Thank you so much Tim for the very helpful and well organized video. My mom is disabled and now living in a retirement home and I rarely get to see her because i'm in the Army and move around a lot. I created my 'Mommy Memory Player' to send her this video looper and every few months send her new flash drives with videos of me and my family simply living life and hanging out...that way in a way she can get to experience us more. One question. i'm taking all my videos off my Iphone and most of them were hvec H.265 so i have to convert them. Is there an easy way to update the video player for it to accept other codecs?
Man god bless! Absolutely made my day reading this. Updating the video player is a challenge due to the OMXPlayer (the backbone of the system) being a little long in the tooth. There is another solution where you can change the videos that your Iphone is capturing to be H.264 format. Then you can transfer the files across to USB and it should work straight away. I found a good guide on that here - czcams.com/video/aqMF5fhj9hU/video.html Hope all the best you and family 🙂
Hey there I had this issue. Turns out you NEED to use buster OS or earlier flashed onto your PI. The most recent OS doesn’t have the packages for Omxplayer to run the vids. What a rabbit hole!
You guys are legends!! I just made my own with a RBPi 3B and thanks to your update page regarding the error with Bullseye I could make it working anyway. Thanks so much, you guys are legends!!
Greetings from across the ditch my bro, massive thanks for this. Literally only took 10 minutes to get my RPi to do exactly this. You have yourself another subscriber, amazing content dude.
This video is awesome! I just recently got a pi zero 2 w. I’m trying to do that same thing but omxplayer was phased out. How do I get this to work with Vlc?
Nice! Easy to follow instructions that also work with the Pi3 - got mine working with no issues. Using it to play Christmas music vids on the big day. Liked and Sub'd. Greetings from the UK
help! I think I mistakenly installed or at least tried to install omxplayer onto my ras4 because another chat board said to before I found your video. now I’m getting the following message “Package omxplayer is not available, but is referred to by another package. This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source. E: Package ‘omxplayer’ has no installation candidate” I got this error instead of it switching to the black screen so I could insert usb. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I tried to do the same thing on my raspberry pi 3 and i think the video looper is not longer available on git. Can you share how to do it with current options? Thanks!
Worked perfect BUT I had to read the questions here when in didn't work at first and change the operative from Bullseye to Buster. Thank's . Lars in Sweden
Great Video even for a novice like myself. 3 questions 1)does the looper have controls to access? Change screen size, scrub, etc....After a power out/or reboot I need to scrub video to a specific time of day. In other words, on reboot the video always starts at the beginning. I will need to scrub into the video for appropriate time of day. You don't want to show breakfast menu at lunch time. 2) my video is time-coded by time of day. Anyway to link timecode with on-line clock? 3) reboot pi to normal desktop. Not auto looper. Thanks
There are settings you can change in the configuration file check the PDF file I've linked here - cdn-learn.adafruit.com/downloads/pdf/raspberry-pi-video-looper.pdf?timestamp=1626739372. Screen size will auto be detected but it will just loop through the videos in order. So if the device was turned off and on it would start back at the beginning.
Quick question, does not play through the videos alphabetically/numerical order or is there a way to set it to shuffle and play the videos in a random order?
Thank you for this tutorial! Was really hoping this would be possible so I could make a display for my tiki bar but wasn't sure! Can't wait to give this a try!
Hey mate, make sure you are using the earlier Raspberry Pi 'Buster' OS instead of the 'Bullseye' Version and everything will work as normal. Check the description for a guide on how to do that. Hope this help, if you keep running into issues come make a forum topic as I can help you better there.
I am getting an error message that "Package 'omxplayer' has no installation candidate". I am new to all of this and was wondering if anyone could help!
Yeah I was wondering if this would play the audio too, I want to put together a Halloween music video playlist for a low power setup. Thanks for the insight on the audio.
Excellent video and straight to the point - thank you so much! Quick question: is there a certain length of media that will be too long for the raspberry pi to handle/loop? I guess my question is: how long of a video can you upload for it to be okay? Can I upload an hour-long movie to loop for example, with this type of raspberry pi?
Hi Tim it seems like the omxplayer is not working(somehow the instruction is not working) would you mind bothering you like half an hour to build a new looping device tutorial for noobs like me? many thanks!
I'll do one better. Just make sure to install 'Buster' Legacy Raspberry Pi OS. If you do that then your Video Looper will work just fine (and your background image will be the same as mine in the video). Click | Choose OS | --> | Raspberry Pi OS (other) | and select | Raspberry Pi OS (Legacy) |. Then flash just like normal.
@@Core-Electronics Hi thanks for the reply! it really works! But one more new problem is coming up the video is not looping in full-screen mode, is that something to do with my video format? Or do I need to change some coding in pi?
Most likely video format or taking a couple of steps back making sure that the Raspberry Pi Desktop is configured correctly. Check here on how to configure screens with Raspberry Pi OS. Once that screen is configured correctly run the Terminal Commands to set up the Video Looper - czcams.com/video/uaWC0GzvZSI/video.html
This tutorial has always worked flawlessly on every other display, but I am having trouble now using a Waveshare 4 inch display. I have the orientation set to 180 and everything displays correctly (the desktop, as well as the opening countdown for the looper) but the video itself is squished on the horizontal axis. It fills the vertical axis correctly but my image is squished. Any idea how to fix?
Perhaps by altering the resolution that the Raspberry Pi OS is outputting before running the install process for the Video Looper will fix this for you. This is a new issue that I haven't seen encountered before.
@@Core-Electronics thanks so much for replying. I just reformatted the sd card and started the entire process over, making sure to set the resolution before installing the looper and it’s still squishing the video :(
Thank you for the video. It worked just perfect with mine. However, only one HDMI is showing the video. Can you explain how to activate both HDMI outlets? In my case I dont need different videos in each screen, just the exact same videos. Thank you in advance.
