[Stecchino]

I'm the leader of an audio/visual ministry team at my church. Currently there a Shuttle PC clone in the A/V booth that we use for recording audio from the main sound mixer during seminars and services. The other main use is for on-screen presentations via PowerPoint. This little Shuttle wannabe powers a 15" CRT and the main auditorium projector.

SOOOOO... my wife and I want to help modernize this A/V booth (mainly it's me, I admit) but can a Mac Mini (new or old) replace this cheapo-PC? My main concern is that Mac Minis cannot provide video "panning" for use with PowerPoint and the like.

Does anyone have any experience using any Mac mini in this capacity? What about an iMac (old or new)? My wife and I have to donate everything so the cheaper the better but there's got to be a way for a Mac to send it's PowerPoint or Keynote presentation to a second monitor (projector) and still let you do stuff in the background on the main monitor.

Thanks SO MUCH for your advice.

[Tuoder]

To my knowledge, the Mac Mini only supports one monitor (or projector or whatever). The iMac could do what you are asking, I think. Come to think of it, you could use an iBook to do the same thing for $200 less than an iMac. You would have to do a firmware hack to get the second screen to work, but it would save you $200. Now that I think a bit more, an eMac would work too.


http://froogle.google.com/froogle_cl...mp;scoring=mrd

You would still have to do the firmware hack, but it would be even cheaper than the iBook.

[Stecchino]

I know some Macs support video "mirroring" in which whatever you see on the main monitor is simply duplicated on to the external screen, but this is for a presentation so I need to launch the presentation on to the "second screen" (the projector) and still be able to use the main screen to do other stuff in the background. Surely, a Mac can do this

[jamil5454]

Originally Posted by Stecchino

Surely, a Mac can do this

And so can the Shuttle clone. What's wrong with the setup they have now? Think how you would feel when something goes bad during a sermon recording. Rule of thumb: If it's working fine, don't change it.

[Stecchino]

Originally Posted by jamil5454

And so can the Shuttle clone. What's wrong with the setup they have now? Think how you would feel when something goes bad during a sermon recording. Rule of thumb: If it's working fine, don't change it.

I would feel terrible. But, that's why I'm seeking feedback. I've been using this system for a while and it's limited. Some of the speakers come in with Keynote presentations and we always have to say "convert it to PowerPoint to come speak here", etc. The pastor has a Mac at home and so do I. The Shuttle PC can't keep up as well any more, either. While recording audio, PowerPoint slows down significantly. It also doesn't have a CD or DVD burner. There are additional reasons (including but not limited to the use of Delicious Library) but I won't bore you. I'm just saying that's it been well thought out. I appreciate your feedback, though.

[plastiqueusa]

There's an external dual-head solution which was recently released, and is said to work well with the Mac Mini--of course, how well it works will depend on what kind of resolutions and color depths you use.

[plastiqueusa]

Here's a link:
http://voice.firefallpro.com/2006/02...ors-using.html

I don't know how well the graphics chip will handle transitions in the Keynote presentations--I tried Keynote with my 1GHz iBook using a different dual-screen hack, and it was choppy during some transitions. However, iBook has a Radeon 9200 which is not Core-image compatible. If you get an Intel Mini, it comes with a different graphics chip which may do a better job handling that (it's core-image compatible and may have more memory available); if you get a G4 Mini, you'll get the Radeon 9200 inside.

[Tuoder]

Originally Posted by Stecchino

I know some Macs support video "mirroring" in which whatever you see on the main monitor is simply duplicated on to the external screen, but this is for a presentation so I need to launch the presentation on to the "second screen" (the projector) and still be able to use the main screen to do other stuff in the background. Surely, a Mac can do this

Yes, it can. That is what the firmware hack is for.

http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/ibook_e.html

Apple cripples some of its models that would normally support screen spanning, all that this does is turn on screen spanning. It works on eMacs and iBooks, which would be your cheapest dual monitor (spanned, not mirrored) solution.

[plastiqueusa]

The link in the above post is what I used to get dual monitors on my iBook, but it won't work for a Mac Mini because there's only one video output. The iBook has some issues with Keynote transitions when hacked that way, even with just dual 1024*768 screens.

[Stecchino]

Now we're talking. I will explore this Screen Spanning Doctor further. Thanks for the link, Tuoder.

plastiqueusa, I did see that article on splitting the signal from a Mac Mini, but I'm unsure if that will work with showing a presentation on 1 screen and performing actions on the other screen because the mini still thinks that it's only powering 1 screen.

[plastiqueusa]

I guess that's a good point about the split-screen, I didn't consider that. You might send an email to the blogger and ask if he's tried Keynote on it.

[Stecchino]

Will do.

[Stecchino]

E-mail excerpt from the blog author:

your assessment about the mini thinking it's one giant monitor is absolutely correct. You can place windows on one screen, but only manually - if you make an application go full screen it will always span both monitors. I think in this scenario you're much better off using a tower with two video cards, or a true dual output video card.

Good luck!
Aniel

So, this knocks out the Mini altogether for this type of purpose, barring any firmware hack developments which is unlikely.