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Master Player GUI and Fullscreen Outputs at same time?

PostPosted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:46 pm
by plbrunet
Hi Coolux team,

Is it possible to have a Master player show the Master GUI (timelines) and output Fullscreen to multiple outputs at the same time? If so, do all outputs need to be the same resolution or come from the same video card?

Specifically in a setup that I am designing I would like to have 1 output dedicated for GUI and 4 fullscreen outputs for LED screens all from 1 computer. This would be replicated on a backup machine.
Is this possible?

It would simplify this installation.

Thank you.

Re: Master Player GUI and Fullscreen Outputs at same time?

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 1:22 am
by Daniel Kaminski
In Short. No, but ....

Pandoras Box only Supports 1 GPU.
You can have 1 GUI and 1 Fullscreen Render Output running on the same machine at the same time.
If you want to use multiple render Outputs (no GUI) you can do that, but they all need to have the same Refresh rate (can be different resolutions) and have to be on the same GPU.
With NVIDIA Quadro Cards you can create a Mosaik Display which can be 1-4 Displays (with 2 Quadro GPUs and a Sync Board 1-8 Displays). All of the outputs have to use the same Type of Connector (DVI, DP or HDMI) and the same EDID (Resolution and Refresh rate).
A Mosaik Display is 1 Display to Pandoras Box, which can be subdivided into multiple Displays.
2 Quadro Cards connected using a Sync board can look like 1 GPU to Pandoras Box.

In theorie there is a way to use 2 Quadro GPUs and a Sync Board and have 5 Outputs (Out 1-4 as Mosaic, Out 5 for GUI), but having an extra Display next to a Mosic Setup can cause huge trouble in the GPU Driver (e.g. Problems after Reboot, Performance, ...) and for that reason this is not a recommended or by Christie supported setup.

If you want to do it, you can try if it works, but please do not blame the product or Christie Support if something goes wrong.

Please also not that the Preview in the GUI will not work in Fullscreen Master Mode.

I hope this helps.
Daniel

Re: Master Player GUI and Fullscreen Outputs at same time?

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 7:40 pm
by plbrunet
Hi Daniel,

This does help. And what if I had 2 Quadros with a sync board and setup a large mosaic with outputs 1 to 5, could one of those outputs be used for the GUI? I suppose not?

Or what if I only need 3 LED screen outputs and 1 GUI output? Is this possible? Am I reading correctly that I would need to setup a mosaic with the 3 LED outputs but that then it would become unstable to have the 4th as a GUI?

Re: Master Player GUI and Fullscreen Outputs at same time?

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 10:38 pm
by malkuth23
You want the GUI to be on an output not included in the Mosaic.
The Mosaic can be as many outputs as you need, but just leave one output off it and put the GUI there...

It works, in my experience it is just that Mosaic can be a brat and come apart if you reboot and anything is different. You definitely want to lock the EDID if you are gonna do this for an install.

Re: Master Player GUI and Fullscreen Outputs at same time?

PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 5:36 am
by plbrunet
Thanks Matt for you input.

In the end I will stick with a more standard way of operating. Especially since this is not officially supported and that it would be a permanent show installation in China.

Maybe one day we'll be able to do this more safely and over multiple outputs. In the main time, I'll stick to the regular way.

Thank you.