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Probably yes. The trick is to make the video cue free running. If necessary, also make it loop so it won't run out. Then you can pause the timeline immediately after the video is running, free running will keep the video going with the timeline paused. After the pause, the same cue fades out using the tween Opacity track. I usually use a duration of just one second plus fade out time, with the pause placed immediately before the fade out portion of the cue. So the fade out will occur "on cue".

WATCHOUT only cares about valid Windows IP connections. Granted CAT5 is connected to an Ethernet port, which is a valid IP connection, but it is not limited to that. Windows will provide valid IP connections via many methods - bluetooth, firewire, wifi, etc. - even virtual interfaces. As Jonas indicates, it would be best to confirm no additional Windows IP connections are active. If any are found, de-activaate / disable them in Windows. On computers with FireWire ports (usually on the motherboard), as a Windows default, more than once I have seen the Firewire port as an active IP connection - with nothing physically connected to the Firewire port. Same is true for computers with integrated wifi.

Well I'll be, when you install WATCHOUT 5.3.1, Dynamic Image Server shows version 5.2. Thanks for pointing that out to me. I guess the DIS improvements were on the production / display side of the system. Dataton AB, any comments?

I would not attempt to troubleshoot that problem without first running the same / newest version of WATCHOUT on the Dynamic Image Server. There are improvements to the Dynamic image Server in 5.3 / 5.3.1 specifically related to .swf files. Please uninstall WATCHOUT and Codememeter and install the same version on the Dynamic Image Server and try again.

Out of curiosity, have your tried changing the transparency setting in the Media Window object's Image Settings Dialog from 'Auto Detect' to a specific transparency setting? From WATCHOUT User Guide — Chapter 3 Media — page 36 Transparency In most cases, WATCHOUT can determine the kind of alpha channel (transparency) being used in the image, if any. If the automatic detection fails, choose the correct type of alpha channel here.

Hello Miguel, Show Sage conducts 2-day WATCHOUT training classes at various locations. Our next class will be held in Valencia, CA USA (North of LA) on Janauary 15-16. It is also possible to schedule private classes in the US or Canada for a fee that covers labor costs and expenses. Contact sales _at_ showsage.com for more information. Dataton AB conducts a one day WATCHOUT Academy class as well, next one is in Amsterdam, Netherlands January 8, although I see that one is now 'sold out'.

Yes, version 5.3.1 to be exact. Version 5.1 existed before iOS 6 existed, Apple changed something that broke the iOS support in iOS 6. Dataton responded by updating their iOS support in the next version released - 5.3.1

/endquote Agreed, on the WATCHOUT capture side, the capture cards have no genlock functions. Been thinking about that. If the two sources can be genlocked, then the result would effectively be genlocked at the WATCHOUT / capture card interface.

???? Are you referring to compatibility with the new iOS 6.x.x ? That was done after iOS 6 release in 5.3.1 from WATCHOUT 5.3.1 Release Notes Dataton WATCHOUT version 5.3.1 This version of Dataton WATCHOUT™ brings a few new features along with some bug fixes. New Features WATCHOUT is now compatible with Windows 8. You can now control WATCHOUT display software using the WATCHOUT Remote App running under iOS 6. ...

/endquote No. Illustrator will render a bitmap with its export function. When it is time to use it in a WATCHOUT Show, it is time to set the resolution and save for WATCHOUT. Rendering it in Illustrator to the resolution needed in the show should produce the best results. PNG works well. from Adobe Illustrator user guide PNG format Developed as a patent-free alternative to GIF, Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format is used for lossless compression and for display of images on the World Wide Web. Unlike GIF, PNG supports 24-bit images and produces background transparency without jagged edges; however, some Web browsers do not support PNG images.

/endquote Never tried Win 7 enterprise, but Win XP Pro caused lots of problems with management tools like WinRM. i.e. you should shut all those things off as part of your tweaking. Which brings up the question, why use Enterprise for WATCHOUT? There are no features unique to Enterprise that help WATCHOUT in any way and one heck of a lot of them that will mess with WATCHOUT. Seems like wasted money and un-necesary risk

The issue you describe is common to v1-4, addressed in v5. What version are you using? As for the file size of the jpeg, it is irrelevant. All that matters is the pixel count. WATCHOUT converts all bitmap files to a common internal file format prior to playback (that is what the caching process is during upload). In v1-4 the cached image data was stored in only its original pixel count. .e. a 1920x1080 5 gb Photoshop file with transparency and a 1920x10 10 Mb jpeg file are exactly the same once they have been prepared (cached) in the display computer prior to playback. v5 stores multiple pre-downscaled copies in the common internal file format. This should reduce the processor load to avoid the stuttering observed. Other causes could be upcoming media pre-loading. That can often be identified by looking at the cue relationships on the timeline. If needed, manually adjust pre-roll time on movies so that they pre-roll before the stuttering effect, or load stills earlier (before the stuttering effect) at 0 opacity and ramping them up when needed. You will rarely hit the ceiling on graphics card memory (many, many bitmaps loaded at the same time), you will more often hit the ceiling on DMA transfer from the hard drive to the GPU, which can cause effects to stutter.

