[SOFT] New Scraper in the works

Folly

Aha, that's good ;-)
Pfff, I was a bit afraid everything was broken.

Perfect, now showing this :

pi@raspberrypi:~/retroscraper-rpie $ python3 retroscraper.py --systems megaplay
Loading RetroScraper config File
CANNOT CONNECT TO THE BACKEND, PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER

kiro

@Folly I've uploaded new versions with the friendly error message... DB is in sync again, png issue should be solved hopefully :-) now the system is up and running again, let me know how it goes when you can test. Thanks!

I'll be having a look at relative paths this week. I was thinking of adding a --realtivepaths flag and a --mediadir flag, first will add the './' instead of the full path, and second would add the possibility to choose the media down dir (starting by './' would make it relative to the current system path). Was thinking also of a '--singlemediadir' to put everything under the same folder, which would work only together with the '--mediadir' flag. What do you think?

Folly

@kiro

Really cool if you can add all that.
Seems to be what I am looking for.

Will do a clone now and report.
Looks very good !!!
👍 - videos are now correctly named *.mp4
👍 - now also similar speed between known systems and unknown systems

Was the *.png issue in the database or back-end ?

kiro

@Folly it was a backend issue... in order to gain speed the backend is just a collection of files created from the DB (so no actual engine running at the server)... the CRC's are symbolic links to the actual games objects, and for some reason, these links were not updated properly, so yes, I had to recreate 2.4 million links :-) luckily not manually!

Folly

@kiro

I must say it' now very much improved.
I tested the newly scraped systems in emulationstattion and off-course they work.
However, still quite some videos only play sound.
An example is mamerom pc_mario from playchoice10.

kiro

@Folly will have a look at those videos..thanks!

kiro

@Folly ... This is the 'frontend' to the backend:

http://77.68.23.83/

It may work perfectly as it is more of an experiment for me.

There you may want to check if the videos you see (they are the same as the one grabbed by the scraper) are working as the ones downloaded.

Thx

Folly

@kiro
Yes, they are the same :

pi@raspberrypi:~/Downloads $ sha1sum download.mp4 
5370f9a66196ae8a3ab82fe81347617c45a82f8a  download.mp4
pi@raspberrypi:~/Downloads $ cd ..
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cd RetroPie/roms/playchoice10/videos
pi@raspberrypi:~/RetroPie/roms/playchoice10/videos $ sha1sum pc_mario.mp4 
5370f9a66196ae8a3ab82fe81347617c45a82f8a  pc_mario.mp4

The video gives also black screen in vlc.
I think it could be somehow a codec problem.
Perhaps I am missing a codec dependency .

kiro

@Folly I just tried that video and it works for me ...

Could you try it on another pc maybe?

Folly

@kiro

It played from within your 'frontend' on my pi.
Will try a VM to see what it does.

Not home now, but I will run it from the CLI on the pi when I can.
Just to see if it gives some useful info.

Folly

@kiro

Just tried on my VM Bulleseye X86_64 but I get this message now :

$ python3 retroscraper.py --systems playchoice10
Loading RetroScraper config File
Loading systems from Backend
Scanning Systems ['playchoice10']
Loading companies from backend
Starting scraping
Exception in thread Thread-1:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/threading.py", line 954, in _bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/threading.py", line 892, in run
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "/home/pi/retroscraper-rpie/scrapfunctions.py", line 967, in scanSystems
    if (system['name'].lower() not in selectedSystems) and (selectedSystems!=[]) and not doallsystems:
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'lower'
SCRAPPING ENDED --- Thank you for using retroscraper!!

Could be that I am getting blocked or having a bad internet connection.
Will do an update and try again later.

kiro

@Folly Hmm this seems like another issue.... can you use the --debug feature??

By the way I've updated the script in the repo as there was a bug with the debug function (It always went debug)

Folly

@kiro

I am traveling now on a boot for my work and I am almost on my destination so have to work soon.

Will do it later today ;-)

kiro

@Folly Sure! no worries! I have the same issue :-)

Also, pls check if playchoice10 is the name of your system in es_systems:

  <system>
    <name>playchoice10</name>
   .....
  </system>

Just trying to discard issues.
Thx!

Folly

@kiro

It's not working on the pi4 so the issue seems to be pi related.

Though it's working in the VM and the video plays and the others seem to work too.

