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VideoPsalm

 

How to change the background of a song or a whole songbook - Cascading styles - Part one

2/13/2012

126 Comments

 
This article describes:
  • How to change the “Base” background,
  • How to assign the same background to all the slides of a song,
  • How to assign a different background to each slide of some Bible verses.

See also:
How to assign a background to a song verse or to the whole song - Cascading styles - Part two

The “Base” style level

1. The “Base” style level is displayed when no slide is displayed.

2. It
specifies how the slides are displayed:
their background, font, font size, font color, header and footer template, etc.

3. The “Base” style can be overridden at higher levels (song, Bible, verse, etc.).
​
4. You can force the display of the base background at any moment by pressing the “Moon” button:
Picture

By default, the base background consists into a black background, which simulates a switched off video-projector.
A black background is usually the desired behavior.

Adjust the “Base” background

1. Select the “Base” style level:
Picture

2. Assign a background image to this “Base” style level, for example a light blue cross on a black background:
Picture
3. Save your changes, like described here.
​

Set the background to a specific color

1. Use the color picker located to the right of the image gallery:
Photo
2. Save your changes, so that you get your settings back the next time you start VideoPsalm:
Photo

Note that VideoPsalm would not prompt you for saving changes when you close the program, if the only changes you did, concerned global styles (this might be ameliorated in a later version).

Global styles are:
  • The “Base” style
  • The “SongBooks” style
  • The “Bibles” style

So, remember to save your changes after editing these global styles.

Notes
  • Instead of an image, you can assign a colored background or a video loop at any style level.
  • Any slide that does not have its own specific background will inherit from the “Base” background.
    In other words, a slide will be displayed with this “Base” background if the higher style levels don't have any specific background:
Picture
This “Cascading” mechanism enables you to change the settings for a whole range of slides in a simple and rapid way.

To pursue this mechanism further, what I usually end up doing, is assigning a specific background to the “Songbooks” style level, and a different one to the “Bibles” style level.
This way, each song that hasn't any specific style setting, gets displayed with the “Songbooks” style settings.
The same applies similarly to Bible verses.

Assign an image to the “Songbooks” style level

1. ​select the “Songbooks” style level, either like so:
Picture

Or simply by clicking the “Songbooks” button. This automatically selects the “Songbooks” style level:
Picture

2. Assign the background of your choice to the “Songbooks” style level, in the same manner you did before to the “Base” style level, for example a piano keyboard:
Picture

3. To make your changes permanent (ie. getting them back the next time you start VideoPsalm), you need to save them, like described here.

Assign a background at the “Bibles” style level

1. Click on the “Bibles” button. This selects the “Bibles” style level:
Picture

You can see that the “Bibles” style gets automatically selected in the style level selector :
Picture
(Alternatively, you could select the “Bibles” style level from this drop down).

2. Select an image background, for example a Bible:
Picture
After selecting this background image, every Bible verse will be displayed with it, except those that have a more specific image (for example defined at a higher style level, like the Bible, Testament, Bible book, chapter or verse level).

Save your changes

3. To make your changes permanent (ie. getting them back the next time you start VideoPsalm), save you changes:
Picture
Note that by default, changes that you do to Bibles are not saved.
You need to enable this in the VideoPsalm settings:
Picture

Clear all style settings at a specific level

The “Brush” icon enables you to clear all style attributes defined at the selected level.
This icon is enabled when at least one style attribute is defined at this level.
Picture
A style attribute may consist of the following:
  • Background (image, color, video loop).
  • Text attribute (font, font size, bold, italic, underlined, horizontal alignment, vertical alignment),
  • For the body, header and footer.
  • Position and size of the body, header and footer frame.
​

Clear a specific style setting

In case you need to clear a specific style attribute, use the style explorer.

1. Open the style explorer by clicking on the small ribbon button:
Picture
This opens the Style Explorer panel:
Picture
The style properties that are defined at this style level are displayed in bold.

2. Clear their value by clicking on their “Brush” icon.

​3. Save your changes like described here.
​

Assign a specific image to a song

1. Click the song.
This will select the “Song” style level:
Picture
2. Select the image that you want to assign to that song from the image gallery.

3. Save your changes.

Assign a specific image to a slide (a song verse)

1. Click the song verse.

2. Select an image from the image gallery.
​

The same method applies to following style levels: Bible, Testament, Bible books, chapters, verses.

​When exiting VideoPsalm, it will remind you that there are unsaved changes:

Picture
Picture
Click “Yes” if you want your changes to be permanent, ie. to get the same backgrounds or any other change that you did, the next time you open VideoPsalm. This applies also to song changes or new songs that you may have typed in.

If you have any further question, please contact us.

You will sure need to experiment a bit with the VideoPsalm cascading styles. Once you get used to it, you will appreciate how simple it is to prepare your presentation with VideoPsalm.

See also:
How to assign a background to a song verse or to the whole song - Cascading styles - Part two
126 Comments
andy scarcliffe link
6/9/2013 07:32:04 am

hi
is it possible to have more than one background image permanently assigned to a song so that each time you show it, it has the same images? (i.e. not "on the fly")
thanks

Reply
VideoPsalm
6/9/2013 04:53:48 pm

Yes, you sure can do that: It is possible to assign a different background either to a whole song or to a specific song verse, or to a whole songbook. I edited the article to explain how here:
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/1/post/2012/02/first-post.html#AnswerToComment1

Reply
Clement link
10/17/2013 03:50:00 am

Hi, thanks for this great software. Just curious if is possible to have song's verse in various translation with different color or size for each verse in one slide ? For example Chinese Church in Malaysia, we usually have Mandarin verse, below it has Pinyin (Pronounce) and some songs will have English verse.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
10/17/2013 05:24:37 am

Hi Clement,

There are around 3 to 4 VideoPsalm updates per year.
The next version (1.14) will enable to add specific text attributes to individual lyric words, like assign a different font or font size, etc.. to specific words.

The text editor has been enhanced with a specific toolbar.
​The lyrics will then be displayed accordingly to the audience.​

​The next version​​ will also have improved support for bilingual display, especially concerning bilingual display of bible verses: It will be possible to select one (or more) alternate Bibles and VideoPsalm will display automatically their verses under the current verse. This is useful for churches that want to systematically display Bible verses in two (or more) different translations.

For example, you could select Pinyin as the secondary Bible, so that VideoPsalm systematically displays Pinyin under Mandarin verses.

Thanks,

Marc

Reply
Clement link
10/17/2013 08:27:36 pm

Hi Marc,
This is such a good news to churches in Malaysia. How could I have a beta copy if it is available now ?

