The Many Flavors of DVI
Everyone is excited about DVI. And for the PowerPoint world it is important to be in-the-know as it has become a mainstay in connecting projectors and monitors to our computers for presentations.
Yes, it does mean an all digital signal. No, most people cannot see a difference between it and a analog signal. But as the image moves to more hi-def, especially with lots of motion (think PowerPoint animations, motion paths, slide transitions, etc), there is a difference to be seen. So know your DVI before investing in new hardware, or being asked advice.
There are 3 flavors of DVI:
DVI-A (Digital Video Interface, Analog)
DVI-D (Digital Video Interface, Digital)
DVI-I (Digital Video Interface, Integrated)
– Troy @ TLC
My Desk This Week
I have not shared a lot of “work” photos lately and a few emails have asked, so here is my “desk” from this past week. Yes all of the computers and monitors in the foreground are mine (actually one computer is not there).
– Troy @ TLC
Another MVP Year!
I recently received a great email from Microsoft – recognition as a PowerPoint MVP for another year! There are currently 28 PowerPoint MVPs globally and it is a great gathering of backgrounds and talent, one I am honored to be a part of.
– Troy @TLC
Laptop Consideration #2
On my new graphics powerhouse laptop I was excited with it having both VGA and DVI output. This is great as number of larger shows this year have requested DVI output.
Again, I did not even think about looking further into things but was surprised when I started using the computer. There are a few flavors of DVI, the most common on computers, monitors, etc. is DVI-A. Well, this laptop surprised me by having a DVI-D connector. This is a big deal as it really limits the DVI options. On the plus side – it does have screw down connectors…
The big difference is it is missing the 4 connector slots that DVI-A (and DVI-I) connectors use (should be where the red circles are). Hmmm – maybe this is not the laptop to invest an additional 3 systems in.
– Troy @ TLC
Flyody Landis Makes Case with PowerPoint
My neighbor (we live in the same town of 93,000 people) and fellow cyclist (he may ride a bit more than me), Floyd Landis rolled out key elements of his defense against doping charges in an online presentation Thursday, several months before the cyclist is to present his case to an arbitration panel in hopes of keeping his Tour de France title.
Early Thursday, Landis posted a PowerPoint presentation prepared by Arnie Baker, a retired doctor and longtime coach and adviser, as well as several hundred pages of documents related to the charges on his Web site, www.floydlandis.com (links to box.net, use PublicAccess/PublicAccess to login and download).
Many thanks to PPT MVP Glenna Shaw for letting me know about the neighborhood news.
– Troy @ TLC
Laptop consideration #1
I recently purchased a new laptop to test before purchasing several (needed to run large multi-screen presentations). The computer has lots of power, but there are a few things that caught me off guard that are not a part of the “usual” specs.
I have a very small Sony laptop I use as my personal/travel computer. One disadvantage of it is the lack of screw downs to secure the VGA cable. In this case not much of a problem, as it is not a show computer.
But on this new computer, a full featured graphics powerhouse with 256MB graphics chip, 2 GB RAM, dou core processor, etc., they are also missing. A feature I did not even think to look for as I figured it as a standard issue item. Guess I was wrong.
– Troy @ TLC
Extended And Smoother Animations
I personally do not use the Presenter View, but I do run many presentations in a similiar format – with slideshow on the secondary monitor/projector and PowerPoint in edit mode on the primary monitor.
Just like Presenter View, animations can be problematic. Each slide redraws in the edit mode and while it is updates processing power for animations is reduced. But there are some steps to take to minimize the animation lag.
There is a lot of processing power used with each slide transition if you have:
– Slide preview at 100%
– Both left and right action panes open
– PowerPoint running full frame
I have found better results when PowerPoint runs like this:
– Close the right action pane
– Reduce size of thumbnails in left action pane, or close all together
– Make slide preview 25% (active slide in center)
– Reduce the actual application window to run in a small vertical area
– Troy @ TLC