Geektoolkit
patreon
August Release, and intro video
🕑 Added 2023-08-08 07:44:59 +0000 UTCWe have the August release ready to go! If you're new please start here...the above video will help you get started quickly, and this doc will get you started with how to use the software:
https://tinyurl.com/Dynaframedoc
Full image (for first timers, or if the updater doesn't work)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cgKj3gdb0e6E9c2F0-buau2KGPkAmojF/view?usp=sharing
If you have a build and want to use a code, you can use the following from the 'store' tab:
piAugDFP-bda14de
Please Read before updating!
This release is again about stability, and one area we've struggled is in video playback. The reality of the Raspberry pi, as we learn it a bit deeper, is that while it 'can' do some things, it doesn't always do them with the best of stability. For instance, it CAN play 60fps videos even though it's outputting 30fps...and eventually what we find is that it gets into a bad state and crashes.
To get stable, this build adds in filters to prevent playback of videos which we've found to crash VLC, or to cause issues. For instance, 4k videos typically play back poorly, so anything over 1080p will get filtered out. In addition, some codecs that have caused us issues in the past will be filtered out.
If your build is working fine...and you point to a NAS drive of videos...I'd skip this release. If you're finding stability issues, this release will hopefully get you to a much better place.
In the next build we're going to add toggles so advanced users can turn these filters off...we ran out of time for this release, but we will always work to allow users the flexibility to do what they want when we can.
Other changes:
There's a number of internal bug fixes for performance and stability. The gesture sensor should work again in this build. The store is revamped and should have much better content...it's also much easier to update so expect more there. Video stability overall is improved, and we'll keep improving it as much as is in our control. One of the toughest things we face is that we are beholden to some other software such as VLC, and any issues it hits, we hit. We don't have a big enough team or charter to write our own video rendering engine, and normally VLC does quite a good job, but we are definitely finding that it has some limitations (I don't think they're VLC's fault honestly, but the combination that is the Raspberry pi chips, the drivers, the decoders, and VLC all working together).
Despite Covid we have done a lot of planning for this month, so hoping to get that going. I'll update mid month with progress as usual and will talk about the direction at that time.
I also want to make more videos like above, though I'm going to have to wait till my Covid Cough subsides a bit. Talking for long periods, esp. while trying to film and concentrate is tough right now. But I'm getting better daily, so August should bring some great stuff!
Thanks for the support, the kind words, the messages.
Comments
Joe Farro
Please try using the settings page and look for the rotation buttons. If you edit it outside of the settings page we're probably overwriting the setting on boot. We try to make it so the user doesn't have to go into linux at all (though NAS setup requires it still)
Hi super nice project, I've got it working in very short time. Can you guide me how to configure that it 's always horizontal instead of vertical? I've tried few things like raspberry pi config but it get reset after reboot. thx
Joe Farro
I...honestly don't know. We release it as an .img. If there's a Vm that can run raspbian maybe but I've never tried.
Is it possible to run this on a virtual machine?
When I create a folder (playlist) I sure would like to be able to see what's in there at a glance. I know it shows the pics as they are uploading, but afterwards, it's hard to remember what pictures were in a certain folder. Would be great to be able to 'browse' those.
