Video cross-fades - implementation deferred - (maybe!)

[Mike Daniell]

I've had a few inquiries about when video cross-fades will be available. Technically, the xVideo library does support cross-fades, but I'm not happy with the results so the implementation of this feature in SCS has unfortunately been deferred. The issue I have is that to implement cross fades (or even seamless transitions), xVideo requires all video files in the sequence to be opened at the start of the sequence. That in itself is not an issue, but what I've found is that even when not cross-fading, playback of files in the sequence is a bit jerky - noticeably not as clean as playing a file on its own.

I will come back to this later, but unfortunately I don't yet have a video cross-fade solution I consider good enough to include in SCS.

[Eric Snodgrass]

That's okay. I can wait.

[Willarki]

Has anyone tried controlling ScreenMonkey using MIDI from SCS. This may be a possible interim solution.

I'm sure there are other video presentation or DJ solutions out there which could also be used in a similar fashion eg VJamm (http://www.vjamm.com)

[dee99]

http://www.vmix.com.au/Default.aspx

[Mike Daniell]

Thanks for the links, Mike and Dee. I've contacted both vMix and ScreenMonkey, and both have provided API information. I'll look at each of these products more closely after the release of SCS 11.3.0, as I am currently busy with enhancements for this version.

[enigmatheatre]

Has anyone tried controlling ScreenMonkey using MIDI from SCS. This may be a possible interim solution.

I'm sure there are other video presentation or DJ solutions out there which could also be used in a similar fashion eg VJamm (http://www.vjamm.com)

I have done a couple of shows with SCS and Screen monkey with great results. I had over 300 cues in SCS and about half of them midi triggered Screen monkey that was running 4 different layers that were moved and scaled to fit the set that moved on stage. It looked great and when it went on Tour the technicians in the other venues loved the set up.

I would love to have video cross fade as now that SCS has video placing and scaling this is the only thing missing to remove Screen monkey and do it all on one system which would make programming much easer.

I am liking the look of V11.3.0 enhancements Mike.

Keep up the good work.

Greig.

[Eric Snodgrass]

I have done a couple of shows with SCS and Screen monkey with great results. I had over 300 cues in SCS and about half of them midi triggered Screen monkey that was running 4 different layers that were moved and scaled to fit the set that moved on stage. It looked great and when it went on Tour the technicians in the other venues loved the set up.

Greg, did you use Screen Monkey and SCS on the same computer? If so, did you use some sort of virtual MIDI program to get the MIDI signal from SCS to Screen Monkey? I ask because I do a number of one-off events that require audio, video, power point and sometimes online streaming video. Screen Monkey appears to be the right tool for all of that.

[enigmatheatre]

HI Eric,

I used 2 computers for this as I thought it was the best way to do this. I guess you can do it on one computer as I have used a program in the past that sends midi virtual commands to the same computer and I also had a play with midi over IP which worked well to for sending to multiple computers.

Greig.

[dee99]

I have used a virtual midi loopback with SCS OK (http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/virtualmidi.html) and midi over ethernet using UDP not TCP as the transport protocol.
Use of single or multiple PC's depends on many factors like the processor load, distances, accessibility, time to set up and budget. I do have a very decent laptop that can output video via USB3.0 to a couple of usb->video adapters as my normal set up.
If you do use a triggered remote PC it is worth testing before hand to make sure there is no appreciable lag between triggering and playing, if there is you can adjust either manually or by altering the auto cue trigger point.

[Mike Daniell]

Stop Press! Further work on using xVideo for cross-fades has produced good results.

I have a test program that I'm willing to make available if you want to try this. Please email me if you would like to try this test program and report back on the results, and if you have the time to do so soon.

All being well, I'll include video cross-fades (using xVideo) in SCS 11.3.0, even if it means slightly delaying the release. btw, there will be some restrictions on the cross-fading facilities, most significantly being that only one target screen can be assigned at any time to video cross-fades.

[Chris714]

Mike have you tried doing this on a computer with a solid state hard drive (SSD) - I've found that mechanical hard drives just can't keep up with multiple HD video playback. I've upgraded nearly all my show computers to SSD. You might not have the jerky playback with crossfades issue with SSD.

[smacks999]

I have the most recent update of SCS but I am still having trouble with cross-fading video. I have all the codecs installed that I can find. Is there a sequence that has to be followed? The first video always stops dead when the next video starts playing. I appreciate your work on this, and the whole program.

[Mike Daniell]

I have the most recent update of SCS but I am still having trouble with cross-fading video. I have all the codecs installed that I can find. Is there a sequence that has to be followed? The first video always stops dead when the next video starts playing. I appreciate your work on this, and the whole program.

Are these consecutive video files within a video cue? Note that currently it's not possible to cross-fade videos between cues. See Video/Image Cues - Cross-Fade Videos in the Help for more info.

btw, I'm currently evaluating another video playback library that will support this, plus many other useful features.

[smacks999]

That is what I am looking for- cross fade video between two consecutive cues. Thanks.