Good question mate, I believe that is one of the limitations of this set-up but if you want multiple screens showing the same video a good approach would be using a HDMI Splitter
Easy done. The configuration file for this system can be found in the | /boot | part of the Raspberry Pi SD card. It is named | video_looper.ini |. Open this file with a text editor and find the section in it which says | file_reader = usb_drive |. Rewrite this so it states | file_reader = directory |. Then once you save it and reboot you should be good to go. You can edit it directly on your Pi or via another computer by inserting the SD card into it.
Excellent question, the easiest way would be to pull that micro-SD card out, plug it into your computer and erase the data on it. Then you will have a fresh slate to start anew with once you have flashed Raspberry Pi OS back onto the micro-SD.
It looks like support for the OMXPlayer (the bedrock for this looping system) has been dropped with the most Recent Raspberry Pi OS (Bullseye). Updates are coming out fast and all the issues from this new OS will be ironed out soon. For now Download and Flash your Micro-SD card with Raspberry Pi OS (Buster), the previous OS, and the system will work as normal. Official link to download the image found here - downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspios_armhf/images/raspios_armhf-2021-05-28/ [Updated Video and Article to inform about this - thank you kindly for commenting 😊!]
@@Core-Electronics Eureka! Thank you so much for the reply and for your correct advice! I'm a complete newbie wrt Raspberry pi. You're in Aus? I'm in Melbourne. Do you belong to any pi aus groups ?
Thank you so much for this awesome tutorial! Just wondering if the looping of the video is clean. Like is it going to be a seamless loop, or will there be a black frame between loops or such?
Thank you for the detailled instructions. However: why does the HDMI output does not incorporate the audio info in MP4 files ? Playing video goes without problem but without sound? What am I doing wrong ? A problem in the config of the looper software ?
Thank you for this video. I just tried this and all works smoothly except for the audio. It comes out quite poorly, listening via jack. Any idea what could be wrong?
Sound can come out of the Raspberry Pi either through the Aux input or through the HDMI port (or bluetooth). Depending on your settings it can force the sound out of only one or both. An easy way to do this is by altering the config.txt file.
Sweet idea 😊! For simplicity you can set up a Python Script that will boot on start up that will output the Attached camera to your display. Check here for terminal commands to make your Camera run and display forever - core-electronics.com.au/guides/raspberry-pi-bullseye-camera-commands/ Check here for Executing shell commands with Python - stackabuse.com/executing-shell-commands-with-python/ Check here on using CronTab you can get Python scripts to start on boot - czcams.com/video/rErAOjACT6w/video.html
Hi Tim, Thanks for this super helpful video. Very well explained. I have a question though. I saw some people already asked about a dual screen possibility. Has someone cracked the issue?
Hey mate, I wanted to know for sure what would happen if I plugged two HDMI cords into the RASPI and run the system so I did it just then. Unfortunately it doesn't work. The best quick solution to fill up both screens with the same video is to run a HDMI splitter.
Raspberry Pi OS is still running in the background so I see no reason why you couldn't transfer the file using SSH from your computer (similar to this video - czcams.com/video/WIOpNuQc068/video.html). Just make sure the video files are being placed into the root of the USB. Then a quick reset of the system should pick up the transferred files. I have yet to try this however.
@@waynethompson8795 how did you get realvnc to work? since it's plug and play it instantly launches to play videos, however, my VNC won't make a connection until I hit escape, and THEN my vnc will show me the actual raspberry pi screen.
Excellent step by step video for this public library Librarian! I do have a couple questions: 1. I was able to get this to work/loop videos to an HDMI monitor. My only problem is that I can't "escape" to properly shutdown the RaspPi. Any ideas why this would be happening? 2. The pi gets awful hot. What's you recommendation for preventing overheating when running all day. Thanks again for the video and in advance for the help!
Thanks 😊 glad to have helped. There are a couple of good ways to shutdown the Raspberry Pi, personally the way I would do it is by accessing the Pi remotely through SHH and shutting it down it remotely. Once set up you can do this using a single touch of your phone. czcams.com/video/lnHyVswZksM/video.html With the set up running all day the Argon One V2 would be the perfect case in your library environment. It is a very sturdy case and comes with a cooling fan core-electronics.com.au/argon-one-raspberry-pi-4-case.html
@@Core-Electronics Excellent! I'll pick up the case you've recommended. I love the idea of being able to control the Pi w/my phone but others may need to shut it down if I'm not around. I switched out keyboards just in case it was a janky peripheral but that didn't do it either. I so hate just pulling the power plug on the Pi to shut it down.
@@dawndittmar6841 Good news is that the Argon One V2 case has a power switch that you can use to safely turn on and off the Raspberry Pi. You will just need to configure it.
@@Core-Electronics One more question I promise! I don't suppose you have another excellent how-to video that walks noobs like me through the Argon One V2 case fan and power button configuration process? Regardless, thanks for the original looping video and taking the time to help. I demo'd the set up I have so far (looping videos but just missing the safe shutdown) and my director and colleagues were very impressed. :-)
Great help. Now I want to do the same thing for a music file. It was recorded a long time ago as an MP3. I couldn't make it loop so I converted it to an MP4. It starts up and loops but the quality sounds like there's an extra channel of interference. If I play the file in VCL it sounds fine. Any ideas? (Raspberry Pi 4)
The best way to start and stop the device is to simply turn it on or off. You could set up a power timer to toggle it ON/OFF automatically. If your concerned about corrupting the Micro-SD card check out this guide here. If you set the Pi to Read only it will never corrupt - core-electronics.com.au/guides/raspberry-pi/read-only-raspberry-pi/
To temporarily stop video looper, connect to the Raspberry Pi in a terminal/SSH session. Then type this into the terminal | sudo supervisorctl stop video_looper |.
