Suggestions for a small second display for navigation only? (1 Viewer)

Taipan

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  • February 23, 2005
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    Hi,

    I have a dedicated PC running MediaPortal and the video output is to a DLP projector (via VGA @ 1280x720 – 16:9 widescreen mode - I use Boilermaker's BlueTwo widescreen skin).

    It all works wonderfully.... :D

    But, when I just want to play some music, then it seems overkill to fire up the DLP projector just so that I can navigate the MediaPortal menus to select the appropriate music. At present, I use VNC from another PC to navigate the MediaPortal menus, and that is OK, but a bit clumsy as the second PC is in a separate part of the house.

    What I would really like is a small display, connected directly to the MCPC, that I can use just for menu navigation (via the MCE Remote). It seems that my choices are:-

    1. Connect an LCD monitor as a secondary cloned display. This would have to be a 1280x720 widescreen (16:9) display, which probably means large (>17†diagonal) and expensive (>$500)?

    2. Find a small (~7†diagonal) widescreen display that can work in cloned mode? Does anyone know if these exist? And will it work with MediaPortal?

    3. Use a VFD multi-line alpha display – has anybody done this and can you use it to successfully navigate within MediaPortal?

    Any other suggestions?

    Cheers,

    Taipan
     

    MrSensitive

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    May 18, 2004
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    I know that there are people working on MP remote from PPC

    yep, that would be me...

    the PocketPC application would be very easy to port to a regular windows app that can run on your secondary screen.. navigation is fully functional already..and a music browser is also available..

    and yes, Netremote in combination with Girder can be configured to send keyboard commands.. (but you're gonna have to pay for it..)
     

    Taipan

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    Barbarossa said:
    What about a PPC?
    Yes, the PPC application looks very promising. However, I don't have a PPC and I have very little idea of their capability.

    MrSensitive, I gather you are using a Dell Axim X5, which is no longer available from Dell, but I can probably get one at a reasonable price on eBay. Can you give me some "minimum specifications" that I should look for?

    I am trying to keep the cost of this to a minimum as the PPC would only ever be used with MediaPortal - sort of an "intelligent" remote control.

    This suggestion:-
    MrSensitive said:
    the PocketPC application would be very easy to port to a regular windows app that can run on your secondary screen.. navigation is fully functional already..and a music browser is also available..
    also appeals to me - but I am not sure how I would use my existing MCE Remote to navigate the menu on the secondary screen?

    Cheers,

    Taipan
     

    Taipan

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    Yes, that is the sort of device that I was looking at too - a 7" widescreen (16:9) monitor that I could connect as a VGA secondary display and use as the navigation only display.

    Sounds like the Pcket PC application could be ported to Windows XP and run on the secondary display - which is exactly what I am looking for.... :)

    I assume that I could then use my MCE remote to navigate on the secondary display? Or would I need a touch-screen display, as the MCE remote would only function against the primary display?
     

    MrSensitive

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    May 18, 2004
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    Mininimum specs.. no idea really, but I have my axim running in powersave mode (200 Mhz, and it is running fairly well.. altough if a lot ef elements need to be drawn, the performance could drop a bit..)

    but beware, the app is designed to be used with a touchscreen only !! there is no code in place to accept keypresses or something to highlight menuitems etc..
     

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