Hi everyone,
I’m currently experimenting with using video playback (Media Textures) as part of my UI in Unreal Engine 5, and I’ve run into a few issues I could really use help with.
What I’m trying to do:
- I’m displaying a looping video (MP4) as part of my main menu background.
- I created a Media Player, linked it to a Media Texture, then created a Material using that texture and applied it to an Image Widget in UMG.
Everything works fine in-editor, but when I run it as a standalone game or package it:
- Sometimes the video doesn’t start playing automatically.
- The playback occasionally stutters or freezes after a few loops.
- There seems to be a performance drop (especially in lower-end test devices or when using 4K videos).
What I’ve tried:
- Ensured the media source is set to Preload.
- Checked “Play on Open” and manually called OpenSource() on BeginPlay.
- Tried both File Media Source and Stream Media Source.
- Converted the video to different formats/codecs (H.264, H.265, lower resolution) – didn’t help much.
My questions:
- What’s the best practice for using media textures inside UMG widgets?
- Should I avoid using video in UI altogether and render it another way?
- Are there memory or texture streaming settings I should look into to improve playback?
- How do larger games handle in-game cinematics or UI video? Is Media Framework still considered reliable for this?
I’m still new to the Media Framework and feel like there’s something I’m not configuring correctly. Any suggestions, working workflows, or performance tips would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance for your help 