I agree the newer iTunes Visualize is gorgeous. And there is G-Force, iGoom and several other third party plug-ins that are better than a multi-billion dollar bail out. Well close. I have a 4 monitor set up in my office with my 4th monitor a 50" DLP and 3700 watts of 7.1 Surround Sound. I have been trying to get iTunes to display, if it would only act like Quicktime that would be great but . . . . , on my big screen in the hope of moving this to my "party hall" with several 73" and up screens scattered as art, and I am finding something that I discovered around 7.x and up where iTunes stopped being a Music/Entertainment application and started concentrating more on support for iPods and iPhones.
1. Visualizer does not play well with any monitor with a resolution greater than 1024x768. My DLP is 1920x1080p @ 120Hz. But the Mac only sees it as 60Hz. Major motion quality issues here.
2. Processor speed is a big factor now. Things will run slow if you are low on processor speed and the images, that use to really follow the music, now just follow . . . . , and will really be off.
3. You have to have the main window where you want the display and in the forefront or it slows. I have tried many different settings and it makes no sense. And "Full Screen" blacks out all other monitors whether you want it to or not. If it acted like Quicktime and asked/allowed you to specify which screen and how the other monitors behave that would be fantastic. You could have the iTunes window to control your music on one monitor and Visualizer on the other, but no such luck.
Years ago I use to have Visualizer on all the time on one monitor and there was no problem doing anything and all the rest. I guess those days are gone. Now with this all said, now the rest.
To project onto a wall, you'll need some sort of projector, and I have seen some really good "inexpensive" ones that even have built-in DVD players, that will need any of these inputs HDMI, SVGA, VGA, Component, Composite or S-Video that match up with an extra video output jack on your Mac or can be connected with a cable that has the appropriate connector on the Mac side and then on the projector side. I have a cable with a DVI (Mac side) connector to an HDMI (TV side). Preferably off the AGP board (your main video board) but you can get a third party PCI video board and many now have TV outputs in the form of S-Video, but if you are getting a separate board just for this you can use the DVI jack that is a norm and the best. If you set up the output to your "monitor" as a "computer monitor" you just treat it as an additional monitor and set it up through the "Displays" preferences panel. Some third party PCI boards have their own software and I have found that it is more trouble that it is worth and thank GOD in this respect the Mac makes adding monitors easy. The level of resolution that the pref panel will allow will depend on your TV/Monitor, the connection cable, memory on the video board and the type of output jack on the video board and monitor. I just plugged in the cable and my machine saw the TV, what brand and the "preferred/allow" resolutions for it. And when I watch Quicktime video it's amazing. Unfortunately, Apple will need to step up before this will work as it did in pre-7.x. But there are many other issues that have been long past overlooked that will be addressed first. So it could be awhile.
I stumbled on your post while looking for info or complaints on how the latest version of iTunes operates Visualizer. I'm not finding much. I used to sit and watch G-Force (the earlier versions while the developer was stationed on a submarine and didn't have much time to spend on it were the best) for hours . . . . drug free and got the same high. Right now I am listening to the soundtrack of the original Batman Returns with the newer iTunes visualizer on my 17" LCD to my left on top of my CPU and OMG! Too bad it's only working on a 17" LCD.
I have used iTunes to DJ with at clubs, but not as a full media solution so the other night I thought I would play with it and try to set up a play list with music, video, music, video . . . . and for a brief period it kind worked. I was hoping for Visualize then video, but got video then album cover which was kinda cool, then it stopped working for no apparent reason and I have yet to play with it again. So . . . .
Good luck and don't get too disappointed if you jump through some hoops and spend some bucks and it doesn't work as it should. Hopefully, someday Apple will shine and make this as cool as it was. If I could only get +"Along the Watch Tower"+, +"Heeding the Call"+ is looking pretty cool too from Battlestar Galactica (Bear McCreedy), but on the big screen it would be better than . . .
OMMFG!!! Out of frustration I took a breath and put iTunes on the 50", restarted +"Along the Watch Tower"+, *AND IT WORKED!!!!* In real time with no slowing nor skipping. Then into +"Ticket to Ride"+ Beatles into +"Livin' it Up, Friday Night"+ Bell and James into
"MaxOMan" FourPlay then
"Ironman" Ozzie! *I'M IN HEAVEN!* Now I have no idea why now it just happened to work and for how long it will, but I had to kill full screen to finish this post, but have thousands of songs to go through when I'm done here. If it will work again. I wonder if Santa will want to stay, have some brownies, and watch for a while? Ah, he can always come back.
I hope this helped?! Good Luck, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
. . . tg
