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ross.32

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 27, 2007
259
0
I have my MBP hooked up to my TV. I was trying to get Front Row to run on my external monitor without having to move the Menu Bar over, but I quickly realized that was not going to be possible. My next idea was to play the videos straight from iTunes and just make them Full Screen. Having the videos playing over there works okay (my MBP screen is still normal), but as soon as I press Full Screen my MBP goes black. Is there any way to run full screen iTunes on my TV without losing functionality from my MBP?
 
Are you mirroring? Thats what I do when I hook my MBP up to my flat panel, so I know that works
 
No if I mirror it works, but what I want to do is keep my MBP screen like it normally is. The goal is to have a full screen TV show/movie/music video/cover flow on my TV while still having my full computer screen on my computer so I can play a game or do homework or whatever else I am doing.
 
Well that is what I have been doing. It just still has the desktop behind it and bars around the video. Its not too big of a deal, it just looks a lot better in full screen thats all.
 
Can you not just resize the iTunes window to fit the screen of your TV?

That's a pretty sorry solution really...

The only way I've found I can span to an external (in my case an HD projector DVI-->HDMI) and then still use the MBP while the external is running fullscreen video is to use VLC to play the videos. The apple DVD player will play DVDs in fullscreen find and I can still SEE my MBP screen as normal, but as soon as I click outside the frame of the DVD movie the player reverts to window mode. Same with Quicktime; I can set it fullscreen and see my desktop on the laptop screen but when I try to interact with any other app QT get jealous and shrinks back to window mode.

In my experience (at least in regard to the Apple Media Apps) is that using the Mac as a video device and using it as a Mac Computer are mutually exclusive tasks. Using VLC however I have no issues getting the desired behavior.
 
Same with Quicktime; I can set it fullscreen and see my desktop on the laptop screen but when I try to interact with any other app QT get jealous and shrinks back to window mode.

I´ve got quicktime on fullscreen on my TV while using my MBP. No problems. Just go into quicktime preferences. Go to fullscreen, then tick the bottom box.

Voilá
 
Well, I don't know about ticking the bottom box. For me, that was "Remain in full screen when player is inactive."

My solution was: go into Quicktime, then Preferences, Full Screen, then with the visual model at the top drag the Q window over to the external monitor.
 
"Remain in full screen when player is inactive." - will do the trick

QT will also stay in fullscreen while using other programs.

Works fine here.
 
I was wondering this too, and while i got it to work with quicktime (it has the nice feature where you can just pick which display it plays on) I can't figure out how to make VLC enter fullscreen on the external monitor. When I move the window over to the external, and hit full screen, it slides over to the macbook display. Any tips?
 
I don't have my computer in front of me so I am going off of memory, but I think it is Video on the menu bar, and then display. Make sure that you have your external pluged in before opening VLC also.

I never got it working with Quicktime, how did you do it?
 
In quicktime, when your display is plugged in, open preferences, and then under the full screen tab it shows a picture of your two displays. You can just drag the image to whichever display you want. I have QT Pro, so it may be different.
 
"Remain in full screen when player is inactive." - will do the trick

QT will also stay in fullscreen while using other programs.

Works fine here.

Um. Wow. It sure does do the trick. I've been looking for a solution like this for a while now (and i sortof like Quicktime + Perian more than I like VLC...).

This actually does it. My mind is blown. I'd even looked through the QT preferences a handful of times, and I guess I just sortof assumed that button meant "Quicktime will remain fullscreen, even when the movie is over," which, of course, sounded totally useless to me.

Anyway. Thanks!
 
Hi,

To fullscreen VLC on the external display while being able to use the computer for normal usage at the same time, open up VLC preferences, go to the Video section, then uncheck 'Black screens in fullscreen mode'. Voila!!

-Rami
 
Hi,

To fullscreen VLC on the external display while being able to use the computer for normal usage at the same time, open up VLC preferences, go to the Video section, then uncheck 'Black screens in fullscreen mode'. Voila!!

-Rami

Thanks for this : )
 
Hi, i am trying to resolve a problem with my imac. i have connected it to my hdtv, and do not have it on mirror display. when watching a film via quick time, i have dragged this over to the tv. however the imac does not dim down or go into energy save, is there any possible way of doin this??? any help would be grateful.

thnx
 
Easy Fix

Open Quicktime > Preferences (Command-,) > Full Screen Tab > click your external monitor (this will put the Quicktime Logo on it).

However, if you use your Macbook screen, it will change back to regular screen. But, to make it full, go to View > Fit to Screen.
 
Full Screen On External Monitor

Thank you, you saved me HOURS and made my movie-loving boyfriend very happy...you ROCK! xoxo

Hi,

To fullscreen VLC on the external display while being able to use the computer for normal usage at the same time, open up VLC preferences, go to the Video section, then uncheck 'Black screens in fullscreen mode'. Voila!!

-Rami
 
Flash Videos?

What about watching flash videos? I like to watch MLB.tv and do work on my mbp at the same time, but I can't keep the video in fullscreen on my monitor. Thanks.
 
What about watching flash videos? I like to watch MLB.tv and do work on my mbp at the same time, but I can't keep the video in fullscreen on my monitor. Thanks.

Go ask adobe.

The Flash plugin assumes fullscreen is all you're going to do when watching fullscreen, so clicking out of the flash window cancels fullscreen. They don't seem to have heard about dual monitors.


There's apparently a hack for windows flash to avoid exiting fullscreen, but not for the Mac version.
 
Web Pages

Thanks for the help on making VLC work in full screen but I am looking for a OS based solution. I want to watch hulu movies in full screen but cannot figure it out. I have a TV and MacBook. If anyone has figured this out I would appreciate a some notes.
 
Hi,

To fullscreen VLC on the external display while being able to use the computer for normal usage at the same time, open up VLC preferences, go to the Video section, then uncheck 'Black screens in fullscreen mode'. Voila!!

-Rami

Hi I tried this fix with VLC and it still reverts to the mac monitor. It won't go tot full screen on the ex monitor. I have a mac book pro hooked into an ex monitor via an adaptor. I recently upgraded to a new laptop. My old laptop had no prob letting me FS on the ex monitor. It ran snow leopard. This new one runs lion. What happens, as has been mentioned before, is I drag the screen to the ex monitor and when I select full screen it shifts to the mac screen every time. I tried a few settings including the one mentioned above and finally clicked reset all and gave up. Still puzzled. Anyone ideas?? thanks ever so much!
 
hi i tried this fix with vlc and it still reverts to the mac monitor. It won't go tot full screen on the ex monitor. I have a mac book pro hooked into an ex monitor via an adaptor. I recently upgraded to a new laptop. My old laptop had no prob letting me fs on the ex monitor. It ran snow leopard. This new one runs lion. What happens, as has been mentioned before, is i drag the screen to the ex monitor and when i select full screen it shifts to the mac screen every time. I tried a few settings including the one mentioned above and finally clicked reset all and gave up. Still puzzled. Anyone ideas?? Thanks ever so much!

you can use either nice player for mac which is very very good and stable and can change alot of settings.

However with vlc you can go to preferences, and under the video tab, then in fullscreen video device, select screen 2 (which should be your external device) it will have the resolution of the device.

I hope this helps or points you in the right direction.
 
So I know you can use VLC to separately run a movie full screen on an external monitor but what if I want to use non-video full screen apps on one and not on the other? Like what if I want to play Sim City 4 on one screen. On the other screen it just stays black there's no way I can use it. Is there any way to get that functionality?
 
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