xv overlay - cinema mode

[Dirk Thierbach]

On Thu, Mar 22, 2007 at 08:38:19PM +0100, Wesley S. wrote:
> Well, if I set up dualhead and play the video on one head (TV) and do
> other things on the other head (computer) I won't see the video
> windowed on my computer, or am I missing something here

For most drivers, you can set up dualhead in such a way that it displays 
the same screen on both heads (or two different viewports onto the
same screen). I haven't tried this with the Intel driver, but that's
the first thing I would do :-) Have a look at the ServerLayout section
options. You may also have to disable the video overlay if it only
works on one head (can't say that for Intel, either). Use "xvinfo"
to list the available video ports. Or, alternatively, tell your
movie player to use a different method instead of XVideo.

>>> All this stuff brings me to a new question though. How hard would
>>> it be to do this through software? Wouldn't the computer be able
>>> to copy the contents of a playing video on screen 1 to screen 2?

>> I'd say that's exactly what the computer does, no matter if you
>> call it "Theatre Mode", "Cinema Mode", or "Video Mirroring" :-)

> I agree that the naming doesn't matter ;) but I just don't understand
> how I can make the software copy the contents of a playing video on
> screen 1 (computer) to screen 2 (TV) You make it sound like it's
> nothing... Am I missing something?

It's not "nothing", of course it has to be supported by the software
in some way. But in principle, it's no big thing to do that.

If the driver doesn't support it (which it should, normally), one
could probably easily modify one of the open source movie players to
output two images. Or, if you don't want to write code, just start two
players at the same time (and disable audio for one instance).  Or try
hooking up two clients to one movie player acting as server. Or
something like this.

- Dirk