Problem with picture on TV

[Timh]

I am currently setting my pc up for MCE.
I do not have a tv card connected as of yet
I have set my Graphics card to dualview, the tv settings being 720 X 576 50Hertz, connected to my rear projection tv via s-video.
I can see the initial boot up until it gets to windows boot up and then after windows has loaded I just get my wallpaper on my tv (no short cuts and no task bar, and when I launch WME the wallpaper still shows with no programmes visible.

Any idea's whats wrong?

Thanks

[Spacecat]

dont use dual view, have the TV as the primary and only monitor

[dejongj]

You've set it up to extend the desktop on the dualview....Start up an application in a a windowed mode, for example internet explorer, then drag it to the right of you main screen and you should start seeing it on your TV.....

I really dislike dual-view in an HTPC setup....Love it on my normal desktop environment....For HTPC uses I would just switch it off...And make the TV the primary screen or just 'clone' (terminology depends on what graphics card you use) your main screen...

[Timh]

Thanks all...I will test it with just the TV set to primary.
Graphics card is a MSI FX5600128

[darkovo666]

I am using Dualview with no issues (now), see my post:
16:9 format in MCE2005 with my nVidia 6800LE card problem

When you first start using Dualview there will be nothing on the Secondary display (just the background picture), just drag any Window over to that side (usually to the right of the PC monitor) then maximise the Window. There are other tools available for enhancements to Dualview too. It's all down to personal preference.

[dejongj]

I thought you still have the issue that you can't have MCE maximised on one display and do something else on another? To me that sounds like an issue and perhaps evens defeats the objective?

[darkovo666]

But there's no alternative that would work better for me at the mo' so I'm lead to believe, most of the time I won't be using the PC but when I do I guess I just need to put the TV into Windowed view and zoom in a bit to get it as near to full screen as possible.

I'm hoping this issue will be resolved in a newer release of Media Center/Vista.

[dejongj]

Fair enough...I just picked up on your statement that you have NO issues running it dualview...Which isn't really the case is it....

[Timh]

Microsoft advertise the fact that you can have a PC monitor and a TV connected at the same time with MCE.
So why is it such a pain to get the image to show correctly on the TV?
I dont want to drag the window over and then maximize it on my tv.
I should be able to use which screen I like while using dual view.
Is there a fix anywhere that can solve this problem?

Thanks

[Timh]

Forget dualview, set your monitor as primary and then change from dualview to clone, the image is now in the centre of my tv screen.
The only drawback so far is that WME is cropped slighly on my tv because the resolutions have to be the same.
How do i setup hotkeys to change the resolution?

[dejongj]

LOL Were you answering your own question? The answer was correct!

Does the resolution really have to be the same? Isn't there a setting on the s-Video output that allows the graphics card to down-scale your normal windows desktop inside an s-video frame? That way you can basically display a 1280x1024 picture inside a lower resolution....
You will most likely get a little over/under scan...again I think there are settings on the nVidia control panel (there are on my 6600Gt) to adjust for over/under scan...Alternatively there may be zoom settings on your TV itself to compensate for it...