Troubleshoot DISE NoBorders

Synchronization

A DISE NoBorders system relies on players being able to communicate - the master sends out a sync message that the slaves pick up on. Below is a list of things to check if the communication is not working.

• Players are not setup to receive sync messages

This may sound obvious but is easy to oversee. The setting for network can be found in the Communication tab in Replay's preferences.

The Remote Control View, reached via the system menu Information > Remote Control View, is a good way to see which messages reach the player. A synchronization message will appear like this: ChannelSync[ChannelId={.....

• There is no (or more than 1) master in the network

The master / slave setting is found in the Communication tab in DISE Replay's preferences.

• Blocking identity filter

The identity filter is a means of limiting the amount of Remote Control messages that reach a player. If the identity filter is set in error it might be blocking the sync messages and no synchronization is performed.

• Players are not playing the correct content

Since the sync message contains a unique ID for the current channel/DISE Movie it is important that the channel or DISE Movie exists on the player else it will ignore the sync message.

• The sync messages are intercepted by a router or firewall

The sync is sent out via multicast; in some cases or if players are not on the same subnet it requires some router configuration. Consult the network administrator and/or your router manual for information about how to go about this.

If the Network Location is set as "Public Network" in Windows, multicast communication may be blocked. The solutions then is to set the Network Location to "Work Network" or "Home Network". This will allow multicast again.

Read more: Troubleshoot network connections

• Synchronization loop

In certain circumstances players try to sync to the master but never catch up. This will cause them to "spin out of control". If it seems scenes are flying by rapidly in a synced system:

• Find the offending item by removing DISE Movies until the playback works again. It may be a time-locking issue with the DISE Movie (see below)
• You can also specify that the offending channel should not use synchronization. In the settings for the channel there is the option Ignore NoBorders sync for this channel which does just that. Remember that if sync is disabled for a channel you don't gain the benefits from synchronization.

For further assistance please contact support.

• Triggered content "jumps"

When triggering content, for example on a network message, you want all players to react simultaneously. You may experience that slave players start and suddenly jump back. This is because they start before the master and then are forced back because they are told to adjust to the master. You have several options:

• In the triggered DISE Movie, add a short empty "buffer" scene before the real scene. This way any syncronization adjustment will be invisible.
• If the network message is to act as the sync for the triggered channel, disable NoBorders sync for the channel (see above).

• Video will not synchronize

Main article: Video, working with

• Different global clock

In a synchronized system all players should share a global clock. You can see this clock at the bottom of the the Information > Remote Control View dialog. If the clocks differ between different players then the content will not synchronize correctly. Please check the log for any error messages concerning network connections or multicast connectivity. And test changing the Multicast IP and port numbers to get around interference or possible firewall blocks.

Mismatching content

• Players are not playing the same content

If one player cannot update for some reason it will, naturally, not have the same version of the content as other players.

Read more: Troubleshoot downloads

• The content is time locked
• or - No content is playing on some screens
• or - Some players report Sleeping state

Time locking issues can be a little tricky to detect. When creating NoBorders content, content on one screen can be timelocked to content on another screen, or to the end of the scene. When previewed, the times are setup correctly and it looks alright. But on the player, the time cannot be determined since the content on the other screens is optimized away (does not exist on the player). The solution to this is to either:

• Unlock all times on objects by selecting Edit > Lock/Unlock > Time > Unlock time of all objects
• Use a multiscreen object that all other objects are timelocked to. Since the object is marked multiscreen it will not be optimized away (will exist on all players).

Graphic output

• When you have multiple video outputs and will be running several instances of DISE Replay (running NoBorders from one player) you need to check the option Run in window in the Output Settings in order for secondary screens to show anything. This is a limitation of DirectX.

Performance

• For synchronized playback of video files we recommend using the "Internal" renderer. This is caused by the need of more exact playback, and that the video needs to playback with a very short buffer. The drawback is that it requires more CPU/GPU power than playback of video on non-NoBorders systems. Experiment with setting the renderer to VMR9 instead, but be aware that you might see synchronization degradation.
• In DISE Replay there is the options to completely disable the synchronization for video. In cases where video synchronization is not vital this can have the effect of noticeably improving performance, since the playback engine has to spend less time frame-synchronizing video files.