Color Me Video Blog

The latest VLC v0.92 is available for download.

2008-09-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

Without a doubt, VLC is one of the best media players available today especially when using video overlay colors. The latest and greatest version of this star of a media player has just hit the tubes. Whenever any software package publishes a new version, there is always hope that it does not changes how we used the older version. I am glad to say that methods discusses in the Color Me Video website and blog still work just as seamless as before. With an initial look, there were a few fun things found and as experimentation with the newest version of the VLC player continues, updates, glitches and tricks will be added here.

A Word about Color Me Video MSN and Yahoo Search Page Results

2008-07-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

While performing an analysis of Color Me Video search page results, it was found that when using MSN Live Search and Yahoo search engines, sites relating to pornography was listed using the Color Me Video name in an irrelevant, inappropriate and highly offensive manner.

The Color Me Video name and keyword is being randomly used on these sites for unknown reasons. Although it is encouraged to use this site and the content therein in any way, you the visitor wishes, it is important to inform all visitors that Color Me Video is in no way associated with any pornography sites as they are listed in the search page results below or otherwise. Color Me Video does not link to any of these site which content may be considered illegal.

Thank you for visiting

Search Page Results as of this post:

Color Me Video compares to other Video Wallpaper alternatives

2008-04-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

During the research there were many other examples of how to achieve video wallpaper using various methods. It was found that none of these methods worked as flawless as finding a compatible media player, using hardware overlay feature and the media player's video overlay color.

DreamScene Review

DreamScene is the most popular software available and is only available for Windows Vista Ultimate operating system. One major drawback of using DreamScene is that it can only use WMV and MPG files to view the video as desktop wallpaper. Using Color Me Video methods and the preferred player, VLC, video file compatibility increases to include DVD playback and most if not not all popular video files (AVI, AMV, MPG, etc) available today.

Video Wallpaper using Microsoft FrontPage Review

This method uses Microsoft FrontPage to embed the video file into a HTML file. The HTML file is then used with the Desktop Properties as the modified theme background image. This is effective but it also have it's limitations especially in comparison to Color Me Video findings. If FrontPage is not installed onto your computer, you can't use it this method. This method may use too may resources which may cause a hindrance your computer's performance if the computer does not have the appropriate hardware (RAM, processors, etc). Also, you can only play one video wallpaper at a time. You also have to set the video file playback size options using Frontpage. Using Color Me Video methods uses only the media player and the video overlay color.

Vista Rewired's DreamScene Method for any version of Windows Review

This method is one of the most popular alternatives. It also uses the VLC media player Wallpaper feature to accomplish the DreamSene effect. When testing this method, it did not exactly work as intended following the instructions as outlined in this tutorial. Using Color Me Video methods, you can accomplish video wallpaper with or without using the VLC Wallpaper feature.

DreamScene Alternative using BSPLAYER Review

This method using BSPLAYER which has not been reviewed for Color Me Video yet. It's still accomplishes the same effects that VLC offers. BSPLAYER will be tested and reviewed soon.

Color Me Video and Windows Media Player

2008-03-22T19:27:00.001-07:00

Windows Media Player is the Microsoft Operating System's native player so it is probably used more often than any other player. As reviewed on the Color Me Video: The Players page, the video overlay color preferences for Windows Media Player is a dark purple or plum color. This color is not ideal for viewing videos as desktop wallpaper using the video overlay color.

Using using the video overlay color, Windows Media Player is not as versatile as the VideoLan player. The Windows Media Player does not support minimization while playing video files such as .avi, .mp4, etc. It does support DVD play back while the player is minimized or when using the tool bar feature.

Color Me Video and VLC Glitches

2008-03-09T13:59:00.000-07:00

While experimenting with the VideoLan Player and Color Me Video Themes for XP, the control buttons were hard to read on the main player console. To by pass this glitch follow these instructions:

Go to Settings
Select "Preferences"
Check the "Advanced options box" at the lower right
Open the "Main Interfaces" drop down
Select "wxWidgets"
Select "Show labels in toolbar

You should then see the player control buttons with the text beneath it. You will find by setting this preference, resizing the player and the video will be restricted in comparison to disabling this preference.

Look Ma! No Icons!

2008-03-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

If you have been experimenting with video overlay colors and Color Me Video Techniques, you now have the ability to watch movies and streaming videos as desktop wallpaper. Now all you have to do is get rid of those icons. For Windows XP users, just:

Right mouse click on an empty area of the desktop.
Select "Arrange Icons By"
Be sure that the "Show desktop icons" is not checked.

There you have it. No icons. If you are not using Windows XP, use a search engine and your help option to remove your desktop icon.

Where's all my desktop things?

Now that you have cleared your desktop of all those icons, you then need to use the Windows toolbar features to access your things. This is what you do:

Right-mouse click and empty area of the taskbar.

The taskbar is the empty space where opened files appear

Select "Toolbars"
Choose "Desktop"

You should see a button labeled "Desktop" with two little pointers located on the next your system tray. Click on those two little pointers and you should see your desktop items So there you have it, a icon free desktop with access to your desktop things.

VideoLan Preferences for Color Me Video

2008-02-23T21:21:00.000-08:00

The VideoLan player receives the best Color Me Video rating because of its theater like color. It is also receives the highest rating as a player. It’s completely free. It can play most video file formats. It’s lightweight and is basically just as easy to use as any other media player.

