Magic Cue Review
There is one instructional vid, and no text instructions. The teacher is seated behind a desk and talks to the camera about the Magic Cue.
The instructor picks up one device after another and says, "You'll need one of these... and you'll also need one of these..."
Every purchaser of Magic Cue must pause the vid, zoom in, look at the device, and try to guess what the device is called that they must get. For each of several devices shown, the purchaser is left to search Google or Amazon for "one of these."
I viewed the instructional vid twice. I wanted to get all the necessary equipment. After watching it twice, AND reading the Q&A on the Magic Cue page where one of the answers falsely claimed that the need for "Hollylands" is explained in the tutorial, I now understand that most of the equipment is needed ONLY if the performer want to project live video. It would've been great if the teacher made it clear that, if the performer need only present prepared AV scenes (and not project a live vid feed), the performer need only these one or two things (rather than half a dozen). After wasting a lot of time searching Amazon for "one of these" and "one of these things," I bought a half a dozen devices.
The instructor mentions "one of these [black box with wire coming out]" and "and also one of these [black box with wire coming out] just in case..." and "but I often use one of these [white thing with a wire coming out] which is more streamlined" all in the same section.
This is a limitation of video format which is less conducive to nesting subsections within sections.
After hearing all these devices I sd get (without knowing how I cd search for them since the guide refers to each as "one of these things," I felt overwhelmed.
A great source of frustration and anxiety was the instructions telling the me to buy "one of these" and "one of these" and "one of these things."
It wd also be nice to clarify that to use Magic Cue, the purchaser need not get every device the instructor mentions.
SOLUTIONS
1. Quick Fix
Add overlays to the existing video. Simple.
2. Text Guide
Magic Cue lacks any text documentation. The purchaser needs to search through an hour video. Fortunately, the video is marked with chapters, but after following the video, more than once I needed to make sure of something and even with the chapters there was no way to solve my confusion except by sitting through the video again. Had there been a text guide, each time I needed to clarify a bit of confusion I'd be able to do it in under a minute.
3. Redo the video.
I'd suggest solutions 1 and 2 since solution 1 is a quick easy win, and solution 2 would probably be more helpful than any video. Not even the best video guide will be as useful as a text with chapters, sections, and headings (that may not be true for learning a top change, but for this topic I think it's true).
Once I finally understood The Magic Cue system, I realized it's simpler than the "instructions" makes it seem. You can take that as good thing about the product, or a bad thing about the instructions which make it seem like using the Magic Cue is like a battle through Middle Earth. Considering the alternatives, $395 it's very overpriced in my opinion. The price would be justified if, in addition to instructions I can read (which don't exist), and/or, if there were videos showing usage of the product (even in the instructional video, the teacher talks about setting it up without demonstrating how to set it up; not talking about using the app, I mean plugging device "this thing here" into "one of these things", till it is ready to use)), and vids of setting it up at a live venue would've been nice (just trying to brainstorm).
I brought the Magic Cue ready to go, to two venues. I encountered a unique tech issue at each venue. At the first, the audio did not work. At the second, we couldn't get the video to work with the HDMI TV. I'll spare details, but I'll just say that I suspect if there had been clearer set up instructions, that might've prevented my being so lost when both these tech issues happened. The good news is, the show I had spent hours preparing in the Magic Cue worked flawlessly, but sadly no one in the audience saw it at the second show, and the first show they saw it but didn't hear the sound and complained about it being too bright.
I now know from experience I should've used a dark background. This is the sort of tip I would've appreciated in a video like, Video 6: Pro Tips on Using The Magic Cue System.
The instructor picks up one device after another and says, "You'll need one of these... and you'll also need one of these..."
Every purchaser of Magic Cue must pause the vid, zoom in, look at the device, and try to guess what the device is called that they must get. For each of several devices shown, the purchaser is left to search Google or Amazon for "one of these."
I viewed the instructional vid twice. I wanted to get all the necessary equipment. After watching it twice, AND reading the Q&A on the Magic Cue page where one of the answers falsely claimed that the need for "Hollylands" is explained in the tutorial, I now understand that most of the equipment is needed ONLY if the performer want to project live video. It would've been great if the teacher made it clear that, if the performer need only present prepared AV scenes (and not project a live vid feed), the performer need only these one or two things (rather than half a dozen). After wasting a lot of time searching Amazon for "one of these" and "one of these things," I bought a half a dozen devices.
The instructor mentions "one of these [black box with wire coming out]" and "and also one of these [black box with wire coming out] just in case..." and "but I often use one of these [white thing with a wire coming out] which is more streamlined" all in the same section.
This is a limitation of video format which is less conducive to nesting subsections within sections.
After hearing all these devices I sd get (without knowing how I cd search for them since the guide refers to each as "one of these things," I felt overwhelmed.
A great source of frustration and anxiety was the instructions telling the me to buy "one of these" and "one of these" and "one of these things."
It wd also be nice to clarify that to use Magic Cue, the purchaser need not get every device the instructor mentions.
SOLUTIONS
1. Quick Fix
Add overlays to the existing video. Simple.
2. Text Guide
Magic Cue lacks any text documentation. The purchaser needs to search through an hour video. Fortunately, the video is marked with chapters, but after following the video, more than once I needed to make sure of something and even with the chapters there was no way to solve my confusion except by sitting through the video again. Had there been a text guide, each time I needed to clarify a bit of confusion I'd be able to do it in under a minute.
3. Redo the video.
I'd suggest solutions 1 and 2 since solution 1 is a quick easy win, and solution 2 would probably be more helpful than any video. Not even the best video guide will be as useful as a text with chapters, sections, and headings (that may not be true for learning a top change, but for this topic I think it's true).
Once I finally understood The Magic Cue system, I realized it's simpler than the "instructions" makes it seem. You can take that as good thing about the product, or a bad thing about the instructions which make it seem like using the Magic Cue is like a battle through Middle Earth. Considering the alternatives, $395 it's very overpriced in my opinion. The price would be justified if, in addition to instructions I can read (which don't exist), and/or, if there were videos showing usage of the product (even in the instructional video, the teacher talks about setting it up without demonstrating how to set it up; not talking about using the app, I mean plugging device "this thing here" into "one of these things", till it is ready to use)), and vids of setting it up at a live venue would've been nice (just trying to brainstorm).
I brought the Magic Cue ready to go, to two venues. I encountered a unique tech issue at each venue. At the first, the audio did not work. At the second, we couldn't get the video to work with the HDMI TV. I'll spare details, but I'll just say that I suspect if there had been clearer set up instructions, that might've prevented my being so lost when both these tech issues happened. The good news is, the show I had spent hours preparing in the Magic Cue worked flawlessly, but sadly no one in the audience saw it at the second show, and the first show they saw it but didn't hear the sound and complained about it being too bright.
I now know from experience I should've used a dark background. This is the sort of tip I would've appreciated in a video like, Video 6: Pro Tips on Using The Magic Cue System.
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So disappointing
I’d love it if this product worked at all. It just doesn’t. Terrible user interface. Terribly buggy. Just straight up hot garbage. Find something else.
