Does split-screen software like this exist?
February 10, 2014 4:19 PM Subscribe
I am looking for some sort of software that will split my single monitor into four separate desktops that will allow me to have full-screen video on each quadrant. Does this exist?
I want to have multiple desktops on a single monitor, that is, I want to split out my 40-inch, 1080p TV into 4 separate desktops that are 960x540 each. My computer is Windows 7, running a pair of Radeon 5850's in Crossfire, i7-930. I don't think I'm short on power to do this. The idea is that I want to do four full-screen videos at once on a single monitor. I don't have a need for 4 taskbars, but don't mind if that happens. For the life of me I can't find any way to split the screen into 4 desktops.
I do know what I don't want as well: Some programs will automatically tile windows into separate quadrants. That is specifically not what I am looking for. An example of what I'm not looking for would be Desktop Divider as all it does is auto-resize windows to a grid. I want four virtual monitors on one monitor. I also don't want Virtual Desktops where I switch between what's on the screen; I want all four desktops visible, one in each corner.
I'm looking for any program, setting, etc. that will do this. Program can be free or cost money. I'm willing to pay a bit for this. I'd also take hardware solutions, but software is preferred.
I want to have multiple desktops on a single monitor, that is, I want to split out my 40-inch, 1080p TV into 4 separate desktops that are 960x540 each. My computer is Windows 7, running a pair of Radeon 5850's in Crossfire, i7-930. I don't think I'm short on power to do this. The idea is that I want to do four full-screen videos at once on a single monitor. I don't have a need for 4 taskbars, but don't mind if that happens. For the life of me I can't find any way to split the screen into 4 desktops.
I do know what I don't want as well: Some programs will automatically tile windows into separate quadrants. That is specifically not what I am looking for. An example of what I'm not looking for would be Desktop Divider as all it does is auto-resize windows to a grid. I want four virtual monitors on one monitor. I also don't want Virtual Desktops where I switch between what's on the screen; I want all four desktops visible, one in each corner.
I'm looking for any program, setting, etc. that will do this. Program can be free or cost money. I'm willing to pay a bit for this. I'd also take hardware solutions, but software is preferred.
I'm not entirely clear on what you're asking, but Blazecock seems right. Dexpot's Full Screen preview sounds like it will do what you want.
posted by cnc at 4:45 PM on February 10, 2014
posted by cnc at 4:45 PM on February 10, 2014
What type of fullscreen video are we talking about here? Because generally anything on windows that uses directx will break this sort of thing, and even breaks most multi monitor setups when you go full screen.
Even if the other quadrants didn't turn black when you made the first section, clicking on another "monitor" will likely un-fullscreen the first one.
That said, displayfusion seems to be more like what you're thinking of. I can't guarantee it'll do it, but it has a trial you can test with and is the only one i could think of that seemed like it was actually capable of doing this correctly.
posted by emptythought at 4:46 PM on February 10, 2014
Even if the other quadrants didn't turn black when you made the first section, clicking on another "monitor" will likely un-fullscreen the first one.
That said, displayfusion seems to be more like what you're thinking of. I can't guarantee it'll do it, but it has a trial you can test with and is the only one i could think of that seemed like it was actually capable of doing this correctly.
posted by emptythought at 4:46 PM on February 10, 2014
Hardware options exist for this, but they are not cheap.
posted by Roger Dodger at 5:38 PM on February 10, 2014
posted by Roger Dodger at 5:38 PM on February 10, 2014
Is it always going to be the same video (or a small selection), or is it going to be different things all the time? It might be easier to make one video file out of multiple files and play that fullscreen if it's just a few sets of videos you need to show.
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:46 PM on February 10, 2014
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:46 PM on February 10, 2014
I just tested out DisplayFusion's monitor splitting feature and it does basically the same thing that Desktop Divider does. Fullscreen mode just takes over the full monitor. I'm not sure if Dexpot will work, but it looks like your best bet at the moment. Otherwise, it seems like something that would require hardware and/or driver support, and I don't know of any drivers that are set up to do this out of the box.
posted by Aleyn at 5:48 PM on February 10, 2014
posted by Aleyn at 5:48 PM on February 10, 2014
Matrox PowerDesk allows halving of a desktop, but you'll probably need a Matrox card. You might email them and ask if their software works with other cards and/or if there is a way to further vertically split a horizontally-split desktop.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:36 PM on February 10, 2014
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:36 PM on February 10, 2014
Vmware might be able to do this if you ran four different virtual machines and set the resolution for each appropriately.
posted by shivohum at 6:37 PM on February 10, 2014
posted by shivohum at 6:37 PM on February 10, 2014
It would help to know what your video sources are. Because it's a different question to find something that will let you run random fullscreen games or programs at the same time, vs something that just lets you tile 4 video files or streams on the screen with out any borders between them.
posted by aubilenon at 7:48 PM on February 10, 2014
posted by aubilenon at 7:48 PM on February 10, 2014
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posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:38 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]