Immature Usability

In the Color Me Video Review, it was stated that the player usability is immature because it takes some tinkering with the preferences to personalize the player. One limitation while using with VideoLan player is that the most preferences do not use terms that are easy to understand. This guide will not explain the VideoLan player’s terminology. Visit the VideoLan.org for more information about VideoLan's terminology. This guide was prepared for Color Me Video Techniques and will instruct you to the best ways to use the VideoLan player using Color Me Video Techniques. Learn more about what VLC can do at wiki.videolan.org.

VideoLan Overlay Preferences

In order for the Color Me Video techniques to work, video overlay options must be active.

Procedure

Go to Settings
Choose Preferences
Select Video
Check the Overlay video output box

VideoLan Controls

The VideoLan player has a feature similar to the Windows Media Toolbar feature. Finding it wasn’t as easy as finding the Windows Media Player toolbar feature. This is one way the VideoLan suffers for immature usability. It took a while of using the VLC player to find this neat little feature. Once finding it, it was quickly seen that it was far more inobtrusive in comparison to the WMP toolbar.

Procedure

Go to Settings
Choose Preferences
Open Interfaces drop-down
Open Main Interfaces drop-down
Choose wxWidgets
- Embed Video in Interface (optional)
- Taskbar
- System Tray Icon

To use the player controls, right mouse click on the VideoLan icon in the system tray. From there, you can play, pause, move to the next or previous entry in the playlist, etc. The player will also hide or appear when the icon is double clicked.

VideoLan Wallpaper Feature

When using Color Me Video techniques, this feature will allow you play the video fullscreen while escaping the player’s full screen feature. The video will play full screen regardless of the size of the media player window or screen as your desktop wallpaper. The wallpaper feature must be activated.

Procedure: Activating the wallpaper feature

Go to Settings
Choose Preferences
Open Video drop-down
Open Output Modules drop-down
Select DirectX
Check the Advanced options box
Check the Enable wallpaper mode
Play DVD disc or Video File
Right-mouse click on the video
Choose Wallpaper

Hotkeys or Keyboard Shortcuts

Again, it took using the VideoLan player a while and accidentally tapping keys to find this useful feature. VideoLan has a series of keyboard shortcuts called “hotkeys” other than the space-bar play/pause feature. VLC has more hotkeys than most media players and the hotkeys are customizable. The hotkeys feature can only be used with the player application or window is active and so the hotkeys cannot but use if the player is minimized and/or using the system tray feature. If you are using the system tray feature, you must double-click on the Videolan icon to make the player active. Below are a few of the hotkey preferences you can use to optimizing the the video display size, mute, fastforwarding, etc during video playback.

VideoLan Default Preferences

A – Changes the video screen aspect ratio
C- Crops the video
M – Mutes
T – Displays video playback time
N – Moves to the next track
P – Moves to the previous track
Alt + left arrow – Rewinds short
One keystroke is about 10 seconds. The longer you hold these keys the faster the video rewinds.
Alt + right arrow – Fast forwards short
One keystroke is about 10 seconds. The longer you hold these keys the faster the video forwards.
Ctrl + left arrow – Rewinds long
One keystroke is about 60 seconds. The longer you hold these keys the faster the video rewinds.
Ctrl + right arrow – Fast forwards long
One keystroke is about 60 seconds. The longer you hold these keys the faster the video forwards.

To customize the VideoLan hotkeys:

Procedure

Go to Settings
Choose Preferences
Open Interfaces drop-down
Choose Hotkey settings

Play a DVD disc without selecting "Play" from the menu

This technique will allow you to bypass the DVD menu.

Procedure

Insert DVD in drive, and do not allow it to play automatically. If it does, stop the movie manually using the stop button.
Select the DVD tab
Choose the DVD option

Alternative Procedure

Insert DVD in drive, and do not allow it to play automatically. If it does, stop the movie manually using the stop button.
Go to File on the menu bar or click the "Open" button on the player.
Select the DVD tab
Choose the DVD option

Color Me Video: Video Wallpaper

2008-02-11T11:50:00.000-08:00

Using video overlay colors, Color Me Video is a guide on how to view or watch video as desktop wallpaper. Windows Vista Ultimate currently has Windows DreamScene™ pre-installed that allows the same feature as with using video overlay colors. There are also several software available that offers the same feature. With Color Me Video Techniques, you can watch DVD, video files (avi, mp4, wmv, etc) and streaming video as desktop wallpaper without installing any extra software other than the media player.

Notations

Active Video/Hardware Overlays and Video Acceleration

To experience desktop video using video overlay colors, the media player of choice must have video or hardware overlay or video acceleration capabilities. In the research, it was found that flash software and Quicktime software does not support video or hardware overlay so that these Color Me Video techniques cannot be used. Also, the video graphics card installed must be about to handle using video overlay options. If it cannot, then playback may be jumpy.

About

2008-01-23T21:01:00.000-08:00

The Color Me Video Blog is dedicated to techniques, tips and glitches found when using video colors. It also serves as a catch all for all the information that not included in the introductory website. Every media player has its own unique branding on how users can use media. Because of this, each media player reviewed will have their own benefits and challenges when using Color Me Video techniques. I would like to emphasize that Color Me Video ratings and reviews are not intended to negatively impact the quality of the media player. Any expressed opinion here is solely based the media player’s video overlay color and its usability using video overlay color. Color Me Video techniques have been extensively tested using Windows XP Service Pack 2 operating system. Whatever information that is available is dedicated, but not totally isolated to Windows users. The architecture of color coding should be available across other operating systems if the operating system allows color and display customization.