Outputs Troubleshooting

Work from the wall back to the content: is the output window up, does the output have a screen, does the screen have content. The STAGE tab answers most of it — see The Stage for where things are.

An output is black

1. Is the show on? The header's SHOW ON / SHOW OFF switch decides whether any output window shows a frame; with SHOW OFF every output is dark, on every machine of a multi-client rig. The BLANK button fades every output to black (it reads BLANKED while down) — click it again to fade back up.

2. Does Windows see the monitor? In Windows Display Settings, the projector must be listed and the displays set to Extend (not Duplicate, not Disconnect).

3. Does the output have a screen? On the Stage, select nothing: the inspector's Overview lists every screen with the outputs that feed it, and the unassigned ones under Free outputs. Open a screen (the arrow under its card) to see its outputs: a dark box hatched with diagonal stripes (a bright dashed edge) has no screen and stays dark by design — drag it onto the screen, or select it and pick its Assigned screen. An output taken out of the show (In show off) is not drawn on the Stage at all — its PC node says N not in show; select the PC and press Include.

4. Is it the right projector? Press Identify in the header: every output prints its name, machine and resolution on the wall. A projector that stays black while Identify is on is not getting a picture from Exaplay at all (cable, input, Windows); one that shows its label but no content has an assignment or content problem.

5. Is there content on the screen? Press Preview in the Stage header: the screen's card shows the engine's live picture. Empty? Check in Produce & Play that a track or composition plays on this screen or one of its fields (Plays on), that something is playing, and that the clip is not muted or hidden. Or drag content from the Stage's content browser onto the screen — it plays at once (see Content onto a screen). Outlines shows where every screen and field lands on the wall — a field that has slid off the screen shows up at once.

6. With a VIOSO calibration — see Calibration shows nothing or the wrong slice.

One output of a machine is black, the other fine

Usually the screen's canvas layout. Select the screen and look at Alignment in its Output Assignment: if it is Rearrange and you did not mean it, set it back to As in Windows — the screen then lays its outputs out from their desktop positions again. If you did mean it, open the screen on the Stage and check where its output boxes sit on the show canvas (each output renders the slice it sits under).

If you just changed something, Undo output change in the Stage header puts the output list back as it was before your last change.

The monitors changed

After swapping a projector or changing a resolution, the output's box on the Stage shows a ⚠ with the new resolution (or moved), and its PC in the open tree is framed red with ⚠ Outputs outdated. Click the ⚠ (or the PC): the PC's inspector shows the warning under its Outputs card, whose Refresh button is red. Press Refresh to re-read the monitors — it checks what Windows reports first, shows before → now, and keeps every assignment it can find again; if the monitors match again there is nothing to do.

Wrong resolution, or an offset picture

• A detected output renders its monitor's mode. Set the correct mode in Windows, then Refresh as above.
• A picture that is offset: it is rendering a different slice of the screen. See Two different positions and check the output's Alignment.
• A picture that is squeezed or stretched: the screen's typed Content resolution is not the size of its outputs, so the whole canvas is fitted onto them — distorted where the aspect ratios differ. The screen's card then carries a small mark with the outputs' size; click it (or select the screen) and empty both Content resolution fields in the Canvas card to set it back to the outputs' size — or keep it, if the distortion is what you want. (A screen with a VIOSO calibration is never fitted: there the calibration maps the content.)

A client's outputs are missing or dark

• offline on the PC or its outputs: it is not reachable. Its outputs and assignments are kept and applied when it comes back. Check the machine and the network (Multi-Client Setup).
• Assign and arrange a client's outputs on the master — the client's own Stage is read-only.
• A machine that is gone for good: select its PC on the Stage and press Forget PC….

Picture upside-down or mirrored

• Check the projector's own mounting mode (Front / Rear / Ceiling).
• A field can be mirrored with Mirror H / V in its Size, Position & Scaling card.
• With a VIOSO calibration, press Edit… in the screen's Calibration card: while the dialog is open every projector shows the VIOSO test image, which has a coloured square in every corner (top left red, top right green, bottom left blue, bottom right yellow), so a rotated or mirrored mapping shows on the wall at once.

