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ShowMacster
In theaters since 2004.
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ShowMacster Features

Integration Drag & Drop Movie control Quickdrop Sketchboard Update check Categories Hotkeys Jump start Supported media Revision history

See it in action

Integration

To guarantee seamless integration, ease of use and no wasting of resources/dock space we've built ShowMacster right into iChat. As a new member of the family, ShowMacster knows how to behave. It stays out of your way if you don't need it and becomes apparent as soon as the video chat window is launched.

After its installation, ShowMacster adds two new elements to your well known video chat window. A drawer - which can be considered as the heart of ShowMacster and an extra button with which you can show and hide the drawer. (You can also toggle the drawer under the "View" menu).

ShowMacster's power is bundled into the drawer. Your new elaborated tool is pretty easy to use. With the three tabs at the bottom you can switch between your clip manager, the preferences and the version manager.

The action button does what any action button does - almost everything. Import and delete media files and screen capture frames, toggle Qickdrop, open the Sketchboard and move your entries into a different category.

For even faster and easier access use the predefined shortcuts of the action menu. For example simply press ⌘⌥-S to open a new Sketchboard or press backspace (⌫) to remove selected clips from the drawer.

Watch the Demo

Drag & Drop

When it comes to ease of use, Drag & Drop are the magic words. In ShowMacster you can drag & drop almost everything...

Importing files into ShowMacster couldn't be easier! Select one or multiple files and drag them to the drawer. That's it! Already tried to drag a whole folder filled with different media...? What is more, you can even drag photos directly from iPhoto!

Rearrange your entries! If you don't like the order within a category, all you have to do is select the entries and drag them to their new position.

Did your friend enjoy the photos? Just drag one out of the drawer and drop it onto his/her face. Guess what? ShowMacster lets iChat send your files immediately. This is also true for screen captures. Within a second your buddy will receive a picture file of your screen!

In order to use the Sketchboard with a background image, all you have to do is drag a file or an entry in the drawer into the Sketchboard window. We think you already know how to do that...

Movie control

Gain full control over your streaming movies and sound files with ShowMacster's extended information panel.

You can control your playback in three different ways:

  • Jog control: by moving the slider, you can jump back and forth quickly. When the film is playing, the slider will mark the current position in the movie.
  • Shuttle control: enables you to fine-tune the movie's speed and direction. In order to use shuttle-control you have to activate the shuttle-mode. Use the >|< button to toggle it on/off.
  • Timecode: always shows the current playback position with the following formats:
    HH:MM:SS:FF* (movie) and HH:MM:SS.T * (sound) respectively. If you're in the shuttle-mode you can jump to a certain position by entering the according time-code.

* HH = hours, MM = minutes, SS = seconds, FF = frames, T = 1/10 seconds

Watch the Demo

Quickdrop

As you know, ShowMacster makes it easy for you to import your favorite media files. You can arrange them and assign a hotkey to every single entry in the drawer.

But what if you like to show media files quickly and only once, without having them saved?

ShowMacster's new Quickdrop function is the answer! Just drag & drop your files or even better - a whole folder filled with different media files onto the Quickdrop field and ShowMacster will start a slideshow instantly!

You're always in control! With the help of 3 navigation buttons you can move on easily and quit the show instantly. What is more, ShowMacster allows queuing! In order to extend your slideshow just drag more files onto the Qickdrop field at any time. They'll be added and seamlessly integrated into your present slideshow.

Depending on your preferences, Quickdrop can be activated or hidden with just a click on the action button. It's there when you need it and saves space if you don't...

Watch the Demo

Sketchboard

This helpful tool enables you to draw on blank sheets or pictures. Draw on a city map to show your house, outline details on any photo, manipulate icons or just draw weird scribbles! You've got the idea...

No refreshes required! ShowMacster will always provide your buddy with the latest version while you advance!

Just drag & drop any picture file from either the Finder or the ShowMacster drawer onto Sketchboard and you're ready to go!

