NDI Output

NDI® (Network Device Interface) is a network video transport that carries video and audio over standard Ethernet. In WATCHOUT, NDI is one of the five output devices alongside GPU, SDI, ST 2110, and Virtual. Choosing NDI publishes the rendered display output as an NDI stream that any NDI receiver on the network can discover and consume — production switchers, multiviewers, recorders, or another media server.

NDI is the right choice when you need to feed WATCHOUT output to other software or systems on the LAN without dedicated video cabling. For receiving NDI streams as capture sources in WATCHOUT, see NDI Video Sources. That page also covers cross-subnet discovery, infrastructure recommendations, and NDI troubleshooting that apply to both directions.

Configuring an NDI Display

To set up a display for NDI output:

  1. Select the display in the Stage or Device list.
  2. In Device Properties → Output, set the Output Type to NDI.
  3. Set the Resolution to match the intended downstream format.
  4. Configure the NDI Color Space under Signal.

NDI output does not use a numbered channel on the node. The stream is published on the network under the display's name and is discovered automatically by NDI receivers on the same subnet (or via NDI Extra IPs on other subnets — see NDI Video Sources).

Color Space

NDI output has its own NDI Color Space dropdown, separate from the GPU/SDI/ST 2110 color space list:

  • Auto — WATCHOUT selects based on the output resolution. Streams above 1920x1080 default to Rec. 2020, streams above 720x576 default to Rec. 709, and smaller streams default to Rec. 601.
  • Rec. 601 — legacy SD encoding.
  • Rec. 709 — HD encoding. The most common choice for HD streams.
  • Rec. 2020 — wide-gamut UHD encoding.

NDI does not offer the HDR color spaces (Rec. 2100 PQ / HLG) — for HDR delivery, use a GPU, SDI, or ST 2110 output.

Color Depth

NDI output is fixed at 8 bits per component. There is no color depth selector — the property panel hides it for NDI displays. This is a limit of the NDI codec, not a WATCHOUT setting.

Interlaced

The Interlaced toggle is available for NDI output (and SDI). Enable it when the receiver requires an interlaced stream; otherwise the output is progressive.

Max Quality Mode

The Render with maximum quality toggle forces 16-bit color precision during compositing. Because the NDI output is encoded at 8-bpc, this only affects the precision of intermediate compositing operations before the 8-bpc encode — useful when the compositing chain contains gradients or blending that would otherwise band at 8-bit.

Frame Delay

The Delay Frames setting (0–10 frames) adds a configurable output delay. Use this to align the NDI output with the latency of other displays in the system so all signals reach the viewer at the same time.

Stream Discovery and Network Considerations

The NDI stream is named after the display's Name field. To make a stream easy to identify on the receiver side, rename the display before enabling NDI output (for example Stage_Left_Preview rather than Display 3).

NDI bandwidth, switch requirements, firewall rules, and cross-subnet discovery are covered in NDI Video Sources. Those constraints apply equally to NDI inputs and outputs.

A single 1080p NDI stream typically uses 100–150 Mbps; 4K streams use substantially more. Plan switch capacity accordingly when multiple displays publish NDI streams from the same node.

NDI® is a registered trademark of Vizrt NDI AB.

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