Still Need a Switcher When Everything Is Native to Mac?

[verbmusic]

Our church has a very basic projector setup:
- Mac laptop that runs to a projector.

That's easy. What I am looking for advice on is how to make the presentation more professional.

Currently when we move from easy worship to play a DVD, we use iMovie (everything is done on the Mac, no external hardware) and the iMove logo is visible on the screen. Same thing for other applications.

I read a good bit yesterday and saw people talking about a a/v switcher, but I'm wondering if that's necessary when everything is happening on the Mac. We're not really switching hardware, just programs, and it looks like they cost about $300.

Thanks in advance,
David

[cmchamp]

You can play your movies in VLC or your DVD's in VLC or DVD Player without the "Mac" logo.
We use an iMac with Parallels. On the Windows side, we use or site license of Office for Windows.
On the iMac side, I need to make a black desktop image so that when we're switching between applications, the external monitor's background is black.
If everything you do is inside the iMac, and no external video sources are required, you have no need for an external switcher.

[bpalermini]

It doe not sound to me like you need a hardware switch.

Something you can do to hide the transitions, if your projector has the freeze screen feature, is to freeze the screen, then switch applications, then unfreeze the screen. Takes a little coordination but after you do it a few times it's pretty easy.

Also, take a look in the Mac programs. Sometimes you can turn the logo off in the preferences. I know for sure you can eliminate the Apple logo on iDVD disk menus you make.

[petereit]

Why not play the DVD inside EasyWorship?

[andyjk]

We used to run everything off a single mac with pro presenter a couple of years ago. I imaging easy worship has similar features. My top tip for dvd playback is DON"T use dvds. Rip off the stuff you want to playback and do it through your presentation software. We found dvd's to be a major pain.