VideoPsalm link
10/18/2013 05:59:52 am

Hi Clement,
There isn't any beta available at the moment.
You can contact me through the contact form to exchange emails privately:
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/contact.html

Thanks,

Marc

Reply
Malry
12/6/2023 08:42:14 pm

it very good for me

Reply
Joel
11/10/2013 01:16:31 pm

I am trying to use the text over video feature of the software. Please forgive me I am new to VideoPsalm. When I have a songbook selected as the song that will show on the projector, I go in to the edit mode. Then i select the songbooks selection on the background edit window. Then i choose to import a video for the background. I downloaded the free sample from your homepage. I then select that as my background and then save the editing i just did. Then i close out of the edit and the background doesn't change. It is just black behind the words. Am I doing something wrong? Nothing i try will display a video behind the text. Please help

Reply
VideoPsalm link
11/10/2013 05:41:48 pm

Hello Joel,
What you did seems correct.
Please contact me via the VideoPsalm contact form, which enables to swap email addresses securely between us:
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/contact.html
This is a better place to sort this out.
Thanks,
Marc

Reply
Tom Bogle link
1/21/2014 11:19:16 pm

Can you publish specs regarding the supported video formats (codecs, bit-rates, size, bit-depth, etc.) I've tried to convert a .MOV to WMV2, but it doesn't work. Sometimes the preview pane will show the video correctly (but freezes at the end rather than looping). However, the best I can get on the actual presentation screen is a still frame from the video. (Usually, though, it is just a black background.) The sample Wildlife video works fine.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
1/21/2014 11:49:18 pm

Hi Tom,
VideoPsalm can mainly display wmv videos.
I convert other video formats to wmv with the help of the free WinFF converter (http://winff.org/). There are many parameters to play with, but usually I simply try to keep them like the original video.
The sample Wildlife video was converted with the help of WinFF.

Reply
Mark
2/1/2014 11:10:39 pm

Hi,

I was wondering if it is possible to "dim" a background. Many of my backgrounds are a bit too bright thus they overwhelm the words. While I am able to adjust the text outlines and colors, they compete with the background due to the brightness. Any suggestions?

Reply
VideoPsalm link
2/2/2014 12:54:38 am

Hi Mark,
It is not possible to dim a background directly from within VideoPsalm at the moment. I added your suggestion to the “To Do” list.
Thanks,
Marc

Reply
VideoPsalm link
2/2/2014 06:15:38 am

Actually, I have just heard that this feature will make it into the next version (1.14). There is still some work to do on this version (other things).

Reply
VideoPsalm link
5/19/2014 07:47:17 am

This feature was added into VideoPsalm 1.14.

Barton Williams
5/5/2014 12:24:16 pm

Is it possible to have image sub folders under the Background images? I have to go hunting in the picture folders to find backgrounds. Easyslide allowed sub folders that allowed you to group your images making it quick and easy to get to a particular background photo. Other than that I love this program for better then Easyslides. Thanks for you help. Bart

Reply
Andy Scarcliffe link
5/5/2014 05:28:48 pm

Yes that would be very useful. I have hundreds of images and it can be quite laborious chasing them.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
5/19/2014 07:26:44 am

Hi Bart and Andy,
Thank you for your suggestion. Hopefully a future version of VideoPsalm will allow sub-folders and enable to search for images by their name or keywords.

Reply
Julio
9/9/2014 04:04:29 am

As I create new songs, would it be possible to have a default setting every time? for Example I prefer No animation and Vertical alignment for every song, but having to make this changes for every verse is very time consuming.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
9/9/2014 07:25:27 am

Hi Julio,

Please let me know if the following articles explain well enough how to make best use of styles levels and text margins:

How to assign a background to a song verse or to the whole song - Hierarchical styles part two
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/1/post/2013/12/how-to-assign-a-background-to-a-song-verse-or-to-the-whole-song-hierarchical-styles.html

How to change the background of a song or a whole songbook - Hierarchical styles part one
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/1/post/2012/02/first-post.html

How to adjust slide text margins
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/1/post/2013/11/how-to-adjust-slide-text-margins.html

Reply
solomon
9/27/2014 03:08:12 pm

i dont really knw hw dis work....did i need to connect my system to the internet to get my song lyris or videopslam have all song lyris?

Reply
VideoPsalm link
9/28/2014 08:09:24 am

Hi Solomon,
There are several ways to get songs or Bibles into your VideoPsalm.
Please let me know if the Quickstart guide is clear enough to guide you for this task:
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/how-to-get-songbooks.html

Basically, you can get songbooks from:
- The VideoPsalm online library
- Several popular formats (Text format, ChordPro, OpenLyrics, OpenSong, EasySlides, EasyWorship, OpenLP, etc.)
- Type-in your own song lyrics in a natural way.

Reply
Bernard
11/21/2014 07:17:36 pm

hi
How do I change output projection screen fonts.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
11/21/2014 07:29:21 pm

Hi Bernard,
To change the screen font:
1. Select the desired style level:
(for example the "Base" style level to change the default screen font for all songs and Bible verses or the "Song" style level if you only want to change a specific song font).
2. Select the desired font in the Toolbar: "Text" tab -> Font Dropdown.
3. Save your changes.

Reply
Van Lian link
2/24/2015 12:19:35 pm

Hi, I can't get to work motion background. I tried converting the video file to wmv format but it doesn't work. I only get the black background. Am I doing something wrong?

Reply
VideoPsalm link
2/27/2015 05:11:50 am

Hello Van Lian,

At the moment, VideoPsalm can play wmv videos on most PCs.
Other video formats may or may not work.
It may be related to a missing codec pack, or a missing Windows component, maybe the DirectX version or Microsoft C++ redistributable.

The K-Lite codec pack can be downloaded here and enables to play most video formats, notably MP4:
http://www.codecguide.com/

VideoPsalm has a 30 seconds sample wmv video in its gallery, that displays horses running on a beach.
On your PC, do you get the video to play and do you hear the sound of it?

Make sure that video preview button is pressed. The video will always play on the big screen, independently from the video preview button state.

Please let me know if the K-Lite codec pack solved the display of MP4 videos on your PC.

Thanks,
Marc

Reply
Eduardo
4/19/2015 02:58:08 am

I download the code, but this not still working, I can't see any video on big screen.

grace douglass link
2/25/2015 08:05:31 pm

my church is attempting to use the video psalm presentation software. We would like to know how to get your images to extend the entire screen. They are displaying with a black thick border.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
2/27/2015 05:17:21 am

Hi Grace,

By design, it is not possible to adjust the black color of the bands.

Indeed, VideoPsalm considers two cases:

1. Slideshow pictures (this is currently your case)
When displaying slideshow images (images that you add to an agenda as standalone pictures), VideoPsalm makes sure that the image is visible in its entirety.
In this case, some black bands appear at the left and right or top and bottom, depending on the image size ratio.
This is the behavior that gives the best results when the presentation is displayed on a wall with a video-projector.

