Member Rogier Tuinte Posted September 22, 2011 Member Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 Hopefully someone can help us / give us advise quickly. I'm on location for a show and we're having problems with the video playback which is not sync. We've a watchout setup v5.0 with 3 display machines (each 3 DVI outputs outputting 1920 x 1080) edgebutted The graphic card is a AMD 6950 eyefinity. The encore is for the edge blending and live video feeds. While playing a movie across the 9 dvi outputs the synchronisation is unsync. Even the sync between the 3 outputs of 1 display machine which is playing one movie across the 3 outputs is unsync. Can someone advise us? Is it a setting within the encore system (genlock) or is it the cables between the watchout en encore system or is it something with the watchout software / system? Kinds regards, Rogier Tuinte 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas Dannert Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 Hi Rogier, Go to the old forum, search for "Encore", for an earlier Discussion on the subject. http://lists.dataton.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?visit=showroom I know they are picky about cable lengths. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas Dannert Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 From old Showroom Forum thread about Barco Encore: Watchout 4 - out of sync Sorry for reposting others content, but I think this is in everybody's interest./jonas Från: "Gabriel Avram" Datum: 21 juni 2011 18.37.48 CEST Till: "Showroom forum" Ämne: Watchout 4 - out of sync Svara till: "Showroom forum" Hi everybody! We have a 4 Watchout 4 system that we are using it to feed the background into a 3 screen Encore blend. We do 1920x1080 and I am trying to track down the following problem: If the blend is set-up to be done with the Encore there are small loose of sync times between the Watchout computers, which can be seen especially on the dynamic content videos. If the blend is done with the Watchout, everything is in sync, but you cannot use the Encore to do pip over the background. Any ideas why the Watchout is loosing sync when you have the displays side by side and add a wide video over all of them, but not when they are overlapped? Thank You! Gabriel Avram Video Engineer, Image Technical Services Orlando, FL 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas Dannert Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 Från: Justin Myers Datum: 21 juni 2011 19.49.48 CEST Till: "Showroom forum" Ämne: Re: Watchout 4 - out of sync Svara till: "Showroom forum" Your Encore system is not configured correctly. W/O has to enter Encore in the unscaled BG layers. All W/O sources MUST match it's corresponding VP's output pixel space and W/O overlaps MUST all match the Encore's overlap settings. Then in Encore - and I can't remember the exact settings - it must honor W/O's data doubling, but apply Encore feathering. W/O's feathering needs to be turned OFF. Essentially - at this point - Encore is maintaining W/O's per display data, but enabling feathering on the Encore side, so that other Encore layers (on top of W/O) can be feathered appropriately as well. If you still have trouble, I suggest you contact an Encore operator who has done this before for some consultation. Best of luck, JJ Myers 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas Dannert Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 Från: Brian Court Datum: 21 juni 2011 20.05.24 CEST Till: "Showroom forum" Ämne: Re: Watchout 4 - out of sync Svara till: "Showroom forum" Creative Technology out of Chicago did it for us with a 66 projector seamless blend in the round. Looked and performed great. Brian Court 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas Dannert Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 Från: Claude Rivet Datum: 21 juni 2011 21.03.38 CEST Till: "Showroom forum" Ämne: Re: Watchout 4 - out of sync Svara till: "Showroom forum" Typical setup for me I think I know what's up, seen it before. Still not sure if the culprit is watchout not syncing well on a stitch or if it is the pixel doubling of encore that introduces a cumulative delay (center screen generates two doubling, sides generate just one) or some form of uneven latency but here are the solutions: - have Watchout overlap and specify in your widescreen menu in the encore controller that the background is overlaped rather than edge-butted. - In watchout put each screen in their respective tier (you will need to create those tiers, cut the display from the main tier and paste it in the new tier, it will keep it's location). This will have Watchout share content between projector without feathering and fading the blend. You keep encore feathering and alpha blending capabilities, just remember to put pixel doubling off in the widescreen menu of encore. - Or/and-create a pre-split video and import the proxy in your timeline, watchout keeps a better sync on a stitch when done as a pre-split, have no clue why but I have experienced this a few times so I know it helps. - Or/and-last but not least you can put Watchout as a foreground in encore rather than a background, this will let you use Watchout to mask you PiPs and in weird playback situations you can use an extra watchout head just to playback the problematic videos and use encore to scale them to the wanted size, as you know encore scales very very well and for most content a doubling in size is easily doable with very clean results. Hope this helps Claude Rivet 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas Dannert Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 Från: Claude Rivet Datum: 21 juni 2011 21.09.21 CEST Till: "Showroom forum" Ämne: Re: Watchout 4 - out of sync Svara till: "Showroom forum" One last thing, encore is extremelly dependent on cabling, I do not count the amount of times a cable that was otherwise working well introduced delays and lag in the system, every single setup we do we have to do the cable dance for source link and program link, we use dual