Calibration shows nothing or the wrong slice

Select the screen (or one of its outputs) and read the Status line in its Calibration card:

1. Not loaded (red) — the engine could not load the file; hover the line for the reason. A file on a drive that changed letters: click the file's name in its pill and pick it again. The line under the pill says whether the file is on the engine's PC at all, and its folder icon shows where it is.
2. Loaded · N channels — the file is read but not on the wall: no output of this machine is assigned to the screen. Assign one.
3. Needs assigning › — not every channel is on its own output. Click it: where the outputs leave only one answer the channels go on them at once; otherwise the calibration's dialog opens — drag each channel onto its projector. While it is open the wall shows the VIOSO test image through every projector's channel, so a wrong one is easy to spot. The dialog offers only this PC's outputs on the screen: an output missing there is not assigned to the screen — assign it first. See Assigning channels to outputs.
4. Applied, but a projector shows the wrong slice — Identify in the Stage header labels each projector with the channel it draws. Swap two in the calibration's dialog (Edit… in Calibration), or drag one output onto the other on the Stage — that swaps their channels and moves nothing.
5. Recalibrated into the same file? Nothing to do: Exaplay notices the changed file and loads it again by itself. If a projector shows no picture although its channel is assigned, press ⟳ in the file's pill: the calibration file is loaded again.
6. The assignment got tangled? Assign again (the wand beside Edit…) puts every output back to automatic and assigns the channels again, as after loading the file — without taking the calibration off.
7. Still unsure whether the calibration is the problem? Press Raw wall in the Stage header: the outputs show without any calibration. If the right picture is there raw, the content, the outputs and the assignment are fine and the calibration is what to fix; if it is wrong raw too, look at the outputs and the screen first. Press it again (or Raw wall ON in the top bar) to calibrate again — nothing in the project was changed. On a multi-client rig, switch it on the master: every client follows.

Edge blend seam visible

With a VIOSO calibration the blend comes from the file:

1. Play a mid-grey picture and compare the projectors at the seam.
2. A dark-floor difference: raise Overall Lift on the Black level tab of the calibration's dialog (Edit… in Calibration) — the wall shows black content while that tab is open.
3. The overlap itself is wrong (a projector moved): recalibrate in VIOSO and load the new file.

With the Projection Setup (Warping → Manual Warping):

1. Set Pattern to Vernier (overlap check, ×20). The fringe must sit on the centre mark; if not, correct the overlap number in the screen's Warping group (it stays while both blend) until it does.
2. Set Pattern to Grey 50 % (seam test). A band brighter or darker in grey: adjust Gamma (the projector's own, 2.2 for most) and Curve.
3. A band that is off in one colour only: Gamma per colour.
4. A brighter band in dark pictures: raise the Lift under Black level (Grey steps shows it in the dark stripe).

See Projection Mapping.

NDI output not visible to receivers

1. On the Stage, open a screen and click the send's NDI box beside its PC's monitors. It needs an Assigned screen — a send with no screen is grey and dashed and streams nothing — and its Status line should read streaming …. A red edge on the box means it is not sending; the status says why.
2. Check the NDI name is the one the receiver looks for.
3. Scan for sources with an NDI tool (e.g. NDI Studio Monitor) on the receiving machine.
4. Firewall: allow TCP/UDP 5960–5989 on both machines, and keep them on the same subnet (or configure NDI discovery for routed networks).

See NDI Support.

Identify or Outlines still on the wall

Both are one switch for the whole rig: switch them off in the Stage header (on the master of a multi-client rig). They are never saved into the show, so a restart clears them too.

A wall that suddenly shows no warp or blend at all may be Raw wall: the top bar then says Raw wall ON — click it (on the master of a multi-client rig: it is one switch for the whole rig). Loading a project turns it off as well. A test pattern from the Projection Setup stays on until Pattern is set back to Show content.