Some .dreams look great, some look like crap!

I think the MPEG2 videos are working, and the WMV are the ones that are giving you problems.

Try this,

Goto this folder: C:\ProgramData\Stardock\DeskScapes\ExtractedData

Under this folder you will find folders with the WMV and MPEG2 movies extracted from the .dream files. Find the Apollo v.2 folder and then the Apollo.wmv inside it. Right-Click on it pick "Select as Desktop Background". How does it look?

How long has this been going on? It might just be your video driver (especially if you're using Nvidia) I don't know about anyone else, but with Nvidia's newest masterpiece of a driver many dreams are just unusable. I get this green garbage on my screen that has countless artifacts everywhere. Maybe this is what you mean by "4-color" mode?

or maybe I'm completely wrong...

TheMasterBaron: It looks really really bad... but .wmv files from YouTube and other places display correctly.

Yosmel: That is EXACTLY what I am experiencing! I will try to find a newer video driver. I am using an nVidia 7950 GTX by the way.

Thats just the problem RottGutt, there are no newer video drivers. You can relax now, though. There is absolutely nothing wrong with your machine or the .dreams that are giving you problems. IF you absolutely want to use these .dreams in question then I suggest simply downgrading your drivers and I can almost guarantee it will work properly. The drivers before the most current Nvidia drivers (Forceware 158.18) worked perfectly for me. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think they were forceware 100.65 ??

Good Luck, and here's to hoping Nvidia steps it up...

I'm using these drivers with my Nvidia 7600GS and have not experienced any problems in applying or running any of the Dreams I've downloaded, Dynamic, MPEG or WMV.

158.18 here and no problems   

Thanks for all the replies ya'll! I downgraded to the v100.65 drivers with no luck, then installed the latest drivers I could find (v165.01) with no luck either. I guess I am just SOL for now.

RottGutt, can you take a screenshot of the problem? I've tried to repro the issue, but with no luck. I haven't been able to get my hands on a 7000 series card to test, and I haven't heard of anyone reporting an issue with any other series card.

I would be glad to take a screenshot. Try this link:

http://img513.imageshack.us/my.php?image=turbulencedreamdu8.jpg

Great, thanks. I'll see what I can find out.

FYI I'm using a 7800GTX... maybe it's a problem with the 7000 series then? I honestly have not tried to downgrade my drivers ever since I encountered the problem (which was right after my upgrade from 100.65 to 158.18) but I know that all the dreams were working just fine then. Perhaps I'll try that and report what happens when I get home later tonight (I'm at my college library atm)

Does the WMV video work when played in Windows Media Player? Have you installed any codec packs?

Ya know, they work great when played through Media Player. WTH?!?! As far as codec packs, I have DiVX and ffdshow installed. I may try uninstalling them when I get home.

I know ffdshow has an incomplete WMV implementation. Try and mess with the codec settings in the ffdshow video decoder configuration.

OMG, you are the man! I went into the ffdshow configuration like you said. All the WMV decoders were disabled. I set them all the wmv9, and all the .dreams work now. Thanks a ton!

I had the green mess problem on some animations with the latest nvidia drivers on msi 7900 gto, rolling back the driver from device manager (as suggested somewhere above) fixed the problem for me!

Note that the 162.15 nvidia drivers (www.guru3d.com) seem to work quite well for me.

Glad you found the codec problem. I got to this thread too late to suggest that, hehe.

May I ask, where does one find the configuration settings for ffdshow in Vista Ultimate?

I have the 8800 GTS and have tried every "new" driver since 158.18 and there is something wrong with everyone of them, raster artifacts, not loading Direct Draw correctly etc. and I just keep going back to the 158.18 drivers to make everything work as advertised. Nvidia seems to be having a lot of issues with their drivers lately, at least that has been my experience on my system over the last 4-5 months.

Funny but with my simple graphics card
ATi Radeon X300 128mb dedicated and 895mb available ram
all Dreams i've tried work fine and I make several too
and test first - I seem to heve few if any problems when allot
of you have these high priced cards and seem to have many problems?
why is this - i thought of upgrading but why? if it's not broke
why fix it ? weird ?

I gave up my long standing Nvidia usage as I too kept getting the green garble of death every time i tried to watch certain types of videos....I broke down and got an ATI card....it runs like a dream and no green goo....

anyone find a good fix i have dual 8800 gtx's