A way to switch monitor based on account?

[ChrisNH]

Does anyone know a way to change which monitor is used in a multi-monitor setup based on which user is logged in?

Right now me and the wife share a living room computer since we gave up our office for a nursery. We have a Samsung DLP hooked up through a VGA cable as monitor 2 and the desktop is extended to it. Sage TV is maximized in this other window. This is less then ideal for both the performance of SageTV and for the sanity of the person using the "regular" monitor who keeps losing a mouse.

What we would prefer to do is have a separate DVR account. When we want to use SageTV we would log into that account and it would set itself up with the TV as the sole primary monitor in exclusive full-screen mode. The other accounts would be set up with the monitor as the sole primary monitor. It would also make it easier for my wife to enter "DVR mode" and solve contention issues when multiple accounts are running the IR Blaster program.

Does anyone know a way to do this kind of per account monitor switching? I have found a lot of ways to change resolution based on the account.. but none to switch the monitor.

Thanks for the help.

Chris

System:
Athlon 2ghz
1 GB RAM
Hauppaugh PVR-150
ATI X300 IGP in an express200 motherboad.
Latest Catalyst Drivers
Windows XP home
Partridge in a Pear Tree

DVI-->Samsung LCD monitor (current primary)
VGA--> Samsung DLP 720p TV (current secondary)

Also an option to run the TV through component video TV out rather then VGA.

[ChrisNH]

I had not thought Ultramon would do this.. but it will apparently let me save different monitor configurations.. not just enhance the usual extended desktop stuff

http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon...y_profiles.asp

So I am going to give that a try. It would be super if that works.

I would prefer a less expensive solution though.. $40 seems a lot to spend for one feature of the software.

Chris

[GKusnick]

Don't know about ATI, but Nvidia drivers have that sort of monitor profiling built in. It's not automatic on logon; you have to right-click and select it from a system tray icon.

That said, you may find in the long run that an extender is a better (if more costly) solution to your problem, because it would let you watch TV on the extender at any time, without reconfiguring monitors or interfering with the simultaneous use of the PC for other tasks.

[ChrisNH]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Don't know about ATI, but Nvidia drivers have that sort of monitor profiling built in. It's not automatic on logon; you have to right-click and select it from a system tray icon.

That said, you may find in the long run that an extender is a better (if more costly) solution to your problem, because it would let you watch TV on the extender at any time, without reconfiguring monitors or interfering with the simultaneous use of the PC for other tasks.

I want to avoid anything that requires effort.. I share the computer with my wife who is not interested in fussing with computer settings to watch TV.

I did look at the extender and that is definitely a possibility down the line. For now, cost is a significant factor.

Thanks,

Chris

[ChrisNH]

Just to follow up on what I did..

I downloaded Ultramon but that did not help. The issue is that my ATI x300 won't let me switch primary monitors using the regular windows functionality. Thats what Ultramon uses, so it was no help.

However, the Catalyst drivers do have the ability to "swap monitors" which does the same thing. It just doesn't do it through the regular windows interface. I should be able to set up a profile that does this when I launch the application if I put some effort into it.

However, when experimenting with other rendering modes with my TV as primary, either through component video or through VGA, I didn't see any real improvement to justify the inconvenience replaying SD analog tv. I have left it in overlay "intervideo" mode for now.

I hope to add an HD tuner in the coming weeks if I can find one cheap enough then this may need to be revisited.

so the lesson here.. if you are trying to switch primary monitors on an ATI graphics card, look in the Catalyst suite if the windows video properties won't let you do it.

Chris