Zoom and JW Library issues

[Portsmouth]

Hello, has anyone noticed the following when running JW Library with Zoom:

When sharing the screen (images and video) from JW Library, the 2nd monitor randomly fails to display.

Shutting down JW Library and re-opening fixes it for a time, but then it randomly fails to show the pic or video again.

Rinse and repeat..

[AH173]

I'll keep on this for my weekend meeting tomorrow .

[Portsmouth]

Im using windows 10 on a recently purchased laptop with dedicated graphics, so no issue there regarding hardware (although a fault cant be ruled out).

Another two tech savvy brothers in our cong have reported similar issues.

[Myew]

If you have the video in JW Library set to full screen when you go to screen share in Zoom, JW Library will not show up under apps you can share in Zoom.
You can maximize JW Library on the 2nd monitor. But you can't full screen the picture or video itself until AFTER you start sharing.
Open the video in JW Library, pause it -> share JW Library in Zoom -> full screen the image/video -> play the video -> exit fullscreen -> stop sharing

Edited May 22, 2020 by Myew

[AH173]

1 hour ago, Myew said:

You can maximize JW Library on the 2nd monitor. But you can't full screen the picture or video itself until AFTER you start sharing.
Open the video in JW Library, pause it -> share JW Library in Zoom -> full screen the image/video -> play the video -> exit fullscreen -> stop sharing

When I'm scheduled to be the host, I prep it up as the branch directions say so and make it full screen with the icon and tap pause and then on cue from the brother handling the part I share screen and then tap play and move mouse out of the way and all good. That's what I do. 

 

There's a whole bunch of 'and' (s). Haha 

😄

[Myew]

I assume you're sharing the entire second monitor and not just the JW Library app itself?

[AH173]

I would believe that's it.

 

I have no problem with spacing with 3 monitors. 

[Myew]

I'm usually running Zoom's spotlight window on my second screen and swap between it and JW Library as needed, with my main laptop screen as gallery view + participants + chat. Personal study is on phone. I could technically run 3 monitors since my PC desktop is here too and it's also using the TV as a secondary display.. and there's also the tablet... but all that's too much hassle with my current setup. Ideally if I can ever move and get more room I will put my PC below my desk and have 2 monitors on top.

One other problem that I've occasionally had with the second monitor on my laptop is just a bad HDMI cable. It's on a rolling desk and if it's flexed in slightly the wrong way, it will disconnect. I really should order a new one.

Edited May 23, 2020 by Myew

[Portsmouth]

7 hours ago, Myew said:

If you have the video in JW Library set to full screen when you go to screen share in Zoom, JW Library will not show up under apps you can share in Zoom.
You can maximize JW Library on the 2nd monitor. But you can't full screen the picture or video itself until AFTER you start sharing.
Open the video in JW Library, pause it -> share JW Library in Zoom -> full screen the image/video -> play the video -> exit fullscreen -> stop sharing

I'm not sure what you mean, but I have Play Video on Second Display on - JW Library automatically resizes video and images to full screen on my second display.

[Myew]

I think I might be misunderstanding what you mean in the first post and this last post as well. Specifically, "the 2nd monitor randomly fails to display." (In which program does it fail to show up? On whose end?)

I will try to explain with pictures when I have the chance later.

Edited May 23, 2020 by Myew

[Portsmouth]

They fail to display in JW library on the 2nd monitor, therefore they fail to share fullstop, so the brothers don't get to see anything their end.

Clicking on the double JW icon on the taskbar fails to activate the 2nd display as well.

 

When Zoom is off, JW library works perfectly and consistently on the 2nd display. Its the sharing that appears broken.

 

My workflow is:

Zoom > Share > Share 2nd Screen >Play Media from JW Library  - JW Library fails to display media on 2nd display

[DarinS]

we saw this occasionally @ KH also....and it has been added to the 'notes' for running the sound video console

we have 5 monitors....the main PC monitor@ sound console - 2 secondary displays ( on stage for audience)

and a 4th/5th  viewing monitor on ceiling where projector used to be...next to timer monitor   

the viewing monitor mirrors those on stage - referred to as "2nd screen"

 

 

the JW app has the option in setting to display on 2nd screen

 

normally choosing that 'slide button' and then using the 2nd screen to display works fine

occasionally it doesn't 

 

first time I restarted app....and it started working again....but it was along delay in the meeting

 

my son suggested a different option that works betters

 

go to JW App setting - 2nd monitor ....slide button OFF - then back ON

 

then select picture....whatever and share on Zoom

 

it works great so far

[Myew]

Okay, so I take it you're using the "Play video on second display" in JW Library's settings. My understanding is that using traditional Full Screen options gives that application exclusive access to the display or GPU, meaning that other apps cannot use it while it is active.

