Help testing: Random Video Screensaver on Main Branch

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft I have loaded the latest updates to both of my systems and am happy to report they are running smoothly and as expected. I love the new menu options and breakout, the text fits nicely on my 4:3 and the options all make sense!

I have no issues with the text showing using OMX in both cases of overscan.

Removed VLC option for Pi's screensaver from the menu. Please confirm that your settings file does have <bool name="ScreenSaverOMX" value="true" />set in it, otherwise it will use VLC. I doubt that'll be the case, but worth giving the heads up. The default is to use OMX for screensaver.

Confirmed in the setting file.

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy Thanks for testing and checking!

Others won't have a problem with that, since they're fresh installs, but since you had had the option to change that beforehand, if you'd have it set to VLC you'd have kept VLC now :P

pjft

@Hex following up on the questions I asked on GitHub, another thing to start troubleshooting it is to run OMX Player from ssh while EmulationStation is running and seeing what happens - any error or something.

I'd check if the screensaver setting on the settings file is still set to OMX rather than VLC (see previous comment to @TMNTturtlguy ).

Let me know what you find. Otherwise I can always add the VLC option back. What are you running it on, by the way, and what's your memory split and VRAM set at?

Thanks!

Hex

I ran on Pi3 with 2A supply, With OMX enabled nothing is displayed on screen when screensaver is started. (on HDMI)

TMNTturtlguy

@Hex do you have a 2.5A power supply you can test? I am betting you are not getting enough power to run OMX and are getting under-voltage errors.

pjft

@Hex thanks. I'm on the phone today and won't be able to look into this - sick kids - but same questions apply.

What happens when you run it via the command line with ES running? Maybe that'll shed some light on the error we're getting. I wouldn't think it'd be related to the power, though I've seen stranger things happen. :)

What are the contents of your settings file?

Do the videos show on the gamelist view on OMX?

Does that happen with and without captions?

Thank you, sorry for the remote troubleshooting. I'll look into it tomorrow in my timezone with the information you provide.

Thanks!

Hex

@TMNTturtlguy 2A is sufficient for pi3. it only has a keyboard and hdmi attached. I dont think this is a power issue. If its working for you guys and not me then something is wrong on my side. In that case @pjft feel free to squash and update the PR.

pjft

@Hex no, there's no urgency. As I said, I'm not able to look into it tonight, and I'd rather spend the time to understand what's happening on your end than sending off something that won't work for some people :)

Also, I had changed something that I wanted you to test whether it solved the flicker, so I may have broken something in the process.

For the sake of accuracy, though, the Pi 3 does recommend a 2.5A power supply, but it may not be related.

If you can test running OMX Player via the shell while ES is running, it might shed some light on what errors might be happening. I'd love to learn about them.

Also, if you can share the content of your settings file, it might help to understand whether I've messed something up, or at least test with those settings on my end.

Finally, is it showing on the gamelist view?

Thanks!

pjft

@Hex Hi!

Sorry for bothering, just pinging this in case you had missed it.

No urgency, but do let me know if/when you'd have the time to check those few things. I'd rather make sure I understand what's happening on your setup before squashing the PR and adding it to the main branch.

No urgency, but let me know if/when you do look into it, so we can follow up. I'd also like to check whether the HDMI still fails on your original setup, with the latest change. It might, but want to confirm. Thank you!

Alternatively - and/or in addition - I can re-add the VLC option for the Pi.

Thanks!

Hex

@pjft I shall test it today thoroughly and let you know asap.

pjft

@Hex Thanks!

There's no need to get an answer asap - it's dinner time here and then the kids are a bit sick so I likely won't be picking this up today. You have plenty of time :)

It's more to try to dig into what may be happening.

If OMXPlayer works on the gamelists, but not on the screensaver, and then if it runs from the command line, let's see what options might be triggering it or not.

No urgency :) I know you're quite busy with other things around here as well, which are very much appreciated by everyone, so no worries!

Thank you and have a great day. :)

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft @Hex hey guys, any update on this? Anything I can do to help test? Thanks

Hex

@TMNTturtlguy Can you do a clean Retropie install and run it on Pi3?

TMNTturtlguy

@Hex i can look into that. I will need to get another SD card or wipe one of my current. Can I ask why I need to do it on a clean install? How is that any different than my current setups?

Thanks

Hex

@TMNTturtlguy I dont know. I am just trying to see why it doesnt work. Hopefully it works. A clean install ensures that, if the feature works, my setup is faulty. If it doesnt work then the feature needs to be checked out. Its a win-win :)

TMNTturtlguy

@Hex have you tried a clean install?

Hex

@TMNTturtlguy I am a lot busy now and dont have time to test it till next weekend hence the delay.

TMNTturtlguy

@Hex I see, I will talk with @pjft to see if he thinks this is necessary. My current 4:3 setup is straight out of the box retropie 4.2 with updates and the screensaver build, no other mods. My 16:9 just has the overscan set as well as my PS4 controller setup, currently no other mods as I have removed all custom settings for testing purposes. As I said, I don't have a spare SD card right now and I don't want to overwrite my current builds tonight as I am trying to work on finishing my theme release.

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft would you like me to try a clean install? I want to make sure we don't loose traction on getting the approved and merged. Thanks

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy thanks for the availability and for bringing this up - and thanks @Hex For the suggestion as well as for the timeline clarification of your own availability.

Please don't do a clean install. I don't believe that'll provide any particularly different results. That's also something I can do should it be needed, and spend the time myself rather than having one of you do so. :)

At the moment I'm more inclined to assume that one of the test settings from non-pi systems has been saved in @Hex 's settings during the testing stage and as such nothing is showing. It's a theory, though, and that's why I'd love to get to the bottom of this on his system. An easy way for you @Hex to reset your settings is just to rename your es_settings.txt file.

That being said, my main/only fear/concern with the current implementation is with "intrinsic" lack of compatibility between OMX Player and some setups, let's call it that. It isn't uncommon to see those every now and then - even in the last few days @sirhenrythe5th posted one such problem on the Comic Book Splash Screen thread, which needed to be solved via changing an OMX Player option in the script. It's somewhat TV resolution and frequency dependant, from my experience, that's why I've been trying to make it the most encompassing as possible.

I've asked him to see if he used videos and, if so, to test this out. In the meantime, what I'll do is to bring back VLC player as a non-default option on the Pi for screensaver as, worst case scenario, that works. It just isn't ideal in terms of performance, but if OMX doesn't really work at all for some people - even after disabling game info and disabling overscan (or if they can't do these things) - they can choose to use VLC and just reduce the resolution of their videos.

We'll choose this today/tomorrow, if time allows.

Thanks! Happy weekend. :)