I was originally excited to hear about the new release, because I was SURE the video playback problem so many users have suffered with would have been a top priority. Particularly since I didn't see the "disable hardware acceleration" box on the splash screen. I guess not.
Here's my saga:
We switched to Proclaim about a year ago when our new lead pastor, who had using Proclaim successfully on his laptop for youth presentations, informed us he was going to be using it for the worship service. Being old curmudgeons, us video guys kind of resisted, because of course there was nothing wrong with Powerpoint. But we decided to go along and had problems right out of the box related to video crashing the program. So ultimately we stayed with PP, until we figured out there was a workaround (that really isn't a workaround if you want quality video) by disabling hardware acceleration. So it kind of works.
I have gotten used to using the program and actually have grown to love the features and would never want to return to Powerpoint or anything else I've tried.
Fast forward now. We have been using a Dell Optiplex 3020 with the standard onboard graphics and audio, and have had tons of problems with it, particularly with the audio failing for no apparent reason, and no matter what we do with DI boxes and ground lifts, we can't get rid of the hum. It seems to be hardware related so we reinstalled Windows 7 Pro 64 bit and updated all the drivers and still have problems. And of course the video playback problem, that I assumed was at least partially related to the fact that we had a weak video interface.
So I decided we should replace the box with one I had but make some nice upgrades first.
Dell Optiplex 780 with a Core2Duo 3.33 ghz processer, 8 gb memory, Win 7 Pro 64bit, upgraded from the stock 255 watt PSU a 430 watt PSU, added a GEForce 730 graphics card with 2GB memory, Intel 160gb SSD, and a Steinberg UR22mkII usb audio interface hoping to have a machine that would do what we need.
Fired that bad boy up, turned on Proclaim and the graphics run beautifully. No stutter, fade between slides is butter smooth. For about 5 minutes. Then the video freezes, the CPU goes to 50% and stays about there, and when I exit the program I have to go into task manager and kill Proclaim. The difference is that before the program became unstable and crashed, but now I can still use the slides, including the Bible slides, but the video backgrounds are simply frozen.
If I disable hardware acceleration, I'm back to where I was before, but a little worse, because the Core2Duo can't render the graphics quite as well as the i5 in the "old" computer. So the video plays, but is pretty choppy and very non-pro in my opinion. So did I just waste $500?
Any other video on this machine is perfect. Youtube HD is crisp and smooth. Windows Media Player 12 plays perfectly and never stutters or freezes, and supposedly that is the video player for Proclaim.
A program with all the great features of Proclaim that can't be used reliably isn't worth much in my not so humble opinion. Come on guys, can't this be a priority rather than bells and whistles?
