Questions about new AtmoLight setup (1 Viewer)

[ixdvc]

Hi,

as I have replaced my 40 inch Samsung TV with a 55 inch Panasonic plasma it is time for a new Atmolight setup. This is my old system:

Board: SEDU-Board
Firmware: 3.0
Protocol: miniDMX
LED strip model: WS2801 strap
Number of LEDs: 92
Screen size: 40"

Because I do not want to solder the stripe parts from the old TV together and need a bigger power supply and thicker cables anyway, I decided to leave the system as it is on the old TV and start completely from scratch.

Now I have to decide if I will use WS2801 stripes again or go for WS2812B. 2812 are much cheaper, especially when going for the 30 LEDs per meter version.
With 2801 there would be 130 LEDs, using 2812 with 60 LEDs/m there would be 244 (120 with 30/m). Can the latest AtmoWin version handle these 244 channels? Somewhere I read that a past version supported 170, but maybe this has changed in the meantime.
Next question is if 244 channels would be too much for my Athlon II X3 445. My old system was running fine without "Low CPU" and 100 ms between frames (AtmoWin from 08/2013 and AtmoLight 1.0.19014.1, if this is important).

I want to use the SEDU board again because I had no problems using it. For 2812 the new version 3 is needed anyway, but I think I will also buy this one if I choose 2801. It can also play programs from SD card and thus could be used as nice indirect lighting if the PC is turned off.

I hope you can help me with my decision.

 

[Lightning303]

Hey,
maybe @HomeY can tell us a bit about his experience with WS2812B stripes. He is using ~170 leds with an arduino.
Im not sure about how many leds are supported by the latest AtmoWin version, @BassFan and/or @azzuro should know that.

Low CPU actually got a bit more efficient with the latest AtmoLight version, so it now works better, but if you do need it, i dont know.

244 Channels is quite a bit. We have to consider if this is maybe even to much. At the moment AtmoWin uses 64x48 images. That means that AtmoLight resizes the captured image to 64x48 and then sends it to AtmoWin. Adding these numbers up (64+64+48+48) we get 224. So if you would have 224 leds, 64 up top, 64 buttom and 48 each side, every pixel on the boarder of the image would represent one led. With 244 leds you would "upscale" your ambilight. There is the possiblity to enhance this picture size, and @azzuro did some tests with that, but it needs more resources and the last test versions resulted in dropped frames if i remember correctly.

Controler wise, im a big fan of sedu. It just works out of the box. But has its price of course. The v3 looks quite nice also .

 

[HomeY]

Can the latest AtmoWin version handle these 244 channels?

256 channels if i'm correct.

More info on my setup (and used powersupply) can be found here:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/diy-ambilight-project-–-ws2812b-ledstrip-arduino-leonardo.124994/

got my LEDs from a great (German) seller on ebay, in case you haven't bought those yet.
They were shipped the day i ordered them.

 

[ixdvc]

Yeah, I already read your thread, @HomeY. That made me think about 2812
So, if AtmoWin really supports 256 channels, all I can do is buy the 244 LEDs and try if the performance is acceptable before cutting and mounting them on the TV. Then I could send them back if it does not work.
The safe way would be to just use the 30 LEDs/m version of 2812 or 2801. There should be no significant difference between those two, I think.

 

[HomeY]

https://code.google.com/p/ambilight-4-mediaportal/
256 for sure

Performance for 173 LEDs is great.
Keep in mind that you'll probably have to power every side separately, but that's no problem with a proper powersupply.
i think there will be a significant difference between 30 and 60 LEDs/m and i would definitely go for the 2812B.

 

[azzuro]

hello, sorry for late reply
yes, atmowin support 256 channel, i can't explain why, i think is due to adress, like mask network.

about capture, is not directly related to the number of led, but also with the stream format, actually we use the original format 64x48 and correspond to 4/3 format.
i think now, we must set it to 16/9 format, but the minimal is 170x96 and correspond to 16/9 but need to have big system, and we have big dropped frame.
maybe the GDI don't support other format capture than 4/3.

i hope, you can understand .

 

[Lightning303]

i think now, we must set it to 16/9 format, but the minimal is 170x96 and correspond to 16/9 but need to have big system, and we have big dropped frame.
maybe the GDI don't support other format capture than 4/3.

What about 80x45, or if both numbers have to be even 96x54. Both are exactly 16:9.

 

[azzuro]

yes, we can test, i don't have found this result lol
Homey many leds have you on the top and Left/right ?
we can test both of the capture format.

i would like, if we can modify this setting by XML, instead to be hardcoded. you think is possible ? i must ask BassFan for that

 

[ixdvc]

What about 80x45, or if both numbers have to be even 96x54. Both are exactly 16:9.

I also thought about that. With 80x45 the performance difference to 64x48 should not be that big, as it is only 26 pixels more. And to set the format via XML would be great.

 

[HomeY]

Homey many leds have you on the top and Left/right ?

69 top, 39 left/right, 26 on bottom.

But maybe i should test a larger capture again, now that the connection issues are solved, and we have core split in atmolight plugin (which seems to give a better/more stable graph). But i have an i7-860 in my HTPC, and a larger capture size was giving me a lot of dropped frames, so i wonder what happens on an i5 system with the same (or more!) LEDs.