Abstract

Main Features

• Synchronize video playback on computers in the LAN, the time difference between each computer will be in 30 micro-seconds (1-2 frames of video, hard to be aware of by human's eye)
• Use the synchronization signals when playing back the video, so the video could always be synchronized.
• No limitation to the number of computers to control. You only need to connect all computers to the LAN.
• Supports all standard video formats. The software will use the video codecs on your system automatically.
• The new player could be appended anytime with just connecting it to the network and doing some settings on the control pc.
• Supports auto loop play to display the video continuously all day long.
• Supports remote controlling of the video display by hardware device.

Comparison with other solutions

Functions	The software opens the video when receiving the network or serial port signal	Synchronized by hardware	Video signal broadcast by the server	This system
Display videos at the same time	Open the video files and display them with network or hardware signal.	Turn on the players through the switch.	The server will send the video signal to all players, but for the buffer of RTP/RTCP protocol, the start time of all players can't be synchronized.	Open the video files and display them with network signal.
Synchronize during display	There is no synchronization signal controlling the video during displaying. Nowadays, all operating systems are non-real time, the tasks in system are executed alternately with time fragment method. So although the hardware configurations are similar across computers, they will still have some errors with the process of the displaying and the error will become obvious gradually.	Although there is no synchronization signal to control the video during the process, the synchronization effect is still good when using the real-time embedded system with hardware decoding.	All players' videos are controlled by the media server, but the synchronization effect is not very good.	The "Controller" sent the synchronous signal during the whole display process, and each player actively adjusted the display speed to ensure good synchronization.
Auto loop display	Support, but the interval is imprecise.	Support.	Support.	Support.
Display same video	Support.	Support.	Support.	Support.
Display different video(multi-screen)	Support.	Support.	The media server should broadcast to several video channels, so the synchronization is very poor and the channel number is limited.	Support.
Support video format	Support all general formats.	Only support some old formats, like AVI, MPEG and so on.	Depend on the media server.	Support all general formats.
Display high definition video	Support.	Generally, this is not supported because of the hardware limitations.	Generally, this is not supported because of the media server performance.	Support.
Output 5.1 channel audio	Support.	Not support.	Not support.	Support.
Cost	Low.	Changing the hardware is expensive.	The media server is expensive.	Low.

Sample (Play 2 video files with 2 PC)