Pi Presents: Beta of a major upgrade now available

[KenT]

I have made a number of improvements to Pi Presents

A Beta test version is available at for you to try at https://github.com/KenT2/pipresents-next

I would appreciate any comments about the useability of the new features and any bugs, either here or on Github.

Improvements include:

AUDIO PLAYER
New audioplayer which will play audio tracks without affecting the display, uses MPlayer
Audio tracks can be sent to left or right speakers or stereo.
Audio tracks can have associate images and text.
Volume of a track can be set.

ANIMATION and GPIO
New animation subsystem, turn GPIO on or off synchronised with tracks
GPIO is now fully configurable, assign pins to buttons, trigger inputs, or animation outputs

TIME OF DAY TRIGGERS
Time of day triggers for liveshow and mediashow, start a show at a time of day, end a show after a period of time or at a time of day.
When waiting for time of day can display the time of the next show.

CONCURRENCY
Can now play two or more shows simultaneously
Control keys and buttons can be disabled for chosen shows.

MESSAGES
Messages can now have background images or text.

FULL SCREEN
Simplified setup and use of fullscreen - thanks tjaehnel

SHUFFLE
Tracks in mediashow and liveshow can now be shuffled

VIDEOPLAYER
Provision in the editor for seamless looping (waiting for omxplayer to be upgraded)
Provision in editor for windowed videos (waiting for omxplayer to be upgraded)
Added .m4v to video types
Volume of a track can now be set

MEDIASHOW
Enhanced triggering - moving to the next track can now be triggered by GPIO

Enjoy
Ken

[dpguest]

Sounds great ... can't wait to try it ... probably on Thursday of this week...

[dpguest]

From reading the doumentation it looks like I can do the following:

1) record a bunch of short audio blurbs.

2) associate each blurb with an image.

3) set up pipresents to run the audio blurbs in the proper sequence.

The result would be an audio driven teaching show... much like a web tutorial ... only running endlessly on a TV ...

What a great way to teach our physicians how to use the computer based Electronic Health Records stuff... Just run this 24/7 in the doctor's lounge...

boy ... am I excited...

thanks Ken

[KenT]

If you really must torture your Doctors with Electronic Health Records 24 hours a day, then yes. Unusual word Physician, I'm guessing you are in the US, Canada, maybe Australia. Time difference suggests US!

It would be rather nice to be able to associate an audio track with a show then then one audio track could play through several slides. Alternatively one show could trigger another with the same effect. I'll put it on my todo list.

[sjmason7777]

Hello Ken,

Any idea when transitions besides "cut" will be available? Also, is there a way to display images so they are full screen like the video (or match the same size window as the video) in a mixed media presentation?

Thanks for all your hard work!

Steve

[KenT]

Hello Ken,

Any idea when transitions besides "cut" will be available? Also, is there a way to display images so they are full screen like the video (or match the same size window as the video) in a mixed media presentation?

Thanks for all your hard work!

Steve

Fades other than cut are likely to be some way off. It looks like I need to use the GPU and OpenGLES to do them as the ARM processor is not fast enough. It seems to take about a second to manipulate a 1 megapixel image and a fade really needs at least 12 frames/sec.

To display images full screen you need to resize the images offline to the pixel size of your screen. Pi Presents does not do any resizing for the speed reason above, however when I use OpenGLES it might be possible.

[eNORm]

Hi,

First, thanks for the great work you've done.

I have some questions though, after RTFM

GPIO:

Maybe it's me but what is PIR?
Are the pin codes the same as acording to this cheat sheet?


I thought I could not use all the GPIO pins listed in the manual for input from ie buttons?

Any way, I plan to use it for this:

I want a black box setup. That's pretty much done. Then I want a 'Menu' with five elements. Each element representing a movie. Then, when someone hits a button. The video starts. As long as the video is playing. Hiting any button returns to the 'Menu'. Is this doable now? Maybe I missunderstood something. I dont have any resistors to protect my Pi, so want to be sure to do it right the first time

Anyway, thanks again.

