feature request Feature Request ? Post here

[JEdgerly]

I am just curious. What display device do you use that supports 23.976?

 

Remember, even if WATCHOUT offered that frame rate, it would not make any difference 

unless the device connected to the output provided EDID confirming 23.976 fps.

 

Without that, does not matter what WATCHOUT requests,

available resolution and refresh rate is specifically determined by the EDID of the connected device.

 

We feed LED walls, projectors and monitors 23.98/24.  We do a lot of film and television work where we are syncing to cameras.  Most TVs won't flicker but some will unless you feed them 23.98/24.  Projectors and LED more so.  Workflow for content delivery is often 23.98. I can sometimes work around it by doubling to 47.97/48Hz, but not everything supports that.  Some will still lock to it thinking it is PAL.

 

24fps Content ->  24fps Watchout -> 24fps Displays -> 24fps Camera shooting it.  

 

With 23.98 content, I occasionally run into micro stuttering with smooth moving graphics.  

 

I always write custom EDIDs for the connected display and force the outputs.  All our machines have FirePro w7100/w8100/w9100 w/s400 sync cards.  

 

I tell the graphics card what to do, the display is just along for the ride 

[Bluetonesblue]

We feed LED walls, projectors and monitors 23.98/24.  We do a lot of film and television work where we are syncing to cameras.  Most TVs won't flicker but some will unless you feed them 23.98/24.  Projectors and LED more so.  Workflow for content delivery is often 23.98. I can sometimes work around it by doubling to 47.97/48Hz, but not everything supports that.  Some will still lock to it thinking it is PAL.

 

24fps Content ->  24fps Watchout -> 24fps Displays -> 24fps Camera shooting it.  

 

With 23.98 content, I occasionally run into micro stuttering with smooth moving graphics.  

 

I always write custom EDIDs for the connected display and force the outputs.  All our machines have FirePro w7100/w8100/w9100 w/s400 sync cards.  

 

I tell the graphics card what to do, the display is just along for the ride 

 

OK... so a VERY custom world of film... You're right... there are FAR fewer staging events, or museum setups then film production...

 

Just sayin'...

[wiesemann]

Hi there.

 

1. Please bring back "minimize" and "un-minimize" of individual windows inside the watchout v6.x window. It was useful and made a lot of sense - at least to me.

 

2. Please introduce "customizing of interface colors". Maybe just brightness for certain elements (background, frame of windows and the playheadline.

 

3. Please introduce small "handles" for screens, when they are of the same size and position (for example as backups), to make it easier to select them.

 

cheers and thanks in advance.

U

[Michael Voccola]

I have been experimenting with other platforms over the last week with good success. Some of the findings can be found in this post:

 

http://forum.dataton.com/topic/2434-emulating-spydere2-preset-recall-with-only-watchout/?p=10525

[Yousefjuma]

A feature I would like to have in WO is related to routing audio. In some cases, mainly some sort of festivals, I need to manage 2 or more different sets of screens and audio that behave independently using 1 production WO and 1 display WO. For example, a theater and outdoor screens. Visual-wise management is easily handled. However audio is not. 

 

Most of our display WO have one 3.5 mm audio jack and one optical S/PDIF. I can connect to the audio mixer the 3.5mm to play audio I want to be played in the theater. And connect the optical S/PDIF to play audio I want to be played outdoor area.

 

The problem is, If I play a video to be played in theater screen, I cant route the embedded audio to the 3.5mm audio out. The audio will be played to both 3.5mm and S/PDIF out. Same apply if I play a video on outdoor area, I cant route the audio to the S/PDIF out. 

 

To overcome this, I extract audio from the videos. I play the audio file along the respective muted video. This way, WO gives me options assign/route audio channels in media to the outs I desire.

 

The feature request is: Allow us to assign/route audio channels of embedded audio in videos the same way we do to independent audio files. This would save a lot of time wasted on extracting audio and subsequent file management. Thanks.

[JEdgerly]

How about being able to color code tasks in the Task Window?  Similar to how mac does, would be great for quickly identifying different groups of tasks.  White text on black background kind of runs together when you have 100+ tasks... Even with dummy tasks of "--------------------"!  Would be great for those of us running shows from production.

[Bluetonesblue]

I agree! Color coding can be so helpful.

[wiesemann]

Hi all,

 

 

Sometimes someone else has created or modified a show one has to deal with.

It could then happen, that there are items in the media window, you cant delete, because they are in use somewhere.

