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How to start several videos simultaneously?
Hello,
May I ask for your help? I have the following set up with 3 Macs in the same room, each with a video file:
– a first Mac with a video file linked to a video projector
– a second Mac with another video file linked to a second video projector
– a 3rd Mac with a 3rd (and last!) video file linked to 3 video projectors (through a Matrox Triple Head)The Macs are in the same room. My question is: what is the simplest way to start the videos on each of the 3 Macs exactly at the same time (this is because the video files are supposed to be watched in a synchronized fashion).
To date, I’m thinking of counting 1, 2, 3 and at 3, we’re all hitting the play button !! But obviously, this is a very unreliable method!! I’m far from being an expert in networks, any help will be very very very appreciated!!
Best
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5 Replies
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A chron script could perhaps be written for each mac to start the playbacks at a certain clock time, then all you need to do is make sure the clocks on all three macs are synchronized. Just a notion.
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thanks a lot for the idea – would you kindly tell me how to run a chrono script? thanks a lot!
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Hi Martin,
You can try out my software KeyShowX https://keywebx.com I’ve created it exactly for this scenario – when you have to sync playback of multiple video files or Keynote/Powerpoint presentations on several networked Macs. There is also very simple scripting facility included, for making a bit more complex multiscreen installations. For the past ten years, it’s been used in many movies / tv series / shows as a simplest solution without any special hardware / pre-production requirements.
Based on feedback from my clients, the easiest and most controllable solution would be actually to embed your videos into Keynote or PowerPoint presentations with fullscreen playback option enabled. You can use 1080p video files and despite gigantic presentation file sizes, on relatively modern macs (2010 – 2014), it should playback as embedded video without any hiccups. There is also direct support for QuickTime Player syncing, but for simplicity, I still would recommend Keynote/PowePoint.
Best
Michael -
Playback Pro with Simple Sync is made just for this. Not cheap, but reliable and purpose-built.
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