12/29/2009 6:24:52 PM

I have tried to dim the background by using the transparency settings, and basically all others, but I want to know how to keep the words crispy white, while dimming the background.  Or, if the lettering were whiter, maybe I wouldn't have to tune down the background.  Any suggestions??

12/29/2009 8:25:02 PM

You could change the font text color to white. And on the background, go to advanced effects, select brightness and and set that to a negative number, 25% or so.

Are you sure it's the software and not the projector? We thought we were having trouble like that and it turned out we needed a new bulb in our projector.

12/30/2009 2:54:18 AM

It could be the bulb. Ours is about 2 years old I believe.

12/30/2009 7:40:29 AM

Whatever you do to the background shouldn't affect the text. They're separate entities. If you're trying to make the text stand out against a busy background, try darkening the background or blurring in slightly or both. My favorite method is to create a box shape of a similar color as the background, sizing it to be just a tad bigger than the text, making it about 70% transparent, blurring the edges, and placing it in front of the background, but in back of the text.

12/30/2009 1:16:56 PM

Have you tried projecting other things (other than from SSP) to see what other items look like? Bring something up on your primary screen to see what it looks like, then drag it over to your second screen (projector) and compare.

That way you will know if it's the projector or the software.

It could be the bulb with 2 years on it, depending on how much use it sees and how many hours the bulb is supposed to last. On a typical LCD projector, the bulb will dim over time, rather than just burn out at the end of it's life (typically )

12/30/2009 1:17:36 PM

Another test would be to plug in a second monitor where your projector is plugged in and see what it looks like.

1/22/2010 1:53:30 PM

so is the text part of a background picture, or is the text in a text box in songshow?

1/22/2010 3:07:14 PM

Text (whether in slides, songs, or scripture) and backgrounds are separate items. The background can be a color (singularly or several in a gradient pattern), an image, a video, or combinations of these. The text can be any font, style, color, and fill. You can apply effects (usually "advanced" ones) to any of the items separately. You can also add shadows and outlines to items which is especially useful for making text stand out. Make sure your text is in "front" of the backgrounds. SSP is pretty good about providing a number of ways to make text in slide shows, songs, and scripture visually attractive and readable.

2/22/2010 4:27:50 AM

Posted By Joel Osborn on 30 Dec 2009 01:16 PM
It could be the bulb with 2 years on it, depending on how much use it sees and how many hours the bulb is supposed to last. On a typical LCD projector, the bulb will dim over time, rather than just burn out at the end of it's life (typically )

They generally do dim, and do not burn out. But they do shatter!

2/22/2010 4:45:59 AM

If you want to make your text *pop* a little more, wether it be for a bad projector, or to ease the older generations.
Click into Global Display Properties> Song Text> Lyrics> Effects> Advanced Effects> Shadow> Light Source: Bottom Right.
You can apply this as many times as you want in any direction to put a "halo" around your song text. When I do this, I'll often just pop a little bit of the sharpen effect in too.

Another option to make it pop is to add the effect "Colour Level" to the Global Property "Background Effects", and decrease it by a fraction (10%). This de-saturates the backgrounds, but keeps the text and other video cues at full brightness.

2/24/2010 3:26:27 PM

I will have to try the color level. Our Bulb is starting to get dim. I haven't yet received the 1500 hour service notice, but I cannot remember installing a bulb since it exploded (after a brown-out/with UPS connected) in Oct. 2008.

I just did the math. As long as the projector isn't being used when I don't know about it, it should last 3.6 years. I have never had one last longer than a year until this one.

2/24/2010 4:57:48 PM

That's the full life of the bulb. They start dimming about 1/2 in, as I understand it. They probably start dimming right away, just not appreciably.

2/25/2010 7:36:15 PM

So... If I can get it to last until Oct 2010, then I should consider myself lucky? With bulbs costing about 400-450, I may look more into a new projector. A New project would be outside my annual budget, so I would have to talk to the finanace committee about allowing a "rent-to-own" or "financing". I would buy it myself if the church would re-imburse me for the monthly payments, but that could be another potential issue.

We have about 1/4 to 1/3 of our walls being stained glass (in a hurricane area no less, since the 50s), so we get quite a bit of ambient light. I would like to get at least a 5k lumen w/ 2000:1 contrast. The icing on the cake would be a long-throw lense, so I could mount the projector in the back of the sancturary. No more setting up scaffolding for projector maintenance. That should make whiter whites.