Start boxee fullscreen on second monitor

[gregsmith]

First of all I just started using the boxee alpha for windows after much anticipation. It's amazing, surpasses my expectations, especially as it's only in alpha. I'm switching from Vista Media Center immediately!

Right now, the only problem I'm having is boxee starting in the right way. I'm used to VMC starting full screen on my second monitor (I'm running 4 monitors btw). The only full screen option in settings -> appearance -> resolution is for my main monitor which has a much higher resolution (1680x1050) than my secondary (1280x720). By moving boxee in windowed mode to my second monitor and switching between full screen and windowed mode a few times, it will eventually sit full screen. I'd obviously like it to open like that. Any advice?

Only other thing I haven't yet setup are my mce remote which I've read I can do through eventghost. I really want to be able to use the mce remote for fullscreen boxee whilst working on my other monitors. Is this the only/best way to do this?

Many thanks for an AWESOME program.

[gregsmith]

Does anyone know why this isn't working for me? I understand I should have a fullscreen resolution option for each of my monitors. Is this right?

[mchipser]

I also would like to know how to make Boxee open on 2nd monitor by default... I have two 24 inch monitors but they are the same res..

[dclark10]

I would like to know how to do this as well. I would normally drag the application to the extended monitor and after it was closed Vista would remember to open that application on the second monitor.

[embreeb]

I am having a similar issue. I've been able to have Boxee start on my TV, but only if I drag the shortcut to the TV screen. It starts fullscreen, but if anyone else is working on the PC at the same time, Boxee loses focus control, so I have to move the mouse back over from the primary to the secondary display in order for the remote to gain control of Boxee again. Any suggestions?

[embreeb]

I also have a problem with the resolution on my primary display changing to the same as the secondary when I start Boxee. My primary is set at 1280x1024(19" LCD monitor), and my secondary at 1024x768 (32" SDTV). When I start Boxee, the primary gets changed. I can easily change the resolution on the primary back to what it was, but I don't want to have to do that every time.

[gregsmith]

With mine any time I hit full screen boxee will go to the resolution of my primary monitor, 1680x1050. To get it full screen on my secondary monitor I have to set the resolution to 720p in the settings, that of my secondary monitor. I move it there and it's too big in windowed mode, hit full screen and it goes to 1680x1050 but remains on my secondary monitor. I then take it out of full screen and it sits perfectly on my secondary monitor, so it's 'full screen' for all intents and purposes, but not actually in full screen mode.

I have to do this every time I start boxee. I'm also on vista.

[pahtz]

As I understand it, in the Ubuntu and Mac versions, the settings -> appearance -> resolution menu lists the options (screen number and resolution combos) for the second screen.

Apparently the Windows version doesn't have this functionality yet. I tried hacking the guiprefs.xml without luck.

As my 2nd monitor (40" LCD TV) is bigger than my laptop screen, I have no way at all of getting fullscreen on the TV as it only lists resolutions for the primary screen. Meaningful enjoyment/testing is thus not yet possible.

[pahtz]

There is a trial-ware app called UltraMon.

http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/
http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/download.asp

Install this app and then right-click and select Properties on the shortcut or launcher for the Boxee app. There will be some new UltraMon tabs that let you configure which screen the app starts on.

Unfortunately for me, it doesn't enable bigger resolutions than the primary screen allows within Boxee preferences.

The real problem seems to be Boxee for Windows uses the cross-platform graphics library called SDL. SDL doesn't yet support multiple monitors. It should in the future.

I got the above information by looking at some XBMC forums. Boxee is based on XBMC.

[Flyerman85]

I use Ultramon on Vista on my Dell XPS 1530 and have it hooked up to my 32" LCD with HDMI and I have boxee start on the tv and I have boxee set for 1280 x 720 and to stop it from changing the resolution on the computer screen, I just take it out of full screen mode but it still fills the screen.

[gregsmith]

I use Ultramon on Vista on my Dell XPS 1530 and have it hooked up to my 32" LCD with HDMI and I have boxee start on the tv and I have boxee set for 1280 x 720 and to stop it from changing the resolution on the computer screen, I just take it out of full screen mode but it still fills the screen.

This is exactly what I do too. This is sufficient until another release, just a bit annoying having to do it every time.

[pahtz]

My problem was that Boxee only took up 1280x800 on my 1920x1080 TV.

I finally realized setting Boxee to 1024x768 and the stepping down the TV resolution from 1080i to 1024x768 gave me a full screen picture without TV enforced black bars. (Depending on your TV's scaling modes a different resolution may be better).

I then had to use the Settings menu available during playback to set the aspect/pixel ratio to 16:9 to get 16:9 content to fill the screen.

It works for now so I can test things. None of my video content is that high resolution anyway.

Also setting UltraMon to remove the task bar from the 2nd screen helped Boxee start full screen.

[nemi]

May I suggest the AutoIt programming language. It allows you script, in a simple basic like language, your own widows .exe programs that can interact with windows and simulate mouse clicks and depresses. Should just be a few lines of code to create a program that sits quietly in the system tray, waiting for the boxee window to appear, and then move and full screen it to the correct display. I have done some handy things for my HTPC setup using it (auto close nag screens etc.).

[uncola]

I haven't checked because I am lazy, but Display Fusion is a free ultramon type utility that may be able to start boxee on your second monitors just like ultramon, but has the upside of being free.

http://www.binaryfortress.com/displayfusion/

[benwhite]

I'm using the windows version, and there is a setting under appearance that allows you to select what monitor to launch Boxee into.

It's the resolution option... select something like 1920x1200 #2