Emulationstation video previews on Raspberry Pi 5

Peeteris

@RapidEdwin08 RPi5 uses VLC, no OMX.

Pretty much nothing we can do at the moment?
Strange, because few months ago it worked flawlessly.

Lolonois

@Peeteris said in Emulationstation video previews on Raspberry Pi 5:

Pretty much nothing we can do at the moment?
Strange, because few months ago it worked flawlessly.

At least there is a workaround. It turns out that with version 3.0.21 of libvlc the behaviour reported here was introduced. I am not a big fan of downgrading but here is my workaround.

Put this script somewhere at your Pi 5 (with 64Bit RaspiOS), make is executable (chmod a+x <thisscript>.sh) and let it run. You will get a warning message that you are downgrading from 3.0.21 to 3.0.20 but let's accept the risk for now.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

pkgs=(libvlc5 libvlc-bin libvlccore9 vlc-bin vlc-data vlc-plugin-base)
ver="3.0.20-0+rpt6+deb12u1"

pushd /tmp
for p in "${pkgs[@]}"; do
  arch="arm64"
  if [[ "$p" == "vlc-data" ]] ; then
    arch="all"
  fi
  wget "http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/pool/main/v/vlc/${p}_${ver}_${arch}.deb"
done

dpkg -i *.deb
apt-mark hold "${pkgs[@]}"

popd

Then restart ES, it should work without lag/freeze between the gamelist movements. :)

To backout/revert: Remove the hold on the six named packages (apt-mark unhold ...) and install the six packages from the maintained bookworm as usual.

The other issue with "Powermode Instant" still persists, but that's only an ES issue.

RapidEdwin08

@Lolonois Thanks for this, I tested and it Works as expected.

I took the liberty of adding some fluff to your workaround script, included a simple prompt + upgrade:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Workaround for libvlc issue with video previews in ES by Lolonois
# https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/35717/emulationstation-video-previews-on-raspberry-pi-5/17

pkgs=(libvlc5 libvlc-bin libvlccore9 vlc-bin vlc-data vlc-plugin-base)
ver="3.0.20-0+rpt6+deb12u1"

tput reset
echo
echo DOWNGRADE [libvlc] to [v$ver]
echo _OR _
echo Remove the HOLD of [v$ver] + UPGRADE [libvlc]
echo
echo "SELECT: [downgrade] or [upgrade]"
echo "  1) DOWNGRADE libvlc to [v$ver]"
echo "  2) UPGRADE libvlc"
echo "  3) QUIT"

read n
case $n in
  1) vlcCHOICE=downgrade;;
  2) vlcCHOICE=upgrade;;
  3) exit 0;;
  *) echo "You must SELECT: [downgrade] or [upgrade]"; exit 0;;
esac

pushd /tmp > /dev/null 2>&1
for p in "${pkgs[@]}"; do
  arch="arm64"
  if [[ "$p" == "vlc-data" ]] ; then
    arch="all"
  fi
  if [[ "$vlcCHOICE" == "upgrade" ]]; then sudo apt-mark unhold "${pkgs[@]}"; echo HOLD has been REMOVED for [v$ver]; echo Attempting to UPGRADE "${pkgs[@]}"; sudo apt-get install "${pkgs[@]}"; popd; exit 0; fi
  wget "http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/pool/main/v/vlc/${p}_${ver}_${arch}.deb"
done

sudo dpkg -i *.deb
sudo apt-mark hold "${pkgs[@]}"
rm /tmp/*.deb

popd

Peeteris

Amazing! Thank you very much!
Glad to hear that I'm not crazy, because for 2 months no one really agreed that this problem is real. ❤️

DTEAM

@Peeteris said in Emulationstation video previews on Raspberry Pi 5:

because for 2 months no one really agreed that this problem is real

No, it's a major problem for video previews. I hope they will fix the problem for the future.

DTEAM

@RapidEdwin08

I did this but it won't run. My .sh file is in /home/pi/

pi@retropie:~ $ chmod a+x /home/pi/esdowngrade.sh
pi@retropie:~ $ /home/pi/esdowngrade.sh
/usr/bin/env: ‘bash\r’: No such file or directory
/usr/bin/env: use -[v]S to pass options in shebang lines

or


pi@retropie:~ $ sh /home/pi/esdowngrade.sh
: not founddowngrade.sh: 2:
: not founddowngrade.sh: 5:
/home/pi/esdowngrade.sh: 6: Syntax error: "(" unexpected

any idea why

RapidEdwin08

@DTEAM said in Emulationstation video previews on Raspberry Pi 5:

@RapidEdwin08

I did this but it won't run. My .sh file is in /home/pi/

pi@retropie:~ $ chmod a+x /home/pi/esdowngrade.sh
pi@retropie:~ $ /home/pi/esdowngrade.sh
/usr/bin/env: ‘bash\r’: No such file or directory
/usr/bin/env: use -[v]S to pass options in shebang lines

any idea why

Not sure, something wrong with the 1st line, maybe strange character in the copy/paste?...

I added vlc-downgrade script to GIT for the time being, so you can try this:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RapidEdwin08/RetroPie-Setup/master/vlc-downgrade.sh -P ~/
chmod 755 ~/vlc-downgrade.sh
~/vlc-downgrade.sh

DTEAM

@RapidEdwin08 said in Emulationstation video previews on Raspberry Pi 5:

~/vlc-downgrade.sh

It works !!! thanks !!!

Lolonois

@DTEAM said in Emulationstation video previews on Raspberry Pi 5:

/usr/bin/env: ‘bash\r’: No such file or directory

A file newline issue sneaked in (Windows \r\n, Linux \n). Most likely happened by transferring the script to the Pi.

To be on the safe side next time: dos2unix <scriptfile> (sudo apt install dos2unix) is your friend.

Lolonois

@Lolonois said in Emulationstation video previews on Raspberry Pi 5:

I detected another issue, when PowerSaving is set to INSTANT ...

Simply: Don't! Do not set Power Saver Mode to INSTANT in Main Menu -> Other Settings to instant when you have VideoGamelists or use the Random VIdeo Screensaver. It will make your videos hang as I outlined in my cited post.

DTEAM

@RapidEdwin08 said in Emulationstation video previews on Raspberry Pi 5:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RapidEdwin08/RetroPie-Setup/master/vlc-downgrade.sh -P ~/
chmod 755 ~/vlc-downgrade.sh
~/vlc-downgrade.sh

Hi @RapidEdwin08 ,
I'm trying to go back to the old VLC version but it doesn't' work. It works in the past, but now it stop working. you can see my log here

https://pastebin.com/xmmUjQkr

It stop to work when I tried to install the older version of Dolphin.

Any Idea to fix that?

NEW EDIT: Solve with this - https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=373298