Video

[Brother Believe Me]

Has anyone used the video function on SBA yet? I have converted to webM, imported and cast to a TV. Looks very poor quality, compared to watching it normally. Is there any advice or tutorials on how to use the “EFFECTS” tab in order to use the +video function?

[Dave Brown [admin]]

You can change the video quality (resolution and refresh rate) transmitted by SBA from the Preferences window. The current official release supports resolutions up to 1024x768 (XGA).

The upcoming SBA 2.2 release can transmit up to Full HD (1920x1080). It is currently in testing and available upon request.

[Dave Brown [admin]]

There are some tips on how to design presets containing video in this FAQ

[Brother Believe Me]

Thanks Dave,

I did now figure out how to cast photo/video to a separate screen (projector). I also did use the preferences tab to improve the quality. However, adding any photo/video to the active fx tab totally brings my computer to a standstill. The videos play fine if they are not in the showbuddy active world. Any ideas?

[Dave Brown [admin]]

...adding any photo/video to the active fx tab totally brings my computer to a standstill...

What version of Show Buddy Active are you running?
Do you use Windows or macOS?
What is your computer specification?

The latest 2.2.4 beta (available upon request) is vastly more efficient at rendering video, I highly recommend you contact me for the download links. For example, on my base level MacBook Air M1, the 2.1.6 release cannot render more than two 1024x768 videos without grinding to a halt. With the new 2.2.4 release, I can render 3 Full HD videos simultaneously, and the CPU load is a modest 15%.

Also, make sure you encode your videos at the appropriate resolution and frame rate. Videos encoded at lower resolutions are easier for SBA to play back.

[Dave Brown [admin]]

Did you make any progress?

I forgot to mention, when converting videos for Show Buddy Active, always use the VP8 encoder for webm, NOT the VP9 encoder.

VP8 is far more efficient to decode and less demanding on your computer than VP9.

[Brother Believe Me]

Thanks for the follow up. I have not looked back into it yet. Unfortunately at my show last Saturday, SBA was not performing as I had hoped. I was attempting to only run my lighting cues from Setlist. It was laggy during soundcheck then caught up as it ran. But when the setlist cues ended and 30 seconds or so would pass the lights would go haywire. So…I need to focus on getting those running properly before I revisit the video aspect.