DVD Player Software that splits image from transport controls?

[rholler]

Our church is always running into problems when someone has a DVD they want to play thru our projector system. We can play them from a computer or from a stand-alone DVD player, but the problem is the same -- when we send the video to the projector & screen, all of the controls go with it, and they end up being too small to see clearly... and we don't want the congregation to see the controls anyway.

Does anyone know of any DVD playing software that allows the video content window to be dragged to a 2nd monitor (i.e. in a multi-monitor situation, this would be the large projection screen), while leaving the controls on the computer monitor in the control room?

 

[NickVon]

VLC has some reasonable Functionality in this respect. It can be tricking to set up though. When playing video/dvd's using it i have our computer set up with "extended desktop. In advanced settings you can tell VLC to drop the Video onto //Monitor2: and keep your transport controls "undocked" on your primary control monitor.

Screenmonkey is a Freeware program with the option to upgrade for a donation. It can display all sorts of media on any number of hardware connected monitors though I find it's setup and "running" it as a show a little cumbersome and not as responsive as i would like. But hey it's free so it easy to decide if either of these work for you.

I'm also curious as to if there is a program that makes this super simple.

 

[cpf]

I'm also curious as to if there is a program that makes this super simple.

Of course there is, as of about half an hour ago when I dug this up and put it online. VLC Presenter 2 is a program I made back when I used VLC for a lot of video presentation-y things. It's a fancy launcher for VLC, so you get all the functionality of VLC, but with all the ugly overlays and popups and whatnot turned off out of the box. Bonus features include suppressing system sounds, subduing the taskbar, and covering the desktop background with an image of your choice.

And of course, controls are separated from the video, as per the OP.