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New DL-2 user, couple of questions

dwp-avdwp-av Registered User
edited November 2007 in DL.3/DL.2
I've got a show coming up where I will be using 3 or 4 DL-2 fixtures, which I have not programmed before. I will be using an iPC running Hog 3 software to do this. I've been working my way through the manual, but I have a few questions I can't seem to get a clear answer on in the manual (might have just missed them).

- the console treats 1 DL-2 as 3 seperate fixtures. The fixture only appears to accept one start address. Is this correct, or is there a DMX start address in fixture menu for each 'console fixture', ie a global start address, motion address, and graphic addresses?

- Can I use the VGA input as an one of the 3 object layers?

Thanks!

Comments

  • FxDrewFxDrew Registered User
    edited November 2007
    Actually the console treats the DL.2 as 5 different fixtures. The first is the Motion, then Global, followed by 3 Graphics layers. You would patch them in that order and the start address for the DL.2 will be what the Motion layer is patched to. The other addresses you don't have to worry about as long as you patch each fixture in this same way. You CANNOT patch all the motion layers for all 4 of your DL.2's first, then all the global, etc... Each fixture's attributes must be patched in the consecutive order.

    You cannot use a VGA input for a graphics layer. The only input to the graphics engine of the DL.2 is the S-Video port. If you used a scaler to get your VGA signal to S-video, then you can get into the graphics engine. The VGA/BNC input on the DL.2 is for use when you bypass the internal media server thus making it an uber-expensive DL-1
  • dwp-avdwp-av Registered User
    edited November 2007
    Thanks for the quick reply!
  • dwp-avdwp-av Registered User
    edited November 2007
    About the VGA/5 wire input, I still can control global parameters on that input right? Like keystone, masking, etc.?
  • FxDrewFxDrew Registered User
    edited November 2007
    Nope, that connection goes directly to the Projector. Keystoning and such are done on the graphics engine. You will only have control of what's in the motion layer of the DL.2.
  • joe_hallerjoe_haller Registered User, HES Staff
    edited November 2007
    Chris,
    If you select the VGA/5 wire input you bypass the computer sending the feed directly to the projector. This means you have no graphics engine control, thus resulting in no keystone correction, masks, collage generator, etc. The s-video input feeds the video through the computer allowing you to have full graphics engine support.

    Let us know if you have any additional questions!
  • dwp-avdwp-av Registered User
    edited November 2007
    Ok, so do you have any suggestions for what I'm hoping to do:

    This is for a cooperate event where we are wanting to shoot content at various times from a computer running PowerPoint onto a screen that has a nonstandard aspect ratio. I need to mask the image down so that it fits this screen, but I would rather not scale it down to S-Video to do this and not upload all of the slides (so the presenter could still have control) to the DL-2s. I realize that I could mask each slide within PP to fit what I'm trying to do, but I still would need to have keystoning.
  • Marty PostmaMarty Postma Registered User
    edited November 2007
    As already posted...the only way you are going to be able to do this in a practical manner is to go in with S-Video.

    I don't think you will see too much loss of resolution here. It really depends on what the surface you are projecting onto looks like as well. It sounds like you may already be losing resolution there, so it might not be a big deal.

    I've done this quite a bit on corporates, and if the resolution is truly an issue (I've never run into it as an issue honestly), then the content gets loaded into the DL.2 and triggered from the lighting desk.
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