Multiple Display Adapters

[dragonfly]

I've searched the forums for some info about this, but couldn't find anything relevant...

My computer has 2 nVidia video cards, both capable of outputting 2 vga signals and 1 S-Video, for a possible total of 6 displays for the system. I have 3 monitors attached, as well as a TV. My main monitor uses a resolution of 1600x1200, while my other 2 monitors and TV are set at a 1024x768 resolution.

Basically, what i've tried to do is move Sage around to the different displays. If I do it while watching TV, it often crashes (DirectX error, if someone wants to know the exact error, let me know and I'll post it the next time it happens), but if I do it while in "navigation mode" I can then move the video to the different displays. (NOTE: This in itself is a great improvement over the Hauppage WinTV2000 software, which would not alow me to display video anywhere but the main monitor!)

But the problem is once the Sage window is moved to another display, such as my TV, I cannot maximize the window. Well, I can, but it maximizes to 1600x1200, which on a 1024x768 display looks huge... not to mention 3/4 of the picture is missing :-)

Anyway, I'm thinking that multiple display support is something that people (not just me) might want. Although many people will use Sage on a standalone system, some (like me) will use it on a system that is regularly used as a computer, and will want Sage to be maximized on a second display. When that display is a TV, it's often difficult to have all displays be the same resolution. Hopefully this all makes sense.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has a similar setup to mine, and please let me know if anyone has other questions or needs further information from me.

[dragonfly]

I thought I should clarify some things:

When I try to switch to Live TV video, either windowed or fullscreen, on a display other than the main one, no video is displayed. I can output prerecorded video on a secondary display without a problem. Is this a limitation due to the way the PVR-250 cad output it's video data to system?

Also, the error message I get after trying to switch to LiveTV on a secondary display is as follows:

There was an error with DirectShow
Please install DirectX 8 or higher
Could not create FilterGraph

The only way to rectify this is to restart Sage. It does, however, continue to record without a problem. Also, the message occurs whenever video, either live or prerecorded, is accessed AFTER the initial crash.

[arix]

I'm hope it can help you.
I'm using one nVidia FX5200, which support 2 Display or 1 w/ TV. I can display or move Sage to any one of them, without any problem. But, if you go in to nView DuelMode, then you cannot max the windows, or just max across both display. It only work in windows native mode. You can check the nVidia for more info about multiple display. I'm going to install 2nd nVidia into same PC for 3rd display, let me see if any can share with you.

[justme]

I'm having the same problem buy I only have one Nvidia Geforce4 card. My videocard has one DVI SVGA, one analog SVGA and one SVHS output. MY LCD has a DVI input and an analog input that I can switch between by just pressing a button. I have it setup to use my LCD's DVI input at it's native 1280x1024 resolution. I have the analog input of my LCD setup up at 800x600. I clone the analog 800x600 and send it to my videocard's SVHS output to send to my TV.

If I move the SageTV window to the analog and go fullscreen Sage does as desribe above. It goes to the 1280x1024 resolution rather than the 800x600 resolution. As the DaragonFly said this does not look good. I end up with just the upper left hand corner of Sage being displayed on the analog input. My SVHS out to the TV looks fine. This make sense though since SageTV worked great at the 1280x1024 resolution. However I know my videocard is just downsizing the image to adjust for the 800x600 limit of my SVHS output.

I don't remember this happening in 1.3.8. But I have just recently reformatted my machine so there could be all kinds of changes besides SageTV. I use WINXP Pro SP1, DX9a, Nvidia 44.03 driver(most recent as of this message).

[dragonfly]

The same thing happens in 1.3.8 as well. I saw a post about the ability to set the max resolution of Sage somewhere in the settings, but now I can't find the post. Anyone know if this is possible? Then we could just set the max res to 800x600 or 1024x768 and maximize the window on the appropriate monitor.

Also, has anyone else seen the DirectShow error I mentioned, or am I the only one? It's really annoying, but at least it doesn't mess with the recording functionality...

[justme]

Are these the properties file settings your were talking about.
ui/last_win_fs=false
ui/last_win_height=600
ui/last_win_posx=0
ui/last_win_posy=0
ui/last_win_width=800

The above settings resulted in a 800x600 window in the upper left corner. I wonder if the can be hard set. They seem to be dynamic based on SageTV's last window config.

[sshapiro63]

I am using a couple of ATI Radeon cards and have no problems displaying on any of 3 monitors I have connected. I found that the video decoder selected in SageTV has an impact on the ability to display on non-primary displays.

I recently upgraded to the latest PowerDVD software, version 5. The latest Cyberlink video decoder provides excellent quality video on my 3rd display, which I have dedicated for SageTV. The fullscreen selection works fine on each monitor as well.

[justme]

Thank you for the hope.
Just to be clear: Are you using different resolutions on the different displays?

If yes I wonder if it is the Nvidia drivers that are causing my problem.


My SageTV fullscreen mode always defaults to whatever my main windows desktop is. I beginning to think I'm going to have to buy a SageTV client license and build a dedicated box for it. I just don't think I can justify the $500 or so dollars I need for the client box's hardware to my wife. She would have no problem with another SageTV license it's the hardware that will put it over the top. I wish Jeff would make a Linux client so I could use my modded Xbox as a Sage client.

[sshapiro63]

My first 2 displays, driven by an ATI Radeon 9000 (AGP) are set to 1280x1024. The 3rd display, driven by an ATI Radeon 7500 (PCI) is set to 640x480.