2. Song lyric backgrounds
When displaying song lyrics with an image background, VideoPsalm makes sure that the whole screen surface is covered by the background image.
This means that when the image hasn't the same ratio as the screen, the image will be cut, either its top and bottom, or left and right bands will be out of screen.
This is also the behavior that gives the best results when showing lyrics.

Does this make sense?

Thanks,
Marc

Reply
Christopher R.
9/24/2015 07:06:03 pm

Is there a particular size pictures have to be to show up as background images? I tried to use a picture from my hard drive and it cropped out a lot of the image.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
9/25/2015 02:03:36 am

Hi Christopher,

The optimal size for your images is your video-projector pixels.
For example, if your video-projector is 1280 × 800, this will be the optimum size for your images.

In fact, it is not really necessary to worry about the image size or image ratio because VideoPsalm will display the image so that it covers the entire screen surface, and this without distorting the image.
In particular, in the case where the image ratio does not correspond to that of the screen, VideoPsalm will not stretch the image in length or width to cover the screen.
Indeed, to stretch an image gives a bad disproportionate effect.

For example, stretching a circle creates an oval.
A stretched skinny person may look overweighted, or the opposite, etc.

Instead, VideoPsalm will just zoom the image, even if the left / right bands or the top / bottom bands of the picture go off the frame.
This occurs when the image does not have the same ratio as the screen.
This technique allows VideoPsalm to display presentations virtually identically regardless of the ratio of the screen.

Nowadays, cameras produce images with lots of pixels, far more than the number of screen pixels (5 × more, or even more).
If this is creates a performance problem, reduce the image size, for example to 800 × 600.
Most people won't see any difference from their seat.

Besides, the most important thing are the lyrics, isn't it?

Reply
Christopher R.
9/25/2015 05:10:20 am

Thanks for that info. Two more questions: I created an agenda to run for the opening portion of our service and just learned how to loop the verse within a song. Is there a way to loop all the items in an agenda? If not, is there a way I can create a presentation using VideoPsalm that's like PowerPoint?

VideoPsalm link
9/25/2015 09:07:08 am

Hi Christopher,

I am afraid that it is not possible to loop a whole agenda. It is only possible to loop individual agenda items, like a song or Bible verses, or a PowerPoint or slideshow.

As for your second question, it is not possible to create a PowerPoint presentation out of an agenda, sorry.

Reply
derrick boston
11/28/2015 06:33:49 pm

How do i set the fonts to stay the same color when changing from one scripture to another

Reply
VideoPsalm link
12/1/2015 02:39:58 am

Hi Derrick,

To set the the text color of all Bible verses:

1. Display a Bible verse (anyone will do), so that its text is visible in the preview panel (down-right).

2. Select the "Bibles" style level, either by selecting it in the "Text" or "Background" toolbar tab, (top-left), or by clicking the "Bibles" button near the "Songbooks" button.
From now on, and as long as the style level remains on "Bibles", all style changes that you do will be applied to this "Bibles" style level.
All Bible verses will then be displayed with these settings (unless more specific settings are applied at a higher level than "Bibles").

3. Set the text color.

4. Save your changes.

Note that by default, changes that you make to Bibles are not saved.
To enable the saving made to Bibles, use the VideoPsalm options, in the "Bible" tab, and select "Enable saving changed that you do to Bibles".

Explanation:

VideoPsalm uses the concept of hierarchical style attributes.
This enables you to define the default settings at any level : song verse, song, songbook, all songbooks, base.

The same principle applies to Bible verses, with following levels: All Bibles, Bible, Testament, book, chapter, verse.

Most of the time, only following levels are needed:
- Base
- Songbooks
- Bibles
- A specific "Song"
- A specific "Song verse"

Please let me know if the following articles explain well enough how to make best use of style levels and text margins:

How to change the background of a song or a whole songbook - Hierarchical styles part one
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/1/post/2012/02/first-post.html

How to assign a background to a song verse or to the whole song - Hierarchical styles part two
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/1/post/2013/12/how-to-assign-a-background-to-a-song-verse-or-to-the-whole-song-hierarchical-styles.html

How to remove an image assigned to a song verse
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/blog/how-to-remove-an-image-assigned-to-a-song-verse

How to adjust slide text margins
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/1/post/2013/11/how-to-adjust-slide-text-margins.html

How to add/edit songs and announcements
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/how-to-addedit-songs-and-announcements.html

If necessary, please use the contact form from where we are able to securely exchange email:
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/contact.html

Please help reach 600 likes on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VideoPsalm

Reply
Candra
3/6/2016 11:27:36 am

Is there a way to keep the background still while changing the lyrics in a song? I know it does it for the bible verses, but can you do the same thing with songs?

Reply
VideoPsalm link
3/6/2016 12:51:48 pm

Hi Candra,

To set the same background to all verses of a song:

1. Click on the song.
This sets the style level to "Song".
From now on, all style changes will be assigned to the song.

2. Select the background in the background gallery.

3. Save your changes.

Does this answer your question?

Reply
Edmund
6/15/2016 12:40:52 pm

I think I might have clicked on something but not sure where, all the bible verse numbers in the preview pane all went away replaced by hyphens. how do i get the verse numbers back? Thanks so much

Reply
VideoPsalm link
6/15/2016 01:34:17 pm

Hi Edmund,

I am not sure to understand what happened.
Do you mean "Bible book names" are replaced by hyphens?

Try the following:

1. Click on the Bible.
This will display the Bible properties in the middle panel.

2. Deselect the option "Display the book names in English".

Does this solve the problem ?
If not, try the following:

1. Select the "Edit" tab.

2. Click the "Import" button.

3. Select "Import a language".

4. Import your language.

Does this solve the problem ?

Which Bible translation are you using?

This forum here does not allow images.
Please email a screenshot demonstrating the problem to videopsalm.

Reply
Edmund
6/16/2016 01:48:47 pm

Thanks for the reply.

What i meant was instead of:

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was formless and empty ....

I have
- In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
- Now the earth was formless and empty ...

so you see the verse numbers(1 2 3 4 5) are not there. all i have are hyphens

VideoPsalm link
6/18/2016 01:43:11 pm

@Edmund,
Thank you for your clarification, however I still don't understand what happens to you, sorry.

Which Bible translation are you using?
In which panel are you expecting the verse numbers to be displayed?

Please send an email at videopsalm through the contact form, where we can safely exchange emails and screenshots.

Eric
11/25/2016 12:13:07 pm

Is there a way to set a video as the background of a single song verse, such that the video completes playing before automatically continuing on to the next verse?

I want to create an announcement 'song' that consist of static text slides (as verses) and video slides (as verses) that loops through all videos and text until manually stopped.

