Can't display Full Screen on Second Monitor

[WayneMV]

When video is played on second monitor, double-clicking to make the video full screen causes video to display full screen on the primary monitor. I can not find a way to make it full screen on the SECOND monitor. Am I missing an option for this? In much older versions of VLC, it behaved like I want: The video would remain on the same monitor as the window was positioned when switching between windowed and full screen modes. A setting to explicitly tell it what monitor to use for full screen mode might be even better.

Tested with:
VLC 0.9.8a
Windows Vista 32 service pack 1
GeForce 8600 GTS

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

USe nightlies builds.

[jeroensky]

Hi all...
I searched the forum, and this topic is the closest i find compared to my question.

My question is: How to use the full secondary HD 1080P screen for different kinda video rsolutions.
This because I've different kinda videofiles, downloaded and recorded at different kinda resolutions. It plays fullscreen, but it isn't resized(stretch vertically) so that it is using the full 1080P screen.

My 1st monitor is a 4:3 lcd monitor(vga cable connector). The second monitor is a 16:9 HD 1080p plasma TV(dvi->hdmi cableconnector). The graphicscard is a 8xagp Nvidea 6500 chipset with VGA(as monitor1), DVI(as monitor2), s-video(not in use) outputs.
When i watch videofiles on VLC 0.9.8a then for example on the vga monitor 1(4:3hardware) the video is 16:9 , but on the DVI monitor 2(16:9hardware) it's 4:3, so it has on the left and right 2 big black borders on the HD 1080p TV.

Graphicscard is configured properly, but how can i configure VLC that it resizes any played video at output display2 (dvi with 1080P 16:9 plasma tv)to 1080p 16:9 1920x1080 resolution ?

VLC 0.9.8a
Windows 2000 advanced server (as htpc) uptodate.
Latest FFDshow sse as codechandler.

[VLC_help]

jeroensky: If your plasma display has non square pixels, you can use Monitor Pixel Aspect Ratio to select proper aspect ratio for pixels

Tools -> Preferences... (Show settings: All) Video

[jeroensky]

Thanks for reply, but it doesn't work for the 2nd (display2) dvi output. It only works on display1 (vga lcd monitor).
I set Monitor Pixel Aspect Ratio to 4:3( a 4:3 screen has 1:1 pixels ratio, a 16:9 screen can have 4:3 pixel ratio), restarted vlc but nothing changed, output stay 4:3 on a 16:9 screen.(black borders on the left & right).
Any other suggestion, or is it the vlc version 0.9.8a (like the fullscreen bug on 2nd monitor found in other postings on this forum section)

[biau]

i have an answer for the full-screen problem on your 2nd monitor.
I had this issue too. you have to look up in settings - interface and there uncheck the "integrate video in interface" box. now you can drag the video window to your 2nd monitor and make it fullscreen by dubbleclicking.

[jeroensky]

That is a solution, but a bit clumsy.
I mean the 2nd plasma is a fullscreen video device(configured at nvidia display settings).
So if i play vlc on 1st vga monitor, then it comes automatically as fullscreenvideo on the 2nd monitor/plasma 16:9 tv.
When I play DVD then it's correct, it only happens to most video files, a little few videofiles do play fullscreen on 16:9 plasma 2nd monitor.

Could it be a bug of VLC 0.9.8a?

[VLC_help]

NVIDIA Video mirror aspect ratio is broken. It has been for years.

[jeroensky]

NVIDIA Video mirror aspect ratio is broken. It has been for years.

That sucks bigtime. (but thanks for the info)
So it can't be solved with most recent Nvidia driver? I've version 94.24 for 6500(Geforce 6 series) chipset on directx9 W2K with agp8x . Selected by driver wizard on nvidia site. http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
So it's a hardware (Nvidia GPU) or software(Nvidia driver) issue?

i guess the solution from Biau, is the only one that solves the issue.(does display2/automatic as fullscreen device option has to be off in nvidia settings?)

[VLC_help]

NVIDIA has ignored the option for years, I don't know why.

[jeroensky]

I found a solution!!!

OMG what a display setting struggling it was in nvidia & vlc configuration.

Ok what I did, to let video play on a second 16:9 monitor with a nvidia graphics card(in my case a big plasma with nvidia 6500 chipset on win2k with directx9)

Nvidia Display settings:
Goto advanced display settings and select the Nvidia tab. so that you see the nvidia configuration window.
Select the "full screen video" settings. Now at the full screen device be shure it's disabled.
At "nView Display Settings" i use Dualview as nView display mode. (it's what you want if you use 2 monitors, dualview or span). Now click on "Apply", then on "OK".

VLC preferences:
Tools -> preferences ->
- disable "Integrate video in interface"
- then Show settings -> select "All" click on "Video" scroll down and at "Windows properties" -> "Video cropping" type 16:9
then click save and restart vlc.

Howto play video on 2nd monitor and allways on the complete screen(any video on full 2nd 16:9 monitor) :
Start VLC, open a video and play it.
When playing starts you got the vlc interface and a video window, now drag the vlc video window to the 2nd monitor, and click on the videowindow to maximise it to the full screen. (that's why no single monitor or clone in nview display settings, otherwise you can't drag the video to the 2nd monitor)
You've to drag the videowindow from 1st to 2nd screen & doubleclick to go fullscreen everytime when a new file is played. (yeah a bit clumsy, but in this way any videosource can be viewed on fullscreen 16:9 2nd monitor/tv/beamer.)

Enjoy!

Oh ...one question i've: Is the video on the 2nd monitor in this way gpu rendered(nvidia chipset powered) or software rendered (by vlc & cpu). This because my nvidia graphics card has a hardware h.264 decoder build in, and i prefer to use that of course.

[jeroensky]

It seems that If you also select in VLC:
Tools->Preferences->Video-> "Display" "Output"->OpenGL video output
and then of course also
Tools->Preferences->Audio-> "Output" "Type"->PORTAUDIO audio output
that the cpu is less busy.
Well here it seems to be less busy, because I can do a lot on the 1st monitor(running applications) without any little choppy reaction at the 2nd Video 1080P HD output(dvi) . Can it be that by selecting OpenGL video output, that we got sort of GPU support for video, instead of CPU (even on a uptodate w2k machine hehehe). That would be great. (but Nvidia h.264 gpu support in vlc would be better of course). Because since i select OpenGL video, the gpu is getting hotter(from 32*c to 73*c). or is it just me

extra Nvidia update:
Goto advanced display settings and select the Nvidia tab. so that you see the nvidia configuration window.
Select the "Desktop Management" settings. Enable nView desktop manager. Click "User Interface" on the left then look at "Title bar buttons" and select "Full desktop maximize" and "Next display". Click Apply and save the new profile.
Then you don't have to drag the VLC OpenGL output video, but just click on the "Move to next display" button.