Here is everything I am doing with the catalyst. I have a triple wide screen, blended with catalyst and a triple head 2 go. The computer is a mid 2008 Mac pro with I think an Nvidia 8800. I have a 32GB SSD hard drive for content playback, and a decklink extreme hd 2 for video input.
Ok so at this point I have a video that is a background. It was rendered as a triple wide image. I don't know the exact resolution or what it's codec is. Then I have my other video that I am trying to play over that. This video was recorded at 1080i 59.94. I have exported it at a photo-jpeg at that resolution. I have also done an AIC at 1080i and 720p, and both get off. It is around a 1.9GB file. Then I have 3 layers looking at the video input which just has lyrics from another source coming in the sdi line.
I know that Protools was set at 29.97 when we recorded it. I will check to make sure that the video and audio line up by themselves, but that might be a little hard. 2 computers in 2 different rooms.
The midi device I have for catalyst is a cakewalk um-2g. I don't think it is very good, but it is what I have right now.
Is there anyway to force the catalyst to make my video top priority?
Thanks
NO. There is no way to change the priority of video over audio. In computer standards, audio is presumed to be a higher priority because your ears will hear a defect before your eyes would see it.
This isn't just a fact of Catalyst. It's true at the root level of any computer or digital playback device. Trust me though, this is a good thing because there are all kinds of hidden things 99% of people aren't aware of that need this.
SourceChildTODD SCRUTCHFIELD
...if it ain't broke...
gimme 5 and then don't act surprised
This system will run several layers of HD footage in AIC. Depending on your compression level (about 70% or lower) the PhotoJPEG will also play several layers of HD.
You can check the info on this clip and see what it is, the codec, and the size. I will say though that a 3072x768 image is a big image and you wouldn't be able to run very many layers.
I think it would be a very good idea to verify that it is rendered AIC simply because it running could interfere with other layers being able to run well without dropping frames.
Once again, re-rendering this files as Progressive at exactly 30 frames would be a very good idea. Anything interlaced looks terrible on a media server.
In regard to this I want to clarify a few things.
Many times people say 1080i or 720p loosely. In the realm of media servers you do not want to say or to used 1080i or 720p.
More exactly you want to specify:
1920x180x@30fps or 1280x720@30fps (25fps for other locals).
Without getting too lost in detail, the terms 720p or 1080p actually refer to faster frame sampling and the use of anamorphic pixels. These are not characteristics that translate to a media server (at least not yet).
Video Capture Layers won't cause issues with the playback.
SourceChildTODD SCRUTCHFIELD
...if it ain't broke...
gimme 5 and then don't act surprised
In reading though your post again, I thing I noticed something.
From the way you wrote the post, I believe we all presumed you were playing back the audio of the file on Catalyst.
Reading again now, I don't believe this is the case, right?
You're just playing the video portion along side the audio coming from another system, right?
If this is the case, a test you can do is to enable audio mode on the file and run it with the timecode from the audio dept and see if the audio stays matched near the end. If it doesn't then it means the file you're using is playing at a different time base.
SourceChildTODD SCRUTCHFIELD
...if it ain't broke...
gimme 5 and then don't act surprised
Thanks for all the help with this. I have one additional question. I have a 32GB SSD hard drive for my content playback. Would I be able to play more if I had a second SSD drive and split the content between them? Or would I reach the limits of the hard drive bus in the computer?
Thanks