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Watchout & Spyder


Mal P AUS

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Hi Everyone,

 

I have been using Watchout (WO) with other staging companys' Spyder systems for a few years now using both v4 and v5 WO. Occasionally there have been some odd flashes on the screen but generally nothing serious, more annoying and unsettling. I don't like surprises.  Any odd experiences like that were put down to firmware updates in the Spyder as the display output monitored out of my WO kit were absolutely stable. I have a Lightware 16x16 DVI matrix between my WO kit and the Spyder so I can switch between each output and check each individual output.

 

Last year a staging company here in Australia did not want to use Watchout with Spyder on a project I was involved with because their in-house testing suggested there were 'issues' between Watchout and their Spyder. They didn't explain what issues they had during their tests. Recently my WO kit was used on another job with Sypder and to my knowledge (I wasn't on site for this job) there were no issues.

 

Considering both WO and Sypder are mature, well developed products used around the world and would  have been used together many hundreds or even thousands of times, can anyone share their experiences of any 'issues' they've encountered using WO and Spyder and what work arounds they've used to get a succesfull marriage between the two systems? Please post what versions of WO and Spyder you've been using and whether certain versions of either were more problematic than others.

 

I've run this queation past both Dataton Support and our local distributor and they are not aware of anything specific when using WO with Spyder.

 

Many thanks in anticipation for your assistance.

 

 

---> Mal Padgett --> Melbourne --> Australia

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  • Dataton Partner

Hi Mal,

 

I've seen issues between WATCHOUT and Barco Encore. Those could be traced back to a non-standard EDID information sent from the inputs of the Encore. Using a proper EDID manager in between usually solved those problems. Have you set the EDID of the DVI matrix to a certain settings or does it just pushes the EDID of the Spyder through to it's inputs?

 

Best regards

 

Rainer

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Hi Rainer, Geogen

 

I've always set the EDID with the matrix so all the gear is locked in. I asked the Spyder operator what settings they are expecting to see coming from my gear and I set the EDID accordingly.

 

I'm having a meeting with the staging company next week. I was shocked to hear of their attitude but I wanted to see if anyone else had 'issues'. I wonder if it has anything to do with a version firmware or software in Spyder?

 

Geogen, can I ask what is the software/firmware versions of your Spyder kit? Do you use an EDID manager? What version of Watchout are you using and what graphic cards? Thank you for your assistance! :-)

 

---> Mal Padgett-Melbourne-AU

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hi maIPAU,

 

 

so we using X20 with latest firmware 4.0.1 and spyder 300 with 3.5.10

 

our watchout is 5.2 on all computers, didn't find useful stuff  for us in 5.5 so not updated yet.

 

Graphic cards: almost on all PC's is Sapphire 6850 or 6870 Flex

 

We almost never use EDID managers only of there is some issues with sync if more than 1 computer used.

 

Hope the info provided will help you.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We are using Spyder X20, and we have a watchout 5.5 .

What is the best graphics card? We are having issues with the current gfx card as the outputs are out of sync.

We are considering getting a Firepro card with a S400 sync module.

 

What other GFX cards would be the best to use with this configuration??

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If the sync issues are that you see timing mis-matches between the screens, especially on sideways movement, try putting a soft edge on the edges of the screens over the blends in Spyder. I don't know how to do that or by how much you have to blur them (I don't operate a Spyder) but we found that technique works really well in hiding those timing issues between screens.

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If the sync issues are that you see timing mis-matches between the screens, especially on sideways movement, try putting a soft edge on the edges of the screens over the blends in Spyder. I don't know how to do that or by how much you have to blur them (I don't operate a Spyder) but we found that technique works really well in hiding those timing issues between screens.

HI malPAU, The idea makes sense. the problem we having is the sync between the outputs is very noticable. We need to edgebutt the outputs of watchout, and blend with X20. so its not the easiest.

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If the sync issues are that you see timing mis-matches between the screens, especially on sideways movement, try putting a soft edge on the edges of the screens over the blends in Spyder. I don't know how to do that or by how much you have to blur them (I don't operate a Spyder) but we found that technique works really well in hiding those timing issues between screens.

HI malPAU, The idea makes sense. the problem we having is the sync between the outputs is very noticable. We need to edgebutt the outputs of watchout, and blend with X20. so its not the easiest.

 

If you must edge butt streams, hardware assisted synchronization (v5.5+) is the only choice.

By nature, all single slot multi-output GPUs (even FirePros) have an independent free-running clock for each output.

The option synch module provides the synchronous clocks to achieve scan-locked synch among outputs.

This synch function extends beyond one computer by daisy chaining its proprieatary synch signal bewteen s400 modules.

 

The most tested solutions are the AMD s400 compatible FirePro GPUs

with the s400 synchronization module. (not all FirePro offerings are s400 compatible).

There is a compatible nVidia equivalent,

it is also is accomplished with an option synch module proprietary equivalent to the AMD s400.

the nVidia offering is even more expensive than the AMD solution IIRC, but that is also a constantly changing thing.

 

As Mal indicates, prior to hardware assisted synchronization,

the work around was to make a small

overlap of the watchpoint streams (with watchout blends disabled)

and blend them in the Spyder to mask the issue.

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On the topic of watchpoint / Spyder display signal interface,
I have encountered issues with the Spyder to watchpoint EDID.
Same issue, three different systems, one Radeon based, the other two FirePro / s400 based.
All responded in the same way to Spyder EDID.
The Spyder operator set the Spyder EDID for the watchpoint inputs to 1920x1080,
but the ATi Radeon and AMD FirePro interpreted that EDID as a
1920x1200 raster with a 1920x1080 letterboxed image.
The Spyder operator could trim out the extra, so it could be made to work that way,
but that is as close as we could get with Spyder EDID.
To get the Radeon or FirePro graphics card to actually output pure 1920x1080,
we used a Lightware EDID manager on each watchpoint output
utilizing the EDID managers internal settings for 1920x1080, and all worked as expected.

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