Retro Media Player

📺 Overview

Retro Media Player transforms your modern media-playback experience into a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Rather than a plain rectangular window, every piece of music or video you play appears behind the glass of a 1970s TV chassis—complete with 4:3 and letterboxed screen areas, metallic knobs, and a simulated speaker grille. It’s perfect for anyone who loves vintage aesthetics, pixel art, or just wants something fun and different from the usual media players.

Key points:

Vintage TV Frame UI

The entire application window is a borderless PNG of an old television set. There is no standard Windows title bar; instead, you drag the window by clicking and dragging on the “top of the TV.”

Full Audio & Video Support

Plays MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, WMA, etc. for audio; MP4, AVI, MKV, WMV, etc. for video—any format that Windows’ built-in MediaElement can decode.

Knob-Based Controls

Adjustable volume and file‐open knobs that spin like old TV dials. The volume displays a live percentage (0–100%), and the “File” knob opens a classic file-dialog.

Seek Bar & Time Display

A slim “rabbit-ear” style slider sits just beneath the TV screen. Dragging it seeks to any point in the video, and a “mm:ss / MM:SS” label shows elapsed vs. total time.

Play/Pause Toggle, Loop, Shuffle, Skip Buttons

All push-button controls live on the speaker grille area—Pause/Play, Stop, Next, Previous, Rewind 10s, Forward 30s, Loop modes (Off → Loop One → Loop All), and Mute/Unmute.

Album Art & Video Placeholders

When you play an audio file, any embedded cover art (via TagLib#) appears on the TV screen. If there’s no embedded art, a retro “iPod” placeholder pops up instead. When you load a video, the screen switches to the MediaElement view and plays full-screen (filling the 571×366 area).

Borderless, Resizable, Custom Drag Handle

Although there’s no standard Windows title bar, you can resize the window—as of v1.0—in any direction (it scales the entire TV graphic proportionally). To move the window, click and drag on the top 30 pixels (“the TV hood”), not on the buttons or knobs.

🎮 Features (Detailed)

Authentic 1970s Television Frame

High-resolution PNG of a metal-cased TV, with realistic glass glare and folded speaker grille texture.

No Windows chrome; the entire app is a single “canvas” that scales with the window.

Two “dial” knobs at the bottom: one for Volume (scroll to adjust, with a Color-coded “kill-it light” effect when muted), and one for “Open File” (click to launch a standard file dialog).

Audio Playback Mode

Supports popular audio formats: .mp3, .wav, .flac, .aac, .wma, .m4a.

Reads embedded album art via TagLib#.

If no album art is present, displays a retro “iPod” icon (or a user-supplied placeholder).

Loop/Shuffle:

Loop One: repeats the current track indefinitely.

Loop All: plays everything in the current folder (alphabetically by filename).

Off: normal, sequential playback (no looping).

Shuffle button toggles random order (with visual indicator on the button).

Video Playback Mode

Supports video formats: .mp4, .avi, .mkv, .wmv, .mov (if you have the right codecs installed).

When you open a video, the TV screen’s Image control is hidden, and a WPF MediaElement appears instead (Stretch=Fill) to play at exactly 571×366 (4:3) or letterboxed (16:9) with black bars top/bottom.

Seek bar below the screen:

Drag the thumb to scrub to any time.

Click/drag anywhere on the slider’s track to jump instantly.

A green (or custom color) progress fill shows how far you’ve played.

Time display centered under the screen: elapsed mm:ss / total MM:SS.

Buttons: Rewind 10 seconds, Forward 30 seconds, Stop (which resets to 0:00 and displays placeholder_video.png again).

Knob & Button Sound Effects

Every time you click a button (Play/Pause, Next, Previous, etc.), a gentle “click-tap” WAV plays.

Twisting the volume knob (mouse wheel) plays a softer “knob-click” sound.

This gives tactile feedback, making it feel like a real TV.

Customizable Volume & Mute

Volume ranges from 0% to 100%.

A small digital readout (“Vol: 80%”) hovers just above the knob.

Clicking the Mute button (🔈/🔇) toggles sound on/off instantly.

Knob’s fill color changes on hover and when active (muted vs. unmuted).

Playlist & Folder Playback

When you open any media file, the app scans the file’s folder for all supported extensions and builds an in-memory playlist.

“Next”/“Previous” buttons navigate within that playlist.

If “Shuffle” is off, it plays sequentially (wrapping around at the end). If “Shuffle” is on, each press picks a random track from the folder.

Resizable, Borderless Window

The entire TV graphic is wrapped in a WPF Viewbox so when you resize the window, every element (knobs, screen, buttons) scales proportionally.

The only draggable area is the 30 px “Drag Handle” at the top—clicking anywhere else will not move the window.

Hitting the Maximize or Double-Click on the “TV hood” toggles between Normal and Full-Screen (Maximized) states, while preserving the aspect ratio.

