Hoster Show Nightmare - A 3rd video card was used and dialogs moved to it

[Joe Nieves]

I had a terrible experience with Hoster on Thursday night Karaoke show, the singer and database search menu screens where not visible on my laptop or extended monitor screens and couldn't do any finds of singers or song search all night, I had to totally rely on my books even the regulars had to get the numbers in order to call up their songs it was a nightmare.

Earlier that day I had the singers and search screen opened up on a third monitor that I use coming from a USB Video card (Star TechU SB2VGAE2) there was no issues other than in some songs the lyrics rendered properly, but the previous screen didn't clear, so you had a scrambled lyrics screen, only on some songs (Not All), but I've already experience this issue before posting a request for a fix to this problem.

I then shut down after I finished then went to do my gig later that night, I completely shut down and disabled the drivers for that USB video card and other devices which are not needed from the device manager like I normally due and started my show.

When I clicked on the search button I can see the icon at the taskbar but the search screen menu did not appear I tried everything I could think of and nothing worked.

I finally figured out after much frustration all while doing the show, that the Hoster program was sending the singers and search menu to the Third monitor that I had used earlier that day, but the problem is that the third monitor wasn't connected and the drivers had been disabled, Why would Hoster try to render a menu to a screen monitor that doesn't exist?

The next day I enabled the USB video drivers, hooked up the video card and monitor, started Hoster program and clicked for a search and the menu rendered at the third monitor, I then dragged the menu back to the laptop screen, closed Hoster and reopened and all was well after that.

But this shouldn't have happened, Hoster Menu should have rendered back to the laptop screen not to a non existing monitor and disabled drivers...

Thanks
Joe…

[ddouglass]

Hoster saves the screen position in the registry for each window when you close it down. This is so they will open in exactly the same position as you had them the last time you used that window in Hoster before shutting down.
Using the Reset Displays in Options doesn't change those from what I can see. May need to add those to that function though not sure how many people use a thrid monitor, but others have lost these too in other ways. In the mean time don't forget to move them back before removing that monitor.

[Joe Nieves]

Well thanks ddouglass for confirming the problem that I experienced, the suggestion I made in my other post for adding an option to chose a Default "Video Card", much the same way we have now for the "Audio Card" output would have solved that problem quickly.

Other Post: http://forum.mtu.com/showthread.php?t=12174

A laptop screen does get crowded very easily Thus the benefit of additional screen work space will make your setup more professionally organized and easier to manage especially at busy venues.

Hoping they conceder implementing this idea, it would be a Big Plus..

Thank You
Joe....

[admin]

Originally Posted by Joe Nieves

Earlier that day I had the singers and search screen opened up on a third monitor that I use coming from a USB Video card (Star TechU SB2VGAE2) there was no issues other than in some songs the lyrics rendered properly, but the previous screen didn't clear, so you had a scrambled lyrics screen, only on some songs (Not All), but I've already experience this issue before posting a request for a fix to this problem.

Clearly Hoster can handle multiple display cards as you used three. Thanks for letting us know that.

Originally Posted by Joe Nieves

But this shouldn't have happened, Hoster Menu should have rendered back to the laptop screen not to a non existing monitor and disabled drivers...

I see this as your desire... not Hoster's deficit. We have never addressed this, not is it mentioned in the manual, nor has it ever been asked for before. Well... read on.

Originally Posted by Joe Nieves

...the suggestion I made in my other post for adding an option to chose a Default "Video Card", much the same way we have now for the "Audio Card" output would have solved that problem quickly.
Other Post: http://forum.mtu.com/showthread.php?t=12174

Hoping they conceder implementing this idea, it would be a Big Plus...

OK, we added a task to our Hoster spec document to add code that automatically forces the Singers display, Search & Singer dialogs to the computer display when the code finds them "defaulted outside" any available display limits (i.e. if they were on display #3 that is now disconnected, it will reset them to display #1). This would have automatically made your dialogs visible to you. We see this as a small task.

We believe that to add full support to show multiple display cards and allow you to select one or more is a large task. Given that we have only had one Forum discussion (6+ years ago) about a multi-head video card, to add this complex code will not be added to our spec document.

