1. Start Recording
Select the port (default for Art-Net is 6454) and the network adapter you want to use to capture Art-Net.
First universe the first DMX universe number to record.
Count the number of DMX universes to record (max 512).
FPS the number of frames per second for the recording, which can be different than the FPS coming from the source.
The DMX monitor at the top shows the raw DMX channels being captured in real-time. The FPS of the monitor tells you how many complete DMX frames the source is sending per second.
2. Record!
Click the record button or press alt+R to start the recording. If the source isn't sending DMX yet, the recording will automatically start when receiving DMX.
Click the stop button or press alt+S to stop the recording. You can also tell the app to automatically stop once a loop has been detected by activating the Detect loop option.
3. Save & Compress
Click the save button and select the desired compression level. "Ultrafast" is the lowest compression level but requires less time to compress and less CPU to playback. "Veryslow" is the best compression level but takes longer to compress and a bit more CPU to playback.
In the save dialog, select the video format that suits the software you'll use for the playback. MP4 is recommended but AVI files should play everywhere.
4. Edit (Optional)
Since the recorded file is a standard video, you can use any video editor software (i.e. Apple Final Cut Pro, iMovie, Adobe Premiere, etc.) to trim or remove parts of the video. Just make sure to save it back in a lossless format since DMX data needs to be exact.
5. Playback
Lightjams and Enttec LED Mapper (ELM) are two recommended software for the playback. You can also use any 3rd party software able to map video to DMX. Lightjams can playback up to 64 Art-Net universes and supports many types of interactive triggers (MIDI, OSC, DMX, music, etc.). ELM supports up to 2048 Art-Net universes and has a very nice scheduler which is perfect for standalone installations.
The recorded video contains one line per DMX universe, where each pixel represents one DMX channel (0-255). So you get frames of 512 pixels X the number of universes. In Lightjams or ELM, you patch each pixel as a dimmer or white LED. In other words, you patch 512 dimmers side-by-side to represent one universe, starting at the top-left corner.
Here are a few Lightjams project files for different number of universes. First, install the LAVFilters video codecs. To load the recorder output file in Lightjams, go in the view/media menu and browse for the video file in the first media slot.
1 universe, 2 universes, 4 universes, 8 universes, 16 universes, 32 universes, 64 universes
Here are a few ELM project files for different number of universes. To load the recorder output file in ELM, go in the media tab and browse for the video file in the first media slot.
8 universes, 16 universes, 32 universes, 64 universes, 128 universes, 256 universes, 512 universes