That's true you could get away with using a less powerful board, we have a project submission on our website in which someone built 50 loopers with Pi 3A+ for an art installation. You can check it out here if you're interested. core-electronics.com.au/projects/raspberry-pi-video-looper-display-installation/
Hi ! Clear tutorial, looks like is working it detect the USB with the videos but is only looping the first video, I have to name them in order or why is happening ? Thanks
Sounds like the Looper can't find the other video files in your USB. Just make sure all the files are in a compatible format/the same format that your first video is in. Then it should loop through all of them correctly.
Thanks buddy. And unfortunately no 4K with this set up. Spent some time searching for a suitable method and nothing great came up for Single Board Computers. Hit us up on our Forum and the team undoubtedly will have something they know about - forum.core-electronics.com.au/
Hey Tim! Nice one Mate.Thank you so much for the video. The Looper works perfectly. So to get a full screen do we have to shoot the video in landscape mode? will that work?and once you switch off the Pi do we have to type the code in again?Many thanks in advance
Holla and big thanks. If the video is in landscape mode it will automatically be full screen. If your turn the pi off and on it will go straight back to searching for a USB. And if there is a USB with videos it'll start playing them straight away.
@@Core-Electronics Hi Tim, I have a landscape mode full HD .mp4 video that and the loop works beautifully, except that its in letterbox format and i can't figure out the correct commands to input, trying omxplayer water.mp4 --aspect-mode fill and omxplayer --aspect-mode fill water.mp4 and it just says "File not found" what am I missing? Also im running on an official rasp 7" screen connected with the ribbon cable to my pi 4
Excellent tutorial Tim, I’ve used your guideline to install Video Looper on both a Pi 3 and a Pi 4B +, both work great! I’m curious if you think I might be able to use the same guidelines to install Video Looper on a Libre AML-S905X-CC, (Le Potato). Thanks again for the great tutorial and the great resource you are to the electronics community.
Naww shucks 😊 thanks for the very swell comment! Very glad to hear of your multiple success with this guide. If you can get 'Buster' Raspberry Pi OS to run smoothly on the Libre Board then I reckon you'll be sorted and this guide will work just fine. Best of luck! My fingers are crossed that you come back with another success story 🤞
@@David-ob5or Adafruit's pi_video_looper installs omx automatically. Don't make the same mistake I made, though - pi_video_looper ONLY WORKS ON RASPBERRY PI OS BUSTER. Not Bullseye, which is the most recent Raspberry Pi IOS, and not any version of Rasbian. You might need to update or roll back your OS for this to work - Bullseye doesn't use OMXplayer anymore.
I tested this yesterday and it worked perfect when running the earlier 'Buster' Raspberry Pi OS. If your running into any issues just do that, link to how to flash Legacy Raspberry Pi OS version in the description.
Just double check the full written up guide and make sure your file is in a compatible format. It is also very possible to convert video files from one type to another.
great video! I do have a question... I followed the istallation process, but for some reason, I can't make it work correctly... In the Video_looper install instructions, it says it can play the videos using 3 options : file_reader = usb_drive file_reader = directory file_reader = usb_drive_copymode I want to run a simple video directly from the Boot Micro SD card, so I assume my option to select would be "file_reader = directory" However, from the explainations, it just say that I should put the file in the path /home/pi/video... I have to say that all this is very new to me and have no programming skills.... but where do I put that path? From the boot Micro Sd card, I added a folder named home, then added a pi folder in it, then a video filder in the pi folder (and then left the video file there), but at boot, the system does not see it. Can someone show me a visual as to where I have to put my file? Thanks for the help -
Great! Worked before the video finished :) I have a question. I need to upload the USB content remotely. Once every night a new content is ready to be shown, but the RPI is physically positioned out of reach. Before installing the RPI with your videolooper, I have set up the RPI with a python script to look in the cloud for new content. IF new content ready THEN download and put into the USB AND remove old videos. Would the videolooper be able to run parallel with this setup?
I see no reason why it couldn't but probably not without starting and stopping the looping program. That is because likely it will say the videos are under use and you wont be able to delete them off the USB. To temporarily stop the video looping software you can connect to the Raspberry Pi Via SHH (or through your phone and RaspController) and type the following into the terminal | sudo supervisorctl stop video_looper | Then with it stopped you can upload the new USB content then restart the video looper. Hope this helps your project, it sounds awesome!
I'm sure it would be possible. Here is the Open-Source Scripts that make this system run - github.com/adafruit/pi_video_looper You will definitely be able to adjust the pointer there. I was searching around for other people who have had similar desire to you and yet to find one. Seems like a very reasonable request and a great idea.
All good mate 😊 and there will be a small black screen between each video. It will be more seamless if you alter the settings to make the played videos have no sound.
Hey mate, here is the documentation to alter video options. Jump onto our forum if you need an extra hand 🙂 www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt/video.md
You can definitely point the software to different storage locations, it is all open source. There just something very intuitive to me about utilising a Seperate USB.
I believe my installation was successful and I get to the screen where the pi is waiting for a usb to insert but when I do nothing happens. Both videos I've tried are H.264 video codec. One video with the .MP4 and .MOV extension. It also appears I have a flashing white line in the top left corner like I can type into a command like but nothing works. Even pressing esc doesn't exit the program. Any ideas how to solve this issue?
For sure, also if you set your Raspberry Pi to Read-Only mode you will never corrupt your Micro-SD card when power-cycling. That way you could just have a button turn on/off the power to restart the video looper. More on that here - core-electronics.com.au/guides/read-only-raspberry-pi/ Otherwise it will require some python coding to create another script on boot that will do what you desire.
Hey, I know this is an older video now, but is there a way to force the videos to take up the fullscreen? this is awesome! Totally going to use this for some retro gaming videos in my arcade area!
If your videos are landscape and your screen is set to landscape they will be full sized, and the same goes for portrait. I'd love to see what you come up with for your arcade zone 😊
@@Core-Electronics Awesome it worked flawlessly on my pi 400! Thanks ;) Another question can I add in someway an auto on and off timer to loop these videos?
Thanks a lot man! But I do have one issue, I need to take this project in a outdoor case, so I'm wondering what can I do to update the video files trough wifi. Is there a guide for remote update the USB stick files?
