Projectrix

I have W9100/X99 system. I get all ticks for the Black-magic speed test. Im confident the machine will play a 4K file. But there does not appear to be a lot of 4K signal-path gear out there (DA's, switchers even screens etc.) The client wants 4096 x 2160. I think there will be a lot more gear out there that accepts QHD (3840 x 2160). Does anyone know where a Displayport switcher / DA might be available that will work at these resolutions? Would it (perhaps) be better to output DCI 2K (Which is a lot more compatible with downstream switch-gear) and scale up to 4K inside the display device (Which is supported.) Any tips or warnings appreciated. Cheers

Has anyone tried the new X-99 platform, M2 disk with a V9800 or other 6-head Firepro card? I'd like to run 6 channels of SXGA+ uncompressed. Cheers

When building a new machine...... How does one control what windows updates are applied? In the tweak list it says "Install all updates". Followed by "Turn update off". What if an update/hotfix comes out that totally borks watchout? (Have there already been some?) I've had good results doing a scratch install in the field where no updates were available.... Has anyone had a playback bug that was fixed by installing windows update in the past?

So the picture I'm getting is: It could run on Win7 Enterprise. But in order to conform to the tweak-list and make playback reliable one would have to switch off most of the bells and whistles one gets with Enterprise anyway?

Thanks Jonas Follow-up to above. Has anyone tried using the Enterprise management tools like WinRM, remote access via UAG or any of the other Enterprise features on a system running Watchout, how many of these features would work if one was to apply the entire tweaklist? What effect would NOT applying the entire list have on watchout? I'm hoping to try the UAG thing tomorrow and any tips would be appreciated.

Has anyone used it for? Would using enterprise change the tweak-list? Any tips appreciated. Cheers

I'm having trouble deciding how to control an installation show that does not use Medialon or really anything other than Watchout. just a few questions: We want the show to : Start projectors automatically Run the show Shutdown automatically switch to backup (Using a matrix) if the main display drops out? Is it OK to have a 24 hr long timeline in watchout? The scheduler is probably not going to fit our requirements for this one. Can watchout be setup to send email messages using the string output? Would it be possible to use an expression to send emails if we receive a message about a display going offline? What is the best way of forcing Catalyst Control Centre to boot windows to 4 displays? When Windows 7 starts it will *sometime go to 4 screens, but most of the time you need to open CCC to re-enable them. Is there a way to get a preset as a short-cut that can be loaded from the "startup items" folder? Cheers

Still wondering if there is any performance difference for MPEG playback in watchout between 1400 x 1050 and 1392 x 1048 (For the screen resolution)? has anyone tried it? Does it make any difference?

*nod* yep smaller would always be better, most people can not tell the difference anyway. And 1280 x 960 satisfies the MPEG 16 x 8 pixel dimension rule. This may seem a little obscure and I'm not 100% if it applies to newer codecs like H.264. Does it matter in Watchout at all? I've seen other kit (SW) really choke (with issues like regular cogging or jerky scaling) unless large files conform to those requirements but they where all OpenGL based shaders rather than D3D. Also, what format would one have for something like a TVC? I would normally use PhotoJPEG but it won't play in Watchout is there something of like quality that is supported? Cheers

One of the great features of Watchout is it works with either of the "mainstream" brands of graphics card - Nvidia and ATI. When I run a show on some other platforms (with Nvidia cards) we usually create a custom res thats a bit more compatible with MPEG playback. So an SXGA+ 1400 x 1050 res becomes 1392 x 1048. Same with MPEG files dimensions - they should satisfy the divisible by 16 & 8 rule. Back to Watchout: is there any benefit to following the above rule for MPEG/MPEGII playback? (Screen res divisible by 16/8, media dimensions the same.) AND: if so how would that be achieved? ATI seems pretty thin on the ground in custom resolutions. Has anyone tried the ATi custom timing tool/powerstrip/editting you're registry to allow non-standard resolutions? Cheers

I see. I tried earlier on to run with just one dongle before giving up and going to an outboard image server. Some huge potential with this feature. I'm hoping it gets expanded a lot more in the future to take a little of the sting out of spending a dongle on it. I've got a ticker and some basic animation working. Was wondering if anyone had made a twitter parser yet? I think to start I'd like to grab just the text from a client's website and converting it to text 1st. Any Ideas?

I'm not having a gripe about this - yet. But consider the following: A Watchout dongle will run 4 heads of display with the right kit. The Production machine needs a dongle too (Fair enough, so do many other packages) Backup production boxes/displays too. So getting a "key not found" when trying to run the image server outboard from production - which would seem sensible given it may need to access external data which one would like to keep separate from their production network, to me seems pretty pricey. This could be done from the networking level quite safely with port blocking/filtering etc. But I'd be nervous connecting my display/watchout network to an internet connection or anything other than a managed switch - with other data sources safely away from the LAN running watchout. The ideal would be to be able to run the server outboard - but not have to spend a key to do so. Can one run the server safely from their production machine during a show? Has anyone done it? So at a show requiring RSS feeds / twitter feeds etc you need to choose to either run the server from ... backup production machine? If you have one? or sacrifice an entire key to run this thing? If the server is run outboard would it be able to support multiple interfaces (One going to watchout - the other going to the internet?)

Is it possible to select a given cue, copy its position on the stage, and then paste that position onto another cue? is it possible to copy and paste cue parameters in WO? Or do you need to copy and paste the tween data? looking for a solution involving the least amount of clicking / typing. cheers