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NDI In TOP

Summary

The NDI In TOP will obtain its image data over IP from other DI® (Network Data Interface) enabled applications. The NDI® protocol is created by Newtek.

Attach an Audio NDI CHOP to the NDI In DAT to extract audio from the NDI stream.

Metadata can also be sent to the NDI In TOP from an NDI Out TOP or another system that has attached metadata to the NDI stream. Attach an Info DAT to the NDI In DAT to get the metadata as text. It is in an XML format. To better see and access the XML, attach an XML DAT to the Info DAT.

But you can also send a table-format DAT in the NDI Out TOP and it will be received in the Info DAT as a table.

To send metadata in an NDI stream, see the NDI Out TOP's Metadata DAT parameter.

To see details of the available NDI streams, use the NDI DAT.

See also NDI, NDI Out TOP and NDI DAT.

NOTE for Windows OS - If experiencing connection issues, check Windows firewall settings.

PythonIcon.pngndiinTOP_Class


Parameters - NDI In Page

Active active - Receives image data while Active is on.

Source Name name - Select which source stream to use.

Extra Search IPs extraips - By default NDI searches using mDNS, which is usually limited to locate networks. To find sources available on machines not reachable by mDNS, this parameter can be filled with a space-separated list of one or more IP address.

Bandwidth bandwidth - - Choose High or Low bandwidth option.
  • High high -
  • Low low -
Hardware Decode hwdecode - Enable hardware decode for NDI|HX encoded video streams. Hardware decoding is not supported for native NDI codec, only NDI|HX (which is H264). The NDI Out TOP and other software based NDI solutions can only send native NDI, not NDI|HX. Currently only some hardware capture devices support streaming NDI|HX.

Input Pixel Format inputpixelformat - - Choose Native or 8-bit pixel format.
  • Native native -
  • 8-Bit fixed8 -
Group Names Table grouptable - Sources can tag themselves as part of one or more 'Groups'. Fill in rows of this table with the names of one or more groups this node is interested in to limited the 'Sources' listed as available.

Audio Buffer Length audiobuflen - The length of the audio buffer in seconds. Audio output is delayed by this amount. For example, if the Buffer Length is 0.1 then the sound will occur 100ms = 0.1 seconds later than received (to keep the buffer full).


Parameters - Common Page

Output Resolution outputresolution - - quickly change the resolution of the TOP's data.
  • Use Input useinput - Uses the input's resolution.
  • Eighth eighth - Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
  • Quarter quarter - Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
  • Half half - Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
  • 2X 2x - Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
  • 4X 4x - Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
  • 8X 8x - Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
  • Fit Resolution fit - Grow or shrink the input resolution to fit this resolution, while keeping the aspect ratio the same.
  • Limit Resolution limit - Limit the input resolution to be not larger than this resolution, while keeping the aspect ratio the same.
  • Custom Resolution custom - Directly control the width and height.
Resolution resolution - - Enabled only when the Resolution parameter is set to Custom Resolution. Some Generators like Constant and Ramp do not use inputs and only use this field to determine their size. The drop down menu on the right provides some commonly used resolutions.
  • W resolutionw -
  • H resolutionh -
Resolution Menu resmenu - A drop-down menu with some commonly used resolutions.

Use Global Res Multiplier resmult - Uses the Global Resolution Multiplier found in Edit>Preferences>TOPs. This multiplies all the TOPs resolutions by the set amount. This is handy when working on computers with different hardware specifications. If a project is designed on a desktop workstation with lots of graphics memory, a user on a laptop with only 64MB VRAM can set the Global Resolution Multiplier to a value of half or quarter so it runs at an acceptable speed. By checking this checkbox on, this TOP is affected by the global multiplier.

