Win 7 theme changes when playing movie

[reynajoh]

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?

 

[Antman]

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.

 

[Night Hawk]

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.

 

[reynajoh]

?

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

 

[Night Hawk]

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!

 

[reynajoh]

my system

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?

 

[Shark007]

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

 

[Night Hawk]

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.

 

[zigzag3143]

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?

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+

 

[Night Hawk]

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.

 

[reynajoh]

ram and player

you might be right about the ram, but if i am lacking ram, then how is it that i am able to play the videos on windows media player and vlc player without the theme changing. fyi, i dont have a tuner card.

 

[Night Hawk]

Well as I was mentioning before even with 4gb of memory installed here when going to run the tuner card's application for viewing or running WMP or another maximize to full screen app Windows will automatically revert to the Aero Basic by default. As soon as you close out the program the theme you have set returns immediately afterwards. Windows is conserving resources by doing this. This is part of 7.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

Does it actually matter while you are playing a movie -- I can't myself see the point of watching a movie and then wanting to use the screen for something else at the same time.
Switch to FULL SCREEN mode and then you won't notice it.

I think after the movie has finished the display will revert back to aero again as the previous poster has said.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[RAS230]

media player classic does the same thing on my system.
Not all the time, but often enough.

I've got 6GB of ram so adding more memory might not help you any. Just like you said, VLC and other players don't do it on my system, only media player classic. I've got a good machine but I've also got a weak video card (geforce 310) so I've always suspected that the issue was due to the way media player classic uses my (limited) graphics hardware.

I never looked into it however, because (as others have said) once I close the player after watching my show windows switches back automatically and so it never bothered me. If some one knows of a setting in the player which will prevent it from happening at all (not just fix it once it does) I'd be interested... just haven't been curious enough to go messing around because really, I barely notice it.

 

[SSyar]

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

man it worked for me...i change the renderer to System Default, on my Aspire 4741, 2g Ram, C i3-330M, Intel HD Graphics
now no theme change in Media Player Classic

 

[Gornot]

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

I agree with SSyar about changing the output renderer, but it should be never be System Default. I often found the quality of the video clips seriously downgraded, and on certain hardware configurations it can still display the same "bug" with changing themes.

I assume from the fact you use MPC that you also have the K-Lite installed.
Actually, it doesn't even matter, if you have the home Cinema version of MPC installed, change the renderer to EVR and you're good to go