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Yes, provided you have an appropriate PCIe x4 slot available (DeckLink SDI works in a PCIe x1 slot). We have a few with the DeckLink SDI Duo (and a few with the DeckLink SDI Quad as well) working fine in customer machines.

Yes. However, you might want to evaluate this before committing. The capture process can alter the quality of motion, progressive signals will look the better. If that is how you choose to do it, yes. With WATCHOUT 5, it might make better sense to use one display computer for both. How many feeds from the external source? Resolution and refresh rate? Depends on the source signal type. With a progressive input video signal, the same source signal type on the same make & model capture card will perform the same on any platform. i.e. a progressive input signal is transferred directly from the capture card to the graphics card bypassing the main memory / cpu altogether. interlaced signals will have higher latency as they do travel through the cpu first (to de-interlace).

Also note, Windows will not normally allow custom resolutions below the horizontal minimum of 640 or below the vertical minimum of 480. With regular computers / regular Windows, it is possible to set custom resolutions by hacking the registry, but the above minimums still remain in effect. WATCHPAX uses Windows embedded and is locked from changes, so you can not hack the registry (or change much of anything else for that matter). Even when you have hacked in a non-standard resolution on regular Windows, you still need EDID data to match. With non-standard res, you will most likely need to use an EDID manager that permits the setting of custom resolutions, otherwise, the display you are connecting to must provide the non-standard EDID.

It is possible to get those cards to co-exist with the right combination of motherboard, BIOS, driver versions. I agree with Jonas, I would be looking at interactions of the PCIe expansion slots and then look at the software side. We have seen x4 rated slots drop to x1 when another expansion card is added to a nearby slot.

I would not choose the above motherboard, cpu and GPU that are optimized for over-clocking. Waste of money, over-clocking is a bit too risky for stable performance. Choose components with locked clocks and run at the rated levels. That said, the stuff above will run the software. Proper tuning of all the software components is just as important as the hardware. Combination of BMD capture cards and motherboards can be finicky. Check with BMD for recommended motherboards for their hardware. Testing and tuning the BMD bits can be quite a chore. Performance is anybody's guess, the only way to tell is to build it and test it. If testing is a burden you choose to avoid, ideally you should find a trustworthy computer builder and require them to perform the testing and certify the results to you.

It is pretty safe to say the GPU will make no difference specifically as it relates to video playback. If it does make a difference, then the issue should be corrected elsewhere, like a motherboard that has throttled throughput when an x16 gpu slot is operating at only x8, etc. Provided the GPU can accept the decoded streams from the CPU, and any compliant six output DirectX accelerated card can do that, then the minimum graphics processor performance to service six outputs is more than adequate. And we often see graphics card memory capacity used as a reference, but in the case of video, there is way more than enough memory. i.e. you can NOT buy a compliant six output GPU that does not have enough memory for video playback, no matter how small it is, cuz they just don't offer less than enough memory on any six out GPU. The GPU comes in to play executing tween tracks, and even then only the more complex functions like keying, live tweens, masking, etc. truly stress the GPU. As it relates to tweens and masking GPU speed / throughput, become critical factors and memory capacity is a very rough gauge of that metric. GPU speed / throughput is the area the w600 comes up short, not so much memory capacity. If you can specifically define content and do not sway from that, you could get away with economizing on certain components. For a system solely functioning as a synch roll server, with no keying / masking / etc., just simple scaling and positioning, will work with as many outputs as a compliant GPU offers. On the other hand, if you never play more than one or two HD video at a time (scaled over multiple outputs if need be) and the rest is large full color depth bitmaps with sophisticated tween, keying and masking manipulations, cpu is almost irrelevant and GPU is everything. i.e. an i5 would be fine in that restricted role. The high end hardware CPU / GPU recommendations are aimed at providing the minimum content restrictions in all aspects. Accept content restrictions and you can tune down sub-sytems to most economically service the task. In all cases, disc storage throughput is a benefit, so it is never wise to economize in that area when driving six outputs. An i5 cpu is not going to adequately service six concurrent, quality, HD movie decodes.

