It is important that you carefully read this entire document.
This actor is in public beta. There may be bugs that affect performance and/or lead to crashes. Because of this, we do not recommend using this actor for public performances or installations. If you do choose to use this beta version for such performances, you do so at your own risk.
If you have questions about this actor or need assistance, try asking for help in the TroikaTronix Forum. Our team and our community of users are ready to help.
if you find a bug, please let us know by opening a support ticket.
Because of this, three versions of the plugin are given in this distribution. Take care to install the correct version of the plugin for your version of Isadora, otherwise the plugin will not function.
You cannot have more than one version of the NDI Watcher plugin installed at the same time!
The name of the plugin shown in Isadora makes it clear which version of the plugin you are using. It will be called NDI 5 Watcher for NDI 5 version, and NDI 4 Watcher for the NDI 4 version, etc.
(If you do install the wrong version, Isadora will show a warning to let you know this when you try to add the plugin to the Scene Editor.)
Because the NDI 3 Watcher (required for Isadora 3.0.6 and earlier) uses NDI 3, it cannot receive from the NDI Camera app for iOS.
NDI is a great technology, but it can't work miracles: sending video requires both bandwidth and a very fast connection. You simply can't expect to send full resolution HD video on a shared WiFi connection clogged by others! Follow these best practices to get the best results with the NDI on a network.
Whenever Possible, Use a Hardwired Gigabit Ethernet Network
To transmit full bandwidth, low latency video using NDI generally requires a hardwired gigabit Ethernet network. Using anything less than this can give less than poor results.
If You Must Use WiFi, Get a Dedicated Router
If you must use WiFi, then please work with a WiFi router dedicated to allowing NDI devices to communicate. Attempting to use NDI on a university or other public network that is filled with other people's data is a recipe for disaster. If you plan to use WiFi for NDI, get an inexpensive WiFi router and leave it disconnected from the Internet; even when not online, the router will allow your computer and other NDI sources or destinations to communicate.
In late April 2020, we added new audio routing features to support users creating remote performance due to the coronavirus pandemic. This feature is largely untested and may cause unexpected crashes. You can avoid audio releated crashes by leaving the 'audio device' input set to 'None'.
The 'audio device' input allows you to route the incoming NDI audio to any standard Windows audio device on your system. (Note that ASIO devices are not supported at this time.)
The 'volume' input allows you to control the volume of the NDI sound as it is played to the specified device.
The 'audio chan' output reports the number of audio channels for the audio stream received via NDI.