Getting VLC to display full screen video on the secondary/external monitor

Today, I acquired a Dell S2409W 24″ full HD LCD monitor. Its been a while since I’ve connected external displays to my laptop (on Linux, they are fun to work with), so today, I thought as one of the tests, I should see how VLC performed, on the 24″ monitor.


VLC dual screens
Video -> Video Device

But then, how does one get VLC to display on the secondary monitor at full screen? My repeated attempts were getting me to only see it on my main 13″ display. A little prodding brought me to the Video -> Video Device menu option. There, you can choose either Screen 1 (your LCD panel on the laptop) or Screen 2 (the external monitor). Immediate win!

Just wish this was automatic (ala, the Mac way), or a little more obvious.

5 Comments

  1. Actually you just need to move the VLC Controller to your secondary display and then press play: the window will open in full screen in your secondary display.

  2. byte says:

    Somehow, that didn’t work for me. I actually needed to select the display. Could it be a version mismatch — what version of VLC are you using?

  3. Johan says:

    move the folder the video is in to the external monitor then open the video now fullscreen works :)

  4. Johnny Johnson says:

    Excellent advice Johan!! I had exactly the same problem and your tip worked a treat!! Cheers!!!

  5. Actually you just need to move the VLC Controller to your secondary display and then press play: the window will open in full screen in your secondary display.


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