The name of this forum at the top of the page is " DATATON FORUM → WATCHOUT FORUM ". It is a product specific forum for the multimedia software - DATATON WATCHOUT. Therefore hardware discussions you see here are specific to Dataton WATCHOUT, which uses Microsoft DirectX 3D at its core. Issues with other software that may use OpenGL or Eyefinity groups are typically a different set of rules, as those functions are unrelated to WATCHOUT. You should contact AMD directly. The AMD/ATi FirePro w600 is from AMD's professional division and their direct technical support is pretty good. Much different than the tech support from the consumer Radeon line, make sure you contact the correct division for assistance.

when I first saw this post I thought the fabled AMD DisplayPort 1.2 MST hub had finally come to market. But that is not what it is. The specificaitons are telling, quite significant limitations: Seems to accept a single channel signal from the GPU, and then internally breaks it up on its own. What appears to be a maximum 1024 pixel height seems quite a limitation. And WATCHPAX tops out at 2560 width, so that 3840 width would not be acheivable. The non-standard resolution needed, say 2560x1024, may very well be an issue, possibly the box has EDID support to overcome that, but I would not be hopeful for that.

Couple of those deserve some clarification .... This does exist, just not in the form you are asking for. Live tweens provide live control of elements during the performance playback now. This exists under cluster control which is normally associated with the playback / delivery of the show. Under watchmaker control, i.e. show assembly, the programmer determines when to reconnect a display. Has been that way since v2.

There is nothing in the information provided that would suggest otherwise. Performance will be determined by testing the system, looks to be a bit lightweight. If anything, the graphics processor may be a limiting factor. If you have a WATCHOUT 5 License, you should not install 5.1, you should install the current version 5.5. Any computer that can support 5.1 will support 5.5 as well. If you encounter any issues with 5.1, you will simply be instructed to update to the current version, as various issues have been identified and corrected since 5.1. Ultimately the watchpoint computer should be the most powerful, as it is the limiting factor for the end result. The end result show can playback without a watchmaker computer, it can not playback without the watchpoint computer. The watchmaker computer is more about what the producer will accept in preview during the show assembly process. You accommodate meek watchmaker computers by detuning preview. i.e. movies represented by static thumbnails vs movies that play in preview, reduced vs full resolution of preview still images, etc. These setting can be manipulated by the user to match preview performance to watchmaker hardware thresholds. If you want snappy full rendered preview, then that would need to equal or even more performance than the watchpoint computer, depending on how many watchpoint computers there are.

If you wish to control those parameters, provide a DHCP server to do it. I run my test rig that way. The ONLY reason to use setIP is to add an EXTRA IP specifically for external control when a self assigned IP is used by WATCHPAX, WATCHOUT will not use the IP address from setIP.

The image server provides still images that change and are rendered while the show is running. The capture cards are for the live moving content - live sources. i.e. Computer (PowerPoint, game from laptop) and video (camera, live TV). BTW The live TV would need to be converted to SDI for the setup listed above. For example, to convert SD/HD analog component to SD/HD SDI, the AJA HD10AVA provides the conversion and eliminates the need for an SDI distribution amp as it has three SDI outputs.

Well that is the issue, when the computers boot up they do not yet see the connection to the other computer. when the switch is present, the connection is ready. When direct connected, it is not ready yet. Put a USD$20 100base-T switch in if you must, but your direct connection is the root of that issue. May just be a copy and paste issue, but, as written above the behaviour you describe is expected. the target string is missing the space delimiter required before the command line switch and there should be no quotes around the command line switch. Should be "D:/WATCHOUT/WATCHPOINT.EXE" -delay 10 ??? what kind of problems, can you not edit the text file directly? Yes it is and the show's location is handled by watchpoint directly. When calling a show from a script, the location of the show is not an option, it is already predetermined by watchpoint. So enter only the show name, exact case and spacing. And you should omit any path name from the load command.

Yes Take the signal from your source to a distribution amplifier and send the signal to a capture card on each Display computer. On each display computer, set the input settings the same for each signal - all the same input # for the same signal. No, I do not believe you will find a still image file of individual tweets to point at in twitter web offerings. A capture card is not the best way to bring in twitter info. Adding a WATCHOUT Dynamic Image Server to the system would be better. The Dynamic Image Server, via a Flash script, will go to the web, gather the twitter data, parse it, and then turn the data into a still image of the text, which you then display like any other image object. This is explained in the User Guide, Chapter - 13 Dynamic Images - page 275. There is also a specific example of how to display a twitter feed in the WATCHOUT Academy Cookbook - Twitter Feed Yes one YUV digital video feed one digital or analog RGB feed at any computer resolution up to 1920 x 1200 @ 60p. second digital or analog RGB feed at any computer resolution up to 1920 x 1200 @ 60p. second YUV digital video feed Dynamic Image Server. All possible with the correct setup. I would suggest one DataPath Vision RGB E2 and one DataPath Vision SDI2 in each Display Server, along with a WATCHOUT Dynamic Image Server for the system.

