donebylee

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

If you have a dual monitor set-up and Lion and you have tried the fullscreen setting, then you know what is wrong.

 

Might as well not even have the second monitor...Lion completely takes over both monitors and only allows you to have one app up. Pointless, and no way to stop it. (A preference setting in System Preferences under Displays would have been the right thing to do).

 

I know I don't have to use fullscreen, but it was nice to be able to view a Quicktime movie fullscreen on one monitor while continuing to work on the other. Lion makes that impossible.

 

Anyone know of a work-around or fix for the fullscreen/dual monitor fiasco?

 

Thanks for all help.

Posted on Jul 21, 2011 2:07 PM

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

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  • by shmereny,

    shmereny shmereny Oct 22, 2011 4:10 PM in response to donebylee
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 22, 2011 4:10 PM in response to donebylee

    Don't know if anyone said it yet, use Finder on your other monitor and open the movie in Preview (by hitting the space bar) and click the full screen icon. It will open full screen on your other monitor.

  • by Matt Wie,

    Matt Wie Matt Wie Oct 22, 2011 4:16 PM in response to shmereny
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 22, 2011 4:16 PM in response to shmereny

    Works until you touch anything in your other screen then the movie flicks back.  Still completely unworkable solution from Apple.  Downgrading to SL is the only real solution for dual screen users.

  • by DerekDickerson,

    DerekDickerson DerekDickerson Oct 22, 2011 4:20 PM in response to Matt Wie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 22, 2011 4:20 PM in response to Matt Wie

    This is not a defect but something planned i bet but your right you must  be on snow leopard to get this to wrk

  • by Matt Wie,

    Matt Wie Matt Wie Oct 22, 2011 4:22 PM in response to DerekDickerson
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 22, 2011 4:22 PM in response to DerekDickerson

    Will probably get fixed in a later release.  I just can't believe Apple would think this was a good idea. 

  • by JAX_R,

    JAX_R JAX_R Oct 25, 2011 8:57 AM in response to donebylee
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 25, 2011 8:57 AM in response to donebylee

    After researching this I found a tutorial. Using spaces I have set up several full screen "Desktops" and can switch between them using the swipe on my magic mouse. Brilliant!

     

    http://mattgemmell.com/2011/07/27/using-spaces-on-os-x-lion/

  • by NiqueXyZ,

    NiqueXyZ NiqueXyZ Oct 25, 2011 9:01 AM in response to JAX_R
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 25, 2011 9:01 AM in response to JAX_R

    I don't want to sund mean here, but that post

     

    1.) Has nothing to do with the dual monitor problem the topics covered on this thread

    2.) Subsequently -- Isn't helpful to anyone

     

    That's more of a "newbs guide to Lion" -- it really doesn't help the problem which is unlinking spaces and multiple monitors...Sigh.

  • by TheSmokeMonster,

    TheSmokeMonster TheSmokeMonster Oct 25, 2011 9:04 AM in response to NiqueXyZ
    Level 4 (3,234 points)
    Oct 25, 2011 9:04 AM in response to NiqueXyZ

    They are just trying to help however I thought the same thing after looking at the link.

     

    Having said thatJAX_R keep up the good work but make sure you read what the FIRST person says in a thread before providing an answer or work around.

  • by brucemeacbook,

    brucemeacbook brucemeacbook Oct 30, 2011 10:17 AM in response to TheSmokeMonster
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 30, 2011 10:17 AM in response to TheSmokeMonster

    Upon installing Lion, I found the same problem as many others: Mirroring did not use the entire screen on my 40" Sony. I had no option to enable overscan. In Snow Leopard, Mirroring works fine: With Lion, the 1920x1080 resolution mirrored (when I close the clamshell, I get a full 40" image) is so small on the 40" that it is completely unusable. Fonts are too small. I'll go blind. In Snow Leopard, I have a similar problem if I turn off mirroring: the resolution, while reporting 1920x1080, changes to something else.

     

    Another odd thing is that in Snow Leopard, if I shut my macbook, the resolution would go to the super small fonts. I'm thinking that they way things "work" for me is actually the bug, but the bug is the desired outcome. Still, I'd like to shut the cover of the macbook and keep the readable resolution.

     

    Lucky for me, I had a usable backup and simply rolled myself back to Snow Leopard. But Apple got $30 of my money and I can't roll that back, can I?