Multi-tasking is definitely possible with this set up 😊 it'll just take a little bit of clever coding to make sure it runs on boot up. Come check our Raspberry Pi Workshop for more on getting programs to run on boot (CronTab) - core-electronics.com.au/courses/raspberry-pi-workshop-for-beginners/
So the vertical videos should work straight away, just with bars on either side of the monitor. The fastest way to rotate the media is to permanently manually alter the MP4 files so that they are orientated the desired way, this can be done in VLC. (Hope this helps!)
Audio can come out of the Raspberry Pi through the Auxiliary Port and through HDMI Ports. Double check for me that you can't get sound out of the Auxiliary port on your TV, I reckon that is what is going on as the HDMI port has priority. You can also force sound through ports check this guide for that - core-electronics.com.au/guides/raspberry-pi/raspberry-pi-iqaudio-dac-plus-fix/
Totally new to this... Will a Compute Module 4 IO Board do the trick? Or only the types of raspberry pi's linked in the description? Trying to minimize the cost :)
Heyya buddy, Raspberry Pi as rad 😊 I'd steer you away from that IO board and Raspberry Pi Compute Modules in general as they are best suited for industry (where like 30+ are needed for a single worksite job). They are much harder to set up then normal Raspberry Pi single board computer. Raspberry Pi 4 Model B is like the current top tier for normal Raspberry Pi single board computer. If your just getting into this world I'd highly recommend that one. If you just want to create your own video looper monster and your on a budget then a Raspberry Pi 3 of any type will work perfect. These style of boards are a lot easier to work with than Compute modules. Hope this helps! Tim
I'm getting a message that states "package omxplayer is not available, but is referred to by another package. This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source. Package 'omxplayer' has no installation candidate". What should I do?
Thank you so much Tim for the very helpful and well organized video. My mom is disabled and now living in a retirement home and I rarely get to see her because i'm in the Army and move around a lot. I created my 'Mommy Memory Player' to send her this video looper and every few months send her new flash drives with videos of me and my family simply living life and hanging out...that way in a way she can get to experience us more.
One question. i'm taking all my videos off my Iphone and most of them were hvec H.265 so i have to convert them. Is there an easy way to update the video player for it to accept other codecs?
Man god bless! Absolutely made my day reading this. Updating the video player is a challenge due to the OMXPlayer (the backbone of the system) being a little long in the tooth. There is another solution where you can change the videos that your Iphone is capturing to be H.264 format. Then you can transfer the files across to USB and it should work straight away. I found a good guide on that here - czcams.com/video/aqMF5fhj9hU/video.html
Hope all the best you and family 🙂
This is a FABULOUS video. Saved me from buying a more expensive piece of kit to do the same, after I’d already bought a pi. Thank you!!
Doesnt work I just get the message omxplayer has no installation candidate
Hey there I had this issue. Turns out you NEED to use buster OS or earlier flashed onto your PI. The most recent OS doesn’t have the packages for Omxplayer to run the vids. What a rabbit hole!
You guys are legends!! I just made my own with a RBPi 3B and thanks to your update page regarding the error with Bullseye I could make it working anyway. Thanks so much, you guys are legends!!
Greetings from across the ditch my bro, massive thanks for this. Literally only took 10 minutes to get my RPi to do exactly this. You have yourself another subscriber, amazing content dude.
Very happy to of helped mate 🙂 hope you put it to good use.
@@Core-Electronics Haha it's an in-game item that I'm building IRL, not sure how useful it is but couldn't have done it without this tutorial.
Would so totally love to see it.
@@Core-Electronics oh bro it's on my channel, last couple of posts. Please excuse my rubbish editing and recording, it really is just a build log.
really great tutorial, this will be my first rasberry pi project. cant wait
Man! I Love your studio! Superb audio too :)
Cheers mate! It is so good to create in this world
This video is awesome! I just recently got a pi zero 2 w. I’m trying to do that same thing but omxplayer was phased out. How do I get this to work with Vlc?
Nice! Easy to follow instructions that also work with the Pi3 - got mine working with no issues. Using it to play Christmas music vids on the big day. Liked and Sub'd. Greetings from the UK
Great to hear! Merry Christmas
Thank you. Have this plugged into my childhood Phillips CRT TV via a HDMI to RF converter. Running old cartoons.
Saw your CZcams video of it running! I Love It and am absolutely psyched by it! 😊
This was concise and easy to follow. Plus it works a treat! Thank you...
Happy days 😊 thanks for comments!
Worked exactly as stated with my pi3. Thank you!
I just downloaded a log burning in a fireplace video, put an older small monitor in our fireplace, and have it on a loop... virtual fireplace!!
I love it! ❤️
Thank you so much for this video!
Awesome video mate! It was a pleasure to watch this ;)
Cheers Legend
help! I think I mistakenly installed or at least tried to install omxplayer onto my ras4 because another chat board said to before I found your video. now I’m getting the following message “Package omxplayer is not available, but is referred to by another package. This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source. E: Package ‘omxplayer’ has no installation candidate”
I got this error instead of it switching to the black screen so I could insert usb. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!
you need buster version because on the latest OS omxplayer is not available
thank you for doing this, it really helps out :D
This is incredible thank you so much!
Glad you dig it 🙂
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I tried to do the same thing on my raspberry pi 3 and i think the video looper is not longer available on git. Can you share how to do it with current options? Thanks!
Worked perfect BUT I had to read the questions here when in didn't work at first and change the operative from Bullseye to Buster. Thank's . Lars in Sweden
Thank you very much! Amazing video! Works like a charm!
