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Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

It's not really a bug, but I think it would improve the user experience if the behaviour of the fullscreen mode might be changed a little for dual monitors.

1. Silverlight fullscreen opens always on the main monitor, no mather on which monitor the "source" window is displayed. In my opinion it would be better to use the monitor on which the silverlight application is displayed in normal mode.

2. Changing to a different application makes the fullscreen mode disappear (I know, this is not a bug, but by design). It maked sense to let the user work on the secondary monitor (or the first, if silverlight fullscreen is on the secondary) and let him/her watch for example a video on the other monitor. Think about screencasts, where you could then watch on one monitor in fullscreen mode and work in visual studio on the other one.

Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

This does make sense, though the debugging of FullScreen mode needs to be taken into accout as well...currently its very difficult to debug FullScreen mode without dual monitors...

Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

Both good suggestions. Many people run multiple monitors (I do) but the majority of people only have one, and so much of the current experience has been optimized around keeping things simple and respecting the needs of a person with a single monitor.

#1 was chosen because it turns out to be surprisingly tricky to tell what monitor the user intended to run in full screen mode (lots of corner cases) & so we decided to go with the straightforward solution of just using the primary display. For #2, the problem is security - you don't want to prevent a user from being able to get out of full-screen mode via [esc], [alt-tab/command-tab], etc. - lots of corner cases there as well.

thanks for the feedback!

-Tom

Re: Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

I don't think it's that tricky. Take Windows Media Player for example. This application behaves exactly like i described it. Fullscreen on the monitor where the player window is in normal state, exit fullscreen on [alt-tab] only if the new active window is (at least partially) on the same monitor as the fullscreen video. And with [esc] you can also exit fullscreen mode. So it can be done! [:)]

Re: Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

hello, i would also appreciate this feature. a lot of people are already using 2 monitors especially in companys! a second reason why it would be great to have this function - and that's my problem right now - is the problem that occurs if you want to present a show on a beamer

Re: Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

I agree with you 100%, all my client's have dual / quad screens with many apps running. The whole purpose is to be able to multi-task and after all, is that not what Windows environment is supposed to be all about?

Re: Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

Well i belive when working on web ..

every thing is dependent on the web browser..

either we use ie or firrefox..

the only way to get screen size is

Scree.width or scree.some thign aomething..

the point is

from browser we can only find the details of one browser.. soit is restricted..

if really we want to do any thin g..

we have to do changes in browser..

if MS or any body writes any codes which checks the no of display plugins... and then calculate the amount of width and height..

then only this problem can be handled..

but i belive this will never happen.. because in the priority .. this problem stands at bottom...

and another problem is ..

platform

like hardware conf s diff on diff. plat form..

another..

theristriction on accessing client's information...

last but not least

full screen

is just a popup window

which is handeled by silverlingt internally so that there could no security message on popup

any popup fullscreen only covers the current screen...

So finally we have to move on...

"If this answer helps you hten mark it as answered"

Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

I would like an option for full screen mode to take over both monitors in a dual monitor system. Is this kind of extension planned?

Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

Pete Magsig

I would like an option for full screen mode to take over both monitors in a dual monitor system. Is this kind of extension planned?

No, but it's a good idea. We'll take it under consideration.

thanks!

- Tom

Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

I have a laptop running WinXP Prof. with an NVidia Quadro FX GO 1400 graphics card. It has a great feature that allows you to direct video applications to automatically give a full-screen image on what's defined as the second monitor. For example when I watch baseball on MLB.com using the Windows Media Player v11, as soon as the feed is started I get a full-screen picture on my second monitor, which happens to be a TV connected via an S-Video connection to my laptop. I don't even need to select full-screen in the media player. No matter what I have that sized at I get full-screen on my TV. If I do select full-screen in the media player I get full-screen on both monitors (Laptop and TV).

But Silverlight doesn't do this. It seems it's not completely compatible with certain video cards dual-screen capabilitiies. Maybe this dual-screen functionality is not a high priority - but it should be. After all Silverlight is a video player. It should be assumed that there will be people who will want to use it with their TV's connected to their PC's. NVidia seems to get it!

Re: Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

After all Silverlight is a video player

i wouldn't reduce it to a video player!

the thing about the auto full screen mode: because of security issues this feature propably won't be implemented ever! <- statement of a microsoft employee

Re: Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

I don't know much about what Silverlight is supposed to be. I'm not a developer; only a user and my only experience with it is as a video player. And Major League Baseball has decided to use it as the only way to get to their highest quality streams (1.2 mbs). With Windows Media Player you can receive only the 400 kbs and 800 kbs streams. So I'm forced to watch the lower quality streams if I want to watch on my TV (2nd monitor).

I don't understand what kind of security issue there could be with supporting auto full-screen mode. The microsoft employee who made that statement should explain why it's not a security issue with Windows Media Player but is with Silverlight.

Anyway, thanks for the information!!

