Dim ONLY one of two monitors

[seth.feinberg]

I have my htpc hooked up to a monitor (through DVI) and a TV (through HDMI) and am running the latest version of Eventghost on Win7 64bit Service Pack 2 (I think, I'm not in front of my computer). I've been trying to find a way to dim JUST the monitor when I'm watching XBMC on the TV. Is this possible?

I saw this post: http://www.eventghost.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=535 but the System->Put monitor to sleep puts BOTH monitors to sleep and doesn't seem to take any configuration options.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks again!

[jonib]

I've been trying to find a way to dim JUST the monitor when I'm watching XBMC on the TV. Is this possible?

I believe XBMC has an option like that in the video settings. can't check now, so not sure if it's what your after.

jonib

[seth.feinberg]

O there is! Great point, but is there a way to assign that to an MCE keypress in Eventghost?

[jonib]

O there is! Great point, but is there a way to assign that to an MCE keypress in Eventghost?

I haven't seen a direct way. But if you make a feature request to XBMC to control that option with for example JSON-RPC. It then would work to control it from my XBMC2 plugin.

jonib

[themaster1]

Great idea we need an option in eventghost to put in sleep mode monitor 1 or 2 without affecting the other, not sure if that's doable

[wakko]

It's easy to achieve with hotkeys. If your video card driver has support for that. I'm pretty shure it has that support.
Except relatively modern nvidias. For nvidia, you can use a "workaround".

Switching displays:

Code: Select all

C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe nvcpl.dll, NvCycleDisplayDeviceEx

I tested it, it works.

Also, check out that: http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/ ... -monitors/
But i have not tested that.

[blaher]

For ATI:
The other way is just to have have 2 display profiles in CCC, 1 with the (monitor enabled / TV disabled) & vice-versa.

C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static\CLI.exe
Start Load profilename="TV"

Then you can trigger it with XBMC starting for example.

[seth.feinberg]

It's easy to achieve with hotkeys. If your video card driver has support for that. I'm pretty shure it has that support.
Except relatively modern nvidias. For nvidia, you can use a "workaround".

Switching displays:

Code: Select all

C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe nvcpl.dll, NvCycleDisplayDeviceEx

I tested it, it works.

Also, check out that: http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/ ... -monitors/
But i have not tested that.

For ATI:
The other way is just to have have 2 display profiles in CCC, 1 with the (monitor enabled / TV disabled) & vice-versa.

C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static\CLI.exe
Start Load profilename="TV"

Then you can trigger it with XBMC starting for example.

Wow guys, thanks so much for the suggestions. Though I have to admit: I don't fully understand either of your solutions but judging by the language they contain, I'm guessing the issues on my end:).

@wakko, I do have a relatively new nVidia (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814500202) but don't fully understand your solution.

I guess in both suggestions, are you guys constructing simple Bat files? Or is this a method I'm unfamiliar with for getting Eventghost to recognize the individual monitors so that EG can perform individual tasks on them (in my case, dimming just one of them)? I guess I'm just confused because it seems that both of your suggestions employ the act of "switching the monitors" for some reason, something that I don't really need outright. I'm sorry I'm so noobish but if you could provide just a bit more clarification I would be very grateful.

@Blaher, for example I don't know what the acronym CCC refers to? Is it an ATI specific GUI? In any event, if its being triggered when XBMC is started, then I might as well use the XBMC in-house option of "dimming other monitor", right?

[blaher]

I guess in both suggestions, are you guys constructing simple Bat files?

No, I'm talking about executing a command line with a different argument, or commandline option. Below is a screenshot that might give you a better idea:

http://i.imgur.com/4p8yo.png

To clarify further, when you right click on the desktop and pick Catalyst Control Centre (CCC) for ATI cards, or the Nvidia Control Panel you can choose what to do with multiple monitors, i.e. which ones are enabled and disabled, different resolutions, etc.
http://i.imgur.com/KsoR4.png

In my first screenshot, you can see I have a profile called PJ, (for projector), which disables one monitor, ( my computer monitor), and enables the other one, (my projector) at a certain resolution.

I have another profile called 1200p, which does the opposite, it disables the projector monitor, and enables my computer monitor and sets the resolution to 1200p.

So by running either profile, I can choose which screen is blank,(disabled), or create another profile where they are both running, etc.

If the Nvidia software doesn't let you run profiles from a command line, you can still create the profile and then assign it a hot key, and then use EventGhost's 'emulate keystrokes'.

In any event, if its being triggered when XBMC is started, then I might as well use the XBMC in-house option of "dimming other monitor", right?

Yes, it sounds like it, if XBMC is the only program you run on your TV.

[seth.feinberg]

Wow, so very very helpful. Thank you so much!