›

Need help fixing non smooth video.

davgradavgra
edited December 2013 in MAIN






We're using three projectors mapped to three walls on stage.

I send my videos from Qlab using three syphon sources in Millumin to be able to warp the video better.

We've got a Macpro (early 2008 since Apple can't get me their new one yet....)

SSD drive,14 GB RAM, two video cards with 4 out in total including the local monitor.

I'm using Qlab3 as my playback source.

When I play my videos directly from Qlab to the projectors the videos look fine. So I think the computer is OK.

But since I need more warping than Qlab surfaces can give me I use Syphon into Millumin.

We've managed to map three syphon sources nicely using still pictures.

We've done quite a lot of warping and have also resized and turned two of the projectors 90* since they are hanging on their side to get better coverage.

Now the videos are "jumpy" through Millumin.  It makes no difference if we use a Syphon source or if we put them directly in the dashboard in Millumin.

I've tried different codecs - some are a little better, but not as smooth as any of them run i Qlab.  (Again - videos from Qlab to all three projectors look fine.)

I have not tried the Hap codec, since I'm running in 64 bit mode.


Could anyone please help me to find my "bottleneck". Is it the warping? Is it the projector adjustments? Should we go 32bit and Hap codec?


I'm looking for a workaround.....


Thank you very much and happy new year!

Dave

Comments

  • MilluminMillumin
    Hello @davgra,

    Did you try to put Qlab in fullscreen on your 3 projectors ? Or did you just run Qlab on the desktop ?
    Qlab and Millumin performances are optimized and quite the same (technology : OpenGL and AVFoundation).

    Moreover, Syphon is a very-low consuming technologies : it just allows 2 applications to share the same video frame. So I confirm that I don't think the problem could come from this.

    Some questions :
    - what recommandations are displayed when using the "Optimize" button ?
    - what codec do you use ? Photo-JPEG ?
    - do you use edge-blending ?
    - click on the "Output" menubar then "Disable workspace" : do you see a difference ?
    - use only one graphic card (the one that displays your desktop) and all the output avalaible on this card : do you see a difference ?
    - try to run Millumin in 32-bits mode : do you see a difference ?

    Please reply to these questions one by one, so I could get a better idea of your problem.
    Best. Philippe
  • davgradavgra
    We've used Qlab fullscreen to each projector. 
    However - when running movies on all three screens Qlab lags as well. 
    Yesterday we compared Qlab full screen on one screen with Millumin using one warped screen. And that was a huge difference. Qlab was perfect - Millumin was not good.

    1. "No optimization detected". Before this it said to go to 64-bit mode.
    2. Yes. And also H264 with 4000kbps with no difference.
    3. No edge blending.
    4. When disabling workspace we see no difference.
    5. No difference with just one monitor out.
    6. No big difference in 32 bit mode.
    7. Changing the value for "precision" in the map tool from 16 (default)  to 1 helped a lot. We did not see a difference in the quality of the warp.. What does this parameter do?

    After doing some more testing we think we need more RAM. And possibly a better processor.
    However, we are currently going around the problem by using the plug in for AE and adjusting the graphics to the stage set. This way we don't have to do so much warping and the videos run smoothly.

    Can't wait to get my hands on a new Mac Pro.

  • MilluminMillumin
    Hello @davgra,

    Did you try to run your movies in Qlab and in Millumin the same way (without warping) ? Do you see a performance difference between the 2 softwares ?
    Of course, when you active warping, it consumes more resources, so you can see a difference ...

    The "precision" for warping, means the accuracy of your warping (the grid between the warp points) : if you set the value to 1 instead of 16, the warping should look very straight.
    But if you have a lot of warping point, it's possible that you don't see the difference very clearly.
    I don't know exacly how you made your warping : could you send me your project (just the MILLU file) to contact@millumin.com ? Thank you.

    Best. Philippe
Sign In or Register to comment.