Active Media Screensaver Review

Just recently, I discovered another totally cool screensaver. Quebec based Esm Software makes Active Media Player Screen Saver, an application designed to play streaming video while your computer is idle.

What is Active Media Player Screen Saver?

Active Media Player Screen Saver (AMPSS) is a screensaver application capable of playing live video streams in MPEG, AVI, ASF, WMV, or QuickTime format. AMPSS also plays full motion video from your hard drive, giving you unlimited choices for video playback.

Active Media Player Screen Saver: Features

Play local or remote files: Play video files from your personal video collection or choose your favorite streams from the Internet. Using an application like CTube! makes it easy to find streams to add to the list. The program automatically cycles through the playlist, allowing the user to keep tabs on a variety of different live streams, or to progress through a collection of short video clips in order.

Unlimited number of media clips: Create a playlist of streaming file locations or files located on the hard drive. If you have a directory of favorite video clips, AMPSS will play all files in the directory, when it is added to the playlist.

Manage your media clip playlist: Clips may be organized to suit individual preferences. Save playlists for later use or load one of the included samples.

Scrolling marquee: Display text captions with each video stream. Language support for English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, German and Swedish displays time and date in a familiar format. Change the speed of the marquee to slow, medium, or fast.

Full audio support: If the video stream includes audio, AMPSS supports it by default. Audio is muted with a simple push of the F3 key.

Fast function key controls: Special function keys, like the F3 audio mute key, making controlling AMPSS easier. F9 skips to the next video clip, while F4 acts as a pause button.

Ignore mouse movements: Most screensavers stop when the mouse moves across the desktop. AMPSS overrides this, preventing accidental video interruption. Normal computer use resumes when a key (other than the special function keys) is depressed on the keyboard.

Custom video sizing: Choose the amount of screen real estate the video stream uses. By default, AMPSS plays video at the default size delivered by the stream. Instead, images may be enlarged to as much as full screen or shrunk to half the original size.

What I like about Active Media Player Screen Saver

My computer frequently sits idle while I'm catching up on paperwork, or reading my favorite magazine. With several live streams queued on AMPSS, I can focus on other tasks and check in on live Webcams, news reports, and other information at the same time. I personally added many of my favorite streams from CTube! so that I would have a well rounded selection of news and informational content running when my screensaver launches.

Download Active Media Player Screen Saver

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