May Mid Month Updates

So already halfway through this month we have some cool updates and features to show of what's coming in the next release (We'll target beta a week before month end and then release once it's validated if all goes well).

Lets talk about three things in this post..HEIC Support, Overlay Padding, and file format filtering.


HEIC Support 

HEIC is an amazing format iOS devices have moved to.  We have struggled to figure out a way to support it, and most paths involved us trying to move to a newer Raspbian/Debian OS (which has a heap of other troubles for our software stack).    But what DID happen is a converter was released, and with some tricky logic, we came up with a compromise that will be in the next release.

The way it works is when an HEIC file is uploaded via the webUI, and we initially detect it, we immediately convert it to a .jpg file.  We leave the HEIC file on the pi for now, but the .jpg gets brought into the database and then it's treated as any other jpg file. The jpg has the same filename, is in the same playlist/folder, and keeps the metadata.

If you're a NAS user, or do uploads via a file share, we ask that you transcode/convert them before uploading.  The reality is the pi's processor is just not going to be great at it, and anything you're running (even a modern phone) will do a better and faster job transcoding it.

Image Padding for Overlays (Please see attatched images)

Overlays are a feature we will continue to invest in.  In the last update we added some built in 'frames' to show the possiblity of using your own art frame style around art work.  The problem is that the frame covers the outside of the artwork, so if you're already using 9:16 images on a vertical screen (or 16:9 on horizontal) then the frame crops the image in a fairly ugly manner.

With the new padding settings, you can 'push in' the edges of an image to fit inside the frame better.  This setting is per overlay, so if you use multiple frames you can indent/pad for that frame, ensuring that images render correctly (and more believably) inside of that frame.  The initial work we've done since making the feature to test it out feels really good, and I think that people are going to love the possibilities here.

Extension Disabling

Raspberry pi's have a number of limitations on formats they can support, render, resize, etc.  This is especially true of video formats, as they can include a variety of codecs, resolutions and more that can give VLC a fit.  When pointing at a NAS drive which may hold an entire collection of videos, it's handy to be able to disable an extension or format.  
And now in the next release you'll have that ability.  You simply type in an extension or a list of extensions in a 'Disable extension' field and they'll no longer be added to playlists. This can help with stability for those that have file formats which can actually crash the frame.

That's what we have so far this month.  There's bug fixes as well of course, and I'm working on fixing the scaling of the UI on phones (it has gotten quite bad as we added features, so working on that).   

I am going to work hard to continue this pace so we have some more exciting features for the rest of the month.