Using a ASUS EEE P for back-up and rehearsal PC

[felixgogo]

I had a great idea to use a Asus EEE PC as a back up and rehearsal SCS PC, and as I am lucky enough to be in the mecca of cheap computer goods (No VAT and plentiful supply) I took the plunge and got an EEE.

I've loaded XP, and all the usual programs I like, and the idea is to keep the sound files on a USB stick to keep the main PC SSHD free. All this is fine, but I do have an issue with the 800x480 resolution of the screen, the program runs fine, but I can't see the bottom section of the screen. I tried altering all the settings in SCS, and I would be happy with the cue list showing around 5 items, and the main centre section having the playing cue and the next one.

I can't get the SCS settings to allow me to see the next cue and the go button at the bottom.

I realise I am pushing the boundary of the hardware needed to run the SCS, but does anyone have any ideas how I might achieve this SCS 'Lite'?

Ian

[Mike Daniell]

SCS is designed for a minimum resolution of 1024x768. However, the run screen (the main window) starts off by maximizing itself so I'd have thought that you should see the buttons at the bottom of the screen, although the buttons to the right of that area (including the 'Go' button) may be off the screen. I expect you will also have problems seeing the Editor window if you only have a screen depth of 480.

I've had a quick look at the Asus EEE PC web pages and can't see any details about screen resolution, so I presume the numbers you have quoted are the maximum available.

To be honest, I'd say the Asus EEE PC is probably not suitable for SCS, unless it's possible to connect a second display to the PC and then drag the SCS window(s) to that display. The second display should be of at least 1024x768 resolution.

[felixgogo]

Thanks Mike - I thought you might say that! But lugging a monitor to the theatre is not really an option!

Here in Hong Kong, the theatres are fully equipped, but the rehearsal spaces tend not to be, so I was looking for a small system to throw into my rucksack for rehearsal, along with a small battery speaker system. Any editing (which I admit would be an issue on 800x480) would be done at home on the main system. Once into performance, the main laptop would be used, with the EEE as a back-up system.

Actually other than the screen height issue, the EEE PC does sound fab, linked into the theatre system, so I still would like to do this. As the EEE is so cheap - it is worth using in my opinion.

I have tried different video drivers , which as they are not native, are fuzzy, so not really usuable at this small size. If the top scrollable section of SCS could be restricted to say 5 or so cues, and the cue list to be 2 or 3, then there would easily be space for SCS to have the ESC and GO icons visible and for the system to run well.

However, not knowing how easy this would be - I accept it is not reasonable to expect a version made for particular hardware.

Oh well, back to the heavy PC!

Thanks for considering this.

[Mike Daniell]

Ian,

You may be aware that SCS 10 is in development, and I've just tested SCS 10 setting the Run Screen's window size to 800x480, and the results are usable! The key changes that make this usable are:

• A 'ribbon bar' (like a toolbar) is now displayed in SCS 10 which replaces the buttons at the foot of the screen in SCS 9, as well as the buttons on the right, and the menu line. The ribbon bar buttons for 'Go' and 'Stop' are in the first group of buttons and therefore will be visible on a small screen.
• In SCS 10 there is a draggable splitter bar between the cue list in the upper part of the screen and the cue panels in the lower part of the screen. You can drag this splitter bar to any position, which means you can decide how many cue panels to display. If you drag the splitter bar to the bottom then no cue panels will be displayed, and if you drag it to the top then no cue list will be displayed.
• As in SCS 9, you can select a font size for the cue list, but in SCS 10 you can also adjust the height of the cue panels - eg you can nominate a panel height of 80% of the default cue panel height. Since the panel height is automatically adjusted for the screen height anyway, for a small screen you may, in fact, want to increase the panel height. I've just tested a window size of 800x480, setting the cue panel height to 120% of the default cue panel height, and it looks fine.

SCS 10 still has quite a way to go before it is ready for release, so it will not be a short-term solution. However, it does mean that the Asus EEE PC will be usable with SCS 10. The new ribbon bar is currently of a fixed height, so it does not rescale according to screen size. However, I may add some options to reduce the height, such as an option to show text only instead of image and text.

Editing will still require a larger screen.

[felixgogo]

Mike, thanks, that's excellent news. I look forward to version 10!

Ian