With Sketchboard's simple but yet powerful interface you can choose your favorite color, adjust the pensize and save your work as a picture file. Choose between free drawing and circles. With the eraser tool* you can partly delete your drawings.
* eraser tool only available with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger

Watch the Demo

Update check

Our new handy feature makes it easy for you to be up to date!

If there's a new version of ShowMacster available, a nice window pops up, informing you about improvements, new features and bug fixes of the available update. You can set the time interval for ShowMacster to look for a new version or switch off the automatic check by setting the interval to "manually".

With a click on "Download", ShowMacster opens Safari (or whatever your default browser is) and downloads the new version to your HD.

Categories

Stay organized! ShowMacster makes it really easy for you to manage your photos, movies, audio files and screen capture presets.

Create as many categories as you want and fill each one with its own content. Choose a freshly added category out of the popup menu and you're presented to a clear drawer. Now you can add your content by dragging & dropping your media files into it.

But that's not all! ShowMacster lets you rearrange your entries within a category - just grab one and move it to a new position. And with the help of the new action button you can even move one or more entries into another category. Managing your files couldn't be easier!

Watch the Demo

Hotkeys

So your favorite medias are now well organized into different categories between which you don't want to alter all the time? No problem! You can assign an individual hotkey to each and every photo, movie, audio file and even screen capture frame right within ShowMacster!
By pressing the hotkey combination, the media will be presented immediately. Press the same combination again and you're back to normal or continue your show by pressing another hotkey...
Jump start

To give you a jump start for your new experience with iChat, we bundled a special selection of emoticons with ShowMacster: Rokey's The Blacy!

This set of 16 high quality icons automatically populates ShowMacster's drawer in the trial version and on first launch of the full version*.

So you can start right away to show your opponent your mood, answer questions without saying a word or just train for the big "how to create the best smilie animation with ShowMacster" contest.

For more information and icons from Rokey, please visit http://www.rokey.net

* If you update ShowMacster v1.5 from an earlier version, your drawer will stay untouched. You may import The Blacy! set manually. It will be installed in /Library/Application Support/ShowMacster

Supported Media

ShowMacster supports all major media file formats:

Still formats:
Movie formats:
Sound formats:
  • JPEG
  • PNG
  • GIF
  • PSD
  • BMP
  • PDF
  • PICT
  • TIFF
  • JP2
  • EPS
  • PS
  • TGA
  • PIC
  • and more
  • MOV
  • AVI
  • 3G2
  • 3GP
  • MP4
  • MPG/MPEG
  • AIFF
  • MP3
  • WAV
  • M4A
  • M4P
  • AU
Revision history

Here is a full list of changes for all released revisions of ShowMacster:

v1.9
(15.01.2008)


New features
ShowMacster is now Leopard compatible.
ShowMacster is now capable of sending audio directly to iChat (Tiger/Leopard only).
New drawing tools (Circle, Rectangle, Line) in Sketchboard.
New text tool in Sketchboard.

Improvements
Option to show mouse position when broadcasting setchboard.
The sketchboard panel is now resizeable.
New unified installer package for both, Panther and Tiger/Leopard.

Bugfixes
Fixed a bug preventing ShowMacster to stream media on newer Macs with built-in iSights.
Fixed a bug concerning frame positioning in live screen cast on multi monitor setups.
Fixed several bugs and leaks.
v1.8
(11.04.2006)


New features
Support for MPEG1 movies (.mpg/.mpeg)

Improvements
Universal binary.
Better positioning of send frame when moving live screen captures (by pressing Command-Option).

Bugfixes
Fixed problems with Sorenson codec (and others) in conjunction with Quicktime 7.
Fixed multi threading issues.
Fixed several minor bugs.
v1.7
(31.12.2005)


New features
Live-Zoom in Live Screen captures. Press Cmd-Opt-Ctrl and move mouse left or right
"Flip stream" (Preferences>General) flips all streamed material (but not the live stream) sent thru ShowMacster.
Useful for people having the iSight installed "up-side-down" (and correcting the with iGlasses).

