Question / Help Can I use a screensaver as a source capture?

[Mr. Mendelli]

I have an old sreensaver (.scr) file I want to use as a source for my intermissions. The problem I have is that since it's a screensaver I have to manually run it after switching to the intermission scene I have setup. Is it possible to point OBS to a screensaver so that it runs it in my stream so that I don't have to run the screensaver manually?

 

[koala]

I know no way to start a screensaver like a regular *.exe. But you can record the screensaver with OBS, create a tailored video from that, and show that video as media source in your intermission scene instead of the real screen saver.

 

[Mr. Mendelli]

I know no way to start a screensaver like a regular *.exe. But you can record the screensaver with OBS, create a tailored video from that, and show that video as media source in your intermission scene instead of the real screen saver.

Thanks for the reply. I have done this but I'm stuck with a 2 gigabyte video and it's only five minutes long. It's in 1080p, but I would rather have the screensaver live since it is much more dynamic than what a loop can provide.

 

[carlmmii]

I would look into trying any number of free "Screen Saver Viewer" programs -- there's bound to be something that just runs the screensaver in a window that can be picked up by OBS's window capture.

 

[Harvey S]

https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/dvd-screensaver.762/

 

[carlmmii]

That isn't what he's looking for -- he has an actual .scr he's trying to capture, not create a simple bouncing image animation.

 

[Mr. Mendelli]

https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/dvd-screensaver.762/

Yea, like @carlmmii said I'm using an actual screensaver, they're tricky to capture in real-time.

 

[koala]

I just found out you can explicitly run a screensaver by running "filename.scr /s", i. e. start it with the /s command line parameter. This gives you another option for starting it. But they always run fullscreen, never windowed, and always terminate on any mouse move or keypress. OBS doesn't have a function to start an executable from within OBS.

The only thing to capture a screensaver windowed I found out is to run it in a virtual or remote machine and capture the rdp window. But this is probably overkill.

Then there is the command line parameter /p65552. This will run your screensaver permanently as desktop wallpaper. If you run it in a rdp window, you really have a window with a screensaver permanently running, without keyboard/mouse interference.

See also:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...wed-mode/f202af89-bc7b-4af8-baf3-acf64a4ae806
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/run-screensaver-as-wallpaper-windows