Video Preview in EmulationStation

**Scannigan**

Agree with you both :)

MWGemini

@__Scannigan__ Here are instructions for installing his WSOD fix:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/47998

But you'll need to scroll down for the latest version, which is currently:
https://github.com/fieldofcows/EmulationStation/releases/tag/v0.3-RPi-4/emulationstation

The fix is definitely a fix. It solves the white screen of death issue, and I'm sure it will be in the official builds of RetroPie in the very near future.

He's also working on fixes/improvements for the video preview feature (the topic of this thread), and more info can be found here: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/5823/looking-for-testers-for-es-video-preview-on-raspberry-pi

Kischa

@Nismo Im about to test your theme v 1.8 for my Pi2 and Pi3 but I need to have one thing clear before I start. Im runnin a fresh installed 4.1 retropie image, with roms prepared and also scraped. Now, do I only need to "update all installed packages" before runnin your great script "video and marquees that put tags into gamelist" ?

I read Fieldofcows thread with same snaps diskussions but for Pi and he writes in one of hes first posts that you need to update emulationstation also etc...

now Im confused :/

mattrixk

@fieldofcows: I'm having some troubles with the windows version of your Video Preview build.

I downloaded this version from your github. I got it working with your SampleConfig without any hassle, but where the video should be was black. After I turned on my speakers I realised the video sound was playing. I turned off the background images and there was the video, behind everything else.

I looks like a z-index issue where the video sits behind every other element on the screen, no matter where it sits in the XML.

I'm also curious if we can get <maxSize> on the videos so that they maintain aspect ratio. At the moment you have to set a specific size, but what if your videos are different sizes? I'm not sure if that is a big problem or not, as I haven't really looked into videos much yet. I think all the ones from screenscraper.fr are 640x480, but I don't know what is usual for other sources.

ps: I'm sorry if this has already been answered, but at 428 comments long, this is a pretty long thread to slog through to find a possible answer.

darknior

@fieldofcows i have made two test this evening :

const char* args[] = { "--vout=omxil_vout", "--quiet"};
mVLC = libvlc_new(sizeof(args) / sizeof(args[0]), args);

But it don't works fine :p
My Raspberry Pi was always at 70° ... and i always have the green glitch :(

I also try your new beta release :
https://github.com/fieldofcows/EmulationStation/releases

And it works like a dream :)
My proc was at 53°
And the green glitch have disappear :)
Yes the video is rendered on top of GUI menus ... but you will fix it later ;)

Thanks a lot :)

mattrixk

Okay, using the Carbon-with-video theme I discovered that if you call you background image <image name="background"> and remove the extra="true", then the video will appear on-top of the background image. Any reason it was done this way instead of just having the videos on-top of any extra element?

Nismo

@mattrixk Any extra images will be displayed on top of videos, just because for theming sometimes you need to create a frame around the video. Like in my theme that i used it to make tv round borders around the video, an overlay with green color on Gameboy system, or an overlay with scanlines effect, etc... lot of possibilities.

Also that way you can place some elementes on top of video like marquees.

The problem you have it's because you were using a theme without video support.

I'm using the windows version and it works like a charm, but if you use videos, you need a theme with video support, of course.

mattrixk

@Nismo Yeah, I'm making a new theme and trying to make it so it supports video too. I understand wanting to put stuff over the video, but it's just annoying that just about everything goes over the video inlcuding any image that isn't called "background". It messes up my naming conventions and forces me to use more code to make a specific background to video view.

It's not a huge gripe, and I love @fieldofcows' work, but I just feel like it's a stop-gap measure until a proper system is put in place.

Kischa

@fieldofcows maby you could help me out...do I only need to "update all installed packages" on my 4.1 retropie image for videos to work?

Thanks!

**Scannigan**

@MWGemini So if I go in at command line

wget https://github.com/fieldofcows/EmulationStation/releases/download/v0.3-RPi-4/emulationstation

chmod +x emulationstation
sudo cp emulationstation /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation/

should be good to go?

**Scannigan**

Never mind worked it out :) currently running 15 systems on a very image heavy theme and no breaks whats so ever

MWGemini

@__Scannigan__ That's correct. If you later download a newer version to test with, you need to add one more step at the start of that, and that's to delete the old file (before you use wget to download the new one). To do that, it's just rm emulationstation. You can also list the files in your directory using ls -lsh, which will also show the date and time those files were last modified.

Melvin.FoX

Any chance to add this as feature to emulationstation (not as a standalone project)? :)

Nismo

It's already in emulationstation.

robertybob

@Melvin.FoX It's already been implemented. Not that anyone would know unless they looked at the Wiki or forums lol.

Obviously when the next main release of RetroPie comes out it'll be in the release notes :)

Melvin.FoX

Ooooh haven't known that. Then it's a really great news! :)
So I need to make from source update of ES to make it work?

EctoOne

So i was trying out the Build from this thread which is build with the video preview. And although it doesn't plays videos on my PC, i still can use it to work on an theme.
But i've reached a point which i can't figure out.
Is there a way to ignore the video/marquee tags in the gamelist.xml? I guess that is how ES decides if Video View should be used or only Detailed View.
What i'm trying to achieve is to have video/marquee set in my gamelist.xml but i don't want them to show up. I just want Detailed View. If i remove all video settings from the theme, it will break because it finds the tags in the gamelist.

giventofly

with videos "on" my ES crashes a lot of times of segmentation fault and stack smashing and i'm getting GLerror. Is there a limit to the number of videos? is there a way i can test what could be the problem?

HurricaneFan

Got a random question. Some of my videos generate underrun errors I guess when they play. I usually see the errors when I close Emulationstation and see them at the command prompt. Is there a way to see what videos are causing this problem. Like a filename of the video?

fieldofcows

@giventofly said in Video Preview in EmulationStation:

with videos "on" my ES crashes a lot of times of segmentation fault and stack smashing and i'm getting GLerror. Is there a limit to the number of videos? is there a way i can test what could be the problem?

I haven't heard of anyone else having the same problem. There is no limit to the number of videos because only one is loaded at a time. Maybe your videos are in an unusual format or something like that? Some more information would be useful...