Fullscreen MLB.TV on Dual Screen Setups

by BrianL on Mar 9, 2010 11:21 AM PST

Hat tip to Faux for pointing me out to a link that got me started on the right path.

For those of you who have used MLB.TV (or any other Flash-based web video playback) and have a dual screen monitor setup have likely run into a very annoying problem. Whenever you have your video stream set to full screen and you navigate to work on your second screen, MLB.TV loses its focus and collapses back to the smaller window. This is a function of Flash's default code. To get around this problem, you can easily tweak the default behavior.

For 32-bit Windows XP and Windows 7 users, the solution is simple. Simply download FlashHacker and run it on your PC.

If you're running on a 64-bit operating system, there are a few more steps that are required. Not to worry, it's still fairly straightforward.

Uninstall Flash
Install a fresh copy of Flash
Download this modified .dll file
Close your web browser
Navigate to C:\windows\sysWOW64\Macromed\Flash
Replace "NPSWF32.dll" with the modified file you just downloaded

You should be able to launch an MLB.TV stream in fullscreen (or any Flash video) and work on your second screen without it minimizing anymore.

Note: For 64-bit users, you may not need to do steps 1 and 2. I couldn't get it to work until I installed a clean copy of Flash, but that may just be me.

Note 2: I've tested this with both Windows XP and Windows 7. The procedure for Windows Vista should be identical.

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Thanks for following up on this.

It was my next step, but my office at home right now is me and my laptop on my couch, so no dual screens to test on.

It's hard to convince people to let you eat them if you're an asshole. - Thingray

by Faux on Mar 9, 2010 11:36 AM PST reply actions

There is another way to do it that I posted last year:

Your way looks easier though.

by EnglishMariner on Mar 9, 2010 12:12 PM PST reply actions

This is actually the same fix, I've just included a download link and the directory so you don't have to use a hex editor.

by BrianL on Mar 9, 2010 12:24 PM PST up reply actions

That is to say

instead of manually editing the DLL I included a link to a modified file you can use instead.

by BrianL on Mar 9, 2010 12:30 PM PST up reply actions

Hot damn it works!

by Poochie on Mar 9, 2010 12:20 PM PST reply actions

Intentional omission of Vista users?

I hope Silverlight gets a hack like this sometime soon so I can do the same thing with Netflix on demand

by Matthew on Mar 9, 2010 12:34 PM PST reply actions

Truthfully, I have spent all of 45 minutes total playing with Windows Vista since it released.

I’m pretty sure that the 64-bit Windows 7 solution will also work with Vista. I’m fairly certain that the DLL file is identical as is the file path.

As for Silverlight, yeah that would be nice. Unfortunately on a cursory glance it doesn’t appear that anyone’s come up with a solution other than to run it in a virtual machine.

by BrianL on Mar 9, 2010 12:43 PM PST up reply actions

Man, I just hope my free Windows 7 upgrade is still good

I keep forgetting to do it on the Vista laptop I bought last year

by seattlebruin on Mar 10, 2010 8:56 AM PST up reply actions

I spent far too much time fiddling with Vista to get Windows95-era games to run on it

to upgrade for a while. I don’t want to have to jump through all those hoops again.

Enabling DirectDraw in post-XP versions of Windows is a really big hassle.

I like using semi-colons; they make me feel smart.

by Llewdor on Mar 10, 2010 11:15 AM PST up reply actions

Since everyone here seems to know more about this than me...

I tried to watch some spring training on my hdtv the other day and it was completely unwatchable. My laptop has an HDMI output so I thought this would be rather simple but even on the lowest quality option it was going frame, by frame, by frame. Is this an internet connection issue (I am changing shortly, att sucks) or a computer hardware issue? Comes in basically fine on the laptop, just not on the higher couple of notches in quality.

Also, sound didn’t come through but I think I have that one figured out with some an audio splitter.

by hcoguy on Mar 10, 2010 9:27 AM PST reply actions

This is how I do it

I connect my Laptop and TV though a standard VGA connection. I plug my laptop directly into my Comcast modem because I seem to lose speed a little through my Wifi connection, but that’s because I have a cheap router. For sound, I connect my laptop into my surround sound system using the head phone jack. This works pretty good for me, but I still have a delay in the high quality setting, but I think that’s more MLB.tv than my system.

Before the season starts I am going to buy small desk top (mac mini maybe) and set up a permanent system with a higher quality video system. This would also free up my laptop for full GTE on LL, which is a must while watching any M’s game.

I bet there are people here with better solutions than this, but this is what I do and seems to work.

Racer X. You have to love those amarillo hops.

p.s. fuck you angels

by InSpokane on Mar 10, 2010 10:17 AM PST up reply actions

If your TV has VGA, try that.

by BrianL on Mar 10, 2010 1:58 PM PST up reply actions

It does, thanks.

I, for some reason, thought HDMI would be better but its clearly not.

by hcoguy on Mar 10, 2010 6:52 PM PST up reply actions

There are probably some difference but you'll be hard pressed to actually see them.

by BrianL on Mar 10, 2010 7:01 PM PST up reply actions

First suggestion is to update your video card.

Second suggestion for the sound, on my laptop I have to enable the HDMI manually for it to work through the T.V. speakers.

by Knoll on Mar 12, 2010 5:02 PM PST up reply actions

It's almost impossible to update video in a laptop.

Usually the GPU is built right into the mainboard.

by BrianL on Mar 13, 2010 8:36 AM PST up reply actions

He may have meant the drivers

It’s worth checking the website of whoever built the laptop to see if there are updated drivers. You could also check to see if you have the latest version of Adobe Flash. (Of course if you update Flash, you may have to apply the “fix” in this thread again)

In cases where HDMI is giving problems, it’s often because the TV and laptop haven’t agreed on the video format — the TV is trying to do some processing (check the properties in the TV’s UI for that input). But without knowing more about the symptoms in this case it’s hard to tell. If it’s dropping frames and just really slow it sounds more like something is wrong on the laptop side of things.

by wandergeist on Mar 13, 2010 9:57 AM PST up reply actions