Widescreen Gaming Forum

Greetings from triplewide resolutions:

I often watch movies on my center monitor, and currently use a plug strip to power off the left and right monitors so they don't interfere with watching the movie.

My question: is there any software, or a media player that supports, blanking (that is, setting to black) the left and right monitors?

Thanks in advance, and if you have not tried Left 4 Dead Vs mode yet, then I recommend it, that is, if you have 30+ hours of week to lose on video gaming fun!

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Core i7-8086K @ 5.0 Ghz | H60 | Nvidia GTX 980 Ti 6GB | Soundblaster Z | Asus Z370-A

16GB DDR4 | Win10 x64 | 3x27" Asus IPS @ 5760x1080 | Samsung 970 1TB NVMe

I don't think it's possible, because using TripleHead results in Windows treating all 3 screens as one single display. Your only chance afaik would be that such a feature be implemented in PowerDesk/GXM. :?

Power desk already has this feature. just set your th2go to use the center screen for single screen resolutions and change your res to that when watching a movie (you can set a hotkey for this). It will show in the center screen and your other two will shut down. This has been covered in many other threads, search for center screen gaming, or single screen gaming, really, there are numerous topics about how to get your view on the center screen only. sorry, I'm tired.

Power desk already has this feature. just set your th2go to use the center screen for single screen resolutions and change your res to that when watching a movie (you can set a hotkey for this). It will show in the center screen and your other two will shut down. This has been covered in many other threads, search for center screen gaming, or single screen gaming, really, there are numerous topics about how to get your view on the center screen only. sorry, I'm tired.

I don't like that solution personally because when I disable/enable monitors it moves my windows all over. so if I have windows in my L and R monitor. after I disable them those windows goes to my main display and I have to move them over again after I enable those monitors.

this is what I do.

METHOD #1: (I use this mostly)
USE MICROSOFT PAINT and just make a picture and fill it with all black.

when I want to "disable" my L/R monitor for movie viewing I just load up that black picture and "full screen" it on my L and R monitors so it looks like it is disabled.
:shock: :shock:


METHOD #2:
press the input selection on your monitor and switch to an input that doesn't have any signal. ex. if you are connected to your monitor via DVI just switch the input on the monitor to VGA that should blank out the screen.

Here's a little widget application I made for you using DesktopX that puts up black rectangles on the sidescreens.

I run XP so it hasn't been tested in Vista but it should work as other widgets I have made do work in Vista.
I also have no clue if it will work with SoftTH.

FOR TRIPLE 1680 ... Paddywaks-Black-Sidescreens-1680.rar

FOR TRIPLE 1440 ... Paddywaks-Black-Sidescreens-1440.rar

FOR TRIPLE 1280 ... Paddywaks-Black-Sidescreens-1280.rar

Extract the .exe anywhere you like ... and double click to start it.
Nothing is installed when using the app but a hidden folder with the preferences you choose will be made.
On XP it is found here ... C:Documents and Settings*USERNAME*Local SettingsApplication DataStardockDesktopXGadgetCache

Once it is started ...
Right click a rectangle or the icon in the system tray to access various options such as Show/Hide, Close and Preferences ...
In Preferences you can set various things...
The Z-Order option specifies if you want it to be on the desktop level, normal or on top of everything else including the Taskbar.
The Opacity option allows you to vary the opacity.
The Accessibility and Run when Windows Starts options speak for themselves.
The Shadow and Hue options are not applicable.

I hope you like it ... :D

Click to see full size ...

Desktop level ...


On top ...


On top with an Opacity setting ...


With the widget hidden ...

Sounds like it should work Paddy! Can you create one for the following resolution, my eyes can't handle high resolution desktops for reading:

3 x 1280 x 800

Thanks in advance!

UPDATE: The latest release of Zoom Player 6 Home Max does indeed have this feature when playing videos/movies, just tested it and it works quite well, but Paddy's widget has the advantage of not being media player dependent. The setting in Zoom Player 6 Home Max is located at:

System & Files -> [x] Blank non-playing monitors in Fullscreen / Zoom mode

Still want your 1280x800 widget if you can make it Paddy, as when I play Left 4 Dead Vs mode I play single screen (choppy in triple wide for me) and so I would need it for any single monitor games.

_________________
__________________________________________________________

Core i7-8086K @ 5.0 Ghz | H60 | Nvidia GTX 980 Ti 6GB | Soundblaster Z | Asus Z370-A

16GB DDR4 | Win10 x64 | 3x27" Asus IPS @ 5760x1080 | Samsung 970 1TB NVMe

Here you go ...

FOR TRIPLE 1280 ... Paddywaks-Black-Sidescreens-1280.rar

Thanks for the quick response!

Too bad on my system using SoftTH it blanks the middle screen only, hehe!

I will take a look at the powerdesk software when I have time and see what might also work.

Tip: Zoom Player 6 Home Max keyboard shortcut alt+shift+k toggles unused monitors to black when watching a video, so my original request is now working.

For now will continue to use the plug strip to power off left and right when single monitor gaming...will also try a solid black wallpaper, but the UltraMon task bar will still be visible...

_________________
__________________________________________________________

Core i7-8086K @ 5.0 Ghz | H60 | Nvidia GTX 980 Ti 6GB | Soundblaster Z | Asus Z370-A

16GB DDR4 | Win10 x64 | 3x27" Asus IPS @ 5760x1080 | Samsung 970 1TB NVMe

Ah well ... sorry it didn't work with SoftTH ... hopefully others will find it useful.
It only took five mins or so.