any hack for a dock on your 2nd dipsplay?

oooooooooooo- good idea- i'd be interested in that too! 😀

I just downloaded an app called PopUP Dock that sort of does this. Haven't played with it much, and it's not a "true" dock, but a doc-like panel. But you can move it to your second display.

A question kind of related to this topic, what does everyone do when using a TV as a second display for their powerbook? The only two methods I have discovered are highly annoying.

First you can mirror your displays, which results in an unusable resolution on your PB but displays well on your TV for playing back movies, this is also a pain to turn off unless I'm missing something as with that resolution I can't access the monitor icon with dropdown on the menu bar and have to go through the System Preferences to turn it off.

The other option is to use the TV as a separate display but then you need to drag the menu bar to the second display to get any applications to the second display, why can't I just drag an application there and keep the display on my powerbook as is?

Neither of these are terribly difficult to use as is but it is a pain to jump through all the hoops to get a dvd or divx file to playback on the TV, for me that is okay but I have no hope of explaining the process to my girlfriend and anyway it would be nice just to be able to "plug and play"...

thevessels said:

...then u just open whatever u want - be-it a quicktime movie - drag it onto the tv - hit apple+F and your full screenin ( that is assuming u have quicktime pro )

Click to expand...

I tried doing just that (but with VLC not Quicktime) last night and for the life of me I couldn't drag it to the TV although I could move the mouse onto the TV to use the preferences pane that was there and could move the menu bar there as well using the preferences on the main display.

Maybe it was one of those blonde moments I occassionally have and hopefully if I go home and try again it might just work as that is exactly how I would like it to work.

By the way you don't need to power cycle to get the TV recognised you can just use the "detect displays" option.

thevessels said:

my powerbook came with a s-video to rca adapter - i just plug that in - restart the comp and the tv is yout 2nd display

then u just open whatever u want - be-it a quicktime movie - drag it onto the tv - hit apple+F and your full screenin ( that is assuming u have quicktime pro )

watched like 5 OC episodes i downloaded that way a few nights ago

then get get a 1/8 inch to rca and plug out of your headphone jack and your all ears too

its worked great for me

Click to expand...

There is absolutely no need to restart the computer when you want to use the TV as a display. Just go up to the little monitor icon or into system prefs and hit detect displays. No restart needed. Then when you disconnect the TV hit detect displays again and you are back to normal.

jaseone, You should have the option to adjust the powerbook and TV resolutions in order to be able to use the dropdown menu. I hook my TV up all the time and have never had any problems with either using it in mirrored mode or using it in extended desktop mode.

jaseone said:

I tried doing just that (but with VLC not Quicktime) last night and for the life of me I couldn't drag it to the TV although I could move the mouse onto the TV to use the preferences pane that was there and could move the menu bar there as well using the preferences on the main display.

Maybe it was one of those blonde moments I occassionally have and hopefully if I go home and try again it might just work as that is exactly how I would like it to work.

By the way you don't need to power cycle to get the TV recognised you can just use the "detect displays" option.

Click to expand...

You can choose in VLC's menu what screen you want to use. (menu:Video:Video Device)