Multi-Headed Multimedia Presentation Software?

Brian Hudson asks: "My friend and I volunteer at our local church in creating and coordinating multimedia presentations used for various activities, including services. The needs we have for our multimedia system are not intimately tied to the fact that this is a church. However, the only programs that we have found so far that allow us to use one monitor as a control screen and the other as a display screen (as in hooked up to our distribution amp and then to the projectors some 100 feet away) are designed solely for worship services. Does anyone know of any well done presentation software?"

"To be frank with everyone, aside from the fact that nonsequential display of slides is possible, these programs are hardly better than Powerpoint (Gotta love the fancy gradient and the way the letters 'shoot' onto the screen). Furthermore, it doesn't help when poorly written drivers, and an unstable platform in general, cause our computer to go down right in the middle of a presentation!

I am running a Matrox G400 TV Dual Head video card and have seen support listed for Linux, although have yet to see whether or not that includes dual display support. Despite my current config, I am perfectly willing to run two more supported video cards if necessary. As of now, our Windows program (called MediaShout) has the capability of sequencing a variety of slides using primitive loops in addition to having the capability to click on any desired slide to display it. Media types include all 'standard' image and audio types as well as support for MPEG-1. Any suggestions on a comparable solution would be great as we are getting extremely irritated with our trouble in finding flexible solutions that don't cost an arm and a leg. (MediaShout itself cost us around $500)"