AstroBob

Hi there, Thanks for the update report there. To close out the screensaver transition bug, this just got released today in 13.25 beta-1. Regarding the new issue you reported, we're already aware of this and actively working on changing how that works. It's not avaliable just yet, but I'l take not of this post to let you know when there's something you can test. Thanks so much for reporting these things though! Definately keep them coming if you notice anything else

Hey folks, really appreciate you both laying all this out in detail. To provide a bit of backstory: VLC has always been a bit of a double-edged sword for us. On one hand, it had some really powerful capabilities that made ambitious themes possible. On the other hand, it has always been heavier than Windows Media Player in terms of resource use, and once we hit versions 13.19 through 13.22, the old VLC wrapper started freezing Big Box randomly for a lot of users. That was the red flag that forced us to take a hard look at things. The real problem is that the .NET wrapper we used to make VLC work inside Big Box has not been updated in over 8 years. Once it started breaking down, we were stuck because we could not patch it ourselves, and the author is long gone. Even if it still worked fine for some users back on 13.18, the truth is it was a ticking time bomb. Every new Windows, .NET, or driver update risked breaking it further, and there was no path forward. That is why we moved to FFmpeg in 13.23. It is not perfect yet, and you are absolutely right to call out the regressions with TransitionPresenter, IsContentVideo, complex grids, and higher bitrate files. VLC could handle those scenarios better, and we know this change hit curated builds and custom themes especially hard. But FFmpeg gives us something we can actually maintain and improve. Unlike VLC, it is not frozen in time and we can keep iterating on it. I also want to set expectations clearly. Rolling back is not really an option. If we reintroduced VLC, we would just be bringing back instability and freezing that we cannot fix. It might look like a step forward for some users, but it would be a step backward for everyone else in the long run. What we can do is keep improving FFmpeg to close the gap. That is where your feedback is huge. @Bussifrog, if you are open to it, we would love to test your theme directly so we can see exactly where the playback is falling short. The more complex examples we can test against, the better job we can do making sure FFmpeg holds up under those loads. Feel free to PM me if you'd like to explore this We hear you. This was not just a cosmetic change, it affected real projects. But our goal is to build a video engine that is stable today and sustainable for tomorrow. VLC had the features but not the stability. FFmpeg has the stability, and now we are focused on bringing the features up to par. Thanks again for the honest feedback. Please keep the specific examples coming, because that is what helps us move this forward.

Hi Folks, Thanks for the report here. I can confirm the same issue you're seeing on my end. I've gone ahead and created a bug report on our end to investigate this. You can follow the post for updates and to know once we've got this fixed up. - https://feedback.launchbox.gg/p/microsoft-store-login-does-not-complete-in-manage-storefront Thanks for the report here and apologies for the issues there

Heya, Thanks for the great idea here, personally think this could be a great initiative to lower the barrier to entry for theme creators. Right now it's very much driven by the community sharing their idea and works, but if there's a way we can facilitate lowering that barrier through the app itself, I can see a lot of value there. I hope it's okay, but i've scoped out a request on our feature tracking site, just so others can vote on it and gauge interest in an official solution to this - https://feedback.launchbox.gg/p/starter-templates-for-big-box-theme-creation Feel free to upvote and follow along there. That said, there's technically nothing stopping anyone in the community from creating these at the moment, so would love to hear what others think and how they might want to see something like this implemented

No worries at all, thanks for understanding, and we definately appreciate the feedback. It helps keep us grounded and lets us know where we need to focus our attention. Thanks so much for voting up the request and adding additional detail, it already seems to be getting some good traction and we agree that it would be great to have. We'll have a look at what that would take internally and will be sure to post any updates to that post.

Hi there, Thanks for catching this and sharing the video! Looks like this one slipped through with 13.24, but we’ve logged a bug report for the issue and are already working on a fix. You can follow progress and get updates here: 🔗 Screensaver skips a game during transitions. Thanks for the report

Version 13.24 - Released September 28th 2025 Release Summary Full Changelog: https://www.launchbox-app.com/about/changelog Improvements: D-Input controllers such as DualSense, DualShock, and Nintendo Pro controllers should now have right analog stick support You can now launch a game directly from the Game Discovery Center using a keyboard or controller mapping When importing ROMs during the Welcome Wizard, LaunchBox now sets the platform�s Game Folder to the folder you imported from, instead of using the default location The new Auto-Import Media settings are now properly respected during realtime scans Unselecting all image types during the Welcome Wizard is now more accurately respected during first-time imports Startup Videos and Theme Manager previews now properly follow your selected video engine setting The Storefront Manager now opens instantly, with login checks handled in the background instead of delaying the window All HTTP calls have been upgraded to HTTPS for improved security and reliability Fixed: Big Box no longer crashes on launch for systems with unstable hardware video decoding, especially on some RTX 30 series cards and certain integrated GPUs A crash has been resolved when multiple media imports happen at the same time FFMPEG no longer leaves videos running in the background after launching a game When videos were set to start after a short delay, their audio would overlap with the game music instead of replacing it as expected Custom theme video controls now function correctly with the FFMPEG engine, preventing crashes in affected themes The Welcome Wizard�s ROM import process now better mirrors the in-app importer by combining games and filtering out unwanted files Games in the Image Grid now always display their correct and up-to-date artwork, even in rare cases where images previously failed to appear Music playback is now smoother and less prone to stuttering Music compatibility has been improved across more audio file types Custom platform names during import are now more reliably scraped with the correct platform values Transitions will no longer trigger unexpectedly when returning from a game Badge changes from media packs now apply correctly without needing to restart LaunchBox or Big Box Known Issues: While unrelated to the 13.24 specifically, around the same time as the release there were 2 issues over the weekend that users may have experienced: Year, Month, and Day parameters describe an un-representable DateTime Errors An incident on our Games Database led to users experiencing an error that looked like this: Year, Month, and Day parameters describe an un-representable DateTime. Please see our dedicated article below for details on how to resolve this: 🔗 Troubleshooting: "Year, Month, and Day parameters describe an un-representable DateTime" Error MAME 0.281 Metadata Changes With the release of MAME 0.281, the MAME team introduced changes to their file naming standards. These changes caused LaunchBox’s MAME downloader to stop working correctly. ✅ We’ve released an updated MAME Importer plugin that fixes the issue. If you’re using MAME 0.281 (or newer), please make sure you’ve updated to the latest version of the MAME LaunchBox plugin.