Minimalistic Menus & Settings

No traditional menu bar—instead, settings like “Check for Updates,” “About,” or “Theme” (future) can be accessed via a small “gear” icon in a hidden corner (reserved for v1.1+).

Email support at support@yourdomain.com if you need help or find bugs.

“Vintage” Color Scheme & Fonts

All text (button labels, time display, volume readout) uses a pixelated/bitmap font reminiscent of early TV on-screen displays.

Button hover states use slightly brighter gray to mimic the look of painted metal.

Speaker grille is semi‐transparent so when audio is playing, a subtle visualizer effect (vibration) can be added in future updates.

Future Plans (v1.1 and Beyond)

Customizable “Skins” (woodgrain, black metal, neon 80s rackmount)

Online “Media Browser” to fetch YouTube/Vimeo previews (no built-in downloader yet)

Basic subtitle support (SRT) for videos

Dark-mode vs. Light-mode “CRT glow” effects

🔧 How to Use

Installation

Download the single RetroMediaPlayerSetup.exe from the itch.io releases page.

Double-click it and follow the Inno Setup prompts (default install folder: C:\Program Files\Retro Media Player\).

A desktop shortcut and Start Menu entry will be created automatically.

Launching the App

Click the “Retro Media Player” icon in your Start Menu or on the desktop.

The app window appears as a borderless 800×600 vintage TV.

Playing Audio

Click the “File” knob (bottom right) to open a standard Windows file dialog.

Choose an MP3, WAV, FLAC, etc. from any folder.

The album art (or a placeholder iPod icon) fills the screen.

Press Play/Pause (►/❚❚) to start/pause playback.

Use the Seek Bar (beneath the screen) to skip within the track.

Adjust volume by rolling your mouse wheel over the Volume knob. The label above the knob shows “Vol: XX%.”

Press Loop (🔀) to cycle between “Off” → “Loop One” → “Loop All.”

Press Shuffle to shuffle folder playback if multiple files exist.

Playing Video

Click the “File” knob → select an MP4, AVI, or MKV.

The TV screen switches from album-art mode to video mode, and your movie starts automatically.

Use Seek Bar to skip forward or backward instantly (drag the slider).

Time Display shows “00:00 / MM:SS.”

Press Pause to freeze the frame. Press again to resume.

Press Stop to end playback and return to the placeholder image.

Window Controls

Hover over the top 30 pixels—you’ll see your cursor change to a “move” icon. Click and drag to reposition.

Click the Minimize, Maximize, or Close buttons in the top right (styled as small colored circles) to control the window.

Resizing the bottom/right edges will proportionally scale all UI elements thanks to the embedded Viewbox.

🚀 Why Retro Media Player?

Unique Aesthetic: If you’re tired of the same old rectangular media players, this puts your content in a frame that reminds you of Saturday-afternoon cartoons or late-night music videos on the family TV.

Simplicity & Focus: No cluttered playlists, no ads, no subscriptions—just a simple, single-window experience dedicated to “play my file and look cool doing it.”

Nostalgia Factor: Great conversation starter if you stream on Twitch—viewers love seeing a video player that looks like a TV from 1975.

Lightweight & Free of Bloat: At ~100 MB installed, it won’t hog resources. It uses WPF’s built-in MediaElement, so there’s zero additional codec hassle on most modern Windows machines.

Perfect for DJs, Podcasters, VJs: Want to host a “80s Night” party with retro visuals? Hook your laptop to a projector, load your MP3s, and you’ve got a realistic simulated “boombox” vibe.

⚙️ System Requirements

Operating System: Windows 10, 11 (64-bit)

.NET Runtime: .NET 8.0 Windows Desktop Runtime (Self-Contained build is included in the installer)

CPU: Any dual-core processor (Intel Core i3 or equivalent) or better

RAM: 2 GB minimum (4 GB recommended if you plan to play HD videos)

Disk Space: 200 MB for installation

Screen Resolution: 1024×768 or higher (preferred 1920×1080)

Audio: Any DirectSound-compatible output (built-in speakers or headphone jack)

Optional: Dolby Digital codecs for certain MKV files (most MP4s work out of the box)

📥 Installation & Download

Go to the “Releases” section on this itch.io page.

Download RetroMediaPlayerSetup.exe.

Run the installer and follow the prompts.

Launch Retro Media Player from your Start Menu or desktop. Enjoy!

🤝 Support & Feedback

If you run into any issues, have feature suggestions, or just want to share cool screenshots, please dm me on my dev server on discord https://discord.gg/nCeDDY2Nzb or open a discussion thread on this itch.io page. I appreciate any and all feedback—this project is constantly evolving based on the community’s input. still wip

🎉 Thank You for Checking Out Retro Media Player!

Whether you’re a retro-gaming enthusiast, a music lover, a film buff, or just someone who appreciates a fun, old-school UI, I hope this player brings a bit of analog charm to your digital media. Press ► and let the good times roll!