Suggestions: Mac for use with projector

We have a projector at our church that is currently connected to a PC. Aside from issues related to connection hardware, my question relates to which Mac to get to run the presentation. We currently used EasyWorship, which does not have a Mac version. We will likely purchase another presentation software (such as Media Shout or similar).

So, would you recommend a macbook pro ... or an iMac ... and is there any guidance on the ghz that would be best? Your thoughts ... how much power is needed to run the presentation and it not have buggy issues.

That might be clear as mud!

John

Any Mac will have morethan enough power to run your presentation. As well as Media Shout(which seems rather expensive), have a look at Keynote, which is Apple's equvalent of Powerpoint, but so much better.

The MacBook will give you portability, the iMac won't. Not much more than that really. If you don't need the portability, you might like to look at the Mac Mini as well.

I was thinking the Mac Mini wasn't maybe powerful enough...but glad to know....since we have this big monitor already in place. I'm guessing there are adapter cords available that we will be able to use the large flatscreen monitor we have with the mac mini should we go with that. Portability is not really an issue. Thanks.

One thing that wasn't pointed out to you is that you can always install Windows on your new Mac and continue to use EasyWorship. Also, an iMac can act as a presentation computer but is a bit bulky to move around. A Mini, MacBook, or MacBook Pro would be much better suited to use.

I'm assuming you already have a projector. Just keep in mind that unless your projector can do better than 1024 x 768 for projection resolution, don't waste money on an expensive machine. And lastly, if you decide on using presentation software other than EasyWorship, I would choose PowerPoint over Keynote. While Keynote does a fairly good job, it's not PowerPoint which is the standard.

Another reason for using PowerPoint is if your church is subscribing to a service such as "Sermon Central", all their presentations are done in PowerPoint. The same with all the other church service packages that I'm aware of.

... and you can import those "church service" presentations straight into Keynote and make them look even better than they did in Powerpoint. There's no water in your PP argument chscag if the file doesn't have to go back to PC.

chas, I've been using church presentation software of various quality for many years. And there are very few native church software packages for OS X. The ones that I am aware of all use PP.

Anything other than PP in that business is just not acceptable nor is it compatible. Keynote can be used in lieu of PP in many situations, but it does not lend itself well for church presentations.

You need to get over the fact that Apple software is not always the best choice. I appreciate your "defense" of everything Apple and I love Apple as much as you do, but we need to be objective in our recommendations to folks in these forums.

Suggestion

I do A/V work for a pharmaceutical co. and the mini would be great as a perm solution , say mounted or under the desk.
We have ours hooked to a mini with M-Audio speakers and its awesome for presentations.

chscag, I am using parallels on my iMac...was hoping by getting a macmini or other mac at the soundbooth I could eliminate using windows at all (ultimate goal). But thank you for the info. If I have to use parallels, I'll just have to.

Chas_m I really got a lot out of your essay for switchers. My main issue now is trying to live in both worlds, and I want to be out of the windows world!

Easy Worship is easier and quicker than doing individual slides in power point ... haven't worked with keynote yet, but look forward to trying. I would guess it does not do motion backgrounds?

Thank you for that info mrbill317

Easy Worship is easier and quicker than doing individual slides in power point ... haven't worked with keynote yet, but look forward to trying. I would guess it does not do motion backgrounds?

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If Easy Worship is working for you and you really don't want to go through the expense and learning curve of another package, I suggest continue using it from Parallels or Fusion.

As for Keynote, my understanding is that it will do motion backgrounds same as PowerPoint. Keynote is currently available as a stand alone application from the Apple App store for $19.99. Well worth the cost since PowerPoint can only be purchased as part of the MS Mac Office suite.

I guess we can just continue as we are then ... there doesn't seem to be a huge advantage in buying a new computer if I'm going to still have to use windows parallel. This conversation has helped me ... enjoying the other threads in the forum as well as a new user ... appreciate it!

chscag said:

I appreciate your "defense" of everything Apple and I love Apple as much as you do, but we need to be objective in our recommendations to folks in these forums.

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I am being "objective." Please read what I wrote again: once a presentation has been either imported from a PC to a Mac or made on a Mac, and doesn't need to be shared back to PC, Keynote *will* make it look better than it did on PP, guaranteed.

There's nothing in what I said that is anything less than 100% factual.

That's fine. Just let it go and quit being so defensive about everything Apple. It doesn't make you any more believable - actually, it has the opposite effect.

A Macbook Pro may be better as it allows portability and you can work on presentations in other locations for instance. I have some experience with your issues as I am a Children's Pastor and all the staff at our church use Macbook Pro's. The presentation software we use in the main sanctuary is ProPresenter 3 and its very nice software. Due to finances we cannot afford to license more than one computer so I have used several different methods.

For making slides I can't recommend Keynote enough. Its what I was using exclusively and you could actually use it as a media presenter as a cheap method as you can drop video in it as well. Its very versatile compared to PP.

Since our funds were limited I found a free media presenter that I just started using this week called OpenLP. It works well enough for our needs as we are doing childrens services so it doesn't have to be quite as polished. They have a beta version for Mac which is a little buggy and they have little support for the Apple side.

If you have the funds I would highly recommend ProPresenter 3. You can change backgrounds during songs for one thing and it uses quicktime which is highly beneficial with a Mac.