Creating individual songs in VideoPsalm - one song each for the videos, and one song for each set of back-to-back static text verses - allows me to go through the set once, but there is no way to loop through multiple agenda entries.

I successfully use PowerPoint for this today, but I have other challenges in our Worship service when using PowerPoint and would like to totally switch to VideoPsalm.

Has anyone figured out a way to do this totally within VideoPsalm? Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge!

Reply
VideoPsalm link
11/26/2016 12:27:07 pm

Hi Eric,

Thank you for describing your use case.
Alas this scenario is not supported at the moment.
I added it to the list of things to do.

VideoPsalm 1.17
The main new features of VideoPsalm 1.17 will be:

Support for (directly from the agenda):
- PDF
- Word
- LibreOffice Write and Calc
- Excel
- html
- live web sites (an internet connection is required)
- YouTube video (an internet connection is required)
- Standalone audio files with backgrounds

It will be possible to associate such files to a song in a permanent manner, and display them instead or along of the song lyrics, while being able to search songs by their lyrics.
It won't be necessary to install a PDF reader, or Word, Excel, LibreOffice, etc. to display such content (except for PowerPoints, which are already suported).
Hopefully it will have a "Stage view" feature, as well as other improvements.

There is no planed release date though, hopefully before end of 2016.

Reply
Eric
11/26/2016 08:25:41 pm

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response and the detail of v1.17. I look forward to that release and the additions you described, especially the potential for a stage view option, which will be great for our Pastor.

For now, we will continue to work with PPT and VideoPsalm.

Thanks for this program, and God Bless your mission!

Michał Fidler
12/7/2016 06:31:28 am

Hello.

Firstly - thank You very much for this great software.

Is there a possibility to apply a style on the agenda level, or copy it from one song to another? I want to have a fresh look for every worship but I don't want to change the whole songbook style every time (what if songs are in different songbook?). Do I have to set the style manually for every each song?

Michael

Reply
VideoPsalm link
12/10/2016 08:07:44 am

Hi Michael,

It is alas not possible to apply a style on the agenda level at the moment, sorry.
Thank you for your suggestion, it adds weight to this feature, which is already in the list of things to do.

Thank you again for your feedback.

Reply
John Stanley
1/14/2017 03:16:34 pm

I'm using VideoPsalm 1.16 on Windows 10.
I've added this at the bottom because it's a long time since the post I refer to.

On 27/1/2015 (see above) on the subject of Image backgrounds, Marc wrote:

1. Slideshow pictures
When displaying slideshow images (images that you add to an agenda as standalone pictures), VideoPsalm makes sure that the image is visible in its entirety.
In this case, some black bands appear at the left and right or top and bottom, depending on the image size ratio.
This is the behavior that gives the best results when the presentation is displayed on a wall with a video-projector.

My comments:

Yes, you are right that the bands should be black for best result when projecting.

Well, I had top and bottom horizontal white bars on a wide image, but repeatedly setting the background style to black made no difference. You know how it is - perhaps if you click the mouse harder on the black it will work this time... but it didn't, so I investigated, with the following results:

Side (vertical) bars are always black as far as I have found. This is for images narrower than the screen aspect ratio.

But top and bottom horizontal bars are white or black depending on the brightness setting of the background style. This is for images wider than the screen aspect ratio. The bars are white if the brightness setting of the background style is not zero. They are black if the brightness setting of the background style is precisely zero. So if you have a Base Background Style with non-zero brightness (because you want it for Bible Verses and Songs), you have to make sure that the Images background brightness setting is zero to override it.

Not everyone may care - my colleagues in our service leader team are happy enough with white bands on the screen, and don't notice any problem. Only I have kept telling them to use a black background, and now I found out why it is not trivial to make it black, because it's not the colour setting that actually makes any difference, but only the brightness setting makes a difference.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
6/25/2017 02:56:22 pm

Hi John,

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding.

To remove the white bars:

In the "Background" tab, in the "Aspect ratio" group, select "Current".

Does this work for you?

Reply
John Stanley
6/26/2017 03:27:29 am

Hi Videopsalm,
Thank you for your reply. Actually I was providing some information about how VideoPsalm 1.16 is working - how it actually will make the background of an image black or not. This is where an image is not the same aspect ratio as the screen or projector.

An example of what I am talking about is where I have a wide screen image (16x9) which I project with a projector that has XGA aspect ratio (4x3).

So you are right that the Aspect Ratio in the Background Tab should certainly always be set to the actual aspect ratio of the device that is displaying to the public. If it is not, then VideoPsalm displays what is in my case light grey bars to fill the space between the aspect ratio set in the Background Tab and the actual full space of the display/projector device.

But I am talking about how VideoPsalm colours the background where the actual image is a different aspect ration from the aspect ratio of the device displaying to the public, when the Aspect Ration set in the Background Tab does match the aspect ratio of the displaying device.

For example:
Image is 16x9
Projector is 4x3
VideoPsalm Background Aspect Ration is 4x3 (i.e. it is "Current")

Now there are bars above and below the image.

Intuitively, one would expect the colour of these bars to be the colour set in the Image STYLE Background. But it isn't. Perhaps this is actually a bug. Set the Image Background Colour STYLE to anything, and it makes no difference. Actually I would say this is a bug.

It is possible to set the colour of these bars to black or white, and nothing else. You have to use the Image Background Brightness STYLE. If the Brightness is 1 or more, then the bars are white. If the Brightness is 0 or less, the bars are black, This is certainly counter-intuitive - not what one would expect, and I think it is probably also a bug.

Actually going on from there, it is interesting to see that the BACKGROUND brightness actually sets the brightness of the FOREGROUND image!

and, setting an actual image as the background to an image does not do anything at all to those bars.

I hope this helps you understand what I am trying to say!

John Stanley
6/26/2017 03:33:50 am

Sorry my fingers keep typing ration, when of course I mean ratio !!

John Stanley
6/26/2017 08:20:49 am

Oh and I should also add that as far as I can see, the "background" for an image should always be black. The background is only the bars - above and below where the image is wider than the screen, and at the sides if the image is narrower than the screen. And basically I can't see any reason why the bars should not be black. Black means that the bars are not visible on a projection, which is what I would always want. So from my point of view, just grey out the "background colour" "background image" and "background brightness" for images, and just make it always black.

Can anyone else see any need for the bars to be other than black?

VideoPsalm link
7/5/2017 03:42:45 pm

Hi John,

The home PC screen and the church video-projector do seldom have the same screen ratio.

At home, it is useful to see the screen boundaries with white bars, while you preview slides and pictures on your home PC with the screen ratio of the church video-projector.

However, your suggestion (to be able to set the bar color to black) is in the list of things to do. Hopefully it will be available in VideoPsalm 1.17.

VideoPsalm does show white bars on top/bottom, or left/right, only when the screen ratio is set to something else than "Current".

