MaxiVista: Server Start-Up
Once we've completed the aforementioned steps, we can start the MaxiVista server program on our desktop computer, which we find in the start menu under ‘Programs -> MaxiVista Demo Server.’ An icon appears in the taskbar here as well. Through the color of the program icons in the taskbar of the notebook and on the main computer, we can determine whether or not the MaxiVista server can communicate with the MaxiVista client. The initial connection was successful if the icons on both computers are yellow. However, should at least one of the icons remain black, then no connection between the client and server has been made. In such a case, you should check the firewall settings and check that there are no general network problems.
Playback of Multimedia Files
The icons on the laptop and desktop PC turn yellow right away on our test platform, so we can immediately start using the program. To do that, simply double click the MaxiVista status icon in the taskbar of the main (server) computer. Check out the following video to see how such a connection looks, and whether any video files can be played on the network-connected laptop screen.
Double-clicking the program icon in the taskbar establishes a connection, and the desktop computer can use the notebook as a third monitor. For testing purposes we used Google’s Chrome browser to play a 720p version of the game trailer for Assassin's Creed 2 on YouTube. When moving the browser window from the monitor that is connected to the desktop PC to the virtual third monitor, which is the screen of the notebook connected through the network, we could still watch the video almost completely stutter-free. Playing the video in full screen mode works just fine as well.
When further attempting to playback another 720p test file using Windows Media Player we were less successful. Once we moved the window to the virtual monitor we only saw a still image. The VLC player, on the other hand, played the same file without problems on the third monitor added by MaxiVista.
Virtual Monitor via WLAN
In our second test, for which we used a 54 Mb/s WiFi connection instead of the 1 Gb/s Ethernet connection, the results were less impressive. Moving a window to the third monitor was jerky, as was moving the mouse pointer around. Playing any multimedia files in this arrangement is not a good idea.