Output Aspect outputaspect - - Sets the image aspect ratio allowing any textures to be viewed in any size. Watch for unexpected results when compositing TOPs with different aspect ratios. (You can define images with non-square pixels using xres, yres, aspectx, aspecty where xres/yres != aspectx/aspecty.)
  • Use Input useinput - Uses the input's aspect ratio.
  • Resolution resolution - Uses the aspect of the image's defined resolution (ie 512x256 would be 2:1), whereby each pixel is square.
  • Custom Aspect custom - Lets you explicitly define a custom aspect ratio in the Aspect parameter below.
Aspect aspect - - Use when Output Aspect parameter is set to Custom Aspect.
  • Aspect1 aspect1 -
  • Aspect2 aspect2 -
Aspect Menu armenu - A drop-down menu with some commonly used aspect ratios.

Input Smoothness inputfiltertype - - This controls pixel filtering on the input image of the TOP.
  • Nearest Pixel nearest - Uses nearest pixel or accurate image representation. Images will look jaggy when viewing at any zoom level other than Native Resolution.
  • Interpolate Pixels linear - Uses linear filtering between pixels. This is how you get TOP images in viewers to look good at various zoom levels, especially useful when using any Fill Viewer setting other than Native Resolution.
  • Mipmap Pixels mipmap - Uses mipmap filtering when scaling images. This can be used to reduce artifacts and sparkling in moving/scaling images that have lots of detail.
Fill Viewer fillmode - - Determine how the TOP image is displayed in the viewer.

NOTE:To get an understanding of how TOPs work with images, you will want to set this to Native Resolution as you lay down TOPs when starting out. This will let you see what is actually happening without any automatic viewer resizing.

  • Use Input useinput - Uses the same Fill Viewer settings as it's input.
  • Fill fill - Stretches the image to fit the edges of the viewer.
  • Fit Horizontal width - Stretches image to fit viewer horizontally.
  • Fit Vertical height - Stretches image to fit viewer vertically.
  • Fit Best best - Stretches or squashes image so no part of image is cropped.
  • Fit Outside outside - Stretches or squashes image so image fills viewer while constraining it's proportions. This often leads to part of image getting cropped by viewer.
  • Native Resolution nativeres - Displays the native resolution of the image in the viewer.
Viewer Smoothness filtertype - - This controls pixel filtering in the viewers.
  • Nearest Pixel nearest - Uses nearest pixel or accurate image representation. Images will look jaggy when viewing at any zoom level other than Native Resolution.
  • Interpolate Pixels linear - Uses linear filtering between pixels. Use this to get TOP images in viewers to look good at various zoom levels, especially useful when using any Fill Viewer setting other than Native Resolution.
  • Mipmap Pixels mipmap - Uses mipmap filtering when scaling images. This can be used to reduce artifacts and sparkling in moving/scaling images that have lots of detail. When the input is 32-bit float format, only nearest filtering will be used (regardless of what is selected).
Passes npasses - Duplicates the operation of the TOP the specified number of times. For every pass after the first it takes the result of the previous pass and replaces the node's first input with the result of the previous pass. One exception to this is the GLSL TOP when using compute shaders, where the input will continue to be the connected TOP's image.

Channel Mask chanmask - Allows you to choose which channels (R, G, B, or A) the TOP will operate on. All channels are selected by default.

