With all of the Pandemic streaming and remote interviews - I came across a small inconvenience. In short, when you want to play videos using an Overlay Channel - VMIX doesn't show the playback head below the program monitor. You don't know how much time elapsed, and more importantly time remaining as you would if you were simply playing the video not as an overlay. Why use an overlay...

We had a moderator on site talking to a remote guest using VMix call. In house we had three cameras setup, as well as prerecorded videos with questions for the guest caller. We used Output 1 as our master program accepting only Overlays 3&4, Output 2 for the TV Monitor on stage for our moderator accepting only Overlays 1 & 4, and Output 3 to return to Vmix Caller accepting only overlays 2 & 4. This allowed us to use Overlays to put the Guest Caller on the TV full time using Overlay 1, Put the Moderator on Output 3 for the guest using Overlay 2. Overlay 3 was used for lower thirds to the Program Output, and Overlay 4 was for the Videos we played so that it went to all output.

Playing videos without using the overlay channel, would mean turning off the other overlays that are being used to keep specific content locked onto a moderator monitor or vmix call. So using the top level overlay is the best solution I can see to run this the way we want.

The downside is that when you play videos as overlays, you don't see the time underneath them in the program monitor. I'd like it if that could be added.
Thanks.

I see what you're saying regarding how to know which overlay to show time for if multiple overlays are being used simultaneously. If I was ruler of the universe, the programming would be something like:

If an overlay is showing on the Master Output/Program Monitor AND If the overlay is a video clip (or element that has a specific playback time) then show the playback time below the Program Monitor while overlay is active.

If an overlay is not showing on the Program monitor OR If an overlay is not a video clip then do not show playback time below the program monitor.

Obviously that's my simple guy programming language - but something like that converted to smart people programming language would do the trick.

Cheers!