S6 Still has issues with video window placement

[dgrant]

During the Beta time, I thought we had this all working finally but its still an issue. After placing the video onto the desired display, of course using the settings/video preferences to place it, then same again to increase to full screen. It works, till the next reboot and its lost again. Defaults back to monitor 1 regardless of what was saved before. For automation purposes, it needs to save that information in a file that is then read when the show starts up.

[Jeremiah Ackermann]

1 hour ago, dgrant said:

it needs to save that information in a file that is then read when the show starts up.

It is saved in C:\Users\<WindowUserAccountName>\AppData\Local\Light-O-Rama\cp_windows.config. Notice that the window positions are saved per window user account.

Do you have LOR set to launch/start automatically when Windows starts? If yes, it's possible a timing issue exists where your monitor has a delay being recognized by windows. This can cause the media playback window to shift to your primary monitor because the secondary monitor was not present when control panel started up. Disabling auto start and manually starting it could be a workaround and/or better option.

[Jimehc]

or another option is for CP to "Wait" x number of seconds before Auto Startup (Allow Delayed Start) so the system can fully recognize all the devices first

Edited November 1, 2022 by Jimehc

[dgrant]

10 hours ago, Jeremiah Ackermann said:

It is saved in C:\Users\<WindowUserAccountName>\AppData\Local\Light-O-Rama\cp_windows.config. Notice that the window positions are saved per window user account.

Do you have LOR set to launch/start automatically when Windows starts? If yes, it's possible a timing issue exists where your monitor has a delay being recognized by windows. This can cause the media playback window to shift to your primary monitor because the secondary monitor was not present when control panel started up. Disabling auto start and manually starting it could be a workaround and/or better option.

My CP starts up automatically and usually "after" the all the windows are up and running. Same thing happens even though its been running for a while, let's say I've worked on a sequence then saved it. I go to the Create Shows, do the update status and of course it finds the change(s) so it recreates the playback files. Then I'll go to the Live Player and sure enough, the playback window has moved itself back to Display 1. Now as a thought, my system is configured as one large desktop but different displays, four displays.

44 minutes ago, Jimehc said:

or another option is for CP to "Wait" x number of seconds before Auto Startup (Allow Delayed Start) so the system can fully recognize all the devices first

Mine starts after everything else has loaded but frankly, I'm not sure how to delay a specific program from loading till "x" seconds after everything else.

[Jeremiah Ackermann]

In Control Panel settings, go to Video tab, and make sure you have the second option selected to ensure your window is full screen. Sounds like you have one of the other options selected.

[dgrant]

Per Matt Brown, I first used those buttons to place the window back onto the display where its desired, top button. Then move the video playback window to that display, then touch the middle button to play it full screen. I've done that a bunch of times but it keeps coming back on its own whenever the computer is rebooted or if I add a sequence with video to the Live Player and I believe for the Show Player too.

[Jeremiah Ackermann]

@dgrant Have you tried turning auto-launch off to see if it helps?

Again the reason would be the monitor output was not ready at the time Control Panel started, so Windows moved the window to the primary monitor. There are other 3rd party window managers that do this too (ex: https://www.desksoft.com/WindowManager.htm), and if one is installed, could interfere with control panel's management. I would assume that is not the case and more due to monitor output not being immediately available.

I played with this the other day using a dual monitor setup (that goes through a KVM) but the window position stayed for me after several app restarts and reboots. I didn't have a projector to try it with. I tried with auto-launch on and it still retained my setting, but that might mean I have enough other apps starting up that delayed Control Panel long enough. The first time I tried, I might have seen the issue. But I was updating my display driver at the same time as well.

[dgrant]

I'll try turning off the auto-launch of the control panel and see if the issue continues. Thanks for the suggestion.

[dgrant]

So I tried the suggestion which seemed to work ok but when I just now installed the latest 6.1.14, same thing happened again. I'll mess with it some more.