Improvements
The key strokes Cmd-Opt and Cmd-Opt-Ctrl (during live screen capture) are now recognized globally (not only when iChat is the active application).
Improved the performance of the Sketchboard and other features on Tiger by using the Accelerate framework.

Bugfixes
Fixed some leaking issues and a rare deadlock situation.
v1.6
(28.8.2005)


New features
It's now possible to drag a screen capture clip into the sketchboard to set it as background image

Improvements
French localization (thanks to Antoine Préveaux)
It's now possible to register with Jabber accounts
Added a "Register" button to the ShowMacster preference panel for easier access to the register dialog

Bugfixes
Fixed a bug with hires screen captures (drag&drop of live screen capture clips to the video window or Sketchboard).
v1.5.1
(Trial only)
(22.7.2005)


Bugfixes
Fixed a bug with demo dialog
v1.5
(21.7.2005)


New features
Controller palette in info panel for movies and soundtracks
Jog/Shuttle movies and sounds with the new cue function
Displays the timecode of streaming movie/sound media
Enter timecodes to navigate in movie/sound media
Shortcuts for commands in the action menu
Additional package: Rokey's The Blacy! (ShowMacster selection). This "starter kit" of emoticons automatically populates ShowMacster's drawer in the trial version and on first launch of the full version. If you update ShowMacster v1.5 from an earlier version, your drawer will stay untouched (You may import The Blacy! set manually. It will be installed in /Library/Application Support/ShowMacster)

Improvements
Better performance when streaming stills
Added an "Open in QuickTime Player" button in the movie/sound info panel. Renamed the "Open" button to "Change"
Added a preview button in the movie/sound info panel
Showing an informal text in the info panel if previewing movie clips fails
Long path/media names are correctly truncated in drawer and info panel (Tiger only)
New button design for the info button in drawer

Bugfixes
Screen capture frame bug: The frame position of live screen capture is more accurate in multi display environments
Clear streaming buffer before starting live screen capture
v1.4.2
(17.6.2005)


Bugfixes
Fixed a problem with automatic update check
v1.4.1
(17.6.2005)


Improvements
Compatible with new iChat version of Mac OS X v10.4.2

Bugfixes
Fixed a typo in English user interface
v1.4
(12.6.2005)


New features
use the brand new Sketchboard window to draw right inside your streaming photos
one click slideshows: drop any media on the Quickdrop to stream it immediately
adjust the playback volume of any single movie and sound clip in ShowMacster
ShowMacster now automatically checks for updates after an adjustable time interval

Improvements
ShowMacster automatically fix the iGlasses issue
When switching immediately between stills and/or movie clips, there is no gap in the stream anymore

Bugfixes
fixed a bug causing a crash of iChat when video chat window was closed during ShowMacster's loading process (e.g. declining a invitation)
again optimizations: the streaming code is more stable and performant
several fixes of minor bugs and memory leaks
v1.3
(13.5.05)


New features
ShowMacster now supports further Firewire video devices (like camcorders etc.)
adding a new option for screencapture clips: "follow mouse movement"
adding the ability to import and playback sound media clips. It is possible to play more than one sound clip simultaniously

Improvements
adding support for m4a, m4p, au, wav, 3G2 and 3GP media

Bugfixes
corrected an issue with the categorie menu
several bugfixes
v1.2
(17.4.05)


Improvements
German localization
ShowMacster is now compatible with iCAR
Much better movie support, more stable, much more performant

Bugfixes
more stability all over the place
v1.1
(12.4.05)


New features
It is now possible to import folders by choosing them in the "Open media" file dialog ("+"-Button) or by drag&drop folders into the ShowMacster drawer.
This function is not recursive, so subfolders are not imported

Improvements
ShowMacster now loads presets in a separate thread, which means the video chat window is not blocked anymore during startup
much faster startup

Bugfixes
bugfix registration engine (problems with some AIM accounts)
v1.0
(6.4.05)


initial public release

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