Video Splash and Silent Boot

zoop

I am using a kit I ordered from Amazon for my PI setup. The details may be found here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LWURJMI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Pi Model or other hardware: PI 3 Model B
Power Supply used: 5V/2.5A Power supply charger for Raspberry 3B
RetroPie Version Used (3.6, 3.8.1, 4.01 etc.. - do not write latest): 4.1
Built From: Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website
USB Devices connected: XBOX One Controller, Wireless Keyboard
Controller used: Xbox One controller
Error messages received: No error messages

Guide used:
http://www.aussiearcade.com/showthread.php/82908-Totally-silent-boot-raspberry-pi
https://github.com/retropie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/splashscreen
http://blog.petrockblock.com/forums/topic/ultimate-video-splash-screen/
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/4653/splashscreen-video-not-playing-entire-video/3
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Running-ROMs-from-a-USB-drive
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/297/failed-failed-to-start-usbmount-dev-sda-service

File: (File with issue - with FULL path)
Emulator: (Name of emulator - if applicable)
Attachment of config files: (PLEASE USE PASTEBIN.COM FOR LARGE LOGS)

How to replicate the problem: Starting with a fresh install of Retropie 4.1 on the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. I configured my PI to run my roms directly from a USB device. I used the manual method as the automatic mount did not work for me.

I added the video linked above (30 second version with sound) to my splashscreens folder. Using the Retropie setup menu I selected my video splashscreen. Please note that when I preview the splashscreen from this menu it runs just fine to completion.

I reboot my Pi and the splashscreen runs to about halfway when it appears to 'glitch' out before going to a black screen. It occasionally reappears for moments before going dark again. The emulationstation splash does not show and the next screen I see is the emulation station main menu.

From what I can discern the emulation station splash is interfering with my video. However, the WIKI says:

"OMXPlayer is coded to play on the highest layer of the framebuffer while EmulationStation loads up, so you no longer have to worry about EmulationStation cutting in front of your video before the video finishes. This way your video can be as long or as short as you want it to be"

Ignoring this bullet point I followed advice from another article (all references linked above) to:

"edit /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh and above emulationstation add
while pgrep omxplayer >/dev/null; do sleep 1; done"

Great. Now my video plays to completion but I have more logging appearing than I did before. Most notably I see text in between my custom video splashscreen and the emulationstation splashscreen. Annoying. I thought this may be because of a failure notification I was getting from the USBRomService. I had it disabled but I ended up just removing the whole thing. Error message gone, boot messages still appear.

In an effort to get rid of this text I start looking for silent boot options for the retropie. This led me to make the following change (again based on a reference linked above):

edit /boot/cmdline.txt
change all console=tty1 replace it with console=tty3
added quiet loglevel=3 logo.nologo to the end of the line
changed any loglevels to 3

There seem to be fewer messages, but there are still some being displayed both before my custom splash video, and worse, in between my custom video and the emulationstation splash.

Here is the text I see in between the custom splash and the emulationstation loading splash:

Raspbian GPU/Linux 0 retropie tty1 **note i set tty1 to tty3 in the cmdline.txt

retropie login: pi (automatic login)
last login: blah blah on tty1
Linux Retropie 4.4.38-v7* #938 ...(etc) *** does this sound right? I updated setup script and all installed stuff after install.

The programs included with the Debian GMU....(etc)

Debian GMU/Linux come with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extend permitted by applicable law.

Questions:

What is the correct way for me to add my video splash without it glitching out halfway through? I thought the version I am running should support this native without me hacking files?
How can I get rid of the boot text? In particular the boot text between the splashscreens is driving me bananas. I don't really care if there is some startup text before my splash but once the video starts playing that should be the end of the console messages.
Bonus question: I see there is a splashscreen randomizer. Does this work for videos too? Is there a way to randomize multiple splashscreen videos? I have five ~30 second splashscreen videos and i'd like to see one at random each boot if possible.

Thank you! Any and all help is greatly appreciated. I followed numerous guides and tried (And rolled back) some solutions not mentioned here to no avail. I am concerned much of the information I am finding and applying may be outdated. Thanks again for your help!

zoop

UPDATE:

Following the advice outlined in this thread:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/4653/splashscreen-video-not-playing-entire-video/7

I modified my config.txt to change the following:

#disable_overscan=1
to
disable_overscan=1

I also reverted the changes to:

"edit /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh and above emulationstation add
while pgrep omxplayer >/dev/null; do sleep 1; done"

removing the while pgrep....

The result is my videos now play and are not interrupted. Furthermore I do not see boot text between my custom splash and the emulationstation splash. In fact, the emulationstation splash never appears. This is actually a desired side effect as many of the splash videos have the emulationstation logo built in already.

Now, I have a few questions:

Is this the correct approach to take? Are there any negatives? Are the situations where this will not work?
I am still struggling with the randomizer. My splashscreens are on my thumb drive. I play my games from there and dont have any issues setting a single splashscreen. However when I turn on the randomizer i get a black screen followed by the emulationstation loading screen... Any assistance here would be super helpful!

herb_fargus

@zoop a few thoughts:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/7826/use-usb-automount-and-loading-splashscreens-from-sd-card-possible

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/7739/video-splash-screen-problems

I haven't tried from a usb but hopefully those posts will give you something to play with. interesting the overscan thing fixed it. I guess I've always had it disabled so I never noticed.

If its working for you then I don't see why there is any problem with your implementation.

zoop

@herb_fargus said in Video Splash and Silent Boot:

@zoop a few thoughts:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/7826/use-usb-automount-and-loading-splashscreens-from-sd-card-possible

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/7739/video-splash-screen-problems

I haven't tried from a usb but hopefully those posts will give you something to play with. interesting the overscan thing fixed it. I guess I've always had it disabled so I never noticed.

If its working for you then I don't see why there is any problem with your implementation.

Thanks for the reply. The first link you provided offered a decent solution. It seems the trouble is in randomizing from the USB. When running a single video it has never failed, but it just wouldn't work with the randomizer.

That said, following the advice in the article I moved my videos to the /opt/retropie/supplementary/splashscreen/ folder and deleted the default splashscreens I don't want and everything seems to be in order.

On usb the folder is named splashscreens. I will eliminate the plural as a test but doubt that is the issue because the folder is displayed as a selection and appears correct. The good news is I don't plan on changing the splashscreens too frequently so this solution will work for now.

Thanks again! I hope this thread helps someone else.