Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

One for Mike probably:
I've been asked to do a picture show in October and I'll be using my laptop in conjunction with a digital projector and 10' screen.
I'm planning to use the Qimage slide show feature and wondered what Qimage can do in this situation.
Can the Full Screen slide show be shown via the projector with the Qimage main screen on the laptop? Alternatively, can I have the Windowed version of the slide show on the laptop with full screen on the projector?
The latter would be nice, similar to PowerPoint in dual mode.
Terry.

Terry,
As a rule, I used to make my slide shows myself with proper music   the music has such great impact on the slides and what they were trying to portray.

Also, the object was to have the *same* stuff on the projector screen as you had on your monitor screen.
Laughingly, we always had to get there an hour early to make sure we got both screens running.

I have never tried the video output as a slide show from Qimage itself, and since the Qimage screen shows well through the projector regardless what I was doing with the mouse, I can't find any reason why it shouldn't work.
                       
Why would you want to have different screens? I can understand using the Full Screen Option for obvious reasons, and I can understand using the Windows sized screen so you can see the filename etc.
Just talking out loud.??

Fred

The windows screen has the ability to click arrows etc. rather than just use the keyboard - may be useful?
CF. PowerPoint, the control screen (monitor) is different from the full screen view. You can then jump around to different slides if need be.

The slide show I'll be doing is a "talk-over" one, telling  a story type of thing with manual advance. I might include background music to cover any silences on my part.
Does your software allow manual advance etc?
Terry.

The software resides in Marilyn's computer. I will have to check the show for manual operation.
(Also have to wait for her to go shopping or something)   
Can't let her see me touching HER computer.   :-\ :o
Fred

Terry,
I cannot find any reference to manual advancing of the slides in a slide show software. You can put all kinds of delays or blanks.
You can use a slide for playing a video that you want to show in a particular spot.

It sounds like it's not what you were looking for.
It's old software... maybe 7 years old or more, and perhaps new versions have more facility.

Sorry
Fred

Just to answer the original question, Qimage should be able to show the slide show on the projector as long as the projector is set up as a second monitor in Windows.  Just drag the slide show screen over to the second monitor/projector and it should stay there.  Give it a try.

Mike

Thanks Mike. I'll try it at home first using my nice new 1080p TV as the second monitor.  :)
Terry.

If I bring popcorn can I come an watch it on your new tv? :)

Ya Me

Chocolate would be better  :P
Mike said I tried it using the TV as a second monitor set such that is was a clone of the laptop screen. In the Windowed slide show mode, I was able to drag the slide show window across to the TV screen and the main Qimage screen remained on the laptop.  In the full screen mode, the laptop & TV both showed the full screen view which is better from the audience point of view and quite easy to operate. I just need to work out the procedure for going back to the main Q screen, so I can revert to showing a single image (mouse over space-bar) and then re-start the slide show at where I left off. The trick is to select the re-start image on the preview before doing CTRL S.
So, it does look like using Qimage slide show is a viable option, it'll save extra work in making a slide show in anther application.

Just to comment on using a TV as a monitor; the laptop is 1250x800pixels, the TV is 1921x1080pixels. I could not fill the TV screen despite trying to select the TV resolution on the display properties of "monitor 2". The TV told me it was unsupported  ??? I used a setting of 1250x800 to get it to work. I assume I'd need some sort of HDMI conversion device to "fill" the screen.
I set the "monitor" colour space in Q to sRGB and the TV colours looked good.

The next step is to check it out with the projection system. All should be ok there, the projector is 1024x768 pixels.
Terry.

Terry-
I don't think it is an HDMi issue.  I believe you'll need something that will "upsample" to 1080p, just as the DVD players do.

Yes, I see from a Google that you can buy little "black boxes" that will do this: input PC VGA and audio, output 1080p via an HDMI connector.
My main interest in doing this is that here in the UK, the BBC and some other TV groups provide a service whereby you can stream or download reasonable quality video of programmes you've missed (BBC iPlayer). The D/L version is better quality than the streaming. It's become a very popular alternative to making your own recordings, especially when you've forgotten to set up to do it.  :o
I can do this on my desktop PC of course, and the BBC iPlayer recordings look good on my 1920x 1200 monitor, but it's not very sociable watching on your own and being stuck in the "office"  ::)
Terry.

Terry-

I used my telly once just to try it.

It came withe a vga to dvi adapter. So I hooked my laptop to it using a VGA cable.  Not bad on it's own.  BTW--HDMI is really no better than component.  They just want to charge $40-60 (U.S.) for a $6 cable and be able to filter content. 

I use BNC component wherever I am able.  Long term it's better.