Two monitors, fullscreen game causes video on second screen to freeze

[Mayuukosan]

This is not a huge issue, just something I am wondering about. May get confusing.

OS                  Windows 7 64-bit
Video card      GeForce GTX 660
Processor        AMD A10 5800K processor
Ram                 8GB
Motherboard   ASUS F2 A85-M PRO
Power supply  Raidmax RX-730SS

When I play fullscreen games (Vindictus, Skyrim, Mass Effect 1+2, etc.) on my main monitor (monitor 1) any video I have playing on monitor 2 (using an application, not a browser) freezes. The sound continues to play but the screen stays the same. I usually use VLC to play my videos.

Exactly what happen is, the game opens (monitor 1) and the video I am playing (monitor 2) is stuck on the frame it was showing when the game opened. The sound plays as if nothing is wrong. Closing/alt-tabbing out of the game causes the video to begin playing again.

I googled this issue and found many suggestions of changing the video overlay settings and the output in VLC's video options, like changing it to OpenGL or DirectX etc. But none of those options seem to change anything. The video still freezes once I open a fullscreen game.

I have found two workarounds, both of which are sort of annoying:

1. Use Windows Media Player. Although it does not have the video/subtitle support that VLC does, it does not freeze when a fullscreen game is opened on the other monitor. Because of this, I know it is at least possible to play video while playing a fullscreen game. So how does WMP handle video differently, and is there a way to make VLC work the same?

2. Play the game in Windowed mode. I hate doing this though, especially in some games where the mouse just floats out of the window (skyrim, vindictus) and when tabbing back in, it causes problems like the mouse cursor not disappearing (skyrim and vindictus again, yes I have tried the "disable windows themes" suggestion)

So to simplify,
-Why do videos play in WMP but not VLC when a game is in fullscreen mode on a separate monitor?
-Is there a way to fix VLC to play the video? I already tried changing the video settings.
-I have never been able to get this to work. Just wondering why now.

Thank you for any explanations/help on this.

[truenorth]

The instinctive tendency (for me at least) is to suspect either an insufficient ram to handle the intensity of the demand from the 2 videos at the same time and/or the incapacity of the current video card to process the data of the 2 videos simultaneously. As to why the WMP can handle the 2 together and VLC cannot is somewhat beyond my pay grade.But i suspect it is a factor of how they handle video with regards to the processing methods used by them. May have something to do with a WMP app to integrate with a Windows O/S versus a third party app such as VLC (just guessing on that last bit). Have you ever tried to use 2 similar type videos (neither of which is a game) in the manner you are trying to use  a game and another (like streaming) video simultaneously to see how it deals with that combination?truenorth

[Mayuukosan]

The instinctive tendency (for me at least) is to suspect either an insufficient ram to handle the intensity of the demand from the 2 videos at the same time and/or the incapacity of the current video card to process the data of the 2 videos simultaneously. As to why the WMP can handle the 2 together and VLC cannot is somewhat beyond my pay grade.But i suspect it is a factor of how they handle video with regards to the processing methods used by them. May have something to do with a WMP app to integrate with a Windows O/S versus a third party app such as VLC (just guessing on that last bit). Have you ever tried to use 2 similar type videos (neither of which is a game) in the manner you are trying to use  a game and another (like streaming) video simultaneously to see how it deals with that combination?truenorth

As for using two videos, do you mean playing fullscreen videos in both VLC and WMP at the same time? I just tried that, and it works perfectly fine.

For a further test, I ran two fullsceen games, and my fps dropped to about 40 fps each game but both played fine. Must note here that getting a game to run on the secondary monitor fullscreen is a pain logistically.

Hmm if it was a RAM issue, would the sound continue perfectly like it does? I also get 60+ fps in game, so not sure if that matters. And the video plays if the game is in windowed mode, not fullscreen, with the same resolution. Can't help but think that it is putting both monitors into "fullscreen" mode, and just shutting off the video for the second monitor somehow. Not sure if this is even a thing that can happen though. I use computers a lot, but know very little about how they actually work from a programming side.

Streaming video like Youtube works fine, I can watch fullscreen youtube videos while playing fullscreen games, no issues.

When I googled it, people say many things about things out of my pay grade as well...directX and OpenGL, for example in this thread :http://forums.ngemu.com/showthread.php?t=143076 But I tried changing the VLC output settings to opengl and it did not work.

It seems (from majority) that the issue has to do with video overlay (?) or video output modules (?) but no one seems to know why WMP works and VLC doesn't.

