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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => Pro AV Forum => Topic started by: Craig Montgomery on January 29, 2012, 02:01:48 AM
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I'm not just venting here, I really want to learn:
Why is it so hard for people with Macs to burn a video DVD that anyone else can play? It's always a problem.
Any more, I just tell people to bring the whole machine and we'll show their video that way. I'm ready, I've got all 5 of the various Mac-to-VGA adapters that you need to connect various Macs to a projector.
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I actually have more issues with PC based DVDs because someone couldn't figure out Microsoft Movie Maker. It's quite easy to make a DVD on a Mac. Im sorry that you've had problems with them. It might be more of a operator error on their (the people bringing you the DVD) part, because they think that since they have a Mac, that it should do everything for them.
- Tony Williams
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I actually have more issues with PC based DVDs because someone couldn't figure out Microsoft Movie Maker. It's quite easy to make a DVD on a Mac. Im sorry that you've had problems with them. It might be more of a operator error on their (the people bringing you the DVD) part, because they think that since they have a Mac, that it should do everything for them.
- Tony Williams
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
at my church, i use iDVD to author and burn all our service DVDs [not ones used in service, but dvd's made OF our service for our attenders to take home] which go on to be played in hundreds of different systems. that being said, there is always someone that comes in every so often to say that the DVD they got was bad, only to be given another copy that still won't play.
Burned DVDs are a terrible medium for reliable show playback, regardless of what machine burns them. too many variables. we play ALL our video directly off computer. all MACs, BTW.
there is actually quite a bit of validity to your solution to have people bring the machine with them. it actually often turns out to be simpler in the long run. i know in doing hundred of corporate events that it was alway simpler to have every possible adapter so that we could get a presenter's machine to work, than to try to take their file and play it on our systems. counterintuitive and a bummer. but true...
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Hi Craig,
We also use a Mac to burn the first copy, then that copy goes to a "Stand Alone" 1X8 burner.
The only issue we have ever had is the "Blank Media" being bad.
Also trying to burn faster or slower than the media was made for may cause issues.
The best we hope for is about 95% compatibly being "Duplicated", this can go up to over 99% if the master is sent out for "Replication".
On the Mac I always burn from a "Disk Image". (Finder>Utilities>Disk Utility.app>Burn
Regards, John
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The problem also extends to PowerPoint users, who use some font that is only on their system. They'll save the PP to a flash drive without embedding the fonts, then wonder why it looks so terrible on the playback system (which doesn't have the same font set).
Embedding the fonts is NOT the default option in PowerPoint, and it's pretty well hidden to go and change that. The average user doesn't know they need to do it, and even if they do, they probably won't find the option without help.
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+1 to DVDs being one of the worst formats to play back live. I play back files on a Mac after converting the video files into a common codec that plays nicely (currently Apple ProRes 422 HQ).
Also, when burning DVDs, the rate of having one bad is low, but high enough to verify a disk before sending to someone for playback.
- Tony Williams
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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+1 to DVDs being one of the worst formats to play back live. I play back files on a Mac after converting the video files into a common codec that plays nicely (currently Apple ProRes 422 HQ).
Also, when burning DVDs, the rate of having one bad is low, but high enough to verify a disk before sending to someone for playback.
- Tony Williams
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I had a Mac video head scratcher this weekend. DVI-D from a macbook pro @1920x1080 into a Christie HD10k-M roadster, which is 1080 native. The Mac's output would not fill the frame with or without a white frame autoconfigure. Ended up having to resize the input by 1.25.
As the keeper of the pricy electronics/ poor sap who gets stuck with everything low voltage at my PAC, this sort of thing falls under my purview, despite being a wholely seperate specialty with which my competance is only cursory.
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I had a Mac video head scratcher this weekend. DVI-D from a macbook pro @1920x1080 into a Christie HD10k-M roadster, which is 1080 native. The Mac's output would not fill the frame with or without a white frame autoconfigure. Ended up having to resize the input by 1.25.
Which version of the MacBook Pro do yo have... I know on mine (late 2008 - first unibody), if you don't use the "Higher-end" nVidia 9600 card, it tends to do funny things... The newer MacBook Pros have selectable video cards in terms of performance... Worth a shot...
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The problem also extends to PowerPoint users, who use some font that is only on their system. They'll save the PP to a flash drive without embedding the fonts, then wonder why it looks so terrible on the playback system (which doesn't have the same font set).
Embedding the fonts is NOT the default option in PowerPoint, and it's pretty well hidden to go and change that. The average user doesn't know they need to do it, and even if they do, they probably won't find the option without help.
Do you know if there is a way to keep that option always on? I change it, but it's only a presentation specific option.
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Which version of the MacBook Pro do yo have... I know on mine (late 2008 - first unibody), if you don't use the "Higher-end" nVidia 9600 card, it tends to do funny things... The newer MacBook Pros have selectable video cards in terms of performance... Worth a shot...
I just discovered today that when mirroring displays, the lowest resolution is forced on all displays, so if the displayport is outputting 1900x1080 , but the laptop screen is 1400x900, then 90 pixels top and bottom and 250 pixels left and right will be black.