Startup on 2nd Screen

[HotteHotte 5]

Hi,

 

just gave Emby Theater a try after using Kodi for a long time, and I'm liking it a lot. However there's one issue which I find a little annoying.

Every time I launch the program it appears on my primary screen (pc monitor) and I have to manually drag the window over to my second screen (TV).

Is there a way to select on which screen Emby Theater will appear once the program is launched?

[daedalus 430]

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Theater.Windows/issues/327

[Luke 39789]

Hi, yea we still have some work to do regarding multi-monitor usage.

[HotteHotte 5]

Okay, now at least I know it's not something I'm doing wrong.

In fact the information on github helped in some way. Now I know that the program always starts on the screen on which the mouse pointer is on, so I just move the pointer to my second screen before launching Emby Theater.

It's not ideal, but this way I don't have to move the window each time I start the program.

 

I'm looking forward to have this issue fixed in the future.

Keep up the good work!

[Harblar 29]

Okay, now at least I know it's not something I'm doing wrong.

In fact the information on github helped in some way. Now I know that the program always starts on the screen on which the mouse pointer is on, so I just move the pointer to my second screen before launching Emby Theater.

It's not ideal, but this way I don't have to move the window each time I start the program.

 

I'm looking forward to have this issue fixed in the future.

Keep up the good work!

 

Even better, just create a desktop icon for Emby and put it on the secondary monitor's desktop.  Then you don't have to remember to move your mouse when you start it. :-)

 

 

On A somewhat related note, it'd be great to see a whole slough of Multi-monitor options eventually.  For Instance, be able to set up one monitor as the dedicated screen for all Video Playback and the other strictly for browsing the library. It would be fantastic for those of us planning to use Emby in a dedicated theater environment. I'd be able to setup a touch screen outside the theater, browse and pick my movie, and then have it play some intro's/trailers/etc...  while everybody goes in and gets comfortable. Tie in the home automation aspect for lighting control and you really have a versatile and easy to use program that doesn't require a lot of jury rigging to get working correctly. :-)

[TheShanMan 38]

I'm finding that the "starts on the monitor where the mouse is" thing doesn't work, at least for me. But I've got a slight variant of a secondary monitor use case. My use case is I've got 2 TV's. One is my HDTV and one is an old B+W tube TV for watching B+W TV shows and 4:3 B+W movies. So while I may be able to script moving the mouse to the other monitor when I want to switch (if that was actually working), it would be nice if there was a way to specify a monitor on startup (command line parameter, config file option, even registry option).

 

The way I'm doing things now with WMC is I use scripts and EventGhost to kill WMC, configure the monitor I want, and then restart WMC. So that's basically what I'd like to do with Theater (assuming there isn't a better way).

 

I know this is likely a very unusual use case but I'm hoping that whatever the plans are for multi-monitor support, they will accommodate my use case in some way. For now I'll probably just try using Theater on the main monitor and WMC on the secondary. My hope was to see if Theater was far enough along for me to ditch WMC altogether and upgrade to Windows 10 before the end of the free period.

 

As an aside, If I use shift+windows+left/right to move the window to the other monitor, the primary monitor is left with a black screen. I'm guessing that is an indication that Theater isn't currently very friendly to that method of moving the window.

[daedalus 430]

I'm finding that the "starts on the monitor where the mouse is" thing doesn't work, at least for me.

 

v2.5.2 and on broke this now it always starts on the primary screen no matter what you do

really can't understand why multiscreen user get so neglected this issues are present from the begining

[TheShanMan 38]

Yeah, even if they just added a config file option that you have to manually add as a holdover until the full plans, whatever those are, are implemented, I think we secondary monitor folks would be pretty content. After all, I'm sure we're by far in the minority so we'd be content with a quick fix like that.

[DanSco 1]

Hi,

 

I'm having the same Issue, in Win 10, I've remapped my WMC remote to start Theater, but it always starts on the Pimary (Monitor) rather than the secondary (HDTV).

 

WMC used to do this ocassionally as well, but it's very frustrating, any news on when it will be resolved?

 

Rgds

[TheShanMan 38]

Still hoping for this too. And if you try to drag it over to the other monitor and make it go full screen, it'll go full screen on the primary monitor.

[Magilla 8]

Hello,

I would really like to see this issue fixed as this currently prevents me to switch to Emby Theater.

 

I have my HDTV connected via HDMI as secondary display on my PC. Even if I drag the Emby window on the second display I cannot make it full screen because the "Windows" + Up keyboard shortcut doesn't work with Emby (curiosly enough, "Windows" Down works). I cannot use the mouse as my TV is in another room so I'm really stuck.

 

Any advice (keyboard shortcut, scripts or other tools) to make my Emby go full screen on my second display ?

 

Thanks

Magilla

[Luke 39789]

Thank you for the report.

[Magilla 8]

YW Luke.

