project 3 separate videos synchronized

[Thomas Leong]

[Susie Su] “1. I could combine all 3 videos in one large video with a width of 3 x 1920 = 5760 and a height of 1080. Then I can play one single video.
– What codec and what player software could be used in this case?”

A: With a Matrox TripleHeadToGo or a made-in-China equivalent, not sure what codec – try h264, but better would be HAP (under a .mov wrapper) which pushes the decompression and playback workload to the graphics card. Software would be Quicktime or VLC. My guess is you would need at least an i7 processor to handle playback of 3×1920 resolution, and SSD or M.2 ‘disk’.

[Susie Su] “2. I could use a software which can show the 3 separate videos in sync.
– What (reasonable priced) player software can do the task to show the videos in sync even after hours?”

A: Try MadMapper or Mapio2Pro both priced at about euro350. Resolume or Resolume Arena could do it as well, I guess, but I’m not familiar with Resolume.

Framesynced exactly when looped may be asking too much of these software at those prices. A frame or two out of sync after a loop or two is more likely, and chances are it would not be noticeable to the layman not looking for it with an eagle eye.

[Susie Su]

Thanks for the answers.

regarding the Matrox TripleHeadToGo: Why would I need the Matrox TripleHeadToGo? I have a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 with 4 simultaneous outputs with NVIDIA surround possibility. Isn’t this sufficient?

Thanks!

[Thomas Leong]

Apologies, missed that.
Not familiar with nVidia, more familiar with AMD.
Yes, if the nVidia can be setup to ‘merge 3 displays as one big one’, you do not need the Matrox. The only question remaining is whether the rest of the system can play the one big file without hiccups. Only a test will tell.

[Todd Perchert]

Chances are you won’t be able to play that large of a file without some problems. You will need to render out to a fraction of the size and scale it up. mp4 is a good option – small file size, still looks good.
But you definitely need to test out your hardware/software to make sure you can do what you want to do.
TC

[Alan Langdon]

I have the exact same issue, but with different equipment:

I need to project 3 distinct images (1080p ideally, 720 is ok) using 3 separate displays/projectors, just like the original question in this thread. They need to be in synch also, for art exhibit.

My equipment is two mac minis: i5 2.5 ghz 8gb ram 1TB SATA drive (2014 models, I believe),
so each has built in capability to output 2 displays.

question 1: Can I connect both macs in network and have one output 2 displays and the other 1 display? If so, how would I get them to synchronize? VLC? Resolume?

question 2: Would it be more feasable to get some hardware that allows 1 macmini to output 3 displays?