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[raldo]

I'd be interested in how other people have set up their systems. What are the pros and cons of their setups.

Here's my setup.

o 14" monitor (VGA) which is located at one viewing chair. Wireless mouse and keyboard.
o 46" Big Screen (HDMI)
o Fiber (IP) TV decoder, has HDMI out and a "locked down" PVR feature.
o An HTPC which is located directly underneath the big screen (Silverstone LC20)
o Receiver, SPDIF input from HTPC
o IR: IRMAN compatible receiver (IRA connected to rs232 header onboard). the codes are learnt in MC
o Logitech harmony remote.
o Windows home server (Coming up)

Some use cases with this setup:
(1) I use the 14 inch for library management stuff in standard view. I.e tagging, moving files
(2) I also use standard view for web surfing. Music playing in the background with detached view, browsing music with standard view.
(3) With the new theater view skin, I have started using theater view more frequently, Especially for video.
(4) For music both party and everyday, I use standard view with detached view. This is because I feel theater view doesn't give as good an overview for browsing. Visualisation of some sort running on big screen
(5) I don't use MC for images. Some tagging features are missing/insufficient and I don't want to spend time tagging until those features are up to speed.
(6) Edit: I don't use MC for TV recording because i need to use a dedicated decoder for TV. You can't even save/retrieve the recorded stuff via LAN.

One issue with this setup is that a detached view doesn't play well with theater view.

[hit_ny]

(6) I don't use MC for TV recording because the decoder/protocol is hardware/software locked. You can't even save/retrieve the recorded stuff.

Don't follow  ?

[Comsat]

Your setup and use is almost exactly like mine.

ad 2) Why use detached view for music playing? Is it because you want to show "now playing" on the big screen? In your setup you could play music "in the background" from standard view.

ad 3) Yes, I sometimes use theatre view when we wish to browse through our photo's, videos while gathered on the couch. For "just a single movie" viewing I still prefer to launch the movie from the 14" and present it directly on the 46". Theatre view has very little added value in that case.

ad 4) Not much partying going on over here 

ad 5) Coming from Windows Photo Gallery I must say that I probably agree. Still experimenting with images but indeed MC lags behind in tagging. I do show my pictures in Theatre View though.

I never use detached view in combination with theatre view. Why would you want to do that?

[raldo]

Don't follow  ?

See Edit in item 6 in the original post...

[hit_ny]

Ok that's like 5% better than before.

You can't even save/retrieve the recorded stuff via LAN.

What's this bit mean ?

[raldo]

Your setup and use is almost exactly like mine.

ad 2) Why use detached view for music playing? Is it because you want to show "now playing" on the big screen? In your setup you could play music "in the background" from standard view.
[...]
I never use detached view in combination with theatre view. Why would you want to do that?

I use detached view for audio, because I feel that standard view is better for overview and browsing. The Big Screen then displays playing now with some visualisation.

When the view is detached and I want to *switch* to theater view, the detached view is minimized and remains on top of theater view *or* the theater view doesnt show because it is behind the detached view.

ad 3) Yes, I sometimes use theatre view when we wish to browse through our photo's, videos while gathered on the couch. For "just a single movie" viewing I still prefer to launch the movie from the 14" and present it directly on the 46". Theatre view has very little added value in that case.
[...]

Yes, I find that when I am browsing movies, I need to go to standard view so that I can look up the movie in IMDB. But my impression is that JRiver is working on some improved meta data displays in theater view.

In these cases, I sometimes detach The display so that I don't have to jump back and forth..
----------------------
I think the optimal solution would be if DisplayView, StandardView, and TheaterView could coexist. This would require proper window focus and control of the destination monitor of each view.

[raldo]

Ok that's like 5% better than before.

What's this bit mean ?

Well, I have a dedicated and proprietary box which decodes the IP traffic (over fiber) and transmits hdmi video. This box also has PVR functionality but the stored recordings are off limits.

In my area there are two other options for TV:
(1) Satellite. (Providers: Canal Digital and Viasat). DVB-S format
(2) RF signals, DVB-T format

I experimented a while ago with DVB-T receiver cards, but the hardware/software was unstable, so i ditched the whole idea.

[hit_ny]

Much better now 

I experimented a while ago with DVB-T receiver cards, but the hardware/software was unstable, so i ditched the whole idea.

That's a pity cos MC would have helped out here.

[raldo]

That's a pity cos MC would have helped out here.

True, but TV must never fail!