 

as additional info for your bug fixing, I managed to attach a second monitor close to my PC with an HDMI splitter so I can use my mouse to control Emby on my secondary monitor. The behavior is...unexpected...as even if I drag and drop Emby to the second monitor, when I maximize it, it comes back to the primary! Looks like EMby Theater can only maximized on the primary monitor.

 

Looking forward for a solution. thx

 

Magilla

[yardameus 220]

I've had no issue with Shift + Win + Left (or right key, my secondary is to the left) with moving ET.  Although, if ET is maximized, it blanks out the primary monitor.  Hoping against hope for mulit-monitor solution.  

[Luke 39789]

Is remembering the monitor basically what you're looking for?

[yardameus 220]

Yes.  

[TheShanMan 38]

That would be a start, provided the monitor position info is saved in a config file that could be manipulated by a script, but a command line parameter would be the better option for my use case. In other words, ultimately I need to be able to choose the monitor at startup.

[Magilla 8]

Hello, on my quest to use Emby Theatre on my second display (which is actually a Samsung TV connected via HDMI) I've found a shortcut sequence which works constantly for me (Shift - Windows - right arrow). When I launch ET on my primary display (i.e. my PC monitor) I immediately use the shortcut above to move ET to my TV and maximize it (my TV is configured as to be on the right side of my PC Monitor).

 

So far so good, but I would like to give AutoHotKey a try to write a simple script so I could launch it with my Harmony Remote. For compatibility (and consistency) I would use the MediaCenter (aka The Green Button) on my remote to launch ET, however to be complete I would need ET to recognize the MediaCenter Button to regain focus / go back to home screen while playing. Unfortunately there is no more a "The Maxifier" utility for Emby (was great for my WMC setup!).

 

@@Luke, it's my request reasonable? do my plans above makes sense to achieve what I need or you / anybody else have better ideas?

 

Thx

Magilla

[Luke 39789]

I plan to just have it remember the monitor, that makes the most sense i think.

[TheShanMan 38]

Will a script be able to switch the monitor by tweaking a config file or whatever?

[Magilla 8]

Hello,

as anticipated, I played a bit with a bunch of utilities and I think I achieved what I wanted, which was: "Launch ET using the Media Center Button of my remote from remote, show it on my second display which is actually my TV and maximize ET Window to full screen"

 

It works so far even if I need to do more testing. My setup requires:

1. WinLIRC
2. WinLIRC Helper (you can download it from the WinLIRC website)
3. AutoHotKey

I use WinLIRC to capture my MCE Remote commands and WinLIRC Helper to translate the Green Button code into a keyboard sequence (I use Ctrl-E to launch Emby Theater). With a simple script of AutoHotKey I execute ET when the "Ctrl-E" hotkey is pressed and by automatically sending just after the shift-Windows-Right hotkeys I move ET Window where I want, as maximized.

 

Now I should admit using three different utilities for such a simple task is a bit overkill  and I would have preferred something simpler, but at the moment is what I have been able to. To be clear, WinLIRC Helper was necessary to me because I really wanted to use the original Media Center Green button to launch ET, and I couldn't find a way for AutoHotKey to recognize it even if I played a lot with the WinLIRC AutoHotKey script in the documentation. Maybe someone smarter can help me out

 

if you are interested, I've attached the script I'm using (you need to change extension back to ahk). The script launches WinLIRC (WL) and WinLIRC Helper (WLH) simply using two shortcuts saved in the same directory where the script is for convenience and then associate Ctrl-E to an action which runs Emby Theater (again I use a shortcut to the actual executable) and does the magic

The AHK script is executed at windows logon so is always there when I need it.

 

Everything is very basic and hard coded but hopefully can help someone while we wait for a more robust solution by the Emby team.

 

Magilla

 

ETLaunch.txt

[yardameus 220]

Any hope that this (remembering monitor/postion) or some sort of setting for which monitor to display on will be implemented soon?  This (and new theme development) is the only thing preventing me from heavily using/testing Emby Theater.

[daedalus 430]

i hope so too

its more than 1 YEAR by now that this issue hasn't been worked on

[Luke 39789]

@@HotteHotte

@@daedalus

@@TheShanMan

@@Magilla

@@yardameus

@@DanSco

@@Harblar

 

The next release of Emby Theater will feature improved performance, hardware acceleration, and better multi-monitor support. If you'd like to try it out ahead of time you can do so here:

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/46763-theater-mpv-test/page-1

 

Enjoy.

[DanSco 1]

Sorry @@Luke I was doing Exams for the last week (Ironically one of them was on the SDLC !!  )  So Internet access and TV have been restricted.

 

Anyway. I've found this works perfectly now that I'm on 2.6.7. Also like the progress bars in the Now ON Section of Live TV, although I'm now happy with this screen really and prefer the EPG screen.

 

But I have about 100 Hours of TV to Catch up on now