show display - specifically background image

[no vocals]

Before I reinstalled Hoster the background images during the intermissions changed when i changed the desktop background image, but now they don't. This happened before, but I don't remember what I did to fix it! (imagine that)

I have the marquis set to play only during the songs although I don't think that has anything to do with it. I have the background set to image. I'm lost now. No big deal, but my patrons are use to seeing the latest LOLcat funnies in between songs. (for those of you who don't know LOLcats, it's a hilarious website that takes pictures of different animals and puts funny captions to them, you should check it out if you have time to waste)

[Roy Dennis]

Are you saying that a different image appeared for your background each time the intermission screen appeared ? To the best of my knowledge you can only pick a picture by browsing to a folder and selecting one.

The only way I know off having a slide show is with visualization selected while audio is playing, for this you need a visualization plug in for Windows media player but I can't remember what the name of the plug in is, but it is for a slide show.

Another way is to create some videos of your pictures and set them as instabuttons.

If someone else knows different I would be glad to know myself.

Roy.

[bryant]

Originally Posted by no vocals

Before I reinstalled Hoster the background images during the intermissions changed when i changed the desktop background image, but now they don't. This happened before, but I don't remember what I did to fix it! (imagine that)

I have the marquis set to play only during the songs although I don't think that has anything to do with it. I have the background set to image. I'm lost now. No big deal, but my patrons are use to seeing the latest LOLcat funnies in between songs. (for those of you who don't know LOLcats, it's a hilarious website that takes pictures of different animals and puts funny captions to them, you should check it out if you have time to waste)

I think you are trying to change one background image for another from time to time and nothing is happening. It stays the same one. If this is correct, here is what may be happening as it happens to me some time too. When I go to the dialog box to make those changes it automatically goes to the lyrics screen, which means you have to check the "intermissions" tab (I forget to do this and only the background lyrics image is changed, which is never seen anyway), then change the image there, then hit apply. I actually do this myself about once a week, then it hits me to do it again after going to the intermissions settings.

[no vocals]

actually what i meant was this....

i use to be able to change the background on my desktop and the background screen for hoster would change with it. now i must change the background for hoster via the hoster program. the problem with doing this is that you must change images between songs. being able to change desktop images is better because i can change on the fly while a singer is doing his/her thing.

Roy, i'm not sure if it CAN be done since i haven't gotten it fixed yet, but in windows 7 there is a desktop image slide show (shuffle they call it). that would be ideal, but for now just being able to sync the desktop with the hoster intermission image would be great....nnn'kay? "oh and peter, we need to talk about your TPS reports."

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by no vocals

actually what i meant was this....

i use to be able to change the background on my desktop and the background screen for hoster would change with it. now i must change the background for hoster via the hoster program. the problem with doing this is that you must change images between songs. being able to change desktop images is better because i can change on the fly while a singer is doing his/her thing.

Roy, i'm not sure if it CAN be done since i haven't gotten it fixed yet, but in windows 7 there is a desktop image slide show (shuffle they call it). that would be ideal, but for now just being able to sync the desktop with the hoster intermission image would be great....nnn'kay? "oh and peter, we need to talk about your TPS reports."

I think that when you set an image as the background for the desktop it creates a copy of the image file you chose, changes the name and places it isn a specific location. I don't know what the name of the file is or its location but I believe that is the way it is done. Find that and you should be able to set the background in Hoster to thew same file and it would change at the same time as you did before.

[no vocals]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

I think that when you set an image as the background for the desktop it creates a copy of the image file you chose, changes the name and places it isn a specific location. I don't know what the name of the file is or its location but I believe that is the way it is done. Find that and you should be able to set the background in Hoster to thew same file and it would change at the same time as you did before.

DD,
does that image still have be changed via hoster, though? i played around with it this afternoon quite a bit and it may just be a windows 7 thing.

to clarify, i use-to-could (good southern grammar) change the desktop image via the control panel/display area in windows and it changed in hoster automatically. if i dind't explain it good enough before, my apologies. i may just be out of luck and if so, i'll definitely offer that up as a request for the next upgrade.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by no vocals

DD,
does that image still have be changed via hoster, though? i played around with it this afternoon quite a bit and it may just be a windows 7 thing.

to clarify, i use-to-could (good southern grammar) change the desktop image via the control panel/display area in windows and it changed in hoster automatically. if i dind't explain it good enough before, my apologies. i may just be out of luck and if so, i'll definitely offer that up as a request for the next upgrade.

