Ghost Overlay / OMXPlayerTransparency

Reotch2

@nobita @jasondreher So… I’m not what they call a “coder”… haha. I wish I knew how to write javascript, but the best I can do is re-purpose everyone else’s modules. Put simply, I looked into using an I-Frame, or MMM-Podcast, but had trouble referencing a local video file. After having NO success adding a video player module, I decided to run a transparent full-screen video on–top of the magic mirror page, which actually worked better than I hoped. Although the black portions of the video dim the modules slightly, the way the white portions interact with the modules beneath it adds a certain cool-factor.

After some trial and error… I did the following:

Bought the “Ghostly Apparitions” DVD at a local thrift shop. Amazon link
Combined the highest resolution vertical scenes into a single m4v.
Edited the node_player.js for MMM-PIR-Sensor to include omxplayer. This ensures that when the screen is activated, the video is played with the appropriate flags.
exec(“/opt/vc/bin/tvservice --preferred && chvt 6 && chvt 7”, null); exec(“omxplayer ~/Videos/Ghost.m4v --alpha 80”)
Alternatively, you can just modify the start script to continuously loop the ghost video of your choosing.

If you need any further details, feel free to ask. But again, I’m a tinkerer… and I’m sure there are 1000 better ways to do this, but this works for me.

-Rich

Reotch2

@Nystro0m I’ll definitely give this a shot. I’m using a local file and previously had issues because of JS sandboxing. Not sure how I missed this module, this may be what I’ve been looking for. I’ll report back if it works.

Reotch2

This post is deleted!

Reotch2

@Nystro0m said in Ghost Overlay / OMXPlayerTransparency:

@Reotch2 Have you tried to make the position of the module behind the modules, or play it as a background? So the other modules is on top?
In that case you dont need any alpha.
Position the module with OMXPlayer:
fullscreen_below

Also this module may help with that, if you could trigger the module with PIR:
https://github.com/brobergp/MMM-htmlvideo

@Nystro0m Is there a workaround to reference a local file? I’m running the same issue I did with MMM-Podcast.

Reotch2

@jasondreher Running a pi3, no overclock.

pyrosmiley

@Reotch2 I actually just was dealing with something similar trying to get that module to work as a background!

Right now I have just a picture instead, but it should be the same idea. Put the video file somewhere on the MagicMirror directory - my image is in the CSS file but it doesn’t matter where. That way it’s included in what’s accessible on MM’s webserver that it starts. That way, in the config, you can specify the URL for the file! On mine, the picture bg.jpg is in the CSS folder, so my file listed in the config is "http://127.0.0.1:8080/css/bg.jpg".

The biggest issue with this is that AFAIK it’s liable to get erased in updates to the MagicMirror framework, since I’m pretty sure the only two files that don’t get touched are config.js and custom.css. I’m also pretty sure that someone smarter than I has figured out a great way to get around that. BUt, since it’s just for halloween it’s probably temporary anyways so hopefully this gets you up and going.
PS that is a cool as hell idea!

cowboysdude

@Reotch2 would be cool if you could package up what you have to share ;)

Nystro0m

@Reotch2
Make it a .mp4 with a h.264 codec.
Make a folder in your module called videos.

videoSRC: "/videos/YOURVIDEONAME.mp4",
loop: true,

You could also try:
http://127.0.0.1:8080/modules/MMM-htmlvideo/videos/YOURVIDEONAME.mp4

If that don’t work. Put it on a fileshare somewhere.
Maybe drive or dropbox could work if the share settings is public.

A

Reotch2

@Nystro0m This finally worked. Unfortunately, it turns out running the video as a module within electron is super “clunky” on my RPI-3. OMXplayer seemed to play the video flawlessly.

It’s really unfortunate, because although it was choppy, it was BEAUTIFUL. Are there any overclocking options or MM tweaks that may improve embedded video quality? (yes… now I’m getting greedy).

Also, as an amateur mirror-ist(?), how would I have found the MMM-htmlvideo since it wasn’t published on the module page?

Really appreciate the help

Reotch2

@cowboysdude I’d really love to, and in my younger/bolder days it’d probably already be posted; unfortunately it’s not worth risking the Copyright issues. Sorry man.

Reotch2

@pyrosmiley said in Ghost Overlay / OMXPlayerTransparency:

@Reotch2 I actually just was dealing with something similar trying to get that module to work as a background!

Right now I have just a picture instead, but it should be the same idea. Put the video file somewhere on the MagicMirror directory - my image is in the CSS file but it doesn’t matter where. That way it’s included in what’s accessible on MM’s webserver that it starts. That way, in the config, you can specify the URL for the file! On mine, the picture bg.jpg is in the CSS folder, so my file listed in the config is "http://127.0.0.1:8080/css/bg.jpg".

The biggest issue with this is that AFAIK it’s liable to get erased in updates to the MagicMirror framework, since I’m pretty sure the only two files that don’t get touched are config.js and custom.css. I’m also pretty sure that someone smarter than I has figured out a great way to get around that. BUt, since it’s just for halloween it’s probably temporary anyways so hopefully this gets you up and going.
PS that is a cool as hell idea!