In the Watchpoint shortcut properties, could there be a space in your path name? If so, you will need enclosing straight quotes around the original string if they are not already there, followed by a space as a separator and then the cmd.txt entry. i.e. Target: "C:\Program Files\Dataton\watchpoint.exe" cmd.txt

There is only one installer, it installs all language support. English is the default language if the Windows OS language selected is not one of the ones supported. You can operate WATCHOUT in English even when a supported language is set in the OS by disabling the supported language in WATCHOUT. Do this by renaming the language support folder in the in the installation root. For example, to disable Italian, rename the folder named it to something else, it-disabled for example. That would result in WATCHOUT sill running in English on a system with Win 7 running in Italian.

Are there any bluetooth, wifi, or firewire ports activated as networks?

I am seeing a lot of issues with 5.5 customers using fixed IP addresses in the display definition dialog. I have no experience with that my personal experience has been otherwise, but I suspect that has to do with assigning fixed IP addresses in the Display dialog vs assigning computer name and (optional cluster name in Preferences). As the naming feature is new to 5.5, I focused my attention on this from the get go and have always used computer name in the display dialog, never a fixed IP in the display dialog. First, you must define names in the new Network dialog. You should enter a cluster name if you plan to use watchnet or if you plan to run multiple shows on different computers sharing a common network. Double click on a Network window entry and the Display Computer dialog will appear for you to change the name. If you do not leave cluster name blank, be sure to enter the same cluster name in File - Preferences - General - Display Cluster Name:, or the show will not find the computer. Both display dialog computer name and preferences cluster name must match those assigned to the target computer. After doing this, WATCHOUT Display opening logo screen will show the name (and optional cluster name if used) along with current IP address . When using names, the actual IP address may be a variable, provided they are all within the same subnet. The new Network Window in Production will auto discover all active display computers on the same subnet. (active = watchout display is running) The task of swapping out display computers can now be managed from WO Production via the new network window, by simply re-assinging the name. So, for 5.5 onward, instead of setting the computer NIC properties to a fixed IP address, you may set them to DHCP. The same goes for production or display computer. If you choose to continue to set your displays to fixed IP, ok fine, but still, use the new WO name to reference them. No DHCP server - No problem. When DHCP is set and no DHCP server is available, the OS will auto-assign an address. I am told auto-assigned IP addresses will always fall within the same subnet. Good enough when using WO computer name instead of entering a fixed IP address. ---- For testing, I chose not to change all my existing computer addressing. I have been testing with computer names referencing a mixture of DHCP and fixed IP addressed WO computers. In this instance, I provide a DHCP server that assigns IP address in the same subnet as the fixed IP stations. All are using WO names. Has been bulletproof for the couple of weeks I have tested.

The standard WATCHOUT installer can determine if a system is 32 bit or 64 bit on its own and automatically makes that choice.

x2 watchmker will change the watachpax resolution when you go online the first time. I have been testing with an active MDP->VGA adaptor feeding an ancient CRT ( NEC MultiSync XE21) at 1280x720@60p with no problems. There is enough of a handshake in the VGA connection (pin 12) that watchpax knows that resolutions beyond 1280x720@60 are too high for this old relic, and reports that back to watchmaker when a higher resolution is requested.

the lowest cost method ... First find a presence detector that provides a switch closure when activated. Then obtain a MIDI device that sends a MIDI note command when you receive the switch closure. Setup an input in watchmaker to receive the MIDI note. Setup an aux timeline to display the message. In the task window, type the input name in the trigger field fo the message timeline.

It does not appear that you have received direct answers to your straightforward questions. Yes. There is software you must set up. It is in the Catalyst Control Center under AMD FirePro - Synchronization. Yes, providing they are connected to the correct ports on each s400 card AND the software setup above is correct. No, it is an available option, but the s400 can just as easily use one of its outputs as the synch master. Either of these two example setups are valid. Yes, that has not changed yet.

I assume you are talking to WATCHOUT Display (no production computer connected). Ultimately you should always start with the " load " command, as it establishes the cluster and confirms the correct show is loaded. Yes, as shown in Appendix E, you add the name of the auxiliary timeline in staright quotes in the run command, i.e. run "Timeline 1" Yes, goto time, goto named control cue, standby, etc. ??? Those are also defined in Appendix E.

You have somehow lost control of your configuration. With that kind of behavior, restore your "known good state" archive and work from there.

You don't consider the circumstances that end up with that time vs money tradeoff the ridiculous part?