Video Playback

[martin b]

Hi

I am doing hte lights, and video, of a play comming up in the end of tthis year. I am going to play video on two screens (projectors) and I dont know how to do that. I am looking for some kind of system that is able to make some kind of a cuelist, like a lightning console. Som software which can control mediaclips and multiple screens would be great, but I dont know anything about what systems exist. I like the watchout, but it is all to expesive, but something like that.

 

Thanks

 

/Martin

[Modge]

Something like winamp (free - www.winamp.com ) or power point (bet you know someone with a copy) would probably serve you well as software. Put the output on the second video output of a computer that has 2 video outputs so you can control it from the primary screen. As for splitting onto 2 screens ethier a T piece (very very cheap - 1 in 2 out peice of metal) or a VDA (Video distribution amplifier - more expensive, but not the end of the world) is what you need, depending on what video format you're using and how much you can afford as well as how far you want to run your cables and all sorts of otehr factors. The more professional way would certainly be the VDA.

[martin b]

not what I am looking for,

I need to control two projectors with different video, so the computer (if it is done the software way) wil use 3 outputs, 1 for controling and 1 for each projector. Winamp wont do! and I dont know if powerpoint have that good videoplayback features...

I am looking more for a dedicated software or hardware solution

[P. Funk]

I only have limited experience in video, but I believe the latest version of Arkaos can render to two different outputs (although I think that might just be stretching one screen across two outputs). If you can get hold of a copy of it though, you could always use two machines (with the cues for the seperate projectors on each) and trigger the arkaos cues to both machines through MIDI or DMX - I think normal arkaos licenses are for up to 3 machines.

 

www.arkaos.net if you want to take a look ;)

[Tomo]

The latest Arkaos can render two screens, including softening the edges to merge the image across the screens - I haven't actually tried this yet so I don't know how good it is.

 

If it is stretching the output across two screens, then this will still be suitable as you can adjust the size and position of the layers you want to put them on the correct screens.

 

If you are using an ArtNet or ETCNet2 system, then you can plug the lighting control network straight into the Arkaos machine, give it a DMX start address and it Just Works.

 

Otherwise you can trigger from MIDI, a suitable DMX input box or just use the keyboard.

It's a surprisingly powerful application, and very cheap for what it does.

[dbuckley]

The $64000 question is how accurately do you need to syncronise the video? Do you need fram accurate, or will simply starting two video streams at the same time do? And does it need to sync to audio and/or lighting?

[martin b]

I nearly dont need any sync ! ;) Ca arkaos play video with included audio, like a movie, the movies I am going to play is different people talking and so, just like a normal television movie. Can it do that?

[Tomo]

In a word, no.

Arkaos is a video playback/morphing/otherwise fiddling with application.

 

You can probably trigger an audio playback device simultaneously if you want to, via SMPTE timecode or MIDI

 

However, to me it's sounding more and more that what you actually want is a pair of DVD players, run manually.

(IR triggers are available, but they are rather expensive)

 

Powerpoint will not do what you want - it can only playback on one screen, even if you have two copies of it open. (Tried this, was annoyed)

[martin b]

I just tried the demo, it plays both sound and video if the video file contians sound!

But is the multi screen setup possible, the oly thing in the manual is af dual screen setup, I need 3 screens.

[Tomo]

Well, colour me stupid and laugh at me, I did not know that!

 

What on earth would you want the third screen for anyway?

Arkaos (and other media servers) plug straight into your lighting console (via DMX, MIDI or Ethernet), and therefore you don't need to see what it's thinking as the cues in the lighting console run the show.

 

If you're dead set on it - the setup windows continue to exist while in full-screen playback mode, so could be positioned on the local monitor while the output windows are shown on the projector displays.

[martin b]

aaahh, of course, I dont need to see the interface, I AM SO STUPID!! Arkaos sounds like the thing for me, I need the DMX, version to control it via ethernet right?

[Tomo]

I need the DMX, version to control it via ethernet right?

It's actually the same download for MIDI and DMX/ethernet versions now.

 

I think you may have to tell them which kind of DMX-over-Ethernet system you are using when you buy the licence, but the cost is the same.

[martin b]

The members in the arkaos forum arent ansering, so ill just keep asking you:)

Now my setup will be, one arkaos computer running teo full screens, how do I decide or specify if the video is show on monitor 1 or 2?

[marc]

From my experience Arkaos wont do quite what you want, its not really setup to run multi screen with different content on each.

 

I have looked at http://www.resolume.com/ before, and it might be more what you are after, if you have a multi headed graphics card in you can choose what you want to view on each monitor e.g. quad split, video channel 1, 2, 3, and mix.

 

If you had a 4 head graphics card in a PC, you could view channel 1 on one monitor (your projector on one side) video channel 2 on monitor two (your second projector) and say the quad split on a 3rd out put.

 

The other beauty with resolume is that you can run multiple servers and link them with 100 base T network and it will send the out put from one server to another over the cat 5, so you can run a kind of vision mix from 2 or 3 vj's with one PC, no vision mixer needed!

 

To do what you want I would run 3 pc's with resolume on, one generating content for each screen and a middle PC sending the right vision stream to the right screen.

 

Again this is VJ'ing software and I don’t know how it copes with audio, but might be worth a look.

 

mk

[slim_mcslim]

I have been studying Arkaos thoroughly over the last few days, and the new version with the widescreen soft edge absoloutly rocks. It is a very very powerful media server, once you get past the VJ front end, you need a decent computer to run it on, but it runs well on my dual G5 and my core duo PC.

 

In order to make it work as the OP requested you need to have at least 3 graphic outputs from the computer, or two outputs and a third party video splitter such as the matrox tripple head 2 go which splits one output over 3 monitors. You would just need to construct the show correctly to work over two different screens, but should be perfectly achievable using the free version of arkaos.

 

I have tested it with some moderately long wmv and mpg movies both with sound and these played back perfectly, I am yet to test out the softedge with projectors, but it looks like it should work well on my monitors. At which point it may be a viable and cheaper alternative to a watchout system. The manual and the support on the DMX isn't great but this is something that you need to learn as you go with it.

 

P.