Hey there,
I have to run a show, where I have to put the live picture of the dancers on the stage to a big screen in the back of the stage.
I tried it with the Pearl-2, but the latency was very high, I guess about 300 to 500 ms. Is there a way to get that latency down with the Pearl-2? I tried a AnalogWay Pulse2, the latency is 2 frames, about 80ms. That’s what I need. I could not find an official specification of pearls output latency.
Thanks for your help!
Unfortunately the range you saw is typical for the Pearl-2, we are always working to improve and optimize the outputs, but at the moment the lowest you would see with a Input assigned is about 200-300ms, with a Channel assigned it would be higher.
@GeorgeHerbert I’m curious if there has been any progress on minimizing the latency of the HDMI outputs since 2018? I’m going out of the Pearl 2 and into a production switcher - the delay is unacceptable.
-Has the most recent firmware upgrade fixed it?
-If I upgrade to the 4k package would that help?
Can you explain why we can’t achieve 80MS delay out of the Pearl2? I would really appreciate it if the team at Epiphan could look into this and fix it.
Sheldon
In the most recent FW there have been some small improvements but it is still at absolute best case around 200ms and it is unlikely to ever get it below that.
The outputs are not directly wired from the input, there are being drawn from along the rendering pipeline, as such there is always going to be latency.
In order for a 2 frame or sub 100ms they would need to be directly wired.
If that level is required, it would be best to use an external splitter.
That’s unfortunate. Can you elaborate on the external splitter? How would that help?
Sheldon Barr
If the goal was just a pass-through of the input signal, the external splitter would bypass the Pearl completely.
Source signal -> splitter in -> split output 1 to Pearl
-> split output 2 to the montior/projector etc
However if the goal is a mixed/switched program feed from the Pearl, it would not help and unfortunately there is nothing that could reduce the latency.
We are trying to display the PIP to a projector for a remote speaker. I’m disappointed theres no solution for this… it seems like the latency is variable as well. I am at a loss for what to do moving forward after just purchasing your product. Any suggestions?
The latency can be variable based on system load and will be higher when sending a mixed/switched Channel out, basically it is post encoding at that point, which will always have latency for processing. Unfortunately that is unavoidable.
Is the projector with the PIP in the same room as the speaker? Is the main issue the latency is cause video on the projector vs the in room audio to be out of sync?
If so, the best option to run through the Pearl would be to not show the PIP with the camera and only show the presentation so that the sync difference would be less visually noticeable.
Yes, the projector is in the same room as the audience. We patch in remote presenters via (Hangouts, zoom, skype) – the audio comes through in real-time but video is delayed from the Pearl2. It is not an option to just overlay the presentation as it takes away from the user experience. Nowhere on the Pearl2 website tech specs does it say that the outputs have 300ms latency!! I wouldn’t have bought this unit.
My backup setup which runs Wirecast off a Macbook Pro can output in real-time with minimal delay (50-80ms). It’s frustrating that a $9,000 machine that has I/O capability can’t perform this simple task. Is there no way you guys can update your compression algorithm to get the latency down to where it needs to be? H.265 MAYBE?!
Thanks for your response,
If I adjust the input running the Hangout, Zoom, Skype by -300ms, will this have any effect on balancing the output?
Ah so this is a sync issue between analog audio from the PC running conferencing software and the video which is going through the Pearl? In this case the answer is fairly simple, we just need to keep the audio and video together in order to maintain the sync. If you have audio from the conferencing PC come into the Pearl via HDMI, then you can easily include this audio on the HDMI output of the Pearl 2 which will then be in sync with the video. If you need to get this back out as analog audio for room speakers then you can use an HDMI audio extractor such as this: https://www.startech.com/AV/Converters/Audio/hdmi-audio-extractor~HD2A With a setup like this you can achieve perfect sync of audio and video! The latency will still exist, but it will now be exactly the same for both the audio and video to maintain sync between them.
Thanks for your efforts. I wound up finding a workaround using a Google Chrome Plugin.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/audio-delay/bejcdmejkjfhdkemgiliacebajmafjeh?hl=en
I’m able to delay the HDMI source tab running Hangouts, Skype, Zoom to match the output delay of the Pearl2.
Hi There, I am on the verge of returning my Pearl 2 for 2 reasons - latency, and lack of a smooth fade transition.
The I/O latency issue is crazy. It would be unusable in a live environment with an IMAG camera. The presenter would be out of sync with the room audio. This is pretty huge. I am in my 30 day return period and am just wondering if anyone else has found a workaround for the live environment latency.
@verduccieventpro Are you referring to the same HDMI output latency that this forum post is about originally? If so, there will be 200 - 300ms of latency here that cannot be resolved as this is after going through capture, composition, and then output.
But if you are just seeing a sync issue between a video and audio input then this is solvable by changing the delay setting on the port. This is described in the user guide here: https://www.epiphan.com/userguides/pearl-2/Content/UserGuides/Streaming/capture/sourceAudioVolume.htm
Thanks Adam. I was thinking if we were in a ballroom and I wanted to have an IMAG camera feed on a screen, and was using a room audio system, the audio of the presenter speaking and the video would be out of sync because of latency. Besides putting a delay on the room audio are there any options for solving that issue?
Sorry, can you elaborate a bit on the setup here? I would need a better idea of the setup in order to provide recommendations here.