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[Moe]

I've been using video backgrounds for a very long time in Theater View and I just installed 24 on two computers and they are no longer working on either computer.

Here is a link to a sample video, if it helps.  http://moesrealm.com/mc/videobg.wmv

Hope this one gets fixed, I love my video backgrounds

[tzr916]

Did you accomplish this by creating a custom theme (zip)?

What I found is - If you restore library from previous version of MC to MC24, your custom theme will appear to be in MC settings, but in reality it is NOT... You have to re-assign it / point MC to the zip file again, in order for it to take affect on the new install of MC.

[Moe]

Yes, I copied all the necessary files from my MC23 directory to my MC24 directory.

[tzr916]

Don't think copying the files is good enough. Did you go into Theater view OPTIONS>Theme> then Install Theme from zip file?

[Hendrik]

Video Backgrounds are not supported in OpenGL Theater View yet, mostly because in all the time we've been testing it and running on Linux/Mac, not one person asked about it.
But its on the list to get working again.

[RoderickGI]

Don't think copying the files is good enough. Did you go into Theater view OPTIONS>Theme> then Install Theme from zip file?

Just a FYI, copying the files into a new directory in the correct location is enough. MC detects the directory and offers it as a Theme available for selection. I have never installed a theme using a zip file. Just created a directory and copied in the image files I wanted to display. I haven't tried a video background, but that may be cool...

So I added a Theme using the video Moe provided. It didn't work even using Direct3D in MC24. 

[tzr916]

Just a FYI, copying the files into a new directory in the correct location is enough. MC detects the directory and offers it as a Theme available for selection. I have never installed a theme using a zip file. Just created a directory and copied in the image files I wanted to display.

What's the directory location?
If you did it for MC23, is the MC24 installer smart enough to copy it over?

Because doing the "install from zip" method, did NOT carry over from MC23 to MC24. I had to re-install from zip on all 6 of my PC's before my custom theme would work.

[RoderickGI]

The directory location is "C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 24\Skins\Theater View\Themes", which is not ideal as it is under the "Program Files" directory. It can't be changed. It can be easily found and opened using the "Options > Theatre View > Theme > Browse themes folder..." function.

The upgrade process now copies the Cover Art directory as of MC24.0.5, but doesn't copy Themes across. That was requested if I remember correctly. Ideally, Themes should have their own setting in Options > File Location just like Cover Art, and then that could be set so that is was universal and shared between versions, which is what I have done with Cover Art for a number of versions. Or at least the Themes directory should be copied across during an upgrade.

I supposed that would make using a zip file easier, saving from one version and loading it in another. As long as it handled the Administrative privileges requirements correctly, particularly with a Windows system logged on to a non-Administrator account. I assume that it does.

[Moe]

Video Backgrounds are not supported in OpenGL Theater View yet, mostly because in all the time we've been testing it and running on Linux/Mac, not one person asked about it.
But its on the list to get working again.

Thanks for confirmation, I sure hope you all are able to get them working again.

[Moe]

It's been 6 months now and this still isn't fixed.  Is there a fix coming?  I really, really miss my video backgrounds.

[muzicman0]

didn't know you could do this...pretty cool. 

As per the comment above, I couldn't get it to work either, but once I changed the background to 'Arctic White', instead of skin image, and set the image/video blend to strong, it worked fine.  Pretty cool!

[RoderickGI]

Are you running MC24.0.60?

As of MC24.0.59 MC is running a new graphics abstraction layer called ANGLE, which will switch between Direct3D and OpenGL as required. On a Windows PC Direct3D should be used automatically.

24.0.59 (10/24/2018)
3. Changed: Theater View uses ANGLE for rendering, with the Direct3D 11 or Direct3D 9 backends as available, to resolve various issues with OpenGL rendering.

Video Backgrounds are not supported in OpenGL Theater View yet, mostly because in all the time we've been testing it and running on Linux/Mac, not one person asked about it.
But its on the list to get working again.

However, despite Muzicman0's success I couldn't get your waves video to run as a background in MC24.0.60 using the Obsidian or Noire skins. Maybe ANGLE is playing a role in that, or something else is going on.

[muzicman0]

However, despite Muzicman0's success I couldn't get your waves video to run as a background in MC24.0.60 using the Obsidian or Noire skins. Maybe ANGLE is playing a role in that, or something else is going on.

Here is how I did it (just did it again on a different PC):

1. Export the default theme to a zip file.
2. Open the .zip file and delete the images in the root of the folder.
3. copy the .wmv file into the root of the zip file.
4. Install the updated .zip file as a new theme.
5. In Theater view settings, select theme|background and set it to Arctic White.
6. In the same place, select Image/Video mix amount and select Strong.
7. Set MC to use Legacy Direct3d.  I tried with OpenGL, but it still doesn't work, and I am on .60

You can actually select different colors in step 5, to get a different effect.  If you want more blue, just select the blue option.

[RoderickGI]

Thanks for sharing muzicman0.

Unfortunately, I tried all that and it still didn't work. Must be platform specific or something. The PC I just tested on is old, not my HTPC.

[Moe]

Are you running MC24.0.60?

As of MC24.0.59 MC is running a new graphics abstraction layer called ANGLE, which will switch between Direct3D and OpenGL as required. On a Windows PC Direct3D should be used automatically.

However, despite Muzicman0's success I couldn't get your waves video to run as a background in MC24.0.60 using the Obsidian or Noire skins. Maybe ANGLE is playing a role in that, or something else is going on.

I was running .55 but I just upgraded to .60 and still not working.

I've tried on two different computers.  I've tried with several different skins and themes and it doesn't work. 

I did find one weird thing though.  The two computers I've tried on are my HTPC (Win 10) and my work computer (Win 7).  On my work computer I can change the background color and it works.  On my HTPC no matter what color I choose it displays black (I am completely fine with this, I want black.  Just found this interesting).

If anyone is interested in what I think are some cool video backgrounds, I've uploaded mine here