View Full Version : Dual Monitors (Cloned & Scaled) with nVidia driver???
jkrellner
2008-08-10, 16:33
Hey all. I have my XBMC machine installed in my theater. I have two video outputs hooked up. The first is HDMI to my theater projector. The resolution of the projector is 1920x1080 (1080p) and XBMC looks GREAT on it. The second monitor is a smaller touchscreen (we'll ignore the touchscreen functionaility for now) with native resolution of 1280x1024. In nvidia-settings, I have the smaller monitor set up to clone the projector display, which is set as the primary X screen. What I want to be able to do is leave the projector off if only listening to music, controlling the XBMC GUI using the smaller display. Right now, this does not work because the smaller display only shows the top left portion of the larger 1920x1080 display.
I have done some searching, and it looks like this is a problem with the nVidia drivers. Has anyone figured a workaround for this in XBMC? I know some people out there have those fancy HTPC cases with iMon touchscreens. Anyone figure out how to get this working?
Thanks.
althekiller
2008-08-10, 19:12
There isn't going to be an XBMC-specific fix for this. The ubuntu forums or some other linux forums are likely your best bet.
jkrellner
2008-08-11, 02:30
Understood. I've found some other promising leads, but I think I have a long road ahead. In any event, XBMC is now fully functional in my theater and looking great. No noticeable bugs on my system.
Please update me or this thread if you happen to see this working. I have the same setup as you do. I would like to see a software support in XBMC for handling the 2ndaru monitor as a file browser and/or status window while playing back contents on the main (projector) screen.
But ultimatly I would like to scale the 1:1 output to the 2ndary monitor. A driver support would be preferable, but I think that XBMC could implement Xinerama support to achieve this in software aswell.
The most desierable would be a selectable 2ndary functionality for this monitor of course. :) I.e. full software features.
Regards
Mikael
I have an Nvidia card and have my Sanyo PLV-Z2 connected to DVI with 1280x720 and my Samsung Syncmaster (native 1280x1024) connected on VGA. Both displays show the same 720p resolution. I tried a lot of stuff and my xorg.conf is a mess but it works for me.
Maybe you can take something out for you...
http://pastebin.com/f7e928557
have you guys considered running a second X session on the second monitor and opening up the web interface? The web interface doesn't have the pretty opengl graphics, but afaik it's functional.
Easiest way would be to have a separate, low end pc. Though should be possible to run it off the same box (haven't tested myself).
Having xbmc handle this on it's own is a cool idea, though sounds easier said than done.
jkrellner
2008-08-12, 05:10
I have an Nvidia card and have my Sanyo PLV-Z2 connected to DVI with 1280x720 and my Samsung Syncmaster (native 1280x1024) connected on VGA. Both displays show the same 720p resolution. I tried a lot of stuff and my xorg.conf is a mess but it works for me.
Maybe you can take something out for you...
http://pastebin.com/f7e928557
I don't have time to go through the xorg.conf file right now but will do so in a few days. But are you saying that on your displays, it shows the 720p image without cropping or stretching of any kind? And that they are cloned (i.e., show the same thing simultaneously)?
My understanding from various forums is that this is impossible using the nVidia drivers.
jkrellner
2008-08-12, 05:14
have you guys considered running a second X session on the second monitor and opening up the web interface? The web interface doesn't have the pretty opengl graphics, but afaik it's functional.
Easiest way would be to have a separate, low end pc. Though should be possible to run it off the same box (haven't tested myself).
Having xbmc handle this on it's own is a cool idea, though sounds easier said than done.
That is an interesting idea, and one I might explore, however I am running a command-line only install from USB stick. I am not sure this is going to be a long-term solution, but at least it might be something I could use in the short term until I get the other stuff ironed out...
have you guys considered running a second X session on the second monitor and opening up the web interface? The web interface doesn't have the pretty opengl graphics, but afaik it's functional.
Yes, and um... no. Not a feasable option imho. It may be ok, but it's not desierable and probably not good enough. I would rather invest in a 2ndary monitor handling 1080p to be able to clone the image 1:1.
Having xbmc handle this on it's own is a cool idea, though sounds easier said than done.
I think coding with Xinerama support would be quite straight forward. Or atleast not more or less demanding than any other lib. :) Correct me if I am wrong.
I have an Nvidia card and have my Sanyo PLV-Z2 connected to DVI with 1280x720 and my Samsung Syncmaster (native 1280x1024) connected on VGA. Both displays show the same 720p resolution. I tried a lot of stuff and my xorg.conf is a mess but it works for me.
http://pastebin.com/f7e928557
Doing a clone on a display with the same or higher resolution is usally not a problem. I have a 1:1 720p clone to my 2ndary VGA connected 16:9 monitor. It was no magic at all.
With your 1280x1024 however I am suspecting that you get a stretched image if you output 720p to it. Unless your monitor itself corrects it. Or you use a DVI connector and the nvidia's built in aspect scaler.
The aspect scaler does however not work on 1080p. It complains about too high resolution.