It should not work, WATCHOUT does not support DMX via USB WATCHOUT supports DMX only via ArtNet (DMX over Ethernet). from the user guide ... If the devices being controlled don’t have an Ethernet connector accepting theArtnet protocol, you need an Ethernet-to-DMX interface, as shown under“DMX-512 Input” on page 201.

Not with version 4.5.1. Requires version 5.1 or newer to work in that manner.

Thanks for describing both methods Jonas. Renaming the language folder seems more encompasing, as that will work no matter how you start WATCHOUT. The command line switch method requires always starting from a modified shortcut, no double clicking on show files to initially open WATCHOUT, or it will revert back.

It is not the most elegant solution, but you can make auxiliary timlines with as little as just one cue, a control cue to positon and run the main timeline. Those can be triggered by the MIDI keyboard, you map the triggers anyway you wish using the control cue in each aux timeline.

No need for any external controller, just a simple method of taking your simple electrical push button and converting it to a MIDI note message to Windows. Should be relatively inexpensive. A simple interface box like a MIDI Solutions Footswitch Controller (sample price: Musician's Friend) and a simple MIDI-USB interface like the MOTU FastLane USB (sample price: B & H Foto) should be all you need to interface your simple electrical push button to the WATCHOUT Display computer. Should be ≈ $220 USD for just one, less per switch when doing more than one.

I thought the same as Fredrik Svahnberg, a processor down stream not keeping up. In v4, there is one other possibility, scaling down the image a large amount (this issue is addressed / eliminated by v5's addition of dynamic scaling). If the original still image is very much larger than the display size and it is being scaled down a significant amount in v4 or earlier, this could cause some animation stepping as well. Fix is to scale it to the correct size with an appropriate graphics tool before bringing it to WATCHOUT.

Most perfectionists would just replace all the bulbs in that case and then control lamp strike on all projectors so all would accumulate the same number of hours. Doesn't part of perfectionism strive to keep it simple too? Adding an adjustment band-aid to overcome bulb variances seems like more complication than needed I believe Jonas' guidelines are right on for achieving perfection.

Not much to go on there. What step is tripping you up? Creating a String Output set to IP for the Moxa connection? (WO 5.2 UG pg 206) WO 5.2 UG = WATCHOUT 5.2 User Guide Creating a string command on the timeline for the String Output? (WO 5.2 UG pg 208) As far as what to type in the string command, that is defined by the camera.

x2 Normally you would render the Flash animations into movies to play them back on a WATCHOUT Display computer. The WATCHOUT Dynamic Image Server software (an additional computer and license) can run Flash, but it is intended to render static images created on the fly during playback (like current weather grabbed from the web, stock ticker, tweets, etc.) and those are limited to 2048x2048 each, although you can run multiple Flash files to generate multiple 2048x2048 chunks at the same time.

It is not intended to be used that way. Yes. There is an unsupported trick that could be used to take a completed WATCHOUT show (finished .watch file and assets) and load the display side using a single computer with two keys. There is no possibility of controlling playback from production when both are run on a single computer. The workaround is only useful to get display loaded and ready, nothing more. Then normal display only operation must be returned and control provided by some other means. That is the software author's (Dataton AB's) stated method and any tricks we users pull outside of that is beyond their support.

Yes, from the perspective of software, both WATCHOUT and Windows 7 will be fine outputting six 1920x1080 60p per computer. Combining two such systems is no issue either. Now content and hardware play a role here too. Attempting to get one computer to decode six 1920x1080p movies at the same time is possible. But not necessarily carefree. Assuming encoding to the Dataton guidelines published in this forum, movie decoding six1920x1080 30p MPEG2 is possible, movie decoding six 1920x1080 60p MPEG2 is borderline. Almost all compliant six output Graphics Processing Unit cards are robust enough for the rest of the WATCHOUT tasks. GPU does not significantly impact movie decoding / playback - it impacts WATCHOUT animation (tween functions). For movie decoding, the computer system from hard drive through motherboard, memory and cpu must be optimized for throughput. Combined with the movie encoding properly tuned for this task. If any of that is not optimal, movie playback will stumble / stutter. When encoding choices do not permit tuning to optimize for WATCHOUT, then you use more hardware with less outputs per machine to overcome higher decoding demands. i.e. at the end of the day, you must test with an actual target system and content representative of the final demand.

I have not recently seen any ATi based offerings with four DVI output on the backplane. They did exist a while back, but even then, beware of cards with four DVI outputs. Such cards are generally targeted at computer based DVR applications. They tend to have underpowered DirectX 3D accelerators as that is not a requirement of the home DVR market, yet it is important to WATCHOUT, Instead, cards configured in that manner tend to have beefed up hardware movie decoding, which WATCHOUT can not / does not use. It is better to look for cards with a combination of DVI and DisplayPort (both are locking connectors) or just DisplayPort in conjunction with a beefed up DirectX 3D engine better suited to WATCHOUT. Use quality active DisplayPort to DVI adaptors to achieve the desired DVI output.

MIDI I/O errors were addressed with improvements in the MIDI support of WATCHOUT 5.3.