ProPresenter strikes again
June 9, 2008
For a perfect program run on a perfect computer, it sure is out to get me. This past Sunday morning I was running sound/video for a volunteer orientation. Part of that orientation was to show a video, which was given to me on a USB stick. On the disk were two copies of the video, higher quality and lower quality. I added the lower quality video to the playlist and tested it, video played in its entirety with no problem.
Later my boss came in (still before the event started) and asked if the higher quality video had worked and if I tested it. I explained that I just worked with the lower quality and she requested that I try the higher quality. By this time people were already gathered in the room and I had no video switcher to keep the video off the screens for people to see. So she says just to try it out in Quicktime “because if it works in Quicktime, it will definitely work in ProPresenter”.
So I do, and the video stutters a little. Then I open the lower quality video and play the whole thing in Quicktime, which works fine. I add the video back to the playlist and the event starts.
It comes time to start the video, and it doesn’t start. I click. Nothing happens, I click a couple of times, finally the video starts. And stutters, and pauses, and resumes and stutters. It stopped for 1 second every 4 or 5 seconds. I was so embarrassed, I tested this video in advance, even played it in Quicktime, there is no reason why this should have been happening. I’m guessing the CPU was busy working on something else, but darned if I know what. Do Macs have an equivalent to the Task Manager in Windows that lets you see all running processes and their CPU usage?
So that’s my story. I don’t know what I could have done differently. I was wrestling with whether or not to stop the video or try something else, but I didn’t have DVD backup or anything to fall back on, so I let it run through the whole 3 minutes that way. I’m thinking I’m just going to use my own laptop and MediaShout for all future events. At least until North Point kicks me out for defiling their equipment like that.
