Read moreNew - PlaybackPro Plus X version 4.0.5 is now available.

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Preferences

All of the settings are found under System Preferences and should be changed prior to launching PlaybackPro or PlaybackPro Plus.

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Disable Display Mirroring

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System Preferences

Preferences Preferences

Displays

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Uncheck “Mirror Displays”

PlaybackPro Plus only works in Extended desktop mode.

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Disable Displays Have Separate Spaces

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System Preferences

Preferences Preferences

Mission Control

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Uncheck “Displays have separate Spaces”

If this setting is checked, some Mac and switcher combinations will produce black on all displays.

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Disable Screen Saver

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System Preferences

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Desktop and Screen Saver

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Set “Start after:” to “Never”

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Disable Sleep

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System Preferences

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Energy Saver or

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Battery

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and/or

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Set “Turn display off after:” to “Never”

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Uncheck “Put hard disks to sleep when possible”

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Uncheck “Enable Power Nap...”

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Disable Automatic Graphics Switching

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System Preferences

Preferences Preferences

Energy Saver or

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Battery

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and/or

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Uncheck “Automatic Graphics switching”

This setting only appears if your system has two graphics chipsets.

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Disable System Audio Sounds

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System Preferences

Preferences Preferences

Sound

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Uncheck “Play user interface sound effects”

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Uncheck “Play feedback when audio is changed”

These settings mute all MacOS sounds.

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System Preferences

Preferences Preferences

Sound

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Select the output device you would like to use for all playback audio

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Disconnect from the Internet

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System Preferences

Preferences Preferences

Network

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Turn off all Internet connections

Background Internet connections may create additional processing and deplete system performance.

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Disable Bluetooth

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System Preferences

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Bluetooth

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Turn off all Bluetooth connections

Wireless connections for devices like mice or keyboards can be unreliable in show environments.

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Disable Automatic Updates

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System Preferences

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Software Update

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Uncheck “Automatically keep my Mac up to date”

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System Preferences

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Software Update

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Uncheck “Check for updates”

Unanticipated software updates can significatly impact system performance.

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Disable Time Machine

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System Preferences

Preferences Preferences

Time Machine

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Uncheck “Back up Automatically”

Continual backups can cause computer performance degradation and affect playback.

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Disable Spotlight Indexing

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System Preferences

Preferences Preferences

Spotlight

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Turn off MacOS Spotlight indexing for external drives

Indexing helps macOS locate files faster on a drive but it takes time and can slow down a system.

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Disable FileVault

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System Preferences

Preferences Preferences

Security and Privacy

Preferences Preferences
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Turn off FileVault

FileVault is data encryption and is off by default. Encryption requires significant processing overhead and can impact playback performance. If your system has FileVault enabled, you need to check with the system admin before changing this setting.

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Control Apps On Startup

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System Preferences

Preferences Preferences

Users and Groups

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Minimize the number of apps loaded at startup

Minimize the number of apps loaded at startup. Fewer background apps results in more system resources for playback.

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Enable Scroll Bars

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System Preferences

Preferences Preferences

General

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Under “Show scroll bars”, select Always

Modern macOS versions hide scroll bars based on mouse or trackpad activity. It is helpful to always have them on when using PlaybackPro Plus.

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Disable iCloud Syncing

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System Preferences

Preferences Preferences

Apple ID

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Uncheck "Apps on this Mac using iCloud:"

This step is not necessary if you have disabled Internet connections as outlined in section 7. If your computer remains connected to the internet, we recommend unchecking apps which sync with iCloud to avoid unexpected performance degradation. Please note that unchecking iCloud apps may, depending on your answer to the dialog box, remove local copies of files from your computer, proceed with caution.

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Helpful Tips

Optimal File Types

If a file does not play well in PlaybackPro or PlaybackPro Plus a quick solution can be to re-encode and rewrap the file in a .mov container using QuickTime Player.

Other transcoding software like Apple Compressor or Adobe Media Encoder can be very helpful to process playback content.

Our recommended codecs are Apple ProRes 422 (Standard), h.264 or h.265 in a .mov (preferred) or .mp4 container.

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