By the way. Would Qt be a nice library to make the whole thing run in Open GL?
http://qt-project.org/wiki/RaspberryPi

A webserver running on the Pi would also be nice to do configs and upload data, for the n00bs

Anyway, thanks for the work. Will be using it in a professional manner in the future.

-fredrik-

[KenT]

>GPIO:

>Maybe it's me but what is PIR?

Passive Infrared movement detector. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_infrared_sensor

> Are the pin codes the same as according to this cheat sheet?

The pin codes in the manual are the physical pin numbers, the numbers in the black circles in the image.

>I thought I could not use all the GPIO pins listed in the manual for input from ie buttons?
Yes you can


>I want a black box setup. That's pretty much done. Then I want a 'Menu' with five elements. Each element representing a movie. Then, when someone hits >a button. The video starts. As long as the video is playing. Hitting any button returns to the 'Menu'. Is this doable now? Maybe I mis-understood something.
No you cannot do this at the moment. It needs a special type of menu or an addition to the existing one. I have added to to

Added request to Github https://github.com/KenT2/pipresents/issues/11

>I dont have any resistors to protect my Pi, so want to be sure to do it right the first time
Just be careful.

>By the way. Would Qt be a nice library to make the whole thing run in Open GL?
http://qt-project.org/wiki/RaspberryPi
I am hoping to do some of the image manipulation using Pi3D.

>A webserver running on the Pi would also be nice to do configs and upload data, for the n00bs
The aim was that networks are not required. I hope to do a bash script for configs.

>Anyway, thanks for the work. Will be using it in a professional manner in the future.
Read the licence if you are using it professionally.

[PatD]

Firstly, thanks so much for this great program. Pi Presents Next was a lifesaver for me working as a technical advisor on an art installation.
My question is whether there is a way to get rid of the "loading" text that pops up just before the video plays. Is this a Pi Presents thing or omxplayer based?

Also, when using PPN as a black box, I had some issues with starting and stopping the video. Once a video/mediashow was stopped for the first time it wouldn't play again. I was using a momentary double throw switch that played the video when pushed down and stoppe it when released. I worked around this by routing the "play"/closed state to both pin 18 "play" and pin 16 "up".

Congratulations and thank you again for making such a fantastic program. PPN will be used a part of the Wagnerlicht light and sound installation that opens at the Sydney Vivid Festival on May 22 and then travels the world from there!

[KenT]

> My question is whether there is a way to get rid of the "loading" text that pops up just before the video plays. Is this a Pi Presents thing or omxplayer based?

Its Pi Presents, just edit the resources.cfg file. See Section 9.2 of the manual.

> Also, when using PPN as a black box, I had some issues with starting and stopping the video. Once a video/mediashow was stopped for the first time it wouldn't play again. I was using a momentary double throw switch that played the video when pushed down and stoppe it when released. I worked around this by routing the "play"/closed state to both pin 18 "play" and pin 16 "up".

Sounds worth investigating, I have PM'ed you to ask for the profile.

[gizmoCraig]

Hi Ken,

So far I really like Pipresents, but I'm stuck with a small puzzle I can't solve.

I have a kiosk display with four video tracks. Each video is supposed to play when a button is pressed.
4 videos, and 4 buttons - one for each.

I want to start videos on demand from a blank screen. For example if the user presses button 3 I want video three to start. If there is another video in progress I want that one to stop and the new video to start (interrupting the current video).

For the life of me I can't find a way to make this happen. The best I can do is to make the videos play in sequence when a button is pressed, switching backward or forward in the list.

Do you have any clues for me to solve this?

Thanks Much

Craig

[KenT]

Hi Ken,

I have a kiosk display with four video tracks. Each video is supposed to play when a button is pressed.
4 videos, and 4 buttons - one for each.

I want to start videos on demand from a blank screen. For example if the user presses button 3 I want video three to start. If there is another video in progress I want that one to stop and the new video to start (interrupting the current video).

Craig

You can't at the moment. A number of people have asked for this and it's the next thing I will add.

Watch this thread for an announcement, timescale depends on the weather

Ken

[gizmoCraig]

Hi Ken,


You can't at the moment. A number of people have asked for this and it's the next thing I will add.

