[ronie]

Hi Ronie,
Thanks for your work on this screensaver and thanks for entertaining feedback here from the users.

Change Request:
Displaying the currently playing music on top of the screensaver is fantastic. However, it is always docked in the same location on the screen. For plasma TV owners, this will cause burn-in. Even though the text and album art changes at every song, burn-in can still result from:
- the outline of the album square
- white text constantly being lit up white in the same pixels
- the status bar outline being static

Any chance you could make it non-static?

Suggestions:
1) Make it very slowly float around the screen
2) Make it slowly scroll down
3) Every 15 seconds it fades out and fades back in another random location on screen

Thanks

Hi Ronie,
Any thoughts on this?

if you're afraid it could cause burn in, don't enable the feature :-)

[TubbyPoutine]

Hi Ronie,
Thanks for your work on this screensaver and thanks for entertaining feedback here from the users.

Change Request:
Displaying the currently playing music on top of the screensaver is fantastic. However, it is always docked in the same location on the screen. For plasma TV owners, this will cause burn-in. Even though the text and album art changes at every song, burn-in can still result from:
- the outline of the album square
- white text constantly being lit up white in the same pixels
- the status bar outline being static

Any chance you could make it non-static?

Suggestions:
1) Make it very slowly float around the screen
2) Make it slowly scroll down
3) Every 15 seconds it fades out and fades back in another random location on screen

Thanks

Hi Ronie,
Any thoughts on this?

if you're afraid it could cause burn in, don't enable the feature :-)

Haha, that is certainly the easy fix solution!

Unfortunately I've already seen the image retention effects on my plasma (cleared with an overnight screen sweep utility), so I know with more/prolonged use that burn-in would set it. In any case, showing the artist/song while listening to music is such a great feature and it would be nice if plasma users could use it without the burn-in risk.
That's why I use a screen saver in the first place - to help save my screen!

[J_K_M_A_N]

Can you please try this one.....And maybe this one.

yup, those don't contain IPTC keywords.

That is what is weird. In Windows 7, I can see the tags on those exactly the same as ones I opened in Photoshop and did pretty much nothing to them and saved them. Then they work. I guess I will be opening a crapload of photos and saving them. :'(

J_K_M_A_N

[J_K_M_A_N]

Do you read the EXIF tags? I downloaded the EXIFTool GUI and noticed that the EXIF info has the same keywords under a field called XPKeywords. Is that something that can be read? I am guessing you get the date taken from the EXIF info because all my digital photos have no IPTC data but your screensaver shows the date taken. Is that from the file or the EXIF data? Is the reading of EXIF info built in or do you have any control over that?

J_K_M_A_N

**** EDIT ****

I have been messing around with the EXIFvfs.py and the gui.py and I changed the iptc code to this in the gui.py:

Code:

if self.slideshow_date == 'true':
   try:
      exiftags = EXIFvfs.process_file(imgfile, details=False, stop_tag="XPKeywords")
      if exiftags.has_key('EXIF XPKeywords'):
         keywords = str(exiftags['EXIF XPKeywords']).decode('utf-8')
      except:
         pass

That comes up with nothing. No error but no keywords either. And using that EXIFTool GUI I know there are keywords there. Do you think the hex code is off for that field maybe? Or is my code bad?

[J_K_M_A_N]

I have been messing with it for hours but cannot get it to find the EXIF XPKeywords tag. I give up. I noticed you don't use the XMP tags like the 'MyPicturesDB' plugin uses. I was going to try and add his XMP.py to yours to maybe read the keywords from that because they are listed there also. For some reason my photos don't have any IPTC data unless I open them in photoshop and then save them. I will maybe try like hell to get that XPKeywords working again sometime (unless you have some insight as to why it doesn't find that key/tag). I don't want to have to open all my photos and resave them.

J_K_M_A_N

[J_K_M_A_N]

Well, I have tried everything I can think of to get it to read the EXIF XPKeywords field and it doesn't work. I am guessing there is a problem with the EXIFvfs.py or something. I know it has the tags there but I cannot read them at all.