[Joe Nieves]

Ok I will have to accept that, but is there anything that can be done with the issue of some files not rendering properly when my USB video card and third monitor is active?

Any help with this is appreciated..

Thank You
Joe...

[Joe Nieves]

I've just notice that you think I have three video cards and I Don't.

I am working with only two Video cards; my laptop card is an nVidia 8600 GT with 512 vid ram which handles the laptop screen and extended monitor.

The third monitor is being driven by a USB Video card (Star TechU SB2VGAE2) that is connected to a powered USB hub on the laptop.

So in affect there are only two video cards operating off my laptop.

The only problem I am having is that in some files the lyric screen renders scrambled, but I've also noticed that the problem files are consistently the same ones that are having this problem, all others play correctly.

The Preview display on the laptop always renders correctly with no problems even though the singers screen lyrics is scrambled.

This only happens when I use the USB video card, I also notice that in the Display Properties Settings the USB video card defaults to monitor 2 and the extended monitor defaults to 3, when I disconnect the USB video card it doesn't change the numerical sequence of the video cards, but if I disconnect the USB card I don't get the random lyric screen problem.

Is there anything else I can Try to fix this…?

Attachments:
1. Image of the Display Properties
2. Images of the Lyric Screens, small preview laptop screen to the left, and large singers display to the right of each image.

Thanks
Joe...

[Roy Dennis]

Have you got your preview screen undocked from the Hoster main screen ?
If so have you got the wrong one extended on to your singers screen ?

Why I ask this is because if I connect my computer to the TV by an HDMI cable the preview screen will display some songs with the title page all the way through the song mixed with the lyrics and on mine it is always with sunfly disks. That is what it appears like on your singers screen in your attachment. Now this hasn't troubled me as in my show I use a VGA adapter to Composite video and the problem goes away. But as yours is on your singers display and not your preview screen I wondered if you had inadvertently extended the wrong screen.

As no one else has this set up it is hard to test but maybe when you plug in your USB card, perhaps that causes the wrong screen to appear on the extended monitor.
Just to test it I would re-attach the preview screen and see if it still the same.

Another point may be worth checking, when you highlight an individual screen in your display properties are they all set to the same resolution ?

What type of conection are you using to extend the normal screen i.e VGA, HDMI. Svideo, composite ?

Roy.

[Joe Nieves]

Ok' Thanks for the reply Roy

1. The extended screen res. is set to 1024 by 768 thru a SIIG Video Amplified VGA Splitter 8 ports.
2. The laptop screen is set to 1280 by 800
3. The USB video card is set to 1024 by 768.
4. The mixed screen idea is a good one, but I reset those displays and used the default screens in their respected displays, but will give this another look.

A quick note, the typical #2 display for extended monitor is now #3 as per the image #1 I posted for "Display Properties", this assignment was done by the installation of the USB video drivers supplied with the video card.

These display setting don't change at all and Hoster works without problems when the USB card is not plugged in, maybe there is something to this in the Hoster program assignment to display #2..?, can I change the Display assignment in the registry to Display #3 which is the extended monitor that was originally #2 and now resides as #3....?

Thanks Roy
Joe....

[Roy Dennis]

Just one thing, when you use Tools/reset displays it doesn't re-lock the preview to the Hoster main display, you have to do this from show display/preview tab and it won't take effect until you restart Hoster.

Roy.

[Roy Dennis]

One other thing, some people with Nvidea Graphics cards had problems with the latest drivers, after rolling back or installing an earlier driver found it cured their problems, may help, you can always reinstall back to the newer one if this doesn't.

Roy.

[Joe Nieves]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

Just one thing, when you use Tools/reset displays it doesn't re-lock the preview to the Hoster main display, you have to do this from show display/preview tab and it won't take effect until you restart Hoster.

Roy.

Ok, when I reset the Display the Singers screen came back to the laptop screen and the preview window was not effected at all by the reset.

Once I rebooted the preview screen reset back to its original box and display screen stayed in the laptop screen.

