A few questions about the Client

Hi,

So Im using the 2.0.8 client and i have a few questions depending it.

  1. Is there a way to position an image in the screen? So its not fullscreen? Just in the right corner.
  2. I activated the duration panel, but that just working with a specific server version? Anyway I can activate that in the 2.2.0 server version?

Overall the basic client seems to be a little lack of function when I look at some custom clients? Are there any recommended clients to use?

The official client is not updated to work good with the 2.2 version, as a lot of query commands (INFO) are not working any more. There is the idea to write a new client, but AFAIK that has not started yet.

As a basic client (for Server 2.0.7) it is quite powerful and generic. So, for instance you can issue a lot of these mixer commands to scale a layer and animate it in and out etc. See the “Tools” pane in the client for all available commands.

Custom clients are normally targeting a specific use case and perform well on that particular thing. So a client for soccer is not usable for a news show etc. So I would not say, that the official client lacks a lot of functionality, it is just an universal thing that shines on various tasks.

Ah thanks for the “Tools” tipp. So one problem is solved but there is no way to see when a clip will end?

With server 2.0.7 you can see the progress. With 2.2 it’s not possible. As I said the current official client works best with 2.0.7

The only problem is that I need to use a html page, that doesnt work with the 2.0.7 version (unexpected syntax error at javascript). So just one of the two things would work… hmm

What Decklink cards do you use? If you have more than one you could try to run two Caspar servers in parallel, one 2.2 and one 2.0.7 and use one card for each. But as I said “you can try” I have no idea if that works…

Hmmm yea, one server for that and one for this… could work tho…
But of course there is another question I forgot to ask in the first post: If it comes to dynamic things, text for example. Can I change it through Caspar in some way? Or do I have to change it (if its in a video) in after effects/premiere?

Dynamic text in templates (HTML or Flash) can be changed. Text in videos and images are actually pixels. That would be a miracle if that would be changeable.

We try to use flash templates for the dynamic text parts currenty.
But of course with a new day new question pop up about CasparCG.

  1. One question about the Buffer-depth in the config. We noticed that after a time the CasparCG output and key are asyncron. Why is that?
  2. We have now a small animation for the dynamic texts. The problem there is when we want to stop the layer the animation should played reversed. We already done the whole animation (start, middle and end) in after effects and then in animate. But when I press stop in the client, the animation starts but before its done the layer disappear. Do we have just an specific amount of time the animation can have? Or is it about the stop trigger in animate cc?
  3. Also if I press stop the dynamic texts resets. Any ideas about that?
  4. Can we also have dynamic pictures in flash templates? If yes, is there any easy short tutorial for that?
  5. We also have the problem, that another pc should be able to control the server without a client. Instead a tool called “JustMacros” should be used for that. I think the problem here is, we are playing a “HTML page”, that connects to a local node.js server (from the tools panel) and not a template. Is there any way to start it with the tool called above? Or is it a problem that its a html page and not a html-template?

That does normally not happen in „external“ key mode. What card do you use, and how does the config look like?

It is most likely, that you do something wrong in your template. There is no fixed maximum times for in or out animations from Caspars side.

Do you animate in the timeline or by script? In the timeline: Is the text one tween from start to finish? If there are breaks, Flash creates new objects and so the text disapears.

Did you see, that there is a help page? There is a section called guides, were you find the tutorial.

You find plenty of documentation on the JustMacro pages or on our help wiki, to figure out, what command JustMacros needs to send. A good trick is also to use the official Caspar client to play the thing and then look at the log file what command has been sent. Copy that command to JustMacros and your done.

We use a Deckling Studio monitor 4k card for CasparCG. The following is our configuration for it.

I wanted to say thanks again for the fast help in this forum.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<configuration>
 <paths>
   <media-path>media\</media-path>
   <log-path>log\</log-path>
   <data-path>data\</data-path>
   <template-path>templates\</template-path>
   <thumbnails-path>thumbnails\</thumbnails-path>
 </paths>
 <channels>
   <channel>
     <video-mode>1080p5000</video-mode>
     <consumers>
       <decklink>
         <device>2</device>
         <embedded-audio>false</embedded-audio>
         <keyer>external</keyer>
         <buffer-depth>6</buffer-depth>
      <key-device>device + 1</key-device>
       </decklink>
    <decklink>
         <device>1</device>
         <key-only>true</key-only>
           <buffer-depth>6</buffer-depth>    
       </decklink>
    <system-audio>true</system-audio>
     </consumers>
   </channel>
 </channels>
 <controllers>
   <tcp>
     <port>5250</port>
     <protocol>AMCP</protocol>
   </tcp>
 </controllers>
</configuration>

Try with this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<configuration>
	<paths>
		<media-path>media\</media-path>
		<log-path>log\</log-path>
		<data-path>data\</data-path>
		<template-path>templates\</template-path>
		<thumbnails-path>thumbnails\</thumbnails-path>
	</paths>
	<channels>
		<channel>
			<video-mode>1080p5000</video-mode>
			<consumers>
				<decklink>
					<device>2</device>
					<embedded-audio>false</embedded-audio>
					<keyer>external_separate_device</keyer>
					<buffer-depth>6</buffer-depth>
					<key-device>1</key-device>
				</decklink>
				<decklink>
					<device>1</device>
					<key-only>true</key-only>
					<buffer-depth>6</buffer-depth>    
				</decklink>
				<system-audio>true</system-audio>
			</consumers>
		</channel>
	</channels>
	<controllers>
		<tcp>
			<port>5250</port>
			<protocol>AMCP</protocol>
		</tcp>
	</controllers>
</configuration>

I am not to sure about the external_separate_device setting, as I never tried it, but it should keep the two devices in better sync than let them free run. Better would be to buy a card with a hardware keyer, like the 4K Extreme.

The workflow for the Flash templates: Exporting a series of png files and loading them into Animate. After creating the textfields, we animate them in the timeline. In the start we fade them in and in the end out.

You only answered the first half of the question:

Oh sorry, I worked with js and so on but never with Flash so Im kinda new to that. I wouldnt say that there are breaks in, but I cant tell it 100%. Can you defined it a little more, how that break looks like?

Aaaaaand ofc another question: I want to play a video in a html template. Included as a html5 video and it should be display fullscreen in the background. But I just see a transparent surface in CasparCG. Its working in a normal browser and I can also see the other elements in the template.

No vertical lines like that:

There is one object on the left of the line and one on the right. By loading data (dynamic text) you only update the object on the left. As soon as the playhead crosses the break-point the text is gone. Do NOT use classical tweens, only motion tweens.

I can not help you with HTML.