Maybe a rightclick on a media-item in the media-window could "trigger" a popup-window that reveals a list of timelines/compositions where that specific media-item is being used. Selecting/opening that timeline/composition would even enhance this idea.

 

cheers,

[Vollmers]

Hi all,

 

 

Sometimes someone else has created or modified a show one has to deal with.

It could then happen, that there are items in the media window, you cant delete, because they are in use somewhere.

Maybe a rightclick on a media-item in the media-window could "trigger" a popup-window that reveals a list of timelines/compositions where that specific media-item is being used. Selecting/opening that timeline/composition would even enhance this idea.

 

cheers,

Totally agree. Being able to search for the media reference, from inside the Media browser, could really be helpful. 

 

Cheers

[Yousefjuma]

How about being able to color code tasks in the Task Window?  Similar to how mac does, would be great for quickly identifying different groups of tasks.  White text on black background kind of runs together when you have 100+ tasks... Even with dummy tasks of "--------------------"!  Would be great for those of us running shows from production.

Would love to have that.

[Quim]

Hi all,

 

One thing that would be useful would be when you have to change the IP address or the name of the computer in a Projector that a pop up menu that would ask you if you want to change too on the other projectors had the same IP or Computer name.

 

Thank you

[dnmeid]

First of all: thank you for the good work over the last years. I like the stability of watchout and my topmost request is keep the robustness.

Regarding new features, many have been requested over and over again.

My points are:

- Grids. I'd like to have user adjustable magnetic grids in the timelines for placing objects according to that grid and and within objects for placing tween keyframes. For example I'd love to have a 1 frame grid for the timeline and a 0,5 seconds grid for the objects.

- In-timeline trimming of the in-point. When I have to cut off a movie at the beginning, it is always a two step process: adjusting in-point and lenght accordingly. If there are keyframes they have to be adjusted too. It would be so much easier being able to just move the leading edge of an object to do all this in one go.

- Enhancing live geometry correction. When doing geometry correction you have to keep your eyes on the stage and not on the production computer. It would be nice to have visual markers to see which points you are correcting, a grid overlay and also full and easy keyboard control over the anchor points.

- A blur tween track. I need this quite often either to compensate for the vertical video syndrom or to temporary blur a top secret video during rehersals.

- A edge feather tween track. I can do this with four gradients and multiply mode or luma masking, but this takes a lot of time and time is precious if your client just came up with this fancy new image which has to be blended in the composition smoothly. Perfect solution would be to extend the cornes and crop tween with "soft width" values (off course separate values for each edge)

- Build up 3D-mapping strenghs. At the moment they are neither one thing nor the other. It's 3D-mapping light. First of all I'd like to have more accurate (larger) calibration window, visualization of the 3D mesh while mapping, snapping of the markers to mesh vertices. So you make at least usable what is already there. Later we can talk about 3D edge feathering.

- Network stream input is cool but I haven't seen it being used yet. NDI input on the other hand can be game changing, especially when using NDI with alpha.

- Ability to use any keyboard keypress as Aux-triggers

- Midi out

- Being able to have different resolutions on different displays of one display computer
- Countdown has been requested numerous times. I got used to use my little countdown movie. Would it be so difficult to maybe have a countdown control cue and a little countdown field next to the time position which always shows the time from playhead to the next countdown cue.

 

I think the one good point about watchout always has been it's simplicity, but sometimes things are getting over complicated to achieve just by the intend to keep the software simple. So none of my points is breaking the look and feel of watchout, it's just evolving.

 

Thank you

 

Dorian

[Josef Swanberg]

 

 

...and also full and easy keyboard control over the anchor points.

Since version 6.1 you have been able to control the geometry points with the keyboard arrow keys.

 

 

- A edge feather tween track.

You can do this using the Rounded Corners tween (available since version 6). Can be applied to both video and image cues, but images need to have "More effects and capabilities" enabled in their corresponding media.

 

First of all I'd like to have more accurate (larger) calibration window

Tip: Just make the dialog window larger! =)

 

 

- Being able to have different resolutions on different displays of one display computer

Have been able to since version 6.1.

 

Otherwhise you have some good points!

[dnmeid]

Since version 6.1 you have been able to control the geometry points with the keyboard arrow keys.

That's why I say "full and easy", you still have to chose the point to control with the mouse.

Maybe a,s,d,w to navigate beween the points and A,S,D,W to chose the four bezier handles.