This is the VLC output of pc_mario.mp4 only playing sound on the PI4 :

vlc pc_mario.mp4 
VLC media player 3.0.17.4 Vetinari (revision 3.0.13-8-g41878ff4f2)
[016a9b98] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
[a2102b80] gles2 gl: Initialized libplacebo v2.72.0 (API v72)
[a210cb50] mmal_xsplitter vout display error: Failed to open Xsplitter:mmal_vout module
[b38555b8] avcodec decoder: Using DRM Video Accel for hardware decoding
[src/libmpg123/layer3.c:2184] error: part2_3_length (1536) too large for available bit count (1368)
[b38555b8] main decoder error: buffer deadlock prevented
QObject::~QObject: Timers cannot be stopped from another thread

This is the VLC output of moglf.mp4 playing both video and sound on the PI4 :

vlc pc_moglf.mp4 
VLC media player 3.0.17.4 Vetinari (revision 3.0.13-8-g41878ff4f2)
[0006cb98] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
[a2306f88] gles2 gl: Initialized libplacebo v2.72.0 (API v72)
[a2304e40] mmal_xsplitter vout display error: Failed to open Xsplitter:mmal_vout module
[b3852340] avcodec decoder: Using DRM Video Accel for hardware decoding
QObject::~QObject: Timers cannot be stopped from another thread

ffmpeg gives these video formats :
pc_mario.mp4 :

Duration: 00:00:30.05, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 145 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High 4:4:4 Predictive) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv444p, 512x480 [SAR 5:4 DAR 4:3], 74 kb/s, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 15360 tbn, 60 tbc (default)

pc_moglf.mp4 :

Duration: 00:00:30.05, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 214 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 640x480 [SAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], 143 kb/s, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 15360 tbn, 60 tbc (default)

kiro

@Folly Thanks a lot for the testing! Really appreciate it, so hopefully, the video issue is solved.

I started working on the relative paths, --relativepaths is added as an option and should put everything in the gamelist under a relative path. Let me know when you have tested (no urgency).

Tomorrow I'll add the --mediadir option ;-)

Thanks!

Folly

@kiro said in [SOFT] New Scraper in the works:

so hopefully, the video issue is solved.

Sadly no, not on the pi4.
Unless you changed something with the videos.

What do you think, looking at the VLC logs ?

kiro

@Folly, I might have said the wrong way :-) The scraper is downloading the videos properly, but, some of the videos in the backend are encoded in a way the pi is not able to display. I'll dig into that today trying to understand what's the difference between a working and a non-working video so I can eventually re-encode those not working. Will keep you updated.

This is the encoding for the pc-mario video:

Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High 4:4:4 Predictive) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv444p, 512x480 [SAR 5:4 DAR 4:3], 74 kb/s, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 15360 tbn, 60 tbc (default)

This is the encoding for a working video:

Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 640x480 [SAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], 143 kb/s, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 15360 tbn, 60 tbc (default)

The only differences I see are the (high) and yuv as well as resolution.... any idea (any expert reading this) why the first video would not play on a pi?

I've tried converting from high 4:4:4 predictive to just high and it seems to be working:

I'll be creating a script soon to run over all videos and convert those under the same predictive profile.

Will keep you updated.

Folly

@kiro said in [SOFT] New Scraper in the works:

@Folly I just tried that video and it works for me ...

Could you try it on another pc maybe?

I saw that your computer had somewhat the same error, although it played well.

I will see what my VM says with the old pc_mario.mp4 and try the new one on my VM and PI4 when I am home again.

My VM gives the same errors, although it plays :

[src/libmpg123/layer3.c:2184] error: part2_3_length (1536) too large for available bit count (1368)
[00007f15f4003510] gl gl: Initialized libplacebo v2.72.0 (API v72)
[00007f15f47c4080] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f15f47c7690] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
.. many more chain/main errors
[00007f15f40013b0] main vout display error: Failed to adapt decoder format to display
[00007f15f40013b0] main vout display error: Failed to adapt decoder format to display
[00007f15f00484b0] main video output error: video output creation failed
[00007f1604c74da0] main decoder error: failed to create video output

As you said it looks like the video has issues.

I renewed the video on my VM.
Succes, the errors are gone for pc_mario.mp4 !

Folly

@kiro

Tested --relativepaths :

pi@Bullseye-VM:~/retroscraper-rpie$ python3 retroscraper.py --systems playchoice10 --relativepaths

Perfect !