Deskscapes cant play video dream

For those of you out there experiencing this problem, sorry, this isn't an answer.

I already tried a bunch of things and contacted technical support. First, they blamed it on Windows 8, and told me that would have to install a codec that works with Windows 8 or contact the author. When I pointed out that I'm not using Windows 8, they did a 180 and told me that they don't support third party apps.

Beware before you buy a dream. If it doesn't work, no one out there will help you. The fact that GigaByte69 posted 5 years ago with no replies should be proof enough.

Don't waste your money! The makers of Deskscapes don't care about their customers.

Same problem here.  Support said "Sorry.".

Video dreams require codecs and if you do not have the right ones then a video dream cannot play and you will get that message.  Some versions of Windows do not come with suitable codecs with MPEG2 videos including Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista business and all versions of Windows 8.

Some dream authors opted to go outside of the standard resolutions and this can also cause problems if the installed codecs are designed to work with only standard 720p and 1080i/1080p content.  I also understand a recent Microsoft Windows 7 update may have altered the mpeg 2 decoders and made them sensitive to what resolution a video is.

Windows 7 comes with all required codecs.

yes can we please get an answer to this? I have the same issue on 2 machines. One is win8 ultrabook. I even bought the media pack from M$ from post I read from stardock troubleshoot link on the error and no go!!!!

I pretty much gave up on that machine. So I get an alienware lappy with win7 pro. it has all the codecs. same problem! So I figure screw it. i'll risk virus and malware and get codec pack that will make it work.

NO GO!!!!

Wth stardock. I could play these things in winxp and not with the latest os's?

Do other videos works as background? Is it a specific dream from someone or a third party you purchased? Perhaps they can re-encode the video for you into a format which does work for you. Some things just don't play perfectly together in the world of computers - a bad codec can break videos playing on one media player and not in another - and codecs are video are not stable/guaranteed things that a software developer can 100% cater for. Video cards can come into play with how their drivers try to accelerate video playback. Desktop composition can depend on all sorts of things maybe even not related to things you might think should affect video playback. And that's not even throwing it into 'playing in the background' instead of a wallpaper or many other things. Microsoft had 'Dreamscenes' but it seems to be gone in new windows - maybe it was too hard for them? Stardock is more courageous.

The original post was from a long time ago - many things could have changed since then - the symptoms might sound the same, but the reasons in 2013 could be completely different and may be quite addressable. Give support a go anyway. 

Its just some of them... of course its the coolest ones. Things like aphrodites necklace and others from "themasterbaron"

This is a common problem. it spans all os's I have the codec installed its griping about.. these dreams have worked before in deskscapes 3. they do not work in deskscapes 8 either. I don't know why there isn't a solid answer for this yet.

It's because of the non standard video size that we used back then. When we first started, 16x10 was the wide screen norm for monitors so we created dreams for them. 1792x1120 was the closest thing that the encoder we were using would allow for 16x10. The ones you are having trouble with were encoded at 1792x1120.

With Win 8, the video needs to be a standard size like 1920x1080.

Unless the original author re-encodes their dream and uploads a new version, those will not work unless you re-encode them yourself for your own use.

Sounds as I feared SuperNovax - not so much Deskscapes, but the original content creators who you might need to try and track down.

You could possibly enlist someone to help you and provide them with the dreams, they modify them for you - but for you alone.

You (or they) would not be able to distribute as it is not their work/right.

I'll download a few of the non-working ones you've specified and see if they work for me.

Forgot to mention, if you find one of mine that you would like to have re-worked, PM me and I'll upload an updated version for you.

Deskscapes worked last week but this week many (thebaronmaster) stopped. Codecs are installed. I'm running win 7 x64.

Recently installed IE 11. Could this be the problem?

More than likely, IE11 caused it. There was a similar problem with IE10.

Try uninstalling IE11 to see if the problem goes away.

Oh how I wish I could.....

No luck.

We have seen issues like this with the KB2670838 update in Windows 7. If you have that update, you may want to try removing it to see if the issue persists.

Thank you for the info. ALL Dreams are working now. I'm a happy camper!! If you remove the update Ie reverts to IE 9.

Re-read all comments. IE 10 and 11 prevent some dreams from running. I have all the proper codecs. Running Win 7 x64.

I really dislike not being able to upgrade IE.

Would love an idea for a workaround or a fix.

Thanks.

Is IE install of DirectX11 replacing DirectX9 the glitch on dreams ???