[dgrant]

Even with the auto startup turned off, tonight at my first show start, sure enough, it was back to window 1 instead of the previously setup on my window/screen 3. I've done this many times and seems to find its way back all the time on its own. Yes, fyi, its controlled by a program located in /*username*/AppData/Local/Light-O-Rama/cp_windows.config

[dgrant]

Happened yet again on Friday night

[dgrant]

Same thing again Saturday night

[Jeremiah Ackermann]

Might want to read these threads and see if any of the suggestions help. The last one is a 3rd party utility written to try to overcome this issue that is more prevalent starting with Windows 10, but the issue has been around for a while.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-10-multiple-display-windows-are-moved-and/2b9d5a18-45cc-4c50-b16e-fd95dbf27ff3
https://superuser.com/questions/1292435/windows-on-second-monitor-moves-to-primary-monitor-after-sleep-lock
https://superuser.com/questions/1555954/screens-move-around-after-screen-sleep-in-windows-10
https://github.com/kangyu-california/PersistentWindows

I use a Radeon RX480 with my show computer and have a RX580 in my main computer. I have been seeing similar issues with other apps for a while, but the latest drivers or window updates seem to have caused more issues. I have a dual display port KVM between both computers and my 2 monitors. Its not just windows moving to the other screen when I switch between computers or come back from sleep, but it also detects the wrong set of supported resolutions, causing a monitor to not be detected or set to a 720p resolution instead of 1080p.

Maybe try looking at power settings to ensure your monitors are set to never turn off?

[dgrant]

This computer I use for LOR is using an RX480 too. I've got four monitors, plus another computer(Older show computer) KVM switch for all quad monitors and two cpus. I'll examine that article. Thanks

[dgrant]

That article doesn't really apply to this case, in my view. Please consider that the Sequencer playing videos on the proper display, works just fine, each and every time. Even though the monitors were turned off, PC shutdown and restarted the next day. Its just the show player having this issue. No matter what we try, it appears to default automatically back to display 1.

[dgrant]

It appeared that LOR 6.1.6 had possibly fixed this issue but now with 6.1.8, its back to doing what it was before 6.1.6. Yes, used the video player settings in the CP and the new settings. Currently selected "Whenever the Show Player is playing a show with video media". No matter what I do, the video shows up on window 1 rather than where it was told to be.

[Kyle Whitaker]

dgrant,

For whatever it is worth I am not having a problem playing on a second screen using 6.1.8.  I pause the show, select the first option and move the video to the second screen, then change it to the second option, play again and it works.  Shut down LOR and start it back up and it still play full on the second screen

Kyle

[dgrant]

It plays to my desired screen but its suppose to do it automatically rather than manually having to reset it when the CP launches. It was working or seemed to be in 6.1.6 but its not in 6.1.8. Example, I forgot to go in last night and double-check the show running. I went in there about 45 minutes after it started and sure enough, the video was on my screen one which is not connected to the projector, therefore nothing was going out there. I manually fixed it of course and it went just fine.

 

[Kyle Whitaker]

dgrant,

I can't reproduce that using a 2nd monitor (not projector).  I am not saying this is the issue, but I also use a projector in the show and turn it on using LOR.  If it does not "warm up" before LOR tires to play video it will revert to the laptop screen.  To get around that I have a startup sequence with no video that plays first.

 

Kyle

[dgrant]

Nah, the projector is not the issue. I'm supposedly sending the video to my monitor #3 which is split off therefore both the monitor and the projector get the same signal. That way, I can "see" what's going out there. Same here with my startup. Actually I play a prelude sequence which is part of the show file. It runs for a solid 30 minutes of just music plus an animation background sequence. Then the actual main part of the show begins and part way through that, I command my screen to come down via a CMB24D and relays while just before that, a schedule program for the projector turns on the projector via PJLink commands. S6, writes a special file so that when the CP is restarted, it reads that file and sets the LOR Video to what was expected. It appeared to work in 6.1.6 but stopped again with 6.1.8