Conference AV question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Todd W. Roat
  • Start date Start date
T

Todd W. Roat

ALright, not exactly a powerpoint question but my experience in this
group tells me you people know both and are, in fact, the correct
group to ask ;^)

We do alot of conferences and use the standard laptops to feed to LCD
projector, allowing us to see the presentations on the laptop screen
while being projected to LCD.

I recently used one of Dell's P4 Optiplex small form factor desktops.
The power relative to size is way cool, and way better than the
laptops. However, while they do have 64MB, nVidia, GeForce 4MX, DVI
w/VGA adapter video cards Im not sure how/if it will allow me to send
the info to the LCD and to an external monitor at out tech table.

You see, while I am great at powerpoint and graphic design, I really
am AV challenged - its true.

Todd
Cincinnati
 
You have put your finger on one of the inherent advantages of notebook PCs
for presentations: There are always two displays available, one internal and
one external. While not familiar with the P4, most decent projectors have
their own video out. That means that you can run from the projector back to
your monitor. That means doubling your cable runs, but other than that, the
solution should be easily at hand.

There are other strategies -- like splitting your video signal before
feeding it to the projector -- but that requires non-standard cabling and
possibly the use of an accelerator.

I've stayed blissfully ignorant of all of that, because we DO use notebooks
at PPTLive. I'm going to invite Steve R. to fill in details...






--
Rick Altman
PowerPoint Live Conferences and Seminars
Five Cities in the Spring
and the big event October 10-13 in San Diego, CA
http://www.powerpointlive.com
 
Did a quick look at the Dell website. That particular machine's graphic card
does support dual monitors. You will need a DVI-to-VGA adaptor (under $10).
I recommend setting the DVI to the primary display and using that as your
local monitor (one connected to the computer) and use the VGA to go to the
projector.

Because you are using a desktop the only real challenge is that it does not
offer the keyboard commands (Function Key + F5 to activate external
monitor). You will need to go into the display properties and set the
computer to send signal to two monitors "manually."
 
Hi Todd

These two pages explain a lot about multiple monitor support in PPT and
Windows.

Dual monitors and PowerPoint (by Paul Iordanides) (and others)
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00231.htm

A Multiple Monitor Tutorial by PowerPoint MVP Chirag Dalal
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00476.htm

Do the new laptops have some kind of external video output jack? If not, they
probably don't support this (though it's hard to imagine that a computer
manufacturer would even consider releasing a product w/o at least mirrored
external video!)
 
Well Steve I've been know (far more than I will ever admit) to not reading
things entirely and then providing answers.... didn't even comment on your
reply. It was a perfect answer - for another question.... :)

-Troy
 
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