Happy days 😊
Great Video even for a novice like myself. 3 questions 1)does the looper have controls to access? Change screen size, scrub, etc....After a power out/or reboot I need to scrub video to a specific time of day. In other words, on reboot the video always starts at the beginning. I will need to scrub into the video for appropriate time of day. You don't want to show breakfast menu at lunch time. 2) my video is time-coded by time of day. Anyway to link timecode with on-line clock? 3) reboot pi to normal desktop. Not auto looper. Thanks
There are settings you can change in the configuration file check the PDF file I've linked here - cdn-learn.adafruit.com/downloads/pdf/raspberry-pi-video-looper.pdf?timestamp=1626739372. Screen size will auto be detected but it will just loop through the videos in order. So if the device was turned off and on it would start back at the beginning.
Quick question, does not play through the videos alphabetically/numerical order or is there a way to set it to shuffle and play the videos in a random order?
Alphabetically by file name is the order it will play in by default
Very nice project
Cheers champ!
Not working
E: Package 'omxplayer' has no installation candidate
Thank you Greta!
WOW, incredible video. Saludos de México.
Thank you for this tutorial! Was really hoping this would be possible so I could make a display for my tiki bar but wasn't sure! Can't wait to give this a try!
Would love to see the results 😊! Come post a piccy at our Forum or if you need any troubleshooting help - forum.core-electronics.com.au/
Unfortunately, this does not work for me. I get the error message "E: Package 'omxplayer' has no installation candidate" when trying to install.
Hey mate, make sure you are using the earlier Raspberry Pi 'Buster' OS instead of the 'Bullseye' Version and everything will work as normal. Check the description for a guide on how to do that.
Hope this help, if you keep running into issues come make a forum topic as I can help you better there.
Thanks for this!
I am getting an error message that "Package 'omxplayer' has no installation candidate". I am new to all of this and was wondering if anyone could help!
Just a heads up: if you play a video with audio through AUX the sound will be terrible with this method, use Bluetooth, HDMI, or a DAC.
Yeah I was wondering if this would play the audio too, I want to put together a Halloween music video playlist for a low power setup. Thanks for the insight on the audio.
Great video! Quick question though - if there were a few images on the usb would it display them also or is it solely for video files?
Only picks up Video Files. But if you were to include the photos in a video format then you'll be smooth sailing 😊
Hi, will it works with a Raspberry pi 2? Thank you.
Yep yep! 😊
Love your site!
how can I access GPIO to trigger different videos with a button press?
Excellent video and straight to the point - thank you so much! Quick question: is there a certain length of media that will be too long for the raspberry pi to handle/loop? I guess my question is: how long of a video can you upload for it to be okay? Can I upload an hour-long movie to loop for example, with this type of raspberry pi?
A hour long movie is definitely capable of running. So long as the file fits on the USB it will happily run it 😊 hope that helps!
@@Core-Electronics That does! Thank you.
Succinct, clear and enthusing. Good job. Will the Pi and the video looper play audio (too)?
If your display has speakers it will play the audio over HDMI
If I create my own vids for example on an editing software will that be compatible?
Should be no problem 😊
Hi Tim it seems like the omxplayer is not working(somehow the instruction is not working) would you mind bothering you like half an hour to build a new looping device tutorial for noobs like me? many thanks!
I'll do one better. Just make sure to install 'Buster' Legacy Raspberry Pi OS. If you do that then your Video Looper will work just fine (and your background image will be the same as mine in the video). Click | Choose OS | --> | Raspberry Pi OS (other) | and select | Raspberry Pi OS (Legacy) |. Then flash just like normal.
@@Core-Electronics Hi thanks for the reply! it really works! But one more new problem is coming up the video is not looping in full-screen mode, is that something to do with my video format? Or do I need to change some coding in pi?
Most likely video format or taking a couple of steps back making sure that the Raspberry Pi Desktop is configured correctly. Check here on how to configure screens with Raspberry Pi OS. Once that screen is configured correctly run the Terminal Commands to set up the Video Looper - czcams.com/video/uaWC0GzvZSI/video.html
What if i turned of the power supply of the pi and turned it back on will it automatically start playing the video. And does it play 4k videos?
Thank You for sharing this information! Showwwwwww
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for great help...
:) all the best with your projects!
This tutorial has always worked flawlessly on every other display, but I am having trouble now using a Waveshare 4 inch display. I have the orientation set to 180 and everything displays correctly (the desktop, as well as the opening countdown for the looper) but the video itself is squished on the horizontal axis. It fills the vertical axis correctly but my image is squished. Any idea how to fix?
Perhaps by altering the resolution that the Raspberry Pi OS is outputting before running the install process for the Video Looper will fix this for you. This is a new issue that I haven't seen encountered before.
@@Core-Electronics thanks so much for replying. I just reformatted the sd card and started the entire process over, making sure to set the resolution before installing the looper and it’s still squishing the video :(
Thank you for the video. It worked just perfect with mine. However, only one HDMI is showing the video. Can you explain how to activate both HDMI outlets? In my case I dont need different videos in each screen, just the exact same videos.
Thank you in advance.
Good question mate, I believe that is one of the limitations of this set-up but if you want multiple screens showing the same video a good approach would be using a HDMI Splitter
could it be a solution to video loop a samsung tv that automatically turn on and off?
Absolutely!
How change the directory? I do not want use USB, only play of in local file…
Easy done. The configuration file for this system can be found in the | /boot | part of the Raspberry Pi SD card. It is named | video_looper.ini |.
Open this file with a text editor and find the section in it which says | file_reader = usb_drive |. Rewrite this so it states | file_reader = directory |. Then once you save it and reboot you should be good to go.
You can edit it directly on your Pi or via another computer by inserting the SD card into it.
Great video. But I had I question if instead of a monitor could I also have it replay on a 3.5 Inch Touch LCD, and how should that work.
For sure. Just make sure it connects to a 3.5 inch screen that has a HDMI 😊
perfect easy to use video!But,how do i uninstall it if I dont need it anymore?rgs from a noob
Excellent question, the easiest way would be to pull that micro-SD card out, plug it into your computer and erase the data on it. Then you will have a fresh slate to start anew with once you have flashed Raspberry Pi OS back onto the micro-SD.
