[FR] Add image playout, for slide shows like in olden cinema, or simple fillers like "transmission interrupted", "currently offline"

[Moonbase59]

I’m missing the possibility to use images in playout. Ffmpeg can do that, so the main effort would be the ETV integration. This would be advantageous in these cases, for example:

• simple announcements like "Kid’s Cartoons at 18:00" (used as a flood, for example)
• bumpers like "We'll be right back after these messages"
• program break bumpers like "End of Part 1" (think long movies like Avatar)
• pre-roll "ads" like in olden cinema days
• post-roll "ads" like a "forthcoming attractions" image ("Demnächst in diesem Theater")
• displaying fillers like a test image, "transmission interrupted" sign, or station logo, without having to create a video for each (and needing CPU-based playout because looped videos currently don’t use HWA—an image uses much less resources)
• simple slideshows

Rationale: Not everyone can create or has the time to create videos for these cases, especially when beginning to set up an "Ersatz TV". Using images is much easier.

Image playout should have:

• scaling, padding, cropping like videos
• adjustable default duration (something like 15 s)
• EXIF rotation applied (so we don’t have to turn our TV sets)
• watermarking possible
• optional: fade-in, fade-out, crossfade, Ken Burns effect (not needed for the first implementation)

In case collections were used for images, an image’s tags can easily be set using tools like Exiftool, Darktable, Lightroom, etc. and thus title, event, creator etc. be read. This might be a later step though.

In an ideal world, one could even think of playing an audio collection in the background…

[liam8888999]

https://github.com/liam8888999/ErsatzTV-Filler has some of the features you are looking for

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[jasongdove]

The latest develop build has a first pass at image libraries, including the ability to set a duration by folder (inherited by child folders unless they have their own duration defined).

Images will have a tag added for each folder up to the folder that was added to the image library, just like other video libraries.

I haven't done extensive testing, but I believe ffmpeg automatically respects exif orientation data.