Video Screen Saver on a Pi 3B

[ClassicGMR]

Pi Model or other hardware: Raspberry Pi 3B (not 3B+)
Power Supply used: Canakit 5v 2.5A
RetroPie Version Used: Buster 4.7.14
Built From: retropie.org.uk
USB Devices connected: keyboard
Controller used: N/A (so far)
Error messages received: Video playback spotty or non-existent
Verbose log (if relevant):
Guide used: N/A
File: N/A
Emulator: N/A
Attachment of config files: See below
How to replicate the problem: Screen Saver Random Video
Added info: All scrape data is from Screenscraper.fr via Skyscraper

OK so after multiple searches I found that a Pi 4 has issues with OMX Player and TITLE displays in the screen saver. I'm using a Pi 3B however and this used to always work. Maybe it is the same across the builds but I figure I won't know until I ask. 🤪

Initial run:

• SWAP VIDEO AFTER: 30s
• STRETCH VIDEO ON SCREENSAVER: OFF
• OMX PLAYER FOR SCREENSAVER: ON
• SHOW GAME INFO ON SCREENSAVER: START & END
• GAME INFO ALIGNMENT: CENTER
• GAME INFO FONT SIZE: 55
• MUTE SCREENSAVER AUDIO: OFF

In this configuration I got a couple of videos to play but mostly black screens with audio, black screens with audio AND game info or really mangled video(dead spots, heavy scan-line looking effects, 3 seconds of video that cuts out but the audio continues, etc) that work fine in the game preview screens. I took a mangled video and checked it against the snap in the game select screen (Shaman King: Legacy of the Spirit, Sprinting Wolf for Gameboy Advance) and the video is fine.

The only way to get semi-reliable video to play is turning off GAME INFO. It still leaves me a black screen every so often with audio in the background but far, far less than the original settings. But I can't tell which game it is playing since I have no text to follow. Also, to be honest, it doesn't help to have video snaps but no game info. "Ooh I want to try that! What is it? No idea..."

For now I am just running a slideshow screensaver. Less fun but still useful. 😋

I think this is the correct config file es_settings.cfg right?

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<bool name="BackgroundJoystickInput" value="false" />
<bool name="CaptionsCompatibility" value="true" />
<bool name="CollectionShowSystemInfo" value="true" />
<bool name="DisableKidStartMenu" value="true" />
<bool name="DrawFramerate" value="false" />
<bool name="EnableSounds" value="true" />
<bool name="ForceDisableFilters" value="false" />
<bool name="LocalArt" value="false" />
<bool name="MoveCarousel" value="true" />
<bool name="ParseGamelistOnly" value="false" />
<bool name="QuickSystemSelect" value="true" />
<bool name="ScrapeRatings" value="true" />
<bool name="ScreenSaverControls" value="true" />
<bool name="ScreenSaverOmxPlayer" value="true" />
<bool name="ScreenSaverVideoMute" value="false" />
<bool name="ShowHelpPrompts" value="true" />
<bool name="ShowHiddenFiles" value="false" />
<bool name="SlideshowScreenSaverCustomImageSource" value="false" />
<bool name="SlideshowScreenSaverRecurse" value="false" />
<bool name="SlideshowScreenSaverStretch" value="false" />
<bool name="SortAllSystems" value="false" />
<bool name="StretchVideoOnScreenSaver" value="false" />
<bool name="SystemSleepTimeHintDisplayed" value="false" />
<bool name="UseCustomCollectionsSystem" value="true" />
<bool name="VideoAudio" value="true" />
<bool name="VideoOmxPlayer" value="true" />
<int name="MaxVRAM" value="80" />
<int name="ScraperResizeHeight" value="0" />
<int name="ScraperResizeWidth" value="400" />
<int name="ScreenSaverSwapImageTimeout" value="12000" />
<int name="ScreenSaverSwapVideoTimeout" value="30000" />
<int name="ScreenSaverTime" value="180000" />
<int name="SubtitleSize" value="55" />
<int name="SystemSleepTime" value="0" />
<string name="AudioCard" value="default" />
<string name="AudioDevice" value="HDMI" />
<string name="CollectionSystemsAuto" value="" />
<string name="CollectionSystemsCustom" value="" />
<string name="GamelistViewStyle" value="automatic" />
<string name="OMXAudioDev" value="both" />
<string name="PowerSaverMode" value="disabled" />
<string name="SaveGamelistsMode" value="on exit" />
<string name="Scraper" value="TheGamesDB" />
<string name="ScreenSaverBehavior" value="random video" />
<string name="ScreenSaverGameInfo" value="start &amp; end" />
<string name="SlideshowScreenSaverBackgroundAudioFile" value="/home/pi/.emulationstation/slideshow/audio/slideshow_bg.wav" />
<string name="SlideshowScreenSaverImageDir" value="/home/pi/.emulationstation/slideshow/image" />
<string name="SlideshowScreenSaverImageFilter" value=".png,.jpg" />
<string name="StartupSystem" value="" />
<string name="SubtitleAlignment" value="center" />
<string name="SubtitleFont" value="/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/FreeSans.ttf" />
<string name="SubtitleItalicFont" value="/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/FreeSansOblique.ttf" />
<string name="ThemeSet" value="showcase" />
<string name="TransitionStyle" value="fade" />
<string name="UIMode" value="Full" />
<string name="UIMode_passkey" value="uuddlrlrba" />

[Clyde]

How is it with OMX Player OFF? This player is known to have problems with Game Info enabled, e.g. in general on the Pi 4, or on some setups (thread from 2017!).

The latter link suggests to turn off overscan to fix some of these problems. You can try this by editing the file /boot/config.txt and look for the option disable_overscan. To disable overscan, it has to be disable_overscan=1 without a # at its beginning (if it has one, delete the #).

Last, but not least, OMX can't play videos whose colour space is YUV 4:4:4. There are some scripts (two links!) to convert those videos to YUV 4:2:0, which is supported by OMX.

[sleve_mcdichael]

Far as I know, OMXolayer simply does not work together with game info displayed -- turn off one or both.

The remaining videos, it's almost certainly the video format. Use one of the scripts linked above to convert your existing videos. See this post to setup Skyscraper to detect and convert wrong-format videos on initial download, for future scrapes.