[Video Screensaver] Retropie-Themed Screensaver

Syhles

@pjft
Really great point, before I entered this thread I thought it was going to allow us to theme the random screensaver, choosing the size of the video, showing the name of the game, adding the metadata (description, stars, players, genre, etc.), showing what system it's for. This I would be super into.

SuperFromND

Added Pjft's post as a disclaimer. :)

pjft

@SuperCatFooz Thanks!

By the way, I downloaded the pack but couldn't see which of the videos you suggest using as screensaver - they all look better suited as intro splash videos, or which one are you referring to?

Still, very well done videos, thanks for putting them together :)

SuperFromND

@pjft Oh, I messed up the download link, LOL.
It's supposed to link to this isolated MP4. Fixed.

cyperghost

@pjft said in [Video Screensaver] Retropie-Themed Screensaver:

Just to clarify, this is effectively a workaround for people who don't have videos in their metadata, to add a single video for the screensaver purpose. This way a random video out of a collection of one will always be the same.

It might be important to clarify that to manage other people's expectations :)

Thanks for sharing it!

Even if this thread is very old ... I comment just for completeness to the topic...

If you follow my code blocking here then all videos are played in an endless loop. It is important to use tags of <game> and <video>
In this thread is also a nice collection of screensavers available!

All in all a nice hack ;) and thanks for sharing ;)

<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Tetris (NES) Screensaver for RetroPie.mp4</video></game>

TitQuentin

Hi All !

I try to install screensaver but I result a Black Screen.
I have emulationstation v2.6.2RP and i put a video in "/home/Pi/RetroPie/Screensavers/The Legend of Zelda (SNES) Screensaver for RetroPie.mp4"

Here my gamelist.xml

My config in Emulation Station :

UI Settings

Screensaver after : 1m
Screensaver behavior : Random Video
Gamelist View Style : Detailed

Video Screensaver Settings :

Swap Video after 30s
Use OMX Player for Screensaver ON
Screensaver Controls ON
Show Game info on Screensaver NEVER
Strech Video on Screensaver OFF

Other Settings :

Vram Limit 120mb
Power Saver Mode DISABLE
Use OMX Player (HW Accelerated) ON

Thank for help guys!

TitQuentin ;)

SuperFromND

@titquentin Hmm, try disabling OMX Player.
I had a similar issue with ProgettoSnaps video clips, probably due to the way they're encoded, and disabling OMX seemed to fix it.

cyperghost

@titquentin Did you check case sensitivity on your commands? This is mandatory for right use. In my config I setted video in head of the xml files... but this isn't the keyfault imho :)

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gameList>

<game><path /><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Tetris (NES) Screensaver for RetroPie.mp4</video></game>

    <game>
        <path>./retronetplay.rp</path>
        <name>RetroArch Net Play</name>
        <desc>Set up RetroArch Netplay options, choose host or client, port, host IP, delay frames, and your nickname.</desc>
        <image>/home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/icons/retronetplay.png</image>
    </game>

TitQuentin

Hi guys ! Thx for your reply! ^^

@supercatfooz

I'm trying to disable OMX player but doesn't fix my problem...

@cyperghost

I check my case sensitivy on my commands. Everything is correct.
I also try to download your video "vidscreen.mp4" but I still have a black screen.

alt text

Here 3 pictures of ES :
https://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/53723520170910091740.jpg
https://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/33370220170910091754.jpg
https://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/62140920170910091810.jpg

Graphicsgod

Thank you guys for figuring this out for me!! Now I have a (just one) working screensaver on my EmulationStation!! You guys are awesome!

Now if I wanted to add more videos to my screensaver, all I have to do is add more lines for the video links right?

Ex.

<game>
<video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/video_01.mp4</video>
<video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/video_02.mp4</video>
<video>/home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/video_03.mp4</video>
</game>

Graphicsgod

Also is it possible to disable background music playing while screensaver is playing?? I have mine set to low volume, but even when the screensaver plays, I can still barely hear it. Or not currently possible..

cyperghost

@graphicsgod Well ...
I made suggestion here - I doubt that only one game tag can include several videos.

Yes it is possible to disable background music - that's not difficult in theorie.
via pgrep-command look if there is a instance of omxplayer running.
If yes then STOP background player, if not then CONT player.... it will work fine with mpg123 as mp3 player ;) Then just check the state every 1s ... but this is by no means effective!

blonqe

@titquentin did you ever get this working? im also just getting a black screen

AnalogHero

@blonqe I also never got this working. For me it seems that the gamelist.xml from the retropie menu doesnt get parsed for videos. What i did is to put the video tags to actual games, for example snes. You can even do this in ES: Select a game, choose to edit this games metadata, and put the full path in the video line.

blonqe

@analoghero

Thanks for getting back to me, did you have to rename the video files to match the game you were editing?

AnalogHero

@blonqe No. I named them a bit shorter and all lowercase. sonic.mp4 marioworld.mp4 castlevania.mp4 and so on. I put them in /home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/. Note that if you do it this way, it will launch the game you attached the video to if you press the a button during the screensaver is displayed.

blonqe

@analoghero said in [Video Screensaver] Retropie-Themed Screensaver:

@blonqe No. I named them a bit shorter and all lowercase. sonic.mp4 marioworld.mp4 castlevania.mp4 and so on. I put them in /home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/. Note that if you do it this way, it will launch the game you attached the video to if you press the a button during the screensaver is displayed.

Thanks @AnalogHero

I opened my own thread on the situation too and finally came to the same conclusion.

[https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/16228/screensavers-not-working-just-black-screen]

Working now though so I nearly have my setup as I want it :)

Cheers

cyperghost

@pjft said in [Video Screensaver] Retropie-Themed Screensaver:

Just to clarify, this is effectively a workaround for people who don't have videos in their metadata, to add a single video for the screensaver purpose. This way a random video out of a collection of one will always be the same.

Sad but true! The latest version of ES that was able to handle this neat hack is/was ES 2.6.2

All version > 2.6.2 - the videos have to be linked to real existing ROM files!
You may use the old binary provided here - use at your own risk and you'll miss some new features like KIOS mode and preselection of game system!

dsstrainer

Spent hours and learned the hard way that you can't add it to the retropie/gamelist.xml anymore in 2.7.5
But you can add it to any other system gamelist.xml that has roms
Really needs a default folder as an option but for now just add the tag to any of your system gamelists

I don't use videos in ES because of the extreme heat
But I link 5 videos without names/paths to be discovered by the random video screensaver by simply adding it to the bottom of the nes/gamelist.xml file

<gameList>
    <game><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/splashscreens/ss1.mp4</video></game>
    <game><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/splashscreens/ss2.mp4</video></game>
    <game><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/splashscreens/ss3.mp4</video></game>
    <game><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/splashscreens/ss4.mp4</video></game>
    <game><video>/home/pi/RetroPie/splashscreens/ss5.mp4</video></game>
    ....
</gameList>

Works perfect every time and oddly don't overheat the pi while playing.