dual display question

[calaveraOC]

I have dual display, both 24's powered by my 8800gts g92. just curious as to why I cant play a game on one monitor and play any kind of movie in the other one at the same time? the movie can be played, but its just a black screen with sound.

I have an idea as to why it might be like this, but would like someone to explain this to me if they could.

[zbo]

Its becuase games are full screen non windowed applications. If you play your game windowed, so you can move it around just like anything else, and maximise it on one screen (giving you the same effect) then you'll be able to watch things on both screens. Do this will give you a massive FPS hit though.

What was your thoery.

I could be wrong, I dont have two screens at the moment to test this for a fact. I know running WoW windowed allowed me to view the other screen. It might not work with all games, I never wanted to do anything else while playing somthing like COD4 etc.

[jediman]

hmmm i never had a problem running a game in full screen and watching a movie on the other

maybe try a different player?

[thideras]

hmmm i never had a problem running a game in full screen and watching a movie on the other

maybe try a different player?Same here. What player are you using?

I also noticed that if I start a movie on one screen and drag it to the other, I get what you have happening; black screen with sound. I have to hit the stop button on the player then play; that fixes it. Or I just start it on the second screen.

[calaveraOC]

I thought it was some sort of directx and codec issue. I tried watching a few 720p hd movies that require special codecs. running the game in window mode does make sense too though.

I'm using kmp as my primary player with coreavc codec for most of the HD stuff.

[SeanChiarot]

calaveraOC try KLite Codec Pack (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_lite_codec_pack.htm) and play your movies in Windows Media Player Classic thats how im able to do what your asking, although like zbo said, you will take a MASSIVE fps hit.... i usually watch a video while im in an auction house in WoW, with no movie going i can easily get 60+ fps movie going i get not higher then 30fps, now i know that SDtv is 30fps but that just gives you an idea on how much of a hit you take... (my GPU is a 4870 Dark Knight Top 1GB)

[thideras]

calaveraOC try KLite Codec Pack (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_lite_codec_pack.htm) and play your movies in Windows Media Player Classic thats how im able to do what your asking, although like zbo said, you will take a MASSIVE fps hit.... i usually watch a video while im in an auction house in WoW, with no movie going i can easily get 60+ fps movie going i get not higher then 30fps, now i know that SDtv is 30fps but that just gives you an idea on how much of a hit you take... (my GPU is a 4870 Dark Knight Top 1GB)I do not get the same FPS hit that you do. I'll watch movies while farming and I see no difference at all.

[BobbyBubblehead]

hmmm a Nvidia card should be game as people are pointing out.

im with the alternate software idea.

good luck!

[KillrBuckeye]

I do not get the same FPS hit that you do. I'll watch movies while farming and I see no difference at all.I think it probably depends on the types of movies you are watching and how they are being decoded. If you have a single or dual-core CPU and you're relying on the CPU to decode h.264-encoded high definition content, there is definitely going to be a huge FPS hit in a 3D game that is running at the same time. On the other hand, if your video card supports hardware acceleration for h.264 decoding and your media player can utilize this feature, you might not see much of a hit.