Newbie to Studio - first attempt

[timg11]

I have been informed by SageTV support that SageTV basically does not and can not work properly on a monitor that is not primary due to video driver problems. My HTPC is used for other things than driving the HDTV: the smaller LCD monitor needs to be primary so that windows will not appear on the HDTV which may be turned off or on another video source.

The only solution to this problem that I am aware of is to use Studio to extend SageTV so it will automatically call Windows batch files to switch which monitor is primary. When SageTV goes full-screen, it should cause the HDTV to become the primary monitor. When SageTV is not in full screen mode, or is put to sleep/standby state, the primary monitor should revert to the LCD monitor.

I found a message that showed how to execute a Windows batch file from Studio:

Fork()
Process = ExecuteProcess("\\ext.cmd", GetFileForSegment(GetMediaFileForAiring(Airing), 0), "\\workingdrectory", false)

From reading the Studio manual, I think I need to create a Listener widget. There is an example for a "Full Screen" listener in tutorial 13.

I have not yet determined how the listener widget actually would call the ExecuteProcess function.

Am I on the right track? Is there an easier way to accomplish what I need to do?

[GKusnick]

Seems to me it might be simpler for your purposes to turn the problem inside out. Instead of having Sage execute a batch file every time it enters or exits full-screen mode, create a batch file you can run from Windows that (among other things) commands Sage to enter/exit full-screen mode. Executing SageTV commands from a command prompt is covered in Appendix D of the SageTV manual (not the Studio manual).

If you need to be able to do it entirely from within Sage, you could probably accomplish that by using the Configurable Main Menu plugin to create a custom menu item without having to delve into Studio.

If Studio is your only option, then yes, you'd need a Listener to intercept the default handling of the Full Screen command and launch your batch file from there using ExecuteProcess. (Although in your case there's no need to pass in the path of a media file as in your sample code.)

Have you ever done any programming before, of any sort? The answer to that will impact your ability to learn Studio quickly (and our ability to give you advice appropriate to your skill level).

[timg11]

Greg,

Thanks for the reply. I really want SageTV to handle this directly. If there is a way to run Windows batch commands from the Hauppauge remote, I don't know how to do it. Also, manually changing modes leaves the possibility that the mode will be left in the wrong state when SageTV crashes and forces a reboot, or the system reboots for some other reason.

I have done lots of programming in C, Pascal, Perl, PHP, etc, but not Java.
Can you point me to an example of any existing Studio widget that does something similar to what I want?

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by timg11

If there is a way to run Windows batch commands from the Hauppauge remote, I don't know how to do it.

The Configurable Main Menu plugin lets you run a batch file (or other external program) from a SageTV menu item. If you're talking about binding a button on the remote directly to a batch file, without having to navigate menus, there's probably a way to do that with Girder or EventGhost, but I'm not an expert on that.

Originally Posted by timg11

Also, manually changing modes leaves the possibility that the mode will be left in the wrong state when SageTV crashes and forces a reboot, or the system reboots for some other reason.

Sorry, I'm not following your logic on this. If a crash-and-reboot while in full-screen/primary monitor mode is going to be a problem for you, then won't it still be a problem regardless of how you got into that mode? Or are you just worried that if it's too much of a chore to take it out of full-screen mode, people will tend to leave it in full-screen mode when idle?

Originally Posted by timg11

Can you point me to an example of any existing Studio widget that does something similar to what I want?

I don't know of one in the stock STV off the top of my head, but the Studio tutorial on Listeners includes an example of intercepting the Full Screen command.

[razrsharpe]

to accomplish what you want i would look at ultramon (http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/). You can set up display profiles to switch which monitor is the primary and then have keyboard shortcuts apply those profiles. Not sure if you can have a certain profile applied when starting a program, but its worth a shot. IR commands are basically keyboard shortcuts so you can try mapping the keyboard shortcut for you profile to the one for full screen toggle... not sure if this would work but again its worth a try.