RetroPie forum home
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Home
    • Docs
    • Register
    • Login
    Please do not post a support request without first reading and following the advice in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

    Screensavers not working - just black screen

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Help and Support
    retopievideo screensavscreensaver vid
    18 Posts 5 Posters 5.9k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • blonqeB
      blonqe
      last edited by

      Hi,

      First of all I have no video scrapes and I have doubled checked every systems gamelist.xml for <video> and </video> all my mp4s are in the screensaver folder under ~/retropie/screensaver/ and the retropie gamelist.xml is in this location:

      /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/gamelists/retropie/gamelist.xml

      Within the file it looks like this e.g.

      <game><path /><video>~/RetroPie/screensavers/mario.mp4</video></game>

      I've even tried it with just

      <video> ~/RetroPie/screensavers/mario.mp4 </video>

      I've even tried putting the video in the roms/downloaded images folder and updating the specific gamelist.xml with a rom I have while also changing the MP4 file to match the ROM file.

      I've switched omx player on and off and changed the timings to various levels but nothing still just a black screen.

      Anyone got any ideas to what it is?

      I have a raspberry pi 3 and I'm on the latest updates of retropie.

      I feel as though the video player just isn't working, any idea how to check this?

      mituM cyperghostC 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • mituM
        mitu Global Moderator @blonqe
        last edited by mitu

        @blonqe said in Screensavers not working - just black screen:

        I feel as though the video player just isn't working, any idea how to check this?

        Run the player on the file directly. Quit ES, then run from the command line

        # 1 omxplayer
        omxplayer ~/RetroPie/screensavers/mario.mp4
        
        # 2 - VLC
        vlc ~/RetroPie/screensavers/mario.mp4
        

        EDIT: I think only Omxplayer is used for video screensavers, so try to see if the video is recognized by it. Have you set up the video screensaver's options in the ES configuration ?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • cyperghostC
          cyperghost @blonqe
          last edited by cyperghost

          @blonqe Test first the suggestion of @mitu
          Then be sure to put the line

           <game><path /><video>~/RetroPie/screensavers/mario.mp4</video></game>`
          

          the <video>-tag alone won't work!

          between the Tags! The gamelist-tag is the starting and ending tag of a whole gamelist!

          <gamelist>
          
          
          </gamlist>
          

          and restart Emulationstation.
          Can you establish a SSH connection and enter ps -a command in?
          This will show you all processes running ... if you start the screensaver can you see an instance of OMXPlayer running?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • blonqeB
            blonqe
            last edited by

            Hi guys,

            Well testing the omx player in terminal worked on the videos, so that's working. Typing ps -a brought up the following:

            bash
            bash
            mpg123
            ps

            I switched off the background music in es but still nothing, all my es settings for the videos to work are set up properly, I'm really stumped :(

            I would upload my gamelist.xml but it won't let me, says I don't have privileges.

            Any further ideas?

            Cheers

            mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • mituM
              mitu Global Moderator @blonqe
              last edited by

              @blonqe For large files, you can use pastebin.com to upload the info. You should upload the ~/.emulationstation/es_settings.cfg, ~/.emulationstation/es_log.txt files and your gamelist where you've set the video tags.
              Also, would you mind give some details about your setup - https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • blonqeB
                blonqe
                last edited by

                @mitu ,

                My gamelist.xml link
                ([https://pastebin.com/GyiANpGs](link url))

                My es_settings.cfg link [https://pastebin.com/vu6K3n9N](link url)

                My es_log.txt link
                [https://pastebin.com/ctbZsWLc](link url)

                My setup:

                Pi Model or other hardware: (3 b+ overclocking 1.3 with heatsink and fan installed)
                Power Supply used: (generic with power switch built in, however I have the nes case with power and reset button which I use)
                RetroPie Version Used (eg 3.6, 3.8.1, 4.1 - do not write latest): 4.3.9
                Built From: basic image with loads of stuff added from various sources
                USB Devices connected: generic SNES controller and usb keyboard
                Controller used: ipega 9062 and 8bitdo sf30 pro

                Thanks for the help so far,

                Cheers

                mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • mituM
                  mitu Global Moderator @blonqe
                  last edited by

                  @blonqe Well, your gamelist is not correct, since the video tags you added are not attached to an actual game, seems like you added them to the Retropie system, but they're probably ignored by Emulationstation:

                  Parsing XML file "/home/pi/.emulationstation/gamelists/retropie/gamelist.xml"
                  lvl1:   File """" does not exist! Ignoring.
                  lvl1:   File """" does not exist! Ignoring.
                  lvl1:   File """" does not exist! Ignoring.
                  lvl1:   File """" does not exist! Ignoring.
                  lvl1:   File """" does not exist! Ignoring.
                  lvl1:   File """" does not exist! Ignoring.
                  

