May update

Greetings! I want to publish a monthly update of where development is at so you know what to expect this month.  

First things first, for those new here, here's info you'll want:
Latest build: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqxjM4_uBDJgxdMFwPdaLt1ZRR07SA?e=kVlaZp

The build has a root password and username of:
Username: pi
Password: dynaframe

Discord channel (updated 4/15): https://discord.gg/FVAn6DyjG8 - Note, the discord is starting to get moving and is a great place to ask questions. I have a team of 3 of us currently that can answer questions, and users can share tips and tricks there. But if you ever need direct support please please message me. That's why I created the patreon is to better support users, so don't ever feel shy if you want to reach out, ask questions, tell me you love a feature, want a feature, whatever.  I built this to connect with you and give you a better experience than what is out there before!

Ok now onto the update:
We have an exciting release coming that I tried SO hard to get out last month but just couldn't get it ready with quality.  The biggest thing about releases is making it stable...no one wants their digital picture frame to be stuck at a background picture or to crash.  As such we test the frames for weeks straight across various configurations and file types to ensure that the development work is sound.  We were steaming for release but in the last week of the month when we got into our final testing, we found issues that caused us to have to rethink the release.  We'll work on a less ambitious release for this month and then revisit some of the things.

For this month, we have 2 features coming that are done, and a few more we're working hard to close on.

1) Animated GIFs are coming! When they arrive I'll have a pack of them to share that will show off what they're capable of.  I'm finding that geometric designs look amazing on the frame, and the big deal with them is they actually cross fade! It's a very cool effect and I'm excited to get that out to you

2) Looping videos - If you have a video that is say 5 seconds on a 30 second transition, you'll have the option to have the video loop for 30 seconds.  Please note that due to limitations with raspberry pis, there is a gap between the loop that will show the 'dynaframe' logo in the background briefly.

3) Wifi Reset - There will be a key combo you can hit to reset wifi on the frame back to 'factory defaults'. This is handy for those selling frames, or those that get new routers and need to get it back to defaults 

4) Plugin support - This will be a documented API set that will allow for others to develop against it to control playing images/videos.  If you have some dev skills and say want to make a deviant art plugin, this will be what you'd need to use Dynaframe as the rendering engine.

5) Better home automation support - with the plugin support comes better home automation support...as we add http API's it makes it better for things like home assistant to control.  I plan on getting videos and documentation out once that is finalized to show of some of the cool stuff we can do.

6) Pi 3B+ support - The performance on transitions isn't great, but we got it running! If you turn transitions down or off (set the value to 0) this will give you a pretty decent setup, you'll retain the playlists, webUI, store, usb support etc.

7) Secret - I'm keeping one feature secret because I think surprises are fun, but we have tested it and it's working so we'll release it as 'experimental' for this build

Currently cut due to instability:

1) Large file handling - This one is painful for us...what we're finding is modern phones are taking very large images resolution wise, which are enough to make the transition stutter. We had an approach to smooth this out that was working, allowing for incredibly large file sizes.  However the stability issues it brought in are causing us to cut it from this release. We will revisit it and work on stability and then work to bring it back maybe in the June timeframe.  For now we have a good understanding of the issue.

2) web update - It's painful to have to download a build and flash a card I know, but when this is ready it has to be very reliable. I can not quote get this working reliably, so it needs to be pushed out.

Coming in the future:

1) Other device support - We have a prototype running on a device called a 'mele'.  We're investigating if we can do a release package similar to what was done before to install all of the dependencies and configuration that is needed to give the same ease of use that people expect, but on other pieces of hardware running Debian.  This is probably several months out, but if we make progress I'll update here.  This is being driven by how hard it is to find raspberry pis currently, and the prices being so high that alternative compute systems become attractive.

2) We are investigating moving to 'dietpi' for the OS for the pi.  It is reported that with dietpi we should see much better performance and possibly overlays on top of video.  Initial testing is ongoing to see if that's the case.

I'll work to finalize an update in the next week hopefully and get that out. I may release a beta so you have something to work with, and then work to do a full update.