barrygordon

I have an extensive Home Theater which has been recently changed to use a single PC to control the theater and also run my own movie librarian software and my P2E Slideshows. The system is configured with a dual monitor output with the desktop extended across the two monitors. The PC places control and status information about the theater on a dedicated monitor (VGA) and places the librarian output on a second monitor which is actually a HD 1080p projection system. The monitors are aligned at the top and the projector is to the right of the smaller dislay. Ergo the projectors coordinates on the extended desktop are (1024,0). If I run an exe, the system places the output at 0,0. I would like to be able to have the slideshow exe of P2E place its output at 1024,0 not 0,0. Can this be done? As an alternate way of doing this, I could Build a DVD file on my Hard Drive and have my DVD player play the file. Or build an AVI file and play it in a small frame at the coordinates I desire. Neither of these seems as flexible as being able to float the position of the slide show onto an extended desktop as I could not just run a visitors P2E exe file. Any Help appreciated

In some installations I have come across, a dual monitor setup is configured as an extended desktop across the two monitors. One monitor feeds a simple LCD screen (1024x768) while the other monitor output feeds a HD projector (1080p). The small monitor is to the left of the large monitor with both of their tops at 0. To have P2E play its exe slideshow on the "second" monitor requires (AFAIK) the image to be offset so the left edge is at the left edge of the second monitor which is at, lets say, 1024 pixels from the left edge of the desktop. Could a feature be added to define monitor coordinates when starting a slideshow exe (or less ideally when building the slideshow exe)? The coordinates would be top and left in pixels to define the origin point (in my case 0,1024). In this manner the slide show could be floated to any location on the desktop. The feature to use a second monitor does not work if the desktop has been extended across the two monitors.

I plan on using P2E to make fancy (but not too fancy) slide shows. Something like some of the work done by "The DOM" for use in my theater. The theater has two PCs. One controls all of the components and operates from instructions sent by either a Pronto PRO or an iPad via TCP/IP (Wi-Fi). One of the components is the other PC. This second PC runs a small control program that takes commands from the first PC (TCP/IP) and runs my DVD librarian and shows slide shows using my own program or P2E. This PC connects to the Theater's projector via the theaters A/V Processor over HDMI. The control program on the PC running P2E is generally doing nothing. It waits for a message (interrupt event) from the main control PC and then quickly acts on it. I just tested using some of the Dom's demos and it works fine. Prior, Next, pause, play, stop all work and since the control program is doing nothing until it gets a command there is no visible effect on the slideshow. When it gets a command from the main control PC it uses the SendKeys functionality of Windows to send the correct key code. Appears to be working with no issues, Thanks for the help

Thanks for the reply peter. I still have an issue, and perhaps you or someone on this forum can advise me. The PC is an ASUS ION 330 which is not that powerful, but does run a P2E slideshow exe which is heavily animated. The screen size is 1920x1080. The OS is Win 7. What I have noticed is that when the slideshow is running no other processes seem to get cpu time. Is this because of the high degree of animation? Would a more conventional slide show with perhaps animation to only change slides allow for another app on the same machine to get CPU cycles during the period when the slide is being viewed as opposed to being changed? Thanks in advance, and help appreciated.

I am using P2E to buld slide shows for my home theater. I launch the slideshow exe from a control program that is always running on the same pC that is running the slideshow. The control program receives input from a Pronto PRO or apple iPad to control the what is going on. I would like to be able to control the running slideshow by using "SendKeys" from the windows control program that is running in the same machine as the slide show. I understand how to use the "Advanced" tab of "Project Options" to enable this feature. My question is what keyboard keys perform what actions? In particular: Pause, Play, Stop/Quit, Next, Previous. Thanks in advance

I come back every few months to see if dual Monitor support is implemented... Thank you Igor. It appears to work fine in my theater for some of the test cases I have run, but I have a few questions: Is there any way to control the running of the EXE file while it is executing, for example pausing the show, or changing the slide time, or stopping and advancing manually? If so where can I find the documentation on doing those kinds of things>

A TV set has different resolutions than a PC. I suspect that the PC is running at one of the standard PC resolutions which may not be able to be handled by the TV. For what you are trying to do you normally need a dual output capability where the laptop screen and the Laptops video output jack which is feeding the TV run at different resolutions. The TV probably wants to see resoultions like 1080P (1920x1080), or 720p (1230x720) etc. Your laptop may be running at something not compatible with the TV, and the TV may not be able to scale the signal. IF the TV has a VGA type connection it will probably accept PC resolutions through that connector, but probably wom't accept them over HDMI. Check your TV's mnanual for connecting a PC.

