Using a boot video on startup

[freeki]

Hi Guys!

I am new to retropi and i am just about to set everything up nicely :)
I am not new to Linux tho….

What i am currently trying to archive is to use a boot video on start up.
I already have one available. It is in mov format.

But some how, it seems i don’t get it to work here.
I am already searching this blog for help on this topic, but there where SO MANY changes going on with retort, that i totally lost track of it.

Is someone please able to give me a very brief tut on how to archive this with the latest version (which is 3.0 i assume) ??

Help would be very much appreciated!
I guess sftp and shell access should be sufficient to archive this, right?!

Best regards,
Marc

[herbfargus]

So step one:

Update setup script

Re-enable autostart emulationstation from the setup script (this will allow the video to play through all the way without emulationstation cutting it off)

Some have had issues with .mov files so you may need to convert your video to something like .mp4 with vlc or handbrake. H.264 has been a codec that has worked for me.

Then you’ll create a folder called video or something like that in /home/retropie/splashscreens and drop your movie in there then you should be able to select it from the splashscreen menu in the retropie menu.

[herbfargus]

made a wiki page for it.

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/splashscreen

[Crumb]

How exactly do I add videos to use as splashscreens? I’ve downloaded two from this site and I can’t get either to work.

I’ve just updated to 3.1 and I can’t set this, at all. I’m at the splashscreen menu and have set it to run on boot. Option 2 says to put custom screens in “configs/splashscreens”. Selecting that option takes me to another screen that says “There are no splashscreens installed in /home/pi/Retropie/splashscreens”

Which is it meant to be? I’ve put videos in both folders and rebooted but nothing shows up when I go back through to that menu.

[herbfargus]

So you created a folder and put the video in it?

/home/pi/RetroPie/splashscreens/video/yourvideo.mp4

[Crumb]

So apparently I’d missed the bit where each file needs to be in a separate folder.

Have it sorted now (well, aside from some controller issues since updating but that’s for another post).

[herbfargus]

I tested it out tonight: you can also access the splashscreens folder over samba shares (once you restart samba shares from the setup script)

[koffieleut]

But ca I still set a layer over the video so that the EmulationStaion logo is on the background instead of ontop of my video?

[herbfargus]

Not that I know of.

[smithers]

Hi. Sorry for digging up an old(ish) post, however I have a boot video related question!

I am setting up a fresh install using the latest image – 3.2.1 – and have managed to add my boot video in the normal manner and it works. Happy days! However, the boot process seems to pause to allow the video to play in full, then it goes to a brief terminal screen and then displays the white Emulation Station ‘loading’ screen. It never used to do this in the previous version I had set up (v3). Is there a way I can revert it back to how it was before? The reason being is that my boot video is designed to be a smooth transition into the ES loading screen and this spoils the effect! :(

I have tried lengthening my video but it always allows the video to run its full course before continuing to load ES. I would like it to load in the background whilst my video plays. Hope this makes sense?

Is this possible?

Cheers.
Steve

[smithers]

Ahaaa! Instead of being lazy I should have read your Wiki page before I posted, as the answer was right there!

By default it is coded to play the video all the way through before emulationstation loads, no matter how long the video- for a raspberry pi 1 a good video time is ~20-40 seconds, for the rpi 2 a good video time is ~5-10 seconds. if you wish to have emulationstation cut off your video as to make a seamless boot sequence you need to edit /etc/profile.d/10-emulationstation.sh and delete the first line from this:

while pgrep omxplayer &>/dev/null; do sleep 1; done
[ “tty” = “/dev/tty1” ] && emulationstation

so it looks like this:

[ “tty” = “/dev/tty1” ] && emulationstation

Just tried it and it worked fine, thanks! :) Please ignore my question above!

All the best.
Steve

[herbfargus]

Glad you got it sorted. good to see at least one person reads the wiki ;)

[smithers]

Haha, yes I should probably read more of it actually. I have a bad habit of trying to figure things out myself, which can take forever. I suppose its just part of being a man – not reading instruction manuals! ;)

[Anonymous]

Hello i setup ultimate raspbian with retropie 3.1, raspbian jessie and Kodi im going through the usual process for video splashscreen but i get nothing, it just load straight into ES. Even the normal splashscreen does not show. is there something im missing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Ok i saw what was wrong the execute permissions on the aslashscreen files was set to nobody but now I’m getting an video failed to load at the splashsreen

[Anonymous]

Ok got the video failed to load issue file was an .m4v file not an mp4. Mp4 seem to only work.

[joystickhero]

This thread seems appropriate to ask my overly picky question. I’m wondering if there’s a way to allow full videos to play, but then go directly to the emulationstation splash. I’m currently using a bunch of random joke videos on boot, each a different length than the last, and as much as I want a seamless load I don’t want to interrupt the video.

I know seeing the terminal for a couple seconds is hardly the end of the world, but it’d be cool to avoid. Any help would be awesome, even if it’s just to say it’s not possible.

[synack]

You can issue a clear command while omxplayer is playing the video.

edit the following
sudo nano /etc/profile.d/10-emulationstation.sh

insert this above the other lines
[ "$(tty)" = "/dev/tty1" ] && clear

[herbfargus]

it’s already been fixed and will be part of the latest retropie release (which will hopefully be in the next month or 2) but for now you can either do a backup, then do a full binary install, or you can manually edit your asplashscreen to look like this (you’ll also still need to edit the autostart script as well: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/blob/dd6e871d8f2d652fc10aa06824a0182939301d69/scriptmodules/supplementary/splashscreen/asplashscreen#L21

the layer command essentially puts the video on the topmost layer in front of everything.

[joystickhero]

Thanks for the quick replies! If it’s something that’ll be fixed in the next release, I think I’ll just wait for that, rather than messing around with system files that’ll likely be replaced by the update. Cheers!

[zangashtu]

Anyone help?

After I select the video folder in “Select custom splashscreen” and it says splashscreen set to video, I reboot my Pie and when its booting I notice the code …splashscreens/video not found. If i Winscp to my Pie I find the folder I created deleted. Any suggestions?

[labelwhore]

Well, the file and folder shouldn’t be deleted, but as a workaround, just change permissions on them, so that they’re not writable. That will at least keep them from being deleted, idk if it will make it play. That really depends on what the cause of the deletion is to begin with, because that should not be happening.

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