Then I arranged the preview display and clicked the singers display back to the extended monitor.

Joe....

[Joe Nieves]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

One other thing, some people with Nvidea Graphics cards had problems with the latest drivers, after rolling back or installing an earlier driver found it cured their problems, may help, you can always reinstall back to the newer one if this doesn't.

Roy.

Yes I do understand that if I was having issues with my screen lyrics, but in my case I don't have any at all untill I activate the USB video card and only some Legends, Sound Choice and Chartbuster all the rest play well.

I think it may have to do with Hoster programing to video display #2 that is causing the conflict with my setup, when the USB video card is not active Hoster has no problem rendering to # 3 Display, Only when #2 Display is active (which is the USB Video Card) is when I start to have this issue.

If there is a place in the registry that points Hoster program to the #2 Display and change that pointer to Display # 3, I believe that would solve my problem.

Do you know of this registry key or can you help me with this...

Thanks Roy
Joe....

[Roy Dennis]

The only way I know of how to change displays over is in the Nvidea settings. If yours is the same as the one on my old XP laptop you can find it here. From the display properties window choose the advanced tab, from there you should see a tab with your Gforce or nvidea card name, on clicking this you should get a dialog window with a fly-out box, select Nview display settings this should give you a picture of 2 monitors (not the same as display properties) here you can select a different monitor to be the primary. Now I don't know if this will recognize your USB card as you are on your own with this.
Sorry I can't help any more on this, perhaps someone else will know about Registry key settings.

Roy.

[Joe Nieves]

Ok, Roy thanks for the suggestion will try..

Joe...

[ddouglass]

Joe, how are you setting up your screens? Are your main and Singers Display both off of the same card and the Search & Singer's database off of the second card?
The reason it is probably the same songs all the time that mess up is mostly likely base on colors used in those songs. I had problems at one time with one producer's song files because of the strange color choices they used and my distance to my monitors. I cured the problem with shielded cables. Probably not your answer but just an example.

[Joe Nieves]

Yes ddouglass you mentioned this before in my other post concerning this issue, I've tested at home with short cables and the singers and preview displays are connected to the internal laptop card, I don't even have to have the search screen opened in the third monitor for this issue to happen, once the USB card and monitor is connected and Active it has this effect.

I think Hoster program gets mixed up because it plays correctly to the extended monitor assigned to Disply #3 with no problems, but when the USB card is activated it get allocated to Display #2 and that is when the issue starts, even though it still renders in the singers display #3 the conflict is evident.

If there is a place in the registry that points Hoster program to the #2 Display and change that pointer to Display #3, I believe this would solve my problem.

Do you think I can get some help with this...

Thanks
Joe...

[ddouglass]

Could be the USB video card is drawing too much power from the laptop and dragging it down to the point that video on the main display is effected. The system I used was a desktop and a special pair of video cards made to work together.

[Joe Nieves]

The USB video card is plugged into a powered USB hub and its working fine with my DJ program, running vob mp4 mp2 mp1 videos scratching, mixing out of my two decks in the program with 5 plugins Active 3 video and 2 sound affects for 6 to 8 hours and no problems at all with the USB video card and monitor plugged in.


I just used it last night on a gig and been doing so for over a month now..,so I don't think its a resource problem at all based on what I have experienced with my setup.

I believe my suggestion will work, all I need is some help..

Thanks ddouglass
Joe...

[Roy Dennis]

As I understand your setup, when you disconect your usb adaptor you are still showing screens 1 & 3 in the properties window and not as the default would have been 1 & 2. If this is right here is what I would try. Uninstall the driver or software that came with the usb devise or restore your computer to the time before installing it. Get your computer set so that it shows extended monitor as 2. Now with the extended monitor pluged in and working as 1 & 2 try installing your usb adaptor while the normal extended monitor is activated and monitor 2 is already alocated, perhaps then it will make the usb monitor 3.

Just an idea, don't know if it will work.

Roy.

[Joe Nieves]

I will give this a try and see if this will resolve the alocated monitor #2 issue in this way, if it does then the problem will be solved, hoping for the best..

Thanks Roy

Joe...