Screenly
Black screen after each image
Overview of the Issue
After uploading, everything works, but between the images the screen turns black (flickers) and shows the next image? How to resolve this, so the images appear smoothly and disappear smoothly, without the black screen (and flickering)
Reproduction Steps
Steps to reproduce this issue: Uploaded two images of 1.150Kb with the size of 3840x2160px in .jpg format.
Environment
- Raspberry Pi Hardware Version: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5 (8GB)
- Raspberry Pi Network Setup: Wi-Fi
- Anthias Version: v0.18.8 [Latest]
@AchimPieters, does the issue occur when smaller images (for example, approximately 1920x1080px or 1280x720px) are used?
@nicomiguelino Thank you for your reply. Yes, it occurs also in other settings like 1920x1080px or 1280x720px (tested).
Thanks, @AchimPieters. We're still assessing various solutions for the problem. We'll keep you posted. Changes are likely to be made on the C++ code. Open-source contributions are always welcome.
I've had the same problem on a Pi 4 and 3B+ running Bookworm OS lite. I've found that if I convert my image files from .jpg to .png the transition between images is much smoother.
I've found that if I convert my image files from .jpg to .png the transition between images is much smoother.
Thanks for this. I was having what I thought was this same problem with a very simple two JPG and a MP4. I converted the JPG's to PNG's and then I also saw that the person who updated it named the MP4 as file.mp4-1 for some reason (maybe duplicate file on their computer). After converting the two files and renaming the video file the blinking/black screen issue went away.
It was driving me crazy since it was making the TV re-pop up the "1920x1080" banner each time.
For me, it's between small .mp4 files, as I don't have any other. Between each file, the screen goes black, no matter what I do or change. Maybe buffer related?
For me, it's between small .mp4 files, as I don't have any other. Between each file, the screen goes black, no matter what I do or change. Maybe buffer related?
Yeah, the black screen issue is back for me. Nothing changed, just came back a couple days later and is popping up the TV's signal thing. Not sure why no one else is having the issue unless they just don't use mp4's. Seems perfectly fine with only images.
Nice to meet you, may I ask you a question? When I play a video with Anthias, a blackout of about two seconds occurs during video transitions. Do you know any settings or equipment I could use to prevent this issue?
We're still assessing options that could be a drop-in replacement for the video player that Anthias is currently using right now, which is VLC.
One of the option is to transition to Qt's multimedia player, but we still have to make sure that the change will not affect the devices (for all the supported platforms).
@liquido001, there aren't any changes yet, but feel free to contribute and open a pull request.
I have the same issue. In my case, initially I have just one video, with duration of 60s, playing in loop. At the end of the loop, there's always a 3-5s black screen before it starts playing the video again.
Device Model: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.2 Anthias Version: master@9cad443
Hopefully bumping this up a bit to see if anyone has resolution. Exact same issue. This is also showing up in a couple other tickets (#1526 'lags when loading image'), but those were closed without resolution that I could see.
I have 2 screens running an older version of Screenly on pi3's. Never had any issues until this week when the sd card became unreadable and had to replace. I successfully installed Anthias on it and immediately ran into this bug. It is a simple 10 slide slideshow. All are jpg files about 1-2mb each at 1920x1080. They display the first inch or two of the image.. pause for a second, then visibly and slower paint the rest of the image. After the display time that is set, now there is a 1 sec blank screen then the next slide with the same results: show 2 inches, pause, slowly show the rest, blank, repeat.
I've tried several installs of Anthias, also pulled a raspPi4 from another project and same issue there. 2 different sd cards with same results.
Is anyone -=successfully=- running a simple slideshow with Anthias on a pi3? Seems like this is the most typical use case and with the lack of disussion I assume a lot of folks must be running just fine. If so, whats the setup you're using that might fix this?
Or if there's something I could try? I could see about getting the older (working fine) screenly installed, but not sure how to do that at this point with Anthias being the release thats available. Any tips on installing a working version of Screenly?
Thanks for any insight.. this is a bit frustrating and I need to figure something out soon.
@nicomiguelino Yesterday, I updated Anthias to the latest version, and I noticed that the transition is much smoother and faster now! Instead of a black screen, there’s now a swipe-to-black effect, and the next MP4 is displayed immediately. This is definitely an improvement!
Seemed worth a try, so I just made a new install with latest Anthias (Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Rev 1.2, Anthias master@4900515). I still get the pause after the first inch of slide shows on screen, then the full image (slowly) displays for the time i have set, then a black 2sec pause between slides, repeat. RaspPi3 with Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64bit) installed using Raspberry Pi Imager on new 32gig sd card, Anthias installed from ssh terminal. On wifi. Set with 4 1920x1080 jpgs to rotate between. I haven't modified any settings.
Update: a day later, came back to work having left this run overnight. Now its totally bonkers. The 1inch top of a slide shows, it pauses for 5 or more seconds, the full image pops up, then immediately it goes to the black screen for a second then the next image with same thing. The full image doesn't stay on screen for more than a glance. Load average in the admin page says 2.09 where yesterday it was 0.7 if thats of any help.
@nicomiguelino Yesterday, I saw that there was an update available and run it. Unfortunately, the problem is back!
I'll be opening another pull request that will actually resolve this issue. Docker files should be updated and images rebuilt so that a newer, patched version of WebView will be used.
The Docker image build and deployment process will take a while. I'll close this after re-testing.
@PJF16, if you installed Anthias on a Raspberry Pi 5 running 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS Lite, you can try updating by running the install script again. Let me know if you're still having the issue.
@AchimPieters, deployment of fixes for Raspberry Pi 4 devices is still ongoing.
anything for the Pi3? I think I have a spare 4 I can repurpose, but our 2 in use are Pi3's which I reverted to a older Screenly that is working fine for slideshow use.
@bhagemann, I just tested it earlier on my Pi 3 (Model B+) and transitions are now seamless, at least between images. Let me know if you're still having the same issues.