SETTING UP YOUR SERVER

MAKE SURE THINGS ARE UP TO DATE

  • Are you using the latest graphics driver?
  • Have you installed Media Feature Pack (for N and KN versions of Windows 10)?

TIPS

On your display nodes you will benefit from:

Software Optimization

  • Running as few background programs as possible
  • Turning off notification and popup programs
  • Disabling Windows Explorer if needed (via taskkill /im explorer.exe /f)
  • Increasing the priority of visual renderer processes (via Task Manager or using WMIC)

Hardware Considerations

WATCHOUT puts significant strain on your SSD and GPU. These components can overheat during intensive operation. WATCHOUT performs prolonged read operations and requires consistent bandwidth over time.

  • Ensure your SSD is heat-tolerant and doesn't throttle under load
  • Verify your GPU has adequate cooling for sustained operation
  • Consider using enterprise-grade SSDs for installations requiring 24/7 operation
  • Monitor component temperatures during extended testing

CAPTURE

WATCHOUT can capture video using the following interfaces:

  • Deltacast VideoMaster
  • Windows Media Foundation
  • NDI

For all capture sources, timestamps are used to schedule frames for rendering. Different hardware provides timestamps of varying quality and accuracy. WATCHOUT determines the lowest latency possible while maintaining smooth playback.

Deltacast VideoMaster Limitations

Deltacast VideoMaster is limited to the GPU Extension for Nvidia, allowing low latency video capture directly from the capture device to the GPU without going through the CPU. Only HDMI, SDI and mixed interface (SDI and HDMI) boards are supported.

Windows Media Foundation

Windows Media Foundation requires a driver that supports this interface. Plug & play USB devices use Microsoft's USB Video Class driver that comes with Windows. Other devices require a driver from the video capture device manufacturer. Tested brands:

  • Magewell
    • Pro Capture
  • Datapath
    • Datapath VisionLC
    • Datapath VisionSC

Note: Performance depends on many factors including CPU speed, available PCIe lanes, and BIOS settings.

Interlaced Frames

WATCHOUT works with progressive frames at full framerate and will de-interlace video streams where missing lines are interpolated from existing lines. Different interfaces provide interlaced frames in different formats. Deltacast and NDI provide interlaced fields with lower latency, while Windows Media Foundation mostly de-interlaces in hardware or delivers line-interleaved frames at half the framerate.

What we test

We test on or Watchpax hardwares. WE have also tested Magewell Pro Capture Quad SDI, driver V1.3.0.4323 28-12-2022, firmware: Firmware 1.34

Use GPU Connectors as Channels

Windows can re-number display outputs when connections change or after system updates. If this behavior causes issues, you can add an environment variable to maintain consistent channel numbering:

USE_GPU_CONNECTORS_AS_CHANNELS=TRUE

This will lock each physical GPU connector to a specific channel number, creating a more stable mapping. However, the resulting channel order might not match your preferred arrangement.

NOTE: After setting this environment variable, restart all WATCHOUT components for the change to take effect.