Mapping changes drastically if video cable unplugged

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zebbler
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Mapping changes drastically if video cable unplugged

Post by zebbler »

Switching to using native Arena mapping and finding this quirk. It happened several times consistently with different projectors now, so I am a bit freaked out. If I lose signal, or video cable is unplugged and re-plugged, my mapping gets WAY off. And sometimes the layer seems to have moved up or down a ton, or stretch. All of the numbers on my position still seem the same. But this led to some very unfortunate last minute re-mapping right before the show.

Anyone know what's going on or what I could do to avoid this?

Arena 4.1.6
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Joris
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Re: Mapping changes drastically if video cable unplugged

Post by Joris »

This shouldn't happen. Since you are able to recreate it consistently, perhaps you can post some screenshots of it? That way we have a better idea of what's happening.

Tecno`
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Re: Mapping changes drastically if video cable unplugged

Post by Tecno` »

It may be worth checking the Auto type settings are off on the projector.

I am not sure how projectors work this out but it seems to depend on what is on your output.

Tim

zebbler
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Re: Mapping changes drastically if video cable unplugged

Post by zebbler »

Yeah, I'll post screen shots if it happens again. It's weird and unnerving for sure. I searched the web for similar situations and found none, hence I am posting here.
Luckily I am bringing just one consistent projector on tour, so if it's any projector settings, I may be able to figure this out, and lock them in place. It would be pretty terrible if I couldn't take my laptops off the table or couldn't shut off the projector once the mapping tests are done.

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Re: Mapping changes drastically if video cable unplugged

Post by pfelberg »

I had this several times and It drove me crazy.
Let´s say I mapped dozen shapes and they were ready for the show next day. Ok, I think, "Power off everything till tomorrow."
Next day mapping was gone and I was like... who the hell touched Arena during the night?
I had to do all over again.
I allways thought of it as some sort of Arena bug.

But two weeks ago I was performing, projecting to my "DJ Mapping Cabin", when suddenly some jerk just plug-off the projector power cable during the show. WHAT???
Forget the implications of it... let´s focus in the issue in hands. Power was up and I realized that I could have the very same problem as before, but this time during a show. Oh shit.
I guess I also restarted Arena, dunno why and when it got back on sending output to the projector - damn, everything was gone again. AS YOU DESCRIBED: NUMBERS WERE ALL THE SAME, CORRET, BUT PROJECTION LOOKED DISTORTED OR MISPLACED A LOT. I would have to fix that on the fly...
It took some seconds, no one moved a bit or touched the projector and then suddenly everything got back in place, perfectly. It was just like the projector identifying the current signal resolution whatsoever.
So, now I believe it is a projector issue. I´d try restaring the projector.

zebbler
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Re: Mapping changes drastically if video cable unplugged

Post by zebbler »

SUCKS. I am sadly glad you had the same issues.
In my case (the recent one) the projector didn't power down however, I just unplugged the cable and plugged it back in, and everything went totally bonkers (it looked about 40 pixels taller and warped in the wrong ways, even though some of the mapping stayed normal).
I re-mapped it and tried unplugging and re-plugging back in, and this time it behaved fairly ok? Although there were a few other issues where the mapping got off again but in more subtle ways.
Sometimes technology is too smart for itself and makes some weird unpredictable decisions about what's right. It's very depressing and makes me feel rather powerless. I'll let you guys know if I figure out a more clear pattern of what's going on. This has never happened to me outside of using Arena and Arena's native mapping. Avenue + IRMapio was my mapping tool of default until then, the maps would get lost on restart, but I would have to just reload them and it would all align instantly... Having my saved maps behave differently each time is grounds for serious panic in a live environment.

zebbler
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Re: Mapping changes drastically if video cable unplugged

Post by zebbler »

PS - what sort of a projector / cable were you using when that happened?

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He2neg
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Re: Mapping changes drastically if video cable unplugged

Post by He2neg »

i bet it was a digital cable ( hdmi / dvi )
and i also bet its some kind of EDID issu going on here ;)

maybe the guys from resolume can check if any EDID comand is send / used by the adv. output...

EDID = Communication between screen and source about resolution / sync and other stuff.
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zebbler
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Re: Mapping changes drastically if video cable unplugged

Post by zebbler »

My first issue was with dual display output (via two displayport outputs on my macbook) that utilized mini displayport cables and went to some crazy scaler to go to two projectors as one giant 4096x1080 image.
My second issue however was with a good old VGA cable, going to a projector with native 1024x768 resolution (my composition was 1920x1440). That projector was a bit odd however, since, when initially plugged in, it cut off the right side of my image, even though in Resolume preview - the full image was visible. I hit "auto setup" button on the projector, which miraculously fixed that issue. But after losing signal momentarily (after doing the mapping on a properly displayed image) everything went to sh*t. It could be the projector. But regardless, it's a bit worrying - as it's starting to be a pattern that happens on multiple projectors / multiple types of cables.

zebbler
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Re: Mapping changes drastically if video cable unplugged

Post by zebbler »

Also, I believe the projection techs forced the EDID through on the scaler on the first issue I had. As far as the techs told me - it was locked to a specific resolution and specific refresh rates, so those didn't change. We had them brainstorm this for us, and all of their settings, reportedly, were the same. Yet, nevertheless, our mapping got thrown way off.

Although, I suppose they might have re-set the EDID and refresh rate settings after restarting (from their perspective - it (the reset) was a good way to ensure it's all running same as it was before), which might have jostled Resolume into glitching out the mapping.
Last edited by zebbler on Tue Feb 11, 2014 04:32, edited 1 time in total.

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