diff --git a/config/sway/config b/config/sway/config
index 7c9771b..e8a0897 100644
--- a/config/sway/config
+++ b/config/sway/config
@@ -19,6 +19,11 @@ exec --no-startup-id /usr/local/bin/classroom-dock
 
 include /etc/sway/config.d/*
 
+# The DVD player is an appliance screen, not a desktop window: no sway
+# title bar, and it opens fullscreen over the dock.
+for_window [class="(?i)vlc"] border none
+for_window [app_id="(?i)vlc"] border none
+
 # Minimize and restore.
 #
 # classroom-window parks the window on a hidden workspace as an ordinary
diff --git a/docs/dvd.md b/docs/dvd.md
index 737f38d..53cfb5d 100644
--- a/docs/dvd.md
+++ b/docs/dvd.md
@@ -39,32 +39,79 @@ a disc left in over the week does not announce itself at every boot.
 ## Playback
 
 Playback is VLC, chosen over mpv because mpv dropped DVD menu support.
-VLC's `dvdnav` path gives working menus, chapters and audio tracks.
+VLC's `dvdnav` module is what provides the disc menus, and `dvd://`
+selects it.
 
 `classroom-dvd toggle` hands the disc to VLC through `classroom-window`,
 so the DVD player behaves like any other classroom application: the DVD
 button focuses it, minimises it, and restores it. `Super+M` minimises it
 too. VLC starts fullscreen; `Esc` leaves fullscreen.
 
+## How VLC is made to fit the classroom
+
+Stock VLC looks like a desktop media player, which is wrong for a room
+where the TV is the whole interface. It is dressed down with documented
+VLC 3.x options — no skin is involved, because skins replace the
+interface wholesale and take DVD menu input with them:
+
+| Option | Why |
+| --- | --- |
+| `--fullscreen` | The disc opens straight onto the TV |
+| `--qt-minimal-view` | No menu bar or extended panels |
+| `--qt-dark-palette` | Dark window instead of the default light grey |
+| `--no-qt-bgcone` | No orange cone, no album-art panel |
+| `--no-qt-system-tray` | Not a background desktop application |
+| `--no-qt-name-in-title` | Nothing in the title bar to read |
+| `--no-qt-video-autoresize` | The window does not jump to the video size |
+| `--qt-notification=0` | No now-playing popups |
+| `--qt-continue=0` | Never asks to resume where it left off |
+| `--no-qt-recentplay` | No history of the discs a classroom has played |
+| `--no-qt-privacy-ask` | No first-run privacy dialog |
+| `--no-video-title-show` | No title banner over the video |
+
+sway also draws no border on the VLC window
+(`for_window [class="(?i)vlc"] border none`), so there is no title bar
+above the video either.
+
+The auto-hiding fullscreen controller is deliberately **kept**. It is
+the only way to pause or change chapter with a mouse, it is not
+persistent chrome, and a volunteer with a wireless mouse needs it.
+
+`--intf dummy` would give an even barer window, but the dummy interface
+takes the keyboard and mouse handling that DVD menu navigation depends
+on, so it is not an option here.
+
+Note that `--no-qt-updates-notif`, which earlier classroom builds
+passed, is not an option in Debian's VLC at all — it made VLC exit
+before it started.
+
 ## Commercial (CSS encrypted) discs
 
 Most retail DVDs are CSS encrypted, and Debian cannot ship the
 decryption library. Unencrypted discs — curriculum discs, home-burned
 video — play without any extra work.
 
-For commercial discs, run once per endpoint, as root:
+**This is automatic.** On any classroom with `DVD_ENABLED=true`, the
+provisioning service installs the codecs after the next boot. See
+[provisioning.md](provisioning.md).
+
+To do it by hand, or to watch it happen:
 
 ```
 sudo classroom-dvd-css-setup
+classroom-dvd-css-setup --status
 ```
 
-That enables the Debian `contrib` component, installs `libdvd-pkg` and
-builds `libdvdcss`. It needs network access and it compiles a package,
-which is why it is deliberately not run from the package `postinst`: the
-postinst runs while dpkg already holds the apt lock during an OTA update.
+It enables the Debian `contrib` component in whichever APT source format
+the machine uses, installs `libdvd-pkg`, answers its debconf questions
+and builds `libdvdcss`. It only ever adds a missing component to an
+existing Debian entry, so repeated runs cannot produce a duplicate
+repository or a duplicate component, and third-party repositories such
+as Google Chrome's are never touched.
 
-**Commercial DVD playback has not been verified on hardware yet.** Test
-with an actual disc before relying on it for a service.
+It needs the network and it compiles a package, which is why it runs
+from the provisioning service rather than the package `postinst`: the
+postinst executes while dpkg is still holding the apt lock.
 
 ## Command line
 
diff --git a/docs/testing.md b/docs/testing.md
index 1e6225c..7aee7dc 100644
--- a/docs/testing.md
+++ b/docs/testing.md
@@ -111,6 +111,9 @@ With `DVD_ENABLED=true`:
 - [ ] Closing the player works
 - [ ] Ejecting is detected, the icon goes back
 - [ ] Reinserting is detected again
+- [ ] VLC opens fullscreen, dark, with no menu bar, no orange cone and
+      no sway title bar
+- [ ] The fullscreen controller still appears on mouse movement
 - [ ] Commercial CSS disc, after `classroom-dvd-css-setup`
 
 ## OTA
diff --git a/scripts/classroom-dvd b/scripts/classroom-dvd
index ec604f4..4a38f41 100755
--- a/scripts/classroom-dvd
+++ b/scripts/classroom-dvd
@@ -43,12 +43,42 @@ def notify(title, message, urgency="normal"):
 
 
 def player_command(device):
+    """VLC, dressed down to look like an appliance rather than a desktop app.
+
+    All of these are documented VLC 3.x options, verified against the
+    3.0.23 build in Debian Trixie. No skin is involved: skins replace the
+    interface wholesale and break DVD menu input, which is the one thing
+    that has to keep working.
+
+    Note that --no-qt-updates-notif, which earlier builds passed, is not
+    an option in Debian's VLC and made it refuse to start at all.
+    """
     return [
         PLAYER,
+        # Fullscreen first: the disc opens straight onto the TV.
         "--fullscreen",
-        "--no-video-title-show",
+        # No menu bar or extended panels, and a dark window instead of
+        # the default light grey one.
+        "--qt-minimal-view",
+        "--qt-dark-palette",
+        # No orange cone, and no album-art panel, behind the video.
+        "--no-qt-bgcone",
+        # Nothing that behaves like a desktop application.
+        "--no-qt-system-tray",
+        "--no-qt-name-in-title",
+        "--no-qt-video-autoresize",
+        "--qt-notification=0",
+        # Never offer to resume, and never accumulate a list of the
+        # discs a classroom has played.
+        "--qt-continue=0",
+        "--no-qt-recentplay",
+        # No first-run privacy dialog, no title banner over the video.
         "--no-qt-privacy-ask",
-        "--no-qt-updates-notif",
+        "--no-video-title-show",
+        # dvd:// selects VLC's dvdnav module, which is what provides the
+        # disc menus. The Qt interface is kept for exactly that reason:
+        # --intf dummy would be cleaner still but takes the keyboard and
+        # mouse handling that menu navigation depends on with it.
         f"dvd://{device}",
     ]