OT: How do you demo Vegas on a projector?

smhontz wrote on 2/14/2004, 12:29 PM
For those of you like Spot that take Vegas on the road and demo it to an audience, how do you show it when using a projector? I tried to do a demo in a room at our church that seats about 100 and has a projector hanging from the ceiling pointing at a screen about 10 feet away. The screen was maybe 8 x 8 ft or so. I used my laptop which has a natural resolution of 1600 x 1200 but the projector couldn't handle that. So, I had to drop my laptop to 1024 x 768. Everything was pretty hard to see on the screen though, and it made it very difficult to fit everything at that resolution - tracks, explorer, preview window, etc.

So, how do you fit everything in a way that people can see what you're doing? What resolutions do you run your projectors at? We're thinking of teaching "using video in worship" seminars and I'm trying to figure out what we would need to drag around with us. I have the laptop, and would need a projector and a screen - any recommendations? Do you the limit the size of your audience so they can all get closer to see what you're doing?

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 2/14/2004, 2:11 PM
Use the VGA output of your laptop into the VGA input of your projector and set the resolution of your laptpp to the maximum that the projector can handle.
smhontz wrote on 2/14/2004, 2:41 PM
That's what I did. But that's the problem - 1024 x 768 doesn't make for a very clear projection, nor does it give you a whole lot of room to show the timeline, an FX window, etc. I want to show dragging a clip to the timeline, dropping an FX on it, setting the attributes, playing the results in the preview window, etc. But if people can't see what I'm doing clearly then what's the point? So, that's why I'm asking what the pros do - how do they ensure the best possible presentation? Do they have special projectors? Do they have two projectors, and some sort of dual-display set up going where they split Vegas across it?
AlexB wrote on 2/14/2004, 4:28 PM
I suppose the real problem is the high native resolution of your notebook's display. With 1600x1200 I think you will find that you get better results at 800x600 for the projected image, the 1024x768 are interpolated and therefore necessarily not so clear. Better still to use a notebook with a 1024x768 native resolution. Keep the project simple and use F11 and shortcut keys to switch between Timeline and docking area and other windows.
Chienworks wrote on 2/14/2004, 4:52 PM
Also check the resolution of the projector. Many projectors advertise 1024x768, but actually are 800x600 and only interpolate the higher resolution.

Of course, setting your Vegas desktop to 800x600 is mighty cramped!
Spot|DSE wrote on 2/14/2004, 11:35 PM
I use a splitter that comes off the VGA of my laptop feeding 2 projectors. Laptop set to 1024, projector accepts it. Some projectors can't handle the higher resolution, so you get an interpolated image. Could be the card's output, or could be the projector won't handle it. If you are suggesting that your image is hard to see due to picons being too small, jump your resolution down to 800 and taht will probably make them too big, but better than too small. I also never project farther than 20 feet, if you are shooting farther, it might be part of the problem, is it washing out, or just too small a picon/desktop?
smhontz wrote on 2/15/2004, 4:52 AM
I'm suspecting it was an interpolation problem. I didn't try driving the projector at 800 x 600 because I figured I'd never have enough room to show everything. I wanted to show dragging a clip to the timeline, dropping a chromakey fx on it, using the eyedropper to pick up the color from the preview window, adjusting the controls in the fx for a good key, etc, so I really wanted them to see all the different parts of the interface. But at the 1024 x 768 resolution, everything looked fuzzy and it was hard to see the edges of the key, etc.

Which projector do you use?
Spot|DSE wrote on 2/15/2004, 9:55 AM
We have projectors from Sony, ViewSonic, and Canon. All three are pretty good XGA projectors, 1200 lumens to 1800 on the Canon.