Pixel Format format - - Format used to store data for each channel in the image (ie. R, G, B, and A). Refer to Pixel Formats for more information.
  • Use Input useinput - Uses the input's pixel format.
  • 8-bit fixed (RGBA) rgba8fixed - Uses 8-bit integer values for each channel.
  • sRGB 8-bit fixed (RGBA) srgba8fixed - Uses 8-bit integer values for each channel and stores color in sRGB colorspace. Note that this does not apply an sRGB curve to the pixel values, it only stores them using an sRGB curve. This means more data is used for the darker values and less for the brighter values. When the values are read downstream they will be converted back to linear. For more information refer to sRGB.
  • 16-bit float (RGBA) rgba16float - Uses 16-bits per color channel, 64-bits per pixel.
  • 32-bit float (RGBA) rgba32float - Uses 32-bits per color channel, 128-bits per pixels.
  • 10-bit RGB, 2-bit Alpha, fixed (RGBA) rgb10a2fixed - Uses 10-bits per color channel and 2-bits for alpha, 32-bits total per pixel.
  • 16-bit fixed (RGBA) rgba16fixed - Uses 16-bits per color channel, 64-bits total per pixel.
  • 11-bit float (RGB), Positive Values Only rgba11float - A RGB floating point format that has 11 bits for the Red and Green channels, and 10-bits for the Blue Channel, 32-bits total per pixel (therefore the same memory usage as 8-bit RGBA). The Alpha channel in this format will always be 1. Values can go above one, but can't be negative. ie. the range is [0, infinite).
  • 16-bit float (RGB) rgb16float -
  • 32-bit float (RGB) rgb32float -
  • 8-bit fixed (Mono) mono8fixed - Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 8-bits per pixel.
  • 16-bit fixed (Mono) mono16fixed - Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 16-bits per pixel.
  • 16-bit float (Mono) mono16float - Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 16-bits per pixel.
  • 32-bit float (Mono) mono32float - Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 32-bits per pixel.
  • 8-bit fixed (RG) rg8fixed - A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 8-bits per channel, 16-bits total per pixel.
  • 16-bit fixed (RG) rg16fixed - A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits total per pixel.
  • 16-bit float (RG) rg16float - A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits total per pixel.
  • 32-bit float (RG) rg32float - A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 32-bits per channel, 64-bits total per pixel.
  • 8-bit fixed (A) a8fixed - An Alpha only format that has 8-bits per channel, 8-bits per pixel.
  • 16-bit fixed (A) a16fixed - An Alpha only format that has 16-bits per channel, 16-bits per pixel.
  • 16-bit float (A) a16float - An Alpha only format that has 16-bits per channel, 16-bits per pixel.
  • 32-bit float (A) a32float - An Alpha only format that has 32-bits per channel, 32-bits per pixel.
  • 8-bit fixed (Mono+Alpha) monoalpha8fixed - A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 8-bits per channel, 16-bits per pixel.
  • 16-bit fixed (Mono+Alpha) monoalpha16fixed - A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits per pixel.
  • 16-bit float (Mono+Alpha) monoalpha16float - A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits per pixel.
  • 32-bit float (Mono+Alpha) monoalpha32float - A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 32-bits per channel, 64-bits per pixel.


Info CHOP Channels

  • connected - 1 if this node is connected to it's source, 0 otherwise.
  • receive_fps - The rate at which new frames are being received.
  • num_source - The number of avialable NDI sources that have been found.
  • queue_size - The number of frames in the receive queue that have not been shown yet.
  • received_frames - Total number of frames that have been received.
  • missed_frames - Total number of frames send from the source but not received by this receiver.



Info CHOP Channels

Extra Information for the NDI In TOP can be accessed via an Info CHOP.

Specific NDI In TOP Info Channels

  • connected -
  • receive_fps -
  • num_source -
  • queue_size -
  • received_frames -
  • missed_frames -

Common TOP Info Channels

  • resx - Horizontal resolution of the TOP in pixels.
  • resy - Vertical resolution of the TOP in pixels.
  • aspectx - Horizontal aspect of the TOP.
  • aspecty - Vertical aspect of the TOP.
  • depth - Depth of 2D or 3D array if this TOP contains a 2D or 3D texture array.
  • gpu_memory_used - Total amount of texture memory used by this TOP.

Common Operator Info Channels

  • total_cooks - Number of times the operator has cooked since the process started.
  • cook_time - Duration of the last cook in milliseconds.
  • cook_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the component timeline.
  • cook_abs_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the absolute time.
  • cook_start_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator started cooking in the frame it was cooked.
  • cook_end_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator finished cooking in the frame it was cooked.
  • cooked_this_frame - 1 if operator was cooked this frame.
  • warnings - Number of warnings in this operator if any.
  • errors - Number of errors in this operator if any.


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