Anyone using both XBMC & WMC7 on the same PC?

[Livin]

Looking for feedback for users of both XBMC & WMC7 (Windows Media Center 7) - on the same PC.

I'm curious is anyone is keeping both apps open, all the time, and switching between then without any issues. I'd like to get ideas on maybe how I can do it better.

Here's my info...

WMC7 - Live TV, Recorded TV
XBMC - ripped media, music, videos, etc
EventGhost - controls IR, switches apps, etc
Maxifier - moves WMC7 to 2nd display
DLP TV - has delay with initial power-on and HDMI sync so I must delay the app startup 5 seconds to ensure the DLP is "ready", not relevant if TV has already been in use/on

XBMC & WMC7 shares usage ~50% each - when not in use the app is closed completely. Thus only the app in use is open. All of this is controlled/monitored with EventGhost.

When the HTPC is not in use, both XBMC & WMC7 are closed (only EG & Maxifier are running).
HTPC runs 20x7 with a 4 hour shutdown window during each 24 hour period - the PC is never placed in hibernation/sleep.

I use a small free app called Maxifier to ensure WMC7 moves properly to the 2nd display (My 65" TV) - I have not found a way to get EventGhost to work well for this. Ideally, WMC7 will launch properly on the 2nd screen but is seems to have issues if the TV power up takes too long. If you have suggestions here please do so.

[themaster1]

i dont use mce but dvbviewer instead xbmc on screen 1, dvbviewer on screen 2, This works great if i'm in full screen for both apps
The switch between apps when i move the mouse from screen1 to screen2 is automatic because i have added an event, for mce:Task.Activated.ehshell

I have posted my xml here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3764
Look in the switch folder,"reactivation" to see how it works, it's simple really

[Livin]

i dont use mce but dvbviewer instead xbmc on screen 1, dvbviewer on screen 2, This works great if i'm in full screen for both apps
The switch between apps when i move the mouse from screen1 to screen2 is automatic because i have added an event, for mce:Task.Activated.ehshell

I have posted my xml here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3764
Look in the switch folder,"reactivation" to see how it works, it's simple really

Since you don't use MCE7 your situation is very different.
I specifically asked about MCE7 for two reasons...
1) acts differently that any other app I've seen as it locks out the cursor on both screens.
2) resource utilization is different with every app and I'd had problems with XBMC & WMC7 having conflict in the past.

I did look over your XML and your 'reactivation' section is standard practice - and used as EG was designed. I think most of us do the same thing there. One thing I do a bit different is I do not have EG go through all the checks closes/minimizes/etc that you do for each macro. I used to, but found it causes redundancy within the macros, it was difficult to keep track of when you add/remove apps from the checks, etc. What I do now is have a set of macros for each app: activate & deactivate. Then within each I have the decision tree based on what I want to do... what is open, close, etc... and it is all triggered based on another app opening/closing/etc. No redundancy inside the macros this way - and completely self contained, portable, etc

I did notice you use UltraMon which I assume helps you control apps/screens - not positive but I'm think that is what that app is for though I've never used it. Curious, does UltraMon do things you need that EG does not?

[themaster1]

Yes ultramon is rock solid it helps me to manage screens( even screens resolutions) and also can move mouse the move using keystrokes and many other options

[Jasems]

I just started doing this recently because of the nice Netflix interface in MCE. I am using an autohotkey script to launch each application. It works well since I can make the ahk file an executable and just launch each app with one button in eventghost. I usually leave XBMC open all the time and only close MCE.

Nice thing about ahk is I have a crappy old tv that I can't scale at all so I am able to run each program in a window but resized to fit the viewable portion of my tv (with the size of the window and position in the script) I would assume ahk would be able to send a display to a second monitor as well and wouldn't use much in the way of resources either.

Oh I also leave Xbmc running because it gets stuck in task manager when I try to close it lol.

[Livin]

Why do you use AHK when you can just use EventGhost?

[Jasems]

I already had a windows media center script that opens it directly to netflix since that is all I use it for. Wasn't sure how to do that in EventGhost. Instead of figuring out how to do that in EvenGhost it seemed easy enough to just launch the script with a button press that I already had. Might mess w/doing it all in EventGhost if I can figure out how to send a keyboard shortcut when pressing a button on the the remote (instead of the reverse which is easy) lol.

[Livin]

one of the main and easiest things to do with EG is translate an IR remote button into a keyboard command... just use emulate keystroke action.

[Jasems]

That only works if it is a keyboard physically plugged in. If you were remote in through VNC, or in my case, translating a midi cc change in to a keystroke the emulate keystroke action doesn't detect it. I found a post (that I linked in my help question on this topic) that shows how to capture all keystroke inputs to EG even if you are VNC'd, or not physically plugged in.

[Livin]

I don't have a keyboard on my htpc and emulate keystrokes works fine. I don't try to detect vnc so no clue there but eg can definitely send keystrokes without a physical keyboard

but we are getting off topic