connected to LCD TV, how to get full screen video on TV

[rozner]

Hi,

I finally got around to buying a VGA cable to connect my Macbook Pro to my LCD TV. I hooked it up and it pretty much configured itself which was nice. The problem is if I watch a video with Quicktime or VLC or whatever, hitting full screen will make it full screen on the internal display. How can I make it full screen on the TV? I'm aware of the mirror function but I was hoping to be able to still use the computer on the internal display while having a video playing full screen on the TV. Is this possible?

Thanks

 

[MisterMe]

Hi,

I finally got around to buying a VGA cable ... hitting full screen will make it full screen on the internal display. How can I make it full screen on the TV? ...

VGA? Welcome to 20 years ago. VGA is 640 x 480. What makes you think that it can support a full-screen HD display?

 

[mkrishnan]

VGA? Welcome to 20 years ago. VGA is 640 x 480. What makes you think that it can support a full-screen HD display?

Erm... are you joking or serious?

The RGB / D-SUB 15 adapter is more than capable of displaying high-def resolutions. It's common enough parlance to call that adapter a VGA adapter that it's really not worthy of being snippy about (even for me).

The answer actually varies with application (and has nothing to do with whether you use RGB or DVI anyway)... you have a couple of options. Some applications will honor your full screen request on whatever screen the full window of the video is in. So in that case, you move the whole window onto the other display and then go full screen. Category two is that it's in the preferences somewhere (I think QT has it in the preferences which screen gets the full screen display). Third is a few applications that will only go full screen on the "main" display.

 

[motulist]

in vlc click the menu bar item video > video device > [tv display, whatever it is]

 

[~Shard~]

I believe VLC has the option of selecting which device you would like to play your media on, so you might be able to specifically select your TV in this case...

Edit: Apparently I was too slow!

 

[QuarterSwede]

The easiest thing to do is to make the LCD TV the main display by dragging the menu bar (little white rectangle) in System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement to the TV.

 

[MisterMe]

Erm... are you joking or serious?

Serious.

The RGB / D-SUB 15 adapter is more than capable of displaying high-def resolutions. ...

The OP wants to use the VGA port on his TV. HDTV sets generally support high-def only on their component video and DVI and/or HDMI ports. Other ports are limited to lower resolution. You expect an HDTV's VGA port to be VGA.

Quite frankly, I am a bit puzzled by the OP's request because his MacBook Pro has dual link DVI, which he should be able to connect to his TV's DVI port or its HDMI port [through an adapter].

 

[rozner]

thanks for the info.

Yes to clarify, when I said VGA, I meant simply the VGA port on the back of the TV. The resolution is 1360x768 and displays a very nice image. The TV doesn't have a DVI in, it has HDMI but I've done some reading on these forums and it seems a lot of people were having trouble geting it display properly with HDMI, and the VGA cable was cheaper so I went with VGA.

Although you've pretty much answered my question. I had tried moving the video window to the TV and then making it fullscreen which kept bringing it back to the internal display. I didn't know there was a preference for this but I'll have a look.

 

[mkrishnan]

The OP wants to use the VGA port on his TV. HDTV sets generally support high-def only on their component video and DVI and/or HDMI ports. Other ports are limited to lower resolution. You expect an HDTV's VGA port to be VGA.

Really? None that I've ever used, including my own, which does full native on VGA.