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Projection Issues with Keynote Transitions
I recently installed iWork’s Keynote to our (2006) MacPro laptop with the goal to be able to incorporate 1280 x 720 HD video within a Keynote slide show. I created a new project, chose the settings of 1280 x 720 and started inserting the slides (created in InDesign and exported out as 1280 x 720 tifs at 150 dpi) which fit perfectly with no scaling. I also inserted 1280 x 720 video, exported as H.264 QTs, into dedicated slides that would appear from time to time in the presentation. Just to “liven it up” I added transitions between the graphic slides– like Revolving Door, Swap, and Doorway– and tested the results. Everything played beautifully. Until I projected it.
I connected the laptop to the projector that will be used during the event presentation and set the projector display at 1024 x 768, as well as my MacPro laptop, and started to run through the slides. As Keynote slides transition from slide to slide, there is a slight tearing or crease that begins about a quarter of the screen and runs down the projected screen image during the transition. This quarter of the screen can be seen near the top or near the bottom, yet is always moving downward towards the bottom of the screen. I am deducing this is a scan issue as this doesn’t happen all the time. There are times I can transition and the problem is not there, then there are times it appears like I catch the scan in motion and it is very evident.
Thinking it might be an issue between the screen/projector screen settings of 1024 x 768 and the size of the Keynote presentation at 1280 x 720, I made a new Keynote presentation using the 1024 x 768 settings and inserted my slides and video, having to scale and fit them into this resolution. Same results and in some ways, worse. I even tried a new Keynote at 800 x 600 without any inserted video into the slides, with just text, and got the same results. I also adjusted the MacPro laptop output by tweaking the display settings and Resolution settings, even fooling around with the Refresh Rate (when I adjusted this from 60 Hertz to 90 Hertz, the one crease became two and ran up instead of down the screen.) This tends to reaffirm my thoughts that it is scan or scaling issue.
I have tried this on three separate projectors, all capable of displaying 1024 x 768, and while testing, adjusted the settings on them both (4:3 to 16:9, contrast, brightness, etc.) The tear or crease is still there. On two of the projectors the input is via VGA but on the auditorium projector (Sanyo PLC-XP45, a discontinued model, the input is DVI.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
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6 Replies
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Al,
I know in the past I’ve had issues with some lower quality boardroom projectors that didn’t like seeing a 60Hz refresh rate, and changing the video card to a 75Hz refresh rate fixed the problem. However, the display would appear incorrect until you changed the refresh rate, it wasn’t an intermittent problem like the one you’re describing.
What happens when you remove all of the transitions and view the presentation on the projector? Does the creasing still show up?
joel
Corporate and Special Event Staging Services
http://www.pacificstaging.com -
Yes, I tried the 75Hz and the creases seemed to appear more frequently and pronounced.
If I play the presentation with NO moving transitions (that is, the slide does not move across the screen, like a simple push-off-the-screen transition) I see no creases. However, if I look really really close at the video image as it plays on the projection screen, I can see a crease slowly rolling through the video at certain places. But not always. And never in the same part of the video, just randomly. And when the slide is just being static slide, sitting on the screen, no problems.
Strange…
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Have you tried a different laptop? May be an issue with the graphics card
Phil Senger
SW Audio+Visual
Vancouver, BC
http://www.sw-online.com -
Yes, I have considered that. It is a relatively “old” MacPro laptop. I have to wait and install Keynote on our other newer MacPro, once it gets back from being out on an assignment with a producer.
Thanks! Good suggestion.
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I try to always remember that when you’re calculating computer aging, it works a bit like ascribing age progression in dogs.
Your 5 year old laptop is actually 25 in “presentation years.”
Let us know if this works.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner
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Yes, this does appear to be the case– I ran to the same Keynote presentation on a newer MacPro laptop (June 2010) and saw the tearing issue only one time and that was on a very slow transition. When I went into the settings and sped up the transition, the tear or ripple was gone. The other transitions played fine.
So it does look like a newer computer (with a newer graphics card) addresses the problem. Thanks to all that responded! Your suggestions were very much appreciated!
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