OMXPlayer default settings change system wide

**Scannigan**

I know a handful of people such as @fieldofcows and @pjft have been tinkering with OMXplayer for video preview and screen saver for ES as well as it being the video player for the built in video player for Retropie, however does anyone know if it's possible to modify the default font path, background and font size for OMXplayer subtitles system wide? I know that if I just add a new font with the same name as the existing font in /usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/ I can change it that way as a quick fix.

Thanks muchly.

pjft

@__Scannigan__

According to the OMX Player site, the font it uses is in

/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/FreeSans.ttf

**Scannigan**

@pjft yeah I've found that but can't seem to find how to change the file path or font size, i know that if i call omxplayer in a script i can assign an alternative file path or set the font size, i assume the screen saver function is compiled with the rest of ES so this would have to be done before it's compiled

pjft

@__Scannigan__ oh, if that's the question, then yes, you are correct.

I am unsure of whether one can change the default OMX Player settings though - worth checking.

What font are you looking into, out of curiosity?

I saw your post on the main thread - I actually owe quite a few people some replies. I've just been hammered with work, sick kid, and a bit of ES work as well on the side, so I've only come here on my mobile these past few days, and replying takes longer:/

**Scannigan**

@pjft there's an 8 bit font i use through my theme and was hoping to add it to the screen saver, whilst also reducing font size and removing the shades background, it's no real bother, I've sorted the font out by just renaming the one i want as the default font omx points to, hope your little one gets better dude

pjft

@__Scannigan__ thanks. Should be getting better in the coming days, it's been a rough week for him these past 7 days, but it's just one of those things young kids get and need to go through to get their immune system in order. The older one doesn't get these things anymore.

That's an interesting take - hadn't considered that customization angle for the different themes. Would you want to share a picture of a video running with your font?

I may consider adding one such setting on the configuration file - I'm not sure that'd be proper for the actual ES menu. Still, that will take a while as I'm now stuck on a few more interesting things in ES land.

I hope to have something to share with the community over the weekend or maybe early next week, depending on how it goes. It should be fun, though.

Hope you're gaming fun with the new set up, though! I'll probably still ask you to test a few things if possible - I'll reply on the main thread tomorrow on my laptop.

**Scannigan**

@pjft not a problem dude happy to help, I'll post a video tomorrow, i show you it over the screensaver :)

**Scannigan**

@__Scannigan__ subtitle example

As promised @pjft as you can see I've changed the subtitle by replacing the default font, with new font just renamed as the font that needed replacing, as you can see the font size is rather large :)

pjft

I see - thanks!

It is quite a wide font, so I can tell that's not going to work out well as it currently is :)

A suggestion, in the meantime: would considering a thin-width 8-bit pixel font be something you would be open to?

I imagine that, for the current font width, we'd probably have to reduce the size in half to make it fit, but then it would perhaps not be that readable? Try it out manually and see what would work for you, just out of curiosity. Might be easier to test different fonts.

The command, if you want to try, is

omxplayer  --layer 10010 --no-osd --aspect-mode letterbox --font-size 55 --subtitles /home/pi/tmp_sub/subtitle.srt <path to one of your videos - ex: /home/pi/RetroPie/where you store videos/video.mp4  >

Mind you, I'm not setting a font size - 55 is the default.

Also, you should have a subtitle file somewhere - in this case I'm using /home/pi/tmp_sub/subtitle.srt as an example.

You can create one there by doing

Exit EmulationStation
Create a fake subtitle file

cd /home/pi
mkdir tmp_sub
nano subtitle.srt

and paste there

1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:08,000
Test Game
<i>Test System</i>

2
00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:35,000
Test Game
<i>Test System</i>

exit with Ctrl+X, and Y(es)

pjft

@__Scannigan__ Have you managed to sort out your captions, and are you happy with them? Just checking :)

**Scannigan**

@pjft Haven't tried yet, had a manic couple of days. Just to clarify, what you've suggested is a way to test new fonts to replace the existing default, but won't actually allow me change font size, borders, etc

pjft

@__Scannigan__ Kind of correct.

It's a way for you to see if there's any font that would work well with your theme at the current size, or whether the font you selected at a different size would be preferable, after you test it out.

Best.

**Scannigan**

@pjft Actually just tried it and those fonts you linked to were perfect, found a nice teeny one which fitted really well, thanks for all your help

pjft

Great to hear :)

**Scannigan**

@pjft Just had a thought bud, if I upgrade ES I'll lose the screensaver won't I?

pjft

@__Scannigan__ yeah, you'll lose screensaver, OMX Player and random game selection (via screensaver). Unfortunately that is indeed the case. Anything in particular you're looking for from the main build?

**Scannigan**

@pjft the carousel theme mod more than anything, but I'm sure it will all get merged eventually

pjft

@__Scannigan__ yeah, that's the hope. I figured that'd be the case - @Zigurana and @jdrassa (I believe - maybe I'm confusing people) did a tremendous work there.

The new work in doing is based on the main branch, so future developments won't suffer from so many delays, I hope :)

Unfortunately, though, it has nothing to do with videos or screensaver, but hopefully it'll be useful for the community :) I've been fairly stick at work and little spare time at home, so it is taking a bit more time than I expected.

Sorry for the news:/

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft @Scannigan I think that there are a lot of new changes in ES dealing with Themeing that have been released. The modifications have some effect on how themes are created and perform between the old ES and the new updates. I have found some of these by taking my created theme and installing them side by side on 2 separate builds, one with your updated screensaver build and one with the most current ES. The 3 biggest difference i have found so far are :

fixes to the white screen of death, i have issues with white screen in my custom build on the screensaver ES, those issues do not exist on the updated ES.
maxSize has been added to video views in themes. When i put my video view that is sized without the maxSize ability in the screensaver ES into the new updated ES the videos and images shift and are not longer sized correctly, this is most evident in videos and images stretching to fill the size ratio instead of just resizing to the maxSize while maintaining ratios. This means my themes will not work for everyone else who has updated.
The carousel release - this is absolutely cool! How to decide between carousel and screen savers? Current solution is 2 builds, one for my arcade cabinet, one for the TV....The TV doesn't get video screen savers :(

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy

should be fixed by increasing your VRAM or video split. There was a request to actually reduce the VRAM split for testing, for @Scannigan - if you would be able to test that that'd be great! Unfortunately videos from the screensaver do increase the memory consumption. Not much I can do there.
the max size changes don't seem to be awfully complicated, hopefully. I could consider looking into putting that, but honestly that feels like swimming upstream. I'd rather wait on the video screensaver to make it to the main branch.
the carousel is a tremendous feature. This one I doubt I'd port it over. Too big an effort.

We'll see what the future brings:)