Are there any emulators that will open a full screen on a secondary display? I use media player classic on WinXP to watch media files on the TV simply by dragging the application to that screen then going to full screen via ALT-ENTER, freeing up my monitor for doing something else at the same time as I watch the video (previously I switched between the monitor and TV with a hotkey). I've tried doing this with a few emulators and it goes to full screen on the primary display (my monitor), leaving a tiny window on the TV, I'm guessing the size of the resolution of the emulator screen, surrounded by huge black borders. Like a 320x200 window in the middle of a 1024x768 display.

When I ask about any emulators, I mean any console or arcade emulators specifically. The ones I tried were a few NES emulators, all of which did the same thing. I have not yet tried with MAME, but I read a post a few days ago from someone who mentioned having the menu (MAME32? Front end?) running on one screen and the game on the other. It would be very useful to be able to go to gamefaqs or some such place while the game is running rather than pausing, switching to a window view, going back to the monitor display, looking up the info, switching back to the TV, going back to full screen, then finally unpausing, only to realize I need to look at the website again because I just forgot what I read in all that...

> Are there any emulators that will open a full screen on a secondary display? I
> use media player classic on WinXP to watch media files on the TV simply by
> dragging the application to that screen then going to full screen via ALT-ENTER,
> freeing up my monitor for doing something else at the same time as I watch the
> video (...)

Watching a video doesn't require the player window to be in focus. Playing games on an emulator in full screen does.

> When I ask about any emulators, I mean any console or arcade emulators
> specifically. The ones I tried were a few NES emulators, all of which did the
> same thing. I have not yet tried with MAME, but I read a post a few days ago
> from someone who mentioned having the menu (MAME32? Front end?) running on one
> screen and the game on the other. It would be very useful to be able to go to
> gamefaqs or some such place while the game is running rather than pausing,
> switching to a window view, going back to the monitor display, looking up the
> info, switching back to the TV, going back to full screen, then finally
> unpausing, only to realize I need to look at the website again because I just
> forgot what I read in all that...

In MAME you can specify which display to output to.

You won't be able to do any work on your primary screen while MAME is running though, unless you run it in a window. And even then, MAME will release all input devices when its window loses focus, and the person playing the game while you are going to gamefaqs will be pissed off at you for ruining his game.

-Sune

>
> Watching a video doesn't require the player window to be in focus. Playing games
> on an emulator in full screen does.
>
>
> In MAME you can specify which display to output to.
>
> You won't be able to do any work on your primary screen while MAME is running
> though, unless you run it in a window. And even then, MAME will release all
> input devices when its window loses focus, and the person playing the game while
> you are going to gamefaqs will be pissed off at you for ruining his game.
>
> -Sune
>

Well, a game would be paused first, so there would be no problems ruining anyone's game. Besides, it's usually just me and I can't play and look at a website at the same time :D

Still, it's just a matter of convenience since the TV is better for games and the monitor is better for doing most other tasks like what I mentioned above. Thanks for letting me know for sure about MAME though. And I hope there are some console ones that do the same.

I have an nvidia card and it has the dual mode option setting the tv and monitor as two seperate displays. If you set the TV (2nd display) as primary in windows settings all video and fullscreen stuff should work properly on that display. The icons stay on monitor one for me as long as i enable the 2nd display and set it as primary in one move. if the icons move to the second display the nivida drivers have an option in there somewhere to move the icons to a certain number display. Hope this Helps.

> Are there any emulators that will open a full screen on a secondary display? I
> use media player classic on WinXP to watch media files on the TV simply by
> dragging the application to that screen then going to full screen via ALT-ENTER,
> freeing up my monitor for doing something else at the same time as I watch the
> video (previously I switched between the monitor and TV with a hotkey). I've
> tried doing this with a few emulators and it goes to full screen on the primary
> display (my monitor), leaving a tiny window on the TV, I'm guessing the size of
> the resolution of the emulator screen, surrounded by huge black borders. Like a
> 320x200 window in the middle of a 1024x768 display.
>
> When I ask about any emulators, I mean any console or arcade emulators
> specifically. The ones I tried were a few NES emulators, all of which did the
> same thing. I have not yet tried with MAME, but I read a post a few days ago
> from someone who mentioned having the menu (MAME32? Front end?) running on one
> screen and the game on the other. It would be very useful to be able to go to
> gamefaqs or some such place while the game is running rather than pausing,
> switching to a window view, going back to the monitor display, looking up the
> info, switching back to the TV, going back to full screen, then finally
> unpausing, only to realize I need to look at the website again because I just
> forgot what I read in all that...
>

> I have an nvidia card and it has the dual mode option setting the tv and monitor
> as two seperate displays. If you set the TV (2nd display) as primary in windows
> settings all video and fullscreen stuff should work properly on that display.
> The icons stay on monitor one for me as long as i enable the 2nd display and set
> it as primary in one move. if the icons move to the second display the nivida
> drivers have an option in there somewhere to move the icons to a certain number
> display. Hope this Helps.
>

I was thinking about that myself, but I apparently can't set my TV as the primary display on my Radeon 7500. That option is greyed out- I can only choose to "extend my desktop" to the TV, leaving it as secondary.

> That option is greyed out- I can only choose
> to "extend my desktop" to the TV, leaving it as secondary.

You should be able to change it to the prime after extending your desktop, at least thats how my x700 works.

Lando242

> > That option is greyed out- I can only choose
> > to "extend my desktop" to the TV, leaving it as secondary.
>
> You should be able to change it to the prime after extending your desktop, at
> least thats how my x700 works.
>
> Lando242
>

Hmm. The option is still greyed out, but I just found that I can change it through the ATI Displays tab in the Advanced area. Strange.

I think i have to hit apply after i enable it, then the option ungreys.

> > I have an nvidia card and it has the dual mode option setting the tv and
> monitor
> > as two seperate displays. If you set the TV (2nd display) as primary in
> windows
> > settings all video and fullscreen stuff should work properly on that display.
> > The icons stay on monitor one for me as long as i enable the 2nd display and
> set
> > it as primary in one move. if the icons move to the second display the nivida
> > drivers have an option in there somewhere to move the icons to a certain
> number
> > display. Hope this Helps.
> >
>
> I was thinking about that myself, but I apparently can't set my TV as the
> primary display on my Radeon 7500. That option is greyed out- I can only choose
> to "extend my desktop" to the TV, leaving it as secondary.
>