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Freevisuals
Yes you can! If you're like me and have just saved up to get a new monitor, the excitement of expanding your workspace is palpable.
If you've been using Premiere Pro for a month, you're already familiar with the concept of a dual-screen setup. It's where you can spread your workspace across two monitors, making it easier to manage your timeline, preview, and other panels. In DaVinci Resolve, this feature is equally beneficial, especially when color grading or editing. However, sometimes, this option might be greyed out. Let's dive into why this happens and how to fix it.
In This Article:
To start, open DaVinci Resolve. At the top of the interface, you'll find a menu bar, similar to what you might have seen in Premiere Pro. In this menu bar, look for an option labeled "Workspace." This is where you'll find settings related to the layout and display of DaVinci Resolve.
Once you've clicked on "Workspace," a dropdown menu will appear. Within this menu, search for an option labeled "Dual Screen." Clicking on this will reveal another option labeled "On." Selecting this will activate the dual screen mode. Believe me, this feature is a game-changer, especially if you're used to working with multiple screens in Premiere Pro.
Now that you've got dual screens activated, you might want to set one as your primary display. To do this, head back to the "Workspace" option in the menu bar. From the dropdown, look for "Primary Display."
Once you click on "Primary Display," you'll be presented with options representing your connected screens. Simply click on your preferred screen to set it as the primary display. This is where you'll primarily be working from, so choose the one that feels most comfortable.
For a more immersive editing experience, you can enable the full screen for your timeline. To do this, go back to the "Workspace" option in the menu. Under "Dual Screen," you'll find an option labeled "Full Screen Timeline." Activating this will expand your timeline to fit the entirety of your screen, giving you a clearer view of your edits. Seriously, this feature is a lifesaver when you're working on intricate edits.
If you're using the paid Studio version of DaVinci Resolve, you have the added advantage of previewing your video on a separate monitor. To access this feature, head to "Workspace" and then navigate to "Video Clean Feed."
Once you're in "Video Clean Feed," you'll be presented with options representing your connected screens. Click on the screen where you'd like your video to be previewed. This way, you can edit on one screen and simultaneously view the changes on another. All in all, it's a feature that truly enhances the editing process.
Why can't i use dual screen in DaVinci Resolve?
It's usually caused by one of the three following issues:
How to Enable the Dual Screen Option:
Cinema Viewer gives you a true fullscreen playback view on your primary or secondary monitor without any interface elements. Press P to toggle Cinema Viewer on the current display, or go to Workspace and select Show Cinema Viewer. The Cinema Viewer opens on whichever display your mouse cursor is on when you press P. This is the most commonly used dual monitor configuration for client review sessions where you want to show a clean fullscreen preview on a second display while retaining control of the Resolve interface on your primary monitor.
The Colour page benefits most from a dual monitor setup because it has the most panels competing for screen space. In Dual Screen mode the Colour page places the viewer, colour wheels, and primary controls on the right monitor, and moves the Gallery, Node Editor, scopes, and LUT browser to the left monitor. To customise which panels appear on each monitor, click and drag panel headers to move them between screens. The panel layout saves automatically between sessions.
For colorists working with LUTs extensively, having the LUT browser visible on the left monitor while grading on the right significantly speeds up LUT comparison workflows. Our free LUT collection includes 22 plus cinematic grades worth having loaded in your LUT browser at all times. The Moody Film Shadows LUT, the 22 Free Mega Cinematic LUT Pack, and the Free Teal and Orange LUT are all worth downloading before your next grading session. For a premium LUT library, MotionVFX and Envato Elements both carry extensive DaVinci Resolve colour preset libraries.
The Fairlight audio page is one of the most panel-dense pages in DaVinci Resolve. In Dual Screen mode, Fairlight places the mixer and audio tracks on the left monitor and the timeline and transport controls on the right monitor. For editors who do significant audio post-production inside Resolve rather than in a separate DAW, this layout makes Fairlight considerably more functional than the single-screen version.
For royalty-free music to bring into Fairlight for your projects, Artlist (2 months free via FreeVisuals) and Epidemic Sound are the two strongest options for professionally cleared music. Our own free music collection and free sound effects are available at no cost. For AI voiceover tracks to mix in Fairlight, ElevenLabs generates natural-sounding AI voices with 10,000 free characters per month on the free tier. For stock footage and imagery to pair with your audio work, Shutterstock and iStock are the strongest licensed options and MotionElements covers additional affordable footage options.
Once you have arranged your panels across two monitors in a way that works for your workflow, save the workspace so it loads automatically every time you open DaVinci Resolve. Go to Workspace in the top menu and select Save Workspace As. Give the workspace a name and click OK. The saved workspace appears in the Workspace menu and can be recalled at any time.
For editors who switch between single-monitor and dual-monitor setups depending on location, saving two separate workspaces and switching between them is faster than rearranging panels manually each time. For DaVinci Resolve templates and assets to use once your workspace is configured, our free DaVinci Resolve templates are ready to drop into your timeline immediately. For premium templates, Motion Array (2 months free via FreeVisuals) and AEJuice (10% off via FreeVisuals) are both worth exploring. For AI-powered video creation tools that work alongside DaVinci Resolve, InVideo AI and OpenArt AI are accessible through our FreeVisuals partner links. For image upscaling and enhancement before bringing footage into Resolve, Magnific AI produces exceptional results through our FreeVisuals partner link. For mobile editing on the go, CapCut and Filmora by Wondershare are both worth knowing about as desktop and mobile editing alternatives.
Go to Workspace and select Video Clean Feed. This sends a clean fullscreen preview to your second monitor. Alternatively press P to toggle Cinema Viewer on whichever display your cursor is on.
DaVinci Resolve's built-in Dual Screen mode supports two displays. For three or more displays, you can use additional monitors as extended desktop space and manually drag Resolve panels onto those displays, but the automatic Dual Screen layout only addresses two monitors.
Check that the second display is set as an extended display rather than a mirrored display in your operating system settings. DaVinci Resolve cannot output to a mirrored display. Also check that your GPU drivers are current and that DaVinci Resolve is using the dedicated GPU rather than integrated graphics in the Preferences panel.
Yes. If your laptop supports an external display via HDMI, DisplayPort, or USB-C, connecting a second monitor allows you to use DaVinci Resolve's Dual Screen mode or Video Clean Feed the same way as a desktop setup. Performance depends on your GPU rather than whether the machine is a laptop or desktop.
Go to Workspace in the top menu and select Save Workspace As. Name the workspace and click OK. It will appear in the Workspace menu and restore your full dual monitor panel arrangement whenever you select it.
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