Mikael
Addition: Best all around support without dependency on strange driver supports which noone has today would be a software solution intergrated in XBMC which detects the 2ndary monitor and has config options for the usage for it.
Mikael
Doing a clone on a display with the same or higher resolution is usally not a problem. I have a 1:1 720p clone to my 2ndary VGA connected 16:9 monitor. It was no magic at all.
With your 1280x1024 however I am suspecting that you get a stretched image if you output 720p to it. Unless your monitor itself corrects it. Or you use a DVI connector and the nvidia's built in aspect scaler.
The aspect scaler does however not work on 1080p. It complains about too high resolution.
Mikael
Exactly, the clone of the 16:9 (1280x720) is squeezed on the 4:3 (1280x1024) screen. But this is no problem for me. By the way, look just at the sreen0 section in my xorg.conf file. There is most of the magic... ;-)
jkrellner
2008-08-12, 16:12
Doing a clone on a display with the same or higher resolution is usally not a problem. I have a 1:1 720p clone to my 2ndary VGA connected 16:9 monitor. It was no magic at all.
With your 1280x1024 however I am suspecting that you get a stretched image if you output 720p to it. Unless your monitor itself corrects it. Or you use a DVI connector and the nvidia's built in aspect scaler.
The aspect scaler does however not work on 1080p. It complains about too high resolution.
Mikael
First, I actually was wrong. The smaller monitor's native resolution is 1024x768, not 1280x1024. In any event, here's what happens:
If I select 1080i or 1920x1080 (Full Desktop), the theater looks great but the image on the monitor is heavily cropped. By default, it only shows the top left portion of the GUI.
Strangely, if I select 720p, 480p, etc., I am not sure what happens on the theater screen, but the smaller monitor shows an image that takes up 60% or so of the screen. It is weird because the 720p and 480p images take up the same amount of space. Still, I do not really care about this because I have no intention of running XBMC at 720p or 480p.
That's why your solution will not work for me; I want full 1920x1080 resolution in my theater. That, for me, is more important than the functionality of the second monitor.
FYI, my theater projector is hooked up via HDMI. My secondary monitor is hooked up via DVI.
jkrellner
2008-08-12, 16:16
Best all around support without dependency on strange driver supports which noone has today would be a software solution intergrated in XBMC which detects the 2ndary monitor and has config options for the usage for it.
Agreed. It would be great to see XBMC support this. However, I think this will be a long wait, until what is there works 100%. My understanding is that they will not be adding any features until everything "just works." That is fine with me -- the greatest thing about XBMC is it just keeps getting better with time -- and until then maybe I will try to keep myself satisfied using the web interface... We'll see...
remco9999
2009-05-22, 23:32
Just get this:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Origen_ae/T12
12" 1980*1020 (able) touchscreen.
Downside; a bit expensive..
jkrellner
2009-05-23, 00:33
...i'll wait for a cheaper version which will undoubtedly come from Samsung or some other LCD manufacturer. Once touchscreens become a norm, this will be more attainable. What is nice about this is that it is designed for HTPC use.
The one concern I have is that I have made the switch from PM3 to Aeon as my skin and things like navigating the main menu may be a bit difficult with a touch screen.
I am not quite sure what to do with the one I acquired for $350...
I've experimented a bit with this, mostly on windows, but it seems that dual screen support is a non feature of XBMC, unfortunately. I have the Mimo 740 touch, which supports 800x480 resolution and a 1080p TV. My idea was to have the touch work as remote/music control to use primarily as an option to having to switch the TV on when I want to play music or just just browse the various media libraries. What I had hoped for was to have the XBMC use the touch screen as primary interface and, always, have video output being redirected to the TV. Also wanted to be able to use XBMC on the TV, when browsing web or videos but this could be achieved with launcher. But the redirection I couldn't solve.
What I instead ended up using was the http-interface (web) as a remote, in a browser using full screen (F11 in FF, IE) on the touch. This way it (almost) works the way I wanted.
I'm hoping (:nod:) for a bit of redesign of the XBMC, so that the dual screen is better supported (including redirection). In the meantime I'm thinking about about redesigning the web-interface to fit the 7" touch better .
jkrellner
2009-07-02, 16:28
vaxjool, I basically do the same thing. I use XBMC Remote for the iPod Touch and control XBMC that way when the projector is off. Works very well. Would have been much happier to have the XBMC interface cloned to my small touchscreen, but it is what it is. I tried using the web interface on my touchscreen and could not stand the interface.
I seriously doubt XBMC will come out with better dual monitor support any time soon, because as I understand it, most of the problems are with the nVidia driver (at least on my system -- not sure how ATI or Intel would handle all this, and don't really care).
Uncle Fat
2009-09-29, 22:45
Hi,
I'm new to XBMC, but I have pretty much the same problem.
What might be an easier way to provide dual monitor support is to use a separate window to render video. Then you could assign that window to the projector and have the UI permanently on the touchscreen. If it already is technically a different window, then it would probably not be difficult to give the user an option as to what monitor they want to display video on. Just a thought from a newb. I guess I'll try playing with the web interface for now though...