Video screensaver cutting out, also covers Retroarch screen

Hypna

Hello!

I recently set up RetroPie for the first time, and I've been having a few problems with the video screensaver.

The main issue is that the screensaver will cut out suddenly- it'll be playing a video like normal, before it suddenly cuts back to the screen I previously left it on. This seems to happen randomly, sometimes it happens as early as a few seconds in, typically longer, but rarely does it take longer than a few minutes. It also seems to happen quite a lot right as a video ends, but I'm not sure whether that's connected at all. I already tried changing to OMX player in hopes that it would help, but nothing seems to have changed. I've tried searching for it in the forums but haven't found anything about it. A second issue I've had is that, when I press start to open the game on the screensaver, the video and audio (OMX player) or just audio (Default player) continue to play over the game. While disabling screensaver controls does prevent that from ever being an issue to begin with, I'd prefer not to do that unless I have to. Any help on these issues is greatly appreciated!

Pi Model: 4B
Power Supply: CanaKit 3.5A Raspberry Pi 4 Power Supply, USB-C
RetroPie Version: 4.8.9
Built from: Pre-made SD image from RetroPie website
USB Devices: Generic USB joystick, also the only connected controller
Emulator: Retroarch, happens with any core
Config File: https://pastebin.com/Zkx6GPKm (Not sure if this is the correct config file for the situation)
How to replicate the problem: Simply let the video screensaver play for a while, usually between 5 seconds to 5 minutes. For the other issue, press start to begin any game while the video screensaver is playing.

If there's any relevant information I missed, please let me know and I'd be happy to send that as well. Thank you!

mitu

I think I remember there was a bug in stopping the video playback that was solved some time ago, what version of EmulationStation are you using (check the menu footer to see the version) ? Audio playing after game started shouldn't happen and that has happened when a 3rd party background music solution was installed - did you install something similar in on your system ?

Hypna

I'm currently using EmulationStation V2.11.2RP. It wasn't more than about a month ago that I did the initial install, so I wouldn't think that it's an outdated version.

I started to think that the cutting issue had to do something with my controls, so I unplugged each button one by one until something changed, and once I did that with the select button it seems the cutting out was fixed. Could it be something to do with the fact that I have that button mapped as hotkey enable and a normal select function at the same time? I thought it might be the cause, but I'm not really sure how or why that would cause a problem to begin with (since I haven't been pressing it during the screensaver). If that couldn't be causing any issues, I'm guessing it's just something to do with this specific controller/button that I'd probably have to figure out myself.

As for the other issue, no, I haven't downloaded any 3rd party background music. The only thing that ever plays over the game is either the video itself or the audio from the video that was last playing. I tried this a few more times with OMX enabled (it's primarily what I've been using) and when I tried that, the audio and video loop infinitely over the game- I can tell that the game has opened in the background because I'm able to hear it, and sometimes I can also see a Retroarch notification in the bottom left, depending on the console.

mitu

@Hypna said in Video screensaver cutting out, also covers Retroarch screen:

I'm currently using EmulationStation V2.11.2RP. It wasn't more than about a month ago that I did the initial install, so I wouldn't think that it's an outdated version.

Ok, that's the current stable version.

I started to think that the cutting issue had to do something with my control...

No, theres shouldn't be. I think using the Select button also for Hotkey Enable is a quite common configuration and the Hotkey Enable has no effect/action in EmulationStation.
On the other hand, having both the video screensaver turned on and activating the button actions on screensaver may not be quite a common configuration so a bug may have slipped somewhere in EmulationStation so that stopping the current video may fail. I'll take a look - but it may be worth installing the -dev version of EmulationStation to have the latest development version installed.

mitu

OK, so I tested the stable version and it's definitely something buggy that's going on and the video isn't completely stopped when starting a game.

But the issue is not present in the dev branch, which you can install with from the emulationstation-dev experimental package. It was probably fixed at some point, after the current stable branch was updated.

Hypna

I went ahead and installed the development version and it seems like it's fixed the issues I've been having. Thanks for the help!