I'm trying to set up a system that plays videos across three large HDTVs. I have the monitors all working, however when I try to maximize the video, it only maximizes on a single screen, rather than all three.
I'm running Windows 8.1 on a NUC DC53427HYE, which has an integrated Intel HD4000 graphics card. I've looked at stuff like Ultramon and DisplayFusion, but none seem to do what I need, which is to maximize a video across all 3 screens without showing the taskbar or anything else.
So, is there any software solution to this? Ideally it would be something that causes the computer to treat all 3 screens as one big screen, so I can simply hit "fullscreen" on whatever media player and it just works, however other solutions would also work as long as it ends up with the video file playing across all 3 screens without anything else showing.
84 Answers
VLC Media Player supports this feature.
Tools > Preferences > Show settings: All > Video > Filters > enable Panoramix. Then open the Filters tree, go to Panoramix, and choose the settings you want (e.g. 3 columns, 1 row).
Keep in mind, your video would have to be an extremely wide aspect ratio (e.g. 3840x720). Even an anamorphic widescreen movie wouldn't quite fill two HDTVs.
2I know that you're asking for a software solution but anyway here's what I've found:
2The Datapath x4 is a stand alone display wall controller that accepts a standard single or dual-link DVI input and can flexibly display this across four output monitors.
Each output can be driven as DVI or analog RGB, and can represent an arbitary crop region of the original input image. The output resolution and frame rate does not need to be related to that of the input, as the Datapath x4 display controller will optionally upscale and frame rate convert each cropped region independently.
Each output monitor can take its input from any region of the DVI image, since all the required cropping, scaling, rotation and frame rate conversion is handled by the x4 hardware. These regions can overlap to allow any output to replicate another, or they can be configured to support any creative splice of the source material.
This allows the support of many non-rectangular screen arrangements with uneven gaps, and any mix of orientations.
I would have said VLC Media Player as well but perhaps Wall might work better for you.
Tools > Video Effects > Geometry > Wall (then rows and columns).
Basically it will slice your video up into pieces, each of which you can maximise to a given screen. Great for big displays, kiosks, retail environments etc. Need monitors with limited bevels tho otherwise it will look awful.
2Many NVidia and ATI/AMD graphics cards support this natively. NVidia's feature is called NVidia Surround and ATI/AMD's is called AMD Eyefinity.
NVidia has a guide on how to set up Surround here.
AMD has a guide on how to set up Eyefinity here.
Both of these essentially present a single frame buffer to the operating system, so the OS thinks that there is just one really huge monitor attached. The graphics driver will then display the correct portion of that frame buffer on each monitor that is part of the setup. Note that this will apply both to games and to your regular desktop. When you maximize anything, it will take up all 3 monitors, as the OS doesn't even know that it's three different displays. It thinks it's just one really wide display.
