PowerBook: Video Mirroring And MacroMedia Director Issue (7/94)



When running presentations from MacroMedia Director 3.1.1 on a PowerBook with video mirroring activated, I have problems with screens not updating correctly.

This refresh problem occurs on different screens depending on which PowerBook I am using. The problems do not show up with mirroring disabled. The problem mostly seems to be related to transition effects, such as dissolve bits or pixels.


MacroMedia confirmed this problem occurred on all secondary monitor configurations, and was a problem with the way that MacroMedia Director writes to the screen. Also, they stated that the problem was not fixed in version 4.0 of Director, and they had no immediate plans to implement a fix.

On the 100 series PowerBooks, the external monitor is considered the primary monitor when you are in mirroring mode, and the PowerBook's display is where you see the problems.

On the 500 series PowerBooks, the Monitors cdev determines which is the primary monitor. The menu bar placement indicates which is primary. The secondary monitor (either the external or the PowerBook's display) reflects the problem, but the primary looks fine. Therefore, when doing a presentation with a 500 series PowerBook, you must set the external monitor to be the primary with the Monitors cdev.

The 210/230/250/270c PowerBooks behave like the 100 series, but the 280 and 280c behave like the 500 series.

At this time, it is unclear whether this difference in behavior is due to the newer version of the Monitors cdev on the 500 series and 280/280c, so this behavior is possibly subject to change in future versions of the system software.

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Published Date: Feb 19, 2012