Simple Raspberry Pi movie control

[More Pi Please]

I've been having a lot of trouble figuring out a simple way to control a movie on the Pi.

Pyomxplayer didn't work for me. And Pi Presents looks great, but is way more than I needed.

So I thought I would start this thread dedicated to just doing simple movie control.


The easiest I've found so far is using the Pexpect Python module:

http://pexpect.sourceforge.net/pexpect.html
http://www.noah.org/wiki/Pexpect

Easy to install, and pure Python.

And here is some basic code to use it for movie control:
(tested on a 60 second long movie)

Code: Select all

import pexpect
import time



# Location of movie here
flocal = '/home/pi/Fun/test.mp4'


c = pexpect.spawn('/usr/bin/omxplayer ' + flocal)
c.expect ('Video')

# start paused
time.sleep(.4) #.4 was the shortest time that worked on my Pi
c.send ('p') # pause


time.sleep(4) # wait 4 seconds
c.send ('p') # play


# jumps to start while playing. If paused before jump, seems longer
time.sleep(4)
c.send ('i') # jumps to start of movie


time.sleep(4)
c.send ('\x1b[C') # jump ahead 30 seconds


time.sleep(4)
c.send ('\x1b[D') # jump back 30 seconds


# have not tested these commented lines
'''
time.sleep(4)
c.send ('\x1b[A') # seek +600 seconds

time.sleep(4)
c.send ('\x1b[B') # seek -600 seconds

time.sleep(4)
c.send ('=') # increase volume

time.sleep(4)
c.send ('-') # decrease volume
'''


time.sleep(4)
c.send ('q') # quit the player




'''     1                  decrease speed
        2                  increase speed
        z                  show info
        j                  previous audio stream
        k                  next audio stream
        i                  previous chapter
        o                  next chapter
        n                  previous subtitle stream
        m                  next subtitle stream
        s                  toggle subtitles
        d                  decrease subtitle delay (- 250 ms)
        f                  increase subtitle delay (+ 250 ms)
        q                  exit omxplayer
        p / space          pause/resume
        -                  decrease volume
        + / =              increase volume
        left arrow         seek -30 seconds
        right arrow        seek +30 seconds
        down arrow         seek -600 seconds
        up arrow           seek +600 seconds'''

Hopefully omxplayer will get better in future versions.

Things like:
jump to a specific frame and play or pause
specific playback speed and direction


My current question: is there any way to stop the black screen that occurs for a moment when seeking or changing chapters? It is distracting.

Best would be if it would hold its last frame until the next one is shown.

Also, is there a good way to jump from the movie to an image, and then maybe back?

Thank you : )


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