Separate HD content on each screen

[Reilly Donovan]

It seems like this system architecture is playing back one HD file on the master and streaming it to the corresponding tiles over the network.
I'm wondering if there is a way to change this so that the master is only a frame sync check for the tiles with the tiles playing back different content in fullHD.

Say I have a 9 tile system with each screen being fullHD.
On the master and each tile I have a file named movie.avi that is the same duration, resolution, and compression but contains different content.
Is there a way to set up the system so that it plays back the local video files on the tile in sync rather than the master streaming to the tiles?
Currently when the master is streaming, the video size is limited by its native resolution, so if you have a 1920x1080 video then only 1/9 of that will be displayed in each tile, which doesn't utilize the full pixel density of the HD display.

Any thoughts/suggestions on some potential solutions for this?
Cheers!

[Alex Goodyear]

Hi Reilly,

As we said in this answer https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/piwall-users/gaeeP3ZPD_0 we have thought about it but decided not to persue it as a primary goal for our system.

Alex

[Justin Ireland]

I agree, there is a need for this. My primary interest in the rpi for video walls is the scalability but if the most the video wall can ever display is 1080p content then its actually not very compelling as compared to a PC with 4K output.

[Reilly Donovan]

Although this is not a primary goal, please tell me it is at least one.
Your existing architecture is great, but it would be exquisite if you could integrate a feature like this.

there is syncstarter
http://syncstarter.org/

and ArraySync

http://www.nasolab.com/arraysync/

but nothing for the the raspi so far that is accomplishing a server & client sync system.
The current system is restricted to the maximum number of supported pixels of omxplayer, which seems to be 1920x1080.
With a client / server architecture, you have an unrestricted amount of array architectures that use all of the pixels on the screen and all of the processing power on the boards.
You seem to have vaild arguments in a previous post, https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!topic/piwall-users/gaeeP3ZPD_0, and I definitely am excited about utilizing live feeds & SimpleCV in tandem with PiWall, but what about PiWall HDPro?  Your arguments about customization and streamlining the interface are valid, but man, fullHD an every screen would just be so great!  Please try to provide a solution for this!  Cheers!

[Jeremy Keith]

I too, would be incredibly interested in this feature.  This would be an incredible addition to what is already awesome software.

 

Thanks!

[Matthew Truhan]

This would be a great feature to have. I would be interested in this as well.

[Iris Irgendwer]

I am writing my bachelor thesis about real-time-synchronisation of media-data. For that I will try to synchronise 4 Raspberry Pis with the help of the GPIOs (and maybe over network) and only start the video exactly at the same time and then try to resynchronize them if there appear differences. The Videos should be saved on every Raspberry Pi itself - no streaming.

Did you try something like that? Do you think it is possible as I want to try?

[Alex Goodyear]

Hi Reilly,

We've been busy over the last few months and completely re-written the transmit and receive software to add the following features (including each Pi tile being able to play a local HD video synchronised to a master video)

Our new commercial PiWall software can concurrently display ...

• mirroring of a standard desktop with a source resolution of up to 4000x3000
• display an HD video - either pre-recorded or a live stream such as a Raspberry Pi camera feed. We can display larger resolution videos but they require pre-rendering for a fixed location and size on the PiWall and stored locally on each respective Pi tile. Presently, each physical screen is only able to display a single HD video at any one time.
• several text banners and/or photos with source resolutions up to 4000x3000

All of these graphical elements can have their position and size attributes controlled in real time. Additionally, mirroring, text banners and photos can have their transparency altered in real time. These attributes can be controlled either by an algorithm or a pre-programmed pattern - we have some YouTube videos of the new features in action.

Regards,

Alex.

[Reilly Donovan]

Alex,

This sounds AMAZING!

I CANNOT WAIT to see what your hard work has resulted in!

Thank you so much for pushing forward with some of the features I have pestered you with.

I'm really looking forward to the commercial version!  Please notify me ASAP when it is available!

Cheers!

P.S.  

Need any beta testers? :)

[Gelson Reinaldo]

Hello Alex,

   Do you have any idea when we will have the release of the commercial version with the new futures?

Thanks in advance.

Gelson.

[Studio Berryscope]

Great news, I'm really interesting for the commercial version. So have you an aproximate date for availability ?
Thanks.

Loïc. (from France)

[Phil Reyneri]

Hello,

Any update to the release of the Commercial version? I am also interested in syncing different HD videos stored locally on each Pi.

[Alan Brown]

Hello,

I'm another very interested in syncing different videos stored on each Pi. Is this likely to be released soon or should I be looking at other options?

Many thanks,

Alan

[Kar Leong Tew]

Hi Alex,

Any updates on the commercial version of PiWall? We are trying to display video feed of resolution 3240x1920 (1920x1080 3sets in portrait mode). We don't have the display yet but the video produced is not even showing/streamed within our test setup.

Regards,
Kar Leong (KL)

[Florian Soulard]

Hello Iris, 

Did you ever manage to do that (play different full HD videos saved in local on each Raspberry Pi, with synchronisation over GPIOs?). 

I am working on a project where two videos must be played with perfect synchronisation. The two x264 video files are different (saved on the microSD or USB mass storage of their respective Raspberry Pi), but they have same resolution (1920x1080), same fps (25 or 30) and same number of frames. So the only information shared between the two Raspberry Pi should be sync data...  Also,  using the GPIOs would allow using Raspberry Pi Zeros,  and no need for an Ethernet switch. 

Please let me know if your project followed this direction and was successful. 

[kamran s]

Did you manage to complete your project (sync over GPIO)?