Thx very much/
Hello bro, when installing the pi_video_looper, I get the error fatal error "IL/OM_Broadcom.h" not recognized directory or file
Same issue. Has something changed with the OS?
Same issue, I install with Raspberry Pi 3B+. Do you know how to fix this issue
It looks like support for the OMXPlayer (the bedrock for this looping system) has been dropped with the most Recent Raspberry Pi OS (Bullseye). Updates are coming out fast and all the issues from this new OS will be ironed out soon.
For now Download and Flash your Micro-SD card with Raspberry Pi OS (Buster), the previous OS, and the system will work as normal. Official link to download the image found here - downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspios_armhf/images/raspios_armhf-2021-05-28/
[Updated Video and Article to inform about this - thank you kindly for commenting 😊!]
@@Core-Electronics Eureka! Thank you so much for the reply and for your correct advice!
I'm a complete newbie wrt Raspberry pi. You're in Aus? I'm in Melbourne. Do you belong to any pi aus groups ?
@@Core-Electronics Thank you
Thank you so much for this awesome tutorial!
Just wondering if the looping of the video is clean. Like is it going to be a seamless loop, or will there be a black frame between loops or such?
My pleasure buddy 😊. It is utterly seamless if your playing video without sound, if you have sound there will be a brief frame between videos.
Your animation/orchestra combination videos are super rad too!
Thank you for the detailled instructions. However: why does the HDMI output does not incorporate the audio info in MP4 files ? Playing video goes without problem but without sound? What am I doing wrong ? A problem in the config of the looper software ?
Thank you for this video. I just tried this and all works smoothly except for the audio. It comes out quite poorly, listening via jack. Any idea what could be wrong?
For the best audio using the Raspberry Pi 4 use the HDMI output audio. That will give a clean digital audio output.
This is working perfectly except there is no sound coming through the speakers. Any way to get this to work?
Sound can come out of the Raspberry Pi either through the Aux input or through the HDMI port (or bluetooth). Depending on your settings it can force the sound out of only one or both. An easy way to do this is by altering the config.txt file.
Will this play sound too?
Great video.
I would need to take this video looper one step further and output the video using the PI's USB emulating a webcam.
Any suggestion ?
Sweet idea 😊! For simplicity you can set up a Python Script that will boot on start up that will output the Attached camera to your display. Check here for terminal commands to make your Camera run and display forever - core-electronics.com.au/guides/raspberry-pi-bullseye-camera-commands/
Check here for Executing shell commands with Python - stackabuse.com/executing-shell-commands-with-python/
Check here on using CronTab you can get Python scripts to start on boot - czcams.com/video/rErAOjACT6w/video.html
how to use keyboard control like next or previous video?
Hi Tim, Thanks for this super helpful video. Very well explained. I have a question though. I saw some people already asked about a dual screen possibility. Has someone cracked the issue?
Hey mate, I wanted to know for sure what would happen if I plugged two HDMI cords into the RASPI and run the system so I did it just then. Unfortunately it doesn't work.
The best quick solution to fill up both screens with the same video is to run a HDMI splitter.
Hey, this was awesome! Thanks. Do you have a video on how to connect to 2 screens?
Hey mate, check out this guide here - core-electronics.com.au/tutorials/dual-monitors-raspberry-pi-4.html
great video are the videos being played randomly?
Sequentially in order based on their file name 😊 thanks for digging the video.
is it possible to add remote access to upload video files from a different location
Did you ever figure this out?
Raspberry Pi OS is still running in the background so I see no reason why you couldn't transfer the file using SSH from your computer (similar to this video - czcams.com/video/WIOpNuQc068/video.html). Just make sure the video files are being placed into the root of the USB. Then a quick reset of the system should pick up the transferred files. I have yet to try this however.
@@Hershes_1 i was looking into this for a friend told them to try the ssh as it should work but im not sure what they have set up on there Pi
real vnc connect works a charm it has a gui and it is free for personal use
@@waynethompson8795 how did you get realvnc to work? since it's plug and play it instantly launches to play videos, however, my VNC won't make a connection until I hit escape, and THEN my vnc will show me the actual raspberry pi screen.
Excellent step by step video for this public library Librarian! I do have a couple questions: 1. I was able to get this to work/loop videos to an HDMI monitor. My only problem is that I can't "escape" to properly shutdown the RaspPi. Any ideas why this would be happening? 2. The pi gets awful hot. What's you recommendation for preventing overheating when running all day. Thanks again for the video and in advance for the help!
Thanks 😊 glad to have helped.
There are a couple of good ways to shutdown the Raspberry Pi, personally the way I would do it is by accessing the Pi remotely through SHH and shutting it down it remotely. Once set up you can do this using a single touch of your phone. czcams.com/video/lnHyVswZksM/video.html
With the set up running all day the Argon One V2 would be the perfect case in your library environment. It is a very sturdy case and comes with a cooling fan core-electronics.com.au/argon-one-raspberry-pi-4-case.html
@@Core-Electronics Excellent! I'll pick up the case you've recommended. I love the idea of being able to control the Pi w/my phone but others may need to shut it down if I'm not around. I switched out keyboards just in case it was a janky peripheral but that didn't do it either. I so hate just pulling the power plug on the Pi to shut it down.
@@dawndittmar6841 Good news is that the Argon One V2 case has a power switch that you can use to safely turn on and off the Raspberry Pi. You will just need to configure it.
@@Core-Electronics One more question I promise! I don't suppose you have another excellent how-to video that walks noobs like me through the Argon One V2 case fan and power button configuration process? Regardless, thanks for the original looping video and taking the time to help. I demo'd the set up I have so far (looping videos but just missing the safe shutdown) and my director and colleagues were very impressed. :-)
We have not done one yet but I reckon I will very soon, definitely a brilliant idea for a tutorial.
