13 comments

  • postalcoder 2 hours ago
    Wow, thank you for this. I've been working on a screensaver suite but LegacyScreenSaver is so janky. I was hoping someone would figure out apple's private wallpaper framework and you did!
    • mikestaas 1 hour ago
      OMG, LegacyScreenSaver is such a memory hog!
  • encore2097 4 hours ago
    Very neat. I was confused at first, I was like you can download the video screensavers.. why scrape the frames. Then I saw your comment and read I can use my own videos for desktop and lock screen. Great work! Dont bury the lede! A title with the hook of what and how would be super helpful!
  • musicale 1 hour ago
    Apple's best video wallpaper is "Macintosh". I am interested in how it works.
    • futhey 1 hour ago
      Same! I distinctly remember seeing portions of this wallpaper that led me to believe it's procedurally generated and not simply a collection of video files, and had to rewatch it to confirm. There are several points where the date and time match the system date and time down to the second.
  • buildbot 3 hours ago
    As much (fairly well deserved) hate as Tahoe gets, the video wallpapers and transparency are such a fun Windows Vista vibe I get nostalgia. Time to set this up with the Vista waterfall wallpaper and reallllyyy feel like it’s 2007!
    • _kb 1 hour ago
      What do you mean Windows Vista "nostalgia"? That makes me feel a little long in the horn.
      • samat 8 minutes ago
        Still burned they did not ship winFS then
      • Springtime 50 minutes ago
        > That makes me feel a little long in the horn

        I see what you did there :)

      • geerlingguy 1 hour ago
        There are likely a number of folks on this forum now who were born after Vista was released.
        • _kb 54 minutes ago
          Nope. 2007 is like 2 or 3 years ago, tops.
      • ebbi 1 hour ago
        guy_holding_shoulder.jpg
    • riddlemethat 2 hours ago
      I’m imagining dozens of people worldwide sharing your nostalgia for Vista.
      • Gigachad 2 hours ago
        It's called frutiger aero now. Lot of people very bored with modern safe design nostalgic for when tech and UI was weird and bold.
      • zaps 2 hours ago
        “Good old Vista. People give it a bad press but I’m never upgrading, why would I? It just feels like a good pair of jeans.”
    • wpm 1 hour ago
      The moving wallpapers are near the first few times but I can't turn it off. I had to dig deep into WallpaperKit (I mean really? It's a friggin wallpaper) to find the static last frame of the wooshy moving BS.
  • wanoir 3 hours ago
    So cool! This reminds me I wanted to try setting a custom video background with some footage i had. Didn’t even realize it wasn’t natively supported till i saw this!
    • kageroumado 2 hours ago
      Thank you! I’m glad you like it
  • mgaunard 3 hours ago
    Are there specific video wallpaper sets I can download that leverage these features?
    • kageroumado 3 hours ago
      You can use any website that lets you download video wallpapers, or you can make one yourself. Any video can be played
    • buildbot 3 hours ago
      I vote the Vista wallpapers personally; feels just right.
  • kageroumado 2 hours ago
    The app now has a landing page with a download link and you can also see my other projects: the largest one is Refrax browser, but I also have many other small utility apps!

    https://kagerou.glass/phosphene/

    https://kagerou.glass

  • manuisin 2 hours ago
    Woah, thank you! Just checking these will keep on working on the lock screen and as screen savers too?
    • kageroumado 2 hours ago
      The video will keep playing on the lock screen, but screen savers are a different thing. You can have the same video as your wallpaper and screen saver though.
  • ChrisMarshallNY 4 hours ago
    Very cool!

    However, it may definitely get broken by Apple, as you note.

    • kageroumado 3 hours ago
      I don’t think they’ll touch this part anytime soon. It’s been unchanged for a few years now, they certainly have other priorities.
      • ChrisMarshallNY 3 hours ago
        Good on ya.

        I won't use it, myself, because I can't deal with wallpaper moving behind my work (I also can't listen to music, while I work. Maybe it's a "generational" thing). Also, I use a 49-inch ultrawide, so it might be vomit-inducing.

        I remember some other utility that played wallpaper videos, but it wasn't anywhere near as nicely done.

        • dylan604 2 hours ago
          Which generation is that? I'm a Gen Xer. I can't work without music, but specific music without lyrics for my brain to try to follow.
  • w-ll 2 hours ago
    remember when windows had html wallpapers. brb gonaa agent something that i hope doenst supply chain my entire life
    • hunter2_ 54 minutes ago
      The little IE4 widgets called "active desktop"?
  • markdown 2 hours ago
    These damned wallpapers gave me my worst experience with Apple. MacOS would delete them and redownload automatically over and over again, using almost a terrabyte of data per week.

    And I wasn't even using video wallpapers at the time.

    Just discovered I had no internet 3 days into the month as my ISP had cut me off. Had to dig deep and spend hours I'll never get back trying to find out where all the data was going.

    Here's a thread I just found now that shows others having similar issues: https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/1ii38g8/macbook_wall...

    • kageroumado 2 hours ago
      This app injects itself directly into Apple’s actual pipeline, so your videos won’t get removed or changed. It’s not just an automated replacer of Apple’s own videos.
  • nashashmi 2 hours ago
    Title should be prefixed with show hn:
    • dang 2 hours ago
      I had the same thought and just did that, and your comment was the next thing I saw :)
    • daemonologist 2 hours ago
      I wonder about this when I see someone post their own work without the Show HN prefix - is it always supposed to be a Show? (Enforcement/community objection to the lack thereof doesn't seem to be very strenuous, if so. Or, maybe it gets fixed after a little while and I haven't noticed.)