RetroPie + Emulation station + play video from rom menu?

[Lupin]

Pi Model 3 B
RetroPie Version: 4.3.7 running emulation station
USB Devices connected: Wifi Keyboard, 2 x Zero_Delay Arcade Interface
Controller used: Zero Delay Arcade Interface

Looking over this information on setting up system for playing videos from emulation station:
<system>
<name>Media</name>
<fullname>Movies</fullname>
<path>~/RetroPie/roms/movies</path>
<extension>.avi .avi .mp4 .MP4 .mkv .MKV</extension>
<command>omxplayer -o hdmi %ROM%</command>
</system>

And <gameList> file to support it.

Is it possible use video player from within rom menu for emulators? So able to play game related video (not previews) full screen without running emulator.
Possible ways to do this:
Add omxplayer/vlc to runcommand option "Select emulator rom" and pass video file.
use <gameList> enrty to start omxplayer/vlc in full screen mode.

Any suggestions?

[cooltoon22]

I am following this. If anyone knows, I'd love to do that.

[Lupin]

@cooltoon22

Looking back on my logs for Pi3 setup for DAPHNE. I wanted to play videos completed game and death scenes.
This is what I did.
Replace:
<extension>.daphne .DAPHNE</extension>
With:
<extension>.avi .AVI .mp4 .MP4 .mkv .MKV .daphne .DAPHNE</extension>

Edit /opt/retropie/configs/daphne/emulators.cfg and up date to:
daphne = "/opt/retropie/emulators/daphne/daphne.sh %ROM%"
default = "daphne"
playback = "omxplayer -r -o both %ROM%"

Adding "playback" video to runcommand menu "Select emulator for rom" select video you which to play.

Start Video file press button on boot enter runcommand menu playback from "Select emulator for rom" menu.
Added runcommand-onstart.sh & runcommand-onend.sh to /opt/retropie/configs/all/ give joystick control over omxplayer
Left Seek -30 Right Seek +30 Down Seek -600 Up Seek +600 A Pause/Resume B Exit

Videos would go in rom folder.
I hope this information helps. It's been a while since I've used this setup.

[Danell]

@Lupin
Thanks for the instructions! It was exactly what I needed!
The only problem I'm getting is to controll omxplayer.

With Added runcommand-onstart.sh & runcommand-onend.sh to /opt/retropie/configs/all/ give joystick control over omxplayer do you mean pasting this text in both the files:

Left Seek -30
Right Seek +30
Down Seek -600
Up Seek +600
A Pause/Resume
B Exit

Does that bind those keys to the action? It doesn't work for me tho. Any idea how it should be setup?

[Lupin]

@danell

Seems I missed a bit of informaiton, sorry make this these changes some time ago.
But on checking my logs found the following.

My "runcommand-onstart.sh" has been updated to the following.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
system="$1"
emulator="$2"
if [[ "$emulator" == "playback" ]]
then
/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/joy2key.py /dev/input/js0 kcub1 kcuf1 kcuu1 kcud1 0x70 0x71 &
fi
#END

And my "runcommand-onend.sh" as 1 command.

killall joy2key.py

Missing information was setting up joy2key command.
Which allows joystick to use keys for :
Left Seek -30
Right Seek +30
Down Seek -600
Up Seek +600
A Pause/Resume
B Exit

Sadly do not have access to joy2key usage information. But hope this helps.

[Danell]

Thanks for the info @Lupin !
I ended up finding this: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=130294 and updated it with your information.
So this is my working setup:

In /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg, add:

  <system>
    <name>Media</name>
    <fullname>Movies</fullname>
    <path>/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/movies</path>
    <extension>.avi .avi .mp4 .MP4 .mkv .MKV</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/joy2key.py /dev/input/js0 kcub1 kcuf1 kcuu1 kcud1 0x70 0x71 &
omxplayer -o hdmi %ROM%
killall joy2key.py</command> 
  </system>

Now create a folder called movies under /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/and place your video-clips in there.

Bonus: If you want to hide the text that shows up when skipping forward/pausing and so on, change to omxplayer --no-osd -o hdmi %ROM% in the code above