Great help. Now I want to do the same thing for a music file. It was recorded a long time ago as an MP3. I couldn't make it loop so I converted it to an MP4. It starts up and loops but the quality
sounds like there's an extra channel of interference. If I play the file in VCL it sounds fine. Any ideas? (Raspberry Pi 4)
Hi, very clear... but how can I start and stop the videolooper from a botton (GPIO) ?? Do you have any ideas? Thanks for your videos
The best way to start and stop the device is to simply turn it on or off. You could set up a power timer to toggle it ON/OFF automatically.
If your concerned about corrupting the Micro-SD card check out this guide here. If you set the Pi to Read only it will never corrupt - core-electronics.com.au/guides/raspberry-pi/read-only-raspberry-pi/
Thank you, nice video! Is it possible to skip, stop and play the videos with keyboard commands like it works with the Pi3 video looper?
Yes you can! 😊
How do you stop the looper and get back to the normal raspian OS?
To temporarily stop video looper, connect to the Raspberry Pi in a terminal/SSH session. Then type this into the terminal | sudo supervisorctl stop video_looper |.
@@Core-Electronics Thank you
cool video, but the rpi 4 is insanely overpowered for this project
That's true you could get away with using a less powerful board, we have a project submission on our website in which someone built 50 loopers with Pi 3A+ for an art installation. You can check it out here if you're interested. core-electronics.com.au/projects/raspberry-pi-video-looper-display-installation/
Hi ! Clear tutorial, looks like is working it detect the USB with the videos but is only looping the first video, I have to name them in order or why is happening ? Thanks
Sounds like the Looper can't find the other video files in your USB. Just make sure all the files are in a compatible format/the same format that your first video is in. Then it should loop through all of them correctly.
Hi, thanks for this great tutorial! Do you know if there is any solution for 4K videos?
Thanks buddy. And unfortunately no 4K with this set up. Spent some time searching for a suitable method and nothing great came up for Single Board Computers. Hit us up on our Forum and the team undoubtedly will have something they know about - forum.core-electronics.com.au/
Hey Tim! Nice one Mate.Thank you so much for the video. The Looper works perfectly. So to get a full screen do we have to shoot the video in landscape mode? will that work?and once you switch off the Pi do we have to type the code in again?Many thanks in advance
Holla and big thanks. If the video is in landscape mode it will automatically be full screen. If your turn the pi off and on it will go straight back to searching for a USB. And if there is a USB with videos it'll start playing them straight away.
@@Core-Electronics Hi Tim, I have a landscape mode full HD .mp4 video that and the loop works beautifully, except that its in letterbox format and i can't figure out the correct commands to input, trying omxplayer water.mp4 --aspect-mode fill and omxplayer --aspect-mode fill water.mp4 and it just says "File not found" what am I missing? Also im running on an official rasp 7" screen connected with the ribbon cable to my pi 4
Excellent tutorial Tim, I’ve used your guideline to install Video Looper on both a Pi 3 and a Pi 4B +, both work great! I’m curious if you think I might be able to use the same guidelines to install Video Looper on a Libre AML-S905X-CC, (Le Potato). Thanks again for the great tutorial and the great resource you are to the electronics community.
Naww shucks 😊 thanks for the very swell comment! Very glad to hear of your multiple success with this guide. If you can get 'Buster' Raspberry Pi OS to run smoothly on the Libre Board then I reckon you'll be sorted and this guide will work just fine. Best of luck! My fingers are crossed that you come back with another success story 🤞
@@David-ob5or Adafruit's pi_video_looper installs omx automatically. Don't make the same mistake I made, though - pi_video_looper ONLY WORKS ON RASPBERRY PI OS BUSTER. Not Bullseye, which is the most recent Raspberry Pi IOS, and not any version of Rasbian. You might need to update or roll back your OS for this to work - Bullseye doesn't use OMXplayer anymore.
@@KarstenBondy Thank you! I was able to get it working. Thank you for the info
I get omxplayer is not available but is referred to by another package
I tested this yesterday and it worked perfect when running the earlier 'Buster' Raspberry Pi OS. If your running into any issues just do that, link to how to flash Legacy Raspberry Pi OS version in the description.
Fab video. Just one thing, when I plug in the USB (with 1 mp4 file) it stays on the screen saying 'Insert USB drtive', can anyone help please?
Just double check the full written up guide and make sure your file is in a compatible format. It is also very possible to convert video files from one type to another.
great video!
I do have a question...
I followed the istallation process, but for some reason, I can't make it work correctly...
In the Video_looper install instructions, it says it can play the videos using 3 options :
file_reader = usb_drive
file_reader = directory
file_reader = usb_drive_copymode
I want to run a simple video directly from the Boot Micro SD card, so I assume my option to select would be "file_reader = directory"
However, from the explainations, it just say that I should put the file in the path /home/pi/video...
I have to say that all this is very new to me and have no programming skills.... but where do I put that path?
From the boot Micro Sd card, I added a folder named home, then added a pi folder in it, then a video filder in the pi folder (and then left the video file there), but at boot, the system does not see it.
Can someone show me a visual as to where I have to put my file?
Thanks for the help
-
Could you add a simple text overlay to permanently display over the videos playing on loop.
You could alter the source code or the easier way (I reckon) would be just to have all the videos recorded with the text overlay already on them.
@@Core-Electronics I've tried to alter the source code with no luck. It would just be to overlay the wifi info and password for guests.
This is fantastic! would you recommend a certain RAM size for this project? or will any raspberry pi 4 model B do? thanks!
Cheers mate and any RAM size would work for this project no problem, had the system working on a 1GB RAM perfectly fine.
Great! Worked before the video finished :)
I have a question. I need to upload the USB content remotely. Once every night a new content is ready to be shown, but the RPI is physically positioned out of reach.
Before installing the RPI with your videolooper, I have set up the RPI with a python script to look in the cloud for new content.
IF new content ready THEN download and put into the USB AND remove old videos.
Would the videolooper be able to run parallel with this setup?
