Video/Movie plays full screen when projected

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Problem

A video file set to less than a full PowerPoint slide size plays full-screen when displayed on a video/data projector.

Solution

Most laptops allow you to switch between LCD-only, LCD+External (ie, the projector) and External-only. Try toggling to External-only; this seems to work on all systems.

The disadvantage of this is that you won't be able to view the presentation on your laptop screen. If that's a problem, check your video driver settings (and a big thanks to PowerPoint newsgroup contributor, ZEX, for this):

This often happens when graphic card of a computer is set to display overlay at a full screen. It's common with Nvidia and ATI based cards.

Check your display settings for overlay controls:

For ATI cards

• Right-click on desktop and choose Properties from the pop-up menu
• In the Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab
• Click Advanced
• Click the Overlay tab
• Look for Clone Mode Options there; set set Overlay Display Mode option to "Same an all"

For NVidia cards

• Right-click on desktop and choose Properties from the pop-up menu
• In the Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab
• Click Advanced
• Click the Overlay Controls tab
• Try experimenting with the "Enable video overlay zoom" settings

And if you use an NVidia card, have a look here as well:
Flashes, blue screen or blank screen when viewing slides with video clips on external monitor or projector

These controls may not be in the same place (or even available) in all drivers. You may need to have your projector or other external video hooked up in order to set them.

Newell Besendorfer of Davis Audio Visual, Inc. in Denver, CO wrote to tell us that setting hardware acceleration to the notch just under the halfway point always cures this problem for him (he sees it mostly with Dell laptops). Sometimes you need to reboot the laptop first but it may work immediately with newer ones.

See How to set graphics hardware acceleration back if you're not familiar with this setting.

Search terms:video,movie,projector,data,screen,fill,full

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