Reconfiguring NIVIDIA displays

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Reconfiguring NIVIDIA displays

Sometimes there is a need to reconfigure your NVIDIA displays, so here is a straightforward guide to the procedure, covering multiple servers. At various points if you need assistance contact 7thSense support.

Using UltraVNC from a control PC, access each server remotely and open the NVIDIA Control Panel (as here).

Terminate DeltaServer.exe and DeltaMonitor.exe processes.
Ensure that they remain closed during any changes to NVIDIA control panel (keep an eye on them after reboots, because they will try to start again on Windows boot).

Physically disconnect house sync from all servers.

Disable any enabled Mosaic, on each server, using ‘Setup Mosaic’ and then Disable.

In the System Topology menu of NVIDIA Control Panel, on each server:

Click ‘EDID’ text available in the information of any given display, go to Unload, check all checkable outputs, and ‘Unload EDID’.

Now physically disconnect all display and adapter connections from all servers.

If you are using adapters, at this time pick one adapter and connect it to its cable (leave all adapter+cable assemblies physically disconnected from the graphics card).

Pick one server, which we shall treat here as the master setup box, and physically connect one adapter+cable assembly to the top DisplayPort output of the graphics card closest to the system power supply. We will call this ‘Card 1 Output 1’.

Reboot all servers at this point (you should only have 1 display connected to each of them at this point).

After reboot, how many displays are now indicated as ‘Connected (Name of Display)’ on the ‘master setup box’? This should be 1. If not, something is wrong, please seek further technical help. It is a good idea to also note the Name of Display indicated here.

Now in the ‘Change Resolution’ page of NVIDIA Control Panel on this ‘master setup’ box:

Observe what resolution/refresh/color sampling options are being revealed by the received EDID.
Pick any one of the available displays near the top of the Change Resolution menu (only 1 option will be available if you only have a single output connected to that server). If multiple options are available, take note of the ‘X of X’ indication of that display so that you can reference it later as necessary.

Select the correct settings that you want to use for your system permanently and apply.
Most commonly, you want to select the native resolution of your display, and the refresh applied should generally match the framerate of the media you will play in Delta. (Example: if your media is produced to play at 30 fps, then your desktop graphics refresh rate could be 30 Hz). If for any reason, the settings you need are not present, then this needs to be addressed now. Don’t bother going any further until this is addressed. Please describe the issue and the 7thSense support team will try to help.

After applying the resolution/refresh/color sampling settings you believe to be correct. You might choose to take a screenshot that shows the menu fields:

o‘Connector’ type (in example: ‘HDMI - HDTV’)

o‘Resolution’ selected in the list (in example: 4K × 2K, 3840 × 2160).
Does this item fall in the resolution list under the heading ‘Ultra HD, HD, SD’, or ‘PC’, ‘Custom’, or ‘Mosaic’? If this can’t be seen in the screenshot due to length of their resolution list, just note what is is (as in example: UltraHD, HD, SD).

Refresh rate (in example: 30 Hz)

Output Colour Depth, format, dynamic range method (in example: 8 bpc, RGB, Limited).

You will be able to tell if those settings have been applied because an ‘Apply’ button will appear if they have not yet.

Reboot now (after you have successfully applied the settings you like, and confirmed that the image to your display looks correct).

Check that settings have stuck, and that display still looks good, following reboot.

In the ‘System Topology’ menu:

Click ‘EDID’ text available in the information of any given display, go to EXPORT, click on the connected head, and ‘Export EDID’. Save the EDID (a .txt file) to C:\7thSense Data (because it can be easily accessed from here over the network from the other server.) Name it something logical that you will recognize later, such as ‘EDID_Display Name_Date.txt’.

Go to Load > EDID File > Browse and navigate to C:\7thSense Data and choose the EDID file you just exported.

Now check the display box indicating ‘Monitor’ as Status (as opposed to ‘Not Connected’) and ‘Load EDID’. After accepting the success popup, you should now see ‘File’ indicated as that display’s status, instead of ‘Monitor’.

Close EDID Manager.

Next, one output at a time (very important), physically move that adapter+cable assembly down to the next physical DisplayPort connector on that graphics card, and follow the same load steps, loading that same master EDID .txt file.

