MTC Watcher and Serial TC

BichoMuerto

Hi there,

First let me say that i'm a newbie at Isadora or show production in general so I apologize in advance for any dumb questions I may ask.

I have loads of questions but I'll start in this first post by the only urgent ones.

I'm currently working on a show for which i need to sync video playback with a protools timeline (or at least trigger videos with it's TC).

The protools timeline will be managed by the musician of the show in his own computer. He'll also be stopping or pausing the timeline at several moments of the show.

So I figured that the Midi TC would be the easiest way to sync my videos to his TC. As I didn`t find on Isadora or this forum (great, by the way) a way to monitor the Incoming MTC, to have a visual reference on when it's running and when it's stopped, I came up with the attached layout. But I wanted to ask you all if someone can figure out a neater, simpler way to do so (or if you already have).

Another question derives from the musician's suggestion to send me the TC via Serial output. Is there a way to trigger videos to a serial inputted TC?

My last question is as to the fact that I wasn't able to find some kind of actor that can output a single trigger when the status of another actor's trigger changes from active to inactive (from x to -). I suppose this has to do with triggers being a "pulse boolean" with a varying rate. But isn't there a simpler way to sort of gate the MTC trigger as to activate the Timer Tool's "run timer" input on a "true-> trigger was triggered" way... and then for the same actor to activate the "stop timer" on a "false-> trigger no longer triggered" through another output... ???

At least any insight as to how this could be achieved would be much appreciated as the layout I made currently throws the Timer Tool's TC 0.1 secs ahead of the MTC I'd be receiving (I suppose, theoretically, that means 3 frames on a 30fps context).

That`s all on the questions area.

I also wan`t to congratulate you all on a wicked software and sharing community.

Salut,

M.

(Miguel Hontou Beisso)

7c5c9f-mtcwatcher.tiff

BichoMuerto

and please excuse the english...

mark

Dear Miguel,

Well, first, the flaw I see in your patch is that you're using the 'eq' input of the MTC Compare actor. I think a better solution would be to use 'ge' and 'lt' in conjunction with a Logical Calculator, as shown in the attached picture.

In my example, only when the TC is greater than or equal to 00:01:00:00 and it is less than 00:02:00:00 will the output of the Logical Calculator be true. So, this will turn the movie on when it is between those two values. If you are playing forward, then it will turn on at the moment the TC crosses the lower boundary.

But I'm not sure what the Timer Tool actor is doing. I haven't seen that one before. Is that an actor you created or one you got from someone else?

Best Wishes,

Mark

Michel

@mark

the timer tool is from me. You can grab it HERE. What it does, it shows the timecode or the seconds of a playing movie either the actual time or as countdown, it outputs it as video or as number. Also you can run a normal timer like a stop watch or set a countdown time.

Best
Michel

BichoMuerto

Dear Mark and Michel,

Thanks for your responses and time.

Guess I haven't gotten to do "creative use" of control actors =P

It certainly looks like a safer way to be tied to the TC.

I didn't even comprehend the Logical calculator until now so I've even learnt something new.

The Timer Tool is Michel's allrite and, for the looks of it as i've seen in this forum, a must have for TC sync (particularly when sending or receiving from/to other software).

What I tried to accomplish with my confusing layout: a graphical display of the MTC being received by Isadora.

Couldn't find one and since the musician will be triggering and pausing it from the orchestra pit I want to see it running or stopped.

Control freekish?

Thanks again.

Salut!

Miguel