John Stanley
7/6/2017 04:48:40 am

Hi VideoPsalm, thank you for your reply on 7/5/2017 03:42:45 pm. I don't know if this will come in the post sequence or somewhere else.

I'm afraid you still haven't got what I'm trying to say.

I'm not interested in the display ratio at all. The display ratio settings are working perfectly for me. I would discourage you from putting any effort into changing the colour of the bars where the actual display device has a different ratio from the setting.

I'm interested in what happens when an IMAGE has a different ratio from the DEVICE. For example, let's say I'm projecting an image that's wide but short from top to bottom, for example a panorama. Let's say the image is 10 times wider than it is high. VideoPsalm positions the image centrally on the display. So it will stretch all the way across the display from side to side, across the whole width of the display. But it will not fill the whole height of the display. On the actual display, inside the full display space, there will be some space above the top edge of the image, and some space below the bottom edge of the image.

For the sake of this demonstration, please set your device ratio setting to "current", so you are not at all side-tracked by anything related device ratio differences, which is not at all the subject of this point.

Even with the device ratio setting to current, the image which is 10 times wider than it is high will not fill the vertical dimension of the display! There is some space above and below the image.

What colour is that space? It should be black, so that only the image is seen on the display. Now go back and read my description of how the colour of that space is affected by the settings of the Background Style. The ways that the setting of the background style affect the colour of that space are not what a normal person would expect, and it took me some while to work out how to make that space black.

I'm not asking you to do a lot of work. I can think of no reason why anyone would want that space where an IMAGE has a different ratio from the DISPLAY to be anything other than black.

Even if the background style for text display is an image, or a non-black colour, or white, when an image is displayed that does not have the same ratio as the display, then the spaces left by the image on the display should be black.

You are absolutely right about showing the space if the actual display ratio is different from the VideoPsalm setting for the display ratio. That space should be visible, and I like it how it is.

But I hope you now understand what I am actually talking about.

VideoPsalm link
7/6/2017 05:13:04 am

Hi John,

Thank you for your patience.
I can reproduce the problem, thanks to your description, and added this bug to the list of things to do.

Again, thank you for your patience.

Joihn Stanley
7/6/2017 07:23:46 am

And thank you VideoPsalm for a really good product, and for all the work you put into it, including the way you continued to follow the present subject until you knew what I meant.

Bismark
6/25/2017 07:26:50 am

I really need help with my videopsalm 1.16. The menu bar has disappeared and I cant create any new song also I cant edit even the existing songs. Please help me

Reply
VideoPsalm link
6/25/2017 02:57:50 pm

Hi Bismark,

To display the toolbar, go into "Edit" mode by pressing the "Pencil" button in the bottom-right panel.

Reply
Bismark
6/26/2017 02:11:21 pm

It worked

Thanks

Bismark
6/26/2017 02:15:21 pm


Please how do I make a text (Announcement) scroll or move at the bottom of my screen without stopping my projection using the video psalm 1.16

Reply
VideoPsalm link
7/5/2017 03:31:45 pm

Hello Bismark,

To display an alert message at the bottom of the screen, use the text box located in the toolbar on top, in the "Message" tab.

The following article describes this task more in details:
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/blog/display-an-animated-alert-message-at-the-bottom-of-the-screen

Reply
Sam
7/8/2017 08:43:44 pm

Hi,

Firstly, thank you for this software.

Is it possible to increase the font of the Agenda, so it displays larger?

Thanks in advance.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
7/10/2017 02:44:24 pm

Hi Sam,

Is not possible to increase the font size of the songs placed into the agenda all at once.
This feature is in the list of things to do but will not make it into the next VideoPsalm (1.17).

Reply
VideoPsalm link
7/10/2017 02:48:03 pm

However, you can easily increase the font size of individual songs or all songs of a songbook all at once, by using the method described in the article on top.
The article describes how to change the background. The same method applies to every other style attribute, like the font size, etc.

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Johan FC
8/3/2017 10:55:21 am

Buenos días desde Colombia, como hago para reducir el área de proyección o ajustarlo a cierta medida. De tal forma que el área de proyección pueda ser de personalizada.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
8/3/2017 12:48:46 pm

Hello Johan,

In VideoPsalm 1.17, it is possible to resize the presentation screen to your liking.
(However, I may have misunderstood your question).

Reply
Johan FC
8/3/2017 01:03:49 pm

Perfecto, eso es lo que estaba averiguando. Ya está disponible videopsalm 1.17?

JOHAN FC
8/14/2017 08:50:04 am

Cordial saludo. Cuando uso la versión 1.8 ajustando la pantalla de proyección, detrás de la pantalla de proyección permanece la pantalla del escritorio o la pantalla de inicio del tamaño original. Como puedo corregir esto?

Agradezco su respuesta.

VideoPsalm link
8/14/2017 12:14:17 pm

Hi Johan,

I am not sure that I understood your question.
However, please try the following:
1. Press the "Windows+P" keyboard shortcut.
2. Select "Extend the desktop".

Does this solve the problem?

The following article may help too:
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/blog/connect-videopsalm-to-a-video-projector-and-setup-your-monitors

Best regards,
Marc

Reply
Rowland
9/13/2017 08:14:12 am

I've tried getting a permanent background by selecting base and no songs showing (like on startup) but it doesn't seem to work. It tends to jump back to verse and another background I had previously selected.
Have followed your instructions but I'm obviously missing something.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
9/30/2017 12:40:09 pm

Hi Rowland, please see my answer to your next post.

Reply
Rowland
9/13/2017 10:24:55 pm

When I click on the moon button the background goes to the image I want. When I click on the text to display the song, the background reverts back to the image I had before which I don't want.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
9/30/2017 12:39:10 pm

Hi Rowland,

VideoPsalm uses the concept of cascading style attributes, enabling you to define in a few clicks the style at any level : song verse, song, songbook, all songbooks, base.

For example, let's assume that you assigned a "Landscape" image at the base level.
From now on, all slides will be displayed with a landscape behind the text, EXCEPT the slides that have a more specific image assigned to them.

How to remove an image assigned to a song verse
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/blog/how-to-remove-an-image-assigned-to-a-song-verse

Does this help?

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Johan Falquez
9/27/2017 05:59:06 pm

Cordial saludo, estoy teniendo problemas para iniciar el programa. Le he reinstalado varias veces y persiste el problema, hay alguna forma de corregirlo?

Reply
VideoPsalm link
9/30/2017 12:44:30 pm

Hi Johan,

Please contact me via the contact form, from where we can safely exchange email, screenshots and other documents.

Please provide all additional information that you may feel can help me narrow down the problem, and reproduce it if possible:
- Screenshots, zipped database folder, Windows Event Log information, etc.

