Media Center starts on the wrong screen, any idea ?

[DavidinCT]

Hi,

SO, I have run into an issue that I cant figure out. I have 2 HDMI cables running out of my HTPC, one with DVI-I (DVI with audio) to HDMI and one HDMI.

HDMI goes to the A/V Receiver (for HD audio), the DVI-I to HDMI goes to a 2160p @60hz HDMI port on my TV (the receiver itself will only support 2160p @30hz, want 60hz so this is the reason for doing this).

When ever I click "the green button" it will default to the HDMI port and force me down to a lower res. I want it to default to the DVI-I port.

In Windows settings, the DVI-I port is set as the Primary monitor...

I have tried...
1. Moving MC over to the correct Window, resizing and maximizing a few times, then closing, opens on the wrong monitor.
2. Disconnected the HDMI cable, and rebooted PC, started on the DVI port but, as soon as I reconnected the HDMI cable and rebooted, it starts on the HDMI port.
3. I swapped cables, so DVI goes to the receiver and HDMI to the TV, no change, it just reverses and goes to back to the wrong port (Must be the EDID in the TV keeping the main monitor.

So, is there a way, registry or anything else to tell MC what monitor to start with ? Or does a rebuild need to be done here.

The wife uses the MC all the time, and if this computer gets rebooted and it goes to the wrong monitor, the WAF goes out the window....and my phone rings at work...not good...

Any idea ?

[newfiend]

well.. I don't know of anyway to force it to pick one monitor or another.. but .. Tax Return season is close.. good excuse to update the AVR?.. Just sayin'.. =)
Other than that could you use an Optical Cable for Audio instead or do you need support for the HD Audio formats like TrueHD and DTS-HD?
Ah I see you need HD Audio Support.. I don't think this is possible from what I have read/seen.. may be time to update that AVR..
newfiend~

[richard1980]

[crawfish]

1. Moving MC over to the correct Window, resizing and maximizing a few times, then closing, opens on the wrong monitor.

Don't maximize before you close. I've found that WMC will reliably open on the display it was last closed on while in windowed mode.

To deal with my two displays, I have buttons on my remote mapped to commands that switch between windowed/full screen modes and move the active window between displays.

ETA: After you've closed it once in windowed mode, you should be able to restore it to full screen, and once you close it again, it will remember its full screen state and the display it was on after that. IOW, you don't have to perpetually close it in windowed mode.

[DavidinCT]

1. Moving MC over to the correct Window, resizing and maximizing a few times, then closing, opens on the wrong monitor.

Don't maximize before you close. I've found that WMC will reliably open on the display it was last closed on while in windowed mode.

To deal with my two displays, I have buttons on my remote mapped to commands that switch between windowed/full screen modes and move the active window between displays.

ETA: After you've closed it once in windowed mode, you should be able to restore it to full screen, and once you close it again, it will remember its full screen state and the display it was on after that. IOW, you don't have to perpetually close it in windowed mode.

Ah, Tried that.... So, I ran through the wizard, on the TV and closed it and it still stayed on the wrong screen. So I shrunk it down to a window...dragged it to the main window, then closed, then when I re-opened it, it stayed !

That was it, very interesting. So it needed to be in a Window, not full screen when closed. I think I tried everything else besides that...

Thanks, this is working now, awesome.

well.. I don't know of anyway to force it to pick one monitor or another.. but .. Tax Return season is close.. good excuse to update the AVR?.. Just sayin'.. =)
Other than that could you use an Optical Cable for Audio instead or do you need support for the HD Audio formats like TrueHD and DTS-HD?
Ah I see you need HD Audio Support.. I don't think this is possible from what I have read/seen.. may be time to update that AVR..
newfiend~

Nah, I just got this Denon receiver...(2 year old flagship) It does HD audio, took me a few days playing with Codecs to get it configured(was pulling out hair for a few days but, figured it all out) but, I do get DD-HD and DTS-HD master audio out of it now. So that aspect works great now (cant do optical, needs to be HDMI to get the HD audio).

