I have a Toshiba Satellite1415. When I try to show a DVD from the laptop through an LCD projector the video does not show. The LCD display shows the player and controls but not the actual video which is playing on the laptop screen. I have tried it with several different LCD projectors with the same results.
I'm assuming you're running in mirrored mode, which means the same thing that's on your laptop display also shows on your projector. It's not possible to mirror the video itself, so you'll need to do one of two things:
- Set the projector as the primary monitor (Monitor 1). You can do this in the settings tab in the display properties menu. Click what's set as monitor 2, check the box called "Use this device as my primary monitor" and hit apply. This should allow the video to appear on the projector instead of the laptop display.
- Or, you can turn off mirrored mode, and go for multiview instead. (Select your secondary display, and check the box labled "Extend my Windows desktop onto this montor). This makes your windows desktop stretch across both display devices. Start up your video, and drag the window to the other display. All should be well.
Post back with your results.
Thanks for the help. Unfortunately, I still have the problem. I tried both approaches. RE solution 1, it would not allow me to check the box to make monitor 2 the primary monitor. I also tried solution 2, but I'm not sure I understoon dragging the window to the other display. The only change I saw with all the approaches was that the projection stopped showing the program icons on my desktop and showed only my background picture. I'm still playing with it. Again, thanks for the help.
Correct, multiview mode will render one desktop that stretches across both monitors. Think of what's on your primary display as only half of your desktop. The icons and taskbar will only show up on the half that marked as your primary display.
Go back to multiview mode and move your mouse off to the side (which side depends on what side your extension is on) See how the mouse moves from one display to the other? Now, return your mouse to your main monitor. Open up a window. Grab it, and drag it off the screen. It will move from your primary monitor to your secondary monitor.
It's odd you can't assign the other monitor as primary. Are you sure you clicked on the number 2 monitor at the top of the settings panel before attempting to select the box?
Thanks for all the help, but so far still no results. Over the weekend I got a friend who is considerably more computer savy than I to help, but still nothing. He was able to show me the dragging from one screen to the other, but the DVD still would not play on the projector. He suggests I see if there is an updated driver from Nvidia.
A driver update may be in order, just make sure that you get the right driver for your laptop (be it NVidia, ATI, or Intel based graphics). For nearly all notebooks, you'll need to get driver directly from the laptop manufacturer... Toshiba in your case.
Have you tried completely disabling the laptop display when connected in multiview mode. If you right click on the display number in the settings panel, there may be an option to mark a particular display as "attached" or not attached. Worth a look.