Catalyst and imag. Who has used it?

Chris,

I've used Catalyst for Imag before.

I generally don't like doing this because there is a slight frame delay due to the processing that Catalyst does, but in a few situations I've had DL-1s or DL-2s that I used to project Imag onto surfaces that I couldn't hit with standard projectors. I usually look at this as an effect more than a primary solution for Imag, but I've had some good luck with it and have been pleased with the results.

Please let me know if you're looking for any specific information or have concerns about a project that you're working on.

Thanks for the info.

I have a tour coming up that will be using catalyst either way, but I would love to run the imag through the Catalyst so I have control over fading between straight imag and media files. I have a few places during the show were I would like to apply some color/visual effects to the imag as well. I will also be keying some lyrics over the imag so doing it with the catalyst would make the whole thing smoother.

Any ideas.

Chris

I would say that it probably all boils down to what the producer(s) / artist(s) are expecting.

It would probably be a good idea to see if you can set up a test with them to take a look at everything that Catalyst offers and see if they are willing to live with the slight delay you might see.

Hey Chris

What i have found in the past with yusing Catalyst to playback Imag is that you almost come away with a stop-frame or shuttering type of effect on the video if it is fast moving images on the camera feed. When i used it in the past, we got away with some cool looks by making sure that we had several video effects on the imag image itself rather than just have a imag image up there. you will notice the lag or latency of the live feed, especially if there is other video screens being sent other imag images.

catalyst is great for these effects, but it is unfortante for the host computer for having such a low quality of capturing. but until someone makes a better catpure card or the host computer processor takes the feed in more real time, we will be with the wonderful latency issues that we have.

hope this helps,
keith

Run the Catalyst parallel to the Imag using a little vision mixer like Sony anycast or the grass valley Indigo. That way the latency is at a minimum and when you do want effects through the catalyst on the Imag then run a feed through the vision mixer to catalyst and then back through the mixer to the LED/Projector. Another plus point is that if something happens to the catalyst or the camera feed you can always use the other. If the catalyst stops working when you have all the videos running through it , then you loose everything.
If you want to do text and stuff over Imag, then think about sending the text out on a black background and Lumakey it out in the mixer over the Imag.
Using a mixer is a much safer, faster and easier method than most think