2013-11-28, 12:06
After a recent move, I couldn't put my xbmc system in the living room - it's a collection of re-purposed bits in an old case and it's just too BIG. So I installed xbmc on my laptop and I've got the big boy in the office acting like a server. Not ideal perhaps but it works and it's not financially feasible to rebuild/replace. The laptop is fairly current - an i3 running Win 8 (which I don't hate as much as I expected to, surprisingly). Had some initial difficulties with audio which I got sorted. I have gone to the MySQL setup for syncing/sharing the library, so the laptop is just a client at this point. The big boy has the 4TB of files and until I can decide what I want to do about him (and can afford to do it) he's going to keep them.
But my issue is screen management. In my old apartment, I had the big boy connected to a monitor and the TV, xbmc was configured to use the 2nd screen, and when I was watching tv I'd just power off the monitor (the desk and the TV were close and I often used the rig as a pc). But what do I do with a laptop? The thing is, this is my first real laptop and I'm largely clueless. Before that I had a little Acer netbook, which had a function key for quickly turning off the screen. This Dell laptop doesn't seem to have an option to just turn off the screen (at least I haven't found it yet). I thought after I configured it to do nothing when I closed the lid, I could just close it, but then xbmc seems to think the TV isn't the 2nd screen anymore and quits. Last night I wound up choosing a black background, leaving the lid up and just turning it sideways. NOT a good solution. But I don't like cycling through the display options until I'm just using the external monitor... it resumes the next day with a black screen and then I have to cycle through again without being able to see anything.
I know I have seen posts of people using laptops, and I have been looking through the forums for a few days, but either I haven't hit the right search query or I don't know what my problem is... or both. I'm posting in this forum since it's more of a discussion than a problem... I need advice on what to do, and I'm not even sure I know the questions.
I've read about the XBMClauncher and how it can make an appliance out of a system, so that might be an option. Could the launcher handle picking the screen? But I need to be able to unplug and take it with me without too much fuss - not everyday, but every week or so. How easy is it to tell the launcher to stand down? If I were going to just appliance-ize this thing, would I just be better off going with live CD or OpenElec or something? Hmm. Some kind of alternate boot/root might be easier to just unplug, whichever way I go...
Anyway, I would love opinions, suggestions, pointers... anything. I'm kind of... stuck. Everything works, but it takes a lot of futzing about. I would love to just have the closed laptop sitting by the dvd and not have to futz with it until I need to unplug it and go. Surely that's possible... isn't it?
su
ya know, the first computer I ever worked on was bigger than my current kitchen. I can't believe this little thing I can take with me is giving me so much trouble...
But my issue is screen management. In my old apartment, I had the big boy connected to a monitor and the TV, xbmc was configured to use the 2nd screen, and when I was watching tv I'd just power off the monitor (the desk and the TV were close and I often used the rig as a pc). But what do I do with a laptop? The thing is, this is my first real laptop and I'm largely clueless. Before that I had a little Acer netbook, which had a function key for quickly turning off the screen. This Dell laptop doesn't seem to have an option to just turn off the screen (at least I haven't found it yet). I thought after I configured it to do nothing when I closed the lid, I could just close it, but then xbmc seems to think the TV isn't the 2nd screen anymore and quits. Last night I wound up choosing a black background, leaving the lid up and just turning it sideways. NOT a good solution. But I don't like cycling through the display options until I'm just using the external monitor... it resumes the next day with a black screen and then I have to cycle through again without being able to see anything.
I know I have seen posts of people using laptops, and I have been looking through the forums for a few days, but either I haven't hit the right search query or I don't know what my problem is... or both. I'm posting in this forum since it's more of a discussion than a problem... I need advice on what to do, and I'm not even sure I know the questions.
I've read about the XBMClauncher and how it can make an appliance out of a system, so that might be an option. Could the launcher handle picking the screen? But I need to be able to unplug and take it with me without too much fuss - not everyday, but every week or so. How easy is it to tell the launcher to stand down? If I were going to just appliance-ize this thing, would I just be better off going with live CD or OpenElec or something? Hmm. Some kind of alternate boot/root might be easier to just unplug, whichever way I go...
Anyway, I would love opinions, suggestions, pointers... anything. I'm kind of... stuck. Everything works, but it takes a lot of futzing about. I would love to just have the closed laptop sitting by the dvd and not have to futz with it until I need to unplug it and go. Surely that's possible... isn't it?
su
ya know, the first computer I ever worked on was bigger than my current kitchen. I can't believe this little thing I can take with me is giving me so much trouble...
