No Display 1 & 2 selection

[dmemphis]

I'm pretty adept at the second monitor features and have read a number of posts about using 2nd monitor for output.
I find I have to go back to pre version 2 to get the extra display selections to show up.
Here is a screen shot of what I get. It shows the 2nd monitor configured in nvidia control program,
but only "default" in the drop down box.
Is this likely to get fixed or has this been intentionally disabled due to other reasons, perhaps performance reasons?

This is from the latest release 2.1.2
http://imgur.com/zwTcjaD

[auralarch]

Same here... Kind of weird how it was just gone one day (after an update- don't recall exactly when because I don't use Windows as much; it's still there in the OS X version, or it's been 'put back' already).

So, what's the deal with this? Anybody know? Why has the ability to select a default monitor for fullscreen output of multimonitor systems on the Windows platform mysteriously & silently disappeared completely?

Strange... I don't recall ever seeing any mention/acknowledgement of this change anywhere. The documentation doesn't reflect this change either.

If anyone who reads this has any information/explanation about this, I would really appreciate it if you would share what you know It's just nice to know what's going on... to understand why a feature that I rely heavily on has suddenly been snatched away. To know when/if I should expect to have it back... stuff like that.


This is quite an important feature to me (all of my computer systems have 2 or more monitors- except my laptop sometimes while traveling, I always carry all the cords/adapters needed to hook it up to virtually ANY monitor or TV), so I have been frustrated by this change.

What's strange about this issue to me is the fact that the menu item is completely gone! (not just broken) I mean, there are a number of features that are broken in VLC (some that haven't worked at all for as long as I've used VLC- 6-7 years), either in general/completely, or just on a specific platform. Yet they have not been removed from the menu or settings and there is scarce information available to let anyone know that these items are well-known not to work. And yet, this feature (which I don't recall ever having trouble with) disappears completely without a trace!

It's annoying that every time I open VLC the video output automatically goes to the Windows primary display, but what's REALLY frustrating is that even during fullscreen playback, the output reverts to the OS primary monitor for each video file in a list.
(I have VLC configured for video output NOT to be embedded in the main interface window because I don't care for the fullscreen control interface- I find it frustrating. With multiple monitors it's just easier for me to have an "always visible" control interface that I can count on to always be in the same place.

It wouldn't be so bad if my monitors all had the same resolution, but they don't and the one I use for playback is higher the one which is Windows primary display. So when I use the OS shortcut to move a window to the next display (Shift-Meta-[left/right] arrow key) the video does not resize to fit- it only partially fills the larger display- and it's not even centered! So I have exit fullscreen. And now something else has changed as well because I used to be able to toggle fullscreen mode twice (off and back on) and everything would be fine. But now when I leave fullscreen mode the output window is still/back on the primary display, so I must move the un-maximized window to the desired display, then re-enter fullscreen. And I have to repeat this ridiculous cumbersome process for EACH file I play. May not be so bad if you're watching movies, but if you're watching little clips, or silly videos downloaded from some social/networking/sharing site it gets really old, quite rapidly!
So... WHY does that window MOVE ITSELF back to the OS primary screen after each item? That is not only especially annoying, it's also very mysterious and strange. Windows is NOT moving this window- it is absolutely VLC that moves my output window back to the default monitor for every single file- all because the other options (the list of attached monitors) were deleted from the settings pages as well as from the "Video" menu.

Anyway, it would be great if JBK would take a quick moment to let us know what's going on... I'm sure there must be a good, valid reason for this.

(I'm not on the latest version- I'm using 2.1.0. I've actually begun to get scared of updating because this seems to be turning into a trend- the last 4-5 times I updated I've found a feature missing at least 3, if not 4 of those times. But they don't tell you ahead of time that they've removed an insignificant feature (which is crucial, integral to you and that you rely on).


Edit: I have since found a couple more threads regarding this matter (going further back & trying to broaden my search). Not really much useful info, except in one of them JB says it must be a bug.
I wonder if anyone has even submitted a ticket.
Assuming so, this bug is apparently not of much importance since there have been two(?) updates since it seems to have appeared: 2.1.0

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Use 2.1.3

[auralarch]

Use 2.1.3

Thanks, I am using 2.1.3- I am configured to check for updates daily & have been using it for quite some time now...

It's great! Except that this feature has not been restored in the windows version.


Each item in a playlist (or each change to a different track/item invoked by any means) returns to the primary monitor for playback, which is quite frustrating if one wants to play the video on a secondary display (especially if simultaneously using the primary display for other tasks- I think that's kind of the whole point of having multiple monitors)!

The "Fullscreen Device" hierarchical menu item which was in the "Video" menu has completely disappeared- like that segment of code was commented out or deleted or something.

Selecting a "desired display device" on the DirectX page in the detailed settings has no effect (not surprising since DirectX output is not compatible with Vista & beyond; although it used to be possible to select the default fullscreen display with this item- not anymore.

I would be very nice to have this feature fixed/returned for the Windows platform. I never noticed any problems with this feature since I started using VLC so I'm puzzled as to why this feature suddenly vanished...
Even more, I'm perplexed by how this change is either being denied or ignored by those on this forum who speak with some authority and the developers.

[auralarch]

It's a shame & disappointing that this extremely useful feature has so mysteriously disappeared- but ONLY from the Windows release...

The code for the feature is surely still a part of original source because it still works on OSX (and presumably linux). Perhaps if I build it myself from the sources it can be reactivated.

I have only very rudimentary familiarity software development & coding... But it makes me wonder if the lines of code which provide/enable the ability to choose the fullscreen playback device were "commented out" at some point for some reason (testing something? who knows...?) during development and then uncommenting those lines was forgotten or just slipped through the cracks somehow... I don't know. Maybe something along those lines?

It just strikes me as odd that JB seems so sure (in this and other, older threads) that this issue has either been resolved or that it is just a configuration issue- NOT an actual problem like we've described...

I have personally recently installed VLC on several new/clean/virgin Windows 7 machines- downloading the installer directly from the official site for each one... And I can promise you- they ALL lack the ability to change/select the default monitor for fullscreen output on multi-monitor systems. This is on the first run of VLC before changing any preferences, as well as after resetting the preferences- it's not that the setting/selection is ignored- the option/ability to make a selection at all is completely absent!


It just doesn't add up... Someone (probably me) is missing or misunderstanding some important information because it doesn't make sense.
Why wouldn't the developers just admit/acknowledge it if there was some sort of issue with this feature that is at least on a list to be investigated? I can't imagine why JB would infer that the issue had either been fixed or didn't even exist in the first place, unless he believed that to be true?... Perhaps he is unable to test is himself (lack of multi-monitor Windows platform?), who knows!? It's just strange and very puzzling.

Additionally, the sense I'm getting that this isn't even on anyone's radar as an issue that needs to be at the very least addressed and hopefully resolved is almost even more frustrating than the problem itself- which causes a significantly annoying interruption to whatever I'm doing and is impossible to ignore, avoid or resolve on any of my machines (all of which are multi-monitor setups).