You will find the contact form here:
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/contact.html

or even better: write directly to me at my gmail address.

Reply
Dan.J
10/10/2017 11:40:29 am

great software...first time using it VP.1:19. How is it possible to place the bible appreviations beside the texts and not below..? eg. xxxx( Amp) yyy(NIV). especially in dual display mode.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
10/10/2017 02:19:15 pm

Hi Dan,

Thank you for your suggestion, it makes a lot of sense.
Alas this is not possible at the moment.
I added your suggestion to the list of things to do, and it will be implemented in one of the next versions (but not in 1.20).

Reply
Steinar
3/1/2018 01:06:14 pm

Hi.
I see on this page https://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/blog/first-post
that different cords have been added above the words in a song.
But I'm not able to find out how to do this....

Will you please advice?

Thanks!

Blessings!

Steinar.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
3/1/2018 03:20:18 pm

Hi Steinar,

The following video tutorial describes this task:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMMFehqasq8

Follow this link for the YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZwgdY-apNqwH4G9IOGHzyQ

Reply
Bart
3/11/2018 08:48:38 pm

Will there be an option soon for stage monitors? My team like a plain black background while I show an image background for the congregation.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
6/6/2018 09:27:03 am

Hi Bart,

The stage monitor is one of the most awaited feature, and is almost on top of the list of things to do.
Hopefully coming this year.

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Kheng
3/26/2018 12:03:49 am

I would like to have a list of song lyrics to be on public for anyone's use. How do I put up online ? So people can download it from the Psalm directory.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
6/6/2018 09:25:41 am

Hi Kheng,

Thank you for wanting to share your song collection.

Feel free to contact me either via the contact form:
https://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/contact.html

or via my email at gmail.

Reply
Dan.j
3/27/2018 11:41:02 am

Hi, i would like to once again commend the entire production team.
Not a problem but would like to suggest, in addition to being able to show different versions of a verse..would it be possible to create a vertical split of two seperate verses shown simulatneously....that is ..a split screen with a verse on the left that can differ from the the verse on the right...

Reply
VideoPsalm link
6/6/2018 09:24:08 am

Hi Dan,

Thank you for your feature suggestion about verses split vertically.
Actually, it is already in the list of things to do, however I don't know when it will be implemented.

Reply
Courtney Weber
6/9/2018 07:27:49 pm

When in a service how do you get the song lyrics and bible verses to display on the tv screens but on the laptop still be able to see everything else and know where to click?

Reply
VideoPsalm link
6/11/2018 01:28:31 am

Hi Courtney,

To enable VideoPsalm to present on the projector, do the following:

1. Press the "Windows+P" keyboard shortcut.

2. In the blue popup window that appears to the right side, select "Extend".

Please let me know if the following article explains well enough how to connect VideoPsalm to a video-projector and setup your monitors:
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/blog/connect-videopsalm-to-a-video-projector-and-setup-your-monitors

Reply
Christian Casmachin
11/9/2018 08:19:10 pm

Hola, He tenido algunos problemas con el software. cuando lo descubri sabia que seria de bendicion.
pero Me ha pasado que no he podido usarlo mas... solo se queda cargando y luego desaparece la pantalla de inicio y no arranca. Psoiblemente que puede ocurrir... ya lo he desinstalado y vuelto a instalar.
les agradezco sus respuetas.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
12/1/2018 01:13:41 pm

Hi Christian,

The problem is probably linked to some image or video that VideoPsalm tries to load when it starts.

To solve the problem,please try the following:

1. Rename the following folder:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\VideoPsalm
into
C:\Users\Public\Documents\VideoPsalm old

2. Start VideoPsalm

If VideoPsalm starts, try to identify which file blocks VideoPsalm from starting.

VideoPsalm may crash while displaying videos when no specific video codec pack is installed.
If it crashed under other circumstances, please let me know.

To display a wide range of video formats (MP4, AVI, MOV, WMV, etc.), a codec pack is required.
I recommend the "basic" K-Lite codec pack, downloadable for free here:
http://files2.codecguide.com/K-Lite_Codec_Pack_1375_Basic.exe

Does this work for you? Please let me know.

Note also that uninstalling then reinstalling VideoPsalm cannot help here.

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Olakunle
11/18/2018 01:11:38 am

Each time I try to edit a song on video psalm, the editor interface goes blank and comes up a a thin red line that cuts across he editors screen. How can I resolve this please. Thank you

Reply
VideoPsalm link
12/1/2018 01:17:49 pm

Hi Olakunle,

Thank you for describing the problem.
My attempts to reproduce this problem were unsuccessful.

Could you please describe step by step what button you click and which keyboard button you press?

This would enable me to reproduce the problem on my PC and solve the problem.

Thank you for your help.

Please send an email at my gmail address.

Reply
Martin
12/9/2018 01:18:58 am

Hello,

I would like to display a custom footer on all songs (settings throught the options) However, each time I close Videopsalm, the options are reset.

How to save them ?

Regards,

Martin

Reply
VideoPsalm link
12/9/2018 01:32:29 pm

Hi Martin,

To persist the custom footer, save your changes:
Press the "Save" button in the "Edit" toolbar tab.

In fact, VideoPsalm doesn't prompt you for saving changes if the only changes you did affected the "Base", "Songbooks" and "Bibles" style levels.

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Raf
12/10/2018 10:55:17 am

Hi everyone,

Thank you for this great work!

It looks like we are no longer able to keep the same base as we were before with the previous versions (I have now the version 1.23).

Before, when I edited something I could keep this modification clicking on the blue pin.
Now if I edit something on the base, if I click on another verse the modification is not kept...

We do not have this possibility anymore?

Tks again for this wonderful software :)

Reply
VideoPsalm link
2/13/2019 03:05:12 pm

Hi Raf,

VideoPsalm 1.23 is the recommended version.

At the moment, the pin is hidden by default.
It will probably come back in version 1.25 or after, with a more intuitive way of operating.
If you have a scenario where you need the blue-pin button, please describe the detailed steps.

Reply
Carlos Gomez
3/7/2019 03:50:41 am

buenos dias, ¿es podible proyectar las canciones centradas a la pantalla?, pues veo que toda la proyeccion la hace con la letra pegada a la parte superior de la pantalla. muchas gracias

Reply
VideoPsalm link
7/29/2020 06:47:01 am

Hi Carlos,

To align the text to the middle, select the "Middle" vertical alignment.
Before doing that, make sur that you do it at the right style level.

Additional read
VideoPsalm uses the concept of cascading style attributes, enabling you to define in a few clicks the style at any level : song verse, song, songbook, all songbooks, base.

When you are about to change the background, check the "style" section there will be a drop-down menu to select the level (verse-chapter-book-etc) make sure you select "Bibles" that way all the changes for background will apply to all Bibles you downloaded.

