Frequent Temperature Warning in EmulationStation menu

j.e.f.f

If I leave EmulationStation sitting for a while, the temperature warning will eventually come up. I've noticed this over the last couple of days while modifying the Carbon theme. I suspect that it is related to video previews, as it seems to happen when a video is playing. I haven't compared this with leaving it on a non-video view to see if the warning comes up, but I thought I'd ask around to see if anyone else has noticed this.

Thanks!

Jeff

Capeman

I had the same problem when i was working on my Old TV theme that also uses video previews, the pi would get super hot and i got the warning icon too, which is why i took a break from working on that theme.

I'm wondering if this is because of the way the videos were encoded? I got my test files from EmuMovies.com, did you get yours there too or somewhere else?

backstander

I think this has to do with the VLC player causing the overheating issues. Here's an experimental build that's using OMXPlayer instead by @fieldofcows:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/7979/please-test-using-omxplayer-as-video-renderer

wget https://github.com/pjft/EmulationStation/releases/download/0.7-ssctl/emulationstation
chmod +x emulationstation
sudo mv emulationstation /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation/

TMNTturtlguy

@backstander That is correct, I have been running the @fieldofcows with @pjft modifications for a few weeks now and running the OMX player and have no overheating issues. A bonus is that you get the video screensaver as well! Be sure that you turn on the OMX player option in the start menu. Also note that if you use this ES build, it does not have the newest ES updates. This build is a few weeks old and does not have the updates for video masSize or the new carousal modifications.

@Capeman What are you running for videos? If you are running just video previews in your themes, i would suggest using a program like handbreak to reduce the video size. This will help them run smoother and maybe reduce heat. I also have a fan on my case, typically not needed for Pi's running retropie, but if you are trying to overclock or run video i would highly suggest a fan. Running the standard ES build with the VLC player and a fan running my high end temps are up around 52 degrees F when running video preview for extended times. This is pretty cool. Another suggestion is to set your screen saver time to 2 or 3 minutes. That way the video preview will run for a few minutes, your pi will get warm, but then mine cools way down once the screensaver comes on. I set my screen saver to black.

hope this helps

Capeman

@backstander I was under the impression that omx player didn't allow for any png overlays over video, was that fixed in this ES version? I havent been keeping up with the main video integration thread.

Capeman

@TMNTturtlguy the vid previews from emumovies are like 320x240 compressed MP4, I'm not sure home much smaller I could make them, maybe a run through handbrake would clean up the encoding if that's causing VLC to overheat. I'm not interested in adding fans and heat syncs, I'd rather wait til the software overheating issue is fixed haha

TMNTturtlguy

@Capeman you are correct, you cannot have video overlays. That is a trade off.

Capeman

@TMNTturtlguy Hmmm, that won't work for me, the theme I'm working on relies heavily on overlaying the video.

Good thing there are lots of good minds on the issue in the forums, one of those good looking programmers will figure it out, haha.

j.e.f.f

@Capeman Yeah I got my videos from EmuMovies as well. I'm also using the free 320x240 versions. I've tried a couple of 640x480 videos and they all seem to have stuttering problems or lots of MPEG artifacts during playback. (Neither problems occur with the same videos when I view them on my laptop).

@backstander I'm hoping the build with OMXPLayer gets integrated into the main build. I think I read elsewhere that the pi works really well with that particular player from a heat perspective. For now I'll just set my screensaver to a short timeout.

TMNTturtlguy

@Capeman i believe @fieldofcows and others are trying to find another video player to use instead of the OMX player. I do not believe that OMX will ever support overlays. In the mean time, i suggest reducing your video file sizes, use heat sinks and a fan on your pi, and set your screen saver to 1 or 2 minutes to go to a black screen. This should eliminate the heat issues while still allowing you to use the VLC player.