Sometimes the SYNC feature isn’t enough to have simultaneous playback and the operator wants to setup more complex ways of automation between the playlists. This can be done by setting PLAYDECK to remote control itself.
Sending Commands to anywhere in PLAYDECK via Overlays
To send a Command, you want to create a new “Remote Control” Overlay. You can now add one of the Custom Commands, that will be recognized by PLAYDECK. Basically you can CUE and PLAY clips, start Actions, show Overlays, etc..
Example: <cueandplay|2|1|1> This will instantly play Playlist 2, Block 1, Clip 1.
A complete list of all commands can be found within PLAYDECK via “Show Commands” Your overlay will look something like this:
Setup PLAYDECK events for automation
You add events to the playlist by adding the overlay with the commands to the clip. For example, if you want to start Playlist 2 (first clip) as soon as Playlist 1 starts playing, you would add the above Overlay to Clip 1 like this:
PLAYDECK supports most Amazon EC2 server instances and the NVidia GPU Power they provide. This allows you to setup a cloud based infrastructure for NDI transport or other purposes.
A typical instance would be “Windows 2019 / g4dn.xlarge” – It has a Tesla Virtual NVidia GPU and enough specs to run PLAYDECK: 16 vCPUs (Intel Xeon), 64GB RAM, 1 vGPU (NVidia T4) with 16GB GPU RAM.
Install the Instance, which will conclude in running it within Amazons EC2 instance manager.
To connect to the instance via RDP you first have to open Port 3389 in the Instance Security Settings.
Once connected, you find yourself unable to download anything via the Browser. Therefore enable Downloads like this: START Menu > Server Manager > Local Server > IE Enhanced Security Configuration > Off
Since NVidia driver are pre-installed, the GPU support in PLAYDECK will be enabled by default
Additional information
PLAYDECK can be installed on any Windows EC2 instance. Allthough GPU support isnt a requirement with PLAYDECK, it still is recommended for best performance. A list of all EC2 instances: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/
This can be achieved via any supported output card, which supports internal keying. For this example we use the “Decklink Duo 2”. In PLAYDECK this sample will look like this:
Configure Decklink for Internal Keying
Open the Decklink setup utility “Desktop Video Setup” and set SDI 1+2 like this. This will be used for internal keying, where SDI 1 will receive the video signal from Playlist 1 and will key Playlist 2 over it and output the combined video via SDI 2.
Now you setup SDI 3 as standalone without keying. This will be used to send the video signal from Playlist 1 to Playlist 2 via SDI Loop.
Decklink SDI connections (Loop Cable and Output)
Use a short SDI cable and connect SDI 3 directly with SDI 1. We use this to feed the Playlist 1 signal via SDI 3 into the keying input SDI 1. Connect your final mixed output to SDI 2.
Setup PLAYDECK für Internal Keying
Channel 1 will send the video signal via SDI 3 to SDI 1 for mixing. Therefore you output Channel 1 like normal:
Channel 2 will receive the video layer on SDI 1. Now let PLAYDECK tell the Decklink to use Internal Keying to mix the Channel 2 signal over the one coming via SDI 1. Your final mixed output will be send to SDI 2.
If you cannot start PLAYDECK for any other reason, or if PLAYDECK starts but doesnt work at all (not loading any videos), please try one of the solutions below.
Do a clean install
If PLAYDECK indeed DID run ok before, and suddenly stopped working or cannot start, please reinstall PLAYDECK and select “Reset all settings” during the installation.
Missing user rights or missing files
Please perform a new installation of PLAYDECK under the Windows user account under which PLAYDECK will be used later. If this is not possible, please install PLAYDECK as Windows Administrator. You can then start PLAYDECK from any admin and user account. PLAYDECK supports multiple user accounts.
Antivirus software is blocking PLAYDECK
Please check that PLAYDECK is not blocked or blacklisted in your antivirus software. You may need to add PLAYDECK.exe as an exception to your antivirus software: c:\Program Files (x86)\JoyEventMedia\Playdeck\Playdeck.exe
Unfortunately, our license protection system is sometimes recognized as false positive by some antivirus programs. We are in regular exchange with all major antivirus manufacturers, but we cannot always exclude such a false-positive finding.
Here is a scan of our Application and a list of compatible Anti Virus Software.
Windows Version Vista/7/8
PLAYDECK is not supported on older Windows Versions. Please use Windows 10 and 11 (32 or 64bit). Windows has ended official support for Windows 8 on Jan 2019.
Video Engine Error after Windows Sleep
This happens on some machines: Windows goes to Sleep (or Hibernation), and once it wakes up, PLAYDECK will not start and displays the Video Engine Error. You can try to install the GPU driver clean. If using NVidia, install the Studio driver and not the Game driver, as its more stable. Should this not work, you have to turn off Sleep/Hibernation.
Firewall is blocking access
PLAYDECK asks for firewall allowance during the first start. This looks like this:
If you accidently skipped this allowance, PLAYDECK may not work. You can later add this to your firewall manually:
Open Start Menu and start typing “firewall” and start “Firewall & network protection”. Select “Allow an app through the firewall” and select “Change settings”. Allow “JoyVideoEngine”. If not found, please add with “Allow another app..” and select c:\Program Files (x86)\JoyEventMedia\Playdeck\engine\Win64\JoyVideoEngine.exe
PLAYDECK uses TCP Ports 15578-15581 to communicate with the above Video Engine.
