Second monitor - DVD playback troubles

[krayzkrok]

My laptop LCD screen recently died. I tried to replace the inverter and it didn't fix it - the local Toshiba dealer tell me it's completely rooted and I need a new screen. Well screw that, so I'm now using an external LCD monitor. It works great, except that whenever I try to play any DVD or, in fact, any WMV file it simply shows a black square where the video should be. Quicktime stuff works fine.

I remember this problem from the last time I used an external monitor - the laptop's LCD showed the video fine, but the second monitor just gave me a black square.

Any ideas what's going on?

[Fugitive]

The overlay mode most video players use might not be available on non-primary display heads with whatever video chipset you have. Try reducing the 'Hardware Acceleration' slider (under Display Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Troubleshooting) and see if that helps.

[Moggraider]

You might still have your video driver set to cloning the display on the second screen rather than having it set up to be the only display. In the latter instance, videos should work okay.

[krayzkrok]

You might still have your video driver set to cloning the display on the second screen rather than having it set up to be the only display. In the latter instance, videos should work okay.

Yes, this was the problem. For some reason I couldn't turn this off with the installed display adaptor, so I removed it and reinstalled the specific driver from Toshiba's website. I had to reset the machine twice before it recognised them, but now it all works fine even though all the settings appear identical (weird, but I'm not complaining!).

Thanks.