Please let me know if the following articles explain well enough how to make best use of cascading styles (the articles often consider the background, however the same principle applies to all style settings like font, colors, font size, etc.):

The following articles describe some cascading styles scenarios (the articles often consider the background, however the same principle applies to all style settings like font, colors, font size, etc.):

How to change the background of a song or a whole songbook - Cascading styles part one
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/1/post/2012/02/first-post.html

How to assign a background to a song verse or to the whole song - Cascading styles part two
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/1/post/2013/12/how-to-assign-a-background-to-a-song-verse-or-to-the-whole-song-hierarchical-styles.html

Methods to display a background/logo between two songs
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/blog/three-methods-to-display-a-backgroundlogo-between-two-songs

How to remove an image assigned to a song verse
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/blog/how-to-remove-an-image-assigned-to-a-song-verse

How to adjust slide text margins (body, header and footer)
http://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/1/post/2013/11/how-to-adjust-slide-text-margins.html


To get an improved support experience, please contact me via my gmail email account.

Reply
Jaime Gonzalez
3/9/2019 11:04:33 am

The background on the software do not show up on the display anymore how can that be fixed.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
6/10/2019 11:02:49 am

Hi Jaime,

Thank you for reporting the problem.
The reason why the background does not show up on the display is unclear to me.
Please send me a screenshot of the problem at my gmail account, or contact me through the contact form:
https://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/contact.html

Reply
VideoPsalm link
7/29/2020 06:37:22 am

Hi Jaime,

Displaying videos with VideoPsalm 1.23
With VideoPsalm 1.23, a codec pack is required to display a wide range of video formats (MP4, AVI, MOV, WMV, etc.).
I recommend the "basic" K-Lite codec pack, which can be downloaded for free here :
https://files3.codecguide.com/K-Lite_Codec_Pack_1500_Basic.exe
Once the codec pack is installed, VideoPsalm will no longer crash while displaying videos.

Viewing videos with VideoPsalm 1.26
VideoPsalm 1.26 can display a wide range of video formats (MP4, AVI, MOV, WMV, etc.).
You can download VideoPsalm 1.26 here:
http://bit.ly/VideoPsalm_1_26_Setup

The long link is as follows:
http://www.videopsalm.org/download/VideoPsalmInstall_1_26.msi

VideoPsalm 1.26 is compatible with 1.23.

VideoPsalm version history:
https://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/history.html

In case of a video display problem, if possible, please let me know:
1. the version of VideoPsalm you are using.
2. the PC CPU
3. The version of WIndows you have.
4. If possible, send me a video that doesn't play in VideoPsalm, or a link to it.

Reply
Emmitt Ballard
6/10/2019 08:03:58 am

Does motion video work with videopsalm?

Reply
VideoPsalm link
6/10/2019 11:00:13 am

Hi Emmitt,

Yes, VideoPsalm can display video background under lyrics.

At the moment (until VideoPsalm 1.24), to display a wide range of video formats (MP4, AVI, MOV, WMV, etc.), a codec pack is required.
I recommend the "basic" K-Lite codec pack, downloadable for free here:
http://files2.codecguide.com/K-Lite_Codec_Pack_1375_Basic.exe
This won't be necessary anymore with the next VideoPsalm version (1.24), due in a few weeks.

Reply
Nate
10/16/2019 04:48:52 pm

Is there a way to disable "shrink to fit"? What I am saying is I can set my font size but if there are a lot of words in a verse or scripture passage the font shrinks to fit all of the words on one slide. Can that be disabled so that all the lyrics or bible verses are in the desired font size? Thank you

Reply
VideoPsalm link
7/29/2020 05:17:26 am

Hi Nate,

The "Automatic split of long verses, and have several Bible verses on a single slide" features will be added in VideoPsalm 1.27, in a few months time.

Reply
Bautista
3/11/2020 01:30:00 pm

Hello everyone! I've been using videopsalm for a few weeks now and I've noticed that when I switch the background from an image to another image there's a cool smooth transition, so I was wondering if that's posible with video backgrounds as well, since I've noticed that there's no transitions when I switch the background from a video to another video.

Thanks! :)

-Bautista

Reply
VideoPsalm link
7/29/2020 05:12:41 am

Hi Bautista

Thank you for requesting a transition when you switch from a video to another video.
This feature is in the list of things to do and will hopefully be implemented in a future version, but I don't know when exactly.

Reply
Daniel
2/20/2021 07:36:25 pm

How can I highlight certain words to appear on live screen. Sometimes pastors would like to emphasis certain words. Using <u></u> doesn't show much impact as the underline is too thin. Perhaps ability to highlight with color on words would be great.

Reply
John Stanley
3/20/2021 03:04:34 pm

You can change the font colour of specific words - it's in the same editor toolbar as the underline button (not the Text Ribbon, which does the whole slide). Or perhaps you mean like with a highlighter pen, which does not seem to be possible. You can also change the font of specific words to a much bolder font, and you can change the size of specific words to make them bigger. We use all of those.

Reply
John Stanley
3/20/2021 03:09:19 pm

Oh and I should have said I'm personally not especially keen on the highlighter pen method even if it was available because I think it normally reduces legibility by reducing contrast.

Gerald Jackson
3/20/2021 11:50:46 am

Hi. How can you do a “save as” for songs so a song can be duplicated, then changed without having to start over from scratch? If there’s a way to do that, it has escaped me. Thanks.

Reply
John Stanley
3/20/2021 02:50:14 pm

Right-click the song in the song list (bottom left) and hover your mouse over "Copy song to" and then choose the song book you want to copy it to - can be the same one.

Reply
David King
12/26/2021 02:01:47 am

Our church has been using VP successfully for three years now. Recently it has commenced streaming via OBS. Can you please advise how the black VP background can be rendered invisible (translucent) so that the VP text only is visible over the OBS background? I imagine that this would be seen as the chosen text colour over the natural colour of the projection screens within the church. Thank you for VP. It is great.

Reply
John Stanley
12/26/2021 03:22:58 pm

Just to clarify - up until now you have kept a plain black background in your VideoPsalm projection, with white or light-coloured text. Is that right? And you want to keep that on VideoPsalm so that the projection from VideoPsalm in your church has the light text on the black background?

However, for the stream from OBS you want to have the light text over the top of some other background which will be provided through OBS? For instance it might be an image of the inside of your church, or perhaps something else.

Also I use the OBS Studio version, so this may not apply to Streamlabs OBS, which I don't know.

So, on OBS Studio:
We capture the VideoPsalm projector using a Window capture. For the Capture Method we don't use the "Windows graphics Capture (Windows 10...)" method because it puts a line round the captured window, which we don't want, because the church would see it.

