SDE / Montage Playback
 

Hello All,

I was wondering what you folks use to show your SDE or photo montages at the reception. I currently print to tape the final project and use my VX-2100. I have seen too many DVD players skip a beet, if you know what I mean. I have more confidence in my camera, but that is all I have used. What are you using?

Ron

I export it as a .mov file and play it back with Quicktime Player (Full Screen setting) on my Powerbook plugged into the LCD projector. No worries about skipping either.

I always print to dvcam and play the tape. I don't trust computer playbacks. I've done several thousand SDE's this way and it's almost bulletproof. I've heard of other people playing back from their laptop, but I think it's just too risky. I heard of horror stories like a sudden crash, frozen image, battery going dead, or an interface that didn't respond. Imagine your computer freezing or crashing in front of hundreds of people. You can try to troubleshoot the problem, but rebooting will seem like eons! All eyes will be on you as you frantically try to fix the problem.

I've tried it two ways. Print to tape and video file played through my laptop. Tape always is more full proof and sometimes quality is better but sometimes its faster for me to playback an .avi on the laptop. I would try doing something before the wedding like a test run. Take some video clips and try to edit and output both ways and see which one works better for you.

I have always used dvcam playback, but I am in a situation where I am asked to video the audience during the montage and I only have 1 camera. I am weary of laptops because I have heard of horror stories like warren mentioned. Maybe I will try to convince the client that video of people watching a montage is just not compelling footage.

Ron