Dual monitors and fullscreen fiasco, is there a work around?

I found the answer!!!

here are the steps:

1. Click video you would like to play
2. secondary click on playing video
3. "play in secondary window"
4. drag to display you want to watch video on
5. click "+" to maximize sceen

WALLA!!!!

As this has dragged on for years, I've also gotten tired of the big gaps from the bezels of my multiple monitors. I thought the solution to both problems (at least on my desktop) was finally affordable with the new Seiki 50" (wish it was smaller) 4k monitor for $1300! However, a combination of problems with both the monitor and the Mac look like they'll make this unusable:

The monitor only has HDMI, not DP.

• HDMI 1.4a (the latest for now) can only do 4k at 30Hz 😟
• People who've tried the monitor with a rMBP have found it's even worse:
  • The current Mac driver only goes to 17Hz 😟 😟
  • To add insult to injury, when running Windows, the rMBP does run it at 30Hz!

Then there's the Sharp 32" 4k monitor that just came out for $5k (too much!). It also fails:

• It does have DP so doesn't run into the HDMI bandwidth problem.
• However, for 4k @ 60Hz, it uses DP's multi-display-streams. This is supposed to be for daisy-chained monitors (like the Apple TB Display) but makes the Sharp look like two 1920x2160 monitors so it's back to all of ML's multiple-monitor problems...

Looks like I've got work around.

• Make an App "FullScreen" On which ever monitor you want it on,
• Assign it to a specific desktop. It will stay fullscreen.
• the top bar will still be at the top but every other feature of fullscreen will work.

It is not a pretty solution & there may be some artifacts, but that is why it is a work around.

To undo it you will need to going into the menu or hit esc and and unassign the app from a desktop.

I hope so. Devil is in the details - and, hopefully, the Preferences panel!

• Can displays be linked for cases when you do want them to act as one big screen?
  • I still want this when I'm using multiple, identical monitors next to each other.
  • Will it (and apps) treat them as a single screen - e.g. single wallpaper, full-screen takes up both?
• Will they fix other full-screen bugs

  I use full-screen all the time on my rMBP for extra screen space and it ***** when I'm in mail and start writing a message and want to look at other messages. I can't get to them unless I save and "cancel" the new message, get mail out of full-screen, and then find the message in my drafts folder.

Glennny2Lappies wrote:

Great. There's "issues" with mavericks.

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/06/17/video-shows-differences-between-mavericks-an d-mountain-lion-multiple-monitor-support/

Treating each monitor as its own virtual desktop will totally bork my workflow. I use extended desktops with each Space having its own workflow theme:

1. Terminal / Finder / RDC sessions;
2. Browsers / Mail;
3. Programming IDEs / Debugger sessions;
4. iTunes windows (10.7 here, so still the MDI capability)
5. iWork
6. Client accounting / timekeeping

Yes, I use 6 extended desktops. Mavericks will fix the full-screen problem, but introduce workflow issues due to the inability to treat both monitors as a single, extended desktop. I know that several users commenting earlier in this thread will be positively delighted with the new behaviour (they requested it specifically). Me, not so much.

So... there's no workaround for this? I finally got Mavericks.

So frustrating. Apple have clearly decided that laptops and tablets are where it's at now, hence all the new features which are aimed at small screen computing.

Have they forgotten their desktop users? I'm running a Mac Pro with three monitors and yet now I can't even full screen a quicktime movie on one of my additional displays while I'm working on the main monitor without it trying to take over my whole system.. Just what the heck do they think they're playing at?

Thanks for the discussion. I don't have a real workaround, but if you want to watch video on the second monitor, VLC still lets you full screen while blacking out the primary monitor. Still no good for those of you who want to watch TV while you work on the primary.

Apple: Please fix ASAP!

Dual-monitor control is one area where Lion is less functional than Snow Leopard. Full-screen defaulting to a single monitor isn't just a problem with videos, as other people have said, but it destroys the usefulness of the feature for programs like Mail or Preview as well. It's fairly common (at least, I do it) to have a technical document or emails open full-screen on a second monitor, and the new full-screen behaviour makes that impossible.

A solution would be for apps/windows to go full-screen on the monitor on which they were displayed. Full-screen apps could still be switched between using Mission Control - they would just move from one screen to the other before disappearing into virtual-desktop land.

I think you are right on how it should work, at a minimun, look how chrome did it. It works somewhat rationally there. Put chrome on the external, it goes fs, and leaves the primary monitor open to use, like I am doing right now. very nice!

So I wonder this: does each app developer write the fullscreen code for themselves, and insert into their app using some fullscreen api from apple? If so, thumbs up for the folks at google!!!

Oh, and by the way, I'd like to rename this thread "Dual Monitors and the fullscreen festival" if I may.

I just tried it for the first time with the corner button on Safari: 4 monitors, 3 become blank "canvas". lol. My kids were not happy as they were watching VLC on the LCD that we use for video output. There needs to be more configuration for fullscreen mode. VLC has an option to black out or leave the other displays alone, and you can choose a default fullscreen monitor.

I'm finding the fullscreen a bit confusing too, as i am mostly on dual screens.

For me it makes no sense in going to another desktop neither, when activating full screen mode.

Back to divvy i suppose.

This handy util works for every program, and if you make a keybinding for it, i fairly simple to trigger full screen mode.

Not suggesting you should post here mate, it's great to discuss with others..

Just reminding you that Apple won't necessarily be listening here so it's still important to post a bug report if you want to make sure that Apple hear your opinion..

I can no longer send full screen video to my HDTV from iTunes or quicktime without disabling my other displays.

Maybe this lost functionality is a "feature." Just buy an apple TV and use buggy Airplay instead. This is the only "workaround" that I have found so far.

8 core Mac Pro user and I am considering going back to 10.5.8 because it handles full screen apps in the background better than 10.6 or 10.7.

Way to miss the point Apple!

Loyal power user since 1984

At least, there is a workaround. Go to system preferences > Display > Arrengement. You will see that one display have white bar at the top (the menubar). This is your primary display; the one that will be used for fullscreen applications. When you want to fullscreen a movie on an other display, simply drag that white bar to the other display and you're done.