My new handy tool – “Presenter Mirror” – video preview window

[Douglas Heriot]

Hi everyone,

I finally got around to releasing an app I mentioned months ago that people were interested in.
I call it “Presenter Mirror”. All it is is a simple window you can move and resize anywhere that mirrors another display.

Ever wish you had a preview of what video QLab was outputting? Or an easier way to monitor a Syphon Virtual Screen?
It’s great for when you can’t see an external display – say it’s on a random projector somewhere, or the projector is blacked – and when you don’t have a whole video system with preview screens and multiviewers to monitor your Mac’s output.

Presenter Mirror is on the Mac App Store, and yeah, it costs a few dollars.
http://appstore.com/mac/presentermirror

I use it all the time in an installation where there’s a separate output I can’t see from FOH, but want the confidence that it’s actually outputting what it should be.
Another use is when I teach students how to use different software – I can demo things on the projector while having notes on my main display, but use Presenter Mirror to see the projector output on my Macbook. (without having to use mirrored mode, which loses the ability to hide notes)

Currently it only supports monitoring a single display, but if people are interested, I can look at supporting arbitrary numbers of displays.

I hope you find this as useful as I do, and I’d love to know what you think!

PS.

There’s another similar app created by some other people – iMultiviewer. It’s more flexible and allows you to rotate your view for if the screen is on a different angle.
http://appstore.com/mac/imultiviewer
Mine, Presenter Mirror, gives you a simpler interface you can leave on top of QLab or whatever without getting in the way – both apps are good at different things.

PPS.

I even made Presenter Mirror open source – if you’re familiar with Xcode and Mac development, you can build it yourself and see how it works:
https://github.com/DouglasHeriot/PresenterMirror

Douglas
http://douglasheriot.com/

[Chris Ashworth]

This is very cool Douglas!  Just launched it, and sure enough, works exactly as advertised. Very nice.

[Allan]

Hey Douglas,

Bought it, Love it.

Very interested in multi monitor support.

Cheers

Allan

Senior Production Technician

Melbourne Theatre Company

[Freddy Komp]

Sounds like a blast,

would it be easy enough for it to allow for connecting/disconnecting/remembering screens and not loose the output? I am thinking AirDisplay2 - if you extend a screen to an iDevice or Android, and that (WiFi) connection is lost, the window stays put and keeps on working, until the device re-connects... obviously, if these then could even be saved as pre-sets to use, this could survive a shut down of the application, and could work without even plugging the projector/screen back in after having "sampled" it once...

... and thus you have basically something like an audition window, without even being confined to QLab 3 :)! I'd love (and pay) for that...

[Douglas Heriot]

Thanks everyone!

Bought it, Love it. 

Very interested in multi monitor support. 

Cool! Seeing some photos people have posted with new Mac Pros driving many displays, I imagine a multi-viewer on a control screen would be handy.

would it be easy enough for it to allow for connecting/disconnecting/remembering screens and not loose the output? 

I am thinking AirDisplay2 - if you extend a screen to an iDevice or Android, and that (WiFi) connection is lost, the window stays put and keeps on working, until the device re-connects...

It’s been a while since I’ve played with AirDisplay. I don’t think I can make what you’re asking for, unfortunately. Presenter Mirror simply live screen-captures a connected screen that the Mac recognises – it can’t simulate a screen that doesn’t currently exist.

  

... and thus you have basically something like an audition window, without even being confined to QLab 3 :)!

So, you want a way to set up apps using a secondary display that doesn’t exist, and have it ready to go when you connect it? A really hacky way to do that off the top of my head – may or may not work, and probably will have problems, but may be fun to try:

– Install Syphon Virtual Screen, to create a virtual screen

– Use Presenter Mirror (or a Syphon client) to prepare content on the screen

– When you connect the real screen, set it up to mirror the virtual one.

HANDY TIP – with 3 or more displays, if you want only 2 to mirror each other, option-drag them on top of each other in System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13814

Douglas

[Andrea Cremaschi]

Hi Douglas, this is a cool project!

Thank you for releasing the source code, too

[Ron Peer]

just bought it. very handy app.

any known solutions for windows pc as well?

בתאריך יום רביעי, 18 ביוני 2014 בשעה 18:24:04 UTC+3, מאת Chris Ashworth:

[Adrien JOLY]

Hi!

Is this app still running well on El Capitan?

I'd love to see a demo/screencast, to make sure it meets my needs before buying it from the app store! :-)

Cheers,

Adrien

[Greg Leeper]

Working great for me - it basically creates a PIP that can show whats going out to any single attached display.  You can move it around and resize it.  Very simple and functional!

[Greg Leeper]

I'd love to see this showing all my outputs when running more than one...  

[Alessandro Bufalini]

Beautiful!!!

Thnx Douglas!