Zoom app and screen refresh

Philippe D. · 09-16-2020, 03:29 PM

Hi all,

We are trying (well, my wife is) to use the Zoom app on a Note Pro, mostly with the intent to use it for distant teaching. For this, we need to be able to share the Note Pro's screen, either while displaying a document on which to scribble, or with the note app.

The Zoom app (some Android version which we got from the Play store) does offer this functionality, but in practice the screen does not seem to refresh constantly. As a consequence, it is barely usable - at least for our purposes.

Is there a simple fix to this? My wife is not an expert user of her Note Pro, which she typically uses as a large screen PDF viewer (I have a Max 2, but I admit I haven't used it in some time).

JSWolf · 09-16-2020, 03:41 PM

eInk is not designed for video conference calls.

Botanicalstig · 09-16-2020, 05:47 PM

^Sounds like they're trying to stream what they're doing on the display, not necessarily hold a video conference. I think the processor may be a limiting factor for screen recording, but I really wouldn't know much about your device. Have you considered just pointing your cam at the screen while doing your presentation?

Philippe D. · 09-16-2020, 06:04 PM

We're just trying to stream the display, and we're not doing anything fancy with it - writing on a blank page, or annotating a PDF document. Nothing like a video conference!

Question Mark · 09-16-2020, 08:18 PM

I haven't tried sharing my screen on Zoom yet, but I have practiced sharing the screen of my Note Pro on Teams.

First, I logged into Teams on my laptop. Then, I logged into Teams via wifi on my Note Pro. Once I was connected, I selected the share screen option on the Note Pro and I could then view it on my laptop.

The first time I tried this, the results were very interesting. When using the stylus in the note app or when annotating a document, the word or image would only show up on my laptop after I had completed it. It would not show up as I was writing/drawing it on the Note Pro. When trying to erase something, sometimes it would get erased from the shared screen visible on the laptop, but it would still be visible on the Note Pro. It wasn't a matter of a ghost image still being visible. The entire image/stroke was still there in full clarity. I would have to force a full refresh of the screen for the Note Pro to register that the image/stroke had been deleted. Sometimes pages wouldn't turn when sharing a PDF, particularly if I had zoomed in on the image. When I tried switching to landscape mode on the Note Pro, it would make the switch correctly, however, the shared screen which was visible on my laptop would look like it were still in portrait mode, but it would be elongated... I found that the experience was glitchy, but usable so long as you were aware of its quirks and how to recover from them.

My second experience testing the Note Pro on Teams was much smoother. Writing/drawing continued to show up only after the image had been completed not while it was in progress. However, there were no issues with the eraser this time. There were also no issues with sharing and annotating a PDF this time although I did not attempt to zoom in on the PDF nor did I attempt to put it into landscape mode. In all, it was a much more pleasurable experience.

I intend to play around with it a bit more, and, if everything goes well, might try it during an actual class in the near future. It is certainly preferable to trying to write or sketch with a mouse.

.kai · 09-17-2020, 06:48 AM

Hi Philippe,
this thread is closely related. On Max 3 you have a choice of several Display Modes (ranging from Normal and Speed over A2 to X mode - is there anything like this on the Note?

best wishes! Kai

Philippe D. · 09-17-2020, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Question Mark

The first time I tried this, the results were very interesting.

My second experience testing the Note Pro on Teams was much smoother.

Did you change anything between the two times? The first looks like what we experienced, and the second looks much better

Question Mark · 09-17-2020, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philippe D.

Did you change anything between the two times? The first looks like what we experienced, and the second looks much better

I don't recall having done anything different.

As it happens, I just tried again. Again, the first attempt was terrible. I had to keep using the Navigation Ball to force a refresh of the Note Pro's screen. The image of the shared screen would change on the laptop, but the screen on the Note Pro wouldn't register the change until I tapped on the Navigation Ball. PDFs in the NeoReader app were also sometimes behaving funny.

Logged out and then logged back in on the Note Pro and everything seemed to be working fine. Very odd.

Overall, I find the native note taking app to be fairly reliable. NeoReader not so much. The Librera and Moon+ Reader Pro reading apps both seemed to work quite well with PDFs. It was very easy to pinch and zoom and move the PDFs around, something which seems difficult for NeoReader to do. However, one can't annotate books with those other reading apps.

On my second attempt this time, I also tried opening a map app which worked very well. I had sort of expected it to show up in colour on the laptop, but it was in gray scale. The same is true when using a colour brush in the note taking app: it shows up in gray scale.

I then tried browsing the internet using Firefox and that also worked quite well.

Not sure why sharing a screen sometimes works well and other times is a disaster. However, I would always have the Navigation Ball at the ready if I were sharing the screen of the Note Pro in an actual meeting. Sometimes it seems the only way to get the screen of the Note Pro to render properly is just by tapping the Navigation Ball, and then tapping it again to get rid of the buttons. Very odd.

Question Mark · 09-21-2020, 10:21 PM

Tried sharing the screen of my Note Pro in a Teams meeting with a colleague today.

It took me a while to figure out how to connect with the Note Pro to the meeting which I had already initiated on my laptop. In the end, I ended up calling myself from the meeting. It worked and I was able to be in the meeting with two devices connected.

