How to Add Startup Video to Latest Bigbox November 2025?

[robodan79]

How can I add a startup video to the latest bigbox? I tried adding a startup folder to the videos folder and putting my Tron.mp4 file in and it worked one or twice, but now I can’t get it to work again. My graphics card is updated and I tried the internal computer graphics.   I tried uninstalling Launchbox and reinstalling with no luck.  I updated to the Beta with with no luck.  I tried changing the mp4 video to AVI.   I tried 3 or 4 other videos.    I also tried the old school way of adding the mp4 file to the video folder and naming it startup.mp4.  I have an old computer with LaunchBox 11.3 or 11.9 and the startup video works everytime in that version.   

[Tsik]

Welcome to the BBNPSVA (BigBox Not Play Startup Videos Anymore) club...😅😐

I also have an old PC, tried everything you mensioned and as you guess "I've hit a wall". I tryied to open a thread about the problem here but I got basically nothing...

I was starting to think that the only solution is to upgrade my rig due to its low performance but it seems now that a lot of users have the same issue as you can see here.

The "correct way" as far as I know is as you said is by adding a startup folder to the videos folder and putting one or more [video_name].mp4 file/s in. as @AstroBob also said here.

Can you please out of curiosity try and put a BigBox shortcut in the windows startup folder like I discribe in the first link and restart the pc... I know that it is not a solution but for me it was the only way to make the video start every single time.

I would like to know if this works also for others or it is just me, Just a start for trying to pinpoint where the issue lies.

Thanks.

Edited November 18, 2025 by Tsik

[robodan79]

Thanks for the suggestion, butI tried this and it didn’t work.   

[Tsik]

Ok, good to know. 😉
Guess all we can do then is wait...

Edited November 19, 2025 by Tsik

[Hoffy84]

Feeling the pain here too. I have a question:

are the startup videos not working when you open Big Box from your (already running Windows)

OR

are the videos not working when you power on your PC (using Big Box as the Shell) ? 

My startup videos work every time when I start Big Box in Windows, but NEVER on PC power-on / Shell. 

I’m newer to Big Box, so did both of these options ever work?

[robodan79]

With my new  used Dell OptiPlex PC, and a fresh download of Launch Box and big box, the startup videos don’t work for either scenario.  I do have another older PC running version 11.9 I think and that start up video works every time. I have the big box executable in the startup folder for that build. I’m thinking of copying those Launch Box files over and just use the older version. See if that works.

[Tsik]

Older versions of LaunchBox before 13.21 use the VLC media player for video playback but from that version onwards it uses either Windows Media Player (Legacy) or FFMPEG (see the full article here). So it is more likely that version 11.9 will work.
Also I want to point out that by saying "putting a BigBox shortcut (BigBox.lnk) in windows Startup folder I literally mean to put it in
"C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" and NOT to start BigBox as shell bypassing windows from the (BigBox options) because it needs WMP to play the video (I think 🤔). This way we achieve to start BigBox  right after Windows starts in case some other startup app is conflicting with the video playback or the system's memory is at low usage at that point.

Cheers! 🙂

 

Edited November 20, 2025 by Tsik

[robodan79]

Hi Tsik,

if you hit the button combination Win+R you can type shell:startup and this will bring your start up folder where I put the big box executable file. I did also try the second option of going into big box and making it my shell instead of windows. So when I turn on my computer, it automatically goes in a big box and you never see the Windows desktop. Neither one works for me.   

[Hoffy84]

This is NUTS. I haven’t booted up my computer in a week. Now, today, startup videos all of the sudden work. (Whether within Windows or Big Box Shell). I didn’t change anything. No Launch Box update. I’ve been in 13.24 the whole way.

Now my keyboard mappings don’t work with my i-Pac2. I try to re-do them, but does not detect my control panel buttons; only the keyboard. WTH!?

[JoeViking245]

10 hours ago, Hoffy84 said:

Now my keyboard mappings don’t work with my i-Pac2. I try to re-do them, but does not detect my control panel buttons; only the keyboard. WTH!?

Sounds like a Windows thing.  I've had this happen with my IPAC-2 in the past.  My fix was to unplug extra-curricular USB plugs (all except the IPAC and maybe a mouse), then start the PC, then plug the others back in.

[AstroBob]

Hi folks,

I wanted to share a consolidated update on the Big Box startup video issue, and first off, thank you again for your patience and for all the detailed reports you’ve shared. We also apologize for the long gaps between updates — this has been a particularly difficult issue to pin down.

Where things stand now

After extensive investigation, we’ve successfully been able to reproduce the issue internally, but only on specific machine configurations. This was a major breakthrough, as for a long time we couldn’t reproduce the problem at all. Even now, the behavior remains extremely inconsistent and temperamental, which has made debugging especially challenging.

On affected systems, the behavior often looks like this:
    •    The startup video may play correctly on the first launch
    •    Subsequent launches frequently skip the video
    •    In some cases, restarting Windows allows the video to play again — but usually only once
    •    Even that pattern isn’t reliable, and results can vary from launch to launch

This inconsistency is exactly what slowed progress early on, but having at least one reproducible environment has finally given us something concrete to work with.

What we’re doing about it

Because of how unreliable the existing behavior is, we’ve made the decision to rebuild the Big Box startup video system from the ground up rather than trying to patch the current implementation.

The good news:
    •    Early testing of the new system is showing much more reliable startup video playback
    •    Repeated launches behave consistently across the machines we’re testing
    •    The new implementation is currently in active testing, but results so far are very encouraging

We’re confident this is the right long-term solution.

Official tracking going forward

We’ve now created an official Known Issue report that pulls everything together, what’s affected, what we’ve learned so far, and how we’re approaching the fix. This will be the single place we keep updated going forward, rather than scattering updates across forum replies:

👉 Known Issue: Big Box Startup Videos Not Playing Reliably
https://feedback.launchbox.gg/p/known-issue-big-box-startup-videos-not-playing-reliably

If you’re affected, please upvote that issue to receive updates on when it will land.

Thanks again to everyone who reported the issue, tested variations, and stuck with us while we worked through this. We know it’s been frustrating, but we’re finally confident we’re on the right track to resolving it properly.