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[mwillems]

Inflatable Mouse had been having some trouble getting dual monitors to display video correctly using the NVidia monitor pairing method twinview (not sure if he sorted that out).  He was seeing fullscreen video split across both screens.  I don't have an nvidia card on hand in a dual monitor setup, so I can't confirm on twinview, but I can confirm that I saw the same behavior using xinerama in some Linux desktop environments/window managers.

However, video works correctly in all desktop environments for me in Arch Linux if I use xrandr for screen configuration.   Additionally, two monitors worked correctly for me out of the box in some DEs as well.

In XFCE4 and openbox on the other hand I had to use xrandr to get things to work correctly. I had trouble getting arandr (the xrandr GUI frontend) to work, but it's easy enough to write a script that runs on session login that configures xrandr correctly.  Here's mine with comments to help adapt it to your situation:

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh
xrandr --newmode "1920x1080_60.00"  193.25  1920 2056 2256 2592  1080 1083 1089 1125 -hsync +vsync  #This line is where you set the resolution of your second display and enable or disable vsync
xrandr --addmode HDMI1 1920x1080_60.00  #You'll need to replace HDMI1 with whatever the correct display identifier for your 2nd display is, I got a list of display identifiers by typing  "xrandr" into a terminal
xrandr --output HDMI1 --mode 1920x1080_60.00 #Ditto, replace HDMI1 with whatever your second screen is
xrandr --output HDMI1 --left-of LVDS1 #This places the second display to the left of the primary display (in my case a laptop screen).  You'll need to find the correct display identifier for your primary display and replace LVDS1 as well

By contrast, in Gnome 3.12 dual monitors worked correctly out of the box (the video showed fullscreen on one screen only); another forum user reported everything working correctly in KDE out of the box.

It's not clear if future versions of MC Linux will work automatically work with other screen stretching methods, or whether you'll get the same results in distros other than Arch, but if you're seeing this dual monitor issue, it seems that xrandr is a potential solution (or you can use gnome, etc.).

[Hendrik]

I wouldn't worry too much about it yet, its very well possible that its MCs fault, since I didn't even try running it in a multi-monitor setup once.
I read that it should usually work out of the box on any decent window manager, assuming your setup reports proper Xinerama data to the WM, and doesn't just "fake" one giant screen.

[InflatableMouse]

Hey thanks for working that out, much appreciated!

[mwillems]

I wouldn't worry too much about it yet, its very well possible that its MCs fault, since I didn't even try running it in a multi-monitor setup once.
I read that it should usually work out of the box on any decent window manager, assuming your setup reports proper Xinerama data to the WM, and doesn't just "fake" one giant screen.

No worries, I just happened to be setting up a multi-monitor workstation in my home office, and I needed to do some basic configuration of dual monitors anyway to get them to do anything other than mirror in openbox or xfce (gnome worked out of the box).  I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone, play with xrandr, and learn something in the process :-) 

Hey thanks for working that out, much appreciated!

Let me know if it works for you!

[InflatableMouse]

Unfortunately it doesn't.

Running xrandr lists the correct modes and their refresh rates, I don't think I need to create and add a new mode. Besides, when I try adding a mode to an output it throws an error message.

Code: [Select]

$ xrandr --output HDMI-0 1920x1200
$ xrandr --output HDMI-0 --right-of DVI-I-1
Works, (no error messages) but it doesn't do or change anything. Screen doesn't even flash, I think because it is already set like that.

Is the latest MC flashing for you? It's basically back to how it was for me when MC20 first introduced video playback. It's full screen on a single monitor but flashes continuously every second or so. Previous build was spread over both monitors with the video centered but it wasn't flashing.

[mwillems]

Unfortunately it doesn't.

Running xrandr lists the correct modes and their refresh rates, I don't think I need to create and add a new mode. Besides, when I try adding a mode to an output it throws an error message.

Code: [Select]

$ xrandr --output HDMI-0 1920x1200
$ xrandr --output HDMI-0 --right-of DVI-I-1
Works, (no error messages) but it doesn't do or change anything. Screen doesn't even flash, I think because it is already set like that.

How are you running xrandr?  Have you disabled twinview? I think part of the point of making the custom mode is to tie the refresh rate in as well as the resolution

One thing to be aware of that I just discovered in trying to troubleshoot:
1) In XFCE w/compton using my xrandr solution, when the MC window is maximized, starting video playback works correctly (only on one window), but if I play video when the MC parent window is not maximized, the video seems to go fullscreen across both screens like you described.  That may have confounded some of my testing.
2) In gnome it works correctly either way.

Is the latest MC flashing for you? It's basically back to how it was for me when MC20 first introduced video playback. It's full screen on a single monitor but flashes continuously every second or so. Previous build was spread over both monitors with the video centered but it wasn't flashing.

Yes in XFCE, no in Gnome.  It's odd because it wasn't flashing just last time I tested (like when I wrote this thread).  I guess that must've been last build.

[InflatableMouse]

Well, I no longer have two monitors since this afternoon. I gave one to my son so I have to do with one from now on. Gotta get used to using workspaces instead .

Regarding the flashing and maximized issue, there is something weird. Video no longer flashes with one monitor, so its a dual screen setup issue.

When I start a video with MC unmaximized and resized to a something smaller than maximized, after the video stops MC will be maximized with no remembrance of its previous size.

Normally, switching between maximized and unmaximized, it remembers the previous size. After playing a video it doesn't remember.

This is particularly annoying because MC still struggles with moving and resizing the window.