Play without the theatre surround if SteamVR refuses it

Review (SWE-2 Max): a non-standby error creating the cosmetic surround
at startup still ended playback before the screen appeared. Theatre now
logs it and plays without the surround. close() treats any per-overlay
teardown error as best effort (signals are already ignored there).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

tests/test_media.py

@@ -81,8 +81,12 @@ class Media(unittest.TestCase):
             write_status(path, **values)
 
         class FakeOverlay:
+            created = 0
+
             def create(self, *a, **k):
-                return len(calls)
+                # Handles in creation order: surround 0, then screen 1 (theatre).
+                FakeOverlay.created += 1
+                return FakeOverlay.created - 1
 
             def call(self, *a):
                 pass
@@ -131,6 +135,13 @@ class Media(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(result['dropped'], 2)
         self.assertIn((0, 1, 1), calls[3:])
 
+    def test_theatre_surround_failure_does_not_stop_playback(self):
+        def fail_surround(n):
+            if n == 1:  # the surround's upload is the first pixels call
+                raise RuntimeError('OpenVR SetOverlayRaw failed: 11')
+        result, _ = self.play_with('clip_SBS.mp4', on_pixels=fail_surround)
+        self.assertEqual((result['state'], result['frames']), ('ended', 4))
+
     def test_stop_mid_video_reports_stopped(self):
         result, _ = self.play_with('clip_SBS.mp4', on_pixels=lambda n: n == 3 and stop_now())
         self.assertEqual(result['state'], 'stopped')

ui/frame_media_player.py

@@ -88,12 +88,14 @@ class Overlay:
     def close(self):
         # Best effort: SteamVR removes a disconnected client's overlays anyway,
         # and a teardown error must not overwrite a finished playback's status.
-        for h in reversed(self.handles):
+        try:
-            try:
+            for h in reversed(self.handles):
-                self.call('DestroyOverlay', h)
+                try:
-            except RuntimeError:
+                    self.call('DestroyOverlay', h)
-                pass
+                except Exception:  # signals are already ignored here, so Stop isn't lost
-        self.vr.VR_ShutdownInternal()
+                    pass
+        finally:
+            self.vr.VR_ShutdownInternal()
 
 
 def probe(path):
@@ -183,6 +185,8 @@ def play(args):
             except OverlayBusy:
                 pending.insert(0, item)
                 return
+            except RuntimeError:
+                pass  # the surround is cosmetic; never end playback over it
 
     def hold(handle, data, w, h):
         """Keep a still (photo or splat) up until Stop, retrying through standby."""
@@ -203,10 +207,14 @@ def play(args):
     try:
         vr = Overlay()
         if args.theatre:
-            surround = vr.create('framecontrol.media.surround', 40, 4, order=0)
+            try:
-            vr.call('SetOverlayAlpha', surround, .85)
+                surround = vr.create('framecontrol.media.surround', 40, 4, order=0)
-            if not show(surround, b'\x00\x00\x00\xff', 1, 1):
+                vr.call('SetOverlayAlpha', surround, .85)
-                pending.append((surround, b'\x00\x00\x00\xff', 1, 1))
+                if not show(surround, b'\x00\x00\x00\xff', 1, 1):
+                    pending.append((surround, b'\x00\x00\x00\xff', 1, 1))
+            except RuntimeError as e:
+                # Cosmetic: play without the dark surround rather than not at all.
+                print('Theatre surround unavailable: %s' % e, flush=True)
         screen = vr.create('framecontrol.media.screen', 3 if args.theatre else 1.6, 2,
                            plan['layout'] != 'mono', aspect)
         if splat: