Using two monitors with Hoster Light

[william burditt]

I am a novice when it comes to hardware. I have a 64 bit computer with Hoster Light installed on it. My computer is supposed to have the capability to display on two monitors. Can anyone give me a clue on how to set this up. I am using this at a private 80th birthday party, and I would like to have one monitor for the singer and one for the audience. Any help will be appreciated.

Bill

[Roy Dennis]

A few questions first will help us to help you.
Do you know what type of outputs your computer has, RCA composite, Svideo, VGA, or HD.?
Are you running XP, Vista, or Windows 7 ?
Which version of Hoster Light 4.xxx or earlier ?

Roy.

[William Yancey]

VGA
windows 7
Hoster-lite 4.0

[Roy Dennis]

Did you change your user name ?
Anyway, most laptops with widows 7 have an HD high definition connector which in your case would probably be the easiest way providing you are connecting to an HD capable TV. Connect the HD cable to both TV & computer and turn TV on then turn on your computer last.
select High definition from your TV source control. Now right click on a blank area of the computer screen (Not on an Icon) and a window should open with a selection, choose "screen resolution".
If you have done every thing right you should see monitors 1 & 2, if you press identify you should get a big 1 show on your computer monitor & 2 on the external TV just for a short time. I have attached a file showing this with the settings shown as well. If all is well just press the OK button and you are ready to start your Hoster Program.
When you see the singers screen place your screen pointer in the window at the same time left click and hold, then still holding the button down drag the screen to your right and you should see the outline of it on your second monitor. Once it is positioned correctly right click again on a corner and you should be able to stretch it to fill the screen.

Now if you don't have the HD facilities you either connect a VGA cable to a monitor or TV with VGA input or you will have to invest in a VGA to Video converter of which there are various types, so if you choose this method come back here for advise on your options. Whichever you choose the setting up is much the same as above.

Roy.

[william burditt]

Roy, since my last post, I have found that my son has a flat TV screen that he is not using, and he has used it with his computer. We are going to give it a test next week when he is free. I don't know if you received my last reply or not. As for the Hoster Lite, (I am not up to speed on the software), I have the play list showing on the same screen as the play screen. Of course, when I hit play on one of the songs, I double click on the small screen and the full screen shows the words to the song. I would rather not show my play list on the "audience" screen. I would like for it just to be on full screen when the words come up. Is there a way to accomdate this idea? One screen will face the audience and one will face the singer. The two screens will be at 180 degrees.

Bill

[william burditt]

Roy, I have Windows 7 Home, Premium. Bought my computer at end of 2009. I found my invoice, but it did not list the names of the boards, etc. If they were included in the total price, there was no detailed description, only descriptions for upgrades and the price.

Bill

[william burditt]

Roy,

I am totally lost. I have the two monitors hooked up. It initially had the TV screen as my computer screen. I never did see the same thing on both screens, that I remember, but at the present I only have a display on my computer screen and none on the TV screen. My TV screen is sitting at a right angle from my compter screen, probably about two feet apart. Can you drag something through open space from one screen to the other? I noticed I could move my mouse across the open space to the other screen.

Bill

[Roy Dennis]

Bill, if you are seeing your mouse pointer on the other TV or monitor you must be hooked up alright. And yes you do drag it through open space.

Position your mouse pointer in the middle of your singers screen, then left click your mouse or keypad but keep it held down and at the same time move the mouse to the right keeping the left button held down, you should see it move across the screen and as it passes to the right side of your screen, of of that screen and onto the other screen, once on your other screen you can size it to fit by dragging the corners.

It will help if you make sure the box is ticked in Tools tab/Show display where it says always on, click this off if you use a single display. Make sure it is ticked so you see the singers display all the time.

Roy.

[william burditt]

I ended up yesterday with duplicate screens. I was going to change that, but somehow I have the TV screen as No. 1 and my computer monitor as no. 2. How do i switch these ID's? If I can get this figured out, I believe I am ready to proceed further.

Bill

[ddouglass]

In the same areas you have been checking for display settings, there is a second check box that says something like "Use this device as primary monitor. check the one under the #2 monitor and that will switch them.

[Roy Dennis]

Hi Bill, When you right click on an empty space on your desktop & select " screen resolution" Do you see the image as in my attachment in my #4 post. ? If not then let us know what yours looks like.

If what you see is as that attachment, at the bottom were it states "multiple displays" the window to the right of it has a small drop down arrow, click this and you should see options to show your desktop only on 1 or show desktop only on 2, so select the first one and press apply then OK. It may ask if you want to keep these settings so just answer yes.

Roy.

[william burditt]

Got it switched!

Bill

[billyo]

Originally Posted by william burditt

Roy,

I am totally lost. I have the two monitors hooked up. It initially had the TV screen as my computer screen. I never did see the same thing on both screens, that I remember, but at the present I only have a display on my computer screen and none on the TV screen. My TV screen is sitting at a right angle from my compter screen, probably about two feet apart. Can you drag something through open space from one screen to the other? I noticed I could move my mouse across the open space to the other screen.

Bill

yes you can, as long as the tv is connected to your pc/laptop, just make sure that your display setting is on extend, not cloned..and then just drag the screen and dbl click it to enlarge, i have my singers screen 20ft. away .