So, now that it's working, now I just need 2160p movies with DTS-HD master audio and I will be happy.

Windows Media Center running a 3840 x 2160 (2160p) with HD audio and it runs really good at 60hz....

see...

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=5&t=8325

[crawfish]

Ah, Tried that.... So, I ran through the wizard, on the TV and closed it and it still stayed on the wrong screen. So I shrunk it down to a window...dragged it to the main window, then closed, then when I re-opened it, it stayed !

Great!

That was it, very interesting. So it needed to be in a Window, not full screen when closed. I think I tried everything else besides that...

Thanks, this is working now, awesome.

It's pretty random. I doubt I would have noticed it if I didn't regularly run WMC in a window alongside Firefox on my main display. I've got it now to where it will remember size and position of the windowed state so it appears at the lower left corner of my screen, and Firefox remembers its non-maximized size and position as well and gets out of the way to the right. When I'm done using WMC this way, I use a keyboard or remote shortcut to move it back to the TV in the windowed state before closing it, and it will open on the TV next time. Then I typically press a remote button to full-screen it, and I'm done. XMBC is a bit better about this, in that I can usually full-screen it and it will remember, but occasionally, it gets hopelessly confused, and I have to go into its settings menu and correct the situation.

[DavidinCT]

Ugh, this still happens. Sometimes I will switch over from another source and it will be in a window, other times it will be on the wrong screen, TOTALY random. Out of 10 times using it, 4-5 times I will have an issue.

Is it even possible to disable the video on the 2nd monitor and just use it for audio ? I even tried to drop the monitor down to 800 X 600 but, when it's goes over to it, it shows at 2160p @ 30hz...

There is no registry setting to set preferred monitor so it ALWAYS starts on the same monitor or anything ?

[leroys1000]

Check control panel/display settings.
You might be able to set the primary monitor there.

[DavidinCT]

Check control panel/display settings.
You might be able to set the primary monitor there.

Yea, the primary monitor is set, as the start menu is on the screen that is connected directly to the TV. This did not help. Would need a setting in WMC to set that if possible.

[crawfish]

Ugh, this still happens. Sometimes I will switch over from another source and it will be in a window, other times it will be on the wrong screen, TOTALY random. Out of 10 times using it, 4-5 times I will have an issue.

Sorry, it works reliably for me, but I don't doubt it can be a YMMV kind of thing. I do have my video card connected directly to the TV, so it never disappears from Windows and is unaffected by switching sources, powering equipment on/off, etc. I'm using plain old 1080p, though.

[DavidinCT]

Ugh, this still happens. Sometimes I will switch over from another source and it will be in a window, other times it will be on the wrong screen, TOTALY random. Out of 10 times using it, 4-5 times I will have an issue.

Sorry, it works reliably for me, but I don't doubt it can be a YMMV kind of thing. I do have my video card connected directly to the TV, so it never disappears from Windows and is unaffected by switching sources, powering equipment on/off, etc. I'm using plain old 1080p, though.

Yea, I set it at 1080p for testing and it still does the same thing. Wish there was a way to disable the 2nd monitor and just use it for audio. I would think this would solve this problem for good.

Might be time for a rebuilt....

[Heckler]

Could this be an outgrowth of an HDCP issue?

Your DVI->HDMI connection isn't going to be HDCP-compliant like the HDMI connection is, so WMC may be defaulting to the HDMI port because it is HDCP-compliant. This could be tied to the same issue that you can't mirror the HDMI and VGA ports (for supporting in-case touchscreens) w/o running afoul of HDCP...

Just a thought.

[crawfish]

Could this be an outgrowth of an HDCP issue?

Your DVI->HDMI connection isn't going to be HDCP-compliant like the HDMI connection is

DVI->HDMI should be HDCP-compliant.

[Heckler]

Could this be an outgrowth of an HDCP issue?

Your DVI->HDMI connection isn't going to be HDCP-compliant like the HDMI connection is

DVI->HDMI should be HDCP-compliant.

