You’ve located the perfect video segment to enhance an existing lesson. You’ve downloaded the clip and tested it on your computer before showing it to your students. But when you connect your computer to your television, you hit a bump in the road. Sound familiar? If you’ve ever experienced this problem – and I know I have – you are not alone. This “snag” is common for many educators who are integrating digital video files in the classroom but don’t have the luxury of displaying the videos with an LCD projector.
I’ve received numerous emails from educators who’ve requested my help with this problem, and my first question is always the same: “Have you tried changing the video acceleration rate for Windows Media Player?” Usually the acceleration setting is high since we tend to watch videos on computers. For some televisions, though, you may need to slow down the video acceleration rate so the video is viewable.
Follow the steps below and you should have better results:
1. Download the video from the Internet.
2. Play the video on your desktop and make sure the Windows Media Player expands to Full Screen so you are able to see the following grey tool bar options at the top of the screen (File, View, Play, Tools, Help).
3. Click on the “Tools” link in the Windows Media Player tool bar.
4. Scroll down and select “Options.”
5. Click on the “Performance” tab.
6. Under the “Video Acceleration” heading, slide the bar from “Full” to the mid-point (for “some video acceleration. Select if you are experiencing video playback problems.”)
7. Click “Apply.”
8. Try watching the video again on the television screen.
Katherine Aiken
Digital Distribution / TIE Network Manager
Georgia Public Broadcasting
kaiken@gpb.org
http://www.tienetwork.org
