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I'm using Google Chrome and a few weeks ago, when I watched a YouTube HTML5 video and pressed the fullscreen button, it maximized the video to the full browsing window ("fullscreen tab"). Then I was able to really make it fullscreen by pressing F11. Since a few days, when pressing the fullscreen button, Chrome maximizes the video to fullscreen directly. Since I often have my browser window aligned to the right site of the screen and still want to see "fullscreen tab" videos, I want the old behaviour back.

Long story short: I want Chrome to maximize HTML5 videos to full tab size (with possibility to go fullscreen with F11), not fullscreen per se. Sidequestion might be, if that's Chrome specific behaviour or even YouTube's.

Best regards


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migrated from stackoverflow.com Nov 22 '11 at 7:52

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It's almost certainly Chrome-specific behavior. –  Michael Aaron Safyan Nov 4 '11 at 8:35
That's what I thought, yea. –  tbuehlmann Nov 8 '11 at 9:26
You're planning on writing an html5 app that plays video? Or are you asking to change a setting on google chrome or youtube (that btw doesn't exist)? –  dlamblin Nov 21 '11 at 5:53
I will not write an application with HTML5 videos. I just want the explained behaviour in Chrome. –  tbuehlmann Nov 21 '11 at 11:47
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3 Answers

It's very unlikely that it will rollback to the previous behavior since so many developers have been begging for the 'real' fullscreen behavior.

If you want to solve your particular case you can create a bookmarlet or browser extension with something like:

document.body.addEventListener('click', function(e) {
  var target = e.target;
  if (target.nodeName == 'VIDEO') { // or EMBED
    target.style.position = 'absolute';
    target.style.width = '100%';
    target.style.height = '100%';
}, false);
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That sounds promising, gonna check it ASAP. Also, it wouldn't be a problem to write a small Greasemonkey-similar script for that case. Thanks so far! –  tbuehlmann Nov 16 '11 at 10:21
Just tested and it's unfortunately not working. The behaviour stays the same. –  tbuehlmann Nov 16 '11 at 21:20
As far as I understand there are no issues with the code I put here but you need to add the logic to overwrite the actions when you click the fullscreen icon. You could also use some key actions to trigger it. Without more code or live samples I can't help you further and nobody will. –  Ernest Nov 17 '11 at 18:32
I actually just tested with the Chrome Developer Tools inserting that snippet of JavaScript. Tried on a random YouTube HTML5 video. –  tbuehlmann Nov 18 '11 at 8:37
@tbuehlmann adding the snippet doesn't override what happens to the click handler YouTube already has in place. –  dlamblin Nov 21 '11 at 5:55
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Try the Window Expander extension. It works in both Flash and HTML5 modes.

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I also think that it's not quite the stackoverflow kind of question. –  vadipp Nov 20 '11 at 12:08
That will work for YouTube, but not for any other HTML 5 video, if I see that correctly. –  tbuehlmann Nov 20 '11 at 15:04
@tbuehlmann Yes. –  vadipp Nov 21 '11 at 3:46
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Maybe this thread may help, it explains how you can take advantage of Chrome's Fullscreen API: Chrome Fullscreen API

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I will investigate on this, thanks! –  tbuehlmann Nov 21 '11 at 11:48
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