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

[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....