If you need a simple, free, onscreen video application for the PC, that will allow you to display full screen video, or video in a resizable window, from any video input source on your computer, look no further than Sadhu System’s Video Thumb.
I came across this program while trying to find a simple freeware video application, that would allow me to watch TV in a window on my computer, while I worked on other things. I also wanted to be able to watch video full screen if necessary, so I could play video games patched through from my Sony Playstation, or have my computer monitor double as a second TV, by connecting it to my set-top box.
You will need a video input card if you want to use it to watch TV, I use a Canopus ADVC-55 (an excellent analog-to-digital video encoder), to provide the needed video input to the computer. You could also use it with a video tuner card, or USB web cam for example. The program uses DirectX 9, which comes included with recent versions of Windows, and the program allows you to switch between different video sources, simply by right-clicking on the video itself.
The company behind the program seems to have gone out of business, so I am hosting the file here if the original site doesn’t work.
The program runs as a lightweight single file application, and you can choose among popular sizes to display your video such as 320×240, 640×480, full screen, etc. A ‘desktop’ feature allows you to have any video source appear as your computer’s desktop, appearing underneath all your desktop icons. (N.B. I had a small problem with the desktop mode, in that I was unable to find out how to easily turn it off. I had to CTRL-ALT-DELETE and shut down the program’s process that way.)
Other than that small glitch, it’s a great free little program that does what it says on the tin, and which I use all the time.
(Multi-Monitor Note – The program will run with multiple monitor setups, but you can only have video run on your primary monitor).