When I shared the screen of my Note Pro, it worked flawlessly. No issues at all. That said, I did keep it simple. I used the note taking app, I annotated a PDF in NeoReader, and I opened a PDF in Moon+ Reader. That was it. I just wanted to get some feedback on how it was working. And it was positive.

My only real peeve is that zooming on PDFs in the NeoReader app is a nuisance. They need to make it much smoother like the way Moon+ Reader handles PDFs.

Once I become a bit more confident about the reliability of sharing the Note Pro's screen, I will try it in an actual class.

09-16-2020, 03:29 PM	#1
Philippe D. Addict Posts: 276 Karma: 3600000 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: France Device: Kobo Aura H2o; reMarkable; Onyx Max 2 Pro	Zoom app and screen refresh Hi all, We are trying (well, my wife is) to use the Zoom app on a Note Pro, mostly with the intent to use it for distant teaching. For this, we need to be able to share the Note Pro's screen, either while displaying a document on which to scribble, or with the note app. The Zoom app (some Android version which we got from the Play store) does offer this functionality, but in practice the screen does not seem to refresh constantly. As a consequence, it is barely usable - at least for our purposes. Is there a simple fix to this? My wife is not an expert user of her Note Pro, which she typically uses as a large screen PDF viewer (I have a Max 2, but I admit I haven't used it in some time).

09-16-2020, 08:18 PM	#5
Question Mark Wizard Posts: 1,414 Karma: 6513838 Join Date: Mar 2016 Device: More than I need, but not as many as I would like.	I haven't tried sharing my screen on Zoom yet, but I have practiced sharing the screen of my Note Pro on Teams. First, I logged into Teams on my laptop. Then, I logged into Teams via wifi on my Note Pro. Once I was connected, I selected the share screen option on the Note Pro and I could then view it on my laptop. The first time I tried this, the results were very interesting. When using the stylus in the note app or when annotating a document, the word or image would only show up on my laptop after I had completed it. It would not show up as I was writing/drawing it on the Note Pro. When trying to erase something, sometimes it would get erased from the shared screen visible on the laptop, but it would still be visible on the Note Pro. It wasn't a matter of a ghost image still being visible. The entire image/stroke was still there in full clarity. I would have to force a full refresh of the screen for the Note Pro to register that the image/stroke had been deleted. Sometimes pages wouldn't turn when sharing a PDF, particularly if I had zoomed in on the image. When I tried switching to landscape mode on the Note Pro, it would make the switch correctly, however, the shared screen which was visible on my laptop would look like it were still in portrait mode, but it would be elongated... I found that the experience was glitchy, but usable so long as you were aware of its quirks and how to recover from them. My second experience testing the Note Pro on Teams was much smoother. Writing/drawing continued to show up only after the image had been completed not while it was in progress. However, there were no issues with the eraser this time. There were also no issues with sharing and annotating a PDF this time although I did not attempt to zoom in on the PDF nor did I attempt to put it into landscape mode. In all, it was a much more pleasurable experience. I intend to play around with it a bit more, and, if everything goes well, might try it during an actual class in the near future. It is certainly preferable to trying to write or sketch with a mouse. Last edited by Question Mark; 09-16-2020 at 08:21 PM.

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09-16-2020, 03:41 PM	#2
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 74,027 Karma: 129333114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	eInk is not designed for video conference calls.

09-16-2020, 05:47 PM	#3
Botanicalstig Member Posts: 11 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2020 Device: Kindle keyboard	^Sounds like they're trying to stream what they're doing on the display, not necessarily hold a video conference. I think the processor may be a limiting factor for screen recording, but I really wouldn't know much about your device. Have you considered just pointing your cam at the screen while doing your presentation?

09-16-2020, 06:04 PM	#4
Philippe D. Addict Posts: 276 Karma: 3600000 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: France Device: Kobo Aura H2o; reMarkable; Onyx Max 2 Pro	We're just trying to stream the display, and we're not doing anything fancy with it - writing on a blank page, or annotating a PDF document. Nothing like a video conference!

09-17-2020, 06:48 AM	#6
.kai Member Posts: 11 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2020 Device: Onyx Boox Max3, Kobo Aura ONE	Hi Philippe, this thread is closely related. On Max 3 you have a choice of several Display Modes (ranging from Normal and Speed over A2 to X mode - is there anything like this on the Note? best wishes! Kai

09-21-2020, 10:21 PM	#9
Question Mark Wizard Posts: 1,414 Karma: 6513838 Join Date: Mar 2016 Device: More than I need, but not as many as I would like.	Tried sharing the screen of my Note Pro in a Teams meeting with a colleague today. It took me a while to figure out how to connect with the Note Pro to the meeting which I had already initiated on my laptop. In the end, I ended up calling myself from the meeting. It worked and I was able to be in the meeting with two devices connected. When I shared the screen of my Note Pro, it worked flawlessly. No issues at all. That said, I did keep it simple. I used the note taking app, I annotated a PDF in NeoReader, and I opened a PDF in Moon+ Reader. That was it. I just wanted to get some feedback on how it was working. And it was positive. My only real peeve is that zooming on PDFs in the NeoReader app is a nuisance. They need to make it much smoother like the way Moon+ Reader handles PDFs. Once I become a bit more confident about the reliability of sharing the Note Pro's screen, I will try it in an actual class.

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