Multi-monitor support

[taob]

I know requests for dual-monitor support have been made in the past, but I'm hoping PM can take it one step further by offering multi-monitor support (e.g., 3 or more displays).  I am setting up the digital print competition workflow for the local chapter of the PPOC (Professional Photographers of Canada).  The hardware setup will consist of a laptop connected to both a projector and to a monitor.  Submitted competition images will be displayed simultaneously to both the projector (for the room audience) and the monitor (for the judging panel).  The laptop operator would then use the laptop's own display as a control interface.

There is plenty of software already that supports dual-monitor viewing (e.g., Lightroom, FastStone Image Viewer, even Powerpoint), but none that I can find that properly supports three or more monitors with colour management.  I have the hardware and OS side of things sorted out already.  All I am missing now is the software application to push the pixels out to the displays. I've listed other requirements below.  PM meets all of them already, except for the multi-monitor component.

• display an image fullscreen with no annotations or control UI
• handle displays of different resolutions and aspect ratios (e.g., 1024x768 projector vs 2560x1600 monitor)
• handle displays of different orientations (e.g., landscape projector vs portrait monitor)
• handle displays of different gamuts (e.g., standard-gamut projector vs wide-gamut monitor)
• handle displays of different colour profiles (e.g., sRGB projector vs custom-profiled monitor)

[Luiz Muzzi]

Hi,
I also would like to see PM handle displays of different resolutions and aspect ratios...
Regards,

-Luiz Muzzi

[Kirk Baker]

Luiz,

I also would like to see PM handle displays of different resolutions and aspect ratios...

To my knowledge PM already does.  What part(s) of PM have you found that do not do this already?

-Kirk

[Luiz Muzzi]

Kirk,
I have tried using a LCD TV as a second monitor, with a different resolution from my Macbook monitor and it was really difficult (the slide show).
Perhaps I have not done it the right way...
Regards,

-Luiz Muzzi

[Kirk Baker]

Luiz,

I have tried using a LCD TV as a second monitor, with a different resolution from my Macbook monitor and it was really difficult (the slide show).
Perhaps I have not done it the right way...

Recently?  With version 4.6.8 on Mac OS X 10.6 or 10.7?  With the new slideshow you can press the 'f' key to toggle from fullscreen to windowed mode and then drag the window to your other screen and press 'f' again to run it on a different monitor.

-Kirk

[taob]

Kirk,

Would it be possible to have two (or more) such slideshow windows?  I could then drag one to the projector and one to the monitor, hit "F" on each to go fullscreen, then navigate through the image folder as usual.

Is PM intelligent enough to take into account differing monitor profiles?  For example, my desktop has two displays attached.  One is a standard-gamut monitor (Dell 3007WFP) while the other is a wide-gamut (Dell U3011).  Both have custom profiles associated with them.  If I view an image in Bridge, it will display the correct colours no matter what monitor I drag the window to.  In fact, it even works if the window straddles two monitors... it will map each half of the image properly.

[Kirk Baker]

Would it be possible to have two (or more) such slideshow windows?  I could then drag one to the projector and one to the monitor, hit "F" on each to go fullscreen, then navigate through the image folder as usual.

Is PM intelligent enough to take into account differing monitor profiles?  For example, my desktop has two displays attached.  One is a standard-gamut monitor (Dell 3007WFP) while the other is a wide-gamut (Dell U3011).  Both have custom profiles associated with them.  If I view an image in Bridge, it will display the correct colours no matter what monitor I drag the window to.  In fact, it even works if the window straddles two monitors... it will map each half of the image properly.

No.  Only one slideshow window for the time being.  And as for your example, which slide show would receive keyboard input?  I suppose you could click the mouse inside a slide show window, but because they are full screen there would be no feedback as to which one had keyboard focus.

PM currently only manages colors on the main monitor.  This will change for version 5.0.  Straddling monitors will not cause color matching to be split across an image.  PM is about speed and it caches matched images.  Doing so gives about a 25% performance increase.

-Kirk

[Luiz Muzzi]

Hi, Kirk
Thanks for your quick reply...
No, it was prior to version 4.6.8. I have not tried the new slideshow yet.
I will give it a try and let you know.
Regards,

-Luiz Muzzi

[taob]

And as for your example, which slide show would receive keyboard input?

It wouldn't matter, as all displays would be showing the same images at the same time.  Basically, you would have the main window with the thumbnail catalog on the laptops built-in display.  Then every other monitor connected to the laptop would be a full-screen display of the currently selected image.  Although I can setup hardware mirroring, that will not properly handle displays of differing resolutions, aspects ratios, orientations, or monitor profiles.

I suppose you could click the mouse inside a slide show window, but because they are full screen there would be no feedback as to which one had keyboard focus.

I don't even need that.  I just need the same image shown on all other connected displays.

PM currently only manages colors on the main monitor.  This will change for version 5.0.  Straddling monitors will not cause color matching to be split across an image.  PM is about speed and it caches matched images.  Doing so gives about a 25% performance increase.

Yeah, the split-image scenario would be pretty rare... I was just wondering how ACR would handle it, and surprisingly it did!   Perhaps if someone was doing a video wall application with tiled displays, they would need that kind of functionality.  Although you would think all the displays would be close enough to each other that they could share the same monitor profile...