Multitasking with WMC computer?

[soureel]

I'm collecting hardware to set up a WMC home theatre. The server will be the family computer which is in one room and an HDMI cable will run into the family room to send audio and video to my HDTV via WMC. My question- Will I be able to send a WMC content to my TV, while working on a different program, using the computer monitor, in the other room. I don't think this is possible but wanted to ask.

[adam1991]

Um, I think WMC wants to be on the main monitor. You may be able to do this, but you may run into issues with full screen.

However, the biggest issue you'll run into is that for maximum stability on a WMC machine, let it be dedicated to that task and don't do anything else on it. While technically you may do this, you won't be happy with the results. And your family absolutely will not be happy with the results.

Make a WMC computer and a separate "family" computer.

I can't tell you what to do, I can only suggest, but care to place a bet on where you'll be in six months?

The fact that the computer CAN do it doesn't mean it SHOULD do it or that it's a good idea for you to do it that way.

[Shackleford]

It is somewhat possible but there are issues. Wmc will have to be windowed instead of full screen and audio will not be separate. I'd say just get an extender.

[choliscott]

You can run WMC on a 2nd monitor, but if you maximize the screen, then the mouse will be stuck on the 2nd monitor (until you release un-maximize the screen). There is a program called "Maxifier" that is supposed to help with that. I should add if the 2nd screen is in another room, then you will need a long USB for the remote control dongle, unless you have a wireless mouse that can reach that far.

Since your TV is in another room, it would probably be best to get an extender.

As far as using one computer for WMC & computing, that would depend on your computer hardware setup, what exactly takes place on the computer (i.e. do you play cpu/graphic intense games, etc). While most people would recommend having 1 computer dedicated to WMC/HTPC tasks & another for your computing tasks, I do know it's possible to have 1 computer handle all. For example, my parents have a AMD FX 8320 with 8 GB ram, which is running WMC & my dad uses for computing, but it's mainly surf the web, play simple games & minor video editing & converting.

I'm collecting hardware to set up a WMC home theatre. The server will be the family computer which is in one room and an HDMI cable will run into the family room to send audio and video to my HDTV via WMC. My question- Will I be able to send a WMC content to my TV, while working on a different program, using the computer monitor, in the other room. I don't think this is possible but wanted to ask.

[Mike88]

The other day I minimized the WMC7 desktop & opened the Hulu Desktop (not through WMC). I had paused Hulu but when restarting playback I was getting audio that did not make sense. It's like I was getting WMC audio & possibly Hulu audio mixed in. I think what happened is that I hit Play on the remote which started WMC playing & then hit OK on the remote to get Hulu playing again. IOW both programs where playing at the same time. I did not go back & try to duplicate what happened, so I'm just guessing at this point. I just stopped everything & started from the beginning but with WMC closed out & Hulu was OK.

[mistarick]

I have to agree with these guys. Its just not worth it if someone may be using the family pc at the same time someone may be using wmc. Watching a movie here and there would be fine if you can get around the full screen. Maybe have wmc windowed as big as possible and then if your TV has settings to adjust the horizontal and vertical screen size, you could make it a full screen experience. But, the pc audio, if any, would play along with wmc. Also might use an app such as ceton my media center as your wmc remote as to not worry about the ir dongle or accidentally controlling another program on the pc.

[soureel]

Thanks for the suggestions. I agree that a dedicated server would be better, but the $300-400 it would require is not in my budget at present. The "family" computer is really mostly used by me; the kids don't live at home and if there's a conflict with TV, we can use our laptop as backup. So I'm going to try it like this for a couple of months and see how it goes

[soureel]

So...if I do decided to build my on Window PC/Server, what's the absolute minimum I might have to spend? I'm thinking used/refurbished parts, updating an old workstation PC, etc. I have a copy of Windows 7 so wouldn't need to purchase that again. Also have a TV tuner. I want this for basic WMC to HDTV operations, not to play games, run blu-ray, etc.

[Embiggens]

Just wanted to chime in as I'm getting ready to assemble something myself in the next 6 months or so, so I'm really interested in this area right now. TGB is of course a great site for WMC and TV-specific stuff, but I would also recommend checking out the site pcpartpicker. It has a lot of example builds with nice detail, and it could maybe give you some ideas of how 'budget' you can go for a media pc. But keep us updated here as I for one find WMC-targeted builds posted here much more relevant.

Also fyi, I too did the multi-monitor thing for a while. I think the software I used to assist in this was actually called multimon. Overall I found the experience to be less-than-ideal...I ended up getting more frustrated with it than my wife. I think if I was a smidge more clever or had a lot more time, it might have worked. Who knows, just don't expect things to be perfect at the start.

[Shackleford]

So...if I do decided to build my on Window PC/Server, what's the absolute minimum I might have to spend? I'm thinking used/refurbished parts, updating an old workstation PC, etc. I have a copy of Windows 7 so wouldn't need to purchase that again. Also have a TV tuner. I want this for basic WMC to HDTV operations, not to play games, run blu-ray, etc.

As long as you're not gaming, rendering or transcoding video on the main PC just buy an Xbox 360 to use as an extender for your TV. What do you currently have as a PC?

[NWW]

I'll share my experience as well.

My HTPC is also my gaming PC. There is a TV connected to it via HDMI to the integrated intel GPU, and a DVI lead that goes to my 24 inch monitor. Running WMC full screen on the TV is a headache. Your mouse is locked to the TV. If you do get it out of there, there are times where the frame rate of the full screen WMC drops to 30 (tested with Fraps) for no reason at all.

The maxifier does help, but not very much so (to much resizing, moving etc.) the experience isn't seemless.

