Name: Menu Video Calm Waters
Version: 1.1
Date: 4/21/2006
Author: Nazo
Source: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14237
Original Broken Location: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2821

Description
===========
As per the discussion originally started in the TES forums here: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=363340&st=0

This video is not meant to compete with the others, but, instead to provide a different sort. While the others are movements among scenery much like you would expect from a game (more designed to show off the game itself than anything else) this one is a simple capture of what you might call a serene moment by the water. I need to get it looping better where the screen doesn't blank for a moment and you notice no break, but, for now this is it.

Note: I captured at 1280x720 so that it would be the same basic stats as the original video. However, I captured at only 15 FPS because my mere X850XT-PE has enough troubles managing to render 30 FPS, but, to render at least that and also capture as much was just out. At 15 it came out a little less jerky and overall more smooth. Considering the lack of much movement, it seems mostly ok. I don't know whether it would have been better overall to capture in a higher resolution so it resizes better or lower so it captures faster, but, I thought it best to maximize quality and stick to the resolution Bethesda chose.

Install
=======
This archive is distributed in what LHammonds calls OMOD-Ready format.
It allows you to manually extract and install like most other mods but it also allows you to use Oblivion Mod Manager and import this archive with all the settings pre-configured for an OMOD file.
Pick which method you are going to use for installation:

Manual Installation
- = or = -
OBMM Installation

Manual Install
--------------
1. Extract this archive to any folder and then copy the contents to Oblivion's Data folder. You can ignore or delete the "omod conversion data" folder.
2. Edit your "My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini" and change the following line:

SMainMenuMovie=Menu Loop.bik
to
SMainMenuMovie=CalmWaters.bik

OBMM Install
------------
Create the OMOD (Do this section only once)
1. Copy archive to (install folder)\Oblivion\obmm\mods\
2. Start Oblivion Mod Manager.
3. Click the Create button.
4. Click the Add Archive button, find and select the archive, then click Yes.
5. Click the Create omod button, then click OK when it finishes.

Install the mod using OBMM
1. Start Oblivion Mod Manager.
2. Double-click the name of the mod in the right-hand side of the OBMM screen. (icon should turn blue)

Uninstall
=========
Pick which method you are going to use for uninstall based on how you installed it:

Manual Uninstall
- = or = -
OBMM Uninstall

Manual Uninstall
----------------
1. Edit your "My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini" and change the following line:

SMainMenuMovie=CalmWaters.bik
to
SMainMenuMovie=Menu Loop.bik

2. Delete the files/folders associated with the mod.

Oblivion\Data\Videos\CalmWaters.bik

OBMM Uninstall
--------------
1. Start Oblivion Mod Manager.
2. Double-click the name of the mod in the right-hand side of the OBMM screen, click Yes. (icon should turn green)

"Version 1.1":
First of all, somehow a black frame snuck its way into the original encode. Since the menu is dark text it made it feel like the menu dissapeared when the video looped for that one frame. Also, the video bitrate was probably a bit overkill. I reencoded with a lower bitrate but some better settings so that hopefully it should look about the same at about half the size (eg slightly less load time.)
Still doesn't have a seamless transition in the loop. That's not something easy to do and I may not get around to it.

Maimas for the idea and getting us to get off our rear ends and do something ourselves as well as making the first attempt to do this. (See the original thread I linked to in the description for his file.)
Rehevkor for making another better one for everyone to use. You can find his thread pointing to his alternate video here: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=365986

Also, I found that the default title music doesn't really fit with this scene very well. It kind of ruins the serenity. One thing I tried that seemed to work was the "Diablo 'WetGrass' Inspired" remix by AmIEvil, which you can find on OCRemix here: http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00129/ Either replace tes4title.mp3 in your Data/Music folder, or, better yet, copy it into that folder and change the SMainMenuMusicTrack=special\tes4title.mp3 and SMainMenuMusic=Special\tes4title.mp3 entries in your INI file to the new file name.

I recommend using the INI file methods because it avoids troublesome conflicts, replaced files, and, if you reinstall, you don't loose the old video/audio.