Re: Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

he told me the reasons. you also can find some statements in the webcasts about silverlight. i just don't want to work out the details :) i'm hurry

Re: Re: Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

I have to put in my $0.02 here as well. The lack of multiple monitor support for fullscreen video is a royal PITA. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to watch a screen-cast tutorial on one monitor while I follow along in Visual Studio only to realize I can't do it with Silverlight videos. The default size (non-fullscreen) for most videos is way too small to read anything in the video (and they're not resizable). Then when I full-screen it, not only does it take over my center monitor (I have 3), which IS NOT where I had my browser, but the moment I click on Visual Studio, it exits full-screen and I'm back to square one. You know what I end up having to do? I have to load the video page up on my MacBook Pro, full-screen it there, and set the MBP next to my workstation so I can see it. Surely MS does not expect everyone to run out and buy a laptop just to make full-screen SL usable! My co-worker who doesn't have a laptop has no such option and I frequently hear him swearing from across the room about this (everyone in our office has at least dual monitors).

This falls into the category of "quit making excuses and just fix it"! IMO, SL video is pretty much useless without this being fixed.

Re: Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

nycandyb

I don't know much about what Silverlight is supposed to be. I'm not a developer; only a user and my only experience with it is as a video player. And Major League Baseball has decided to use it as the only way to get to their highest quality streams (1.2 mbs). With Windows Media Player you can receive only the 400 kbs and 800 kbs streams. So I'm forced to watch the lower quality streams if I want to watch on my TV (2nd monitor).

I'll follow up with you privately about the MLB.com issue - I have some questions for you & then I'll reply all after that.

- Tom

Tom Taylor
Microsoft Silverlight

Re: Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

nycandyb

I don't understand what kind of security issue there could be with supporting auto full-screen mode. The microsoft employee who made that statement should explain why it's not a security issue with Windows Media Player but is with Silverlight.

The "security issue" in this case is around three restrictions:
1.) Silverlight requires a user-initiated action to go into full screen mode. This could be as simple as clicking a button or pressing a key. It won't happen automatically.
2.) when Silverlight goes into full-screen mode, there's a brief message that shows the location of the user and says "press the 'esc' key to exit"
3.) Silverlight doesn't allow keyboard input in full-screen mode, except for the 'esc' key. We still allow mouse input, though.

What I think you're talking about is the fact that the Silverlight full-screen video is going to the primary monitor, rather than the secondary monitor. This isn't a security issue, just a limitation of the current implementation.

I can think of two workarounds for this:

1.) on Windows, you could designate the other monitor as your primary one. This is done through the display properties control panel - there's a checkbox in the UI somewhere that says "Use this device as the primary monitor". Pick the monitor you want, select that property, and now Silverlight should show up on the other monitor when it goes into full-screen mode.

2.) on Macintosh, you could mirror the two desktops (show the same thing). This is done via the Displays control panel in System Preferences.

Both of these come with side effects, but would unblock the primary scenario of displaying full-screen Silverlight on a specific monitor.

- Tom

Tom Taylor
Microsoft Silverlight

Re: Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

tomtaylormsft

I'll follow up with you privately about the MLB.com issue - I have some questions for you & then I'll reply all after that.

- Tom

Tom Taylor
Microsoft Silverlight

I also have the same MLB.com issue, so any help you give nycandy would help me out greatly too. The difference between 1.2 mbps and 800kbs is a big deal. Thanks.

Re: Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

CoderX

everyone in our office has at least dual monitors

same as we have!

CoderX

quit making excuses and just fix it

unfortunately this propably won't be implemented in version 2.0!

Re: Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

Thanks Tom! This is a good suggestion. I had already done this via my video driver and it worked.

But with this solution it's hard to do other things on the computer while watching the MLB.TV feed.

I really need my primary monitor to be my laptop, where I can check email, amongst other things, while watching the MLB feed on the TV. So if Silverlight could be modified in some way to enable full screen on the secondary monitor, whether manual or automatic, that would be an enormous improvement and I would then start using it.

Thanks again,

Andy

Re: Fullscreen Mode with Dual Monitor

house_air

It's not really a bug, but I think it would improve the user experience if the behaviour of the fullscreen mode might be changed a little for dual monitors.

1. Silverlight fullscreen opens always on the main monitor, no mather on which monitor the "source" window is displayed. In my opinion it would be better to use the monitor on which the silverlight application is displayed in normal mode.

2. Changing to a different application makes the fullscreen mode disappear (I know, this is not a bug, but by design). It maked sense to let the user work on the secondary monitor (or the first, if silverlight fullscreen is on the secondary) and let him/her watch for example a video on the other monitor. Think about screencasts, where you could then watch on one monitor in fullscreen mode and work in visual studio on the other one.

I'm having a similar problem using Netflix streaming using dual monitors. But in my case, Silverlight seems to work fine on the secondary monitor. It goes into fullscreen just fine. But the whole point of using dual monitors, in my case, is to use the primary monitor for normal computer stuff while watching a movie on the secondary. But as soon as I move the cursor (mouse) over to the primary monitor, the fullscreen movie collapses into non-fullscreen. Is this really working as designed? It's awful. The SlingPlayer works fine in this context. Is there no way to lock the movie fullscreen unless ESC is pushed (as the message indicates is the case)? It could be a solution which I could do as a user or one I could suggest to Netflix to use. Vincent