There is no Slackware official package for Kaffeine. The build script in http://slackbuilds.org/repository/12.2/multimedia/kaffeine/ has no non-trival patch, but I don't know if it is the script Darrell used.
Pretty much the same script, although I use a snippet from the slacky.eu script. Yet as you said, there are no known non-trivial patches that could cause this behavior. The cause has to be something in the TDE sources, in modified TDE header files, or in the video detection scheme embedded somewhere in TDE Kaffeine.
The OSD bug does not cause a crash or anything serious, but the flourescent green is hard on my eyes. Very geeky looking too. :(
Darrell
It looks like upstream lost a lot of configuration options in Kaffine in the later releases. For example, here is an older document referring to the OSD configuration tab, which is competely gone on my systems: http://beginlinux.com/appsm/otherapps_m/kaffeine_m
This should be looked into.
Tim
Another idea: Are you using the Xine engine? If so AFAIK Xine is the program actually generating the OSD. Try changing the OSD palette in the Xine engine configuration dialog (it's in the Kaffeine settings menu) to see if the OSD colors change.
Tim