MajorK

Have you turned on "disable desktop composition" in the compatibility options for the executables?

Set the compatibility options for RA2.exe and RA2MP.exe to run as admin and compatibility for Windows 7.

I'm fairly certain this is an issue related to W8's Metro. As where Windows 7 had the same issues with Aero, windows 8 also has them (other games such as Warcraft 3 present the same issues as they would when using Aero ie; washed out videos, or the videos not playing at all.) Of course, windows 8 does not have an ability to disable metro. Hopefully with 8.1 we might get this resolved.