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Podcast Bob  
#1 Posted : Friday, September 6, 2019 12:17:13 AM(UTC)
Podcast Bob

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I see something similar to this have been mentioned before in feature requests, but I thought I would try a different approach.

When I am chatting with subjects we normally go through a series of images they have supplied as we talk.

Usually in the wrong format (shape) and usually there isn't enough of them, so some basic animating, zooming would be good to pass the screen time (so to speak)

I have a PC and Mac external to vMix and using NDI I can bring in the slideshow and switch between images externally to vMix. However I can't seem to find a program which would allow me to zoom in at will to highlight something they may be talking about.

Obviously I can hide the cursor and crop out the 'slideshow preview' (if it has one at the bottom of the screen for example) so that just the image appears.

Does anyone know of a software solution to do this? It could be on iPad I guess if the zoom facility is replicated via NDI.

I know that I could Merge between various images of the same pic in vMix, but this is a lot of work with over 100 slides per interview potentially.

Any thoughts people or suggestions of a different way to approach this?

Cheers
mjgraves  
#2 Posted : Friday, September 6, 2019 1:39:45 AM(UTC)
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vMix allows you to use a Virtual PTZ function on any source. That is, assuming your vMix license is PTZ capable. It requires 4K or Pro.
zenvideo  
#3 Posted : Friday, September 6, 2019 2:00:57 AM(UTC)
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You can do this in a limited way within vMix, using the "virtual PTZ" feature to pan, tilt & zoom within an image. If you add a "Photos" input (a folder of images) and "Create Virtual Input" from it, then in the new virtual input you can activate the "Virtual PTZ" device for that input. With a connected controller (or the mouse & on-screen controls, just for testing) you can control the virtual camera to zoom in and "pan & scan" around your image, albeit at fixed speeds, AFAIK. Meanwhile on the Photos input (as opposed to the "virtual" version) you can step forwards and backwards through the images, with cross-fade transitions. The downside is that those PTZ settings in the virtual input don't reset when the source image changes, so if you've zoomed in to a particular region, then when the source image changes it will show the same zoomed-in region of the new image. It's not exactly what you're looking for, I know, but it could prove useful in some circumstances.
Podcast Bob  
#4 Posted : Friday, September 6, 2019 5:51:19 PM(UTC)
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Once again Martin many thanks. I'll explore this, however due to the nature of people talking and 'jumping' around a topic, I wonder if I simply transferred the images to an iPad and used that functionality to jump between folders it might actually be quicker.

I'll give them both a try and report back.

Podcast Bob  
#5 Posted : Sunday, September 15, 2019 1:16:37 AM(UTC)
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For others who are seeking similar fast access to images and then being able to zoom in etc, here's my solution so far.

My criteria is that I may have clients send me images which I want to dump onto the iPad and access quickly during a show. I don't want to spend every vMix session setting up individual PTZ options for each picture as there will be at least 100 per show. So a quick efficient system is what I seek. Also many images are the wrong format, not 16:9 landscape but a total mixture of landscape and portrait in the wrong resolution, which is more time spent in Photoshop to correct and edit.

Initially I tried using the iPad2 Reflector 2 on my Mac and then NDI'd it to the Vmix and it worked okay. Not as speedy as I would like understandably, but it worked.

Then I tried installing it on the PC, but they have since upgraded to Reflector 3 and the 30 days trial wasn't as good. Glitchy and not as slick as the Mac > NDI . vMix version.

I wanted speed and smooth follow of the pinch zoom.

So I thought I would try another approach, so I picked up a new Elgato Camlink 4K HDMI/USB3 connector and using an old HDMI out connector I have for the iPad, this worked as fast and consistently as I had hoped.

However the catch is getting the images onto the iPad in an time effective manner. I didn't want to use the iPad 'Photo' display as it shows the menu on the HDMI, and it is a bugger to get the images where you want them, so I opted for Photo Manager Pro 5 (I think) which allows import of images via Chrome using wifi and you can manage them into folders for viewing.

So I seem to have resolved the case nicely for my needs. As good as the others above are it saves me having to upgrade vMix and gives me the freedom to zip around images, folders and anything else on my iPad screen I want to share.

I'll be using this system for a video shortly and will put a link to it once it is published.

Thanks everyone for your input, but so far the quality of the pinch zoom on the supplied images is outstanding. Hopefully it'll have the desired 'wow' effect when the project is completed.
Podcast Bob  
#6 Posted : Wednesday, September 25, 2019 11:24:50 PM(UTC)
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So after a good start with the Elgato 4K USB device the iPad started to slow down and eventually the connection became unusable. I later checked the Elgato website and found a list of approved cameras for the 4K Camlink and obviously the iPad wasn't on it.

As I don't own the Pro or 4K version I couldn't do the virtual PTZ option, however I created a blank virtual set for each group of slides. Layered up the background with the 4:3 photos over it. Of course the photos didn't fit my 16:9 screen set up so that got rid of the black border.

Then I was able to preset the zoom for each group of slides.

To control everything I didn't use my Novation pad and went with the iPad web controller which was brilliant.

All in all I was pleased with the results, which considering I'm doing this in a garden shed until my room is ready, worked well.

The results are here >
thanks 1 user thanked Podcast Bob for this useful post.
Reinaldo on 1/4/2020(UTC)
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