Screen Monkey is a media player that has been optimized for live playback applications where all the audience needs to see is your media content.   However it supports a much larger range of media than your ordinary player and has features such as transition effects which provide a much more professional looking show.

• All types of presentations where a professional look is required.
• Theatre shows involving video or other forms of media.
• Clubs using video to enhance the clubbing experience.
• Talks and lectures where media forms part of the content.
• Church’s to show DVDs, videos and song lyrics.
• Trade shows to show off your products.
  

This is just a small list of where Screen Monkey may help you to produce professional looking shows with just a basic PC and a second monitor output.

The basic requirement for Screen Monkey is any PC running Windows XP. However to fully appreciate the full power of Screen Monkey you require a PC with a second monitor output. It will then use this second output to show the media content while you control it from the main monitor.

You also need to you have the .Net Framework 2 installed and DirectX 9 or above.

When you open Screen Monkey you will presented with a window containing 6 blue boxes.

Now find a supported media file on your computer (a jpg image for example) and then simply drag that file onto one of the blue boxes.

 

 If it was an image you dragged then the image will start loading and the box will turn red. Now simply click on the red box and the image will be displayed on the screen.

 

To clear the screen again just click on the red cross.

Another way to add media to Screen Monkey is using the popup menu. When you right click on an empty panel you will be presented with a popup menu offering all the different types of media clips supported.

To add a colour clip just select Colour from the menu. You will then be prompted to select the colour.

 

A black colour clip is very useful as it can be used to fade the screen to black when an effect is applied.

Effects make any show look more professional and make it more interesting. Probably the most useful and widely used effect is a fade effect where the screen fades between on clip to another.

To add a fade effect to an existing clip bring up the popup menu by right clicking on the clip and then select effects.

 

This will bring up the effects dialog where you can choose from a number of effects.

 

We want a fade effect so click on “Fade”. You will also need to set a speed for the effect as the default is 0 sec which means the effect will happen so quickly you will not see it. I recommend you set the speed to about 0.7sec. Now if you click on “OK” and run the effect you will see the effect fade in.

Fade In

Fade Out

This walkthrough has only covered a small fraction of the capability of Screen Monkey. Your next step is to download and install the software. You can then use the help file to start discovering it’s the full potential.

Do not forget that Screen Monkey is completely free and has no trial period or limitations.