That capability was provided as of 5.7 beta 6 I believe. I briefly played with it and reported some minor bugs I discovered in the short time I tried it. My configuration is the same as yours. The projector screen (extended desktop) is to the right of the main screen and top aligned.

Okay guys, Don't fight over me, but I am flattered. Thank you Igor for the answer. I did post some issues I found with the Beta and the dual monitors which I presume was taken under advisement. I am looking forward to running Picture2EXE slide shows of my family and friends in my Theater. The Theater is controlled by a black box PC with dual monitor output and an extended desktop. The main monitor (top left) is a 21" display (SVGA) used for status information while the Projector (133" diagonal 1080p) is the second monitor (top right). The PC is a true "Black Box" with no controls except power on/off in the back, and is all cooling fins (both sides) as there are no fans in the unit. Gets very warm to the touch but CPU temp is well within specs. Obviously it makes no noise, which was the primary consideration in its design. On a power failure it just reboots and restarts the main application.

Any idea on when Pictures2Exe 5.7 will be officially released as a non beta ? I have just bought 5.6 standard and assume I am entitled to the upgrade at no additional cost. It is the 5.7 version I need (dual monitor feature)

I would also suggest that you look into the 5.7 dual display demo. I am also interested in making slide shows in 16:9 and have posted a "Bug/issue" in the new features section on the 5.7 dual display demo. I am interested in any info on how to set up PTE for 16:9. I am a total newbe to PTE2EXE, in fact I have been waiting for dual display capability prior to buying it. Looks like I will be buying 5.7 as soon as it is released.

I finally got some time to play with the 5.7 beta demo. First my hardware configuration for reference: Computer is an Intel 945G chipset feeding two monitors directly. Display 1 is set at 1024x768 and is a vga monitor. Display 2 is set at 1920x1080 and is a JVC RS2 digital projector being fed by a DVDO video processor (All over HDMI, PC -> Scaler ->Projector). Display 2 is positioned to the right of Display 1 top aligned, so its upper left coordinates are 1024,0 Operating system is Windows XP Pro SP2 Display 1 is primary and Display 2 is secondary with the desktop extended over Display 2 Display 2 is blank just showing a background color (that is the desktop background) Display 1 is showing the normal assortment of windows folders including a shortcut to the bat file to start the demo on display 2. I click on the shortcut. The bat file opens on Display 1 and the initial control screen appears on display 1, no change yet to Display 2. I click on RUN in the demo control screen on Display 1. Display 2 gets a copy of the primary monitor repeated (tiled) as if it were the desktop background with the demo control screen showing. A few seconds later the slide show actually starts and fills the screen in the middle of Display 2 at the pixel size of the slide show. the Display 2 screen still contains the incorrect background image with the slide show in the foreground and the incorrect background image appearing around the slide show. The demo slide show now runs properly (in the middle of the screen) and actually looks very good. I believe that what is happening is that somehow at startup of the PTE Demo (Clicking Run), the Display 1 image as it exists is being transfered to Display 2 and tiled to fill the screen (1024x768 vs 1920x1080). That appears to be the only thing I see wrong in my configuration. I suspect that if the slide show was actually built with a resolution of 1920x1080 it would properly fill Display 2. The issue of the tiling of Display 2 with the Display 1 image is incorrect and I do not know why it is happening (Bug?). In my work I merely treat the two monitors as a single desktop and place things I want on Display 2 at (1024,0) and things I want on Display 1 at (0,0) with Display 1 graphics constrained in a rectangle of the same resolution as Display 1 so they do not spill into display 2. Nice job though!

I have been waiting a long time for this. Thank you very much! any idea when a beta of 5.7 will be out so I can begin to play with it?

This addressed to the admin/developers: Will PTE ever be able to direct a full screen slide show to a monitor other than the main display, e.g. to a monitor mapped as an etended desktop?

I concur, but that is not what I want/need.

In my theater I have a PC that drives two monitors, one the primary desktop, is 1024x768 and is used to display system status. The second (Monitor 2) is the Projector in the theater at 1920x1080p. I map monitor 2 (the projector) to be an extended desktop flush at the top of the primary monitor and to the right of the primary monitor. Ergo its upper left hand corner is at coordinates 1024,0. When I want to display things on that monitor I simply offset the left coordinate by 1024 pixels. If there is someway to do that with the 5.6 release, I would appreciate someone telling me how. Thanks

