Under certain circumstances, your mmhmm presentation slides or your own video feed may appear blurry or may not appear at all. Learn why this may happen and how to make your slides display in the highest possible resolution.
Examples of blurry slides
The example below shows screenshots of an mmhmm slide shared in a Zoom call.
| Blurry slide content: |
| Clear slide content: |
If your audience is seeing blurry slides, follow the steps below.
What causes blurry slides?
Video conferencing platforms optimize the quality of a call based on the bandwidth (the amount of information that can be sent over an internet connection) of its participants. When the platform detects a participant's low or unsteady bandwidth, it will sacrifice video fidelity to keep the call running smoothly.
Usually, this is fine—even if you're not seeing a teammate's talking head in the crispest resolution, you still get everything they're saying. Unfortunately, this bandwidth-saving tactic makes the slide unreadable because mmhmm uses the presenter's feed to transmit slide content.
Turn off background blur or virtual backgrounds
Some video conferencing platforms have the option to turn on background blur or virtual backgrounds which can interfere with mmhmm.
- Open Zoom and start or join a meeting.
- In the bottom toolbar, click the caret ^ icon next to Stop Video.
- If Blur My Background is checked, click it to deselect it.
This will disable the background blur and allow your mmhmm slides and background to be seen in full resolution.
If you have a virtual background applied in Zoom, your audience won't be able to see your mmhmm slides. To turn off virtual backgrounds in Zoom:
- Open Zoom and start or join a meeting.
- In the bottom toolbar, click the caret ^ icon next to Stop Video and select Choose Virtual Background.
- In the window that appears, select None.
This will disable your virtual background and allow your mmhmm slides and background to be seen.
- Open Google Meet and start or join a meeting.
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In the bottom toolbar, click the More icon ⋮ and select Apply visual effects.
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In the Effects sidebar, select the No effect option.
This will disable the background blur or other background effects and allow you and your audience to see your mmhmm slides and stage.
- Open Microsoft Teams and start or join a meeting.
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In the top toolbar, click the More option and select Background effects.
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In the Background settings sidebar, select the No effects option and click Apply.
This will disable the background blur or other background effects and allow your mmhmm slides and background to be seen in full resolution.
Turn on high definition video
Some video conferencing platforms have the option to turn on high definition video for webcams which can improve your video quality on calls.
- Open Zoom and start or join a meeting.
- In the bottom toolbar, click the caret ^ icon next to Video.
- In the menu that appears, click Video settings...
- Click the checkbox next to HD to turn on HD video.
- Open Google Meet and start or join a meeting.
- In the bottom toolbar, click the caret ^ icon next to the camera button. Then, click the settings gear icon.
- A Settings window will appear. Click the drop-down menu under Send Resolution (maximum) and select Full high definition (1080p) to turn on HD video. Choose the highest available option if 1080p is not available, for example, High definition (720p).
Microsoft Teams does not have an option to turn on HD video. There is, however, a feature called Soft focus that applies a smoothing effect to your appearance. This also may make your slide content blurry. To turn off Soft focus:
- Open Microsoft Teams and start or join a meeting.
- In the top right-hand side of the window, click the caret icon next to the camera button.
- In the drop-down menu that appears, turn off the Soft focus setting by clicking the toggle next to Soft focus.
Turn off macOS camera effects
If you're on macOS and have a blurry background and have tried turning off background blur in your video conferencing tool, you might have macOS's Portrait mode enabled. This will apply a background blur on all of your video conferencing tools including mmhmm. To turn off portrait mode:
- Open the video conferencing tool where you're experiencing the blurry background effect.
- In the Mac menu bar, click the Video icon.
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Click the affected video conferencing tab in the Video menu. In this example, its Zoom.
- Deselect Portrait.
This will disable the background blur and allow your mmhmm slides and background to be seen in full resolution. For more information about macOS camera effects, read Use macOS Sonoma camera effects in mmhmm.
Use the Broadcast window
- If you're on Mac, go to View > Show Broadcast Window in the Mac menu bar. This will open an image of your mmhmm stage in a new window.
If you're on Windows, click the menu button in the top left corner and select Show Broadcast Window. This will open an image of your mmhmm stage in a new window.
- Double-click the title bar of the Broadcast window to make it the same size as your desktop without going full screen. This will ensure your video conferencing app has the highest resolution window to share with your audience.
- Share your screen in your video conferencing tool:
- In Zoom, click the Share Screen button in the bottom toolbar.
- In Google Meet, click the Present now icon in the bottom toolbar.
- In Microsoft Teams, click the Share button in the top toolbar.
- From the available screen and window options, select the mmhmm - Broadcast window.
This will automatically set your audience's screens to Speaker View and maximize bandwidth for a smooth and crisp presentation.
- To control your presentation and advance slides, use the main mmhmm window or the mini remote.
Additional tips
- If you're sharing another application as a slide in mmhmm, make sure that the application is as large as your desktop without entering full screen and creating another desktop.
- We recommend 16:9 slides to be 1920 x 1080 pixels and 1:1 slides to be 2000 x 2000 pixels.
Picture quality will always be determined by the available bandwidth, but you'll be much less likely to encounter blurry slides by following these steps.
Don’t see the answer to your question? If you’re having technical difficulties or want to suggest a topic for this guide, submit a support ticket or email us at help@mmhmm.app.