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Author Topic: VNC -- controlling MC from another PC  (Read 2870 times)

glynor

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VNC -- controlling MC from another PC
« on: March 07, 2006, 04:46:29 pm »

This is something that has irritated me ever since I built my HTPC.  Often, I do management of my HTPC connected via VNC.  This is convenient because although I do have a keyboard, mouse, and small monitor attached to the system, it still isn't comfortable for regular use.  While I do all of my MC library management on a separate machine altogether, I still find that I need to run and control MC via VNC relatively regularly.

If you've ever tried this, it is a frustrating experience.  I assume for performance optimization reasons, MC never redraws itself.  While delayed, most other applications do eventually redraw themselves after you perform some action.  MC never does, and you are forced to manually "refresh" the VNC screen after each and every single command you send to MC.

If this is indeed for performance reasons, is there any way we can get a full UI refresh on a very conservative cycle?
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JimH

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Re: MC never redraws over VNC
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2006, 04:52:13 pm »

We've used RealVNC here and MC works as expected with it.
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Matt

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Re: MC never redraws over VNC
« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2006, 05:00:39 pm »

Remote Desktop also works fine with MC.
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glynor

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Re: MC never redraws over VNC
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2006, 05:30:16 pm »

Yeah.  LisaRCT just helped me figure it out.  I had to install the Video Hook driver for my VNC Server.  Just in case anyone finds this thread...

The refresh problem only affected MC's dialog boxes (I forgot to mention that above), such as Options and Import Files.  To fix this, you need to install the Video Hook driver for your VNC server software.  For TightVNC you can find it here (scroll down it's under the Development section, which is vastly improved over 1.2.9 anyway).

I would guess that that driver will work with other VNC servers that support the option as well.  I haven't tried it though because TightVNC is great, so why would I?
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hit_ny

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Re: MC never redraws over VNC
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2006, 01:43:55 am »

I switched from tightVNC+video hook to remote desktop. The difference is quite noticeable. For windows to windows XP pro & above this is the best.

If you are controlling MC from a non-windows platform then tightVNC is prolly your best option.
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glynor

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Re: VNC
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2006, 07:29:29 am »

I switched from tightVNC+video hook to remote desktop. The difference is quite noticeable. For windows to windows XP pro & above this is the best.

If you are controlling MC from a non-windows platform then tightVNC is prolly your best option.

I am controlling my machines from other OSes (and controlling those other OSes from Windows too).  However, now that I've installed the video hook driver I'm not sure how Remote Desktop (which I have used) could be much better.

TightVNC 1.3d7 seems to be a hop, skip, and a jump from controlling the machine locally now.
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