Watch this thread for an announcement, timescale depends on the weather

Ken

Many thanks,

My company, Gizmo Art Production, develops museum content, displays, art pieces and installations. We really need an application like this. So I look forward to supporting your efforts on a professional level in the near future.

-Craig

[KenT]

I have just uploaded an update to Pi Presents beta. This release includes 'show control' in which a Control Track in one show can stop or start another concurrent show.

It's initial use is to stop an audio background to a mediashow while a video is played, but there is likely to be many other uses.

As before read the release notes as you will need to update the profiles.

Enjoy
Ken

[dpguest]

The show control is perfect .... It has allowed me to produce the presentation exactly as I want it to be.

I do not include the audio in the start segment. Instead I use an audio start command as the first track of my show ... This plays music in the background while I show slides and messages.

Then I use a show control stop audio command and start a video ... The video plays and its sound works properly.

After the video I start the audio again with an audio start show control.

The show continues with music in the background and slides and messages.

At the end of the show, I use a Stop Audio show control....

The show then repeats with the audio starting at the beginning.

It produces a wonderful presentation.

Thanks Ken for an absolutely brilliant product ....

[mohog]

I am having trouble getting pipresents or pipresents-next to auto run upon boot. I receive an error message: The command line options specified a profile that does not exist.

I used section 8.6 of the manual to attempt this. If I copy the line of text out of the auto start file and paste it in to a terminal window it will run.

also I am needing some help stringing multiple arguments together to make the screen not blank and go full screen.

here is the line that works from the terminal but the screen is not full and it blanks out.

python /home/pi/pipresents/pipresents.py -p pp_liveshow

[KenT]

I am having trouble getting pipresents or pipresents-next to auto run upon boot. I receive an error message: The command line options specified a profile that does not exist.

I used section 8.6 of the manual to attempt this. If I copy the line of text out of the auto start file and paste it in to a terminal window it will run.

also I am needing some help stringing multiple arguments together to make the screen not blank and go full screen.

here is the line that works from the terminal but the screen is not full and it blanks out.

python /home/pi/pipresents/pipresents.py -p pp_liveshow

[/quote]

If you are running pipresents from anywhere other than its directory you have to state the full name of the data home directory

python /home/pi/pipresents/pipresents.py -o /home/pi/pp_home -p pp_liveshow -bf -d

[mohog]

thanks for the quick reply.

tried the line you suggested but it errors out.

pipresents.py: error: argument -f/--fullscreen: invalid choice: 'b' (choose from 'partial', 'left', 'right', 'top', 'bottom')

[mohog]

removed the -bf and ran the line from the terminal and here is the out put in the terminal

Code: Select all

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ python /home/pi/pipresents/pipresents.py -o /home/pi/pp_home -p pp_liveshow -d
0.21   PiPresents   Pi Presents is starting
0.21   PiPresents   Trying pp_home at: /home/pi/pp_home/pp_home 1
1.21   PiPresents   Trying pp_home at: /home/pi/pp_home/pp_home 2
2.21   PiPresents   Trying pp_home at: /home/pi/pp_home/pp_home 3
3.21   PiPresents   Trying pp_home at: /home/pi/pp_home/pp_home 4
4.22   PiPresents   Trying pp_home at: /home/pi/pp_home/pp_home 5
5.22   PiPresents   Trying pp_home at: /home/pi/pp_home/pp_home 6
6.22   PiPresents   Trying pp_home at: /home/pi/pp_home/pp_home 7
7.22   PiPresents   Trying pp_home at: /home/pi/pp_home/pp_home 8
8.22   PiPresents   Trying pp_home at: /home/pi/pp_home/pp_home 9
9.24   ResourceReader   Read resources from /home/pi/pipresents/pp_home/resources.cfg
10.53   MediaShow   Starting show: mymediashow
10.54   MediaShow   Waiting for trigger: start
10.54   MediaShow   Track type is: message
14.13   PiPresents   kill received from user
14.13   PiPresents   kill sent to show
14.14   MediaShow   sent terminate to player
14.19   MessagePlayer   quit received
14.20   MediaShow   Returned from player with message: user quit
14.20   MediaShow   Ending Mediashow: mymediashow
14.20   PiPresents   Returned to piresents with reason: killed and message user quit
14.20   PiPresents   Pi Presents ending with message: user quit
14.20   PiPresents   kill received - exiting

I then get a presenter window that says the command line options specified a profile that does not exist.

