Starting Fullscreen from Shortcut?

[greggerm]

Hello Sagers...

I have a bit of a problem. As many know, there seems to be a little hiccup in Sage which causes recordings to stutter. One of the known workarounds is to run Sage in the "AboveNormal" priority. This can be accomplished by starting Sage, and adjusting the priority in the (Windows) Task Manager, *OR* by using some clever batch files and startup commands.

Here's the goal:
Have Sage start at bootup in AboveNormal priority.

Here's the problem:
When you tell Sage to automatically startup in fullscreen mode, Sage writes out a line to the registry HKLU/Run area launching the program. This line is overwritten each time you cycle through Sage, rendering any changes to it useless.

When you use the AboveNormal shortcuts/batch files which are available, Sage only starts in Windowed mode - even when specifying "Maximized" or "Full Screen" in the shortcut properties.

There appears to be no Sage command line option for full screen starting.

Things I've played with:
Inside sage.propterties...
ui/startup_type = 0 --> No autostartup. No fullscreen.
ui/startup_type = 1 --> Autostart fullscreen. Always adds the registry key.
ui/startup_type = 2 --> Autostart in tray. Always adds the registry key.

Using startup type 1, I can use the -startup commandline flag to launch from a shortcut fullscreen AND get my priority settings right, BUT the instant I reboot, the uneditable registry key takes over and my shortcut startup is beaten to the punch.

What I need is a method to use a shortcut (in the Start Menu\Startup directory) to run SageTV using the known AboveNormal priority workarounds.

Any takers?

Sage folks - this is the ideal reason to put in a fullscreen commandline flag!

[greggerm]

Replying to my own message...

I've come up with a satisfactory work around that, while kludgy, works.

First off, I disabled Sage from starting on it's own.

Then I created an AboveNormal startup batch file. It basically looks like this:

THIS CODE IS IN A FILE CALLED SageTV.bat

@echo off
cd "\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV"
start /AboveNormal SageTV.exe

Then I created another batch file which send a MessageCommand to Sage which toggles fullscreen... (Event 27)

THIS CODE IS IN A FILE CALLED Event27.bat

@echo off
cd "\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV"
SageTV.exe -event 27

Now to tie them in together, I scoured the Internet for some scripting. I came up with a VisualBasic script from billsway.com, and edited it to suit my Sage needs.

'THIS CODE IS IN A FILE CALLED SageStart.vbs

SecondsToDelay = ".1"
ProgramToRun = "C:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV\SageTV.bat"
Wscript.Sleep(SecondsToDelay * 1000)
Prog = Chr(34) & ProgramToRun & Chr(34)
CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run(Prog)

SecondsToDelay = "32"
ProgramToRun = "C:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV\event27.bat"
Wscript.Sleep(SecondsToDelay * 1000)
Prog = Chr(34) & ProgramToRun & Chr(34)
CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run(Prog)

This script launches SageTV from it's AboveNormal batch file right away. Then, 32 seconds later (after Sage has had a chance to launch), it commands it to go fullscreen.

I placed this script in the Startup menu, and BOOM! Restart the computer and Sage launches windowed and "AbovePriority", and a second or two later it fullscreens itself.

Now you may be asking why I went through the trouble? Well, I have my HTPC power down each night around 1:30 AM until 5:30 or so... there's no programs on that early, and it's just a power saving method. When it powers up in the morning, no intervention is required - it will be fullscreen ready to go!

...all because the program now stutters when in "normal" priority... ugh.

[stanger89]

Sage should start in whatever mode you closed it (windowed or fullscreen).

[greggerm]

Testing...

[stanger89]

Alt+F4 should close it, or if you exit it from the tray it will return to how you left it also (fullscreen or windowed).

[greggerm]

Well, after reading that... I tested it out.

Not surprisingly, it worked.

I forced my autoshutdown program to down the computer a few minutes ago while Sage was in fullscreen. Upon reboot, Sage ran via my predefined shortcuts, AND in AboveNormal mode. I also tested with ALT-F4 (worked).

Interestingly, I tried using the Windows key to get the start menu and force a reboot. When it came back, it was in windowed mode. Perhaps the interaction with the start menu messed with Sage's ability to remember what mode it was in. I'm happy though - the auto-shutdown program is what will be doing all the work, and it is sucessful with it.

Well THAT makes it a whole lot easier to work with!
Thanks, Stanger...
-Greg

[greggerm]

Interesting development -

I had my computer power itself down last night, and after the auto power on this morning, we discovered that Sage was up in windowed mode. Sage was "asleep" when the system powered down. It may be an unwanted side effect of my auto-shutdown program, but Sage must have thought it was in windowed mode.

Odd.

I'll give it a few more nights to see if it's consistantly windowed, or if there was some fluke. I hope I can get some consistancy from it, that way I'll know if I have to drop to my scripts above...