[MPlayer-users] marquee feature request

[Reimar Döffinger]

On Wed, Jan 06, 2010 at 08:00:03PM +0100, Kovács Zoltán wrote:
> > You also did not say whether it must be rendered on the video frames, can
> > be a separate overlay or whatever. In the later case just overlaying a
> > partially
> > transparent window without giving it any relation to MPlayer could be a
> > simpler
> > solution.
> 
> I also have an application which is capable for something like that, except
> that a solid background is used instead of transparency. It is written in
> python-gtk, using one of the demos as an example. But I did not think it is
> possible to define a partially transparent window. Is it possible under X?

I do not know if there is a nicer/less hackish solution, but a compositing
window manager like compiz certainly can do it, so e.g. a compiz plugin
might be a possibility.
Since you already have an application doing it without transparency, you could
just install compiz and configure it to always display that window at e.g.
50% transparency (though I don't think that's quite the effect you want,
you would want only some parts to be transparent. There might be a simple
way to do it, but I am the wrong person to ask about these details).
In principle it should even allow to read the current background if desired,
though there would probably be a delay to adapt to changes.