Streaming internet radio when browsing for games and on screensaver?

pipesfranco

One last thought guys...is there anyway to make the radio fade out rather than cut out once a game is selected and fade back in when you exit a game?

No big issue but just a thought?

Thanks again

:)

mitu

@pipesfranco I actually tried adding a cross-fade effect when stopping/resuming vlc, but it does not support that. Various searches on the interwebs show that it's not implemented in currently (see for instance this ticket).

I'll see if we can find an alternative to VLC that supports both streaming from internet radio sources and fade out/in for audio.

NowArrivingHere

@mitu

Raspberry Pi 3B
2.4A power supply
Raspbian Stretch
RetroPie 4.3.1

I haven't been able to get this working properly. I suspect there is a problem with my particular setup. I have RetroPie installed on top of Raspbian Stretch, which I know has issues.

Step 1 and 4 work fine for me. I was able to install everything, add my station (AI Radio), and get it to start playing automatically when emulationstation starts. However, step 2 and 3 are where everything falls apart.

The step 2 runcommand-onstart.sh breaks my runcommand. The music keeps playing and my chosen emulator fails to launch. I tried copy-pasting. I tried typing by hand. I even looked at the other thread and used chmod to allow execution privileges for all. It didn't work. The files were newly created and no other commands were added.

As for Step 3, my .bashrc doesn't have a retropie_welcome or #RETROPIE PROFILE END

Again, it is clear some people have gotten this working, so it is probably down to my particular setup. I'm just not sure what I did wrong.

mitu

@nowarrivinghere Can you paste here the contents of the /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onstart.sh file ? It seems this is the stuff that breaks for you.

NowArrivingHere

@mitu
Sure. Here you go

echo -n pause | nc -U /tmp/radio.sock >/dev/null 2>&1

mitu

@nowarrivinghere You might be missing the nc utility. Does the command works if you run it in a terminal ? Just type nc and see if you get any error.

NowArrivingHere

@mitu

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ nc
usage: nc [-46CDdFhklNnrStUuvZz] [-I length] [-i interval] [-O length]
          [-P proxy_username] [-p source_port] [-q seconds] [-s source]
          [-T toskeyword] [-V rtable] [-w timeout] [-X proxy_protocol]
          [-x proxy_address[:port]] [destination] [port]

mitu

@nowarrivinghere So netcat is installed. What happens if you run the command from the onstart file manually, after ES is started and the music plays ? It should pause the music.

echo -n pause | nc -U /tmp/radio.sock >/dev/null 2>&1

Can you run the command from a SSH session and see what's the outcome ? If it works (i.e. music is paused), try starting a game and (after you get thrown back to ES ) then paste the contents of the /var/shm/runcommand.log file, we might have some clues there.

cyperghost

@jonnykesh said in Streaming internet radio when browsing for games and on screensaver?:

I wish I could remember who wrote it so I could give them credit.

Not written completly just modified a bit... but I introduced here.... with correspondending source ;)

NowArrivingHere

@mitu

Okay, I just used SSH to try the pause command while the music was playing. I've waited about 90 seconds. Music is still playing and the SSH window is unresponsive.

mitu

@nowarrivinghere Sorry, forgot about removing the redirection. Execute this:

ls -l /tmp/radio.sock
echo -n pause | nc -U /tmp/radio.sock

I suspect it might be a permission problem.

NowArrivingHere

@mitu

Still fails to pause and leaves the window stuck.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ls -l /tmp/radio.sock
srwxr-xr-x 1 pi pi 0 Oct  4 16:42 /tmp/radio.sock
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ echo -n pause | nc -U /tmp/radio.sock

mitu

@nowarrivinghere I have no idea why it does that - maybe Stretch has a different version of VLC that's not the same as the one I tested and the old interface doesn't work anymore ?

Just to check if there is a problem with newer versions, kill the VLC that is started via the autostart with killall vlc, then start the playback directly from thessh session, by running

vlc -I oldrc --rc-unix /tmp/radio.sock -Zq --no-video /home/pi/radio/list.txt

You should get the radion playing this way with logging from VLC on the terminal.
Now, from a 2nd SSH session, run the echo command that's giving you trouble and see if it pauses the stream or any error appears in the 1st terminal, where VLC is running.

Other than that, maybe the output of /dev/shm/runcommand.log from starting a game might be of use.

NowArrivingHere

@mitu

Okay, this is interesting, I opened SSH Window 1, killed vlc, and reopened it via the command you gave. Then, in SSH Window 2, I ran the pause command. It appeared to sit there with the music still playing just as before. However, I then did a CTRL+C in Window 2 and it paused. Then I used the pause command in Window 2 again. Once again, it just sat there silently. Then I did CTRL+C and sure enough it started playing music again. Also, here is the output that appeared in Window 1.

status change: ( new input: http://listen.ai-radio.org:8000/128.ogg?cc=US&now=1507110308.444& )
status change: ( play state: 3 )
pause: returned 0 (no error)
status change: ( pause state: 3 ): Pause
status change: ( pause state: 4 )
pause: returned 0 (no error)
status change: ( play state: 2 ): Play
status change: ( play state: 3 )
pause: returned 0 (no error)
status change: ( pause state: 3 ): Pause
status change: ( play state: 3 )
pause: returned 0 (no error)

EDIT: I decided to just place the script that jonnykesh brought us inside my runcommand-onstart.sh and runcommand-onend.sh with the mpg123 replaced with vlc. That seems to work and perform the function of the pause command on the cases I have tried so far. Its probably not as efficient as the actual vlc controls, but I haven't noticed a delay from a human perspective. It is more efficient than just using the kill all command and then that command we added in autostart.sh and restarting vlc every time though, which was my backup plan and did introduce a delay. Would be nice to have access to the other vlc controls, but I can't think of anything else to try right now.

mitu

@nowarrivinghere This means the netcat commands you run in the 2nd window reads the pause command but it doesn't send it right away and awaits further input.
I'll do some testing with the version in Stretch to see if it behaves differently than the one in the Jessie release, but glad you got it working with the alternate start/stop command.

mitu

Ok, found out the difference - tested on a Stretch system. The netcat command doesn't return and still waits for input from the tty. To force it to close the input, using -N seems to do the trick.
@NowArrivingHere you can try changing the on-start/on-end commands to

echo -n pause | nc -UN /tmp/radio.sock

Unfortunately the -N option doesn't exist in the Jessie version of netcat-openbsd, I'll see if we can ditch netcat completely and use something else.

mitu

OK, I've found a way to ditch netcat - by replacing it with socat. I have updated the instructions steps with the new commands (steps 2 and 3, plus the pre-requisites).
This should work on both Jessie and Stretch - and possibly other systems.

NowArrivingHere

@mitu
Thanks mate. It is pausing and playing properly now.

mtib

Pi Model or other hardware: 3B
Power Supply used: Original Raspi
RetroPie Version Used : 4.4.12
Built From: Retropie Website
USB Devices connected: Keyboard
Controller used: PS4

Hi there! I ran the script and it is working fantastic! Thankyou. However I was wondering if is there a way to control/adjust the volume while in ES. If not, if is there a way to pre-configure the volume level in the script. Great work!

mitu

@mtib Emulationstation has an audio volume knob which allows you to change the volume - doesn't it work for the background music ?
Alternatively you can add the --gain parameter to the mpg123 to set the volume (0-100):

# to set the volume to 40%
mpg123 --gain 40 [..other parameters following..]