@pyrosmiley This was the fix. You and @Nystro0m nailed it. Unfortunately after all that work, the video gets choppy when run within MM. I’m going to toy with some of my RPI-3 overclock settings, but if that doesn’t work, I’m just going to stick with OMXPlayer and dimmed modules. :(

Thanks for the help.

pyrosmiley

@Reotch2 If you’re still shooting for this, I HIGHLY recommend using ffmpeg to convert the clip to .webm format, which was developed for web streaming video — it’s crazy efficient with file size and perfect for this type of thing. If you’ve never used ffmpeg before it can be daunting, but the gist of what you do is ‘’’ffmpeg -i .mp4 -o .webm’’’ and then let it do its thing. It may take some googling to get exactly the settings you want but a basic conversion should do pretty well for you.

Good luck!

pyrosmiley

@pyrosmiley said in Ghost Overlay / OMXPlayerTransparency:

@Reotch2 If you’re still shooting for this, I HIGHLY recommend using ffmpeg to convert the clip to .webm format, which was developed for web streaming video — it’s crazy efficient with file size and perfect for this type of thing. If you’ve never used ffmpeg before it can be daunting, but the gist of what you do is ‘’’ffmpeg -i .mp4 -o .webm’’’ and then let it do its thing. It may take some googling to get exactly the settings you want but a basic conversion should do pretty well for you.

Good luck!

Formatting got messed up on my phone but the ffmpeg command is ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -o output.webm

It should work just fine, I literally did it for my mirror today.

Nystro0m

@Reotch2
Have you tried to convert your ghost.mp4 to your native screen resolution?
I think the pi will have a hard time to do the scale conversion live.

If you dont have the software for it, i can help you out.

Reotch2

@pyrosmiley I converted the M4V to .webm using ffmpeg (incredible tool btw). Unfortunately, it’s still super choppy. @Nystro0m in a later post suggested converting it to the native resolution, so that will be the next step. That’ll be my last attempt before I stick with the semi-transparent OMXPlayer. My kid is only 11 months old, so I’ve got a couple years before it needs to be “perfect” to scare the hell out of him.

You guys have been awesome. Thanks for all the continued help.

Nystro0m

@Reotch2
Is you other widgets also laggy chunky?
Im thinking about the transitions on the RSS module etc.

Reotch2

@Nystro0m I have minimal transitions on the screen (weather, newsfeed, clock). It looks like there is an occasional hiccup on the newsfeed, but otherwise, no issues. My front door cam is kind of a cluster and naturally clunky because it’s a non-rtsp feed, so I’m stuck doing snapshots every 500ms to give ma a “live” picture. Thinking this may be the culprit, I disabled it in the config.js to verify it wasn’t the one killing the video.

I like where you’re headed though. (top) is showing two electron processes, is that normal? The highest processor abusers are Electron # 1 / Electron # 2 / XORG.

Mykle1

@Reotch2 said in Ghost Overlay / OMXPlayerTransparency:

it turns out running the video as a module within electron is super “clunky” on my RPI-3.

What version combination of MM and Electron are you running? We’ve had great success eliminating excessive Electron CPU usage with MM v2.1.0 and Electron v1.4.15 on Pi3 B’s, and just recently, a Pi2 as well.

Obviously, the results are at the end of the topic

https://forum.magicmirror.builders/topic/4684/electron-cpu-usage

Reotch2

@Mykle1 said in Ghost Overlay / OMXPlayerTransparency:

What version combination of MM and Electron are you running? We’ve had great success eliminating excessive Electron CPU usage with MM v2.1.0 and Electron v1.4.15 on Pi3 B’s, and just recently, a Pi2 as well.

Obviously, the results are at the end of the topic

https://forum.magicmirror.builders/topic/4684/electron-cpu-usage

Unsure on electron (kinda hard to find a version). But I’m running 2.1.2, and still running Jessie. I should have some more time MUCH later today to tinker. I’ll use the steps on page 15 of that thread for a clean install and report back. Do any of these combinations allow GPU usage within electron? As always, appreciate the help.

-Rich

Nystro0m

@Reotch2
I got helped with this yesterday from Mykle and i went from 80-100% cpu usage to 2-45% cpu usage.
The biggest difference was by downgrading electron to 1.4.15.
But running MM 2.1.0 instead of 2.1.2 also made a improvement.

How to downgrade electron
Navigate to your home folder, from here delete all maps including electron. there should be two:
.electron & .electron-glpyh.
Navigate to you node-modules inside MM.

§ cd ~/MagicMirror/node_modules

Uninstall electron by

§ sudo npm uninstall electron

install electron with desired version in this case 1.4.15 by:

§ sudo npm install electron@1.4.15

Now open file manager or navigate to “~/MagicMirror/node_modules/electron” and look in package.json
Here you can confirm your version number of electron.

How to downgrade MagicMirror
If you want to downgrade your MM version you will need to make a new install.
I would suggest everyone doing this to NOT delete it BEFORE you have made a backup.

You can find MM 2.1.0 here (thanks to Mykle for providing me with link):
https://github.com/MichMich/MagicMirror/archive/v2.1.0.zip.

Unpack the zip in you home folder, and rename it to MagicMirror
then just run npm install from the folder.

§ cd ~/MagicMirror/
§ npm install

Note: You will need to re-install electron 1.4.15 after the clean install of MM 2.1.0.
Make sure to have everything up and running before you do that.

I did run the gun and needed to redo everything twice.