Displaying a movie on a dual Mac/dual projector setup

[gingi0]

Hi. I'm trying to show a movie I created in iMovie on two projectors at a wedding. In lieu of a VGA splitter, I'm using two MacBook Pros, each connected to a projector. Since the hall has no wireless, I can run a long ethernet cable and use Screen Sharing to display the movie simultaneously, and have audio output from one of the Macs (into the band's amplifiers). However, the video on the shared Mac lags a few milliseconds behind, even with "Adaptive Quality," and so the audio is out of synch. I can go with the lo-tech approach of having a copy of the movie on each Mac and having someone press "Play" on both machines at the same time. But that could also be a disaster, and there must be some other way.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
gingi0

 

[foshizzle]

you can get VGA cables fairly inexpensively. check out monoprice

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10201

A VGA splitter is going to be the best way. Don't screw the presentation up trying to rig it up with screen sharing or two people pushing play at the same time. How long of a run would you need? just split it in half and have the laptop in the middle of the two.

ALSO - something to look into, some (most) projectors have a VGA out that is meant to go to a secondary display. If you go macbook pro->projector 1 then run from the VGA out of projector 1->VGA in on projector 2 you can skip buying a splitter. Just put the laptop next to first projector to keep the first VGA cable short.

Try to keep it as low-tech as possible. VGA is cheap, the wedding will only happen once . You can even use it once and return it or sell it after use if you really don't want to pay for it.

 

[gingi0]

Wow, thanks! I didn't even bother to look for a video out on the projectors. One has it. I should be set now!

I was starting to code together an AppleScript that would launch QuickTime Player both locally and on the other Mac (via SSH), but then any software-and network-related solution will probably have at least a slight lag. Now I don't have to worry about that anymore.

Thanks again.
gingi0

 

[notjustjay]

I've had to do this sort of thing before, and a VGA cable is definitely the best option.

Another option I was going to look at, if I hadn't decided to go the low-tech route, are those apps that do "video wall" type displays. Apple for example must use something to coordinate the displays being shown in their storefront windows.

 

[arjen92]

what's the distance? Some say 50 meters is too long (not true, I did it once). But if it's really far you could try to use ethernet (just an example: http://www.nextag.com/vga-to-ethernet/stores-html) the distance is endless with this.

 

[d0hboy]

Outcome?

Wow, thanks! I didn't even bother to look for a video out on the projectors. One has it. I should be set now! -gingi0

Hi guys -- I stumbled on this thread with a similar issue to gingi0 and was just hoping to revive it with a question: how did it go?

My prospective setup (very similar to the original poster's):
- single laptop source feeding out video
- audio output would feed to DJ's line-in (assuming 1/8" jack --> 1/4" cable)
- hoping to feed Mini-DisplayPort --> MiniDisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter
- connect that to 10' HDMI cable --> powered HDMI 2-way splitter
- connect that to two 30-50' HDMI cables
- connect each HDMI cable --> HDMI-to-VGA as necessary (projector may be old)

I'm hoping that should do the trick. I'm anxious to hear other people's (and specifically the poster's) experience with such a setup.