[poo706]

I've been using MediaPortal for a few years just as a front-end to watch downloaded TV shows through my video card's TV-out port. But I've been reading a lot about XBMC on LifeHacker lately and thought I'd give it a shot. So far, I really like what I see, and I would like to switch to using XBMC, but I can't get around a couple of deal-breakers.

The biggest problem is that there is a large flickering box around my mouse cursor, pretty much at all times. I can move the cursor anywhere on the right hand side of the screen to where you can't even see it, but you can still see half of the flickering box. I have disabled mouse control in XBMC, but the flicker box still follows the Windows mouse cursor. I found an autohotkey program that turns off the mouse cursor temporarily, but starting up XBMC brings it right back. Has anyone else had this problem?

The second problem is a minor gripe. One thing I really like about MediaPortal is that the titles of unwatched videos are a different color than previously viewed videos. I like to be able to have a whole season of a show in a folder and watch them in random order, and being able to visually filter out the ones I've already recently watched is really nice. Is there any way to do a similar thing in XBMC?

Thanks,

[poo]

[star_thoughts]

Have you made sure you have the latest video drivers?

[poo706]

I've got Nvidia 178.13, 178.24 is the newest version and just very recently came out. I doubt the driver is the cause, I certainly don't see this problem anywhere else.

I'm trying to think of a way that I don't have to run the program full screen on the computer, yet have it show up full screen on the TV. That way I can just move the mouse outside the window completely. Right now I have the monitor and TV in clone mode and when I want to use MediaPortal, I change the resolution to 1024x768 and watch in full screen, and it shows up great on the TV. Anything larger than 1024x768 just shows that portion of the desktop on the TV screen.

[poo]

[althekiller]

Try setting v-sync to "always on" for the mouse thing. If you scan all of your videos into the library you will then get your (un)watched status in the form of a check overlay on the cover art.

[poo706]

Are you talking about vertical blank sync, because it was already set to "always enabled".

I was looking into the whole library thing, and it's not a bad option. What's nice on MediaPortal is that you don't have to do anything; i.e. when you watch a video it's automatically marked as watched. Plus you don't have to scroll through the shows one at a time to see whether there's a check mark or not, you can see which titles are a different color. I was hoping there was some way to make XBMC do this as well, even if it involves some hacking.

[poo]

[jmarshall]

If you scan your stuff into the library, then yes, it'll automatically show watched/unwatched after you finish watching something. It's up to the skin how it's presented - some use a tick, others may opt for darkening/lightening etc.

[poo706]

Ok, good to know about the library thing. I'll have to look into that more, as well as alternate skins. Thanks.

Now I just need to figure out this mouse cursor thing and I'll be all set.

[poo]