It sounds like Zoom is taking exclusive access of the secondary display while sharing it, which blocks JW Library from Full Screen access so it can't show the pictures or videos on that monitor. Inversely, what I've experienced is that using JW Library pictures / videos in Full Screen mode blocks Zoom from being able to share the JW Library app exclusively because it's already using the GPU.

This is the method that has worked for me every time: I have JW Library settings so that showing on second display is disabled. I keep JW Library itself maximized on my second display and the next picture or video loaded and ready, but I don't use full screen until after I have started sharing. When it is done, I exit fullscreen and stop sharing. I prefer doing it this way because I've seen several others have parts of the image/video covered up.

I don't know of any native alternative since it appears to be related to how the computer hardware works, how the apps access the GPU. I know of maybe one possible workaround, an application like Borderless Gaming which forces apps to run in a maximum resolution borderless window. It might make it so that if you run JW Library fullscreen, it will actually still be running in a window... but iunno, that seems like too much hassle to bother with and test. I'm lazy. The app itself is pretty simple and straightforward.
https://github.com/Codeusa/Borderless-Gaming

Edited May 24, 2020 by Myew

[Portsmouth]

2 hours ago, Myew said:

Okay, so I take it you're using the "Play video on second display" in JW Library's settings. My understanding is that using traditional Full Screen options gives that application exclusive access to the display or GPU, meaning that other apps cannot use it while it is active.

That's correct, we use the 2nd display slider. Your explanation sounds very plausible.

So when JW Library is sharing to a second display, it automatically enters fullscreen mode, which then results in a tug-of-war between Zoom and JW Library resulting in JW Library being shut out.

 

Quote

This is the method that has worked for me every time: I have JW Library settings so that showing on second display is disabled. I keep JW Library itself maximized on my second display and the next picture or video loaded and ready, but I don't use full screen until after I have started sharing. When it is done, I exit fullscreen and stop sharing. I prefer doing it this way because I've seen several others have parts of the image/video covered up.

Thats how we use Quicktime player on a mac.

Thanks for your help, I'll investigate this further...

Edited May 24, 2020 by Portsmouth

[Portsmouth]

4 hours ago, DarinS said:

my son suggested a different option that works betters

 

go to JW App setting - 2nd monitor ....slide button OFF - then back ON

 

then select picture....whatever and share on Zoom

 

it works great so far

Interesting, so do you have to do this after each media is displayed?

[DarinS]

nope - sometimes we go a month and nothing breaks...

then again i have done it 3x in 1 meeting at KH

 

fortunately it was rare @ the KH and we knew about it and the weird configuration we have with VLC and a timeclock and the 5 monitors....

 

here in Zoom it has happened maybe twice in almost 3 months - 1 meeting it only occurred once and the other meeting it happened twice...while we  were testing triple monitors again

 

we went back to dual monitors 1 large 50" TV and a second 23" and havent seen it in over a month

[Floyd]

Technically the host simply starts the Zoom meeting and sets up the co-hosts. Its the A/V brothers that share the screen and play media. 

 

I and the other brother that play the media have 2 monitors and set up JW Library to play video on second display. Been doing it for 2 months with no problems. We do it just like we do it at the Hall. When starting the screen share the friends see the year text first and then the song begins. I do have a second computer to monitor what the friends see. I have shared the wrong screen before. Other than that I always pick Screen 2 from Zoom to share. I don't try to share just the app. When I go to share the screen I can see the year text on Screen 2 and I click that screen. Everything is full screen automatically.

 

I did have my computer swap screens once because of something that I did. But that was my fault.

 

 

[Portsmouth]

Floyd thats pretty much exactly how we are presenting.

