Looking for multi-monitor support

[lovingHDTV]

I thought that now Studio has been released I would post a customization I would love to see. As I have no programming experience I'm hoping someone that does, likes this idea and can make it happen

Imagine that you have one of these cases for your HTPC:
http://www.htpcnews.com/main.php?id=x15

with the pretty touchscreen and everything.

My desire is to be able to have sage display everything except the video feed to the touchscreen, while at the same time displaying everything including the video feed to a second monitor. Idealy you would even be able to control the video playback from the touchscreen. Not really necessary but cool non the less.

This would allow for the nice integration of Sage with a projector. I don't like to have to turn on my projector to schedule recording, check the epg, weather, select music, things like that. Currently I have to either use a webpage (thanks Neilm), or remote desktop connect to my headless sage server box.

I know that if you run a 350 in your system that you almost get this functionality. The UI goes to the monitor and the video feed goes to the 350. Is there a way to utilize this?

Any other suggestions to make this even better are welcome. Maybe we can come up with something usable by many.

thanks,

[sleonard]

I've been wanting to do the same thing as well but using the X11 and an external touchscreen for the UI/Menu. I haven't tried it yet but by using extended desktop and Theater Mode with the touchscreen as the secondary monitor you should be able to do this (or come close) without a plugin. Drag the Sage UI to the touchscreen and setup theater mode to display video on the primary.

The downside is this may not work like we want it to, Theater Mode requires overlay, and you would always have to use the touchscreen for the UI/Menu.

Clone Mode would put the UI/Menu and video on both screens all the time but it requires that both monitors have the same resolution and I haven't found a touchscreen in 1280x720 to match my HDTV. Also, I wouldn't want video to be shown on the touchscreen, only the UI/Menu.

Maybe a plugin would be nice. Ideally, the Sage UI/Menu should always appear on the touchscreen (never show video) while the primary display would show both like it does with a single monitor.

[briands]

While we are asking...

I like this request, but I'd like to make one adjustment. Make a toggle on the touch screen that would toggle the UI on the projector output. Sometimes you may want to do some maintenance (delete files, check the weather, scour schedule for shows to mark DONT LIKE again...etc) while others are watching. At the end of the current file, hmmmm... what next? What have you got? <toggle UI on PJ> Here's what we've got.

[Jesse]

You may be able to do this with Mainlobby. You could not put the sage interface on the touchscreen but with mainlobby your could design your own interface for the touchscreen. The only reason I said "may" is that Mainlobby may not like a touchscreen this small. Check it out at http://www.cinemaronline.com.

Edit: Size of touchscreen is'nt really the issue, it's the resolution that may be a problem. I'm not sure how well it would work at 800x480.
HTH

Jesse