Wanting a black background behind video

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Wanting a black background behind video

Hi All

I am using my MacBook and El Capitan to play videos on a projector in my garden.

The problem I have is the image is too big for the projector screen and I cannot move the screen or the projector so I want to play the video in a window that I can resize on the computer to the size of the projector screen. I don't want the background behind the video to project past the screen sides and cause light pollution so I want to have a black background behind the video. I can do this with a black background but I still have all the icons and bars showing. How can I get rid of them on a specific desktop.?

Posted on Oct 24, 2015 12:31 AM

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Answer 1

Brett L

Community Specialist

Oct 25, 2015 1:38 PM in response to Joe Batt

Greetings Joe,

It sounds as if you want to have a dark featureless background with no icons or Dock for playing movies on your projector. Is that right?

To accomplish this there are a few things you will need to do.

To get the Dock (and menu bar) off of the projector screen we need to turn off display mirroring. This means that items on your MacBook's internal display will not also show on the projector. If you go to System Preferences (under the Apple menu) > Displays > Arrangement there will be a checkbox labeled Mirror Displays which you should deselect.
The Arrangements pane should now show both displays. Move the menu bar, if it is located on your projector display panel, to the MacBook's. This will also move the Dock. This article describes this System Preferences pane - OS X El Capitan: Arrangement pane of Displays preferences
Next we will create a Space with a black background. To do this we need first to assign System Preferences to all desktops. See this help page - Work in multiple spaces.
If System Preferences is not on the Dock, launch it from the Apple menu.
Press and hold on the System Preferences icon in the Dock.
From the shortcut menu that appears, choose Options, then All Desktops.
Next we go to the Space you want to use for displaying your movies and give it a black background.
Use your MacBook's function key f3 to open Mission Control.
Select a space that is not in use by any other applications. If needed you can create a new space in the Spaces bar by using the + button on the right side.
System Preferences should still be open. Change it to the Desktop & Screen Saver pane and select Desktop.
On your projector you should see Secondary Desktop at the top of System Preferences. Go to that and select Solid Colors. You can select one of the colors here or create a custom color with the button. See this article about the Desktop pane - OS X El Capitan: Desktop preferences.
Lastly we need to assign the DVD Player application to this space and desktop. Making sure you are still in the space where we have created the black desktop, launch the DVD Player from the Finder.
Press and hold on its icon in the dock.
When the shortcut menu appears, select Options > This Desktop.
If the DVD Player is on your internal display, move it to the projector display.

This should get you where you want to go. From now on DVD Player will launch in the space with a black empty background on your projector.

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

Be well.

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