link cables, as short as possible, huge bandwith and even then we always have to change a few. Most of our guys that starts on encore do not believe us when we tell them their lags are the result of cabling but have to face the facts at some point, encore is ultra picky. Never rule out cabling, especially if after trying what I suggested in my previous answer it still does not work. Claude Rivet 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas Dannert Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 Från: "Gabrie Avram" Datum: 21 juni 2011 23.42.55 CEST Till: "Showroom forum" Ämne: RE: Watchout 4 - out of sync Svara till: "Showroom forum" Thank you for your help. Found a source link DVI cable not performing well (No picture from input on the VPs other that the first one), but the problem was still there. I ended up using Watchout to do the blend without feathering and set the background in overlapped configuration. Gabe Avram Video Engineer Image Technical Services 720 Crown Point Cross Road Winter Garden, FL 34787 407-905-2100 office gavram@goimage.com www.GoImage.com 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas Dannert Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 Från: David Organ Datum: 22 juni 2011 11.30.13 CEST Till: "Showroom forum" Ämne: RE: Watchout 4 - out of sync Svara till: "Showroom forum" thanks for sharing. Its great to read some technical details /problems with Barco Encore as from a Watchout freelancer Encore & Spyder a rare bit of a mysterious black art and any small amounts of information are worth having. I will be cutting and pasting the notes from your thread to keep safe in case of emergency. many thanks, David Dataton Watchout Show Producer & Freelance Presentation Designer http://www.dataton.com/#/partners/7013 http://www.cambiobc.co.uk/ +44 (0)7967 142 111 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas Dannert Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 Från: Justin Myers Datum: 22 juni 2011 17.49.58 CEST Till: "Showroom forum" Ämne: Re: Watchout 4 - out of sync Svara till: "Showroom forum" If I may suggest... that all of us start posting items like this on the online forum vs. the email forum. In case some of you did not know, Dataton has now built an online forum at the following location: http://www.dataton.com/forum The benefit to posting there (instead of via emails) is that folks can now search the forum database for answers to things, and no one has to rely on their own email archive for recalling a topic. And folks like David won't have to "cut and paste" notes... rather he can log into the online forum and search "Encore". Not to mention that entire threads are laid out in a nice, traditional, sequential manner. Please join me in my quest to adjust the WATCHOUT user base's forum habits! Thanks, JJ Myers 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas Dannert Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 Från: Bob Russell Datum: 22 juni 2011 21.01.33 CEST Till: "Showroom forum" Ämne: RE: Watchout 4 - out of sync Svara till: "Showroom forum" We have been using the Encore for many years and added Watchout 4 as both background and foreground layers a couple of years ago. The Program Link and Source Link cables are a constant issue. We build our rack to use cables no longer than 3’. Most are only 1’. Don’t forget to use only DVI-I Dual Link cables. Most of the problems I encounter is when someone has accidentally substituted a different DVI cable. Barco has included a “Test Links” item under Widescreen Links Diagnostics that has proven to be quite a time saver when tracking down that one bad cable. Also when doing blends of more than 4 or 5 displays I have found that it helps keep things in sync to have longer cables connecting the first two playback computers and shorter cables connecting the last two. Again keeping the DVI cables as short as possible. If I do not have room to put the Watchout computers on the Encore VP rack then they are setup next to or immediately behind with the computer connector panels and the Encore connector panels facing each other. Bob Russell Cornerstone Technologies, LLC (801) 221-0099 office (801) 721-9449 cell bob@cornerstoneav.com 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas Dannert Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 Från: "Paul Landergan" Datum: 23 juni 2011 18.17.09 CEST Till: "Showroom forum" Ämne: RE: Watchout 4 - out of sync Svara till: "Showroom forum" Just to add my experience to the pot, it's essential to use the shortest possible dual-link cables as source and program links between Encore processors, (the cables supplied by Barco Folsom are, I believe sourced from Pacific Cable, and these are very good. I've always purchased replacements from this source when ours get lost/ damaged.) As has been mentioned by others, Encore is very fussy about these cables, sometimes needing to swap cables that are perfectly good, (tip - sometimes justreversing the direction of a cable will do the trick) Also, use highest quality available cables, (Lindy blue-stocking cables are good, not sure of their proper name), between watchout displays and Encore VP,s, as short as possible, and NEVER more than 2 metres. Good luck Paul Landergan Head of MultimediaBlitz Communications Ltd 100 Centennial Avenue Elstree Hertfordshire UK t: +44 20 8327 1251 m: +44 7836 753864 e:plandergan@blitzcommunications.co.uk www.blitzcommunications.co.uk 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Quinn Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 Last time I had an issue with Watchout and Encore it was 1 source link cable that proved the problem, and it tested fine 3 times, and failed the 4th. Replaced it, wham fixed! The other day I was forced into a situation where I had to use some cheap DVI I dual links that were 2m.. not a problem at all, thing ran fine for two days. Go figure. Every other cable in the thing was 300mm (1ft) Encore is a temperamental beast. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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