J_K_M_A_N

[J_K_M_A_N]

Well, I got a little further. I changed your code to this:

Code:

if ((self.slideshow_date == 'true') or (self.slideshow_iptc == 'true')) and (os.path.splitext(img[0])[1].lower() in EXIF_TYPES):
                    imgfile = xbmcvfs.File(img[0])
                    # get exif date
                    if self.slideshow_date == 'true':
                        try:
                            exiftags = EXIFvfs.process_file(imgfile, details=False)
                            if exiftags.has_key('EXIF DateTimeOriginal'):
                                datetime = str(exiftags['EXIF DateTimeOriginal']).decode('utf-8')
                                # sometimes exif date returns useless data, probably no date set on camera
                                if datetime == '0000:00:00 00:00:00':
                                    datetime = ''
                                else:
                                    try:
                                        # localize the date format
                                        date = datetime[:10].split(':')
                                        time = datetime[10:]
                                        if DATEFORMAT[1] == 'm':
                                            datetime = date[1] + '-' + date[2] + '-' + date[0] + '  ' + time
                                        else:
                                            datetime = date[2] + '-' + date[1] + '-' + date[0] + '  ' + time
                                    except:
                                        pass
                                    exif = True
                            if exiftags.has_key('Image XPKeywords'):
                                try:
                                    keywordascii = str(exiftags['Image XPKeywords']).decode('utf-8')
                                    stringsplit = keywordascii.split('[')
                                    stringsplit = stringsplit[1].split(']')
                                    stringsplit = stringsplit[0].split(', ')
                                    for eachword in stringsplit:
                                        if eachword != "0" and eachword != "... " and eachword != ". " and eachword != " ":
                                            keywords += chr(int(eachword))
                                    iptc = True
                                except:
                                    keywords = "Didn't work"
                                    iptc = True
                            else:
                                keywords = "Not Found"
                                iptc = True
                        except:
                            pass

It reads the XPKeywords tag and returns a byte string? I then convert that to text and it works. The problem is, I'm sure there is a MUCH better way to convert that and if the tag is too long, it truncates it to about 8-9 characters. I have seen a few things that say to use some -b option so it doesn't truncate it but I that that is for that EXIFTools program. Any ideas?

J_K_M_A_N

[ronie]

try this one: screensaver.xbmc.slideshow-0.1.4.zip

v0.1.4
- fix crash when checking cached images

v0.1.3
- add support for xmp tags
- make music info slightly transparent (prevent burn-in)

v0.1.2
- added yyyy-mm-dd format

[J_K_M_A_N]

I only get a black screen with this one. Here is the part of the log with it started. Not sure what is hanging.

J_K_M_A_N

[ZERO <ibis>]

Could there be an option to randomize the effects and or combine them. Lets say for example that 10% of the time I want to images to dissolve, basically just more variety in the way images are displayed.

[J_K_M_A_N]

I did some testing and even if I comment out this code:

Code:

#if (not iptc_ti or not iptc_de or not iptc_ke):
                        #    try:
                        #        tags = XMP_Tags().get_xmp(img[0]) # passing the imgfile object does not work for some reason
                        #        if (not iptc_ti) and tags.has_key('dc:title'):
                        #            title = tags['dc:title']
                        #            iptc_ti = True
                        #        if (not iptc_de) and tags.has_key('dc:description'):
                        #            description = tags['dc:description']
                        #            iptc_de = True
                        #        if (not iptc_ke) and tags.has_key('dc:subject'):
                        #            keywords = tags['dc:subject'].replace('||',', ')
                        #            iptc_ke = True
                        #    except:
                        #        pass

it still shows a black screen. Here is a full debug log. (Open XBMC and go to system, appearance, and screen saver preview. Wait a few seconds and exit.) Hopefully this helps some.

J_K_M_A_N

[rvan]

cheers, i could reproduce it.
looks like it's a bug in xbmc.

i've made a ticket for the issue:
http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/14051

I'm sorry to back track and technically this isn't even a problem with the screensaver but I looked at the ticket and I'm still unsure if there is a resolution for this issue.
To reiterate: When selecting a mapped drive to my NAS (qnap) the imagefolder will fail and fanart will be used. I love xbmc and the screensaver plug in. If anyone has found a work around please let me know.

EDIT: From reading the ticket this should be fixed with xbmc 13?

[ronie]

cheers, i could reproduce it.
looks like it's a bug in xbmc.

i've made a ticket for the issue:
http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/14051

I'm sorry to back track and technically this isn't even a problem with the screensaver but I looked at the ticket and I'm still unsure if there is a resolution for this issue.
To reiterate: When selecting a mapped drive to my NAS (qnap) the imagefolder will fail and fanart will be used. I love xbmc and the screensaver plug in. If anyone has found a work around please let me know.

the issue should be fixed in xbmc frodo 12.2

[ronie]

Could there be an option to randomize the effects and or combine them. Lets say for example that 10% of the time I want to images to dissolve, basically just more variety in the way images are displayed.

the effects are random and there's 9 different ones coded in the addon.
so nope, i've no intention to change anything in this regard.

[ronie]

I only get a black screen with this one. Here is the part of the log with it started. Not sure what is hanging.

J_K_M_A_N

thanx! should be fixed now:
screensaver.xbmc.slideshow-0.1.4.zip