Seems funny that I switched to VLC because it works better/does more but in this one instance it fails, haha. Also, it seems multi-monitor support just doesn't quite exist yet. I consistently encounter issues using my two monitors.

[truenorth]

"As for using two videos, do you mean playing fullscreen videos in both VLC and WMP at the same time? I just tried that, and it works perfectly fine.' Not quite i meant using VLC for both. Your result seems to me to verify that it is a "demand" issue (where i used in my previous post =intensity). I have never used the combination you are using (absolutely NOT a game player) but there are many here that are. It occurs to me that in order to use the full screen mode you may need to upgrade your video card to something capable of handling 2 video processing simultaneously to the level that games today require. At this point i would welcome the participation of those members that have had to deal with your type of issue to give your some suggestions in that regard. Be patient i feel they shall soon come aboard. By the way are you using the max ram that the computer is capable of--i would tend to go that route before the video card route.truenorth

[BC_Programmer]

This is a bug in VLC. When another Application goes full screen it assumes nobody can see what it would display so it stops updating it's video.

Another manifestation of this bug can be seen with Aero Peek on Win7, actually.

Start VLC. Start a video. When the window is not minimized, you can see the video playback in the Aero Peek thumbnail.

If you minimize VLC, though, the video is "frozen" at the point you minimized, while the sound continues.

I imagine VLC has some logic to try to determine if it's video is visible, and if it isn't it doesn't bother to update it. Other fullscreen applications must trigger that logic.

[truenorth]

BC, Given that information can you recommend to the O/P a single app that would allow that which is desired (video/game in full screen simultaneously)?truenorth

[Mayuukosan]

This is a bug in VLC. When another Application goes full screen it assumes nobody can see what it would display so it stops updating it's video.

Another manifestation of this bug can be seen with Aero Peek on Win7, actually.

Start VLC. Start a video. When the window is not minimized, you can see the video playback in the Aero Peek thumbnail.

If you minimize VLC, though, the video is "frozen" at the point you minimized, while the sound continues.

I imagine VLC has some logic to try to determine if it's video is visible, and if it isn't it doesn't bother to update it. Other fullscreen applications must trigger that logic.

Thank you so much for this explanation. I really do like learning why things are what they are. So the issue here, is basically VLC does not know I can still "see" the video once a game goes fullscreen, right? That is kind of cool. Not really optimized for multiple monitors though.

WMP must work differently, as I can see the video in Aero peek and it plays when things are fullscreen. I guess I will suffer through WMP for now, until I can figure out something else.

I will maybe try asking on the VLC site if there may be support for this in later releases. Thank you for explaining this. You are always very helpful.

[BC_Programmer]

Thank you so much for this explanation. I really do like learning why things are what they are. So the issue here, is basically VLC does not know I can still "see" the video once a game goes fullscreen, right? That is kind of cool. Not really optimized for multiple monitors though.

Precisely!

WMP must work differently, as I can see the video in Aero peek and it plays when things are fullscreen. I guess I will suffer through WMP for now, until I can figure out something else.

I'm not sure how WMP works, specifically, but I think it might always update it's image simply on the assumption that things like Aero Peek might be looking at it (It's also possible for third-party add-on programs to grab those thumbnail images and videos and "watch" them, too).

For VLC I don't know if there is a work-around. From what I can tell this is a well-known issue- there are several bug reports regarding Multiple monitors and full-screen applications, but none of them are still open and most of them are just the developers arguing that not enough information was given even though there is plenty.

What makes this issue really odd is that more recent versions of VLC sport a little control bar within the Aero Peek pop-up, so it's odd that they never tested that feature when the program was minimized.

I will maybe try asking on the VLC site if there may be support for this in later releases. Thank you for explaining this. You are always very helpful.

I just updated to 2.0.5 and it still seems to work the same here. I only have one monitor so I'm working on the assumption that the same problem that causes it to not work with full-screen programs is the same as the one that prevents it's Aero Peek preview from updating when it is minimized, which might not be the case, though. Google's show recommendations to change the option in Tools->Preferences and under "Video" and change "Output" to different modules, but I don't think this would solve the problem. (And you've probably already tried this from your own searches).

[Mayuukosan]

I'm not sure how WMP works, specifically, but I think it might always update it's image simply on the assumption that things like Aero Peek might be looking at it (It's also possible for third-party add-on programs to grab those thumbnail images and videos and "watch" them, too).

