INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: Elmar on July 19, 2004, 10:10:10 am
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If MC could make use of "overlay to tv-output" on some vga cards to display the "theater view" my whife could still be using the livingroom pc while i'm using MC on the same machine. She should see a windowd version only.
By overlay tv-output i meen cards that can output a movie window on the monitor to the tv in full-screen. eg. DVD-Max option on Matrox cards.
I guess MC would have to simulate a compatible overlay like a dvd-menu. I have no idea if this is even possible... ?
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Why not just have it set up to display on the TV only?
I don't quite get why you want it on the TV *and* the monitor...
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Getting the Theater View (instead of just the video) to display on my ATI's TV Out was been hit-and-miss. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I gave up trying to make sense of it all.
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@Rob L: Display on tv only would be fine as long as the windows desktop is still available on the monitor so MC doesnt prohibit normal use of the pc while playing music of videos. This way two poeple can make use of the pc and the pc doesn't become a over expensive stereo.
The overlay method was just an idea to make that kind of thing work because the desktop and MC would be independant. Simple TV-out of desktop would not allow use of windows by someone else and using dual monitor (one being the tv) doesn't quite cut it either becouse multiple desktops (or a streched desktop) are not quite independant.
I don't know of a better way to explain this......
Simulating a DVD-menu as an video overlay seems the best way..... just don't know if it is technicaly possible. It does require MC developement to implement.
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Overlay works normally here with ATI Radeon 9600. Windows desktop is on my primary monitor and the video screen is overlayed to the TV output. When video playback is stopped TV shows a duplicate of the Windows desktop in this configuration.
I can also extend the Windows desktop to a secondary monitor (in this case TV) and maximaze only MC display window there. You can find that in MC Display Options (right click MC display window). I use this mode for visualizations and pictures.
It is working in that way at least with MPG and AVI (DivX etc) video files. I am not currently using my "HTPC" for DVD disks because I have a very good stand-alone DVD player. Though a PC is handy for a DVD database. I use DVD Profiler for that.
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Elmar,
I wonder if you're aware of the ability to set up two displays with your video card (rather than something like ATI's Theater Mode), and telling MC to use the second display for full-screen playing (which includes Theater View).
For me, it's a simple (and probably stupid) reason that I don't do this: the mouse cursor can run off to the second display. But it works exactly as you seem to want. That is, the desktop monitor gets to do whatever it wants and the TV sees only the full-screen view of MC.