provided by other graphics solutions." Still interesting to try them out, I think /jonas

Interesting, saw it this morning. Reportedly based on the same GPU as AMD FirePro W600. http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/press/releases/2014/graphics_cards/c-series/ http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/press/releases/2014/graphics_cards/c-series/?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20140911_C-Series_English /jonas

I don't think one will be able to play 24 simultaneous 1080p 60fps 40mbps mpeg2-files off one machine, "beast" or not. Your overhead then will be very slim, if any... Windows 7 64-bit. If X99 is to be used to full extent, it need 4 modules, I would use 16 GB (4x4GB) or more. 64-bit and more memory than 4 GB RAM is needed by capture cards etc No, because BMD mini recorder is a HDSDI card ie 1080i60 (1,5G), not 1080p60. For that a 3G-SDI card is required. Preferably Datapath VisionSDI2: http://www.datapath.co.uk/products/video-capture-cards/vision-range/visionsdi2 Use a watercooling system, and there are many good 19"-chassies to choose from. You'll minimum need a X99 8-core system, i7-5960X, I believe.

Incredibly fast is not a spec, please be specific. On the CCTV camera, too. /jonas