I don't know. If Windows does it like I said and always copies the image you set for desktop background to the same file name all the time then no you shouldn't I have never tried this so don't know how Windows handles it or where it stores the file.

[Roy Dennis]

I think that this wallpaper background was used in version 3.12 which had a different way of handling the singers screen. I used to have my wallpaper show then but with version 4.xxx that all changed, now you have use the show display setup. Another option if you have Power Point or a similar software you can make up a series of slides and display them using the HTML page option. I have used this option myself and it works OK.

Just an idea to get similar result like you used to have, copy several pictures to a folder and give them all the same name but prefix each with a different #. leave one with no prefix and select this one as your first picture.
Now when you want a different picture open the folder prefix that one with another # and delete the prefix on the one you want to show next.
A bit of messing about but might get you what you want.

Roy.

[no vocals]

that may be the way i have to do it, Roy. Still leaves the problem of having to switch between songs though which slows down the show. bummer

EDITED: think i may have found the problem. in the "show display" menu area i have an image selected. it will not let me delete this "03_fb_cover_800x600.jpg" image value. i think if i could get it deleted it would simulate the desktop background image. i could be wrong, though

[ddouglass]

Wait a minute guys. Version 3 (any of them) did not have a background image because you had two separate screens (the Singers Display and the Singers Name Display). There were no image options attached to either one of them. You could not even change the background colors. And the Singers Display did not stay on the screen except while the song was playing.
Version 4 changed from the two separate displays to one single with 4 screens. This gives you the capability to use an image, an HTML page, a solid color or visualizations through Windows Media Player.
I don't know exactly what you thought you had set up before but it was not in Hoster. You may have been seeing the desktop background when a song finished (maybe you had the SND turned off, so they could see it) which would give you what you thought was Hoster using the same background. If that was the case you can set it now that the display does not stay on and be able to see the desktop background between songs.
Version 4 changed from the two separate displays to one single with 4 screens. This gives you the capability to use an image, an HTML page, a solid color or visualizations through Windows Media Player.

[Roy Dennis]

Yes Dale is correct it was because the singers display closed after a song revealing the wallpaper image, but it did still show the singers name display over the wallpaper.
But again as dale said you can still switch the display off in between songs by unticking the always on box in the show display (I forgot about this )the only thing then is you loose the singers name display & Marquis as well.

Roy.

[admin]

Originally Posted by no vocals

Before I reinstalled Hoster the background images during the intermissions changed when i changed the desktop background image, but now they don't. This happened before, but I don't remember what I did to fix it! (imagine that)

I have the marquis set to play only during the songs although I don't think that has anything to do with it. I have the background set to image. I'm lost now. No big deal, but my patrons are use to seeing the latest LOLcat funnies in between songs. (for those of you who don't know LOLcats, it's a hilarious website that takes pictures of different animals and puts funny captions to them, you should check it out if you have time to waste)

You can set the background to HTML and select the "LOLcat" web site. I am assuming your computer is on-line if you can display this on your desktop and it changes.

Dale and Roy are correct in their posts.

[no vocals]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

I don't know exactly what you thought you had set up before but it was not in Hoster. You may have been seeing the desktop background when a song finished (maybe you had the SND turned off, so they could see it) which would give you what you thought was Hoster using the same background. If that was the case you can set it now that the display does not stay on and be able to see the desktop background between songs.
Version 4 changed from the two separate displays to one single with 4 screens. This gives you the capability to use an image, an HTML page, a solid color or visualizations through Windows Media Player.

THAT sounds like EXACTLY what I'm looking for. What is SND and how do I change it?
if you mean "singer's name display" it is not enabled AND it is in "hide" mode.



ok, lemme try to clarify once more.