In my theater I have a PC that drives two monitors, one the primary desktop, is 1024x768 and is used to display system status. The second (Monitor 2) is the Projector in the theater at 1920x1080p. I map monitor 2 (the projector) to be an extended desktop flush at the top of the primary monitor and to the right of the primary monitor. Ergo its upper left hand corner is at coordinates 1024,0. When I want to display things on that monitor I simply offset the left coordinate by 1024 pixels. I would like to be able to build a PTE slideshow that will put all of the slides on the second monitor. I do not see any way to do this so I guess I am looking for a new capability (Which I have asked for many times before). If there is someway to do that with the existing release, I would appreciate someone telling me how. Thanks

Thanks for the reply. This is like an obstacle course. I will not use windows Vista. Maybe windows 7. XP is a rock solid stable OS that does everyting I need and I am not looking for grief. I will however try it as long as you don't do anything to kill it under XP. I am not looking for anything as involved as most, just simple transitions between slides with a music line that is synced up. Maybe it will meet my needs. the PC I use is pretty powerful ( a fanless duo core intel system in a literal block box with no controsl on the front. Just two way too bright led's that are taped over with little pinholes. I need to get some neuteral density gel. Once again thanks for the reply and I will watch for 5.7. If you want me to do a little beta work (I do that for many a/v mfg's) let me know

It seems that everybodies email as postings on various topics get some sort of attention except the issue I would like to have resolved or be told no way will that be done. The issue is the effective use of a second (not cloned) monitor

Davegee, Well I am about halfway in. I am a registered member of the forum I have played with the product, but have not bought it due to the missing capability to deal with multiple monitors, in particular a second screen, not a clone. If it can deal with the second monitor in any independent way I would buy it in a flash, but until then it is of little use to me. Personally I do not see why this would be such a complex item to include. I was a professional programmer, retired now, and home automation/home theater is my hobby. I consult for several installers and manufacturers doing a lot of beta testing and the development of utility programs to enhance their products. I do a lot of windows development work and I just do not see the issue and why the resistance to including it. It would seem to me that a lot of formal presentation work would benefit from having this capability. I have posted the request in the wish/suggestion list, probably more than once.

Every time a new version comes out I look to see if it has the one feature that will convince me to buy it, the ability to designate which monitor of a multi monoitor setup is to be the target display. I want to use it in my home theater whaich has a nice high end PC controlling it. The main monitor on the PC, a 20" LCD, is for theater status. The second monitor (Display 2) is the theater's 1080p projector. I want to be able to launch a picturetoexe slide show and have to play on dissplay 2. If there is a way to do this please let me know and I will gladly buy the product. If there is no intention to add this capability please let me know that so I can stop checking in to see if it has been added. I guess I could make a Video file in HD and then try and find a video player that will play that file on Display 2. If anyone has done this I would like to hear from them TIA

I am admitting defeat. I can find no way to get the finished slide show to appear on a second monitor in a dual monitor configuration. I have the desktop spread across the two monitors and that operates normally. The slideshow however always starts at 0,0 and there is no getting around that it seems. I am very surprised that the developers refuse to address this since dual monitor configurations are very common in todays world, and not to support that seems rather silly.

JPD, I recognize that I am not yet a user as the only thing as I mentioned above is the inability to get the show on my projector which is configured and works properly as a dual monitor (extended desktop) with coordinates of top=0, and left 1024 pixels which puts it just to the left of the main monitor. Today I tried to launch the slideshow exe from an application using the ShellExecuteEX API with the monitor handle set to the second monitor. That did not work as the slide show always appeared on the first monitor. I have tried windowed mode but to no avail. If I set the screen size to that of the second monitor the image always shows starting at coordinates 0,0 which is the upper left corner of the desktop. If the resolution is high enough it does spill over to the second monitor. I will try and do other things and report back here, but currently I am having no success. I would really like to see this application be able to build for a second monitor either as an extended desktop by specifying the coordinates of the slide show upper left corner, or by specifying the monitor to be used. As a minimum. There are many situations today where the presentation environment is multimonitor with one of the monitors being a high resolution projector

This is the one feature that is missing that is keeping me from buying this product. I use dual monitors in my Home Theater. The main or small monitor is vga output and set as the primary display at 1024x768. The Theater projector has as one of its inputs the DVI output of the PC which runs in dual monitor mode. The second monitor, projector, runs at 1920x1080 with its upper left corner at (1024,0) and has the desktop extended onto it, and has a completely different aspect ratio and resolution than the primary monitor. In my own work I just place the images I want on the second monitor at the proper coordinates and the job is done. Sounds like the configuration I have is an easy one to be implemented by allowing the user to specify the coordinates on the desktop for the upper left hand corner of the slide show, and the pixel resolution of the screen. I can not see it being a very difficult coding job.

Thanks for the reply Ken. Not my situation, but interesting.