semi-transparent video

future-ex-pc-userfuture-ex-pc-user
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
A friend of mine has told me, that he can view TV on his PC on a semi-transparent full-screen-window. This feature has come with his ATI Rage video-card.

Is there a way to watch a DVD or DivX in a semi-transparent-window while I'm writing a text or something? I want the video-window on top, but I also want to see what's under it.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    Yes? I use Windowshade X to make windows transparent... For the Apple DVD Player, you'll need Quartz Exreme. You can also watch DVDs with VLC without the overlay problems...
  • Reply 2 of 9
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by future-ex-pc-user

    A friend of mine has told me, that he can view TV on his PC on a semi-transparent full-screen-window. This feature has come with his ATI Rage video-card.

    Is there a way to watch a DVD or DivX in a semi-transparent-window while I'm writing a text or something? I want the video-window on top, but I also want to see what's under it.



    Man, I'd *LOVE* to know how they do that... we looked into doing something like that for a research project, and concluded that the Windows graphics system didn't allow for it without MAJOR jumping through hoops.



    So we bought a Mac.
  • Reply 3 of 9
    frykefryke Posts: 217member
    Hmm... I'm tired and have been working for too long, but wouldn't it be cool to have some software translate DVD video into ASCII art so you could play a movie in Terminal? Nice transparent moving ASCII pictures. :P
  • Reply 4 of 9
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    This exists, for QuickTime media in general. It's sample code on Apple's developer site.
  • Reply 5 of 9
    xmogerxmoger Posts: 242member
    That ATI tool may use some inside knowledge to do the hardware blending. Nvidia may have something similar, they use their pixel shaders to apply filters to video playback in one of their utilities.



    Sasami2k did this in software so it was a cpu hog, don't know if it supports tv tuners though.
  • Reply 6 of 9
    stoostoo Posts: 1,490member
    I have an ATi All In Wonder Radeon, and it is quite cool to watch TV while working. I find it mildly amusing that the 6400 gets better reception, probably due to the TV tuner being in its own separate bay and the vast amount of steel in a Performa 6400 compared to an ATX case.
  • Reply 7 of 9
    kim kap solkim kap sol Posts: 2,987member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Stoo

    I have an ATi All In Wonder Radeon, and it is quite cool to watch TV while working. I find it mildly amusing that the 6400 gets better reception, probably due to the TV tuner being in its own separate bay and the vast amount of steel in a Performa 6400 compared to an ATX case.



    You can't actually work while watching TV...believe me.
  • Reply 8 of 9
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    The issue we ran into was that you could have transparent windows... but only if certain types of apps were under them.



    Under Windows, the 2D and 3D pipelines are distinct. A 2D app sends graphics info down the 2D pipe, a 3D app sends graphics info down the 3D pipe. What comes out each end is just pixels, no depth information included.



    If you have two 2D or two 3D windows, then they can be layered with some transparency, because you have the concept of window ordering within each pipeline.



    But if you have a 2D and a 3D window, you can't have them blend with transparency - the two pipelines strip out the layering information.



    All the cards we tried that supported transparent windows would block with grey, or turn off transparency if you ran into the above situation.



    Quartz Extreme, however, translates everything into OpenGL textures, then blits it all down the 3D pipe... *ANY* two windows can be blended with transparency and depth, with full acceleration. And, you get it for free with Cocoa.



    So, what took one researcher over a month to conclude couldn't be done on a P4 system with a variety of high end video cards, I prototyped successfully in 30 minutes one night on my Pismo, including learning the API. No QE, so it was dirt slow, being CPU bound, but it *worked*.



    And no, you can't have it.
  • Reply 9 of 9
    jasocojasoco Posts: 74member
    I find WindowShades X does the transparent windows very well.



    I never use it though, when I watch a DVD on my Mac (Rarely) and I do stuff at the same time, I set it to half size and put it in the corner. But I find it's faster to just put it in my Xbox and watch it on a big TV.
Sign In or Register to comment.