Hiya, Thanks for the update there. You’re absolutely right that having a dedicated QA resource would bring a lot of value. At the moment, we don’t have the luxury of having a dedicated someone in that specific role, and so it's very much a team effort, but it is something we continue to consider as the app grows. As we take on larger projects and deal with more technical complexity, having that kind of focused support becomes more and more important. We also really appreciate that you’re willing to run the betas and give feedback. That kind of involvement helps us tremendously. While we do outline major changes and testing areas in the beta posts, we know this information is not always easy to spot. Since all beta communication happens through the forums, it can be easy to miss key details, which is far from ideal. We know we can improve here, in particular one thing we are actively looking at is bringing beta information directly into the app. That way, testers would see the latest updates, key areas to focus on, and known issues without needing to visit the forums. Think something similar to the `New Updates` window that pops up for each new release, but that is specific to the beta, what has changed, what to test, and links to where users can report feedback. I've gone ahead and scoped this out as a feature request on our side. It would be great to get your upvote and input on how we could make that better: 👉 https://feedback.launchbox.gg/p/beta-specific-update-window Thanks for keeping us on our toes with this, and we know there's definately room for improvement so we really do appreciate the feedback. Happy to try and elaborate further on anything

Hi there, Thanks for the report here. Some users recently reported seeing the error Year, Month, and Day parameters describe an un-representable DateTime. when launching games in LaunchBox. This was caused by an unintended entry to the games database that got corrupted, but our team has already fixed the issue and pushed an updated metadata file. If you’re still seeing the error, you may just need to update your metadata by going to: Tools > Download > Force Update Games Database Metadata… Full details and step-by-step instructions on how t resolve this are available here: https://launchbox.featurebase.app/en/help/articles/7842542-troubleshooting-year-month-and-day-parameters-describe-an-un-representable Let us know if that doesn’t fix things up for you and we’ll get you sorted. Apologies for the problems caused here.

This is a great idea! We’ll need to evaluate it further once Microsoft officially releases the feature, but it definitely sounds like something that could benefit LaunchBox/Big Box users. In the meantime, we’ve gone ahead and created a feature request for it here: 👉 https://feedback.launchbox.gg/p/windows-11-handheld-fullscreen-mode-integration Feel free to add your vote and any additional feedback there so we can gauge interest!

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us last week to celebrate 12 years of LaunchBox. 🙌 Whether you tuned in to the streams, joined the community playlist fun on the forums, or grabbed a code during the giveaways — you made it a week to remember. 💜 🏆 The winners of our Grand Giveaway and the Community Playlist competition have been contacted — congrats to all! 📺 Stream Recap: Day 1 – Backlog tips & GameCube emulation secrets (with AstroBob) Day 2 – Building the ultimate backlog with Faeran, looking back on 12 years of LaunchBox, and exploring what’s new in 2025 Day 3 – AMA, playlists, and couch co-op netplay fun with AstroBob & Faeran 📝 On the forums, our Community Playlist Competition was a hit! We loved seeing your “Deserted Island Picks” and the discussions they sparked. Thanks to everyone who contributed their lists (and congrats again to the winners snagging those Steam keys!). Keep an eye on the Big Box Game Discovery Center to see these picks show up there Once again, thanks for being part of the LaunchBox community and for helping us celebrate 12 years. Here’s to many more! 🚀

Hi Folks, Thanks for all your wonderful submissions here. The great variety on display makes me want to actually book a trip to a remote island and take a bunch of these games with me. With our celebration week now at a close, I’ve locked this topic for the time being. Remember, we’ll be putting all of these submissions into a Game Discovery Center playlist for Big Box — I’ll be following up later in the week once that is live. The winner of the competition will also be contacted via direct message on the forum later this week, and I’ll update this topic once the winner has been notified. Thanks again for your participation and for making our 12th Birthday celebration event one to remember!

Hi there, sorry for the issues here. For problems relating to Big Box and freezes or crashes in 13.23, we have put together an FAQ that elaborates on what might be contributing to this, and steps you can take to try and resolve them. I'm attaching it below: It outlines the differences between FFMPEG and WMP, and it's still a work in progress, so it may be best to stick to WMP for now. It also outlines how you can force change the media playback engine outside of LaunchBox if you're unable to do so in the app. Glad things are working again for now, though, and apologies for the issues caused there. We're continuing to try and improve the stability of FFMEG so appreciate you bearing with us on this