[Video Screensaver] Retropie-Themed Screensaver

[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.

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.