Desktop background question (.mov)

alcimedes · December 4, 2003 8:48PM

ok, so i found some really nice panoramic .mov files.

(http://www.panoramas.dk/movies1/szinhazmid01.mov)

so does anyone know of a way to have one of those set as a background? i'm about to start an intense internet search, but i'd love to know if someone already has this figured out.

nothing like a 23" cinema display with a quicktime VR background. (not sure how you'd set it to pan or not though...)

curiousuburb · December 4, 2003 9:21PM

versiontracker has a few 'movie as desktop bkgnd' utilities

such as this

IIRC, "Hollywood" screen saver used to offer something similar

not sure how these will pan, but a QTVR can play in a regular (non-VR plugin) QT player that loops

P.S. some nice panos at that site

sonofsylvanus · December 4, 2003 10:43PM

Dang thas annoying. Using Expose 'Desktop' shunts the background movie to the side of the screen aswell!

How do you stop that? Wait for a Panther specific version?

dmband0026 · December 4, 2003 11:50PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SonOfSylvanus

Dang thas annoying. Using Expose 'Desktop' shunts the background movie to the side of the screen aswell!

How do you stop that? Wait for a Panther specific version?

Wait for any version. Technically the virtual desktop feature doesn't exists. It's too buggy right now, thats why it is disabled by default and the current setup is used. There is no way to stop it.

ichiban_jay · December 4, 2003 11:54PM

is there any way to set it so that it begins playing a folder full of movies when you start up the computer?

ghost_user_name · December 5, 2003 12:00AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DMBand0026

Wait for any version. Technically the virtual desktop feature doesn't exists. It's too buggy right now, thats why it is disabled by default and the current setup is used. There is no way to stop it.

I believe you are mistaken.

He was referring to the Desktop mode that pushes all windows off the screen so you can access the desktop. It's not a hidden feature in any way.

In any case, though, one will have to wait for a fix if a fix is even possible.

scott · December 5, 2003 7:20AM

Quote:

Originally posted by alcimedes

ok, so i found some really nice panoramic .mov files.

(http://www.panoramas.dk/movies1/szinhazmid01.mov)

...

Why would you want something that says "HP" on your mac

anders · December 5, 2003 8:40AM

Now we need qt movies of the changing seasons, Phases of the moon, park life, the waves on a beach, the growing of a tree, a slow train ride through the walleyes of Norway etc.

alcimedes · December 5, 2003 8:56AM

yeah, that's exactly what i was looking for.

for example, it would be awsome if the 360˚ one would rotate at a rate of once per hour or so.

or in the case of the seasons, a nice, gradual change over an 8 hour day. although an 8 hour movie would be a HUGE file.

ichiban_jay · December 5, 2003 4:18PM

any way?

dmband0026 · December 5, 2003 6:57PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Brad

I believe you are mistaken.

He was referring to the Desktop mode that pushes all windows off the screen so you can access the desktop. It's not a hidden feature in any way.

In any case, though, one will have to wait for a fix if a fix is even possible.

I got it now. I thought he was talking about the virtual desktop feature that can be enabled through command line. Still, there is no way to keep the movie on the screen with exposé enabled. Anything that isn't the actual desktop picture, or an item on the desktop will be pushed off. There is no way. Sorry

\

scott · December 5, 2003 8:42PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Anders

Now we need qt movies of the changing seasons, Phases of the moon, park life, the waves on a beach, the growing of a tree, a slow train ride through the walleyes of Norway etc.

I think we need mood desktops. You know like if mine is blazing red everyone knows to stay the fsck away from me

ludwigvan · December 5, 2003 10:57PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Anders

Now we need qt movies of the changing seasons, Phases of the moon, park life, the waves on a beach, the growing of a tree, a slow train ride through the walleyes of Norway etc.

Walleyes? Do you mean fjords?

eugene · December 5, 2003 11:06PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Scott

I think we need mood desktops. You know like if mine is blazing red everyone knows to stay the fsck away from me

Just fill your room with these stupid things:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/5da2/

ghost_user_name · December 6, 2003 2:23AM

Here's an idea.

Find a screen saver that plays QuickTime movies (i know there is one, I've seen it around before) and use the terminal trickery or one of the third party tools to set your screen saver to sun on the desktop.

It should work in theory.

scott · December 6, 2003 6:31AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Eugene

Just fill your room with these stupid things:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/5da2/

Cool now if we could hook it up to the PeeCee I use at work and base its output on how hard I pound the keys in frustration then it may work out.

alcimedes · December 6, 2003 10:57AM

brad, yes that does work, but what i want is something that will allow the panoramic (360˚) .mov files to pan across the entire thing.

although i was able to set a movie as my desktop using tools just like that. i think i need to convert the .mov file to a .mov file that's rotating, but of course that will make it huge.

anders · December 6, 2003 11:54AM

Quote:

Originally posted by alcimedes

yeah, that's exactly what i was looking for.

for example, it would be awsome if the 360˚ one would rotate at a rate of once per hour or so.

or in the case of the seasons, a nice, gradual change over an 8 hour day. although an 8 hour movie would be a HUGE file.

I thought about that too. Can you set the frame rate to 0,5/s? No more is needed and it would reduce the size very much.

Add to that the very limited change in the picture if it is a " slowly changing scenery". If you chose the right compression method that would reduce the size too.

Changing seasons movie would consist of exactly 365 frames for a year. If we said ten years it would only make up 3652 frames. No more than a five minute "normal" movie! That would allow the movie to be very High Definition, native screen resolution and still be comparable small.

This of course is only possible if it IS possible to set the frame rate arbitrary.

Desktop background question (.mov)

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