Windows 7: Win 7 theme changes when playing movie

ive got win 7 build 7100 and whenever i try to play a movie using mplayer or media player classic the theme changes from my custom theme to a weird basic not colorful theme... like the windows classic theme equivalent for win 7
anyone seen this?

Windows is stepping down your underpowered system so that it can display both the GUI and your video.

The theme should return to normal when the movie, and player, are closed.

Welcome to the Se7enforums! reynajoh

Antman summed that one right up fast there! When using a tv tuner card or some multimedia player in 7 the Aero theme reverts to Basic as long as the application for something like a tuner, capture card or media player is running in order to conserve on resources since some media players as well as the media played or even videos captured will draw more heavily on system resources.

It looks alarming and odd at first but you'll get used to it fast and nothing to worry about.

this would be true, but in my case, my pc in not underpowered, its a performance pc built it myself
any other ideas

You could have a 1200w supply on your system and Windows will still do the same thing. Once you start up a media player or other full screen program, games included the Aero reverts to the basic.

Later when the program is closed the theme reverts back to the present theme you have on. This is part of 7's new resource conservation features mainly intended for laptops for conserving power there as well as allowing more video memory for the full screen program. Don't panic! This is normal for 7!

i understand that
why dont i just tell you what i have

ecs motherboard
amd athlon 64 x2 7850 dual core (2.8 ghz)
2 gig ram
2 80gb hdd
HIS 4850 ice-q 4 turbo video card
raidmax volcano 630 watt ps

i understand win 7 does this, but why would it do it on this system
is there a way to disable this feature?

My guess would be that your player, Media Player Classic (HC) is set to use an incorrect renderer.
Open the player, navigate the menu's, View | Options | Output
Lefthand column, DirectShow Video, choose EVR or EVR Custom Pres.
If you don't have those options, choose System Default or VMR9 renderless

I see this when running the application for a tv tuner card as well as any full screen pc game as well. From the early information on 7 first seen it was supposed to have some new resource saving as well as energy saving features as well as a performance enhancement for gaming even with older video cards by syncing the vpu with the cpu.

This is limited to one program or type of program but the new feature built into 7 being seen there. WHy see all your visual resources tied up with the desktop while running a full screen resource intensive program? was the thought behind that. Once the program is closed everything snaps back as it had been.

I fyou had told about your specs in the first place we might have noticed you have the absolute minimum ram for 64bit. that is 2 gigs. I have 3 apps that do the same thing and in my case it was a quicktime bug. Are you using the latest video driver?

Ken J+

Absolute minimum? Some people had the 64bit Vista running on 1gb of ram only! The MS recommended is 2.5gb there while the 64bit Windows will still run with less.

The real difference is mainly practicality especially with memory prices having fallen a good 3-4gb is where most start off with. Having less never means you "can't run" but ... having adequate and even a small surplus is always preferred.