Not always true with DVI-I... DVI-I includes both Analog and Digital in either a Single Link or Dual Link connection, so it could be running afoul of HDCP because it's DVI-I, not DVI-D.

[crawfish]

Not always true with DVI-I... DVI-I includes both Analog and Digital in either a Single Link or Dual Link connection, so it could be running afoul of HDCP because it's DVI-I, not DVI-D.

Examples? DVI->HDMI is a digital connection. The analog pins are in addition to the standard digital pins in a DVI-I port and are not used in the OP's case. I guess a manufacturer could cripple the DVI-D part of such a port by omitting HDCP, but I'm not aware that's common practice.

[Heckler]

Not always true with DVI-I... DVI-I includes both Analog and Digital in either a Single Link or Dual Link connection, so it could be running afoul of HDCP because it's DVI-I, not DVI-D.

Examples? DVI->HDMI is a digital connection. The analog pins are in addition to the standard digital pins in a DVI-I port and are not used in the OP's case. I guess a manufacturer could cripple the DVI-D part of such a port by omitting HDCP, but I'm not aware that's common practice.

No examples to provide... My point being that since the analog pins are there in addition to the digital pins, if any of them create a signal to ground circuit, that may be all it takes for HDCP in WMC to say "this connection is also analog".

My point being that HDCP in WMC objects if you have one TV connected to the HDMI port and a monitor connected to the Analog (VGA) jack of the same video card. While I haven't compared the pin-outs of a DVI-I -> HDMI cable to a DVI-D -> HDMI cable, there may be just one pin that is telling WMC that the analog side of the DVI-I is connected and thus it violates HDCP...

I would try a DVI-D -> HDCP cable.

[crawfish]

I would try a DVI-D -> HDCP cable.

I would think all DVI->HDMI cables are DVI-D on that end.

[Heckler]

I would try a DVI-D -> HDCP cable.

I would think all DVI->HDMI cables are DVI-D on that end.

Har, Har... Clearly we both know I meant DVI-D -> HDMI.

[crawfish]

I would try a DVI-D -> HDCP cable.

I would think all DVI->HDMI cables are DVI-D on that end.

Har, Har... Clearly we both know I meant DVI-D -> HDMI.

I wasn't commenting on the typo. My point was, why would a cable that has HDMI on one end have DVD-I on the other?

ETA: Oh, I guess you didn't mean to say "cable", either. It wouldn't hurt to try a DVI-D port, but I'm still skeptical it will help. I used the DVI-I port on my Asus GT430 for a long time with no HDCP problems. I'd be surprised if they're even rarely crippled.

[Heckler]

I wasn't commenting on the typo. My point was, why would a cable that has HDMI on one end have DVD-I on the other?

ETA: Oh, I guess you didn't mean to say "cable", either. It wouldn't hurt to try a DVI-D port, but I'm still skeptical it will help. I used the DVI-I port on my Asus GT430 for a long time with no HDCP problems. I'd be surprised if they're even rarely crippled.

No, i actually meant DVI-D cable, not port (I've not seen a video card that has both a DVI-D and DVI-I port, and as I recall, most of the them are DVI-I ports if not Dual-Link DVI-I ports). DavidinCT has already stated that he is using a DVI-I -> HDMI cable, so his video card clearly has a DVI-I port on it. While I would expect the pins on the HDMI connector to align with nearly exclusively the DVI-D pins in the DVI-I connector, it may be that something as simple as the shield/ground on the HDMI pins is connected to the Shield/Ground on both the DVI-I and DVI-D pins, such that there is a closed circuit on the DVI-I pins which HDCP in WMC is seeing as an analog connection and thus not allowing the display to be used. Mind you, as I said, I've not compared the pin-outs (and it could be specific to the DVI-I -> HDMI cable)...

To your point, on face, it doesn't make much sense to me to even MAKE a DVI-I -> HDMI cable. It's a SWAG on my part...just trying to help.