I was simply trying to use the stock liveshow (minus the menu options) to show images from the default folder

[KenT]

mohog

My mistake it should be -o /home/pi not -o /home/pi/pp_home

For [pipresents] it should be -f bottom and you need to edit the xml flies and do the other configuration

For [pipresents-next] it should be -f and you do not need edits to the xml file or any of the other configuration, but I don't think it matters if you do.

[mohog]

thank you, it now works.

will the stock liveshow show more than images? for example will it play video clips placed in the same folder?

[KenT]

thank you, it now works.

will the stock liveshow show more than images? for example will it play video clips placed in the same folder?

Video, images, and audio. In [pipresents] audio is played by omxplayer in [pipresents-next] by MPlayer which is better because you do not get a blank screen and a wider range of formats is supported.

Video formats are limited by the codecs supplied with the Raspberry Pi. You can buy more from the Foundation.

[KenT]

I have just uploaded version 1.2.2a of Pi Presents to [pipresents-next]

https://github.com/KenT2/pipresents-next

This is a major revision responding to the many suggestions that people have made. It has two new show types, many improvements to the players, and the beginnings of a system that will allow additional input and output devices to be added.

My thanks to all who have provided ideas for improvement, keep them coming.
Enjoy
Ken

From changelog.txt:
new - hyperlinkshow for touchscreen type shows in museums
new - radiobuttonshow content chooser for kiosks with buttons
new - input subsystem has been completely redesigned to facilitate the addition of new input device drivers.
new - control track has been removed. Show Control is now available in all track types
new - Audio tracks can now have zero duration to allow them to be used solely for animation and show control.
enhancement - omxplayer now plays videos in a window
enhancement - imageplayer images can be scaled to fit in a window
enhancement - messageplayer, position of text can now be specified
enhancement - all track types now have background colour, background images, show text, track text, and animation control
enhancement - track and show text can now be multi-line
enhancement - liveshows now have windows for images and videos, background images, and show text which can be applied to dynamic content.
enhancement - shutdown the Pi or exit Pi Presents using Show Control
enhancement - run-time controls such as volume control for OMXPlayer and MPlayer
enhancement - configuraton files xxx.cfg can now be in a profile or pp_home.
enhancement - GPIO inputs can trigger events on both edges and repeatedly when in a state, fields of gpio.cfg have been modified as a consequence.
enhancement - CTRL-BREAK can be reconfigured to another key.

[DonWright]

I have a project (a few Liveshows and a GPIO-controlled nested Menushow) finishing up this week for use during an expo next week. Is 1.2.2a more stable than 1.2.1d - or otherwise enough improved to justify switching at this late stage? I'm hesitant to go to production with a release a week old. --Don

[KenT]

I have a project (a few Liveshows and a GPIO-controlled nested Menushow) finishing up this week for use during an expo next week. Is 1.2.2a more stable than 1.2.1d - or otherwise enough improved to justify switching at this late stage? I'm hesitant to go to production with a release a week old. --Don

Hi Don
1.2.2a seems as stable as 1.2.1d but I am the only person to have used it and I am very aware of the software developers motto 'give your perfect software to somebody else and they will break it within 5 minutes'. Being able to display images and videos in a window with a background is very nice but for an art installation full screen is probably preferable. The radiobutton show was developed with your keypad in mind if you have it interfaced with the Pi, but its probably a bit late for that.

Its fairly easy to keep 2 versions of everything on the Pi and swap between them so trying the new without ruining the old would be possible. I have all three versions on my Pi so I can answer people's queries.

I would be interested in any photos/videos/news articles of your installation in action for the Pi Presents website. LIz from the Foundation was asking for more exposure of art projects as well.

Also if you get your keypad working I would be interested to know about it. If it needs more software I am happy to develop it as I see a keypad as a prime input source.