This is a problem I've had for a couple of months now, and I've been unable to fix on my own. I have many retro computer commercials that I used to be able to play between emulated games in attract mode. I am using a cabinet dedicated to GameEx, running Windows XP, installed only Shark007 (the vista codec pack) without any pre-existing codec packs. I have set the codec pack to "use FFDShow" in the first tab. The problem: after playing the first video it shows a blank screen or the last frame of the video, while running the emulator in the background, which can be heard but not seen. The majority of the videos are FLV or MP4 and have been taken directly from YouTube. Works fine: Video thumbnails in gamelists, Multimedia section videos. This only affects attract mode. Strange: HideOS always loads and the desktop is always hidden, despite in Display settings, "Hide Desktop = No", and every emulator has "Show Desktop = Yes". The MAME section doesn't seem to have a setting for this. Ideas and suggestions are greatly appreciated.