MADRIX Forum

I am a little unclear on something. I am running Madrix DVI on a windows 7 professional 64bit computer running an i7 processor and 8 gb of ram. My setup is this, I am outputting video to an led wall and to a couple projectors. Got everything set up in the shop to test before i get to the job site. In order to get the image to somewhat look right on the projector I set preview 2 to 640 x 480 resolution. Easy enough. I also do a basic patch based on 640 x 480 with a generic 1 x 1 pixel and set the size that way. I add a fixture into the patch for my led wall, which is lower resolution and much smaller size than the projection screens. This is when my issues start. The video content becomes VERY glitchy and looks distorted on the video screen. Even if I remove the led portion of the wall out of the equation. Ok, so my question, is there a limitation to the video size for Madrix DVI? Do I need to buy a different version to make this work for my application? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Hi Mystic,

Thank you for describing your set up!
There are many items I would like to go through. Please apoligize if this is going to be a very long post!

1) When talking about the pixel resolution of MADRIX dvi, we have to take the software side and the hardware side of things into consideration. The MADRIX dvi license unlocks 307,200 DVI pixels. This could translate into 640x480. As such, MADRIX dvi should be fine for you.
BUT on the other hand, there is the limit of computer performance. MADRIX renders all visuals in real-time. Those effects can be quite complex and require a certain computer power. The more you want to do with MADRIX, the more power is required! The most demanding factors are the Pixel resolution, the Type of output, the Effects in use, the Number of layers in use.

You already have a quite powerful computer, but still 640x480 is not a low resolution for MADRIX. In fact, it is already a very high resolution for MADRIX. And you said you even added more pixels to the Patch.

Another thing is playing video files. This is totally different compared to the rendering of live effects. Your computer will probably not have much difficulty to play back video files in 640x480.

(The maximum pixel resolution of the beamer is often not an issue to consider, since 640x480 should be a standard, compatible resolution.)

2) Now let's talk about the issues you mentioned:

- Adding fixtures for the LED wall to the Patch: I think this is directly related to the higher pixel resolution. Your computer will have problems computing all the visual effects for the large Patch.

- For the Patch, I can recommend adding 640x480 1x1 pixel fixtures, but to activate "Merge fixtures" to create one large DVI fixture. This might save a tiny bit of performance.

- Please also double-check the "Patch Size". This item configures the maximum length and width of your Patch. Please make sure it is set up correctly.

- Distorted output: Please check the configuration of your "Preview DVI 2". In MADRIX, call up the corresponding "DVI Window Settings" and make sure your Preview DVI only shows the 640x480 area of the Patch. Use "Display Area" for this. If I understand you correctly, you might be putting out the complete Patch to your projectors.

- Distorted output: The high pixel resolution might be too much to handle for your computer and as such graphical glitches might appear on the DVI output.

If you want, you can send us your MADRIX Setup file by e-mail and we could check and maybe give further tipps.

Thanks!

Dannenberg, thank you for your reply. I will double check my set up and make sure I have everything patched correctly. Even with removing the second device that I added to the patch to go to my LED wall, Madrix becomes very gltchy and spotty playing back video content. I have connected a DVD player directly to my video capture card in the computer to see if it is simply because my files are rendered into lower resolutions, and it does the same thing. If i wanted to send you the setup file for you to take a look at it, what email adress should I send it to? I would like to get this worked out asap since the show I need this to work on is in a couple of weeks. Thank You for your time and efforts

You are welcome!

Please use info[at]madrix.com
Thank you.

Here is another tipp:

You could try to patch 320x240. Then, you could scale up the Preview DVI 2 to 640x480 by using the "Window Size" in the "DVI Window Settings". That would probably a good test to see if it is the performance of the computer!

Ok I will give that a shot as well.. Thanks again

Ok, patched at 320 x 240 and well it wasnt blippy, set my preview B to 640 x 480 and as I expected, the image on my screen ( projection ) is blurred since I am infact strectching the pixels to fit a larger screen than what is set up in Madrix. Therefore there is a LARGE and very noticeable difference in image quality between the projector running straight from a dvd and the quality or the image rumming through the Madrix machine

Correct. Upscaling will always influence the image quality to a certain degree. Of course, you could patch higher resolutions to minimize the differences.

You can set up a higher resolution in MADRIX to realize a different image quality, but as explained MADRIX was not primarily built to run high resolutions and beames/projectors tend to require such large pixel resolutions.

But, Mystic, was that the answer to your problems?

Yes that does, it sounds to me that I need to upgrade to at least the next version up of madrix in order to not run it to its limit patching at 640 x 480, which I am pushing my video output card to downgrade its output for that. Thank you Dannenberg for all your advice

You are welcome!

Which resolution would you like to run on your projectors?

My projectors native resolution is 1024 x 768, so that is what I would like give them, however I will gladdly run them at 640 x 480 if i can get them image to look right. My madrix becomes spotty when I patch it at 640 x 480.