[impeham]

I have 2 screens - one is a phillips TV and the other is a computer monitor - i'm using windows 7 x64.
when the system starts, i start XBMC and HD videos + visualizations (when listening to music) and they are working well. then i've done these steps only (after i've isolated the fact that they are the ones causing the problem):

1. close XBMC
2. switch main screen from TV to monitor
3. switch main screen from monitor to TV
4. start XBMC

after these steps, i cannot watch videos anymore - the screen is black (i can see the subtitles and hear the sound). in addition, the visualizations when playing music behaves the same

anyone knows how i can fix/further debug this?

[PatK]

You didn't mention what sort of gfx set-up you have in your PC. Looks like the resolution between your TV and monitor are different... when you exit XBMC it remembers last size, then when you open it up again.. the size is no longer compliant with the new dispay. Set-up XBMC for one display and open up with that display... or use windowed mode.

[impeham]

my video card is Radeon HD 4350, and i am using its catalyst application for switching monitors. i never use dual - only siingle mode (when one of them is used - the other is off). the resolutions are different of course, but it shouldn't matter since i never run XBMC when i'm using the computer's monitor - only when it's on the TV.

Another issue that i forgot to mention - the same behavior occurs even if i am not in full screen (XBMC is windowed) - i still cannot see the movie's picture/sound visualizations - only after restart to the machine.
i even tried to play with the aero theme (i'm using it normally) - tried it when it's off and on and still same behavior.

[Edit] after a few tests i found that disabling a preference in "Video" -> "Playback" -> "Allow hardware acceleration (DXVA2)" make the movies' picture visible again, but not the visualizations in music mode.

how important is it to enable this preference? is there a way to fix the visualization issue?

[PatK]

I've got just about the same set-up but with a Radeon HD 5770 using the latest catalyst, I switch using windows display switcher (Winkey+P) and have no problems unless I start XBMC on the default monitor, and switch over to the 2nd display, then I get perimeter control issue because of the differences in screen size. I do use <fullscreen>true</fullscreen> in XBMC/user/advancedsettings. Closing out in one screen and restarting in another resolution might be an issue... check with the | key before you play a video and see if that might make a difference.

Humm.. reading your addendum about no visualizations (and knowing this is depending on gfx card hardware routines) points back at the gfx card and drivers. The other hint in this area is that when you don't use DXVA2 which is hardware graphic card acceleration you get an image, meaning you don't have the advantage of hardware accel. This starting to look a little like http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=138652

I'm trusting you have the latest AMD drivers downloaded through the graphic card makers site... which usually points back at the AMD site, but may include a special patch (hotfix) for the brand/model you have. At this point, it looks like a bit plane buffer is not properly passing through and I'm suspicious that the boundary memory in the card is at issue.

Questions that come to mind

1) # bit planes on your windows
2) gfx card memory
3) catalyst version
4) XBMC version
5) Skin

Most of these questions are answered with a proper debug log posted at pastbin.com and linked to a message here.

Might have a quick scan over this... http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pag...aling.aspx