[AG-TECH] Access Grid Hardware/Software Questions

Fri Feb 25 19:28:05 CST 2011

Hi Jonathan,

We use Windows 7 Professional 64bit on our HP Z800 capture computer in our Access Grid node, along with the Datapath VisionRGB-E1 card and the Osprey 450e.  First, be sure to disable the Multicast Beacon to allow Access Grid to enter a venue using Windows 7.

Sadly, at this time Access Grid (Vic) does not natively support the Datapath card, but we use the display software that comes with it and VPCScreen to capture that window only and send it through Access Grid.  The software that comes with the Datapath card allows you to strip off all the borders and scale however you want, so even though it is a workaround, it works well.  The only caveat is that this particular window must be in front of all other windows or it will not capture whatever is covered up by something else.  Our solution for that is to drag it off to a 2nd monitor (actually a second connection to our same monitor on a different input, thereby making it more of a "virtual" 2nd monitor).

The Osprey 450e card seems to work well on a Windows 7 32bit machine, but is fussy (not really useable) on our 64bit machine.  We are still trying to determine exactly what is causing the issues, but we are also using this same 64bit capture machine to capture 3 HD video feeds (3 more capture cards) in addition to the Osprey and Datapath feeds mentioned above (yes a total of 5 cards - 8 video captures!).  Our problems may very well be related to the combination of all these cards on 1 system; I guess we have never tried stripping it down to just the Osprey and Datapath cards, so your results may vary.  Perhaps someone else can vouch for using this particular 450e card by itself successfully on a Windows 7 64bit system.  Until we get it figured out, we just use it in the older 32bit "SD Capture" machine with no problems.

We also use the HP Z800's onboard audio (Realtek) with no problems.

Hope that helps!
Keith

Keith Griebel
Communications Technician
Classroom Technology Services
South Dakota State University

From: ag-tech-bounces at lists.mcs.anl.gov [mailto:ag-tech-bounces at lists.mcs.anl.gov] On Behalf Of John I. Quebedeaux, Jr
Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 10:08 AM
To: John Quebedeaux; Adam Taylor; 'Jonathan Klubek'; ag-tech at lists.mcs.anl.gov
Subject: Re: [AG-TECH] Access Grid Hardware/Software Questions

Sorry, ment to say Osprey 450e in that 2nd paragraph.... - John

________________________________
From: John Quebedeaux <johnq at lsu.edu>
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:02:05 -0600
To: Adam Taylor <ataylor at ulm.edu>, 'Jonathan Klubek' <jhklubek at buffalo.edu>, <ag-tech at lists.mcs.anl.gov>
Subject: Re: [AG-TECH] Access Grid Hardware/Software Questions

Adam, wasn't that machine a Dell T5500....? And yes, on Windows XP/Vista/7 the 4th input wouldn't work on that Osprey 440, but it works just great (all 4 inputs) on a Dell T5400, something changed on that machine... note: my guy Chris noted new (non-beta) drivers on the Osprey 440, maybe we test it again.

I understand from someone that the Osprey 440e works OK with the AG toolkit....

We too found that the onboard audio worked just fine on our Dells.

-John Q.
--
John I. Quebedeaux, Jr.; Louisiana State University
Computer Manager LBRN; 131 Life Sciences Bldg.
e-mail: johnq at lsu.edu; web: http://lbrn.lsu.edu
phone: 225-578-0062 / fax: 225-578-2597

________________________________
From: Adam Taylor <ataylor at ulm.edu>
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 09:51:10 -0600 (CST)
To: 'Jonathan Klubek' <jhklubek at buffalo.edu>, <ag-tech at lists.mcs.anl.gov>
Subject: Re: [AG-TECH] Access Grid Hardware/Software Questions

Well, my two cents.

We are running a T7500 fully loaded with windows 7 64bit.  We run everything on it except for the video capture which we run on an Ubuntu machine.  The reason for this is driver issues with most to not all capture cards and windows.  We have an Osprey 440 and no matter how hard we tried we could never get the 4th input to work.  Under Ubuntu, it works just fine without any tuning, and is as stable as can be.  Any machine that is a first gen Core2Duo can run the video capture part without a problem.

As far as the sound, we had horrid problems with the Soundblaster X-FI that came with it.  We ended up taking it out and just using the onboard audio that comes with the machine.  We have not had a single problem since.

Thanks,

Adam Taylor
Computing Center
University of Louisiana Monroe

From: ag-tech-bounces at lists.mcs.anl.gov [mailto:ag-tech-bounces at lists.mcs.anl.gov] On Behalf Of Jonathan Klubek
Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 8:30 AM
To: ag-tech at lists.mcs.anl.gov
Subject: [AG-TECH] Access Grid Hardware/Software Questions

My group at our university was recently tasked by one of our departments to construct an access grid facility (this facility will also function for other types of conferencing and classroom needs also).  After much reading we have determined many pieces we need to get including things such as several ClearOne, Crestron and Extron products to control the various audio and video pieces ranging from scaling windows on the projectors and switching sources to mixing and cancelling echo on the microphones on the various tables.   The problem we are running into in examining everything is with the access grid machine itself.  We have looked at the technology and many of the pieces of hardware are many years old and we are seeing possible issues with integration as things such as PCI are replaced with PCI-e.

We are looking at going with a Dell Precision workstation T7500 to be the access grid machine and have thought about adding more memory and a second processor to it (remember that it will serve multiple purposes. .  My questions are the following:

1.       I see that the software is listed for Linux, OS X, and Windows.  We most likely will be going with Windows so we can support Microsoft Link also.  This software is listed for Windows XP but does it work with Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit.  This is extremely important with Windows XP support coming to a close.  Also, with the increased resources we plan to use it may be necessary to use 64-bit to take advantage of things such as 4+ GB of memory.

2.      As mentioned before the technologies listed are out of date.  We are especially seeing this with the video capture cards and audio cards.  I was wondering if the following would be supported:

a.       SoundBlaster X-FI XtremeMusic (D)w/Dolby Digital 5.1 (this was the card option on the Dell) - if not is there a newer card than the one listed that is?  We will of course need to integrate with our other products.

b.      Datapath VisionRGB-E1 PCI-e RGB/DVI capture card

c.       Osprey Osprey-450e PCI-e Analog video capture card

If not we are looking for several recommendations of much newer technology that is supported as we see this to be extremely important.

Jonathan

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