PowerPoint control via Zionworx

[pbc_avcontroller]

We have been using Zionworx and PowerPoint 2003 for the past year and everything is working perfectly -- most of the time.

One issue we have is if we have queued up Quicktime (or any other media player) to show a video. Our sequence could be something like:

congregational singing from words via Zionworx
start powerpoint presentation for 'say' scripture reading and advance to next slide for intro to video clip
-- if we minimize zionworx at this point the powerpoint remains on the big screen and when we try to maximise zionworx to access the powerpoint controls it won't maximise requiring a forced shutdown of zionworx and powerpoint from the <CTRL><ALT><DEL> Windows Task Manager.

If after viewing the video intro on the powerpoint the stop control is pressed then zionworx can be minimised and we have access to the media player controls.

Has anybody else had this scenario? I know that we should always follow every step in completing commands but sometimes in the middle of a service you forget about the tiniest things.

Ewan

[chris_h62]

I'm confused by your previous post - why do you switch over to powerpoint ot run powerpoint - why not run it through zionworx. Is there any need to minimize zionworx??? Becausein my experience all media players and the like gooverthe top of the zionworx black screen.

[pbc_avcontroller]

I'm confused by your previous post - why do you switch over to powerpoint ot run powerpoint - why not run it through zionworx. Is there any need to minimize zionworx??? Becausein my experience all media players and the like gooverthe top of the zionworx black screen.

Thank you for your reply. We do control the powerpoint using the powerpoint tab and controls from zionworx although we haven't tried the fade to black option (F10?) to clear the screen and access the media player. What we have been doing is 'remembering' to stop the powerpoint from zionworx and then minimising zionworx which then shows the desktop screen on the projector which has the media player sitting ready to play at the desired time (albeit) dragged from the notebook screen onto the large screen.

Hope this adds some clarity.

Ewan

[Peter_in_Christ]

Note for Chris_h62: I don't think you can run QuickTime files in Powerpoint only QT v2.0 files or less. (unless someone knows how to other than exporting to .mov to .avi file using pro version of QT, I would like to know )

This could one reason why pbc_avcontroller would have to minimize ZionWorx to operate the QT media player if he uses QT files...

Peter

Ref:
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;q316992#30
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/266983/en-us

[chris_h62]

I think the way around this that we use at my chirchis to cue up the media player but actually <b>Minimise</b> the media player. This is because most media players will go over the top of the blank screen that zionworx puts up so all you need to do once you've stopped the powerpoint is to press the taskbar button of the media player. Then it automatically goes up over the black screen, hence no annoying change over. Then to reminimise click the taskbar buttonagain. Obviously for this to work you needto set up the media player on the 2nd monitor ready.

Hope this helps,
Chris

[AliBy]

A couple of suggestions:

1. I would strongly recommend changing to VLC http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
- Firstly it can utilise the second screen directly (so you don't have to move media player onto the second screen etc)
- It can play almost anything (video and audio)
- It can even stream from another source (video camera or the web)
- Actually it can stream "to" aswell which means if you have a network in the building you can stream whatever is playing to other pc's on the network

or ...

2. You can convert the video file using SUPER © http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

3. And embed it into PowerPoint for it to run via ZionWorx