                  I've dug up the old video screensaver thread - which you probably read - and the advice there is to create a dummy file and attach the video to it. So create an empty file /home/pi/video.txt (run touch /home/pi/video.txt from a command line), then replace in the retropie system gamelist the entries for video with:

                    <game>
                          <path>/home/pi/video.txt</path>
                          <video>~/RetroPie/screensavers/LTTP.mp4</video>
                      </game>
                  <game>
                          <path>/home/pi/video.txt</path>
                          <video>~/RetroPie/screensavers/Mario.mp4</video>
                      </game>
                      <game>
                           <path>/home/pi/video.txt</path>
                          <video>~/RetroPie/screensavers/Sonic.mp4</video>
                      </game>
                  

                  Restart ES and see if it works.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • blonqeB
                    blonqe
                    last edited by blonqe

                    @mitu

                    After doing all the steps i still get a blank screen.

                    However when going to the terminal (F4) after doing these steps I can see the following error :

                    lv10: file path ""/home/pi/video.txt"" is outside system path "/home/pi/RetoPie/retropiemenu"
                    lv10: Error finding/creating FileData for ""/home/pi/video.txt"", skipping

                    This is repeated several times

                    Edit: I've changed the path to /home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/icons/video.txt

                    The error disappears from terminal now, but it still doesn't work and I get the same error in the es_log.txt stating no file exists.

                    Uneven tried renaming the txt file to match the video files e.g Mario.txt but still didn't work.

                    I'm so stumped :(

                    mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • mituM
                      mitu Global Moderator @blonqe
                      last edited by

                      @blonqe said in Screensavers not working - just black screen:

                      /home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/icons/video.txt

                      Did you also created the file /home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/icons/video.txt ?

                      blonqeB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • blonqeB
                        blonqe @mitu
                        last edited by

                        @mitu said in Screensavers not working - just black screen:

                        @blonqe said in Screensavers not working - just black screen:

                        /home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/icons/video.txt

                        Did you also created the file /home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/icons/video.txt ?

                        Yeah I also done that, sorry I forgot to say.

                        I also changed that to Mario.txt when changing the patch to try and match that too

                        mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • mituM
                          mitu Global Moderator @blonqe
                          last edited by

                          @blonqe Then I guess you need to add the video tag one of the real game roms you have. Modify the /home/pi/.emulationstation/gamelists/nes/gamelist.xml and add a video tag with the path to the .mp4 file to one of the games in the file.

                          blonqeB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • blonqeB
                            blonqe @mitu
                            last edited by

                            @mitu

                            You know what I'm going to say next :(

                            Nothing is working, im going to try different videos, see if that's the case but can't see that being the issue.

                            Hopefully a future version of retropie will let me choose a custom video path like you can on pics now.

                            It's hurting my head now!

                            mituM cyperghostC 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • mituM
                              mitu Global Moderator @blonqe
                              last edited by

                              @blonqe Well, you can use the metadata editor in ES on a game (press Select while you're positioned on the game) and you can enter the Video path. See if that works, but you'll need a keyboard.

                              blonqeB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • blonqeB
                                blonqe @mitu
                                last edited by

                                @mitu said in Screensavers not working - just black screen:

                                @blonqe Well, you can use the metadata editor in ES on a game (press Select while you're positioned on the game) and you can enter the Video path. See if that works, but you'll need a keyboard.

                                Finally I have screensavers, for some reason the only way I could get it working was to do it via es metadata edit as you suggested.

                                I left the mp4's untouched in the screensaver folder e.g /home/pi/RetroPie/screensavers/Mario.mp4

                                Selected a random game in my SNES setup (I picked top down so I know where they are in the future) and pressed select to edit metadata for game, input the file path above.

                                Restarted es and now screensavers :)

                                Thanks to everyone who helped but big thanks to @mitu for sticking with the issue throughout ;)

                                P.s the retropie gamelist.xml method must not work for all as obviously everything was in the right paths etc just didn't parse correctly, strange.

                                cyperghostC L 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • cyperghostC
                                  cyperghost @blonqe
                                  last edited by cyperghost

                                  @blonqe @mitu
                                  Thanks for digging deeper :)
                                  Sadly I must admit that the way I told to install screensavers in @Malixx Animated Screensaver Thread does not work anymore!!!

                                  The last funcitonal version of ES that works with this hack is ES 2.6.2, version 2.6.3 is deliverd with RetroPie 4.3 and this one does not work ..... again sorry guys!
                                  It can be downloaded here: https://github.com/crcerror/emulationstation-binary-archive

                                  Sorry guys!

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • cyperghostC
                                    cyperghost @blonqe
                                    last edited by

                                    @blonqe said in Screensavers not working - just black screen:

                                    Hopefully a future version of retropie will let me choose a custom video path like you can on pics now.

                                    That would be the masters-path!

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • L
                                      lycros @blonqe
                                      last edited by

                                      @blonqe Did you have to edit the meta data for multiple games? ie. 1 game per video or just the one?

                                      S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • S
                                        snapchris @lycros
                                        last edited by

                                        @lycros Sadly, I had to put them in all manually. Im sure you figured that out by now.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • First post
                                          Last post

                                        Contributions to the project are always appreciated, so if you would like to support us with a donation you can do so here.

                                        Hosting provided by Mythic-Beasts. See the Hosting Information page for more information.