Is there a problem with strange artifacts appearing in 'windowed' videos?
Is there a problem with strange artifacts appearing in 'windowed' videos?
Specifically, on YouTube and recently discovered the Steam app, the situation occurs when the video is displayed in the default small view. The edges of the tab or app in Steam display a peculiar blinking effect. Switching to full screen resolves the problem immediately. Often, moving the mouse over the video temporarily clears the artifacts before they reappear within seconds.
With YouTube, disabling hardware acceleration fixes the issue. There is no solution within Steam to stop it unless the video is displayed in full screen. The problem does not affect games, Netflix, Amazon Prime, or other players. I cannot link this to a specific update. It seems unrelated to any particular release. Is anyone else experiencing this? It’s been happening recently, perhaps last week or two.
Another similar problem occurred recently when I added a second monitor. While playing CSGO, I experienced blinking and stuttering. After checking online, I was advised to update the drivers, which I did, and then played in fullscreen mode. The issue was resolved instantly. You might want to try using older drivers as a solution.
I've looked at this as a possibility. I'm not entirely sure if the latest drivers were the cause, but it was near the time I upgraded to the second most recent version. Trying the newest driver hasn't helped much.
This implies that any "on top of screen" overlay, like Afterburner/Riva, frame counters, temperature readings, etc., won't function properly. It also affects in-game overlays such as maps and similar features. I really dislike messing with the registry for this issue, but the flickering bothers me a lot.
I tried the MPO 'fix' and it didn't work. I need to check with Steam again, but just to test I dl Chrome and it doesn't seem to be doing the artifacting in YT like Edge does. If I use theater view or full screen there is no problem, just with the default view and only along the sides/bottom of the playing video. If I open something like Task Manager and leave it open over the top of the playing video the issue doesn't appear. I don't know if any of that is useful, but this is definitely annoying.
Edit - never mind, it also works in Chrome. I started pretty much as soon as I signed in. This makes me think about some extension or similar.
I forgot to check...
Consider performing a clean boot and observe any changes – follow the guidelines carefully and avoid disabling any Microsoft services or Windows won’t load properly.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help...in-windows
It doesn’t remove files, it simply halts non-Microsoft applications from starting with start. It’s straightforward to undo.
If the clean boot resolves the issue, it suggests a startup program is involved. You should restart those programs gradually, one by one, to pinpoint the culprit.
So far from MS services, everything else is off. All startup functions are disabled. The windowed video still shows some flickering, especially when the mouse moves in or out. I didn’t notice this before. It became really unstable when Samsung Magician reported it couldn’t start. I don’t want to think it’s a hardware issue, even though my graphics card is still under warranty. Right now I’m thinking about a clean OS installation just to check. What’s odd is that the system runs games and full-screen video works fine, but windowed videos are the problem.
Probably too early to be fully confident, as I've mainly focused on the 'startup' segment, considering the range of processes activated in the configuration. I completely removed Samsung Magician and the problem hasn't arisen yet. Will update soon.
Thank you
@Colif
for the idea. One of the tools I hadn't thought about recently.