[Kdenlive-devel] Ivytv / Miracle Compatibility (was Re: possibly impossible feature request - multichannel preview)

[robcanning]

Dan Dennedy wrote:
> Hey
> On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 8:06 AM, robcanning <robcanning at eircom.net> wrote:
>   
>> Dan Dennedy wrote:
>>  > On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 2:32 AM, robcanning <robcanning at eircom.net> wrote:
>>  >>
>>  >>  i am currently working on a multichannel video installation using
>>  >>  kdenlive and four different projectors playing four synchronized films
>>     
> [...]
>   
>>  > used with SDI boards. However, you might be able to get multiple SDI
>>  > outputs working as a poor man's solution.
>>
>>  (did you mean multiple SDI outputs as a poor mans solution or something
>>  else? multiple sdis seem kinda rich mans solution no?)
>>     
>
>   
hi dan,
> Heh, dangit, SDL and SDI are so similar to each other! I meant
> multiple SDL output as the poor man's solution. :-)
>   
i dont know much about different hardware  types - will research this
>   
>>  i thought there might be an easy solution for this but it seems not.
>>  I'm quite happy to forget about monitoring the 4 outputs during the
>>  composition of the piece and just focus on frame accurate synched
>>  playback of the final rendered files.
>>  i was looking at ivysync http://montevideo.dyne.org/wiki/IvySync which
>>  says it can sync upto 4 mpeg2 files out  IvyTV <http://ivtv.sf.net>
>>  supported hardware decoders
>>     
>
> You could also do something using DV and firewire DV/analog
> converters. The project sponsor of MLT first sponsored my development
> of dv1394d, which is the foundation of the miracle video server
> software I described. Either a MPEG-2 or DV solution would require
> everything to be pre-encoded, which is a drawback and why MLT and
> miracle were developed. At the moment, neither dv1394d or miracle have
> a way to simultaneously start playback of multiple units, but within a
> matter of a second, it should be possible to send the play command to
> each unit. It would also be trivial to add a new command to do this.
>
>   
i guess this wouldn't be frame accurate sync - but i need to research 
the hardware types to fully understand what you mean.
>>  i think maybe ivysync maybe a good solution but if anyone can think of a
>>  better way i'm all ears :)
>>     
>
> DV over FireWire has a little "warmup" time for the device to lock on.
> There might be less accuracy in a DV-based solution than the ivysync
> one. Also, you should know that the developer of IvySync, Jaromil, has
> recently started hacking with MLT.
>
> Hmm, doing a little research on ivtv, and I see there is a framebuffer
> kernel module and an X driver with XVideo support. Also, I wonder if
> it possible to direct the XVideo of certain video display cards to its
> TV-Out. I had a feature on my old Matrox card and Windows driver to do
> that. It could take whatever was sent to DirectDraw video overlay and
> send that alone to the TV-Out. Jaromil should know more about this. It
> would be interesting to add ivtv compatibility to MLT and IvySync-like
> behaviour to Miracle.
>   
i suspect that this is possible - if so it would be very exciting to add 
this compatibility to Miracle!
this would be great - maybe the answer to all my needs - i look forward 
to hearing what jaromil has to say on this.

At some stage in the near future i am going to build the installation 
computer to try things out with...
 i think the cards that jaromil recommends are the PVR350's which i 
guess are these http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr350.html

i'd be happy to be a tester and write up some documentation or help in 
some way if this feature may be a possibility :)

let see... sounds like an exciting possible development though.

thanks,

rob c