Brian

In addition to this: An indicator as to where a Free Run video happens to be in it's playback would be nice. A small line within the clip graphic itself would be enough. Being able to know "how long until this loops" would be possible to check if we had this indicator.

+1000000 Please!!! Having a set of "global" Tweens would be nice. Or the option to set a Tween as Global or Local. Global settings would be all changed in one place and Local uses the settings in the cue itself. You could use Global Opacity to set a 1 second crossfade default timing and then quickly/easily update those all to 2 seconds when someone wants slower changes. This has happened to me and it takes forever to go through and reprogram all the fades!!

You run your main and backup from the same file?

This needs a fix: Millumen can do this as a no-brainer and makes WatchOUT look silly. Second: the ability to view times in either true time code, or even better - frames! The 0.xxx thousandths of a second are basically useless without mental gymnastics. Third: yet another request for countdown timers. Having to drop in extra video files just so I can give a proper/accurate countdown is ridiculous. Thanks!

I have a brand new 4 head 4k system. Need to make some audio choices. First question: Which is better... add a card to the system or use a separate dedicated audio server? I have the option to do either without needing to purchase more keys for the audio server... Second question: My current cards will be kind of obsolete with the new server because they're Firewire only. I could add a Firewire card but I also have the option to upgrade/update the audio cards themselves at this time. I need 7.1 capacity. What's a recommended card for a brand new Win10 WatchOUT Display machine? Thanks!!

Thanks for the replies! We've pulled the trigger on the four 4k server. Should be fun! Geometry is almost always handled in the projector (Twist) as is the blend control so I rarely use those features. If/when I need to I can work around those snags. Our projectionists are pretty insistent that it's their thing to control. And then there's always an e2 or x20 in line as well. Works for me! Thanks again.

Client wants to use a 4 output 4k server for a 16 HD projector blend. Plan is to use 4 Datapath FX4 units to split each 3840x2160 into four 1920x1080, then out to a couple Spyder x20 and then out to projection. Projection always handles the blend so I don't have to worry about that. Client wants to purchase the server and run it this way most of the time. It will rarely do actual 4k content. Has anyone tried this? Had issues?

What's the general rule for chunking HAP encodes? Should the chunk count be the same with each encode if I am using 4 proxies vs a single file? Or should I divide the chunks among the 4 proxies?

Understood. Thank you.

Thank you. This is/was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I've always output control... rarely do I take in anything other than capture card inputs. Do I gain anything by using a better audio card? My control computers are laptops so I have access to the internal card or I can use an external discreet card. Is there an advantage to one over the other? Thanks again! Brian

I need to get timecode into my WatchOUT machines for controlling playback from an audio server. What kind of box is recommended for this? Thanks Brian

Hello! I have long pushed my clients to render videos in MPEG2 for playback. I am starting to get a lot of push back from editors who want to use h.264 and/or MPEG4 or even ProRes. I am wondering if MPEG2 is still considered the "preferred" codec? Most of the time I am working with 5 or 6 projector blends fed from 5 or 6 WatchOUT outputs. And 95% of the content I play back are loops. Short, long, all types... but mostly loops that have to be smooth. Should I continue to push for MPEG2 as I have in the past? Or is there developments that should allow me to deal with my clients in a more flexible way? I know WatchOUT is very capable of playing back all kinds of codecs but my main concern is stability of the show! Thanks!! Brian

I am reading the update notes and looking at the new ability to name displays through WatchOUT... The write up has some holes about some things... What I am wondering is: If I set a Display Name to a Display computer through WatchOUT is that name retained even when loading a new show? Do I never have to assign a name or an IP again after I've done the naming once or do I need to redo it for each new Show? How do I remove a name after I have assigned one? Are the Display Name and the display computer name through its operating system different things? Thanks! Brian

I am in need of a DMX solution for my WatchOUT rig. I am looking at the Enttec ODE and the Enttec DMXEtherGate MK2. Kiss-Box is nice but the form factor is odd and the availability in USA seems very limited. I am looking for bi-directional control/controlling of WatchOUT and DMX/Artnet enabled devices. I need to be able to send DMX cues from WatchOUT either to a console or a device directly and I would like to use a console to control parameters within WatchOUT. The ODE seems to be an ideal solution because its unicast and theoretically should be nicer on my network overhead. But the ODE doesn't seem to support bi-directional data... Reading the manual it seems to be in a input or an output but not both... Does anyone know if the ODE will do simultaneous bi-directional data? Or can I use two ODE and still get better network overhead with two narrowcast versus the DMXEtherGate broadcast? Was also wondering if anyone has any experience with the HighEnd Systems DP8000? Its pricey but very talented and I am betting it can do all this as well... Thanks!

I fixed it. When I re-installed my server software I lost driver file I had. I downloaded the latest when rebuilding. Backing down to an older version brought back my two missing channels.

