Sync 3 Projectors

[Hornetman]

Hi hope this is in the correct forum type.

 

I have 3 projectors with 3 different videos that I want to play at the same time. I have 1 projector on the garage roof, 1 inside the house which is rear projecting on a white curtain and 1 projector projecting the 3 pumpkins you see on Halloween. All my videos are the same length, so when they repeat they won't be out of sync when looping. But the trouble is, I cannot be in 3 places at once with remote controls for each projector. I've tried with mobile phones with 3 people, but that like a 1s to 2s or even 3s delay.

 

I don't mind spending [some] money for something that will help with 3 simultaneous videos being played at the same time. Pro stuff is too expensive for what I need it for. All I can think of is 3 machines with extremely long HMDI cables and pressing 3 button at the same time... but I don't think HMDI leads work at about 10+m's do they.

 

I also don't mind doing crazy jank stuff that might work... any suggestions are welcome.

 

I have at my disposal: Full Suite of Adobe CC, ethernet cables, switches, 3 computers (PC and 2 x MAC), 3 projectors (HDMI, USB 2.0 and 3 inputs.

 

Thank you in advance.

Edited July 26, 2023 by Hornetman
Forgot the most important... a thank you. Rookie mistake.

[GuiltySpark_]

You included a lot of info but seem to have left out the single most important thing, the projector(s). If we knew that one might be able to look up if they support CEC or even if they have 3.5mm plugs for IR or remote triggering to jury rig up something. 

[Hornetman]

1 minute ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

You included a lot of info but seem to have left out the single most important thing, the projector(s). If we knew that one might be able to look up if they support CEC or even if they have 3.5mm plugs for IR or remote triggering to jury rig up something. 

Yes indeed that would help. Heres what I have.

 

Two of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bluetooth-Projector-WiMiUS-Keystone-Zoom-50/dp/B099WRDHTL

 

Just the one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ViewSonic-M1-Ultra-Portable-Projector-Speakers/dp/B078WG5P4W/ref=asc_df_B078WG5P4W/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310818808494&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13290414989444586080&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045509&hvtargid=pla-449470901666&psc=1

 

Thank you GuiltySpark_

[jaslion]

5 minutes ago, Hornetman said:

HMDI leads work at about 10+m's do they.

They do copper hdmi can go up to about 15m for a 4k 30hz signal. Hdmi 1.2 can be stretched to beyond 20m.

 

Or if you use optical cables length kinda stops being an issue for a while

 

 

[TubsAlwaysWins]

Id try and find an HDMI splitter, the issue is HDMI doesn't like being split. 

As for cables to the projector, you can get 50-100ft HDMI cables but they arent the most reliable and are directional. If you use those make sure they are going the right way. 

A better alternative would be HDMI to ethernet converters. You can run HDMI ~300ft if you do that. 

[saudia-cmuetc]

I agree with previous comments that using HDMI extension is the ideal way.

 

If you have some raspi's, there seem to be several solutions...

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=113498

 

For PC's there is something called SyncPlay...

https://syncplay.pl/

 

These still imply making a local wired network and running long CAT5, but that's pretty cheap.  One thing to look for when it comes to software solutions like these is to make sure they support playing different videos on each client.  Some will only play the same video on each client.  But, even so, pretty sure you just make sure the filename is the same on each client and then it won't care.  I don't think any of these solutions stream the video from one client to the others; they each need a local copy.

 

At one point we wrote our own network video sync app, and it was frame-perfect, but that was quite a while ago and the above options didn't exist.

[Omon_Ra]

I'm not 100% this would work, but I'd go with three of these: https://www.amazon.com/Extender-Ethernet-Repeater-Transmitter-Compatible/dp/B08R5PFJHM/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=balun+hdmi+to+ethernet&sr=8-3

 

Can't speak for the quality/functionality of them, but they're cheap. Most HDMI baluns I've used ran least $200. Is one of the PC's a desktop with a GPU with 3 HDMI or other display outputs? Connect PC using 3 HDMI's to the baluns, run them to the projectors using ethernet, like you'd have 3 monitors. Use Windows to arrange the monitors like a typical 3 monitor-wide setup, like this (ignore the numbers, that's just how my computer identifies them)

 

 

Make a new Premier project, change sequence settings video frame size to:

 

 

 

Import your videos (assuming they're all native 1920x1080 files) to the sequence, arrange them left to right, keeping in mind what projector corresponds to each display. 'Left' = garage roof,  'right' = inside house, and 'center' = pumpkins, for example. Export video with the same frame size. I think you can export a file with that wacky of a frame size, I know I used to do some weird ones when I shot 2x anamorphic stuff, you might have to mess around with the vertical size to make it export.

 

Fire up VLC, and play that file. Don't use fullscreen, just regular windowed mode, drag to fill all of the 'monitors', right click on video and select 'view > minimal interface'. Click repeat. Let it roll.

 

Again, I'm not 100% sure this would work, but in my mind this would be the easiest way to do this. One file, one PC, already synced and easily looped.