And then you have the issue of audio. Let's say your computer idles, and screens shut down. You then turn on the monitor to do some work. Then you want to open the big screen to Watch something. Windows will see that as a new screen, your monitor will flash black for a second, and then you have your extended desktop. Now if your TV for some reason won't play nice with your GPU, you'll loose audio randomly after sleep/idle. Only option, reboot the PC.

I agree with everyone else: get an extender. Or hope that somehow, WMC gets turned into a metro style app in Windows 8. Those work great full screen on different monitors. Don't know why, but they do.

Just my 2c.

[blueiedgod]

I'm collecting hardware to set up a WMC home theatre. The server will be the family computer which is in one room and an HDMI cable will run into the family room to send audio and video to my HDTV via WMC. My question- Will I be able to send a WMC content to my TV, while working on a different program, using the computer monitor, in the other room. I don't think this is possible but wanted to ask.

Along with the HDMI, you will need to run a USB cable for the IR receiver, unless you want to have your wife yell to you to change channels for her.

As others have suggested, get a $100 extender (new) or $50 used one on ebay, instead of another $400 PC and just connected them through your wired network.

I, personally, DO NOT recommend using HTPC as a PC. One wrong click, and you just downloaded a virus, or other malware that will basically render your only cable box dead. And if any of your recorded TV content is copyright protected, then you hosed the recorded TV too, if you have to wipe out the system and re-install.

Keep HTPC as HTPC, and desktop PC as your desktop. My desktop doubles as a stand in/back up HTPC for when/if main HTPC is down. You can do that easily with network attached tuners. We have 6 TV's, and only 1 of them is connected to the HTPC, the rest are connected through extenders. It literally takes 5 minutes to re-pair extenders to the desktop (it is already set up with WMC for when I watch TV when I work on the computer), this way only 1 TV is out of commission if HTPC fails.

All of the recorded content is stored on a network drive, and only copyright protected recorded TV content is unavailable when back-up HTPC is in use.

In the last 5 years (since we switched to Win 7), I have yet to utilize back up HTPC.

[mistarick]

Poke around on newegg a bit and you can find some decent combos that include case,mobo,processor,ram, had for around 300 maybe less. An AMD build will be cheaper than Intel AMD the integrated hdmi graphics will work fine for a basic htpc. If you have some parts you might get away even cheaper. You need at least something dual core and a lot of people use the AMD a4 ape just fine for TV and watching movies

[choliscott]

What hardware exactly do you have now?

Depending on the maximum # of people that would using the HTPC at the same time, an I3 would probably be sufficent

Thanks for the suggestions. I agree that a dedicated server would be better, but the $300-400 it would require is not in my budget at present. The "family" computer is really mostly used by me; the kids don't live at home and if there's a conflict with TV, we can use our laptop as backup. So I'm going to try it like this for a couple of months and see how it goes

[Cryofax]

Throwing in my two cents. I tried exactly what you're asking. It can work, but issues of window focus, mouse trapping etc can be a pain. Yes there are utilities to help with that, but its still a hassle. I even tried a program called "betwin" that lets you operate one machine as two independent machines (seperate keyboards, mice, monitors, audio etc). That worked fine, but that program costs over half of what an extender does. I eventually hooked up an echo and am much happier.

[blueiedgod]

Throwing in my two cents. I tried exactly what you're asking. It can work, but issues of window focus, mouse trapping etc can be a pain. Yes there are utilities to help with that, but its still a hassle. I even tried a program called "betwin" that lets you operate one machine as two independent machines (seperate keyboards, mice, monitors, audio etc). That worked fine, but that program costs over half of what an extender does. I eventually hooked up an echo and am much happier.

Now that you mentioned this, I remember when Win XP first came out, my girlfriend and I shared a single PC with 2 monitors, and 2 sets of keyboard and mouse at the same time with 2 different user ID's. But, it was agonizingly slow when we did that. So, we quit using it at the same time.

Don't know if that functionality was retained in Win 7....

[jasonbtx]

All ya need is a copy of win 7 ultimate and download the patch for concurrent logins

[jasonbtx]

Then you can remote desktop into the computer from a laptop or tablet or phone keeps wmc in focus.

[soureel]

After a weekend of frustration trying to tame dual monitors, I've finally accepted the common thread of advice- I'll be saving up my pennies to build an economy dedicated HTPC.

[4Crawler]

After a weekend of frustration trying to tame dual monitors, I've finally accepted the common thread of advice- I'll be saving up my pennies to build an economy dedicated HTPC.

I think you mentioned having an older workstation PC available. I used something similar for my HTPC and it works fairly well, in fact much better on Win8 than it used to do on XP. I used an old Pentium-D PC, upgraded from 3 to 4GB RAM, 2.8 to 3.2GHz CPU, 100MB to 1GB ethernet card and GT610 graphics card to get HDMI out, so maybe $100 worth of hardware and it works very nicely with WMC. Nice thing is it had TOSlink audio so I pipe that and the HDMI video into my AV amp. The HTPC sits in a cabinet behind my TV screen, so it out of sight.

I keep it stripped to the bare minimum software-wise. It will stream 720P videos off the internet (YouTube, Ustream, etc.) and play 1080P videos off my local server and can play live TV while recording another show w/o problems as the GPU handles much of the video overhead. A bit slow downloading the WMC EPG information and also starting up WMC initially (loading the guide mainly). But once everything it up and running it works fine. I used Win8 on it since Microsoft had that upgrade from XP to Win8 + Media Center deal back a year or so ago.

I kept the old XP hard drive in it for dual booting if I ever need to go back and run an older program or grab an old data file I forgot to transfer over.