One screen is my laptop screen. when i am viewing my desktop it has a background image. i have the settings set to extend my desktop to a second screen, a television. this is where the singer looks during the song so he/she can see the lyrics. when the song is over, the words disappear and a background image appears. the same background image that was on my desktop use to appear on the second screen during intermission. in the past when i changed the background image on my laptop desktop screen, it would also change the background image on the second screen, the television. now, it does not change when i change my desktop background image any longer. what i am trying to do is make the second screen, the television, mirror the image on my desktop.

i guess i misspoke when i called it the singer's display. i called it that because that is where the singer looks while singing. also i do not usse the singer's display that says what song/singer is coming up next so that is not the image area i am looking for.

ADMIN - the issue with using the HTML option is that the site posts multiple images on one page. i'm sure you're familiar with the website.

[ddouglass]

What version of Hoster were you using when you say this worked?
Are you now using Hoster 4.20?

[no vocals]

DD,
I'm using 4.20 now. I have been using the same display set up for as long as have been using Hoster....at least as long as I can remember. I think I started with 3.04? It may be a setting within my laptop that needs to be changed since this is a new system. I have used several systems before this one that have worked as I am describing, however. I am still playing around with settings in Hoster AND in my system trying to find a configuration that will work as I am accustomed.

Currently, I have my main monitor (the laptop monitor) "extended" to a second monitor and connecting to the second monitor through VGA converter. Those are the settings I always used on the other systems with the exception of the VGA output. i used S-video before, because it was easier and I didn't have/need a VGA converter.

I still think that possibly the problem lies with not being able to leave the "image" are under the "intermission" tab blank. i selected an image there at one point and now i only have the option to change the image source. it will not let me leave that are blank. Even if i change the radio buttons to HTML, Solid Color or Visualization i cannot remove the source in the image box.

[Roy Dennis]

If from the show display window you select the image button, when the folder opens to select a picture, don't select a picture but type a character in the file name box then press open then apply in the show display it will remove your picture and leave a black screen which shows a small cross in the top left hand corner because it can't find a file, it does not show the wallpaper though.

The only other way I think you could get it back to nothing showing is to reinstall and tick the box where indicated to clear previous settings.

Roy.

[no vocals]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

If from the show display window you select the image button, when the folder opens to select a picture, don't select a picture but type a character in the file name box then press open then apply in the show display it will remove your picture and leave a black screen which shows a small cross in the top left hand corner because it can't find a file, it does not show the wallpaper though.

The only other way I think you could get it back to nothing showing is to reinstall and tick the box where indicated to clear previous settings.

Roy.

Ohhhhhhh noooooo!!!!!! lol, i seriously don't wanna set everything up again mainly becuase i still don't know if that will even work. still, if all else fails i may have to try it.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by no vocals

DD,
I'm using 4.20 now. I have been using the same display set up for as long as have been using Hoster....at least as long as I can remember. I think I started with 3.04? It may be a setting within my laptop that needs to be changed since this is a new system. I have used several systems before this one that have worked as I am describing, however. I am still playing around with settings in Hoster AND in my system trying to find a configuration that will work as I am accustomed.

Currently, I have my main monitor (the laptop monitor) "extended" to a second monitor and connecting to the second monitor through VGA converter. Those are the settings I always used on the other systems with the exception of the VGA output. i used S-video before, because it was easier and I didn't have/need a VGA converter.

I still think that possibly the problem lies with not being able to leave the "image" are under the "intermission" tab blank. i selected an image there at one point and now i only have the option to change the image source. it will not let me leave that are blank. Even if i change the radio buttons to HTML, Solid Color or Visualization i cannot remove the source in the image box.

With version 3, you had the song display and the SND (Name Display). If you did not turn on the SND to be visible, then the only thing you had on the secondary was the Song Display. When the song was over then that disappeared and you saw the desktop background.

With Version 4 there is now what is called the Intermission screen which stays on the Secondary Monitor after the song is over. If you want to see the secondary monitor the way you saw it in version 3, then go to Tools/Show Display and uncheck the box in the Intermission that Says "Always On" This will keep the Intermission from showing between songs and your desktop will be visible. That will give you what you had with Version 3. This is the only way you will get what you are asking for.

[no vocals]

DD,

i THINK unchecking the always on box is what made it work, but i can't be sure because i changed some other settings as well. still, i have the setup i like now (yay!)

thanks to everyone for the suggestions and helping me get this figgered out so my patrons are happy campers!