Transfering a show from one projector to two?

[longred]

I am moving a show from our house with one 1920 x 1080 projector to a house with two 1024x768 projectors.
What is the best way to do this?
Do I just change the outputs to widescreen left and widescreen right?
How do I set up blending? In widescreen I can't seem to get the settings to work they way I imagine they should work.
The screen is 44'6" wide x 6'6" tall. In the new space: at our throw distance/ lens combo each projector is 29'7" wide. If I set them up edge to edge that is 49'2". I could overlap in the middle and have 4'8" of blending. which is approx 161 pixels.
So how do I set up my mix or mixes to split the one piece of content across the two projectors and do the blending in the middle.

All of the content was created to fit the screen from one 1920x1080 projector.

Sorry for the newbie question, I've always just used my Catalysts with one projector until now.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Michael K. Maag

Mac = 2x 2.66 GHz Dual -Core Xenon
Ram = 2 GB
OS X 10.6.4
CatalystPM 4.20 m257UB_HD
OS Boot Disk and Catalyst on 500 GB S-ATA drive
Content on 300 GB Velociraptor
Graphics Card ATI Radeonx1900XT
Projectors: Sanyo PLC XF46N / Lens 2.0-2.6
Console is ETC EOS triggering a Catalyst Cue List Via MIDI

[Mr_P]

Hi Michael

It should be fairly simple...

I will assume that you have all layers routed to Mix 2 (output2) with mix all layer with Fx selected? and that you are not using any other mixes.

To do this - you will have to use both outputs of the Mac (or use a Matrox DH2G)

Assign all layers in use to both mix 1 and mix 2

Set Mix1 to 1024x768 and align it to 0,0 on Output 1 (Left)
Set Mix2 to 1024x768 and align it to 0,0 on Output 2 (right)

Decide upon your percentage overlap: 20%?

In mix 1 options, change the x offset to -0.8
In mix 1 options, change the x offset to +0.8

This will split the image between both screens with a 20% overlap

In mix options, turn on Blending 'Edge Fade' and 'Blending HUD'
(this will show you the blend and PINK lineup markers

In mix 1 options, enable Blending Right 20%
In mix 1 options, enable Blending Left 20%

Your screens should resemble the picture attached... (but on 2 screens)

Once you physically overlap your projectors by 20% - the pink markers should align and the result will be one widescreen image.

You will have spare pixels on the Left and Right which you probably wont use.

You can increase the overlap - but its usually more difficult to blend a bigger overlap - so start with 20%

I have assumed that you don't need to keystone the image at all here....
Do get back to me if you need help with that too BEFORE spend hours trying to line it up...

Hope this helps

Simon

[longred]

Simon,
Thank you for the detailed instructions. Fantastic! I am heading out to the Catalyst to set that up now.
However;
The 44'6"wx6'6"h screen plays in two positions. One very near the top of the over all projected image and one near the bottom. I imagine that I will need to apply layer key-stoning to the content and a shutter layer when the screen is in the lower position.
Can I use use layer keystone with your recipe? or do I need to apply key-stoning to the mixes?
Thanks again.
Michael

[Mr_P]

Is the move between positions live?
If live - probably best to use keystone on the layer...

But you may have to use some mix keystone to line it all up first anyway

Difficult to answer without seeing it...

I'd usually suggest using mix keystone for 'fixed' screens / positions - then anything you send to the mix will be correct...

Then use layer keystone if the image has to move live from one place to another...

(but it is also possible to control mix keystone via dmx... and recall different keystone mix setups...)

Suggest doing whatever seems simpler...
Try with the mix first - as the images are blended, you may have to anyway.

S