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View second monitor as PIP in primary monitor?

post #1 of 13
11/6/09 at 12:28pm
Thread Starter 
I'm planning to convert my office-located primary PC into a double-duty HTPC. My HDTV in the living room will run as the second monitor, with the HDMI connection made via CAT6 transfer.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to see what's happening on the second monitor (HDTV) from the office - sort of a "picture-in-picture" of monitor 2 in a window on monitor 1.

Any ideas? Thanks!
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post #2 of 13
11/6/09 at 12:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by wellman View Post

I'm planning to convert my office-located primary PC into a double-duty HTPC. My HDTV in the living room will run as the second monitor, with the HDMI connection made via CAT6 transfer.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to see what's happening on the second monitor (HDTV) from the office - sort of a "picture-in-picture" of monitor 2 in a window on monitor 1.

Any ideas? Thanks!

Sure? Plug them both in and setup dual monitors on your PC.

The one catch, and this may not be a concern on all TV's is that picture-in-picture is sometimes limited to an analog signal/standard defintion. Mine cannot do DVI/VGA/HDMI/HD at the same time but it can do analog cable, vcr, any RCA input over one of the aforementioned signals. YMMV.
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post #3 of 13
11/6/09 at 1:34pm
I've never heard of a PIP on a PC to show what's being displayed on the second screen to also be displayed on the first screen in a zoomed out window. Instead, you would change the display to clone instead of extend. Then whatever was displaying on your extended HDTV display will also then be displayed on your PC Monitor.
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post #4 of 13
11/6/09 at 1:35pm
Thread Starter 
Hmmm... I may not have been clear.

The plan is to have monitor 1 in the office, with monitor 2 in the living room (primarily with Win7 MC running). Every once in a while, I'd like to have a windowed 25% view of monitor 2 (HDTV) available on monitor 1 (LCD).
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post #5 of 13
11/6/09 at 1:38pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jrwalte View Post

I've never heard of a PIP on a PC to show what's being displayed on the second screen to also be displayed on the first screen in a zoomed out window. Instead, you would change the display to clone instead of extend. Then whatever was displaying on your extended HDTV display will also then be displayed on your PC Monitor.

Hadn't thought of that; that might be workable. Thanks.
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post #6 of 13
11/6/09 at 1:56pm
Thread Starter 
Found this add-on for UltraMon. That might fit my need...
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post #7 of 13
11/6/09 at 7:58pm
If you have an ATI card you can set it up with the HDTV as the secondary monitor in theater mode. Then whatever movie you are watching will be displayed in full screen mode without OSD or controls, (just the video), while the primary display shows the video in windowed mode. You then control what is playing (FF REW etc) from the primary monitor. You can even minimize it and it will keep displaying on the HDTV. Ideal for working on your pc while displaying the video your family is watching in a small window.

BB
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post #8 of 13
11/6/09 at 8:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigbird999 View Post

If you have an ATI card you can set it up with the HDTV as the secondary monitor in theater mode. Then whatever movie you are watching will be displayed in full screen mode without OSD or controls, (just the video), while the primary display shows the video in windowed mode. You then control what is playing (FF REW etc) from the primary monitor. You can even minimize it and it will keep displaying on the HDTV. Ideal for working on your pc while displaying the video your family is watching in a small window.

BB

Damn why doesn't nvidia have something like this, sounds cool.
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post #9 of 13
11/7/09 at 6:08am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigbird999 View Post

If you have an ATI card you can set it up with the HDTV as the secondary monitor in theater mode. Then whatever movie you are watching will be displayed in full screen mode without OSD or controls, (just the video), while the primary display shows the video in windowed mode. You then control what is playing (FF REW etc) from the primary monitor. You can even minimize it and it will keep displaying on the HDTV. Ideal for working on your pc while displaying the video your family is watching in a small window.

BB

That sounds pretty good! Wonder if 7MC would show in theater mode. I'm planning to get a Radeon HD 4550, so I should be able to test it out. Thanks.
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post #10 of 13
11/7/09 at 7:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by whiteboy714 View Post

Damn why doesn't nvidia have something like this, sounds cool.

They used to, long ago
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post #11 of 13
11/7/09 at 8:45am
A couple of issues in Theater Mode:

- Theater Mode is supported only when you select "Overlay Mixing" in the video renderer of the player. 7MC, PowerDVD and TMT all use EVR so you can't use these players.
- Not every video decoder works with Overlay Mixing. ffdshow, ArcSoft and CyberLink video decoders are OK. MPC Video Decoder and Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder are no good.
- Overlay Mixing means no hardware decode acceleration (if you use a dual-core processor, this is not a big issue of course).
- HD 4550 specific: In extended mode, picture quality of interlaced contents are not good. HD 4670 or higher is OK (you have to use CyberLink or ArcSoft video decoders if you want GPU's hardware deinterlacer in Overlay Mixing).
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post #12 of 13
11/7/09 at 9:51am
Like renethx said, it is not optimal It has been around forever and was really made for watching TV on a secondary display in the same room while you control it and do other stuff/work on the primary display. I used it with win 98, win 2k and still use it on my main PC with XP. So far I have not drunk the Vista/Win7 koolaid because my software of choice BTV and/or Sage works great with XP and there is none of that DRM crap and "hoop jumping" to get an extender or client to play stuff that MS puts in place with WMC (not bashing WMC users, itis just my opinion and reason for not using WMC). I am aware that it only works in overlay and that Vista/Win7 handle overlay differently than XP. I'm not sure that it will even work with WMC.

BB
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post #13 of 13
11/7/09 at 9:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigbird999 View Post

Like renethx said, it is not optimal It has been around forever and was really made for watching TV on a secondary display in the same room while you control it and do other stuff/work on the primary display. I used it with win 98, win 2k and still use it on my main PC with XP. So far I have not drunk the Vista/Win7 koolaid because my software of choice BTV and/or Sage works great with XP and there is none of that DRM crap and "hoop jumping" to get an extender or client to play stuff that MS puts in place with WMC (not bashing WMC users, itis just my opinion and reason for not using WMC). I am aware that it only works in overlay and that Vista/Win7 handle overlay differently than XP. I'm not sure that it will even work with WMC.

BB

I bet you're a bit excited to see the new Sage Media Wall plugin coming out soon.
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