Dual Monitor Display

[Gavin Ford]

I am using windows vista home premium with 2 monitors. the first being a
standard 19" lcd running through a vga cable and the second being a
32"widescreen HDTV through a DVI-HDMI cable, i can both displays to work fine
and can even extend the desktop to the second monitor. I have also purchased
a microsoft remote control to operate the windows media centre element of
windows. What i am trying to do is ensure that when i load windows media
centre, it loads full screen on my HDTV. currently this does not happen
unless i unplug the standard monitor before i boot the computer up. Even if i
have the HDTV set as the primary monitor, media centre will load on the other
monitor. Can anyone please advise me how i can do this. thanks in advance

[John Braham]

Well, if you go to the settings option inside the media center
interface, there's a whole bung of sub catagories but if you look
through them there's one called something like tv setup, or somesuch,
basically a wizard that asks questions about your setup step by step
and configures if all for you.

[Gavin Ford]

John

thanks for your response, when i go into the tv setup, it allows you to
change the settings of the monitor that is being used, but does not allow you
to change the actual monitor. thanks anyway though

[Stephan Rose]

You are probably going to be out of luck with that. I run a similar setup to
yours in that, I have a Plasma TV attached to my second DVI out and a 20.1
inch monitor attached to my primary DVI out.

Monitor for the computer, TV for watching movies and stuff.

I have absolutely given up trying to do this under, in my case, XP. Appears
that Vista can't handle it any better judging from your post.

The problem with windows is that it has no concept of multiple desktops. It
can extend on desktop across 2 monitors, fine. It can clone the primary
monitor on the second monitor. Fine. Doesn't look like anything changed in
Vista.

But both of those modes just either extend or clone the existing desktop.
Windows cannot have a second, fully independantly functioning desktop, on a
different screen.

So when you go try to view a movie in full screen video mode, the output
goes to your primary display of your desktop. This is why it works when you
unplug your normal monitor first. Then when you boot up your computer,
windows only sees an input from your TV and uses this as it's monitor.

nVidia *used* to have an option in their driver to allow full screen video
on a secondary output, but in their latest XP version this has been
removed. I can't speak for the latest Vista driver. Can't speak for ATI
either as I don't use their products.

Your one and only hope, if you are using nVidia, is that the Vista driver
has the full screen video overlay option on a secondary display that their
XP driver is lacking. If that's not there, you are likely out of luck.

As far as XP goes, this has absolutely crippled my ability to do anything
useful with the second DVI output. Now one can of course blame nVidia for
removing the option and that'd be perfectly fine. On the other hand, if
windows had support for multiple independant desktops such an option
wouldn't even be required from the video driver.

My solution to the problem? I just watch my videos from Ubuntu. I have two
seperate desktops configured, one for each screen. Neither influences the
other desktop. When I want to watch a movie, I just turn on my TV, start up
MythTV (I could even have it auto-start if I wanted and save that step),
put in my DVD and happily ever after watch my movie.

Matter of fact, just watched two episodes of Inuyasha. =)

[Gavin Ford]

Stephan

very comprehensive response and thanks for taking the time to try and help,
i have found another forum, which recomended trying a peice of software
called ultramon. i downloaded it and all is working fine now. WMC still loads
as default on the primary monitor but i have been able to set a hotkey (ctrl
- alt - #) to switch the monitor being used by the current application to the
next monitor. i have then set another hot key to change it back to the
previous monitor (ctrl - alt - ')

It now works fine, i am really pleased. ultramon is free on a 30 day trial
and you can then purchase for $39 if you like what you see. hope this is of
use to you.

thanks again

Gavin

[Stephan Rose]

Thanks for the info Gavin, but for me Windows is on it's way out the door.

I'm just waiting now for VMWare to advance it's 3D Graphics support to where
it can support my 3D Mechanical software and games and then I will no
longer be running Windows as an OS on any of my machines.

I find that windows is being turned too much into a toy and I personally
don't have time for toys when I work. =)

Thanks for the info however, I do appreciate it.

[rkymtnroy]

My second monitor is not a tv as you have described however I have dual
monitors, the alternate (outboard) I assign left position and primary
desktop. when
screen saver terminates, or hibernate resumes, or reboot, the right (laptop)
monitor assumes left side and primary desktop. did I say this is irritating?
XP did not exhibit this behavior, once the alternate was assigned primary
desktop, the setting survived screen saver terminate, or hibernate resume, or
reboot.

[rkymtnroy]

"rkymtnroy" wrote:


My second monitor is not a tv as you have described however I have dual
monitors, the alternate (outboard) I assign left position and primary
desktop. when
screen saver terminates, or hibernate resumes, or reboot, the right (laptop)
monitor assumes left side and primary desktop. did I say this is irritating?
XP did not exhibit this behavior, once the alternate was assigned primary
desktop, the setting survived screen saver terminate, or hibernate resume,
or
reboot.

The following is from another thread by Thomas51:

The root cause of the dual monitor problem;
There is a task in the task scheduler called TMM (Microsoft
Transient Multi-Monitor Manager). Disable this task, and
main monitor / taskbar switching on login problems cease.


To change an existing task by using the Windows interface
1. If Task Scheduler is not open, start Task Scheduler. For more
information, see Start Task Scheduler.
2. Find and click the task folder in the console tree that contains the task
you want to change.
3. In the console window, click the task that you want to change.
4. Click Properties in the Action pane. The Task Properties dialog box will
appear.
5. In the Task Properties dialog box:
1. Click the General tab to view the task's general properties that you can
change. For more information about these properties, see General Task
Properties.
2. Click the Triggers tab to view the task's triggers. Select a trigger from
the list of triggers on the tab and click the Edit button to change the
selected trigger's settings, click the New button to create a new trigger, or
click the Delete button to delete the selected trigger. For more information
about triggers, see Triggers.
3. Click the Actions tab to view the task's actions. Select an action from
the list of actions on the tab and click the Edit button to change the
selected action's settings, click the New button to create a new action, or
click the Delete button to delete the selected action. For more information
about actions, see Actions.
4. Click the Conditions tab to view the task's conditions that you can
change. For more information about these conditions, see Task Conditions.
5. Click the Settings tab to view the task's settings that you can change.
For more information about these settings, see Task Settings.
6. Click the OK button on the Task Properties dialog box when you are
finished changing the task.

[Shaun]

Gavin, can you tell me how you have managed to extend the desktop (I believe
"scan" is the technical word)? Nvidia control panel only offers the option
of clone or multiple and the latter just gives you the same desktop on each
screen, rather than allowing me to extend one through the other.