I was looking for a way to set up VLC to always start the video fullscreen on the second external monitor. I have found some ways to do this online, in two different approaches: via a batch file and via VLC settings.

Batch file

Create a batch file with the following contents:

set vlcPath="C:\\Program Files\\VideoLAN\\VLC\\vlc.exe"
%vlcPath% %1 --video-x=1600 --video-y=400 --fullscreen --no-video-title-show --no-embedded-video --no-qt-fs-controller

Replace the values vlcPath with the exact path to your VLC installation. Also, replace video-x and video-y with the x and y values on which your second monitor is positioned. You can play a video by dragging / dropping a video file onto the batch file.

Via VLC settings

You can also set these options directly via the settings. This means that all video’s played via VLC on that computer use these settings.

1. Open the preferences dialog (Tools –> Preferences)
2. In the interface tab, choose Native, and un-tick “Embed video in interface” (this enables the controls to be separated from the video)
3. Choose “All” in the “Show settings” box at the bottom left of the preferences window
4. Choose the video options from the left
5. Tick Fullscreen video output
6. Scroll down and set an X and Y position that are on the second monitor – so set an X position larger then the width of the first screen. The value of the Y coordinate doesn’t matter much, but mustn’t be negative otherwise both values will be ignored.
7. Save the settings