primary-secondary screen woes

dreamvoid · 2006-06-24, 20:13

MP is a great program no doubt, but I canÂ´t get it to work in the following scenario, and I wonder if thereÂ´s a really easy way that IÂ´ve overlooked. IÂ´ve got an Asus A8N-VM CSM board (GeForce 6150 onboard), running in Dual View with a DVI monitor (which gets the Monitor 1 designation by Windows) and an S-Video TV-out (Monitor 2) connected to the TV in another room. The IR receiver is also in the other room. As you can probably guess, I want to run MP on the TV, and have the regular desktop+taskbar on the DVI monitor. It's not that easy.

- if I set DVI as primary display (which is the default setting), I cannot run MP on the TV. Apparently, this is by design as DirectX is not accelerated on secondary monitors. The MP_Start.exe "hack" used to be the solution with RC4 (WMP visualizations were extremely slow, but the rest worked fine), but with the latest SVN, this doesnÂ´t work anymore.
- if I set the TV as primary display and DVI as the secondary, MP still opens on the DVI screen (is it hardcoded to always start on Monitor 1, even if it is the secondary screen?). If I set MP to start as fullscreen, I get MP as a 720x576 borderless window on the 1280x1024 desktop. ItÂ´s also not really practical, as suddenly tons of regular applications start opening their windows on the TV, which is rather impractical as the TV is in another room...
- if I disable the DVI screen and have only the TV, it (presumably) works but with the only working screen in another room, I cannot even click the MP icon to start it.
- if I clone DVI and TV, I get 720x576 50 Hz interlaced on my DVI, which is not good either.

How should I set this up? I would assume that lots of people are in my situation.

I think that MP should take the following steps by itself:
- set Monitor 2 (the TV) to primary screen and Monitor 1 (DVI) as secondary.
- open itself on Monitor 2 aka the TV (as it is now the primary screen, it will have DXVA). Monitor 1 should still have the desktop + taskbar.
- on close, set Monitor 1 (DVI) to primary screen again
- and donÂ´t alter any settings permanently, as this will cause problems if MP crashes and Windows will boot in its last known config.

Callifo · 2006-06-25, 05:44

There are a few people that are in your situation but I dont believe it to be a significant amount. Honestly I dont seeing it being an easy setup, youll have to compromise one way or another.

Its basically been designed as a dedicated htpc box, so most of us do run it that way.

2006-06-24, 20:13	#1 (permalink)
dreamvoid Portal Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 5 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	primary-secondary screen woes MP is a great program no doubt, but I canÂ´t get it to work in the following scenario, and I wonder if thereÂ´s a really easy way that IÂ´ve overlooked. IÂ´ve got an Asus A8N-VM CSM board (GeForce 6150 onboard), running in Dual View with a DVI monitor (which gets the Monitor 1 designation by Windows) and an S-Video TV-out (Monitor 2) connected to the TV in another room. The IR receiver is also in the other room. As you can probably guess, I want to run MP on the TV, and have the regular desktop+taskbar on the DVI monitor. It's not that easy. - if I set DVI as primary display (which is the default setting), I cannot run MP on the TV. Apparently, this is by design as DirectX is not accelerated on secondary monitors. The MP_Start.exe "hack" used to be the solution with RC4 (WMP visualizations were extremely slow, but the rest worked fine), but with the latest SVN, this doesnÂ´t work anymore. - if I set the TV as primary display and DVI as the secondary, MP still opens on the DVI screen (is it hardcoded to always start on Monitor 1, even if it is the secondary screen?). If I set MP to start as fullscreen, I get MP as a 720x576 borderless window on the 1280x1024 desktop. ItÂ´s also not really practical, as suddenly tons of regular applications start opening their windows on the TV, which is rather impractical as the TV is in another room... - if I disable the DVI screen and have only the TV, it (presumably) works but with the only working screen in another room, I cannot even click the MP icon to start it. - if I clone DVI and TV, I get 720x576 50 Hz interlaced on my DVI, which is not good either. How should I set this up? I would assume that lots of people are in my situation. I think that MP should take the following steps by itself: - set Monitor 2 (the TV) to primary screen and Monitor 1 (DVI) as secondary. - open itself on Monitor 2 aka the TV (as it is now the primary screen, it will have DXVA). Monitor 1 should still have the desktop + taskbar. - on close, set Monitor 1 (DVI) to primary screen again - and donÂ´t alter any settings permanently, as this will cause problems if MP crashes and Windows will boot in its last known config.

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2006-06-25, 05:44	#2 (permalink)
Callifo Retired Team Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Adelaide, Australia Age: 22 Posts: 1,444 Thanks: 0 Thanked 12 Times in 1 Post Country: My System	There are a few people that are in your situation but I dont believe it to be a significant amount. Honestly I dont seeing it being an easy setup, youll have to compromise one way or another. Its basically been designed as a dedicated htpc box, so most of us do run it that way.