Screen Soft Light / Timekeeping / DVD SCREENSAVER

Corner hits 0 · Bounces 0

No. 001 · DVD SCREENSAVER

DVD screensaver — a bouncing logo that waits for the corner

  • 01 Colour change on every wall bounce
  • 02 Corner-hit flash and running counter
  • 03 Your own colours, text, speed and size

The old DVD player screensaver, with a softlight mark: a logo drifts across a black screen, changes colour each time it touches a wall, and flashes when it lands exactly in a corner. Choose the colours, speed, size and the words on the logo, then go fullscreen and watch for the hit.

Screensavers and clocks —

What this page is

This is a browser version of the classic bouncing-logo screensaver: a shape moves in a straight line, reflects off each edge of the screen and changes colour as it does. The mark is softlight's own sun and wordmark. It is not the DVD Video logo, which is a trademark of its owner, and this page has no connection to it.

§ 02

The logo travels at a fixed slope, so which edge it meets next is decided by where it started and how wide the screen is.

Why the corner is so rare

The logo travels at a fixed slope, so which edge it meets next is decided by where it started and how wide the screen is. Landing in an exact corner needs both coordinates to reach their limits together, which is why people stop what they are doing to watch for it. The path here is deliberately off the 45 degree diagonal. Resize the window and the pattern changes, because the width-to-height ratio sets how often the corners come round.

Left running on a screen

Plenty of people leave a bouncing logo on a spare monitor, a TV at a party or a shop display. It moves, so no single pixel stays lit, but it is still bright. Lower the brightness, keep the logo small on an OLED screen, and use the clock pages if you want the time as well. Nothing on this page is audio, so it stays quiet.

Procedure

Three moves to peak output

  1. 01

    Make the logo yours

    Pick a colour, or turn off Change colour on each bounce to keep one. Type your own words into Logo text and set the Speed and Size sliders.

  2. 02

    Go fullscreen

    Press Fullscreen (or F, or double-click the screen). After a few idle seconds the cursor and controls hide. Move the mouse or tap to bring them back.

  3. 03

    Wait for the corner

    When the logo touches two walls at once the screen flashes and the Corner hits counter goes up. It is rarer than it looks.

Inquiries

Questions worth asking

Q.01 How do I get the logo to hit the corner?
You cannot aim it, because the path is set by the screen's shape. Resizing the window changes the path, and so does changing the Size slider, since a larger logo has a shorter distance to travel. Leave it running and a corner arrives sooner or later.
Q.02 Can I put my own text or logo on it?
You can type your own words into Logo text, and choose any colour, including a custom one from the colour picker. Images cannot be uploaded; the mark is the softlight sun beside your text.
Q.03 Does it respect reduced motion?
If your device asks for reduced motion, the logo starts at a slow speed and the screen no longer flashes at a corner hit. Pause stops the motion completely.
Q.04 Will the screen stay on?
While Keep screen on is ticked, the page asks the browser to hold the display awake. Chrome, Edge and recent Safari support this. On a browser that does not, turn off auto-lock or the screen saver in the device settings.
Q.05 Does it work on a phone?
Yes. Tap the screen to bring the controls back and Fullscreen to fill the display. On an iPhone, where browsers cannot enter true fullscreen, the page is pinned over the whole window instead, and Exit fullscreen puts it back.
Q.06 Does the moving logo harm an OLED screen?
A shape that keeps moving does not sit on the same pixels, which is the reason old screensavers existed. The logo is still a bright shape, so lower the device brightness, and use black-screen mode or the device's own sleep timer when you leave the room.