Autoplay - Projector Woes

[RobertB]

Working on the final stages of my client specific "power-point" slideshow to be delivered from an Autoplay .exe stored on my laptop and projected on screen.

My first slide contains a Windows Media file and the second slide contains a Flash file. Well, my projector freaks out with the two media types and delays in the projection of each slide as it seems to want to register the media type. I get the white Dell screen as it seems to want to switch to a different type of connection.

This bums me out. I will swap the .SWF file out for a static slide but WMV is critical. (It is the clients TV commercial I produced).

Why would the 'puter and projector not see this as one container project?

-Robert

[Adam]

What happens if you have these two video files open in different windows on the screen. Then ALT + TAB back and fourth? Does the same thing happen on the projector? Seems weird but it could help. What happens with MPEG and Flash? Do you get the same results?

BTW it's great to hear from you AKHacker

Adam Kapilik

[Corey]

Producing TV ads? Pretty cool... :yes

[RobertB]

thanks hombres for your quick replies....well, I went into my Dell projector preferences and toggled OFF Auto Signal Search. That fixed my dilemna. I think the projector detected different media files and would try and switch from the various projector settings....have not idea why.

[RobertB]

thanks hombres for your quick replies....well, I went into my Dell projector preferences and toggled OFF Auto Signal Search. That fixed my dilemna. I think the projector detected different media files and would try and switch from the various projector settings....have not idea why.

PS...I have not searched the past threads...but, in v6.0 it seems to cache my files forever. Meaning...if I modify a photoshop file or a sound file, the project refuses to see the updated file at build. So, I have to name all modified files in sequence, i.e. file1a, file1b, etc. creating bloated work folders.

[Corey]

Wow, that's odd. Whenever I update media within any of my project folders it gets immediately updated in the next preview/build. If that's not how it's working on your end maybe it would be worth opening a support ticket... :yes

[yosik]

AkHacker,

About the projector issue, your frequency settings might be the problem. Modern projectors try to get the best screen frequency according to content and video (as it is an overlay layer) is different than the "pure" VGA output.
As you discover, disabling the automatic detection feature solves that problem, albeit at the expense of output quality..

As to the updating of your files, there are a couple of preference settings which may help you:
first, under BUILD, you can choose to optimize your project (but that will clean it at build time only)
Then, there is the Drag and Drop feature with rename of file.
And at last, how are you working? updating your file in the project folder or an external folder and reloading the object?

Yossi

[Corey]

Just to clarify what I meant about the caching issue. For example let's say you have a page background image in your project, "AutoPlay/Images/background.jpg". If you then edit that image outside of AutoPlay Media Studio, let's say with Photoshop, whenever you create a new preview/build the new (edited) version of background.jpg should be the one you see in your preview/build. The old background.jpg no longer exists at that point so I can't imagine where it would be cached, but then again I'm no exert on that angle. The bottom line is that if your newest build/preview indeed contains the older version of background.jpg somehow, (which doesn't even exist anymore) then you should open a support ticket. :yes

This is separate from any options or preferences you can set in AutoPlay Media Studio. You can test this without opening AMS. :yes

[RobertB]

And at last, how are you working? updating your file in the project folder or an external folder and reloading the object?

Yossi

Hi Yossi and Corey,

Yes, I am modifying a Photoshop PSD -> BMP file in Photoshop. Both Photoshop and Autoplay are open. Once I save the revised BMP file to the same file same, Autoplay will recognize it in the small graphics preview window but not the page preview or project build.

[rhosk]

That's weird, because I can modify masks in real time whether it's during design or even runtime (change pages for a refresh). Are you sure this said file is in the actual "Project Folder"? Or are you previewing via "System Folder" (as Yossi asked)?

[Mina]

..!

i dunno why but this thread brought me a question when i jus saw it now.
since there can be a plug-in for windows media player, are there other audio players plug-ins? (example=realoneplayer)

[RobertB]

That's weird, because I can modify masks in real time whether it's during design or even runtime (change pages for a refresh). Are you sure this said file is in the actual "Project Folder"? Or are you previewing via "System Folder" (as Yossi asked)?

I assume I am previewing the file from the System Folder where I would keep all the clients files. Doesn't the placement from a system folder move it automatically to the Project folder?

[rhosk]

No sir it does not. You have to "tell AMS that you're going to use the new file".

Scenario:

Let's say that you want to use a background file that's on the computer (C:\images). You open the page properties, and browse for this file. AMS "copies" THIS file to your images folder -- auto. Now, you want to modify this file to darken it up a bit.

1. If you modify the file inside C:\images folder, then you must go back to AMS and go to page properties again and browse for the new file. AMS will not overwrite the existing file, instead adds an underscore and sequentially increases up by 1 (yourimagefilename_1.jpg) each time you do this.

2. If you modify the file inside of the "Project" //images folder, it will be updated in real time and the filename will remain the same.

I hope I'm not confusing you, but this is how AMS works. Kinda cumbersome, but it does have its advantages at times. Because if you left all of your files relative to your computer, AMS would have a difficult time gathering all of these files for a build; hence the copying to the project structure - keeping them all local. Capeesh?

[yosik]

You hit the nail right on its head, Ron.
Clear explanation..from where I stand.
Yossi