Follow the same physical move-then-load procedure for all outputs of all GPUs that you will utilise on each server (copy the EDID .txt via the network at \\IP address\7thSense Data when you move on to other servers.

It is recommended to load all GPUs evenly.

In other words, if you need 5 heads and you want to spread it over 2 GPUs, emulate 3 outputs to each GPU even though you only need (3+2). If your channel/mapping licence in DeltaServer supports the feasibility, consider just emulating all outputs of all GPUs on all boxes for organisational ease, even if you are not utilising all outputs.

Reboot now.

Double-check that you have all connections you desire indicated ‘File’ type EDID, whether physically connected or not. You can now physically connect as many heads to those prepared outputs as you like. If you see any additional QTY of outputs appear upon doing this, then something is wrong. Please take a screenshot of what you see and refer to 7thSense support.

Now in the ‘Setup Mosaic’ on each server:

‘Create new Configuration’

Choose the correct ‘Number of Displays’. This will be the total QTY of outputs that you have prepared on that system (all GPUs sum).

Choose a Topology layout that you prefer (all-in-a-row is most common. For example, 1 × 2 is 1 row of 2 displays.

Click Next.

Choose the correct ‘Resolution per display’ and ‘Refresh’. If the options you need don’t exist, then something is wrong from earlier in the EDID prep process. Describe the issue and 7thSense support will help resolve the issue.

Click Next.

Starting with ID ‘0,0’ and going through ‘0,1’,’0,2’,’0,3’ (all outputs on the first GPU) and then on to ‘1,0’,’1,1’,’1,2’,’1,3’ (all outputs on the next GPU) and so on, drag and drop displays from ‘Available Display Sources’ onto the Topology layout in reading order (left-to-right, then top-to-bottom) and click ‘APPLY’.

Your desktop should go through some changes at this point. Keep a close eye, because at the end you may be presented with an ‘Accept changes?’ dialog, and if you miss it then your settings may revert, and you’ll have to do the process again.

If you are working via VNC, sometimes the access will become unavailable when the desktop layout changes, in which case you may want very quickly to disconnect and reconnect VNC to regain access (before the revert timer is up!). You can always just connect a keyboard and mouse if VNC is being too difficult.

‘Finish’.

Reboot now.

In ‘Change Resolution’ menu on each server:

You should now only see ‘Mosaic’ type resolutions in the resolution list. Make sure the total grouped resolution you expect is applied.

Check Refresh and Color sampling settings as well. If anything is not correct, set it.

If you had to change anything, reboot now.

Now physically connect house sync to the BNC house sync input in each server.

In ‘View System Topology’:

Look for any ‘Quadro Sync II’ indication. Observe the status of ‘External Sync Signal’. If it says not present, then your house sync has not been detected and you should investigate. Ensure that the house sync format that you connect matches the refresh rate of your display outputs (for example, 720p60 or 1080i60 tri-level house sync would be good if your displays are 60 Hz refresh). Do not bother going any further, if an appropriate sync format is not connected and detected on all servers at this point. Address the issue first, then Sync Settings > Synchronise Displays.

At The Timing Server Is... ‘On this system’ > ‘Edit Settings’ > select ‘An external house sync signal’. You should see that the ‘Sync Frequency’ exactly matches your display output refresh here. If it does, click ’APPLY’ leaving other settings as default. If it does not, then do not apply, Cancel, and address the issue before going any further.

In ‘View System topology’, you should now see External Sync Signal ‘Present (In Use)’ and Framelock sync pulse ‘Present’, on the Quadro Sync II status of each server. On each active output, you should also see Timing: ‘This display is locked to the house sync signal’.  All of those statuses will show a green check mark.

Reboot all servers. Make sure the system comes back up indicating exact same status once again. If it does not, please describe the issue to 7thSense support for assistance.

Confirm that your display output looks correct. If it does, you are ready for DeltaServer. If it does not, describe the issue to 7thSense support.

Output status reports can be useful, and may be requested in case of further support:

Open an administrative command prompt, run ‘sync_config.exe status’ and screenshot or copy-paste so a full output can be submitted.

Open an administrative command prompt, run ‘nvtimingdiag.exe’ and screenshot or copy-paste so a full output can be submitted.

Page edited [d/m/y]: 16/12/2020