For VLC I don't know if there is a work-around. From what I can tell this is a well-known issue- there are several bug reports regarding Multiple monitors and full-screen applications, but none of them are still open and most of them are just the developers arguing that not enough information was given even though there is plenty.

What makes this issue really odd is that more recent versions of VLC sport a little control bar within the Aero Peek pop-up, so it's odd that they never tested that feature when the program was minimized.

I just updated to 2.0.5 and it still seems to work the same here. I only have one monitor so I'm working on the assumption that the same problem that causes it to not work with full-screen programs is the same as the one that prevents it's Aero Peek preview from updating when it is minimized, which might not be the case, though. Google's show recommendations to change the option in Tools->Preferences and under "Video" and change "Output" to different modules, but I don't think this would solve the problem. (And you've probably already tried this from your own searches).

I am using 2.0.5 as well, should have mentioned that haha. Thanks for looking into this so in-depth for me! You may not remember, but you help me a lot.

You are right, I did change the output modules, and it did not help. I tried every option in the list. In fact, it did not seem to change anything at all, although I am not really sure what changing the output module even does.

There is an option under DirectX in video options that lets you choose a screen (it says display, \\.\Display1 and \\.\Display2) but this does not seem to change anything either. I put it back to Default, which was the original setting. I was sure it was just some setting I had wrong to start with, but now I can see it is VLC itself.

On a off-topic note, I love that control bar. I hated it when they took the WMP toolbar away, that is what really switched me to VLC way back when. But then I just found this today here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/1232-63-windows-media-player-toolbar which lets me have the toolbar still. Doesn't help with unsupported file/sub types though.

Thank you again!

[truenorth]

In the absence for the moment of any other suggested alternative (as i gather WMP is less than satisfactory) further research has turned up this =
http://www.comroestudios.com/CMMT/Doc/Overview.htm
Don't know if this can help.There is a trial version available and the full cost of the software is only $9.95. Might want to have a look at it. I read the "overview" on it. truenorth

[Mayuukosan]

In the absence for the moment of any other suggested alternative (as i gather WMP is less than satisfactory) further research has turned up this =
http://www.comroestudios.com/CMMT/Doc/Overview.htm
Don't know if this can help.There is a trial version available and the full cost of the software is only $9.95. Might want to have a look at it. I read the "overview" on it. truenorth

I actually use DisplayFusion (purchased a year ago too) to do exactly what this program describes. I really like it, but I can not really find a way to *force* it to make VLC play the video, it is exactly as BC_Programmer says, once I open a fullscreen application VLC stops showing the frames of video.

Link for DisplayFusion here: http://www.displayfusion.com/

I actually got DF to get a multi monitor taskbar, but it has more options than that.

I was going to try the CMSST there, but I could not seem to find a download on the site you linked, should I trust the download from here?: http://www.softsea.com/review/CSMMT-ComroeStudios-Multi-Monitor-Tool.html  or here: http://www.comroestudios.com/CMMT/CMMT_left.html

Neither sites look very polished so I want to make sure I do not get something....unsavory. Thank you for the suggestion though!

[truenorth]

http://www.comroestudios.com/CMMT/CMMT_left.html
"Neither sites look very polished ----" . The link above comes as a result of my following some bread crumbs from a wikipedia site on the subject. As you will note it is a very bear bones site. It was from that site that i linked the "overview" link. I have wandered around within the company site and it does include far more technical information that is contained in the "overview'. As to the security aspect of the site i am not in a position of knowledge to comment on that. I may be in error but i was of the opinion that their program was NOT dependent on the use of another program to achieve your objective (such as VLC). Wish i could be more assuring but similar to you i am using your query as a learning experience.truenorth

[tgcam]

i came across this forum while looking for and identical problem (mine actually crashed VLC).  i also found a solution elsewhere that seems to work, so i thought i'd share it here.

go into tools, then preferences.  under the videos settings, change the output to OpenGL Video Output instead of automatic.

this appears to have worked for me, hope it works for you too.

[get by with a little help]

Hey, (to anyone new having this problem) just had the same problem and figured it out:  simply type in "vlc" in the  "search programs and files" by your windows start icon...it will bring up some vlc files- simply click on the line that says "reset preferences and cache" it will then self repair, I believe the problem is caused when vlc thinks there is a second monitor attached to your computer.... it sometimes sends the vlc screen to that second (ghost) monitor even when it isnt attached. this can probably be prevented by dragging the vlc screen back to your original monitor before you turn it off.  good luck!!