BTV Setup & Questions

[Stopher]

I have a few questions for anyone who knows the answers I am new to the BTV thing but am somewhat computer savey. My setup So far is: The trial BTV and a Hauppauge HVR 1600. I will be ordering a bundle right away from the BTV website. I have a P4 3Ghz with 512DDR a 20G and 80G HD's a GeForce 256mb 6200 Video Card and a 15" lcd monitor and 42" plasma.

My questions are:

1. My computer is on one side of my room and i have a DVI to HDMI cable running through my roof from my comp to Plasma. I would like to some how asign the remote to work only with BTV as I want to be able to sit on my couch and control BTV while my wife is say on the computer blogging. But right now if btv in on the plasma and someone is using the mouse on the LCD the remote stops controlling BTV.

2. I was also wondering if there is a way for BTV to run but not as a primary monitor because if the Plasma is primary then when ever a window opens it is automaticly thrown to the plasma (same goes for login and out screens) and when it isn't on it is really annoying to have to turn it on just to grab your window and drag it back to the LCD. If it isn't primary though it only shows video on the LCD and not the Plasma. it is just a black screen with the guide info up.

Idealy I want to be able to come down stairs when my wife or daughter is on the computer and be able to pick up my remote and push power and have BTV start and then be able to navigate through it whether someone else is on the computer or not. I dont have a firefly remote maybe when I get one with my bundle this problem will go away.

Thank you very much
Blessings

[Khris]

BTV was never primarily designed to be used in a multi-monitor environment (unless the displays are cloned).

Search the forums as this question has been asked many times, and various people have come up with various different "hacks" to partially achieve what they want to do.

If someone else is using the computer, they will be constantly stealing focus from BTV and render the remote useless. (There are options to use a program like Girder which can assign remote commands to specific windows, however keep in mind the time and energy to program this).

Long story short, you can save yourself a lot of hassle by setting up a dedicated HTPC.

[cmcquistion]

Khris is right. You can't really run BTV in a multi-monitor setup and be able to use both monitors simultaneously.

You can implement some hacks to use one monitor for BTV and a different monitor for everything else, but you basically have to turn on one monitor on and the other monitor off, when doing this.