External screen black

I downloaded a movie for viewing it on an external screen. When playing the video, the _external screen gets black_ for a second or so - and it returns in irregular intervals. Any help appreciated.
I'm using MacBookPro5,1 running iTunes 9.0.2 on MacOS 10.5.8 that includes a NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT chipset for the external Monitor. The monitor is connected and synced with the MBP via iDVI using an PC input (VGA) of a Sony Bravia screen.

When I reboot, there is about 3 inches of black screen on the right of my main screen. The external screen is still black. It is the same behaviour as when I do 'xrandr --auto' when the screen is plugged. If I unplug it and execute the same command, everything is back to normal.
Graphics hardware : Intel GMA 4500M

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