tjobbins,
Do any of the behaviors you are describing manifest in a single monitor setup without Spaces?
You seem to be using the "real" full screen mode, called Display view, or Theater View (which is another "real" full screen). I initially thought maybe you were trying to maximize the MC window and not use Display or Theater, but now I'm pretty sure you're using the intended full screen views.
I'm unable to test anything you have reported because I do not have a multi-monitor setup and I do not use Spaces. That's why I asked the question above.
Brian.
Hi Brian
Yes I am talking about Display View as my primary concern. And no, the main problems I describe will not happen in a single-monitor setup. The issues are exclusive to a multi-monitor setup. Sorry if I've not made it clear in this thread; I've posted my issues a few times in a few different threads, and I probably didn't give the full preamble in this latest one
For reference, here's the first time I posted about the problems lack of Native Full Screen causes me, including a photo of one of the symptoms:
Request: support macOS Native Full Screen and use it for video/Theatre View. That was back in March in the MC 23 Mac forum.
To give some more background, my system setup is as follows:
1. Mac Pro
2. Multiple monitors
3. Multiple configured Spaces on each monitor
4. "Displays have separate spaces" enabled in System Preferences -> Mission Control. (Which in my view is by far the best setting for any user with multiple monitors who wants to use Spaces, as it allows switching Space on a monitor individually. This is very powerful, and makes in my view the best 'desktops'/'spaces' system of any desktop OS; better than the equivalents on Windows 10 and the various Linux desktop environments. Especially when combined with Native Full Screen apps, which in effect become their own Space.)
5. My MC setup is: MC UI positioned on monitor #3. I then have MC configured to output full screen video to go to a different monitor, with:
Tools -> Options -> Tree & View -> Full Screen (Display View, Theatre View, etc) -> Monitor:
Display #2; Resolution:
Desktop Settings (the only option selectable)
In terms of what people are requesting, I think it breaks down into two areas:
1. Native Full Screen for the main MC UI window, as the OP requested. I'd like this too, and Mac users do expect apps to have it. But personally it's not my number 1 concern.
2. Native Full Screen for MC's full-screen video mode, ie Display View. This is what is particularly important to me, because non-Native full screen windows don't work well in a multi-screen setup.
To re-iterate the problems around the lack of Native Full screen for Display View: MacOS does not like non-Native full screen windows. If a window goes full-screen without using Native Full Screen in a multi-monitor setup where "Displays have separate spaces" is enabled, it causes two issues:
a) When the non-Native full screen window (ie Display View) is focused , the menu bar disappears on every other monitor/Space;
b) When the non-Native full screen window is
not focused, it has a menu bar overlaid over the top of it.
This is not specific to MC. In Firefox for example, if I make a YouTube video full screen, it does the exact same thing. However Firefox has the ability to first put its window into Native Full Screen, which solves the problem. Chrome and Safari by comparison implement the best solution: they automatically go into Native Full Screen if you click the full-screen icon on any video.
Unfortunately neither solution is available in MC.
On top of all that, I have a second problem that's actually even more annoying: the fact that the MC UI disappears and becomes unusable whenever Display View or Theatre View is entered. Again this wouldn't be an issue with only one monitor where you couldn't hope to use both at once. But in a multi-monitor setup the user would expect to be able to access the MC UI while also having full-screen video play. And in Windows (and I presume Linux), that's exactly how it works: Display View generates a new full-screen window on the chosen monitor, and the main MC UI remains where it was and is fully usable.
On Mac, it's different. As soon as Display or Theatre View is entered, the main MC UI window disappears. Going into Mission Control reveals that it's been moved to the same window that is playing full-screen video, and is painted black so its contents are invisible. I have theorised that this is part of a hacky solution for playing full screen video with information overlaid over the top - ie the progress bar. I am guessing that the the invisible MC UI window is actually generating those overlays, eg progress bar, and therefore is positioned behind the full-screen video so they appear in the right place. Though even that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, given those overlays are actually their own separate windows and could be positioned anywhere. But I can't think of any other reason why the UI has to move monitor and get hidden behind the Display View video window.
Then when Display View is closed, the MC UI is moved back to its original position. But this causes another annoyance, a more minor one: MC has no concept of Spaces. So it correctly puts the MC UI back in the original place on the original monitor, but it always does so on the first Space of that monitor. So the user can't decide to have it on a different Space, because every time Display View is entered and exited, it will end up on back on the first Space of whatever monitor it's on.
Although the inability to to use the MC UI while in Display View seems unrelated to "no Native Full Screen", I believe it is at least tangentially related. At the least, providing proper Native Full Screen support for Display/Theatre View would likely require fixing this second problem as well, in that in order to have Native Full Screen, it's necessary for those overlays to be generated inside the same window that's playing video (because you can't have other windows overlaying a Native Full Screen one.) So although that means more work, it also means that for me it's a double-fix: provide a proper video window that can be Native Full Screened, and that would necessarily also fix the MC UI becoming unavailable.
Now I do realise that a multi-monitor setup is not the majority case. Perhaps that's why it's not a great priority for the MC team. Nonetheless it is an area that's growing, and as MC is a media player it should be expected to work well on systems that have a separate display - eg a separate TV cabled up to watch films/TV shows while the main display is used for normal computer work. Besides which, this is sadly an area where MC on Mac comes off looking a little shoddy, and it doesn't fit with its otherwise premium, high-end feel. And a premium feel is important for a premium price tag, which MC has.
So in conclusion my issues are a little different to that which the OP raised. Other people asking for Native Full Screen are no doubt expecting it throughout MC, starting with the main UI window. I'd like that too, but my main concern is potentially easier to resolve: at the least get Display View in Native Full Screen, and let me access the UI at the same time. If I had that I wouldn't grumble too much about the fact that the MC UI itself doesn't support MacOS' normal display features like Native Full Screen.
Anyway I've now written more on this subject than seems reasonable, so I'll try and stop now