Multiple Displays Multiple Videos - Jittery Video Playback

[schmidta]

Update:
I don't have an answer as to why the TVG and LAV configuration wasn't working for me, but I did find a solution that does work.

First, I tested video playback using a different piece of software (Resolume). I verified that it was able to play multiple instances of the same files (h.264 mp4s) without any lag. This confirmed that the problem was not an issue with my computer (e.g. resources, etc.).

I uninstalled the (64-bit) LAV filters and SCS, and then reinstalled the 32-bit version (with LAV filters).
I attempted to play my show file as-is at that point (using TVG), and had the same issues.
(I also tried using .wmv files instead, but had the same issues.)

Then, I found the solution: I switched to using xVideo. Boom. Works great.

So it's too bad that I can't use the 64-bit version and that I can't use the latest and greatest video playback library, but this is what works, so I'm going to stick with it.

As a side note, in my research, I learned a lot more about the VJ software that's out there, and there may be something we can learn from some of those tools. (I was really impressed with Resolume - and I think it might be worth looking into support for the DXF and HAP codecs...)


Original Post:
I'm prepping for a show in which I intend to use SCS to run video cues across several different display surfaces (projectors).

I've started by testing my "media server" computer (a fairly beefy i5 desktop with 8Gb RAM and two GeForce GTX 1060 video cards).
I'm using SCS Pro Plus 11.7.1.3 64-bit with the LAV Filters, and trying to use all the defaults (TVG, etc.).

I have four screens (though one of them is actually a "spanned" display using Nvidia's "Surround" option -- basically making two screens appear as one). The displays are:
1. SCS / desktop - DVI out, card 1
2. stage right screen (1920x1080) - DP out, card 1
3. stage left screen (1920x1080) - HDMI out, card 1
4. center screen (3840x1080 "spanned" displays) - two DP outs, card 2

Those numbers are from SCS, and don't match the IDs from Windows, but that's not a big deal.

At first, I had some problems with the video going to the correct screens (and SCS bouncing over to the wrong screen as soon as I opened it), but that was resolved by checking the "Apply DPI Context Awareness" option (even though I don't have any DPI scaling going on, but possibly because of the spanned display).

Anyway, I now have the screens configured properly and test videos (three of them, all H.264 MP4 and sized to the displays) going to the correct places (screens 2, 3, and 4).
The problem is that when I play more than two screens at a time (any combination), the video seems to get jittery.
Watching resource monitors doesn't reveal any clear bottlenecks (CPU, Memory, Disk), but it does seem like the GPUs are under-utilized.
I tried FFDSHOW instead of LAV, and didn't notice a difference.
I've tried tweaking several different settings, but there are so many to choose from that I'm just not sure what to try next.

Any suggestions for where to look? Any advice or additional insight into how the whole video library works - and what I should consider regarding codecs, video driver settings, etc.?

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide,
Aaron

[Mike Daniell]

Thanks for the update, Aaron. It's interesting to note that xVideo provided the solution. I'll contact the xVideo developer and let him know - it may encourage him to continue developing the product, or at least provide a 64-bit version of the dll.