Thomas Leong
Forum Replies Created
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Q: Is there a way to sync the contents across the displays?
Yes, eg.
– Dataton Watchout (Windows)
– AvStumpfl Wings Platinum (Windows)
– Pro Video Player (Mac)
– VJ products such as Resolume (Windows and Mac), Archaos, Module8
– etc.Q: I’ve heard from one of my friend that a MacBook Pro with Retina Display can feed up to 3 external monitor with HDMI and 2 thunderbolts…
I’m a Windows user. Mac users perhaps can answer.
Your other main problem is matching the image sizes of the LCD displays against the projector. Needs some maths for this to work.
Thomas Leong
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My advice on this is to Go Pro…and I do not mean the GoPro camera, I mean go professional. For the scale and live requirements, failure is not an option. If you do not have the experience of doing something of this scale, then don’t. Hire someone else. Who?
Go make a contact at a professional golf event nearby (if you are in the U.S. there should be a men’s PGA event every week somewhere; or a Ladies PGA event; if in Asia, World Sports Group will be the ones to contact). Best days are during cable-laying, setup and testing days – probably Mon-Wed. Main event is from Thurs-Sun when they’ll be too busy for you. There will be an OB van/TV Transmission area where the bosses will.
Thomas Leong
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Mark,
Try searching for “ultra short throw projector” at https://www.projectorcentral.com where there are options from various manufacturers.
Not sure about it being ‘long and thin’ as I think all would use an utlra wide-angle lens and a mirror to reduce the projection distance required.
Thomas
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Multi-display work is not for web playback. So usually, I dare say, file size is not important owing to the price and capacity of external hard disks available. What is important is the ease/smoothness of playback without hiccups, and the quality on screen.
Ease/smoothness of video playback is largely dependent on the codec used and the cpu muscle, since de-coding the video is largely the job of the cpu. From what I know, h264 is a cpu-intensive codec for playback, wmv and mpeg-2 less so. Needless to say, lossless codecs such as uncompressed, Quicktime’s animation, etc are almost impossible for hd resolutions (I’ve not tried Photo JPEG).
Some playback systems, in particular Dataton Watchout, scales very well, so much so that some people have produced at almost half the required resolution (eg. half of 1920×1080), and used Watchout to scale it up to fill the 1920×1080 fullscreen, or multiples thereof, and reported little loss of visual quality. So check with the playback equipment supplier if this can be so for your project.
Thomas
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Yes, After Effects would be, by far, the primary production tool for multi-display creation work for professionals. I presume you use it too?
Thomas
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Hello Tim,
The main problem with content creation is that the playback is in vertical format. This gives rise to PAR (pixel aspect ratio) problems, as well as the fact that most, if not all codecs don’t deal well with 1920H x 1080W. They are designed for 1920W x 1080H.
Dataton Watchout has an easy way to deal with this. With AvStumpfl Wings, it takes a bit of rationalising and configuration to get around the problem.
I hope your test sample output works well at 1920H x 3240W.
Thomas
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Hello Tim,
I don’t envy you with a naive client who thinks vlc can play a fullscreen video without borders over 3 display panels. I’ve tried, but vlc defaults to one display. It can be stretched over 3, but vlc borders remain very visible. And this is using a desktop with a reasonably older highend AMD HD6970 graphics card capable of 4 simul outputs.
The Samsungs you mention have a built-in media player, but I’m not sure if it is capable of spreading one big file over multiple monitors. There seems to be a “Network Box” that can be fitted at the rear and perhaps it is this that will link over multiple monitors (info is in the download manual…have not read it thoroughly…just a glance so far).
With licenced media players such as Dataton Watchout, AvStumpfl Wings, Renewedvision Pro Presenter or ProVideo Player, etc., playback over multiple monitors is what they are designed for, and present little problems except for the $$$$ amount required. Rental would be cheaper.
Your best bet at this juncture is to work closely with the people supplying the Samsung monitors and playback player to the client. Find out their exact needs (file type, codec, 1 large file or split into 3?). After Effects can split the composition into 3 files in its output module, but playback will require sync, which the paidware are capable of. Else look at multiscreener from zachpoff.com and/or syncmaker pro.
good luck!
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Hello Philippe,
Ah…Syphon, you mean. Boo to Windows then…though I’m exclusively on it.
Thomas
(Patience is my other name.) -
Good job there, Philippe.
BUT…Millumin is only for the Mac. Any hope for Windows users?Thomas Leong
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have a look at Multiscreener from zachpoff.com, freeware for Quicktime movies only. Haven’t tried it myself, but hope there is a feature in there to suit.
Alternatively, if you know someone who can script, perhaps a startup script that loops or counts down the number of loops to make up, say, 5 mins, before it plays the next video file, and then starts all over again may solve it. Or try https://www.autoitscript.com/site/autoit/
Thomas Leong