I see no reason why it couldn't but probably not without starting and stopping the looping program. That is because likely it will say the videos are under use and you wont be able to delete them off the USB.
To temporarily stop the video looping software you can connect to the Raspberry Pi Via SHH (or through your phone and RaspController) and type the following into the terminal | sudo supervisorctl stop video_looper |
Then with it stopped you can upload the new USB content then restart the video looper. Hope this helps your project, it sounds awesome!
Thank you very much for the video. Is there a way to rotate the settings on the app that it displays the video vertically?
I believe if you change the screen orientation on default Raspberry Pi OS the Video Looping Software will match the same orientation.
@@Core-Electronics Thank you
Can I change the function of this program to read a raspberry folder instead of reading from a USB?
I'm sure it would be possible. Here is the Open-Source Scripts that make this system run - github.com/adafruit/pi_video_looper
You will definitely be able to adjust the pointer there. I was searching around for other people who have had similar desire to you and yet to find one. Seems like a very reasonable request and a great idea.
Great video! Is it possible to make pi instant power on off like a micro controller or a router without corrupting OS?
Thanks for video. Will it seamlessly loop a video i.e. no glitch or black screen when it transitions from end of video to beginning of video?
All good mate 😊 and there will be a small black screen between each video. It will be more seamless if you alter the settings to make the played videos have no sound.
Is there the possibility of playing different videos on 2 screens with a single Raspberry Pi?
How can i change the Pal component output to NTSC?
Hey mate, here is the documentation to alter video options. Jump onto our forum if you need an extra hand 🙂 www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt/video.md
This has been extremely helpful, quick question, which format is the compatible movies?
And will this work the same with raspberry pi zero w?
Would it be possible for the program to pull videos from the SD card? So there’s no need to plug in a separate USB. Just wondering
You can definitely point the software to different storage locations, it is all open source. There just something very intuitive to me about utilising a Seperate USB.
how to do this without usb stick. so store the videos an images on the sd card ?
I believe my installation was successful and I get to the screen where the pi is waiting for a usb to insert but when I do nothing happens. Both videos I've tried are H.264 video codec. One video with the .MP4 and .MOV extension. It also appears I have a flashing white line in the top left corner like I can type into a command like but nothing works. Even pressing esc doesn't exit the program. Any ideas how to solve this issue?
Did you use Buster or Bullseye OS? - Also come check out the comments on the Written Article, lots of successful troubleshooting achieved there 😊
I would like to get the video to start from the beginning every time a signal is triggered or a button is clicked. Is this possible?
For sure, also if you set your Raspberry Pi to Read-Only mode you will never corrupt your Micro-SD card when power-cycling. That way you could just have a button turn on/off the power to restart the video looper. More on that here - core-electronics.com.au/guides/read-only-raspberry-pi/
Otherwise it will require some python coding to create another script on boot that will do what you desire.
Cool beans. 👍
Hey, I know this is an older video now, but is there a way to force the videos to take up the fullscreen? this is awesome! Totally going to use this for some retro gaming videos in my arcade area!
If your videos are landscape and your screen is set to landscape they will be full sized, and the same goes for portrait. I'd love to see what you come up with for your arcade zone 😊
Is it working also with raspberry pi400?
Absolutely will work with a Pi400 😊
@@Core-Electronics Awesome it worked flawlessly on my pi 400! Thanks ;)
Another question can I add in someway an auto on and off timer to loop these videos?
Thanks a lot man!
But I do have one issue, I need to take this project in a outdoor case, so I'm wondering what can I do to update the video files trough wifi.
Is there a guide for remote update the USB stick files?
Can I use a sensor
Multi-tasking is definitely possible with this set up 😊 it'll just take a little bit of clever coding to make sure it runs on boot up.
Come check our Raspberry Pi Workshop for more on getting programs to run on boot (CronTab) - core-electronics.com.au/courses/raspberry-pi-workshop-for-beginners/
Anything like this for a 3B or 3B+?
Can you help to rotate scree with video looper? then i will be able to see vertical videos on screen please
So the vertical videos should work straight away, just with bars on either side of the monitor. The fastest way to rotate the media is to permanently manually alter the MP4 files so that they are orientated the desired way, this can be done in VLC. (Hope this helps!)
Cool video
Unfortunately, the PI4 are not available.
Is it also possible with a Pi Zero 2 W?
The Looping Monster System will definitely will work with the Pi Zero 2 W
I can't get audio with this....any advice? I'm using the the legacy OS as new OS software dosent work with this coding
Audio can come out of the Raspberry Pi through the Auxiliary Port and through HDMI Ports. Double check for me that you can't get sound out of the Auxiliary port on your TV, I reckon that is what is going on as the HDMI port has priority.
You can also force sound through ports check this guide for that - core-electronics.com.au/guides/raspberry-pi/raspberry-pi-iqaudio-dac-plus-fix/
👍
Totally new to this... Will a Compute Module 4 IO Board do the trick? Or only the types of raspberry pi's linked in the description? Trying to minimize the cost :)
Heyya buddy, Raspberry Pi as rad 😊 I'd steer you away from that IO board and Raspberry Pi Compute Modules in general as they are best suited for industry (where like 30+ are needed for a single worksite job). They are much harder to set up then normal Raspberry Pi single board computer.
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B is like the current top tier for normal Raspberry Pi single board computer. If your just getting into this world I'd highly recommend that one. If you just want to create your own video looper monster and your on a budget then a Raspberry Pi 3 of any type will work perfect. These style of boards are a lot easier to work with than Compute modules.
Hope this helps! Tim
can this work with the 3.5 inch display that connects to the pins?
I do not see why it wouldn't. Pop us message on our forum and we can test it out here.
I'm getting a message that states "package omxplayer is not available, but is referred to by another package. This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source. Package 'omxplayer' has no installation candidate". What should I do?
Make sure you are using 'Buster' Raspberry Pi OS and not the most recent 'Bullseye' OS
Thank you for this reply!