Background Videos

OSTV isn't anything more than a video player with a menu. OSTV will not work unless it has a video to play. It uses background videos to maintain the interface when a user selection is not playing. At least one video file needs to be in the directory ~/.ostv/default_video. OSTV comes with a video file and it is installed there at setup to get you going.

You can place multiple files in ~/.ostv/default_video, when OSTV needs a background video, it will get one randomly. Your choice of background videos is akin to "skinning". Background videos should be visually interesting but generic and not demanding. 10 to 20 second videos that loop well are ideal, you do not want credits or titles...but it's really up to you.

Sound can irritating for a background video. Here is how to remove sound from a video:

$ mencoder -ovc copy /path/videofile -nosound /path/newvideo

mencoder is a companion program that comes with MPlayer.

To save video files you can often cut them from your /temp directory after you played them or use the Firefox extension "DownloadHelper".

Here are some Youtube vids that I think make good background videos. Choose videos that are HD and match your aspect ratio.