garageCube

THIS CURRENTLY ONLY WORKS IN 10.7 OR BELOW.
MOUNTAIN LION (10.8 ) DOES NOT SEEM TO WORK.

At an upcoming festival we're running a designed stage and using the MadMapper to implement the video design.
One of the biggest issues as co-ordinator is have so many VJs perform through the weekend and when using a mapped structure - either they all need a license of MadMapper or we have to use just a few playback machines.
My solution is having VJs mix on a normal mixer with their output then being feed in to a computer running MadMapper which does all the processing. Currently MadMapper doesn't support Quicktime Capture as an input, hopefully this will change, for now though this is my solution.

To make this work gear wise I'm using a Blackmagic Ultrastudio 3D to capture into a Thunderbolt based i7 MacMini. This tutorial will work with any capture device supported by Modul8 (see this thread - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3951) so depending what you use you should be able to capture either HD or SD. With my i7 MacMini setup I can capture and map 720P50 with only few frames of delay - 1080i causes delay, most probably due to the MacMini's 256mb of GPU memory.

I'm hoping to make some screen shots of this process next week, for now though heres a step by step process.

1. Install Xcode (if you haven't already). This includes Quartz Composer. It can be installed via your 10.6 install DVDs or free via the App Store.
2. Download Quartz Composer Syphon plugin from http://syphon.v002.info/ (Link is on the right of the page).
3. Install the Syphon.plugin file to /Library/Graphics/Quartz Composer Plug-Ins/ (hint - use the 'Go to folder' command in the Go menu in finder).

4. Download my Quartz Patch (http://lotech.co.nz/files/(LT)VideoCapturetoSyphon.zip). This patch will take the quicktime capture and spit it out as a Syphon input.

5. Before opening the patch you will need to set Quartz Composer to 32bit mode. This is due to the Quicktime Capture system only being available to 32bit apps at the moment. To do this, right click on the Quartz Composer app in /Developer/Applications choose get info and then tick the 32bit option up near the top.

6. Now open my Quartz project, it should show a panel with 4 linked 'patches'. This shows you the link between the input and the Syphon output along with a Quartz preview window. If this is displaying your capture - great. If not you will need to set it to the correct device:

7. Click on the Video Input patch and then click 'Patch Inspector' on the menubar.
This should show a control panel with 'Input Parameters' and not much else.
8. Click the right arrow button of this panel.
9. Here you can access your available sources along with the option to enable deinterlacing. Unless you need deinterlacing you should disable it as it will probably slow down processing through to MadMapper.

10. Thats it. Save your updated project. The viewer window in Quartz should show you the feed coming in to your capture device.
11. You can minimise all Quartz windows (but leave them open!) and start MadMapper.

Hi lotech,

i think that your workaround is smart.

I would like to see the pictures.

I´ve seen this Mixer.

http://www.neuromixer.com/imixhd/

it mixes DVI signals , maybe it´s an ad on.

It has 2 DVI Inputs and 1 DVI output.

Could you not connect the vj´s computer to MM?

I was just thinking if that makes sense?

Hope you have a good Performance.

form Hamburg
pele2010
rainy over here

I ran a stress test on this setup over night and after 16 hours later it's still running without any issues. The festival (splore.net) I'm going to use this on is next weekend so lets hope it works so well then. Will post pics after the weekend.

@pele2010 - You could use the iMix/TVone setup, although the resolution you send will always need to be a video format (PAL,NTSC,720,1080) but that shouldn't be a big issue.

Well we ran this setup at Splore this weekend and it never crashed. 14 or so VJs played over 2 nights with no major issues and could switch between premade map layouts and a normal VJ set. I'll post some pics/video soon.

Heres how we used this system to run a normal VJ mixer setup which allowed one click switching between different setups and VJs to play as they want.

Looking great ! I use a intensity extreme and a MBPro with your QC patch, and was very happy until I wanted to connect my beamer.......That is a bit difficult with only one thunderbolt port !
I wondered how you got from the mac mini to SDI output ? You use the Ultrastudio with thunderbolt for SDI in, and i guess HDMI for local monitoring, but how do you go to SDI ?

Cheers, Barney

Sorry that bit is wrong - we went HDMI from the MacMini to the projector.
And yeah the biggest flaw on all the thunderbolt capture boxes is only having a single thunderbolt port. Once theres a model with 2 we can use a MBP instead of the MacMini/Thunderbolt Display combo.

It worked ! Many thanks for the QC patch

http://new.livestream.com/showbizzlivec ... nts/869483

Cheers, Barney Broomer

lotech wrote:Heres how we used this system to run a normal VJ mixer setup which allowed one click switching between different setups and VJs to play as they want. There are some sites that you could visit, or you can look at the picture below.

Hi. How do you connect the studio mixer to the cap box? I am not sure what SDI stands for? Which solution is better, this or HDMI? Which one is less costly in terms of money? Please let me know. I hope my question is clear, sorry English is not my first language.

SDI is a digital video standard over (high grade) BNC cables. It's the standard for pro end video.
As the distances are quite short HDMI will do the job just as well.
Generally SDI equipment costs more but if you have it - use it.

After some preliminary test it would seem Mountain Lion has broken the support for 32bit (ie QT7) capture.
Hopefully I'll discover a work around but for now don't expect this to work on any OS 10.8+

Boom! SyphonCamera works. No need for Quartz Composer anymore. Expect a 3 or 4 step tutorial soon.

hi guys

i don't get it

My macbookpro is in os Lion, i have a ultrastudio 3d,
i must have made a mistake in the process with quartz composer,

Ultrastudio3D output (1080p50)visible only in Media-express (official blackmagic software)
i was unable to make the quartz stuff working, so no live feed in modul8 or madmapper,

In the quartz composition i choose my ultrastudio as input device but nothing happens,
Quartz is running in 32 bits. i have a ultrastudio syphon input in modul8 or madmapper but...blackscreen.

i tried with syphon camera, same : ultrastudio syphon input in modul8 or madmapper but...blackscreen.

is 1080p50 too high for this quartz trick ?
better too choose hdmi or sdi input in the ultrastudio3d and which one ? input #1 or #2 ?

thanks for help.

I've heard there are problems using blackMagic + QuartzComposer + 10.8

see here:
http://kineme.net/forum/DevelopingCompo ... untainLion

Apparently there's a workaround (but I didn't test it personally, so take it with caution):
http://kineme.net/release/VideoTools/23

Yeah I've done some more tests and it seems that Mountain Lion breaks all current ways of getting a capture input into MadMapper.
You could still use Modul8 or Resolume but they will add processing delay which was the main reason I didn't go that way originally.
I'll try fixes if they come out but for now will just have to use other programs to take a realtime camera/switcher/computer feed and map it to a structure via MadMapper.

Of course it they would just add it to MadMapper natively....