Renewed Vision = Great Support

I sent an email to renewed vision about my questions from my last post. As it turned out the update to ProVideoPlayer (1.2.5) broke the network module we were using. They sent me a link to download a new version of ProPersenter 3.1.5. This new update has some very cool features in it! DVD playback, built in count down timer, Bible look up and separate library for foreground video clips. But unfortunately it didn’t resolve my network problem. I’ve rolled back to the previous versions of PVP and ProPresenter and everything is working. But I’ve been very impressed with the response and support I’ve gotten from Renewed Vision bother before and after we bought their product.

I also learned what the visual adjustment tab in ProPresenter’s Network Module means. When it is engaged it seems I can control the speed of the clip from PVP global speed adjustment. Very cool. I was hoping I could adjust the hue, saturation, brightness and contrast as well. Maybe in another version.

November 10, 2007. Tech Stuff. 2 comments.

ProPresenter + ProVideoPlayer 3 Week Followup

Well we’ve been using ProPresenter and ProVideoPlayer for 3 weekends now. I thought I’d share some of my thoughts and impressions from myself and some of our volunteers. + means it’s good – means it’s bad. No particular order. It’s all a mind dump today.

+ Training my volunteers has been quick. They were very comfortable with Easy Worship but have picked up ProPresenter quickly. It’s a lot of the same principles just different methods. I gave most of them a 15 minute crash course and let them go. After 1 practice they were all feeling very comfortable with the program. A few of them have asked me why we didn’t make the switch sooner.
+ ProPresenter is much more responsive than Easy Worship was. This could be the program or the hardware or a combination of both. But it allows us to put less text on each slide because we can change slides quicker.
+ Quick Edit to edit slides is so much simpler and quicker than EW.
+ Copying text into a new presentation is quicker and more reliable than EW was.
– Video playback of foreground elements. For the most part playback of service videos seemed like the video was a little jerky. The audio played back smooth but it just seemed like the motion itself was a little jerky compared to a DVD. Colors were also de-saturated
+ Playback of video through firewire to a DA box produced smooth motion and accurate color.
– When you choose to play video back through firewire it also plays back foreground graphics (our sermon slides) through the firewire. This meant I had to resize my graphics down to 720×480 only to be scaled back up by our scaler. I chose to keep our video playback from DVD.
+ We have a preservice video that plays before service. It’s mainly a copy of what is running on our digital signage system. ProPresenter allows me to link foreground elements together. (play this clip then go to this clip then loop back to the beginning).

ProVideoPlayer has been solid and I’ve been very pleased with it.

I do have a hard time coordinating our backgrounds. I try to choose 2 backgrounds that are similar yet different so not to draw too much attention to the fact that the plasmas are so much brighter than our projectors. I think I might have to start creating custom clips or modifying the color in After Effects. At least for the clips in ProPresenter.

I do have some questions I need to contact Renewed Vision about. They are mainly about the module that allows ProPresenter and PVP to talk to each other.
-Is there an order the programs are supposed to be launched in?
-What does the option “Enable Visual Adjustments” in the network module for ProPresenter mean?

That’s all for now…

November 8, 2007. Tech Stuff. 6 comments.