I am trying to frame accurately synchronize QuickTime HD playback between 2 powerbooks or G5 dual DVI outputs.

Question

I’m producing several stereoscopic films in 1080P at 24 fps. In order to project them for audiences, I need to synchronize fullscreen QuickTime playback (in 24 FPS, 1080P H.264) from the dual DVI outputs from a Power Mac G5 (or 2 Powerbooks). This is currently a stumbling block that I'm trying to overcome in order to develop a platform for lowcost, immersive, HD sterescopic film presentation. Any Mac developers out there who work with video and QuickTime? I'm looking for a simple solution that doesn't require a huge software programming or development effort. I've tried some of the obvious solutions: setting a time for both applications to launch and play, spreading one large QT movie over 2 screens and cropping the controls, making a physical "spacebar pusher" to start playback at the same time. I really need the playback to be absolutely frame accurate (at least to the frame level, 1/24th of a second). I would love to have this on a G5 (or dual powerbooks is another possibility), since our entire workflow is Mac and QuickTime is a lot nicer to work with.

This question is about stereoscopic cinema and 3D filmmaking.

Answer 1

I think you are going about this all backwards. I'm not a presentation expert, and I've rarely even used an apple machine, but what if you have the video production sent from one stored location to 2 presentation locations. This method can be rigged to work with any number of screens, from 2 to 1000.
This is very different from spreading one movie over 2 screens (split screen view), because this is about sending the same data from 1 location to 2 screens, not about sending half the data to one and half to another.
One possible way to do this with PCs is to attach another display unit (screen only) to the PC, and break the feed. Another is to network 3 PCs and stream the data down both cables simulateneously (the cables need to be the same length, the receiving PCs need to be almost identical, and the sending PC needs to be very powerful in RAM and CPU speed to cope).
This is not at all hard to do with most PCs, but since I don't have experience with apple or laptops, I can't advise any further.
Good luck.