James Frewin

Loopwall

A menu-bar app that plays a video or GIF as your Mac’s desktop wallpaper, on the built-in display and every external one. It compresses whatever you give it, so a 25 MB clip settles down to a couple of megabytes.

Download for MacSource on GitHub

Free, direct download. Requires macOS 15+. Not on the App Store.

Loopwall's library window: two imported clips, one applied to the built-in display, with a live estimated file size and duration for each

How it works

  1. Open Loopwall

    Click the menu-bar icon and choose Open Loopwall, or just double-click the app.

  2. Drop in a clip

    Drag an MP4, MOV, or GIF onto the window, or use Add Video or GIF.

  3. Pick a size

    The import sheet shows the resulting resolution and file size before it encodes anything. 1080p is the sweet spot for most displays.

  4. Click it to apply

    Select a display first to target just that one, or leave “All displays” selected to set it everywhere at once.

What it does

One clip per display

Give your laptop screen and every external monitor their own video, or the same one everywhere. Assignments are keyed to each display's hardware ID, so unplugging and replugging restores it.

Compressed automatically

Everything gets re-encoded to HEVC before it becomes your wallpaper. A 23 MB 4K clip usually lands under 4 MB, muted, with the frame rate you chose baked in.

Power-aware by default

Decoding stops the instant a window covers the desktop and resumes the instant it's clear. Pause on battery or in Low Power Mode if you want it even quieter.

Desktop icons, out of the way

One toggle hides Finder's desktop icons so the wallpaper is all you see. Off by default, on whenever you want a clean screen.

MP4, MOV, or GIF

Drop in whatever you have. GIFs are converted to HEVC too, with per-frame timing preserved, because GIF is a terrible codec for a wallpaper that runs all day.

HDR-aware

HDR sources are tone-mapped to SDR during compression by default. Import at Original if you'd rather keep the HDR grade uncompressed.

What compression actually does

Everything is re-encoded to HEVC in a single pass, audio dropped since the wallpaper plays muted anyway. Measured on real imports:

SourceOutputResult
2560×1440, 30 fps · 12.4 MB1920×1080, 5.2 Mbps3.3 MB (26% of source)
3840×2160, 60 fps · 23.2 MB1920×1080, 30 fps3.9 MB (17% of source)
1280×800 GIF · 1.3 MB1280×800 HEVC137 KB (10% of source)

Put one on your desktop.

Free, no account, nothing phones home. Distributed directly, signed and notarized, so it opens with no Gatekeeper warning.

Download for MacView source