 

Our glitches are not user error, rather some sort of conflict going on between JW Library and Zoom or our Zoom settings need tweaking somewhere.

As I said, myself and two other tech savvy brothers have reported the same issue. The things we have in common are we all using laptops and a second monitor and we share the same Zoom settings.

[DarinS]

6 hours ago, Portsmouth said:

Floyd thats pretty much exactly how we are presenting.

 

Our glitches are not user error, rather some sort of conflict going on between JW Library and Zoom or our Zoom settings need tweaking somewhere.

As I said, myself and two other tech savvy brothers have reported the same issue. The things we have in common are we all using laptops and a second monitor and we share the same Zoom settings.

when running the AV duty - my son or myself - run the zoom app / participants and jw app as separate windows on 1 large screen - we have the media play on the second screen 

when we screen share ......we share the 2nd desktop only

 

if you do it in the right order it works well

pre-stage share picture or song on 2nd monitor

unmute self

click share

choose 2nd screen

-then if song choose play

 

if its in a different order or not pre-shared - we have had to go down to taskbar - hover over JW Icon and make sure we click the small pic that should be on the second screen 

(this effectively sets that as primary) gets that app to be the 'controlling' app

[Floyd]

16 hours ago, Portsmouth said:

Floyd thats pretty much exactly how we are presenting.

 

Our glitches are not user error, rather some sort of conflict going on between JW Library and Zoom or our Zoom settings need tweaking somewhere.

As I said, myself and two other tech savvy brothers have reported the same issue. The things we have in common are we all using laptops and a second monitor and we share the same Zoom settings.

Me too and the other A/V brother. No errors. If you do it just like you do it at the Kingdom Hall you shouldn't have any problems. I am not using a modern computer either. I did put 8 GB of ram in it and a SSD. But everything else is about 7 years old. But you do have to make sure the year text is showing on the second screen before sharing the second screen. Sometimes you have to go down to the taskbar and click on the year text part of JW Library. And what I mean by second screen is whichever one you have decided should be the second screen. The second screen could be your laptop monitor or the one using the VGA or HDMI cable. My second screen is my laptop monitor and Windows sees it as screen 1 but I call it screen 2.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Floyd

[Floyd]

Let me add this after looking at your original post again. If you have used something else that uses the second monitor while JW Library is open then yes sometimes you have to restart JWL. That is a common problem especially when using VLC. It happens at the Kingdom Hall all the time when we have pictures or video that's not in JWL But that has nothing to do with Zoom.

 

Quote

If you have the video in JW Library set to full screen when you go to screen share in Zoom, JW Library will not show up under apps you can share in Zoom.

Also its best to share a screen instead of an app. I say this because my wife has been using Zoom for years for LDC VSG meetings and is pretty much an expert in Zoom.

 

There shouldn't be any kind of "tug of war" if JWL is the only app using the second screen. If something else uses the second screen at any time after JWL is opened then all bets are off.

 

Its not as random as you might think. I do computer diagnostics for a living. The problems are almost never random. Somebody is always doing something that causes it. 

 

Since we were in lockdown I practiced every possible scenario I could think of for a couple of days before we had our first Zoom meeting. It is a lot to think about. Practice constantly and you will figure out the pattern. 

 

[Jarred]

The one thing I discovered is you want both screens to be running the same resolution.

I'm currently running both of them at 1920x1080.

I'm running a Dell XPS 15 laptop, which has a 4k screen.

My external monitor is 2k.

If I kept the laptop at 4k resolution, I had a lot of the problems described above.

After setting them both at 1920x1080, it's been working great.

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[Portsmouth]

Jarred could that be because the XPS has a dedicated graphics card? I heard that the screen blank issue could be due to the laptop switching from integrated to dedicated graphics. It's a known issue apparently...

 

Black screen during screen sharing

[Jarred]

Jarred could that be because the XPS has a dedicated graphics card? I heard that the screen blank issue could be due to the laptop switching from integrated to dedicated graphics. It's a known issue apparently...
 
Black screen during screen sharing

I force it to use the dedicated graphics with the settings in Nvidia control panel.

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[Floyd]

I have just the VGA port but running two different resolutions on the laptop screen and my 32" in monitor.