I recently purchased a Plugable UGA-2K-A unit. When I first installed it to use with an external Epson VS400 projector, it was working flawlessly. I could play movies fullscreen with outstanding performance. Then, I removed a program from my computer - specifically ProPresenter 4 eval version. After it was removed, if I try to play video via the DisplayLink “monitor”, the sound continues to play but the video image remains frozen from the moment that I move the media player window from my primary monitor to the projector display. I’ve already tried removing and re-installing the DisplayLink core software, No improvement.
Just figured out the problem. Another program I’m running (Media Shout 4.5) isn’t compatible with Aero themes, so Windows disables Aero. If I close Media Shout and enable Aero, video playout works. I will now go ask Media Shout why their program can’t work while Aero is enabled and whether they plan to release a version that is compatible.
Hi Cecil - Thanks for figuring out what program was disabling Aero! Just let us know if there are any questions we can answer, once that’s run down.
Thanks and best wishes,
Bernie
I discovered a workaround for using Media Shout with the UGA-2K-A in Windows 7: when Media Shout starts, click on the message announcing that Windows theme is being downgraded to basic mode. You can then click on the link for more information, and in the resulting help window is a link to the Microsoft Troubleshooter for Aero. If you then click on that link and allow the troubleshooter utility to fix any problems it finds with Aero, it will correct the root issue: that Media Shout automatically disables the Display Window Manager when it starts. Once the Window Manager is re-enabled, Aero themes are operative and that means video will play properly via DisplayLink on the UGA-2K-A. I did not encounter any problem with using the application after enabling the window manager, so this seems to be a way around the issue - just has to be done each time the Media Shout application is launched.
This is obviously a special case, but the main take-away here is that if a program disables a key feature required by Aero, the theme is downgraded to Basic mode, disabling Aero. Without Aero enabled, DisplayLink adapters will not display full-motion video.
Hi Cecil - Thanks again for posting this great background, which will be helpful to other users of Media Shout!
Here’s the solution for how to tell Media Shout NOT to disable Aero:
http://community.mediashout.com/media…
Problem solved!
Awesome! Thanks so much for describing your setup to the Media Shout folks!