Problem running video on secondary monitor

I have a dual-monitor setup with my laptop. My laptop has a 12" screen at 1280x800, and my external monitor is a 19" at 1440x900. They are connected via VGA cable. When I play a video file with Windows Media Player or VLC, it always appears in the player on one screen and fullscreen on the other. Also, when the video is played fullscreen on the 19", it becomes stretched. Any ideas?

 

What make is your video card/ driver?

 

My laptop has the Geforce Go 7400. It's got 256MB of discrete memory (plenty for the job).

 

You have the option of a 'clone' setting with NVidia - exactly the same display on both screens. There's also an option of extending your desktop across two screens.

Right click on the desktop and select "Properties"
In the Display Properties control panel click the "Settings" tab.
On the bottom right corner of the window click "Advanced...".
In the Advanced window click the GeForce tab.
Click the "nView Display Modes" option.

Experiment with the different modes to find which suits you best.