  • by Lance Mcvickar,

    Lance Mcvickar Lance Mcvickar Oct 30, 2011 6:43 PM in response to Richard Olpin
    Level 1 (100 points)
    Oct 30, 2011 6:43 PM in response to Richard Olpin

    This is not a fix but a work around when playing movies in fullscreen.

    You can still use quicktime 7 instead of quicktime X to play movies in full screen without using the actual full screen app function, by holding command, shift and F, this lets you choosen any of your connected monitors in full screen without effecting other apps. You can also just move the video to the montitor so it's showing on teh monitor you want to view it on, then hit command F and it will be full screen on that monitor and you can still work with your other connected monitors while the movie stays in full screen so this kind of shows you that it is doable to have multiple monitors running full screen apps but Apple choose to not do it that way. If you have another app using Lions full screen mode then your movie is pushed off screen and you will just hear the audio.

    I really hope they address this in an update but not sure if they will. It seems all they have to do is add a key command like the one that works with quicktime 7 and you could put any app on any monitor in full screen "command,shift,F" .

    If enough of us all send in sugetsions in via the feedback link posted by Olpin above "report it to Apple"   we may get it changed, I hope so...

    I am really happy to see I can still use quicktime 7 pro with Lion becuase quicktime X or 10 is sooo limited.

  • by TheSmokeMonster,

    TheSmokeMonster TheSmokeMonster Oct 30, 2011 10:18 PM in response to Lance Mcvickar
    Level 4 (3,234 points)
    Oct 30, 2011 10:18 PM in response to Lance Mcvickar

    have you treid VLC? it plays most media and will fullscreen in one display while you work on another.

  • by brucemeacbook,

    brucemeacbook brucemeacbook Oct 30, 2011 10:25 PM in response to TheSmokeMonster
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 30, 2011 10:25 PM in response to TheSmokeMonster

    Not sure if these replys were for me, but this isn't an application problem. It's a SYSTEM problem. I have no need whatsoever to run VLC and output that to my TV, since I can watch Video throughmy Tivo or PS3. I'm talking about simple web browsing, reading mail, or anything else. The resolution on Lion makes it impossible to do anything without getting very close to the screen.

  • by TheSmokeMonster,

    TheSmokeMonster TheSmokeMonster Oct 30, 2011 10:38 PM in response to brucemeacbook
    Level 4 (3,234 points)
    Oct 30, 2011 10:38 PM in response to brucemeacbook

    brucemeacbook, no one has responded to you for quite some time here. The header of each person's post tells you who they are responding to unless they explicitly refer to you within the body of the text.

     

    That being said, this is definitely not the issue on this thread. The issue is "Dual Monitors and FULLSCREEN fiasco".

     

    Your issue sounds like you got a high resolution screen (or maybe not) and can't really see the details since everything is smaller since the resolution is too grande for your use.

     

    try going to system preferences>display and change your screen's resolution to be lower. This will make everything look "bigger".

     

    Or post your concern in a new topic because you are definitely not understanding the OP's concerns.

     

    Screen Shot 2011-10-31 at 1.34.50 AM.png

    This is what the screen looks like to change the resolution. 

  • by Lance Mcvickar,

    Lance Mcvickar Lance Mcvickar Oct 31, 2011 2:42 PM in response to brucemeacbook
    Level 1 (100 points)
    Oct 31, 2011 2:42 PM in response to brucemeacbook

    You can also change your default font and font size for mail and safari in the preferences to make them bigger instaed of changing your screen resolution. I have a 30 inch and yes some of the fonts are set small but you can change that for most apps and in the finder as well.

  • by dr n o,

    dr n o dr n o Nov 7, 2011 4:55 AM in response to donebylee
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 7, 2011 4:55 AM in response to donebylee

    Hey guys. A friend gave me this link:

     

    http://geetduggal.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/reclaiming-your-second-monitor-in-os- x-lion/

     

    Its not the perfect solution but it works. Sorry if this was allready posted.

  • by TheSmokeMonster,

    TheSmokeMonster TheSmokeMonster Nov 7, 2011 5:34 AM in response to dr n o
    Level 4 (3,234 points)
    Nov 7, 2011 5:34 AM in response to dr n o

    This "fix" is more like a bug that Apple should be notified about to fix.

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