Mike Fahl

We just did a live stream of our Blocks 5 launch from RTSP camera to YouTube. We used the open source OBS streaming solution, which worked perfectly. You can watch the result here. You do need to get the right URL of course. Those can be tricky to find. Port 554 is standard for the RTSP protocol. You say you got an RTSP URL working fine in VLC and OBS already, which is a good sign. Are you trying to get the stream into WATCHOUT? Or what's your problem here, and how does it relate to this forum? Mike

I've successfully used it in VMWare Fusion in the past. It's not great in terms of performance, but it does work. VMWare Fusion is similar virtualization software, but there may of course be some subtle driver differences or such. You may want to try Fusion. Mike

Interesting that it loads OK once WO is restarted (presumably by the watchdog), but not with the previous show loaded. So sounds like a bug to me. Since it crashes, the Windows Event log pertaining to the crash will likely be of more use than any WO log, as it may indicate where and why WO crashed. I often found that to be useful in figuring out where things went wrong and fix it. You may need to dig around a bit in Windows Event viewer, assuming it's still there (don't recall for how long those are preserved). Mike

Yes; it never really existed ;-). It was more of a concept, based on a Pioneer car stereo deck, if I remember correctly. That deck went out of production before we got around building a product around it. Mike

I don't think WATCHNET supports that options. FYI, PIXILAB Blocks does support this setting, and has similar WATCHOUT control functions as WATCHNET. It also does many other things. This is a separate product though, and is not a Dataton solution. WATCHNET wasn't really designed as a full fledged presentation product, with its own media presentation capabilities, but more as a remote control solution specifically for WATCHOUT. Mike

I don't believe MICSOFT manuals ever existed in electronic form. But if they did, I'm sure Jim has a copy stashed away somewhere. Also, note that MICSOFT predates TRAX, and isn't file compatible. I.e., any show you may have producer in TRAX will not load into MICSOFT. Mike

The "authenticate" command isn't needed on the UDP port as far as I can recall. From the IOCORE manual, it definitely doesn't seem tp support appengin $0D as a "carruage return". You may want to send the command without any carriage return when using UDP. If that doesn't work, the only way by which you can send CR as far as I can tell from the manual is to send the entire command as HEX. Another option is yo send the command as TCP instead of UDP. Here you need to use the authenticate command. But in this case, you can mix sending commands as text and the CR as hex (here just 0D). Mike

Yes, I believe the last (often large) number is the "system time". All times are in mS. WO will send such messsages to subscribers when there's an abrupt change (such as a timeline starting/stopping). In between such abrupt changes, WO will send an update every couple of seconds anyway. You then need to extrapolate from the most recent value if you need more continuous time position data. Mike

I don't think IOCORE interprets $0D as carriage return, but sends it as plain text, which is then not understood by WO. Check the documentation of IOCORE to see how to send control characters. You may also simply try removing the trailing $0D after each command. As you send them with UDP, WO may accept them without explicit line ending (since UDP sends an individual packet for each command anyway). Mike

Please contact Dataton Support for obtaining access to these details. I no longer work there, so I don't want to pass along information that's not in the official documentation. Mike

Jim, I guess that should be DHCP (i.e., automatic/dynamic IP address). HDCP is something quite different. Mike

You can just make the edge-blend gradient in Photoshop or similar, and add it as a separate layer on top. It's essentially a black image with a transparency gradient. Test, djust the curvature of the gradient as required, update the media, rinse and repeat. Mike

If the error only affects aux timelines in folders, then it may be that Manager hasn't been updated to work with those. The control protocol syntax is a bit weird in this area. This works fine in PIXILAB Blocks of course, with the only caveat being that timelines in folders can not be named the same as top level aux timelines, or aux timelines in other folders. Mike

Many lighting consoles take LTC timecode. If so, that may be an option (using a WAV file to play timecode from your WATCHOUT timeline). Mike

Below is Microsoft's official description of the error you received, from this page https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/directshow/error-and-success-codes So there's likely something unsupported in your MOV file, as Rainer suggests above. VFW_E_UNSUPPORTED_STREAM 0x80040265 Cannot play back the file: the format is not supported.