Re: Media Center on Seperate Screen?

From: Bob [MVP] (bob_at_nospam.org)
Date: 07/08/04 

Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 16:03:18 -0400

Yeah, I tried that once and found it to be unacceptable
due to the limitations you described. But your experience
sounds like it is a bit better than mine was, because of
improvements made in the Nvidia drivers since I tried it.

Nice post. Thanks for the info! 

-- 
-Bob
____________________________
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Media Center Edition
www.microsoft.com/ehome
"der" <der@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:8EC6A361-E803-402D-BAFB-CA28F96EAF59@microsoft.com...
> This can be achieved with what you already have.  I am running an HP m577, with Geforce FX 5200, in one room with a feed to my TV
in the other.  I can run Media Centre on the TV while my family browse the web, type docs or do whatever at the PC.
>
> You need change to the Nvidia Properties and change the display to Dual not Clone.  For Media Center to run properly you will need
to set the TV as the primary display.  The problem with this is that windows will want to open on the TV however you can force
windows and dialog boxes to the 2nd display if you download the latest drivers from Nvidia, I think it is release 56. something.
You can also set MCE to run in display one via the Nvidia properties.
>
> There are some slight problems with running this way, the most notable is that cursor can either only be in Media Center or the XP
desktop at any one time.  If you are at the PC and someone uses MCE the cursor can only be brought back by selecting the windows
button on the keyboard.  Conversely if you are using MCE and someone is using the PC, you will have to select the green button to
bring the cursor back to MCE.
>
> It is not 100% flawless but it does work.
>
> "JM" wrote:
>
> > I have an HP m380n running Media Center 2004 with an FX5200 graphics
> > card. I've connected a TV to it and run both the monitor and a TV and it
> > worked OK but doesn't behave as I'd like. What I'd like to be able to do
> > is attach a TV and run the Media Center app on it in full screen mode and
> > still have the monitor running the XP desktop. The only way I can get it
> > to work now is running the monitor and TV in clone mode where they both
> > display the same desktop or to run them 'attached' where the TV is an
> > extension of the XP desktop. In the attached mode I can push the Media
> > Center app to the TV so that the monitor is free but if I set Media
> > Center to full screen it expands to fill both TV and monitor.
> >
> > I guess what I'm looking for is to be able to have the TV act as a
> > seperate screen altogether from the monitor. The monitor would display
> > the XP desktop as usual, from which I could start apps (i.e. Media
> > Center) that would run only on the TV. I guess it would kinda be like
> > having seperate desktops on different monitors. Something like this is
> > possible with X-windows under Unix but I'm not sure there's any way to do
> > it with XP.
> >
> > Is this possible? How about using a second video card? Would Media Center
> > even support two cards?
> >
> > Any insight/advice will be appreciated...
> >