(How to setup dualview ?

[KanyonKris]

I've searched these forums and tried many things, but I can't get GB-PVR working the way I want. I have a PC with a GeForce4 card with dualview and I want to be able to use my PC as normal but run GB-PVR on the 2nd display (the TV connected to the S-Video out of my GeForce4). It seems that many people are running this kind of a setup, but for my sanity I must ask: Is this setup possible with GB-PVR?

Everytime I run GB-PVR it comes up in my 1st display (computer monitor). I can drag the window over to the 2nd display (the TV), but I can't get the window border to go away. So I've tried using the "-pos" command line option to force GB-PVR to the 2nd display and this works, but only in windowed mode. When I use the config program to set GB-PVR to launch in fullscreen mode it shows on the monitor, not the TV. I can get GB-PVR to go fullscreen in the 2nd display only by setting the 2nd display as the primary display, but then when I use Windows and launch another program it pops up on the TV unless I go back into the display properties and make the monitor my primary display again. I'm sure I'm missing something here (probably something simple I've somehow overlooked). Please help me regain my sanity - what is the secret?

[reven]

you could try and switch your tv to be your first display, and monitor as second. i had a lot of these annoying bugs with my geforce 4 mx460, i could never get video to be fullscreen on the second display, it always went to fullscreen on the first screen.

[KanyonKris]

Thank you for the reply, but are you sure I need another video card? My friend had a Windows XP PC that he added MCE to and with just his GeForce card and a tuner card (PVR-150MCE) he can use his PC to do Windows stuff just like before (the GeForce video output is his monitor) but now it also does PVR and other MCE tasks in the background with the output of MCE piped out the GeForce S-Video port to his TV. So is this something that MCE can do that GB-PVR cannot?

It seems I'm very close because with my monitor connected to the VGA port of my GeForce, and TV connected to the S-Video out of this same GeForce card, I can put the GB-PVR window over on the TV part of the display / desktop and it looks and works fine except I see the window border and header. Whenever I try to switch to full screen mode it insists on being in the primary display (my monitor) instead of the secondary (the TV).

I can work around this in a cumbersome way by making the TV my primary display, then launch GB-PVR, then change back to the monitor as the primary display. But this is a hassle because I have to do half of this procedure on the TV. Isn't there an better way? Again, I feel like I'm missing something here.

[reven]

cant you just set it up so when the computer boots the primary display is the tv, and secondary is the monitor, which should allow you to use the computer as normal, and gbpvr on primary; why do you need to switch them back?

also if you set ur tv to overscan, you should be able to position it via -pos so the window is completely covered (i did this prior to using the 350 tv out and it worked fine). just make sure you enable overscan. doing it via this will allow you to keep your monitor as the first display.

[KanyonKris]

Good suggestions.

The primary display has the task bar and desktop icons so I need to switch back to the monitor as the primary display to get these back. Also, when you run a program it appears in the primary display. So you really need to set the monitor as the primary display once GB-PVR is all setup on the secondary display (TV out).

The overscan is a good idea. I didn't think of using the extra "margin space" that the TV doesn't show as a place to hide the window header and frame. I looked in GB-PVR config and the video card settings in Windows and didn't see an overscan option - where is it? I think this may work for me if I can enable overscan. Like you said, I'll use the -pos command line option to position the window on the TV so I don't see the header and frame.

Thanks for the ideas.

I really thought GB-PVR would handle dualview better (like MCE does). I'll suggest this as a feature to sub: add an option to open GB-PVR in the secondary display full-screen.

[zed]

I think it's more an issue with the OS and video card/drivers than with the application.

In MCE, the TV display has to be the primary display and the monitor the secondary. I got it to work at one point (I have an HP MCE system) but MCE captures the cursor and makes it difficult to actually use the monitor for normal PC functions. It's a pretty awkward situation. MCE works best if it's dedicated to the TV, having only a TV as a display. At least MCE 2004 does...2005 might be better. That's what drew me to GB-PVR. It uses the MVP box pretty seamlessly whereas MCE uses a proprietary file format (dvr_ms) and the files have to be converted and then the native MVP UI is kinda lame. Iwas very underwhelmd by MCE.

[jquinlan]

Its been a while since I used my GeForce4 dual display card with two monitors but was there not an option in the properties of the shortcut of a program to select start on the secondary display? The option came with the install of NVidia's drivers so I could start a program on the secondary monitor.
Look for something like that.

[KanyonKris]

Quote[/b] (jquinlan @ Dec. 24 2004,20:28)]Its been a while since I used my GeForce4 dual display card with two monitors but was there not an option in the properties of the shortcut of a program to select start on the secondary display? The option came with the install of NVidia's drivers so I could start a program on the secondary monitor.
Look for something like that.

I'm sure glad you posted this! After I enabled the nVidia desktop utilities I was able to configure it such that GB-PVR is always run in the secondary display. When I get some time I'll write up the procedure and post it here.

[Merovius]

Use the NView options that the drivers add to the top of application windows. One of them is "move to next display". Works 100% I'm watching on the second monitor while I type this.

[jsteele]

I have an nVidia 5600Fx card configured with a 1280x1024 LCD panel on the VGA output and my Panasonic Tau-series TV/Monitor on the S-Video output. The nVidia drivers recognize both monitors at their native resolutions.

I have a batch file in the Startup menu to start GBPVR:

cd\program files\devnz\gbpvr
start gbpvr.exe -noframe -pos:1280,0,640,480 -topmost
cd\
exit

The batch file sets the GBPVR output to 640x480 and positions it 1280 pixels to the right which forces it to the second display.

Voila, works fine.