SYNC: do Movie nodes autosync or is Cluster Clock Required.

[davidkmiller]

Working on a project with multiple frame synced servers sharing a video wall.

Project is very simple.

Look one is Video loop
Look 2 Live Source.

Matching Hardware and settings.

I have been having some issues getting video play back to sync properly. Looking for tips and hints for best programming practices when syncing video playback across multiple machines. Do I need to integrate the cluster clock or does it do this automatically?

I can't Wait FOR V5!!!

Thanks

[Karol]

Hi David!

Playing movie across a multi-machine Ventuz Cluster is a little bit tricky.
First of all you need a Cluster option for your Runtime licenses to make sure that all machines render the same frame.
Generally the playback of the movies is bound to the Cluster-Clock - but only relatively:
The Movie node knows when the movie has started and thus can compensate frame-drops etc.
But the Movie nodes don't know each other in the Cluster setup.
This makes it necessary to start all Movie nodes at the same cluster-clock time.
But note that changing the File property at the same cluster-clock does not start the movie at the same frame if your node is in Async mode because loading and preparing will need a slightly different duration from machine to machine.
The necessary steps would be:
* set File property with AutoPlay disabled
* wait a certain amount of frames for the IsLoaded property
* trigger Play on all node via e.g. OSC

Best Regards
Karol

[shermanpat]

So Timing Cluster clock is Frames right? Based on the scene output Hz? 60 FPS for example.
We have a mixture of video frame rates needed to be played. (24,29.97,30,59.94) Might you suggest a few nodes to do the match to bind a move frame node to the Cluster Clock and play video at correct speed?

I was trying some float expressions and clipping nodes, it seems to work ok. But i feel that doing that much math per frame/Millisecond is not the best route to go for a large project and performance.

Thanks.
-sherman