We add a FIlter to the Windows Capture. To make the black background transparent (not 'translucent'), use a Chroma Key or a Colour Key filter. The assumption in the settings for Chroma Key and Colour Key is that your background is a specific colour rather than black, but with the Colour Key you can select black. You may need to try out different settings to get the best result. Now your background is transparent.

If your light-colour text will be "in front of" an image, you will probably need to add an outline or drop shadow to the text so that the outlined light-colour text is distinguishable over a light-colour part of the image. We do that in VideoPsalm. You should have no problem using a black outline and/or drop shadow which will do its job on OBS but be invisible to your church because it's the same colour as the background projected by VideoPsalm. (So use a lighter background just while you are setting up the black outline and drop-shadow so you can see what you are doing, and then revert to the black background.)

I hope this is the information you were looking for.

Reply
John Stanley
12/26/2021 03:30:56 pm

Oh, of course the outline and drop shadow round your text must not be black! Bceause the Colour Key filter will make it transparent! You will have to use something that is not black but still dark, so the Colour/Chroma key filter will not make it transparent but it will still do its job to delineate the text over your image.

In our case we have a dark blue background for VideoPsalm and a dark grey text outline/shadow. A careful adjustment to the Chroma key filter settings in OBS makes the blue transparent but not the dark grey outline/shadow, and keeps our pale yellow text crisp and clear.

David King
12/26/2021 05:27:06 pm

Thank you for your comments. The assumptions of your first two paras. are correct except that there is no necessity to maintain a black background for the projectors. We also use OBS Studio.

We run VideoPsalm on a laptop which feeds two projectors and a PC (running OBS) via a HDMI splliter. Input to the PC is via a HDMI/USB capture card hence OBS sees the VP stream as "USB Video" Windows Capture does not seem to seem to play a role in
this process.

Do you run OBS and VP on the same PC which allows the use of Windows Capture? Do you have any thoughts with our configuration, please?

Regards & many thanks for your assistance.

Reply
John Stanley
1/5/2022 09:59:25 am

Hi David, sorry for the delay ... I've been busy.

It doesn't matter what the OBS Source is for VideoPsalm. The same filters can be applied to Window Capture and to a Video Capture Device - which is what I guess you have for your USB camera / video input. Once OBS has captured it you can apply the same filters to it, such as Chroma Key.

Yes you are right, we run it all on the the same PC, so WIndows Capture is the way to capture VideoPsalm. But you capture it as a Video Capture Device, and it makes no difference to the filters in OBS.

I did some checking, and yes my conclusion is you have to change your VideoPsalm background to a colour. I tested it with rgb 0,0,50 which is a dark blue. I tested it with white text and a drop shadow set to black. The you need the VideoPsalm capture in OBS to be in front of the background, and with a Chroma Key filter with Key Colour Type Blue. Then you play with the settings to get the best result. For example Similarity 300, Smoothness 50, Key Colour Splill Reduction makes no difference, Opacity 1, Contrast 4, Brightness and Gamma 0 or less.

You can use the Similarity setting to darken the background image so the text stands out more. It's quite sensitive. Similarity=280 makes a visible difference without giving the background a blue colour-cast.

You can check it out in OBS at home by using an image to substitute for the VideoPsalm USB feed. Or use VideoPsalm and OBS on your computer at home (using Window Capture!) so you can set the best dark shadow / outline round the light text. For projection in the church, the black / dark grey outline and shadow will be barely visible against the dark blue background, which is what you want.

I hope this all makes sense! Do come back if I've not got it right.

I watched a YouTube video looking at the new features coming in OBS 27.2, and one of them is Blend Modes, which will give another way to control how one image (like the VideoPsalm video feed) combines with an underneath image. I'll be checking it out when 27.3 is released.

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David King
1/5/2022 04:13:15 pm

Thank you for your very informative comments.

My previous reply was steered by my lack of experience with OBS. In the meantime I have carefully studied your first advice, "discovered" the Filter function in OBS and managed to successfully apply Chroma Key and Crop to my "USB Video" VP input. Just what I wanted. Thank you.

I am intrigued by you being able to operate VideoPsalm and OBS on one PC. How many operators do you use? For some years now we have had one person operating VP on a laptop projecting to two screens. A second operator has now become necessary to manage OBS on the "streaming" PC. (In our infant stage of development we are only incuding songs from VP in our streamed services).

Would it be possible to receive a link to one of your streamed services, please?

Anonymous link
3/15/2022 12:06:21 am

Where can i get the backgrounds in this image you used:
https://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/uploads/7/5/8/9/7589672/7936479_orig.png

Reply
VideoPsalm link
3/20/2022 01:42:08 pm

Hi Anonymous,

You will find a few images here:
https://bit.ly/VP_Images

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Abel
4/30/2022 06:24:39 pm

Hi
We are using Video Psalms at our church. God bless you for all that you have done.
Our church is bilingual and we wanted to project English version of the song in one monitor and project the translation in another monitor.
Is that feature available ?

Thank You
God Bless

Reply
VideoPsalm link
2/12/2023 09:23:02 am

Hi Abel,
Thank yo for your feature suggestion.
Alas, this is not possible at the moment.
I added your feature to the list of things to do.

Reply
Valeria
12/1/2023 03:13:39 am

Hola vídeo psalm, quiero saber cómo hacer para poder usar una foto que no sea del.formato de la pantalla actual sin que se vea cortada.. porque pasa que si no hago una foto.o vídeo en el formato actual de pantalla ,.todo se ve cortado.. tengo que acomodar la foto a la.pantalla.. si no se ve mal

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peter
7/9/2024 02:24:15 pm

Hi videopsalm I'm greatful for your replies, I have gone through every questions and replies 10 years ago from 2014, and now I have known videopsalms in 2024. This is great, my query was on how to upload video backgrounds from youtube or any website you would recommend.
my second query was, "Is it possible to partially highlight words in a sentence.

Peter
Thank you.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
2/26/2025 08:56:32 am

Hi Peter,
To download video clips, use a free app like "4K Video Downloader"
https://www.4kdownload.com/products/product-videodownloader
Install the app on your PC.

2. Start the "4K Video Downloader" app and use it to download the video clip locally on your PC.

3. Add the video clip directly to the VideoPsalm agenda.

To find background videos, open YouTube and search for:
worship video loops

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Marcus link
8/17/2024 04:50:32 pm

Eu Também Queria Ter Esses Backgrounds

Reply
anne
2/23/2025 06:37:54 am

whne I add a song to the adgender and when I change a background, everthing changes to black. How do I stop this from happening?

Reply
VideoPsalm link
2/26/2025 08:33:22 am

Hello Anne,
It is unclear why the screen gets black.
Can you send to [email protected] an agenda containing the song and describe shortly the steps to produce the problem?

These forum pages are not monitored.
For a timely answer, contact me by email at [email protected]

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