Put a window
on the big screen

The problem this replaces

Something on the machine has to go to air, and it is not a video file. The usual answers are a second computer and a capture card, or a projector fed from a spare output with the operator locked out of their own desktop for the rest of the show. Both cost money, space and a person.

A window cue is the third answer: the application stays where it is, and Deckboy takes its picture as a cue.

How to do it

1. Leave the window open. It does not have to be in front, and it can be moved or resized while it is live.
2. SOURCE → Window. Deckboy lists what it can see. Pick the window.
3. Take it like any other cue — same fades, same transitions, same effects rack, same take button.
4. Send it on. The programme goes to a fullscreen output and out over NDI, SRT, RTMP, Blackmagic SDI or SMPTE ST 2110 at the same time, while it records.

What makes it usable during a show

Behaviour	Why it matters at the desk
Arrives at the window's own full resolution, whatever your display scaling is set to	A 150% desktop is normal on a 4K laptop. Naive window capture sends the smaller, logical picture and it arrives soft.
Follows the window as it moves and resizes	Nobody has to keep the window still, and nothing shifts on the screen when they do not.
Anything in front of it stays out of shot	The operator can open notes, reply to a message, or run the rest of the show on the same machine.
It is a cue, not a mode	It fades in, holds, takes effects and sits in the playlist beside the clips, so the show runs the same way it always does.

A web page instead of a window

If the thing you need is a page rather than an application — a dashboard, a scoreboard, a countdown, a lyric page — point a browser cue at the URL instead. The page renders inside the programme rather than in a browser window on the desktop, so there is nothing to keep on top and nothing to reveal by accident.

Named from a controller

A window or camera cue can be built over Deckboy's control port as well as by hand, so a show can be assembled by script:

SOURCE WINDOW title:Scoreboard — and asking without naming one returns the list of what is available, so a controller can offer it.

Manual: Remote control

Platforms

Window and screen capture work on Windows, macOS and Linux. Browser cues render inside the programme on Windows and Linux; on macOS the browser cue is not implemented yet, and Deckboy says so rather than showing you a black frame.