Happy Holidays! I am using WatchOUT 5.2 Windows 7 Echo AudioFire8 (WDM 5.7.6, ARM Firmware 5.7.3) 8 channel encoded .wav file My server can play my 8 channel audio file with Windows Media player just fine. When I play it through WatchOUT I am only getting 6 channel. The last two channels are missing! I've done this with my system before and had no issues but for some reason I've lost channel 7 and 8 in WatchOUT. Is there a known firmware/driver version that works? The only thing that changed in my system is new drivers for the audio card because of a hard drive crash recovery. I am not sure what version was installed on the server before. Thanks Brian

Quicktime error: -2048; Unknown file format; Video Proxy "Media/Video_01.mpg" of Media List I am trying to load proxies and having issues. My folders are named properly (File_name.mpg), files are named properly (Display1, Display2, etc), I add my Video Proxy setting its size and it seems ok. Then I update. And I get errors all over the place and nothing will play. The WatchOUT display machines crash, disconnect, Display restarts and I can reconnect but still can't push anything through.

You're using a HDSDI capture card... Are you de-interlacing your input feed? If you animate the tween position/scale/rotation/etc of a still image across a blend region do you see the same problem? Is the tearing only in the blend region? When the problem occurs is it across all the blend regions or in any predictable manner or is it random or just a single blend region (assuming you have seen this on 3+ projector blends...)? Do you use the same projectors every time? What kind of projectors? Have you tried any other scan rates or resolutions?

I use a small free program that has the unfortunate name of "GSPOT". gspot.headbands.com is the link provided in the "About" from the app. Its a standalone, no install required, and gives up a ton of information about how a video is built that I personally think should be easier to access. For AME CS5 and odd sizes: Add your video to the cue Select the text under Preset (not the drop down arrow) Under Export Settings select Format: MPEG2 (NOT dvd or bluray) Under the Video tab set Profile to Main, set level to High Under the Video tab you may now set your frame size (AME will scale the content to fit either letter box or pillar boxing to correct for aspect ratio) Minimum: 16x16 Maximum: 1920x1088 (not sure why 1088...) I've rendered video of all sizes within those constraints and rendered the Windows Sample Video into a 396x181 MPEG2 clip while writing this!

You should do more research into creating stereoscopic anaglyph content before you worry about how to project the content. There is great information available through a quick web search! When I've done stereoscopic anaglyph projection in the past the stereoscopic images come from a single source... both eyes programmed into the same picture. This is how you get 3D from DVDs that don't support parallel or cross-view encoding like Blu-ray does. You should have no reason to worry about complex setups through WatchOUT if the content has been appropriately built with the anaglyph. Systems like ReadD use separate full color images for each eye and separate the two using polarization. RealD accomplishes this using a single projector at a doubled refresh rate, a synced polarizing filter, polarized glasses and either two synced sources or a single source programmed in a special way (e.g. blu-ray). Anaglyph does not need this separation as the red/cyan was designed to allow the images for both eyes to exist in the same frame. To retain true "live control" over 3D elements (real time changes of spacial rotation/scaling/morphing/lighting/textures/etc) you will probably need to bring them into WatchOUT from a source that can handle this (e.g. a separate computer feeding a VNC or capture card of some kind) such as Touch Designer.

Thanks I understand this. That is an extraordinarily large amount of recoding time for most of the shows I do and logistically impossible most of the time. My best work flow is to have the content houses deliver appropriate videos from the get go and save a ridiculous amount of time. When I am dealing with 20 hours of 10,000x1080 (final total pixel count) video (or bigger) having to recode all that because its wrong is impossible in the time frames I have to work in. I have not encountered anyone that has Episode in-house. Almost everyone I work with has the Adobe CS5 Production suite or newer which includes Adobe Media Encoder. Episode 6 may well be better... I heard that of Sorenson Squeeze as well though I am personally unimpressed with the quality of the output from Squeeze... but I have to work as efficiently as possible with the resources I have available to me. I have done the research/tests required to get my answer and posted the results above. Thanks.

I have rendered out 32 different MPEG2 videos with various M N and GOP settings... the results show that AME is indeed capable of encoding MPEG2 with no B or P frames. It seems the GOP settings aren't as important... M:1 N:1 GOP:1 =All I-Frame MPEG2 M:1 N:1 GOP:100 =All I-Frame MPEG2 M:1 N:2 GOP:100 =50% I-Frame, 50% N-Frame MPEG2

Unfortunately I have to work with what my clients have and calling AME not a "real" encoder doesn't help.

The information I found says that M frames are the number of B frames between consecutive I frames... so M frames wants to be 0? N frames is the number of frames between I frames... I'm guessing again that this should be 0? Media Encoder will only allow these values to go to 1... does that mean that no matter what I do with Media Encoder I am going to end up with 1 B Frame between each I Frame? Or will M and N set to both 1 result in all I frames?

I am guessing that a software like Adobe Media Encoder that doesn't have "I Frame" settings would want M and N frames set to 1? Trying to find information about M vs N vs I frames is very difficult online because those are the names of Oakley sunglass frames, Searching for I-Frame turns up a wiki on I, B, and P frames but zero reference to M or N frames...