Hello again from the newbie!

The way we want to use vMix for our Church Video broadcast is very information intensive. I want to develop the titles for the speaker, the sermon topic of the day, the verses that will be presented that day, any "pull quotes", and even perhaps a ticker of interesting upcoming events.

This information takes time to put into the title editor and get it just how you like it. I'd like to do this at home, and then bring it to the main vMix machine at the Church and import those items into the existing "default" setup (that already has the cameras, audio, recording, set up.

I tried this last Sunday, copying my XAML files to a thumb drive, but it was an unmitigated disaster! It appears the XAML files do not contain everything needed to create themselves, but just point to places on my local hard drive at home (which I did not bring along for the ride, by the bye) for their various elements, especially the images.

Am I missing something? Is there an option similar to Microsoft's "Pack and Go" where everything you need is copied to the destination, so that you don't have requests for missing items on your titles, etc?

How do others develop from remote locations successfully?

Thanks

Gayle

Gayle,
There is no pack&go function in vMix. And I believe creating one, if even possible, would be a very complocated task for the developer. Some of us are discussing Relative file paths, which would reduce some of the problems you ran into.

But I think that the new feature "import/export title presets" (that is, preset=content for the title input) is what you need. It was introduced in v13, explained in the help http://www.vmix.com.au/help13/index.htm?Title.html

Using it you can easily enter long texts using any text editor, and import them into a Title Input in vMix.

Edit: A minor clarification: Editing a Title input in vMix does not change the content of the xml file the title uses. Insted the edited texts (title presets) are saved only when the operator saves the vMix preset.

We use Songshow Plus for the Front of House. It does Worship lyrics, Powerpoints for announcements, slides for introducing solo's, Prayer time, etc. and also plays videos for the congregation, etc., as well as a "foldback" or "confidence monitor" projecting on the back wall of the sanctuary for the Praise team and choir lyrics. We do not do IMAG. We're a small house of worship (seat 250, around 200-220 in typical service).

We're using vMix for both transmission to the Nursery/gym and offline production of DVD. We were using a Vaddio Productionview FX, a stand-alone hardware switcher with 2 PTZ SD cameras, and the feed from the Songshow computer, until the video portion of the Vaddio failed. While we try to get it repaired, we're cobbling together a vMix system from a spare laptop, some USB input dongles, a VGA to composite converter, and then to the DVD/and modulator for the TV.

If we can overcome some video quality problems, I like the capabilities of vMix and may try to talk the Music/Administration Pastor into keeping/upgrading the vMix system instead of fixing the Vaddio.

2. When I tried to load the XAML files, they referred to other files that were originally located on my "C:\users\gayle\documents\1920x300 paper white.jpg" which of course did not exist on the computer I was trying to copy to. And if I had thought in advance and copied that file to my thumb drive, I would have had to copy it to the exact same file directory on the target computer! Not user friendly. I'll have to find a work-around...

Well, instead of this kind of work-arounds we are discussing a more general solution in the topic I referred to.


This is dependent upon a fixed, and known, "current directory". And my impression is that vMix sometimes changes the current directory. At least that seems to be the case when one add inputs, and the starting directory for items added (eg a video file or importing an .csv) sometimes are in the latest used directory. Sometimes in some kind of root directory.

One cause ot the issue is that true file path for directories such as Windows "Documents", "Pictures", "Video", and "Music" is dependent on the Windows user's name. E.g. "Documents" can on one computer be "file://c:/users/gayle/documents" and on another "file://c:/users/thecloudmediagroup/documents".

Here is my current workaraound to make sure that the files are on the same place on different PC:s. First, we create a fixed "working directory", eg: "d:\vmixprojects". Of course all PC:s must have a D-drive. Second, we create sub directories such as "d:\vmixprojects\presets", "d:\vmixprojects\videos", and "d:\vmixprojects\titles". And finally, we put and read *all* files within that working directory structure. This way it's easy to copy the working directory to a USB drive and move to another PC.

But of course, it would be nice if vMix could support working directories (here eg "d:\vmixprojects") and consequently started file browsing in that directory. And, I think, this would also be benefited if supplemented by a "Pack&Go" feature to unclude files outside the working directory.

Now it is time for me to post this, as I have been missing my subway station three times. Passing it back and forth while deeply engaged in this complicated matter ;)

It's discouraging that this conversation occurred 3 years ago and there's still no simple packaging tool (that I'm aware of). While a pro would pick up plenty of tricks/workarounds to make moving presets work easily, in my opinion, they should not have to do so. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for a method to package your presets.

The process could simply be to create your preset as you normally do and when you have what you need, Package Preset would:
► iterate through all linked resources for a file inventory
► use the inventory to identify files with the same name and map those to unused names
► use the inventory to copy the file assets from the current location to the new Preset's assets folder, using the new name where needed
► adjust the link to each resource to the relative path to the new preset's assets folder and new name where needed
► save
► possibly zip the resulting package

Other (unnamed) tools provide similar functionality, and it makes them easier to work with in terms of having to switch between multiple streaming rigs.

Best,

Chad