Kdenlive Full Screen Preview on Second Monitor

Using a dedicated secondary monitor for full-screen video playback in Kdenlive can greatly improve your editing efficiency and color-grading accuracy. This guide provides a direct, step-by-step walkthrough to configure Kdenlive so that your active timeline project monitor outputs directly to an external display in full-screen mode.

Step 1: Prepare Your Operating System Display Settings

Before configuring Kdenlive, ensure that your computer detects the secondary monitor correctly. 1. Connect your external monitor to your computer. 2. Open your operating system’s display settings (Windows Settings, macOS System Settings, or your Linux desktop environment settings). 3. Ensure the display mode is set to Extend these displays (or “Extend Desktop”), rather than mirroring/duplicating the screens.

Step 2: Configure Kdenlive’s Project Monitor

Once your desktop is successfully extended, you can route the video preview to the second screen directly from the Kdenlive interface.

Launch Kdenlive and open your project.
Locate the Project Monitor tab (the video player panel that shows your timeline playback).
Right-click anywhere directly inside the video preview area of the Project Monitor.
In the context menu that appears, hover your mouse over the Fullscreen option.
A submenu will display your available screens (e.g., Screen 1, Screen 2). Select your secondary external monitor from this list.

The video preview will immediately jump to the selected secondary monitor and display in full screen.

Step 3: Controlling and Exiting Full-Screen Preview

While editing, you can control the playback using your standard keyboard shortcuts (such as the Spacebar to play/pause) on your main monitor.

If you need to close the full-screen preview on the secondary monitor: * Press the Escape (Esc) key on your keyboard. * Alternatively, double-click on the full-screen video preview on the secondary monitor to return it to the default embedded panel in the Kdenlive interface.