DVD player's Viewer to ext. monitor?

[absurdio]

Heya. I have my PB hooked up to my TV by S-Video cable. At the moment i have the TV screen set up to the left of my PB, and while I seem to be able to move almost anything to that space, for some reason I can't seem to move the "Viewer" window of DVD Player over there. That'd be a nice feature so that i could watch movies on the tv while doing something else on my desktop. Does anyone know why Viewer won't go over there? And does anyone know how to change that?
It works if i turn on mirroring, certainly, but then I can't use my regular screen for anything other than the movie. Anyway, if anyone else has run into this, let me know. Thanks. Peace.

[MacsRgr8]

I had the same kind of problem.
I have a G4 500 MHz with Radeon 8500 (with TV out). The grfx card is connected to a VGA display (main) and to the TV via Composite Video (secondary). Only since Panther was I able to play DVD-video full screen on the second monitor (TV) using Apple's DVD Player.
So, are you by any chance NOT using Mac OS 10.3.x?
But maybe VLC (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14738) can solve the problem too?

[absurdio]

Indeed, I am still living in the stone ages with 10.2.8. =)

I guess that would do it, then.
But shouldn't I be able to move the Viewer screen over to the second monitor even if it isn't full screen over there? I mean, shouldn't it behave like any other window?

*sigh* I guess this is one more argument for making the switch to 10.3.

[MacsRgr8]

Originally posted by absurdio
But shouldn't I be able to move the Viewer screen over to the second monitor even if it isn't full screen over there? I mean, shouldn't it behave like any other window?


I agree that it should, but somehow it doesn't. There seems to be more than just "projecting" to showing a DVD movie. Funny enough, Mac OS 9 didn't have any difficulties in showing DVD movies (full screen or not) on a 2nd display, but until recently (10.3) Mac OS X did.

Oh well... if this is a good reason for you to upgrade to Panther, you will be happy anyway! :) Panther is gr8!

[absurdio]

Yeah, I know I need to make the upgrade, anyway...but...there are other things a poor college student like myself needs to spend his $70 on at the moment. *sigh*

Supposing I ever do get around to it...how is the upgrade process? I mean from 10.2.8 to 10.3, do you have to, I dunno, copy everything to cds and reinstall? That would be dismal. And not fun.

[MacsRgr8]

You can also upgrade the system, leaving all the apps, prefs, etc. the same.

Personally, I prefer to backup, then wipe the HD before installing a new OS. But it is not necessary.

No funds from parents? ;)

[DreaminDirector]

I use VLC to playback the DVD on the other screen. I'm usually doing work on my dual monitors and I dont want the DVD viewer on my main monitor and I dont want it full screen on my left monitor, so I use VLC instead of the Apple DVD player.

here's the versiontracker link:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14738

and the best part is it's FREE!

[cpjakes]

You can do this in Jaguar, the only down side is that you need to change your main display to the TV, which will move your desktop and menus there too... Kind of a crappy workaround, but if you were only doing web surfing or something where you didn't need a lot of menus, it would work nicely.

cpjakes

[absurdio]

hey, thanks. Maybe I'll give that a shot until I muster up the cash and courage to update to Panther. In the meantime, how would I go about setting the TV as my main display? Thanks.

[cpjakes]

Originally posted by absurdio
hey, thanks. Maybe I'll give that a shot until I muster up the cash and courage to update to Panther. In the meantime, how would I go about setting the TV as my main display? Thanks.

Make sure that your TV is on and that you've got a desktop background on it. Then go to System Preferences -> Displays. There should be an Arrange tab and then you can adjust the positioning of the desktops to one another. Grab the menu bar of the main display and drag it to the other one. That should change it. It's been a while since I've done that, but it's something like that.

cpjakes