 

 

Tip: Just make the dialog window larger! =)

It can't be larger than the screen, but sometimes has to. Also often I have two or more windows open at the same time to adjust two adjectant or overlapping projectors. So I like to have two windows side by side, but then the screens get tiny.

And another thing: Vertices of masks are only shown while they are inside the screen.

Also what about keyboard control of mask points? After rotate, move and scale there stands ®, (M) ans (S) but for me only moving works with the arrow keys.

 

And here is a new one:

It is nearly impossible to create a real good projector blend with masks instead of the default blend because you can only adjust one gradient at a time. It would be great to have a gradient pool where I can add gradients as I like and then only use one of the gradients in my masks. When changing the gradient in the pool all masks which use it should be updated instantly. When changing one instance of the gradient there should be a dialog wether to change the pool gradient or to proceed with a new copy of the gradient.

 

If you like you can extend this concept to all keyframes. Maybe a new Pool-Window. If I have a custom position which I want to keep for later I copy the Position keyframe to the Pool-Window and give it a name. I I want to reuse the keyframe I pull it from the Pool-Window to the tween track. If I change the data in the Prototype all instances will be updated.

[jdetlof]

Hey!

 

After some time collecting notes about my thoughts on improvements in Watchout, I had to make a Google form on it, so that others could assess the importance and contribute with additional suggestions, or important suggestions from these forum pages that I didn't bring up.

 

Maybe it could serve as an overlook of the plethora of suggestions being made here and of the importance of certain issues among the users.

 

Feel free to read, rate and comment.

https://goo.gl/forms/Q51YjYSewGN55jiK2

 

/Jonas

[Mtyndorf]

+1 for a blur tween track. We use led walls as well on film shoots and the ability to give a slight blur to content is a major plus.

 

How about a gamma adjust on the advanced display tab? And some way to remotely monitor your server cpu/gpu/disk load, for testing codecs, bitrate, etc?

[Guest DavidA]

+1 for a blur tween track. We use led walls as well on film shoots and the ability to give a slight blur to content is a major plus.

 

How about a gamma adjust on the advanced display tab? And some way to remotely monitor your server cpu/gpu/disk load, for testing codecs, bitrate, etc?

For the blur, you can perhaps use Frame Blending?  From the user guide:  "This setting often results in smoother video playback, at the possible expense of some loss in image sharpness."

 

 

 

[screenshaper]

How about a gamma adjust on the advanced display tab?

I think that adjusting gamma in the 8bit domain could be a little quality disruptive.

It should be better to use the gamma adjusment of the graphic board driver.

 

Anyway, It is possible to mimic gamma adjusment of the media using the "gain" control of the "Hue & Saturation" tween.

[Mtyndorf]

For the blur, you can perhaps use Frame Blending? From the user guide: "This setting often results in smoother video playback, at the possible expense of some loss in image sharpness.

Its not quite the same thing. We're using WO in a Poor Man's Process, so sometimes there's a request to "defocus" the content to make it look more realistic (akin to a process trailer) and to simulate a shorter depth of field.

[wiesemann]

Hi there,

How does one light a 3D-Object in WO6? Any plans to add 3d lights? I know I could bake a texture with lights in Cinema4D and bring that in, but it is not the same.

cheers.

U

[wvandoren]

Midi output would be great.

So the midi controller can show the status with the lights of knobs

[paolino]

Hi,

if it is possible it would be useful to have the midi output command.

Now I'm testing the Novation  launchpad mini controller, nice, but if there was the midi output  command you could also handle the buttons leds to keep an eye on what I'm doing.

[JACKWEISBERG]

We would LOVE it if DMX level would be affected by a compositions opacity tween .... say a comp has 20 lights in it all at differennt levels etc ... would be great if the comps opacity tween would act as a 'master fader' for the lights it contains. 

[Quim]

Hi,

 

There is one thing that I would fine very useful if you didn't implemented yet on WO 6.2. I would be folders for Inputs and Outputs. I'm working on a project where I have more than 100 Generic inputs and when I want to do some tests it's like a mess and if they were grouped in folders would be easier.

 

Thank you.

[Vollmers]

I agree to Quim. Folders, in the same way as the media pool. I'm working with almost 200 tasks in my latest show, and yes, it need to be that way. Even more useful, working with tasks, if you introduce folders for tasks, an extra function giving each folder extra options, like stacking order etc. On the other hand - I really need the NDI option in an official release now